Listen
Show Notes
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between naturopathy and homeopathy (or if either of them actually works), today’s episode is for you! Dr. Sharon Stills answers that question and gives examples from her decades-long career in combining conventional medical training and natural healing techniques from around the world to help her patients heal. Dr. Stills believes that prevention is the best medicine and she gives manageable tips that we can each start implementing today for a healthier tomorrow.
In this episode, you will hear:
- What naturopathic medicine is and how it differs from homeopathy.
- Building a career around your passions and interests.
- Putting your intentions into the world, then working toward those intentions.
- Dr. Stills’ work with cancer patients.
- Putting in the work and practicing prevention.
- Manageable tips you can put into practice today (from sleep, hydration, and tech health).
- Taking a pause and taking time out for yourself.
Dr. Sharon Stills is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor providing comprehensive health care, therapeutic and diagnostic services to patients worldwide. She combines her conventional medical training, data-driven science, cutting-edge diagnostic tools, and deep knowledge of natural healing to effectively identify and treat health concerns ranging from allergies to end-stage cancer and everything in between.
Dr. Stills travels the world seeking out the best Natural Medicine options and bringing them back to the US. Drawing from a wide variety of traditions and healing foundations, including Naturopathic, Bio-Regulatory, Functional, Homeopathic, TCM, and Ayurveda, she has been successful in providing answers and healing pathways to her patients when others have failed.
Some of Dr. Stills’ favorite healing modalities include the use of isopathic and complex homeopathic remedies, bioidentical hormone replacement, live cell therapeutics, targeted use of vitamins and herbs, along with the therapeutic use of color, breathwork, and sound frequencies.
Dr. Stills believes in the healing power of ritual and retreats, and many of her own personal leaps forward have occurred while traveling and stepping time outside of her comfort zone. She is dedicated to helping others do the same.
Connect with Dr. Sharon Stills:
Website: https://drstills.com/
Podcast: https://brmi.online/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/REDHotMedicine/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsharonstills/
Connect with R Blank and Stephanie Warner:
For more Healthier Tech Podcast episodes, and to download our Healthier Tech Quick Start Guide, visit https://www.healthiertech.co and follow https://instagram.com/healthiertech
Additional Links:
- Shield Your Body website: https://ShieldYourBody.com
- Shield Your Body Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/shieldyourbody
- Host R Blank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rblank9/
- Shield Your Body on Instagram:https://instagram.com/shieldyourbody
Transcript
Dr. Sharon Stills 0:00
Do the work now. Don’t wait till you’re in a life or death situation, we get these physical vessels, we get these bodies. And there’s no guarantees. But do the work now take take it seriously. That’s part of naturopathic medicine is really preaching and practising prevention.
Announcer 0:21
Welcome to the healthier tech podcast, the show about building a healthier relationship with modern technology. Now, here are your hosts, R blank and Stephanie Warner.
R Blank 0:34
Well, Steph, this conversation with Dr. Sharon stills turned out great. I think the listeners are really going to like it. We covered a lot of ground for the time we had, you know, one of the things that I learned I’m sure a lot of the listeners are ahead of me on this one, but was actually a pre getting a better understanding of the difference of natural empathy versus homoeopathy, because those are terms that I just never quite understood the difference between. But then we get later into the discussion specifically about the role of technology in the retreats that she designs and runs. And I thought that was that was really enlightening.
Dr. Sharon Stills 1:10
Yeah, absolutely. I just, I absolutely just adore Dr. sills and the work that she does, it was a wonderful conversation. I can’t wait for our listeners to hear this. Because in addition to all the things you talked about, we talked about so much more, when we even there’s some tips of some really easy tips to help, you know, keep to be aware of our health and start being a little more preventative with with our ongoing health. So yeah, and I just want to point out one tag, one thing she said that I had to write down because I absolutely adored it. She said, You know, she was talking about morning routines, and be really, you know, being aware in the morning and, you know, do your gratitude practice, but she’s also said plug into yourself before you plug into your phone, and I just thought that was a really great, a great tip for everybody and just a pleasant thought of waking up in the morning and just sitting with yourself instead of grabbing that phone. So I’m excited for everyone to hear this conversation.
R Blank 2:07
Let’s get into it.
Dr. Sharon Stills 2:08
Let’s do it.
R Blank 2:13
Today’s guest is Dr. Sharon stills a naturopathic medical doctor who provides comprehensive health care and diagnostic services to patients worldwide. She combines her conventional medical training, data driven science, cutting edge diagnostic tools, and natural healing knowledge to effectively identify and treat health concerns. She has successfully treated patients with cancer, allergies, and various other health conditions. She draws from a wide variety of healing traditions, including naturopathic bio regulatory, functional, homoeopathic, TCM, and ru VEDA. She is dedicated to helping others improve their health and is in the process of creating unique life changing retreats for small groups in healing locations around the world. She practices what she preaches and believes in the healing power of ritual and retreats. We’re excited to have her today to share her expertise with us. Welcome, Dr. Sharon stills to the healthier tech podcast.
Unknown Speaker 3:15
Thank you. It’s nice to be here.
R Blank 3:16
So just to kick us off some background. Can you share some of your background to becoming a natural naturopathic medical doctor actually have even before we get to that? What is a naturopath versus a regular traditional medical doctor or homoeopathic doctor? Because what does that term mean?
Dr. Sharon Stills 3:38
Good question. So I am a naturopathic physician, I went to a naturopathic medical school. So just like your regular primary care doctor, you would go see, I have a licence, I have a DEA number, I can write prescriptions. The difference is that I don’t write prescriptions, even though I tell I utilise natural methods and I look at the root cause of what’s going on. And so I just had a patient the other day, who’s having these weird muscle pains and so she went to see her typical MD her primary care, and they are just like, Okay, well, let’s do a CT scan. We don’t see anything wrong here, take an anti inflammatory, there’s nothing we can do for you. You’re just gonna have to suck it up buttercup, this is you know, there’s no answer. And then she comes to see someone like me, and I’m like, oh my god, like, it’s not that there’s no answers. There’s so many possibilities. I have to figure out what are the most realistic ones because if she’s suffering from nutrient deficiencies, if she’s suffering from mould toxicity from Lyme disease, is it an emotional component that imminent it just goes on and on and on? Is it hormonal? And so I am always looking at the root cause I’m not satisfied even If you say are deficient in a vitamin and I might replace that vitamin, I’m still going to go back and look like why are you deficient? And are you deficient in it because you’re not absorbing it? Do we need to look at your digestive capabilities? Are you not absorbing it because you have a toxin blocking the absorption? So I’m always I always say I’m like a two year old. I’m like, Why? Why why
R Blank 5:23
are we saying I want a two year old as my doctor? No, that’s stupid. How is that different from homoeopathy?
Dr. Sharon Stills 5:32
So homoeopathy is part of my training so I am trained Homoeopath. If you just go see someone who’s a Homoeopath, that means they just do homoeopathy. They’re just taking your case from a homoeopathic perspective. And they’re just going to prescribe homoeopathy, where if you see someone with my training, that’s part of the whole gestalt of what I do so I’m trained in homoeopathy. I’m trained in traditional Chinese medicine, I’ve studied Ayurveda, I practice bio regulatory medicine, which is the natural medicine from over in Europe. And then of course, in my med school training, which is part of why I did it. I didn’t just want to be an herbalist or just do homoeopathy, I wanted to really understand medicine so I could help people and I could communicate in dialogue with their physicians and actually understand what I was talking about and come up with good reasons why they don’t need that drug or they don’t need that chemo and do it in
R Blank 6:29
a lot of languages that you speak was all of that part of the natural empathy training or was a big chunk of it part of that and then you went out and sought more.
Dr. Sharon Stills 6:39
Yeah, a big chunk of it was bio regulatory medicine and my studies over in Europe was separate. And I your Veda is separate. But a big chunk of it learning how to be a physician learning Oriental medicine, learning homoeopathy, learning our biology, learning Mind, Body medicine, learning, physical medicine, learning pharmacology, that was all included in my training.
R Blank 7:01
So let’s let’s get into a well, actually, no, let’s step back to the question I was going to ask before I read it first, before I realised I shouldn’t ask it first. But how did you get into this? Right? Because, you know, a lot of people wanting to become doctors, they just go to regular button downtime medical school. How did you decide that more holistic approach was more appropriate for the type of healing you wanted to practice?
Dr. Sharon Stills 7:30
I actually it was sometimes just being in the right place at the right time, I had a neighbour. And at the time, I had my eldest son, this is back in 1989. And he was struggling with his baby ear problems and eczema. And I had a neighbour whose brother was a colon hydrotherapist. And so that’s someone who does colonics and colon cleansing. And so he was really into this holistic stuff. And I was like, Oh, look at my baby. And he was like, you know, no dairy for that baby. And he needs herbs and just started like, changed the whole way. I thought, like, Oh, you mean, he doesn’t just need I don’t need to just take them to the paediatrician and give them give them a drug or give him an antibiotic. And so when he talked to me like that, it just kind of like, boom bit landed. It was, Oh, my God, this makes so much sense. How did I not think of this before and then I just like, it was like my passion, my dharma. It all just kind of settled into me. And I was like, This is my life’s work. This is so important. So initially, I went to medical school to be a paediatrician because this is back in 1989. There are no podcasts or no summits. There’s no internet. There’s no cell phones, the the EMF issue was, was a lot less back then. Right? We just, you know, we didn’t have Wi Fi. And so it was a lot of work to like, go find people in person or find a rare book that I could read about. And so I thought, I’ve learned so much. And I want to now help other parents and I also, I struggled a lot as a child, I was very, very sick. I was always in the hospital, I was always at the paediatrician. And, you know, as my parents were doing the best they could and with their knowledge, you know, taken me to the doctor giving me antibiotics, and then you know, stopping off at McDonald’s on the way home and having a chocolate shake and a Big Mac and given me all the dairy and all the gluten that was causing all my allergies and sensitivities. And so I had my own turnaround in my health too, as I was turning around my son’s health. And so I went to school to become a paediatrician and then I opened my clinic when I graduated, and you know, the universe sends what the universe sends. So I ended up becoming a specialist in naturopathic oncology, and also in women’s health. And so I still you know, I do everything like you said in my bio, when you have the philosophy and the training of naturopathic medicine, the body is not divided. So in In mainstream medicine, if you have a problem with your heart, you go see the cardiologist, or there if you mentioned, you know, I’m also a little constipated. He’s like, not my issue. And you know, go see the gastroenterologist for that. And naturopathic medicine we treat the whole body would treat the whole person emotional, spiritual, mental energetic. And so I, my seventh patient in the door, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and saw my sign on the, on the, you know, as he was driving by and came in and was like, you know, they told me, I’m gonna die and to get it all in order, and can you help me and I was like, Yeah, I’ve never seen a cancer patient. And I took a deep breath. And I remember that I trust the universe sends what I can handle. And I was honest, I said, Look, I’ve never treated a cancer patient. And no, let no less a one diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is thought to be like a death sentence. And I said, but I have a philosophy of how the body works. And I’m willing to do that for you, and see what happens. And it happened to go well, and so he lived another 10 years did not die from cancer, died from a unreleased cardiovascular issue that just kind of a rare thing that happened for him. And so I learned a lot, and then kind of word spread about this patient, and he took me to his church, and they all honoured me. And so all of a sudden, I was, I was a cancer specialist.
R Blank 11:33
That’s, ya know, and I actually want to get into the details on on how you would work with cancer diagnosis. But before that, you mentioned that you already had a son, before deciding to become a doctor. And to me, I don’t know exactly what age that was. But like, by the time I graduated grad school at 26, and I was like, I’m never going back to school, like the thought of, and then to think like, well, medical school, like that’s a real. That’s a real school like you. That’s a lot of work. It’s just it’s always impressive to me, when someone feels sufficiently motivated to go back to school at a non traditional age and to dive into something like that, that that was that like for you?
Dr. Sharon Stills 12:27
Well, I had gotten married young and had my kids young, right out of high school. And so I had never gone to college.
R Blank 12:36
You had you hadn’t gone to college, and you’re like, you know what I should do?
Dr. Sharon Stills 12:43
I know I had, I realised that you can’t just show up for med school, I had to do my undergrad first. So I actually had actually had two sons. So I got divorced. And I had this one year old and this three year old and I was divorced. And I could either like go back to being an administrative assistant, a secretary, or I was like, or I could do what I always preach about now, like, have a career that was my passion. Like, I was reading about this stuff, no matter what, and I was interested in, I was experiencing it. And so I thought, You know what, I’m gonna go do this. And I just kind of put it out there. I believe your words carry a lot of energy and intention. And I just kept saying, I’m gonna go to naturopathic medical school, I met someone I was in time we were living in Buffalo and I met someone who was in Canada who was a naturopathic physician practising and I went up there and I met him, I brought my kids with me. And I walked out. And I remember standing in the parking lot, and just saying, I’m going to do what he does, and you know, took a decade. But I did it. And that was 21 years ago. So I’ve been at this a long time.
It’s amazing that what an amazing story and wow, I can’t imagine having such young children and and, you know, taking on this take on taking on the role you took on when that’s just it’s it’s amazing to kind of want to go back a little bit to the work that you’re doing with cancer patients and I love how you got into this work. What a that’s also kind of a beautiful, universal lining story, a journey, I should say. Could you tell us a little bit about some of the challenge the more challenging cases you’ve worked with, with dealing with cancer diagnosis.
So from my perspective, that the challenging cases are within the person themselves because this kind of medicine is really patient participation. So it is not come in. I think a lot of people come with the mindset of oh, I’m gonna go see Dr. stills because I don’t like pharmaceuticals. And I just want to take a green pill, a vitamin or an herb, and then they get here and unlike surprise, you know, that’s 1/100 of what we’re going to do. And so, for example, this patient that I mentioned in the beginning, the first one that I saw, he was very motivated, he loved his wife, he wanted to walk his daughter down the aisle. He he was very connected spiritually in his church, and he really wanted to live. And so it’s funny because I remember sitting with him and his wife, and they knew nothing about naturopathic medicine. And we had like this our conversation of why can’t eat margarine, and butter is better for you. And I thought, wow, we are really swimming upstream here because that was a conversation about margarine, purse butter. And but he just he realised, I’m going to do with this lady says, This is my shot at living. And he became a good patient, and he changed his water. And he sat in the sauna, and he came for his IVs. And he took with pancreatic cancer and certain cancers, there’s one therapeutic where we use high doses of pancreatic enzymes to decrease inflammation and break down cancer issues. And so that alone was like 150 pills a day, plus all the other ones. He did it. And that’s not what everyone has to do. But that’s what I did for him. I often have patients go to the biological dentist and get their teeth cleaned up, he, for some luck for him, he didn’t have root canals, he didn’t have fillings, so that we didn’t have to do that. But there’s a lot we do from obviously, you guys are about EMFs and looking at your sleep hygiene and your EMF hygiene and your movement and your diet and your emotions and your trauma. And so the the complicated is when someone doesn’t want to do the work when they’re not willing to do the work. And usually, however, with a cancer diagnosis, we’re ready to do the work because it’s enough of a wake up call, right? And so I always you know, for those listening, it’s like do the work. Now, don’t wait till you’re in a life or death situation, we get these physical vessels, we get these bodies, and there’s no guarantees, but do the work now take take it seriously. That’s part of naturopathic medicine is really preaching and practising prevention. And so I see patients all the time, saw a patient yesterday, she has a haemoglobin a one C, which is a diabetic marker of 5.6. And at 5.7 on this lab, now you’re pre diabetes, and at 6.1, you’re diabetic, and she goes to see her internist. And they just say, well, you’re at 5.6. So we’ll just watch and wait. We’ll just watch and wait. And when you get to diabetes, then we’ll give you a drop. And so I’m all about preventive. Probably
R Blank 17:59
her insurance wouldn’t cover anything until she was actually diabetic anyway, so yeah, well, then
Dr. Sharon Stills 18:05
that’s so I say, have this conversation a lot. Because everything I do is not covered by insurance. It’s we’re such a pharmaceutically driven. It’s not really health care. It’s disease care. I don’t like you know, yeah. Right. And so, like, if you were an insurance company, wouldn’t you rather pay for my stuff as prevention, so you don’t have to pay for the long term farm or the surgeries and but that’s not how insurance and we know our setup in this country, unfortunately. And so but yeah, it’s all about prevention. So if you take nothing else from this talk today, just think about prevention. I always say in my in my perfect world, people wake up and they’re like, Oh my God, I feel amazing. So I’m gonna call Dr. stills today and see how I can continue feeling.
Right? I want this makes me wonder, you know, and I’m sure this is not an easy question or answer, but there are there for people for everyone listening, what are there some like basic things to kind of start doing and paying attention to like some key core things because it’s a little overwhelming to hear prevention, we don’t always know especially associated with the word cancer. We don’t really know where to start and it can feel very overwhelming. Do you have do you have a couple of tips for us?
I have a lot of tips.
Okay, do you have a lot of tips
so I mean from having sleep be a priority, and getting good sleep at the right time. So not going to eight hours but not going to bed at two in the morning and sleeping till 10 Our hormones and our circadian rhythms are really important. We see that we see a higher incidence of cancer in shift workers or airline pilots or stewardess flight attendants who are constantly Crossing time zones. And or I have a lot of police officers as patients, and a lot of them work the overnight shift. And so we have that concern. And so if you can really make it a priority to be in bed to be sleeping by 10, to then get your eight hours and sometimes easier said than done, because a lot of people have insomnia and they can’t stay asleep. And so then it gets a little more tricky of we have to look at what’s going on with your adrenal glands, or your hormones or your sleeping environment. And so practising good sleep hygiene, making sure it’s cool enough, making sure it’s dark, making sure your Wi Fi is turned off, making sure that your phone is on aeroplane mode and Far, far away. And so there, there’s all these things but just prioritising sleep, because I think in our society, we’re not human beings, we’re human doings. And so we we give the Goldstar to who can do the most and who can squeeze the most into a day. And so, really making sure I always talk about triaging if if you’re going to wind down and the electronics and the computers and the screens are going to go away and make sure you’re wearing like blue blocker glasses if you’re on your screens in the evening. But once they once you’ve got everything like handled, make sure that you are you’re practising good hygiene and so and then if you’re still not sleeping, then get deeper look. But I was like I lost my train of thought, now I got it back. So I was saying triage. So by if you know you’re gonna be in bed by 10, like and it’s six o’clock and you’ve got files and dishes and laundry and paperwork, start to triage and think, okay, what can wait for tomorrow? What needs to get done tonight. So that way when it is eight o’clock, you’re like Bing, bing, bing, I’m done. And that’s it. And then you’re done. And then if you need to do a journal and dump what’s on your mind, so you don’t take it to bed with you. But we need to shift from Oh, like someone was just saying the other day, oh, I can get by on four hours of sleep. And I’m thinking well, maybe you think you can but trust me, you’re you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul that is not that is going to that is going to backfire on you. So sleep, hydration, making sure you’re getting enough fluids into your body. That’s something that’s easy to do. Make it and then we can take it a step. Make sure you’re drinking good water and filtered water and because then we have the whole issue if you’re drinking plastic, but making sure you’re getting enough water because subclinical dehydration is something I see time and time and time again. And it’s it’s kind of like a job. Wake up until measure out your water, half your weight and ounces is a standard kind of suggestion. And so I say put it in jars. So you see those ounces. And when it’s 11am you see oh shoot, I haven’t even touched it or look at me. I’m doing a good job and I get a gold star. I’m almost done and you want to have it done before six o’clock. So that way you don’t have to wake up and start urinating
R Blank 23:09
Oh yeah, for me, it’s two o’clock. I’m serious. For me it’s took because otherwise, and and one thing that helped me on that was having three full glasses of water as soon as I woke up. And I realised once I did that, having another 10 glasses through the day became a lot easier, especially by 2pm. But if I skip those first three glasses of the day, then it suddenly becomes like this big chore to to drink the water. I don’t know what it is in my body or my mind. But I learned like I just have to have three glasses as soon as I wake up and then I could start going through it. And yeah, I learned it you say drinking water is easy. And I know logically it should be but for a lot as you’re drinking water. Not watching on YouTube. Yeah, no, I find for a lot of people. It’s not that easy. And you know, I have relatives and they know they should be drinking at least eight glasses a day. And they know that intellectually and they just basically say, you know, F it, you know, don’t end up doing it. But that is one of those things.
Dr. Sharon Stills 24:20
Yeah, that comment just goes back to what Stephanie was saying. Like what makes it complicated. And so something is simple. We know we should be doing it and then we self sabotage or we talk ourselves out of it or we have excuses. My favourite one is, well if I drink too much water then I gotta go to the bathroom all the time.
R Blank 24:38
Yeah, and once I started hydrating enough, because I’m fortunate enough to work in a home office. Once I started hydrating to unmount I consider it to be enough. I thought to myself, how on earth do office workers drink enough water? And then I started to realise they probably don’t because they’d be getting up and down all day long. They Probably get comments from their supervisor or their boss or something that and it’s, it becomes a bit, but I feel like we got a little too in the weeds on the water and that was 100% my fault. So
Dr. Sharon Stills 25:12
I could go deeper.
R Blank 25:16
So I understand that you run retreats, is that was that correct?
Dr. Sharon Stills 25:24
Yes, we are getting started again they they slowed down a little because
R Blank 25:30
I can’t imagine why
Dr. Sharon Stills 25:34
slowed down so they slowed down.
R Blank 25:36
But so how are ya? What are these retreats? And how do they figure into your approach to treatment and health?
Dr. Sharon Stills 25:44
Well, to me retreats are medicine. And so we we are so plugged in, up and how many people wake up and the first thing they do is scroll Facebook or scroll, scroll, Instagram, or check their texts or their or their email, or we’re so and I can be guilty too. This is like something I’ve really taken on. Because I was I was always giving my son a hard time like you’re always on your phone, you’re always on your phone. He’s like, look who’s talking and I’m like, All right, let’s think about that. So I’m really on this, I’m not divorcing my phone. But we’re gonna we’re gonna like, step it down a little, we’re not going to see each other so often. Because I just think that we you know, one of the things I practice and teach is mindfulness meditation. And so to me retreats are, it’s kind of like you’re going to unplug, you’re going to check back into yourself into what’s important, you’re going to connect a lot of the retreats, I run our women’s retreat. So you’re going to circle up with women, you’re going to have that sisterhood, you’re going to connect in and lean into your feminine energy, and you’re just going to learn to listen. Because I always say silence speaks loudly and within us. So many times we are searching out there out there. What’s the answer? What’s the answer. And if we, if we just shut up and breathe, a lot of times, the answers can just bubble up and come from within us. And I hear all the time. I don’t I can’t meditate, I can’t turn my mind off. I’m not good at it. I’ve tried it, it didn’t work. And I like to remind you if that’s something you say that it’s not something you’re just automatically going to be good at. It’s just like going to the gym, you don’t walk into the gym and do one rep and then you’ve got these beautiful sculpted biceps, you have to keep showing up, you have to keep doing it. Some days, it’s harder than others. Some days you rock it, some days, you get to increase your reps or your weight. And so we have that mindfulness muscle we have to keep if the meditation session is just constantly realising Oh, thinking about the laundry, I’m thinking about setting up dinner reservations or whatever I’m thinking about. It’s the the act of mindfulness is going Oh, there I am over there instead of here and just bringing your mind back. And you might just continually do that. Fetch the monkey mind until maybe you can go for a second or two seconds where you don’t have to fetch it where you actually stayed present with your breath. And so to me, retreats should be mandatory, like people get a week or two week vacation. And that’s great for family, whatever, I think there should be like an extra week. If I was to run for office, I’m running on the platform of four day work weeks, and a retreat week for everyone. Because otherwise, when when do you take that time, we’re also busy, whether it’s with work or families or and we don’t often take that time it hasn’t really been instilled in our society that’s sitting with yourself and really pondering your life where you’ve been, where you’re going, we don’t really have that built in. And if we don’t stop and do that, then all of a sudden, we’re at the end of our life. And now we’re looking back and we have regrets. And we get this, this one precious experience is who we are. And it’s fleeting and it goes fast. And we retreat is a really good way to stop and take stock. And so I do a lot of work with menopausal women. And I always write menopause with a parenthesis around the pause. And the reason I do that is because usually, a lot of women are struggling, they have hot flashes, things are changing. And so I feel like it’s this time where they’re paying attention to their body so I can say wait, let’s also just pause and as we get into the second sacred act of our life, let’s pause and let’s really Think about what are our dreams? What are our hopes? What are our desires? Let’s think about that I even do a eulogy exercise where you think about how do you want to be eulogised at your funeral. And then we can reverse engineer to make sure the things you want to be remembered for. You’re actually doing. I love that.
R Blank 30:18
So yeah, so that I, there was a lot in that response. But just as the next thread, I noticed that the first thing you said about the importance of retreats was leaving your phone alone for a certain amount of time. So how does technology or in this case, perhaps the lack thereof, figure into the design of of your retreats?
Dr. Sharon Stills 30:45
Turn in your phone in and there’s, there’s always externally
R Blank 30:48
Wait, do you actually make them do it? Do you do make?
Dr. Sharon Stills 30:51
Yeah, I’m actually opening, we’re in the middle of designing and opening a clinic here in Scottsdale. And I don’t know if it’s actually going to be called recharge. But my, my envision, then is when you walk into the clinic, you hand us your phone, they will charge it up for you and you go get on our circuit of settling your parasympathetic nervous system, you go recharge yourself while we handle recharging your phone, and then you can you can meet again at the
R Blank 31:21
you know, that I don’t know if you’re aware of Have you heard of this product called yonder, the yonder pouches? No? Well, a lot of places like if you go to an exclusive Movie Preview, and they don’t allow phones, or if you’re going to see a stand up act, and they’re just very concerned, and they don’t want to have phones, what they do is they put your phone in a yonder pouch as you come in. And they’re they’re locked, but you can still charge them in the pouch, but they’re locked, and they can’t get at them until you they come back and you unlock it for them. I’ll send I’ll send you the link afterwards. I wish it was a product I’d invented. So it doesn’t it doesn’t silence the phone. They’re not shielded pouches, but they bait they make them completely inaccessible to attendees have these types of events? Yeah, I
Dr. Sharon Stills 32:08
think that I would definitely like that link, I think and especially for me, like as a single mom growing, the biggest thing is always Is everyone okay? Is there going to be an emergency and I’d rather will monitor your phone. So if God forbid, something happens, or we’ll have if there’s access to a landline, then give the landline to your home? So that way we know and that way, you can just turn off your mind. And you don’t have to worry, because otherwise we’re like, what if? What if? What if there’s a text on my phone and I missed it? What if something happens? So I just want to alleviate the What If so you can be more grounded and check in with yourself and we technology is is a beautiful thing. And it also can be a very detrimental thing, not just from all the 5g and the Wi Fi that we are bombarded with that I can tell you as a physician, some of the most serious toxins and we’re all toxin are the invisible toxins like these Wi Fi and 5g and dirty electricity. And we can’t see it. So we don’t think it’s necessarily happening. But it’s happening. And it’s making cellular changes from neurological issues to cancer to weakened immune systems and on and on and on. And so the other so there’s that physical aspect. And then there’s the the emotional aspect of constantly staring at your phone and not having eye to eye and not communicating and not meeting someone not talking to the cashier because while she’s checking you out, you’re scrolling Facebook and
R Blank 33:49
so dopamine withdrawal I’m Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Sharon Stills 33:53
And I you know, think about my grandbabies who they’re growing up. My My eldest one is three and I have a seven month old and the three year old and even I noticed the seven month old. It’s very interesting. If I pull out my phone, she’s like, like, it like grabs her attention right away almost more than anything. It’s like she’s leaning over. She’s gotta see who you texted, you know what’s going on over there. And she’s seven months old, and the three year old. She just knows how to, you know, get my app and watch my show and do this and play my game and she’s sending texts. And now she takes
R Blank 34:30
1000s of dollars on.
Dr. Sharon Stills 34:34
And so it’s all she knows, like, my my age. I grew up without this, but this is all they’re growing up with and what is it doing to their brains and how is it changing? And how can we really have phone free screen free times where you see those little things on the internet like how we used to know where everyone was playing. We’d see all the bye icicles outside. And now the kids are just inside. And it’s heartbreaking and there’s just got to be balanced, we’re not going to take it away. You would you as a child, if you don’t have to use a computer, you’d be at a detriment at this point. So it’s not about all or nothing. It’s learning balance. It’s learning mindful choices. It’s learning how to be in relationship with technology and not to be so like you said, dopamine doubt that you forget about how we can get dopamine and good connections and oxytocin and serotonin from our relationship, not only to other people, but to ourselves and to nature and the environment. And so we, we need to dig out of this because I think we dug ourselves a big hole in society, and it’s, it’s not going in a great direction. Yeah, I
absolutely agree. And, you know, I know we have to kind of wind down our conversation, which has just been wonderful. And I appreciate all of the little the tools that you’ve given us and we and all the things we’ve discussed. And I have one final question. Can you share some of your personal behaviours or practices as it you know, when it comes to your tech use?
Yes, I, well, I have a very protected I’m wearing lasers and energy bracelet and I’ve got EMF rock bags here and hematite. And so I like to be as protected as possible. And I don’t say I used to sleep with the phone. I don’t sleep with the phone. That’s goodbye. I have special rings for my kids in case there’s an emergency. So it’s way in the other room if I need to hear it.
R Blank 36:47
Oh, wait, what’s that? What are you talking about? What’s that one? Like? rings like cell phone rings. That’s really some special like superpower ring or something? No, if your kids were
Dr. Sharon Stills 36:59
in trouble, your next product. I’m really conscious about morning how we greet the day. And so making a conscious effort of waking up giving Thanksgiving gratitude thinking about the day plugging into myself, before I go plug in. And I’m I love that it’s been I’m busy. There’s a lot going on. I have a lot of responsibilities. So I do need to check in I do need to be in relation, but really making an effort like me first, then I can come see how everyone else is.
R Blank 37:37
That’s great. So, doctor, still, this has been a really great conversation. And I appreciate learning a bit more about the difference between that Trump being and homoeopathy, which I just it’s just one of those things. I just never googled it before and I probably should have but I appreciate that but no totally wonderful conversation. Where would you like our listeners to connect with and or learn about you and your retreats?
Dr. Sharon Stills 38:06
Well, Dr. Sharon, stills Dr. stills.com. I mean, if you just put my name in, I’m you’ll find me and I also host for those especially your audience who’s interested in technology and EMFs. I host a podcast for the bio regulatory Medicine Institute. We are nonprofit, and our website br mi dot online is just a wealth of information. If you want to learn more about energy medicine or bio regulatory medicine, you can get lost in there forever. It’s there’s so much information in there. So if you’re learning, wanting to learn more about EMFs and their effects on you, we have lots of resources there as well.
R Blank 38:50
Excellent. So we’ll have both of those links in the show notes. Dr. stills. I know. You have to head out this has gone on longer than I promised you it would as I warned you though, that sometimes happens. But know this. Thank you so much. This has been a wonderful conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to come join us on the healthier tech podcast today.
Dr. Sharon Stills 39:08
My pleasure. Thanks for having so much.
Thanks for coming.
Announcer 39:13
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the healthier tech podcast. Remember to check the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in the show. Please like and subscribe to the healthier tech podcast on Apple, Spotify or your podcast platform of choice. Get your free quickstart guide to build a healthy relationship with technology and our latest information at healthier tech.co
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
