The Jill Cruz Podcast

We need to stop denying reality and start practicing acceptance. Stop putting everything else in your life ahead of yourself and take responsibility for your health because you can’t look after your loved ones or enjoy your hobbies as much if you are unhealthy and stressed. If you are practicing self-care but thinking negatively about yourself in the process, you will never realize all the benefits of your actions because negativity puts our bodies in a state of stress, and we do not perform properly in this state. To truly prioritize your health, you must learn to accept the current shape you are in, forgive yourself for your past and see your work toward self-improvement as a powerful act of self-love. Feel the power and confidence of self-acceptance and love yourself enough to better yourself!

If you want to be your best self, you have to manage your work-home interferences. Mindie Barnett is an entrepreneur on a journey to pursue an encore career in psychology and shares her research on burnout syndrome with us. Burnout is now a medically recognized syndrome that can lead to fatigue and many other serious problems. To avoid becoming depleted, we must learn to separate our work and home time and change how we communicate with our coworkers during our downtime. It may seem counterproductive, but self-care that involves being less available outside of work hours can actually lead to being a better and more reliable team member at work. Remember to take time for self-care, you don't have to jeopardize your health for your career!

Trauma can be a challenging obstacle to overcome, but there are ways to heal those wounds. Shannon Black is a clinical therapist and educator who shares her passion for understanding the neurology behind trauma and how to deal with it. At any point in our lives when we experience trauma, these incidents can be stored within us and can permanently affect how we feel and respond to situations going forward. We become more susceptible to having traumas stored in us when our nerves are not properly toned and we are regularly dealing with stress. Thankfully there are many means of therapy available that can help us calm and tone our nerves and even rewrite our traumatic memories and potentially overcome them entirely. Create healthy mental templates and move forward with positivity and healing because you deserve it!

Women need to have their voices heard in the medical care system. Yvette Sims is a nurse practitioner who specializes in women’s health and talks about the decline of femininity in the healthcare system. One of the biggest problems of the modern healthcare system is the shift towards prioritizing the business model of making money over focusing on patients’ needs. This change incentivizes doctors to see the maximum number of patients and offers extremely limited time for the individual, which results in women not feeling heard during their visits. There are so many complex hormonal systems and balances in a woman’s body, it is crucial for women’s health that we provide enough time to properly listen to their concerns in order to understand and diagnose their needs. Help advocate for change and bring care and femininity back to the medical care system!

You are in control of your perspective, and you can use it as a motivational tool. Many of us struggle with negative beliefs that are self-sabotaging. This negativity beats us down and hinders us, but with real commitment, practice, and awareness you can get back in the driver's seat and steer those inner dialogues into helpful, positive, and motivating stories. Use forgiveness, acceptance, and personal mantras to keep yourself marching forward to your goals. Always remember that you have what it takes to achieve your goals and you deserve them, you just have to believe it!

The key to fabulous success has been within you all along. We’ve all been overrun with discouraging thoughts and feelings. We tend to determine our success by unrealistic expectations and standards. It’s time to ignore the negativity, stop judging ourselves, and move forward. The key to breaking free is relaxation, and just a few minutes of grounding throughout the day can make a world of difference. Calm your nervous system, relax, and source your confidence from within. You can do this!

Hormone therapy and treatments can be a real life changer. Dr. Bonnie Gasquet is a functional medicine practitioner who helps people discover the wonders of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. If you are experiencing any chronic symptoms commonly associated with menopause and aging, you should consider getting your hormone levels checked. Neglecting our hormone levels as we age can cause a ton of long-term health issues like increased risk for heart disease and dementia, bone loss, sleep disruption, weight gain, hair thinning, and many, many more. Bioidentical hormones are much safer and more effective than synthetic hormones and can be used to treat these imbalances and help us turn our lives around. Take care of your hormones and allow yourself to feel like a younger, more vivacious you!

You can change your negative inner self-talk into healthy inner self-love. Linda Clarkson is a licensed professional mental health counselor who shares her journey of discovering her negative neural pathways and explains how we can do the same. If you have ever found yourself making excuses and using them as a reason to not move forward in life, you may need to look inward and change your narrative. We can carry negative inner narratives from our childhood into our adult life and any negative criticisms we received as kids can be holding us back today. You can boost your self-worth and confidence by taking a therapeutic approach to restructuring your ancient negative self-talk into healthy, positive affirmations. It can be a long journey, but finding your inner self-compassion can ease your suffering, and we all deserve it!

It’s time for us to reconnect to our bodies. It seems like such a simple concept, but many of us are not looking inward and creating that deep and loving connection with our bodies. You will never achieve a sustainable level of health if you don’t get in touch with your inner self and shift the context of your health journey inwards. Even the most profound of external sources are processed within, we just need to learn to source that power and become inspired. Spend time with your body every day and empower yourself with compassion and love!

Obesity is a medical condition and not a matter of willpower or fault. Dr. Renu Mansukhani is an obesity medicine physician who provides personalized care for patients who are suffering from obesity. It’s time we become more compassionate and understanding and stop defining people by their medical condition just because there is an identifiable physical aspect to it. As modern medicine and education progress, we are now certain that obesity is a disease caused by a “perfect storm” of factors in a person’s life. It’s imperative that we abandon the industry of victimizing marketing and dangerous products that target people who are suffering, and instead offer them safe, personalized, and holistic approaches to improving their health. Help reduce stigma and spread kindness by abandoning your biases and showing compassion to one another!

Reexamine your core beliefs to help tackle the mental and emotional impact of struggles like infertility. Emily Jurries is a licensed mental health counselor who shares her experience and challenges with fertility. Trying to get pregnant comes with a lot of health-related stigmas and can end up being an isolating and challenging journey. We can use tools like mantras, meditation, and support from others to build the emotional resilience we need to achieve a positive mindset shift. Find meditative self-care techniques that really resonate with you, don’t settle for false positivity. Challenge your own negativity and be grateful for your body!

It’s important to be mindful of our time, but we have to remember to pace ourselves. Robin Wilson is an entrepreneur and stroke survivor who is excited to share her newly found perspective on life. Any major health scare is sure to be a traumatic event that will have you relearning your boundaries and reprioritizing your time. We need to reexamine our schedules and start to make time for ourselves and the things that are important to us. There is never a shortage of tasks on the agenda, so it’s important for us to slow down, take time for self-care and enjoy the ride. Don’t wait for a forced lesson like this to shift your mindset.

Being successful in all aspects of life can be tough, but you deserve it. People seem to inherently hold on to the belief that it’s impossible to “have it all”, to the point that they subconsciously sabotage themselves when they begin to really prosper. This is a tough lesson to learn, but we have to convince ourselves that we really do deserve it and we need to stay vigilant and inspired to move forward. Awareness and self-love are crucial for our journey up the mountain of success, so be forgiving and keep taking positive steps forward. Learn to prioritize yourself and your happiness and you can achieve anything!

Being a better you is a choice you can make every day. Karen Taylor Bass is a global wellness expert who teaches clients how to be the best version of themselves. The key to being and feeling like your best self can be as simple as giving yourself permission to feel free. Take the time to work through your needs and create positive changes to your inner landscape with meditative self-care. It’s time for us to choose ourselves first, and communicate what we need and who we are without fear and anxiety. Embrace freedom and give yourself permission to be your most authentic self!

Improving your communication skills can have a profound impact on your emotional and physical wellbeing. Madeline Schwarz is a communication coach who helps her clients conquer their fears and improve their professional and social confidence. Many people who are uncomfortable with speaking their mind are stuck feeling like they need to prove themselves but lack the confidence to do it. Improving communication skills takes practice and a major mindset shift, but it’s a cumulative process. Having minor nerves and anxiety over important communication experiences is normal, but you can learn to tackle them with courage. Overcome your fears and speak your mind with strength and authenticity!