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Filly
Hello? It's Filly here from the ending Body Burn Out show. I am so excited to bring you a special guest today, Dr. Ashley Young. I'm a big fan of Dr. Ali's work and how she is championing working mums and mums running health businesses like myself. Plus, I think she is just an awesome and sparkly human being in general.
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Filly
We have so many things in common right down to our own body burn out stories, the odd dysfunctional patterns that led to our burnout and how we went about healing our own bodies and why we now do what we do. You'll be if you've listened to my story before and then you hear Dr. Ali's you say that there are so many similarities.
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Filly
We are kindred spirits. So I know you're going to love this convo. So before we jump in, just the official stuff about Dr. Ali Young, her bio. So she is a health and business strategist for working mums earning health practices. After 20 years in practice authoring her book Work Mama Live, which we'll chat about in the podcast and recovering through her own burnout journey, she is determined to support working moms in the health care space to show up for themselves.
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Filly
First and then to create meaningful connections and a profitable business. So let's dive right in to my conversation I had with Dr. Ali today.
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Chris
Hello and welcome to the ending body Burn Out Show where your hosts, Chris and Filly co-founders of multi award winning Functional Medicine Practice, serving busy people with energy mood and got issues.
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Filly
Well, business overworking, addictive doing and perfectionism might be the norm. It's not normal and it's a major contributor to health issues.
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Chris
Our goal with this show is to give you a holistic root, root cause approach to healing your body so that you don't have to continue doctor or diet hopping or popping a gazillion supplements, hoping something might stick.
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Filly
So get ready to heal your body, get your spark back deeply, connect with yourself, and step into the life of your dreams. Let's dive in. Variety. I am so excited to have Dr. Ali here on our podcast today. We actually chatted. Well, I think I was on yours maybe about a year ago.
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Dr Ali
Yeah. And prior year.
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Filly
Yeah. And prior to that I was following you for quite a while. And just think that you just are also.
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Dr Ali
Did I strike you.
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Filly
Awesome at everything that you do in business and in the health care and in like the the working mom business mom burn out space. So we have a lot in common there. But just also to say sparkly and happy and inspiring human being. So I'm so excited to have you on the podcast today.
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Dr Ali
Oh, thank you for having me. I was very excited to get in, but I was like, Oh, this is great. Oh yeah.
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Filly
Awesome. Okay, so I always love to just dive right into our guests personal body burnout stories because most of them have had it, which is also why a lot of us either get into health care or as I'm sure we will find out from you sometimes. Health care also burns practitioners out massively.
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Dr Ali
I'm saying it so much. I was actually. We have an allied health made up where I live in central Queensland last night and I was talking with a group of ten of us, nine females, one male, and I think most of the women at the table who are older than 30. So there are a couple of whippersnappers there have gone through, been out in some description just from the giving of themselves all the time, like the constant giving out and not knowing how to fill their own cup.
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Filly
Yeah. Yeah. And it is it's such a service based. Service based. So it's like caring role. And sometimes practitioners get lost in that. Absolutely, yes. So can we rewind? Because I would love to talk more about that a little bit later, but can we rewind? I think it was it before. It was after. Kids for you. Hey will be for kids after.
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Dr Ali
Okay. I've been in practice for 12, 13 years before I got pregnant and I got married and I actually had sold my practice and then found out I was pregnant at the same time. And then we were moving overseas to Malaysia. So I got to experience my first pregnancy in practice, which was great. And and then I went back and we were living in Malaysia and then we've been in Perth living, so we moved back to Perth to birth post-birth.
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Dr Ali
I wasn't as great. And then when she was two and a half weeks old and she was born at 2.6 kilos, so we are talking the tiniest of tiny humans. We put on an aeroplane and we moved back to Malaysia to no support and, and it was definitely an eye opening experience. But I had this thing inside me that I had to keep doing something because I was bored.
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Dr Ali
As many mums I think do who've had a career. So I was mentoring women online and stuff and then we fast forward a little bit and I have a little at home practice where we've moved to in Australia and then got pregnant again and then we and then ten weeks after he's born, I take a lease on a building, spend five weeks fitting it out when he's four months old, I go back to work today's week because, well, yep, and they were born 23 months apart.
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Dr Ali
So retrospect, one who I do that for anyway and, and at the end of that nine months of trying to juggle everything, my husband got a job in South Korea. So then I just closed the doors and said, I'll be back and, and we moved to South Korea for nearly two years and then came back and hit the ground hard, like really hard.
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Dr Ali
2017 18 I think it was. And by the end of 2019 I was in full blown out.
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Filly
Yeah, yeah.
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Dr Ali
Navigating husband, working crazy hours, running a practice, employing staff, speaking at conferences to talk to humans, beginning school over things. And my body went nuts. So it kicked off with my son, headbutting me under my chin in a vigorous cuddle. And so it was a physical stimulus and it gave me an occipital neuralgia, which is like I felt like there was a tingling spider on my face all the time.
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Dr Ali
And then I got this red butterfly rash that went all the way up. This camera's actually makes me look like I still have. And it went all over my face and then I gained ten kilos in three weeks. And at this point, sorry, not three weeks, three months. Still rapid weight gain in my hair. And at this point in time I was like, There's just something seriously wrong with me.
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Dr Ali
And I thought with all my knowledge that I had a pituitary tumour or had a really weird way of my and of mice showing up because it was still bilateral. So I was like, Oh, maybe my image is just different. So I went and cried with my GP, who is an integrative GP. So she's like really supportive. And so she said, Well, let's get rid of the big stuff because I don't think it's that.
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Dr Ali
So we went and did all the tests and it wasn't that. And then we did all the hormone testing and my cortisol is like Cushing's level. It was like horrendous. And we went right, so we went into repair the most and I lost the ten kilos over five months, probably it took me to get it, which was great.
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Dr Ali
Yeah. And prepared it. But the lifestyle changes are the biggest thing for me that I had to do and it was slowing down purposefully. And then COVID happened as well. So that happened, but just at the start of COVID. So then we were navigating all of that in a stressful health environment to crazy.
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Filly
Can we touch on the gut stuff? Because I think you did a still test. Hey.
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Dr Ali
Oh, yeah. So I had day four. I had a really lovely parasite hanging out.
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Filly
Shame, shame, shame.
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Dr Ali
You know, every now and then I lie in bed and I'm like, Oh, maybe that back. Right, let's get the T-Rex out. So it's a really deep parasite cleanse guided by an integrative nutritionist and. And my GP, which was great. I didn't want to go on antibiotics, so we were able to get that under control naturally, which was awesome.
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Dr Ali
And, and then a lot of dietary change. So it's only now like I flip and change. So I was really addicted to caffeine leading up to my burnout, which isn't surprising because I was just trying to hit all the receptors and alcohol at night time to calm me down. I was like doing all the bad things and I knew they were bad, but I was like, It's fine.
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Dr Ali
That's just the season. It's coming up to Christmas, you know? You're rationalising all the things. Yeah. Once I get through this, I'll have my two week holiday and everything will be fine. And yeah, back to normal. No. And so it's only now that I can have like one coffee a day and my body's like, okay, with that. But then if it's a stressful period actually controlling caffeine.
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Dr Ali
Yeah, no, I don't have that. Yeah, I just love the flavour. So it's a real catch 22 for me.
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Filly
Decaf. Decaf. Not the same.
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Dr Ali
No, I did. I did some baking.
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Filly
Oh, wow. Okay.
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Dr Ali
My, my system's really quite lax and I have to have certain beans from a certain cafe. My husband's like, You are the worst coffee snob ever. The organic and the lazy.
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Filly
Is all, like, good quality and, you know.
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Dr Ali
Yeah, exactly right. And yeah, but as part of my junior did a really in-depth DNA testing too, which I found incredible to guide me on the things that you think are healthy and that you think you're doing good things like over the course of the years leading up to my big burn out, we had tried all the things paleo, raw, vegetarian, vegan, pretty much carnivore or always Whole Foods based.
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Dr Ali
Yeah, but you know, the heavy loading of nuts and seeds and the high hot fat levels. When I then dived into my DNA testing, my body was like, Actually, I don't break that stuff down really well. Ali And so just changing away from that to just really clean fruits and veggies and like leaner, healthier mades has just been really fabulous.
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Filly
Yeah, that's so cool. Did the DNA test show up mutations or anything like that? Oh, it was more the lifestyle based nutrition.
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Dr Ali
It did both. It was really good. And there's 14 Coeliac in my family. So interesting. It did show that showed up as well. Yeah, I already stopped eating gluten before I went to the GP to say, Hey, I think I've got this gluten problem. And they're like, when you go to eat gluten around gluten. So I just don't eat it.
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Dr Ali
Yeah, yeah, that's me. Yeah. So it did show up some mutations. It showed up a lot of likely bit issues. So detox pathways that don't work and stuff like that too. Yeah.
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Filly
Yeah. So cool. Sorry we the more you've written a book which I'm going to talk about that in a sec. E But with more hindsight and wisdom, if you think about the, the root cause of why you burned down in the first place, that there was lots of busyness and doing all the things and, you know, a lot of people just say that is all it was distress stress burnt me out.
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Filly
But do you feel like like what's the D3? Cause what actually what actually kind of like triggered it all?
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Dr Ali
Yeah, I think it was the wanting to show everyone that I could do everything. So this really deep seated cause that because I chose a profession that was very different to the rest of my family, my family all come more medical backgrounds. And then on the we had a chiropractor on the side who thinks that the body has a magic to heal itself.
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Dr Ali
And maybe you don't need to take all those lotions and patients and so I think that I have this real innate sense of I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm going to show you and do it my way and rebel, get with it, cause and so that's where it came from. And also, I think marrying later in life and having had such a big career before that point in time, I also wanted to prove to myself that having kids didn't mean that I lost me.
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Dr Ali
And so I really wanted to prove that subconsciously. And I think now that the beauty is that you can it's given me such a beautiful window into how you can maintain yourself. But maintaining yourself doesn't mean missing out on all the other stuff as well, which is really nice. Yeah.
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Filly
Yeah. I always say your message in your message, so you kind of need to go through all of that to get the learnings and, and the gift to then be like, Oh, now I'd like so much. Was there and like, I understand how to do life.
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Dr Ali
There's all this thing going on. I've got this.
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Filly
Thing. Yeah, it's so huge though. Like in our practice, you know, we do all the physical stuff and the lab testing and the diets and, you know, all of that is so important for the health of the body, but it's the subconscious stuff. I think that just like it's, it's where it all starts. It's huge.
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Dr Ali
Absolutely. And and the patterns are going to keep repeating until we can identify the subconscious self of why that patents for painting anyway.
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Filly
Yeah. Yeah. So you book work mama life that came out was it last year. A year ago. Yeah. Awesome. So I actually purchased this book from you. Sep it for preneur. Yeah. And I remember saying to you, I really want to write it, but I'm writing my own book, which may have some crossovers. I'm going to put it on my books.
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Dr Ali
Yet.
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Filly
I'm going to hold it on my bookshelf until I finish my drafts anyway, so I recently read it maybe about three months ago, and it's kind of cool too. It's like, Wow, this is like so much different to mine because we each have our own unique story. You also have a different that like you're a chiropractor by trade and you've had a different journey as well.
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Filly
Yeah, but there was so much to that. I, I'm like, I'll probably know all this, but I'm just like, Oh my gosh. Like, you just have such really cool insights in the book and really specific to the working mum juggle like and I love that. So what was your big why for writing the book?
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Dr Ali
I think because I was having the same conversation repetitively and particularly I wrote it during private, so I wrote it in a period of time. My working moms were under extraordinary stress with their role. They're having to school at home and then having to work at home and run a home and make everything happen within four walls. And we were seeing the amount of stress load in humans that I was seeing.
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Dr Ali
And in women I to this day I experienced it in fits and spurts now, but nothing was like that. I would come home and I would be like, energetically non, please talk to me right now. I just need to sit. I just need to be and just let my body do what it needs to do and feel through this.
00;15;33;23 - 00;15;51;22
Dr Ali
And then I will come and converse with you. What was that heavy load? And I was like, How can I support women? I was doing it 1 to 1 is really hard, so how can I do this in a way where I can actually make an impact on women the world over? Yeah, where it came from. Yeah. Yeah.
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Filly
I love that because it is. It's time consuming, but it's just like, well, this is gold. Yeah. Yeah. And millions, millions can read it. Yeah. So part, part one of the book looks at balancing work and motherhood and life. And this is a space I'm really passionate about as well because I just see, like, again, we do work with a lot of mums and it is, it's the juggle, the juggle that burns them out.
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Filly
But like deeper than that is the patterns that lead to that in the first place. I loved a lot of the research and insights you had around modern mums and their susceptibility to stress and burnout. Can you talk a bit more about that?
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Dr Ali
Yeah, absolutely.
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Filly
So let's get off feminist.
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Dr Ali
And I believe I'm not quite Clementine level, but you know, outside I'm so, I think with the modern society and the driving of us having to show up in certain ways, in certain places at certain times of the day, we aren't honouring rest ever. And if we rest and I come from a long line of modern mothers, resting is seen as naughty, it's evil, you're a bad mum and you shouldn't do these things because there's always jobs to do and the jobs are more important than you.
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Dr Ali
So you've got to do these things to prove your worth as a mother. And then we then in the 19, all during World War Two, the women went to work because the men were at war. And then the men came back and wanted their jobs back. So the government actually created advertising campaigns that a good mum stays home with her children.
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Dr Ali
Yeah. So that's where the good concept came from. Yeah, it's nuts. And then we parlay that into the expectation now that a good mum probably has a job because you've got to help provide for your family because life is really expensive right now. You know, this whole rhetoric out there. And so the we're expecting our mums to work as if they don't have children and we're expecting them to parent as if they don't have a job and we have these societal expectations that that's what makes a good mum and that it is only one way.
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Dr Ali
And then you add in Instagram and Facebook where we get all of the influencers with their friends and net certain size clothing and they're pretty out that and.
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Filly
I effect hair.
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Dr Ali
I need a haircut. Sorry.
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Filly
I love it.
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Dr Ali
Yeah it is next level and the loading on women these days is just it boggles my mind on a daily basis that we have an expectation and then we create maternal gatekeeping scenarios within a family because the mum feels like she needs to carry that entire mental load of the whole family because she's the only one that knows what's happening when.
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Dr Ali
And and so even if she's not doing the thing, she's the one who said, Oh, you need to go and do the thing. So that's and so it's just continuing that process of reliance on the mother figure, but also having to do the other stuff as well.
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Filly
Yeah, it's huge. It makes me think about the subconscious stuff as well in your story about World World War Two. So already kind of like Generation Early and maybe even when we were born, there were these agreements that were kind of being made now. Subconscious state anyway.
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Dr Ali
Yeah, exactly right.
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Filly
Yeah. And then it's like, whoa. And then like new and different messages. And so like that alone too, from a subconscious level is just, it's like it's war.
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Dr Ali
Exactly.
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Filly
And you can never feel, you can never feel relaxed with whatever you doing was my experience as well. It was just like, Oh, if I was resting or playing with the kids, I'd have guilt around, Oh, but the business might fall apart or, Oh, I'm working too much and I'm not spending time with the kids. So like, I'm a bad mom.
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Filly
It just becomes this.
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Dr Ali
Yeah. And, and it shifts. Like last night I was at work until really late. My husband actually had a work meeting that went until really late. So yesterday morning I'd put food in the slow cooker and I precooked some rice and that had it in the fridge. And I was like, Guys, you're going to learn how to hate the rice up and how to scoop safely out of this book.
00;20;08;23 - 00;20;26;25
Dr Ali
I have fun with that tonight. And this morning when I checked in with them, they're like, Oh, we were so good at that. Really easy. And I was like, Great, we've empowered you. You feel like you've achieved something. We're changing the generations. It wasn't just my daughter. I had to do it. My son had to do it as well.
00;20;26;25 - 00;20;34;15
Dr Ali
While, you know. And so it's planning those things for the future generation. I think if we can recognise and change patterning, which is important.
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Filly
Yeah, I think a big light bulb moment is for me was a visit a couple of years ago. This is in terms of the workload and kind of like how unfair it is. But also I had allowed it to be that way because, you know, I was actually really good at getting the things done and no one else could do it as good as me.
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Dr Ali
And you know what? My my mum always said to me, she's like, Ali, you are too good at too many things. You need to not be good at all the big crap. Now, you know, that's not that's not in my mobile. And she's always good for you if you do that. So yes.
00;21;10;14 - 00;21;31;05
Filly
They are. Yeah. I remember I was filling out the census form and there was a question around like your partner. So how many hours do you work and how many hours does your partner work and how many hours do you do childcare and housework and how many? And I was just like, we worked the same hours. I'm doing like quadruple the time and I like stormed down to crease.
00;21;31;05 - 00;21;51;24
Filly
Like this has to change because of that. And it and it actually has. He's a bit hopeless. I'll just say it out loud publicly. I hope you're listening to this crease, but I've actually backed off what I do. So our house is pretty messy most of the time and I'm totally okay with that, as opposed to three times a day tidying everything up.
00;21;52;00 - 00;21;52;20
Filly
Oh.
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Dr Ali
That's so not my job. Yeah, you know, we have had a big switching in stepping up of responsibility recently to actually, which has been really nice. But I found that my subconscious story was that I still have to be involved. Like, I really like doing those things. And so I've had to go like my husband took my daughter clothes shopping the other day and I was like, Oh, recycle, I'll take you to buy shorts and you can watch soccer.
00;22;18;27 - 00;22;31;27
Dr Ali
And I was like, Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, fine. Whereas in my mind I'm like, on it. That's a bum job, but it's not necessarily a mum job. Yeah, yeah. And so just stay changing. That narrative is really good too.
00;22;32;03 - 00;22;34;22
Filly
Yeah. New rules, new agreements.
00;22;34;25 - 00;22;37;29
Dr Ali
Exactly.
00;22;38;01 - 00;22;54;15
Filly
So part two of the book looks at the five pillars of healthy motherhood. And I think for you, you said in your own body burnout journey that lifestyle is a big change, a big thing that needed to change for you that made a big difference. So what is what are the five pillars and why do you think they're so important?
00;22;54;15 - 00;22;56;21
Filly
And like, why did these five make the book?
00;22;56;24 - 00;23;05;01
Dr Ali
These five made the book? You know, I'd probably edit a six now, which is, Oh, yeah, that's okay. You learn.
00;23;05;04 - 00;23;06;01
Filly
Second edition.
00;23;06;06 - 00;23;30;19
Dr Ali
Second edition. Except there's a few things I'd add in. I'd go way deeper into probably vertical theory too. But anyway, so nourishment. So how we feel our body matters. We can do all of the things, but particularly in recovery from burnout. I think that there is nothing more important than identifying what your triggers are for calm, state and inflammation because burnout is such a key inflammatory source.
00;23;30;19 - 00;23;53;26
Dr Ali
So we really need to be aware of that. And I think if you are significantly in not getting guidance around, that is really important from a professional. Not like reading my book is fine and the recipes at the back is great, but I think there is so much more to that then we need. And then it was movement, I think also learning.
00;23;53;26 - 00;24;20;03
Dr Ali
I spent years doing 10 to 14 workouts a week just because I love movement in my room. But the way I was moving was making my body much worse and it's often not spoken about. I'm seeing it pop up a little bit more on Instagram these days, but the concept that to move well has to be high intensity, high impact.
00;24;20;05 - 00;24;48;02
Dr Ali
That's what's going to make a difference to your health isn't true and we need to honour that if we're going through a health journey and recovery, slow movements with breath that just move gently through our spine, activate our brain. Yes, some weight bearing is really important, but we need to honour that at some stage is maybe yoga and pilates and a walk and maybe a bike ride is perfect for you and you don't need to go running for ten KS every day, but it's just not the jab.
00;24;48;06 - 00;25;14;05
Filly
Yeah, yeah, I remember. That was a big one. Sorry for me too. Doing CrossFit I think was before and after kids and I was just like, But I should be able to do this because I could do it before kids and just month by month, my ability to perform was just like I got to the point where I couldn't really even do stand up squats like chair squats without feeling shaky and horrible.
00;25;14;08 - 00;25;19;16
Filly
It took me so long to let go of that identity.
00;25;19;19 - 00;25;39;23
Dr Ali
Yeah, and it's been amazing when you do that. You guys are so right that I don't do that anymore. I find that when you get to that sense of peace within your body that it locks you back better anyway. Oh yeah. Loving your body in the way that it needs to be loved on. It's like you're hugging me.
00;25;39;25 - 00;25;57;26
Dr Ali
I am going to warm hug you back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that adrenal fatigue post, a big workout is a key indicator. Like if you're doing a hard workout, but then you're taking two full days to recover from that. It's bombing you out. You needing to go home and sleep. That is a big red flag. Your system isn't coping well.
00;25;57;29 - 00;26;05;19
Dr Ali
And I think that that's something that isn't spoken about either. Oh yeah, Do wake up and go have a nap. No, mate, the wrong way around.
00;26;05;22 - 00;26;12;18
Filly
And it's the narrative too, I think in fitness, like no pain, no gain. Go get the results. Yeah.
00;26;12;20 - 00;26;40;19
Dr Ali
Yeah, yeah. Well, you can do it now. Caused me to have a pelvic floor surgery, so let's change that. Oh, and then the next one is sleep. And I. I think that was one of my biggest things. I used to stay up at night, as many moments do. Having one time. And it was lots of varied things. It would be watching TV, it would be reading a book, it would just be cooking lots of food ready for the next day.
00;26;40;19 - 00;27;05;26
Dr Ali
So I didn't have to do it in the morning. And then I was getting up early because that's my natural body clock and exercising really heavily and then going to work for a full day, which is a physical job and having the kids and doing it all again. So I'm honouring rest and sleep and we are in bed between 830 and nine every day and I get up at probably 530 my morning, sometimes five.
00;27;05;26 - 00;27;11;18
Dr Ali
Like yesterday I naturally was awake and I was like, Oh great. So that was really good. Yes. But yeah.
00;27;11;21 - 00;27;18;29
Filly
And I was naturally awake at 745 today. I'm like, Oh crap, I've got a podcast with Ali.
00;27;19;01 - 00;27;24;05
Dr Ali
But yeah, first mania. I know. Probably like still Doc at 744.
00;27;24;05 - 00;27;27;15
Filly
Is the way like bears hibernating here.
00;27;27;17 - 00;27;48;23
Dr Ali
Exactly. So your body's doing exactly what it's made today. I'm in central Queensland. I was like complaining to my mum. It was 17 degrees today and I was cold. Start talking to me. I hate you. Yes, yes. But I think I'm looking at that quality of sleep and recognising waking between two and 4 a.m. every night is not a great thing.
00;27;48;23 - 00;28;21;06
Dr Ali
And so what are the things? And still to this day the action steps I took in that regard have been huge. So it was screens off 30 minutes before bed, making sure I'm hydrated enough during the day so that I'm not relying on hydration before bedtime because then I would obviously wake up to go to the bathroom. I'm not having coffee after lunch, which I don't do anyway, minimising any alcohol intake or dark chocolate cake on the couch and lying on a shock mat as I went to sleep and doing breathwork.
00;28;21;11 - 00;28;50;23
Dr Ali
So yeah, really get that rhythm and giving myself a sleep routine. That was like a baby. It was great. Yeah. And then connection, which I think is the thing that when we become busy working mums, the easiest thing to stop doing is connecting with our girlfriends and often with our spouses. And the thing that defines us as humans is the way that our brain speeds and throbs energetically, physically, neurologically of the brains that are around us.
00;28;50;23 - 00;29;09;23
Dr Ali
And that's why we have that beautiful saying that you are as good as the five people that you surround yourself with most of the time. And it's so true. And we used to think that was where we were. And now we look at research by Bruce Lipton and just friends, and we know that actually that's neurologically the truth and that is really, really important.
00;29;09;25 - 00;29;41;10
Dr Ali
Yes. Know that we need that as women specifically. The way we like to connect is different. So honouring that and finally thinking and calm and learning that meditation for me doesn't need to be an hour because my brain works super quickly and sitting for an hour. The thought of sitting for an hour isn't that of meditation retreat completely different with the thought of every day forcing myself to sit for an hour.
00;29;41;16 - 00;30;02;21
Dr Ali
I know that's not going to happen, but I can calm myself. Super short breath work and a ten minute meditation just as well. So just beginning that process. Re Restarting, journaling, restarting gratitude, thinking about manifestation, thinking about the things that calm my brain and just give me that expansive state again rather than that closed minded doing state.
00;30;02;29 - 00;30;30;03
Filly
Mm I love that too. Like, it's not necessarily the quantity, it's the quality and it's whatever suits we, you know, your lifestyle or the way that you are as a person. Yeah. With all of those. So if someone's listening to those five pillars and they're feeling busy and burnt out and juggling all the things. So if a mom listening to that, ooh, how can they like what are some easy ways that they can implement those things.
00;30;30;03 - 00;30;33;11
Filly
So where would you start with all of that sort of stuff?
00;30;33;14 - 00;30;53;09
Dr Ali
The first thing I would probably do is download. Well, first thing I would do is actually just learn to pause, sort of perfectionist in the pause, and you can pause at any time of the day, and that pause can look however it needs to look for you. It can be just sitting for 5 minutes with a cup of tea.
00;30;53;09 - 00;31;18;02
Dr Ali
It could be having a drink of water. It can be being on the toilet, it could be wherever it needs to be. Just and asking your body the question, What do I need right now? Where am I at? What do I need right now? And listening in to what my response is. I think as busy working mums, the most powerful thing we do is can do is spend a week auditing where our time goes because we are often quite surprised by that.
00;31;18;02 - 00;31;45;23
Dr Ali
And now I've got a free download on that. You probably have one as well on my website and, and you can just go and it stretches through the process of figuring out how your time is spent and then looking at, okay, right. So if I wanted to change three meals a week to be better for me and I wanted to move my body gently, I would need 20 minutes to move my body gently, three days a week, and I probably need 45 minutes of food prep on a Sunday.
00;31;45;25 - 00;31;58;08
Dr Ali
Let's see how we can make this happen. And let's all know that we want to do that. Yeah, yeah. And I think remembering that it can be simple, like the dinner the night before can be your lunch that next day. It doesn't hardly.
00;31;58;08 - 00;32;00;09
Filly
Love leftovers.
00;32;00;12 - 00;32;21;27
Dr Ali
In the bottom. I'm already excited about lunch today. I didn't take it like freezing. No, but I think that we can make it really hard. We can put out these conscious thoughts that are to eat well, has to be very, very difficult. But it really is simple. It's just eating real food. If you can look at it and you know where it came from or where it was grown, then I can take in boxes.
00;32;21;27 - 00;32;22;26
Dr Ali
Just do that.
00;32;22;29 - 00;32;51;17
Filly
Yeah. And I find to again, this is from personal experience, but if people are getting stuck in their it's too hard or I need to do it perfectly or this is what it looks like on Google or on the influences. Graham It's usually because of perfectionist patterns as well, where it's just like, Hey, let's just like start deconstructing that and be okay with just eating well, not being perfect, do what feels good for you and it doesn't like it's letting go of all those old agreements.
00;32;51;19 - 00;33;11;19
Filly
So I'll make sure in the show notes that we have a link to the audit that you just mentioned. That'd be awesome. And in the last part of the book is about how moms can launch their new vital self back into life. And I loved how you talked about beliefs and values, so we touched on beliefs earlier, but can you talk a little bit more about that?
00;33;11;19 - 00;33;16;28
Filly
So beliefs and values and how they're really important to healing from burnout?
00;33;17;01 - 00;33;37;17
Dr Ali
I think that we often just go through our paces through our life and don't really think about what matters to us. And if we can knuckle down on our values and the core beliefs that we've brought through with us and we can make the change that we want to change in our lives, relatable to why that matters to those core beliefs.
00;33;37;23 - 00;34;05;18
Dr Ali
And we're much more likely to have that stake. And maybe in looking through those core beliefs and values go actually that core belief can get lost because this is more important to me now and they will often shift and change once you become a parent. I think that values systems and that's why we are values driven practice now, because if we can knuckle down on making what get as much to our lives the way we live our lives, then we're going to be living in congruency.
00;34;05;18 - 00;34;13;14
Dr Ali
And when we live in congruency in ourselves, a happier our brain is happier. Things just flow a lot easier. We're not neurological slices. It's really not.
00;34;13;17 - 00;34;37;15
Filly
Yeah. Oh, love that. So good. So you've had a fascinating journey as a mum in business, a clinical chiropractor course, creative for working moms, author, speaker, all the amazing things. And now you've moved into business coaching for moms in health. Can you kind of like what's led to transition into helping moms in Allied health run their businesses? Yeah.
00;34;37;17 - 00;35;07;04
Dr Ali
I think that I was. It's funny, I'd go to a conference and I would be speaking to gorgeous women and they would be telling me the practice journey and how burnt out they were trying to make everything work. And I can speak that language of leave that language. I know what that feels and looks like. And I realised that in the why you set up a health practice space, there's a lot of masculine energy, there's a lot of men who do things and the hustle is what wins.
00;35;07;06 - 00;35;31;17
Dr Ali
And I look around me in physio, well, chiro world, all the worlds and in it's do more, do it harder, do it faster. And that is the only way to make a profitable business. And so I'm like, you know what? I'm going to disrupt that because society deserves more from the people providing health care for us. But those people providing health care deserve more for themselves and their families.
00;35;31;19 - 00;35;51;24
Dr Ali
And so by working as a business coach, it's really not it's like, yes, I'll help you design every strategy and system procedure that you need to make your business work. But it's more about diving into a why do you want it to work a certain way? What do you want that to look like and what's that? That business and the shape that that would take for you?
00;35;51;24 - 00;35;56;09
Dr Ali
And how can we make that profitable? And and that's the cycle around.
00;35;56;12 - 00;36;04;12
Filly
Yeah, I love that. It's so cool. I also feel like it's almost ironic that the people that you were.
00;36;04;12 - 00;36;05;15
Dr Ali
Speaking to have been.
00;36;05;17 - 00;36;18;29
Filly
Out there helping other people come out of that or have like great health. And then so even energetically as well, although they may have developed a profitable business.
00;36;19;02 - 00;36;19;23
Dr Ali
It's not working.
00;36;19;23 - 00;36;39;20
Filly
For them, it's not working for them. And this is like, I don't say this with judgement towards certain people who may be in health practice and burn out, but it's almost like you can make a bigger impact with the people that you work with when you're embodying like what you're trying to do and say.
00;36;39;27 - 00;37;17;14
Dr Ali
Yeah, ripple effect. Yeah. There's a the famous BJ Palmer who was like the developer of chiropractic, and they had this beautiful thing that I'm not going to bastardised but it is great We're basically you never know how far reaching one thing you say or do is going to impact on that person, that one person who sleeps on a snowy sidewalk, who goes home to his family and is grumpy, who then that grumpy family goes to work and then they impact on all of their colleagues and then those colleagues go out into the community, whereas you get that one person and you adjust them and you allow the system to switch back on and they go
00;37;17;14 - 00;37;29;29
Dr Ali
home and they're connected with their families. And then those connected families go out into those workspaces and they're able to connect with their colleagues. And so you get that effect. So if we can get to the core of that, then that's where we'll see that shift and change.
00;37;30;02 - 00;37;35;05
Filly
Yeah, I love it. So good. So how do you run your business model, live your life now?
00;37;35;07 - 00;38;04;12
Dr Ali
Yeah. So I have two days a week where I'm not in my practice in saying that I did drop in this morning, but that was just to say hi because I love the people I work with so lovely connecting. I know. I'm like everyone who needs coffee. It's about, okay, okay, I'm right now and we have it set up, so I so historically, when I first graduated, I would do Monday all day, Tuesday or Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon, Friday, all day, Saturday morning.
00;38;04;12 - 00;38;17;24
Dr Ali
So eight shifts a week. Each shift was four or 5 hours long and I would have a gap in the middle of the day. So it was a lot. And in my twenties I could do that with my eyes closed. Like that was fun. Once kids came into the mix, I was like, How? I do not want to do that.
00;38;17;24 - 00;38;33;09
Dr Ali
But I thought that was the model that I had that you just turn up and you'll be busier and that's how you make your money and that's what works. And so now I've set it up that I do one big day on a Tuesday, and that big day is still I do my school drop off and I just don't do school pickup.
00;38;33;11 - 00;38;52;11
Dr Ali
So therefore, 9 to 5 really business hours, which is really weird. And I always have an hour and a half in the middle of the day so that I can eat my lunch quietly. I'm not standing up rushing my food. I just do all the little admin things that need to get done without it being hectic. So that's really nice.
00;38;52;14 - 00;39;13;16
Dr Ali
And then Wednesdays, I'm not in practice. Wednesdays actually my day for me. So I will go walking on the beach and stuff like that. It's beautiful. Got a massage laid off and then Thursday I do a morning, so I do 732 at lunchtime and then Friday I do 11 till 530, 6:00 in the afternoon. And then one Saturday a month and that's it.
00;39;13;19 - 00;39;14;18
Filly
Yeah.
00;39;14;20 - 00;39;35;01
Dr Ali
And then I'm coaching work is in on Friday morning before I start shift or on Monday and so that's where I fit that in. So I'm very aware that I don't eat into my time that I have set aside for certain specific activities. Yeah. Which is really important and it gives me time to exercise when I want to eat.
00;39;35;02 - 00;39;54;26
Dr Ali
So I am a very I prefer to wake up, go raise my body and I do that. But on Wednesdays I putter around in the kitchen and I make the middle of the week baking for the lunchboxes. And then I'll go to the beach generally and walk bare feet, detoxify my soles and have a dip in the ocean and just have that quiet chill time.
00;39;54;26 - 00;39;56;25
Dr Ali
And that's so good to me too.
00;39;56;28 - 00;39;59;00
Filly
So good. So good.
00;39;59;03 - 00;39;59;27
Dr Ali
Yeah.
00;40;00;00 - 00;40;18;15
Filly
Oh, thank you so much for coming on. It's and I just love chatting to you and listening to all of your wisdom. You are such an awesome human being. Do you have any anything else you want to add? Any last words of words of wisdom? Listen. Listening.
00;40;18;17 - 00;40;38;05
Dr Ali
I think that we need to honour our self a lot more than we do in current society. I think that you have such an innate power within you to be perfect and not perfect in the ticking every box and meeting everyone's stuff but perfect in the way that your cells work and the way you can embody your sense of self, where you energetically show up in the world.
00;40;38;08 - 00;40;49;22
Dr Ali
But to get to that, we have to honour that. We need space, we need rest, we need to give ourselves that white space in our wake, not feel our challenges. And that's how we will prevent that from happening.
00;40;49;25 - 00;41;05;24
Filly
Yeah, love it. Awesome. So I'll make sure I popping this shot. No show nights how to get in touch with you. People want to reach out to you. Also put a link to your book and to the audit. Is there anything else that you'd.
00;41;05;27 - 00;41;23;10
Dr Ali
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was going to run a 90 day mastermind for health practitioners and half of this year, but I actually looked at my energy and I went, You know what? Not I don't think that I would show up because I know the end of this year is going to be really busy. So that's going to be in 2024.
00;41;23;13 - 00;41;25;12
Filly
Okay, look out for that.
00;41;25;14 - 00;41;31;23
Dr Ali
For that. It's going to be awesome. We're going to have a retreat. We're going to it's going to be so awesome.
00;41;31;26 - 00;41;50;02
Filly
But I love that, too. It's like you could have you critique that one off, but it's just like listening to yourself what feels right. And I can't remember if I was talking to you on the podcast or if it was before. Like with my book. I'm like, It doesn't really matter when it comes out. Yeah, it'll just it come out.
00;41;50;02 - 00;41;55;09
Filly
When it comes out like this, there's no real deadline when you are in your own business. Anything can happen.
00;41;55;11 - 00;42;03;02
Dr Ali
Exactly right. And that's the glorious ness of it, isn't it? The ability to just go. Nah, it'll be okay. Yeah. Yeah.
00;42;03;04 - 00;42;05;15
Filly
Well, listen, thank you so much.
00;42;05;18 - 00;42;12;04
Dr Ali
No, it's. Thanks for having me.
00;42;12;06 - 00;42;21;07
Filly
Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate you. If you'd like to give us extra smiles, drop us a review and spread the love by sharing this episode.
00;42;21;10 - 00;42;39;10
Chris
You can also write your own state of burnout and the root Cause contributors by taking out ending body burnout assessment on our website. And if you're interested in learning about a group of one on one ending body burn programs, should us a DM via Instagram or Facebook. Have the best day ever.
