Wake Up With Marci

A lot of people look back and they go, “I’ve been wasting my life.” And I go, “It’s impossible.” It’s absolutely impossible to waste your life. Every single thing you’ve learned, every single challenge you’ve had has been set there to get you to where you are now. Yeah, you may not know the direction you want to go, but there’s certainly a lot of things out there. I mean, you can get on, you can listen to me, you can listen to Mark Victor Hansen. We can we can read your book, Mercy, and probably find some direction there. We’ve I’ve got other mentors I’ve worked with. And and so the second thing I do is I go go sit down with somebody and talk to them and say, “I’m not quite sure where where I want to go.” And have a discussion, you know, have a back and forth like we’re having right now. And go communicate and go connect. This is Wake Up with Marcy, a space for honest conversations about healing, recovery, and women’s wellness. I’m Marcy Hopkins. Take a breath. You’re safe here. Let’s begin.

You’re not burnt out. You’re not lazy. You’re misaligned. And once you understand that, everything starts to change. Welcome to Wake Up with Marcy. I’m your host, Marcy Hopkins, and this is the show where we have real, raw, and transformational conversations designed to wake you up to your life, your purpose, and what’s truly possible for you. Hello all. Welcome back to Wake Up with Marcy. I’m so grateful you are here with me today. I’m your host Marcy Hopkins and this is the show where we have real raw and transformational conversations designed to wake you up to your life, your purpose, and what’s truly possible for you. And today’s conversation is one you’re going to want to feel. It’s about alignment. And today I’m joined by Dr. Kyle Hulsabus, author, speaker, human potential specialist, and a third generation chiropractor who’s helping people rethink health alignment and what it really means to live well. And what we’re diving into today is something so many people are experiencing right now. Feeling stuck, feeling off, feeling disconnected, and not really knowing why. So, welcome to the show, Dr. Kyle, thank you. Thank you. I’m grateful to be here and and to be able to share a little bit about wellness, health, human potential. Oh, let me tell you, I get really excited about these conversations because there’s so much information, but it’s when we actually take it in and maybe hear it a different way and put it into action that things really start changing for us. Yeah. Well, that’s and you know, just having grown up under the opices of a chiropractor who grew up under a chiropractor who, you know, learned chiropractic back in the 1940s and um, you know, sort of has this real strong philosophical background. It’s, you know, one of the things we do a lot when we educate people and and take in new patients is what I say in the office is really 10% of what I do in the office is adjust your spine and take care of your health. But the 90% of what I do because I’m a doctor is to to educate you, to inform you, to empower you in this idea of health. And so one thing where we become fairly skilled at early on is how to reframe health so that people understand it and uh you know there might be a little bit of sarcasm that shows up in the profession that way but um that could come from the founders. It’s like somebody comes in and says well I my knee hurts and I go okay and they go it’s it’s probably from running. And I’ll go great. Did did only your knee go running? Yeah, I know. That’s I love.

It really is fascinating where maybe the you’re feeling the pain, but it’s coming from a different place and how so much is connected to our spine and how chiropractic work really does help us to heal and it’s not just about the alignment of the back. And so I I want to bring that up. That’s one of the things that you did grow up in a family of chiropractors, right? Deeply rooted in this chiropractic care and health. So, what did that early exposure teach you about the human body and about life and and about what most people don’t realize until much later in life? I’ll share you a little bit about the origin because my grandfather came back from World War II as many GIs did um kind of looking for direction and uh I don’t know the circumstances around him meeting my grandmother but they met they got married my grandmother had a lot of health problems she had a lot of digestive issues all the time and at the time the best place I think you could go was like the the surgeons association in Chicago and they said live with it you know you daily headaches constant gut problems live with it. I mean, that’s that was their solution at the time. Not that they were bad, it’s just that they didn’t have a lot. They do. Yeah. I mean, they just they they that was where it was. And uh he was originally from Iowa. So, they they stopped on on the way to Iowa down in Davenport, Iowa on the Mississippi River as part of the Quad Cities, which is where the original chiropractic college was, the Palmer School of Chiropractic at the time. And you know, and again, I don’t know the circumstances, but I I have this I have this sort of thing in my head that says, you know, come come see Dr. Palmer School of Chiropractic and be carried at this ale. And because he had a radio station, uh the first radio station west of the Mississippi and somewhere in there, he might have just said, you know, what do we got to lose? And they went into his school and my grandmother was adjusted. And she told me for many years, she goes, whenever she’d complain, she goes, I don’t know if I should really complain because since that day I’ve never had a headache. um and her digestive problems cleared up and on top of that it turned out she was having fertility issues and she was able to conceive after that and and you know then yeah and then had my uncle and shortly after they graduated. So I I grew up with this idea of of health in the spine and there was so much more potential in there. It’s just that there’s interference and all we got to do is remove it. And so in and the whole concept behind chiropractic is its simplicity and even even the way we run our business is keep it simple. It’s you know we don’t have to get into all this complexity. When I when I speak to businesses I look and I go don’t make it too complex. Uh you know we just when when you adjust it’s a very small simple thing that goes on. So he he was deeply rooted in in the philosophy because chiropractic is the only healthcare profession founded on a philosophy that the body has an innate healing ability. And he he raised his three sons that way. They all went to chiropractic college. And my dad was probably a little more of the philosopher of the bunch to be fair and also a bit more of the scientist of the bunch. But then when I was in school at the University of Iowa, he was down in Palmer again doing a post-graduate program for chiropractic philosophy. So I I got raised anytime I I would run into stuff, it would be like people would tell me, “Oh, you need to take this or you need to take this.” And I’d go, “Well, but why?” And everybody say, “Take this. You mean like a drug?” Yeah. You know, you know, “Oh, well, you know, take some Advil or you should go you should go to the doctor and don’t you go to the doctor.” And I go, well, I go to my dad. And so those are those are more the the band-aids not getting to what’s actually happening within the body, right? Yeah. I mean, I and I’ve got damage to my spine. So, fortunately, my dad was a chiropractor, but uh you know, I I distinctly remember being like nine nine or 10 years old at my friend’s house. I’m going, “Man, I got a headache.” And his dad goes, “Well, have some Advil or an aspirin.” And I go, “What’s that? And he was like horrified like, “How do you not know what aspirin is?” I go, “I don’t know. You know, what’s aspirin?” He goes, “Well, that’s what you take when you have headaches.” And I go, “Oh, I just usually just my dad adjusts me and then I don’t have a headache.” Wow. So, I took aspirin and I couldn’t swallow it because I’m not very good at taking pills. So, I chewed it, which anybody that’s chewed aspirin knows it’s a little bitter. So, you know, that’s that’s not that I don’t take medications when I need it um to get over stuff, but my my my thought process has always been if it doesn’t if I can’t sort of bring it back to to how’s the internal doing that. Um I have a hard sort of a logic problem with it.

Well, let me ask you because I’ve heard many stories. You know, young young kids have these digestive problems. They finally get aligned and they don’t have the the problems anymore. You know, a lot of times we think of chiropractors of just fixing the pain in our hip or our back, whatever the case may be. What what is that connection? How is it so connected to the other parts of the body? And if we are going in for this this alignment, how is it helping these other parts? So, we’ll give you the basic rundown. Your brain’s main objective with you physically is to keep these trillions of cells running in coordination in harmony at all the time. It is continuously working to adapt you to the inputs that it gets and and the great stresses that are on it which you know on Earth is gravity and and we’ve got gravity and we’ve got air pressure and we’ve got barometric pressure and we’ve got that’s why people say oh the weather changed and you know my cough came back or my knee aches and your body’s working to adapt you to these things. your your brain is getting this information and it’s its main communication ability is on your spinal cord and so it’s sent it’s sent out basically roots from itself down down as a spinal cord and from there it branches off individual nerves that go between the bones of the spine. That’s why you have movable vertebrae between those bones and they go out and they connect to every single organ in the body. Every single one. It can’t be every cell because you can’t have nerves flowing through your bloodstream. That would get confusing. But but it does but but like for instance with with blood cells, it does go to the bone marrow and say produce more. It does go to the spleen and say take these away. It does go to, you know, your your thymus and say produce more here and your thyroid to create energy and your digestive tract to do this and your heart to do it. It’s constantly talking to all these and it has great automatic processes that it’s created to handle situations, but at the same time it’s it’s still maintaining this constant continuous control. And as it has nerves that go here and create what we call motor actions out, it has also sensory ones taking all the information going back in. So, it’s a two-way continuous thing. And and when we’ve had like functional MRIs of the brain, you can see all the different areas light up. And that’s how where we see creativity come from movement. And that’s where we see uh you know people will go out for walks and and it stimulates your brain. That’s why we want little kids to to move and do stuff, not sit and not move on screens because that’s not stimulating the brain. And not that the screens don’t help too, but the you know there’s so much going on all the time and the brain constantly wants input. So it’s constantly it so the the only organ system of the body entirely encased in bone even your heart and your lungs aren’t entirely encased in these ribs is your brain. It’s it’s in a cranium and your spinal cord mostly surrounded by these vertebrae. And what we find in a very simplistic way is if these two vertebrae misalign and lock together and stop moving properly, there’s going to start to be interference in that communication system. And we can get into all the neurohysiology and everything like that, but I may go over a lot of people’s heads. We talk about no sense diving into it and I don’t go over it with many people, but you know, suffice to say, and we’ve got all the scientific reasoning behind it. It starts to interfere with this communication process. So, imagine it imagine it very simply like you take your cell phone and we we put we put something around it, tin foil around it. it’s still going to work, but suddenly you’re going to have the, you know, we’re going to get a message through, but we’re going to miss stuff, right? So, the brain stops getting great information, but it’s still telling everything what to do. And eventually, you get to a point where it tells something what to do, but it hasn’t been properly adapting. And so, finally, it just gives. And then you have a symptom. And your symptom might be colitis and and gut cramps. So your symptom is suddenly your back your back goes out because those muscles haven’t maintained well or your shoulder hurts when you’re trying to throw something because that shoulder structure hasn’t been maintaining well or suddenly your your you know you start to get sudden hair loss because your your thyroid hasn’t been maintained well and we get all these different little things. So right when you come to a chiropractor the reason we focus on your spine and the reason we we talk about your pain is we know if we adjust these areas of misalignment and restore motion it removes this interference and it allows this communication system back to 100%. The reason you come back more than once is restoring the communication. Anybody in a relationship knows this. Just because you talked after the fight doesn’t mean that it’s all 100%. You still have to work to get it there. Your brain now has to rebuild and and part of that is even in the spine where we adjust that we’re we’re going to continuously put motion in there on a schedule in order to get it to repair to the point where you don’t need us to do that. And if it was easy as self adjusting, we’d just teach all the kindergarteners to do it, right? Um but you know unfortunately because it’s back here and not up here we we need somebody’s aid. Uh so we do a lot of schooling just to be able to understand the motion of it and and to be able to adjust it properly for for any type of spinal bone type that we have. Right. Um we see over a thousand conditions in my office. Amazing. Amazing.

So let’s talk about when someone is out of alignment. What does that really look like in real life? And what are some of the signs that we may be ignoring or we normalize? Well, you know, it’s amazing what we’ll normalize. Um, I’ve had people come in that have just had sciatic pain for eight years and and they’re just they’re used to it. You know, they limp and and the unfortunate part when they see me is when I start to adjust them, that pain has to come back in order to heal. And I I explain that to everybody. And I go, “Listen, this this this is going to light up a little bit because it’s never really repaired.” And it’s kind of like your brain shoved it to the back. Uh kind of like the, you know, your brain’s good at ignoring stuff like you you put your clothes on. It quickly forgets the feeling of your clothes until you move suddenly or have a restriction. You know, it’ll just put that in the back. So, because it says, “Well, we can’t do anything about it anyway. And if we’re constantly in pain, we’re just going to go crazy. So, we’ll stop right now. Here’s here’s the interesting misconception. People think when they come in, and I X-ray people before I adjust them. And I’ll show you the misaligned areas. In in chiropractic, we call it a subluxation if you want the fancy words, which means it’s it’s not it’s not dislocated, but it’s misaligned and and it’s not moving properly in relation above and below and has these nerve problems. and we we correct these. We adjust these with with our hands manually, which is what Cairo means in chiropractic. And we’re trying to put motion back into them, but people say it feels like it’s out and I put it in. But if I x-ray you again 3 minutes later, it’s going to look the same. It it can’t change that quick. And I have people that after 20 years still have the same misalignments. So, we talk about we’re going to align the spine, which is true in one way. However, you’re you’re always it it means you’re human and you’re under gravity and you’re on and and you’re alive. You’re your body just needs care. And it’s the same way that that really you’re wise at eating well and putting good fuel in. You’re wise at moving every day and doing some form of exercise. You’re wise in stimulating your brain through through learning. you’re wise in, you know, not being angry at everybody all day or or figuring out why you are type of thing. You’re you’re always going to have something there that you you take care of. When people come and they and they see us regularly, it’s not because they have to. It’s not because everything’s going to come back if they don’t. It’s more that I’m just they’re they’re just kind of adding me in as as part of their their maintenance for their overall health and well-being. So when we we have these when somebody comes in and they have what we call an acute problem, it’s their symptom has shown up either for the first time or it’s really gotten bad for once or it’s something you want to, you know, you’re going, man, I got to go do something. Your body’s giving you a sign and just saying, you know, I you know, for instance, I’ve had people that come in, they move, you know, about like this where their where their head doesn’t move and they go, I don’t know what I did. And I go, you know, we can say the straw broke the camel’s back, right? You just finally had enough pressure on it. It kept trying to adapt, trying to adapt, and finally it said, “Well, we’re going to freeze all these muscles so you stop making it worse, and you can either live that way or you can lay down for eight days and do nothing. you can come see me and and it’s still going to take time to heal, but but we’re going to try to heal it to to a place where where you’re not having a breakdown that way. That’s that’s the signs you get. If I find people are getting chronic digestive issues, I go, why wouldn’t we want to take a look at where the brain talks to your digestive tract in multiple different areas? Yeah, it’s incredible. And it’s also got to affect you mentally. It does. When you Yeah, 100%.

Dr. BJ Palmer had a quote we use. I keep it up in the office because I I really love it. And it was, you never know how far reaching, something you say, think, or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow. M and and in his his way of looking at it because he adjusted spines, he said, you know, one adjustment on one condition, one spinal bone, one time with one individual, that individual’s destiny, their potential, what the way they work and operate with the world is going to change forever. So if you’re dealing with just constant chronic health issues, yeah, that’s going to affect your work, your money, your spirituality, your ability to learn, your marriage, your kids’ relationship, your parents’ relationship, your friends relationship socially, and then your physical health and and just every aspect of your life. So one adjustment is not going to carry you of all your problems, but it is going to change what’s going on. So I always tell people I go at least one time is better than no time. However, yeah, I mean you know can can we go out I always say they go how do you affect the world? I say I adjust your kids. Yeah. And your kids are going to interact with the world differently.

What’s a myth out there about chiropractors because there’s there’s a lot of fear. Well, my favorite myth is that you know some ER doctor was telling people that that he’d never seen a neck problem that wasn’t caused by a chiropractor. My response to that guy was, “That’s amazing. How did the car accident get caused?” Like, did the chiropractor run into him, did this? Um, the biggest myth is that is that adjusting a a cervical spine is dangerous and and that that myth has gone back thousands of years. This is not new. We train very in depth. It’s probably dangerous if you try to do it to to your spouse. Yeah. Um, you know, that’s probably assault at that point. But the we we start we start day one learning how to feel the spine, all areas of the spine. We learn about the motion of the spine. We go through three years of very indepth physical training to be able to do this safely. The the way we’re taught is we’re taught to adjust very gently and then also in in different ways with some more force. every every type of spine. I see people with very bad osteoporosis. We take care of people with bone cancer and we have we have a dozens of different ways of safely adjusting all areas of the spine. Chiropractic is one of the safest forms of healthcare in the world. And if you really want to know that that’s true, you look at our insurance rates, which are the lowest in the world. Yeah. How about that? Because we’re that we’re that safe. Yeah. So, you know, but if if you’re going to your buddy or if you’ve got like and physical therapists do learn a little bit manipulation, but they don’t train in it. Nei neither do chiropractors train in physical therapy except for class we take. And then you’ve got you’ve got other people in in Europe, for example, you have some uh some MDs, they take a weekend course in chiropractic. And I go, well, that that is unsafe because you don’t know what you’re doing. You didn’t It’s Well, do some homework, right? do some homework. Um, as far as you’re going to, but it’s but it’s like it’s like it’s like putting a black belt on in karate after you watched a video of of Bruce Lee and saying, “I’m I’m that good now.” And you go, “No, you he trained for years to get to that high level of practice.” That’s the biggest myth uh is the safety. But, you know, make certain when you go, you’re going to somebody that’s not sort of this fly by night. Uh somebody that’s trained, they graduate. Now, obviously, nobody’s going to get a license in the United States uh without graduating a reputable school that’s accredited on training and that they’re going to assess you. They’re not just going to say, you know, let’s go.

So, what about somebody out there that is going through something, but they they’re not admitting that something is wrong, right? They’re not getting vulnerable. They’re not actually looking for the help. How can they switch their mindset and admit that they need the help? You know, that that’s that’s a a tough question to answer because best example I can give you is, you know, I’ll get I’ll get a you know, one patient in and they’ll say, “My spouse really needs this.” And and they’re that individual that I don’t need doctors. I don’t need, you know, I can figure it out. Um, and I just look and I go, you know, maybe seeing how well you do, they’ll decide to come in one, you know, and sometimes I say, “Well, bring them in so they can see what we’re doing with you.” And I don’t even explain to them about how they should get looked at or anything. I just let them know this is what we do. And there’s just education. I get plenty of people that say, “Yeah, but it’s not for me, Doc.” And I go, “Okay.” I I don’t I don’t try to force it because eventually I I find that that a majority of those people end up coming in and they go, “I can’t take it anymore. Do you have a solution for me?” Right? And and I sit down and educate them and and I go, “Let’s make sure this is the solution for you.” Right? Uh one one reason we’re doctors is is we’re trained to see if you you know to get you to people other than us if it’s necessary and we help with that. So, you know, the way the way you deal with that is I find the more you like pester and hammer people and say you should, you must, you need to, you know, a lot of times that type of individual, they kind of go stop it. And and they get more resistant. But I like I’ve got a brother that, you know, I just say every year I I say I’m doing this workshop. It it’d be I think you’d get a lot out of it. If you’re ever interested, just let me know. He says no to me every year, but every year I offer it. And and I don’t offer it with expectations. I don’t offer it saying you need to do it. I just, hey, it’s there if you’re ever ready. I’m going to the chiropractor. If you want to take along today, that’s what I do. And that’s how I live my life because I help people around sobriety and changing the conversation around that topic. I’m over 10 years sober. And you just lead by example, keep putting the information out there, and when someone’s ready to hear it, they’ll hear it.

Um, so on that note, we’re going to take a a quick moment and uh share about my book for a second and we’ll be right back. Are you in the first 30 days of sobriety or wondering if now is your time to start? Hi, I’m Marcy Hopkins and I wrote Wake Up You’re Not Broken just for You. It’s a real raw guide to those first 30 days. What no one tells you, what you will feel, and how to keep going. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress. Order your copy now on Amazon. Remember, you’re not alone. You’re not broken. You’re waking up.

Welcome back to Wake Up with Marcy. We are here with Dr. Kyle and we are talking about chiropractic work and how it really does change our lives. And I want to just give you a quick story about myself. I lived with pain in my neck for well over a year. And I kept going and getting massages thinking it was like a muscular thing. And of course, right after I would have the massage, the pain would come back. I couldn’t sleep well. and I finally acquiesced and went to a chiropractor and I found out what was going on and I went for six weeks and I haven’t had the pain since. So, it’s um I don’t you know like we were talking about just like living with that pain for so long like my husband was floored because he’s one that goes to the doctor right away. I’m someone that just thinks it’s going to go away miraculously one one day, you know. So, I found out there was something much more going on and I was very grateful, very grateful to have uh finally acquiesced and and got the help that I needed. It is life-changing and I and even through social media now you see just the help uh for young people, babies, animals like there there is a real power when it comes to the chiropractic work and the the information system that goes through the spine and and how it, you know, moves and and provides ides information so throughout our bodies.

Um so you’re speaking of movements you’re you’re looking and are leading a powerful movement around rethinking life after 40. Yeah. And listen when I hit 40 I thought my life was over. So I’m 56 now. I know it wasn’t. But tell us what inspired that for you. So the the 40 over 40 is the name of what uh the little series we created and it it was it was this interesting conversation. I I do a mastermind and my one friend in the mastermind, we were sitting here chatting one day. He just goes, “Hey, what’s the average age of people that come into your office, patients that come into your office that do long-term care?” You you know, because usually you get younger people, I just want a quick fix. I want this because what are the people that come in and say I really want to change my health. I really want to be, you know, do this and figure out something I can do in the long term. And I go when I thought about it and we we just kind of looked at some numbers, I said, you know, probably around 45 to 55 years old. Those are the people sort of ready to change. And we uh and and he says, so right, you know, you you kind of hit a point where you go, great. I mean, I’ve plenty of individuals that have kind of gone down your journey a little bit. uh that started that in their 40s. So, you know, I looked at I go, that’s really interesting. And then we we had this whole, you know, Forbes does a 30 over 30, we’ll do the 40 over 40. Uh I’ve already had enough people that say, is it you need 40 tips because it’s this much for heaven? I go, actually, no. It’s just about, you know, I I presented 40 suggestions after the age of 40. you know, get your grab bag out and mix and match which ones are the most inspiring to you that are going to help empower you in your health journey after 40. And we span span the whole thing. I don’t I it’s not just physical. It’s it’s about your relationships. It’s about your your leadership and your friends groups. It’s about your money. It’s about your job. It’s about your learning. It’s about your relationships spiritually with the universe and the world. we go we we dive into all these different things because health is such a huge dynamic in in the old definition health is a state of wholeness. It goes way back 1500 years in old English it literally the word meant condition of whole being where wealth actually then is condition of well-being or wellness. So the and wealth is more than money as I also teach people. So we we came up with that and and you know I say the 40 tips is sort of arbitrary because it works well but when I started to explore this I found that my goodness um because I love Forbes 30 under 30 and reading about these individuals and but they’re the outliers. They’re the unique ones. I said the over 40 is the average when people arrive and I started to look and I go who’s done great things after 40 and I went my goodness. Uh, the first person that came up was Mark Twain, and he he’d done writing, but he didn’t have, you know, Tom Sawyer didn’t come out till he was in his 40s. He didn’t have Huck Finn till he was 50. He didn’t invent suspenders until he was in his late 40s or or do most of his great writings that we know him for until then. You go, my goodness. Um, but one of the quotes that really helped me was Dante Aligeri from the very opening kanto of the Divine Comedy, The Inferno. in one translation when midway through my life’s journey I found myself astray on a dark road I’m misquing it but you know I thought this man and then I looked him up and I said he started to write that at 43 it took him 10 years he finished at 53 his great his life’s work about his journey to sort of find his spiritual connection and and to meet his hero and created his master work in in u uh Tuscan Italian and which saved the language actually. But the you know I go I go my goodness I mean that was that was 700 years ago he did this. Uh and then I started to look and I go Sam Samuel L. Jackson the actor he didn’t really have his first leading role in in Loaded Weapon One till he was 50. M I mean you you sit there and you go but it’s Sam Jackson and and I and I started to see that as I went through business and I went through financial you know Warren Buffett was a great investor and and he had his whole patience thing but 99% of his wealth has been made after the age of 50. Yeah. So, these are all famous people, right? But I mean, I can relate to this. Exactly. you know, it’s I didn’t start my healing journey um and growing in all facets of my life until, you know, I was 45 and now I do my greatest work and I’m 56 and you know, I have two books that have come out and trying to help others in the areas that um I’ve learned in through my healing journey. And you know, there’s a lot that happens. You know, we’ve gone through through life and maybe there’s a lot of pain or or circumstances we’ve gone through and and we get to a certain place in our life where we make a choice to change and and not just think about ourselves physically, but in all the pillars that you’re speaking of. Correct. and and that that’s where you start to create the real change in your life. So, I think it’s incredible that that you are helping others to do that and not not not in 10 years but in in a shorter amount of time.

Well, and and Dr. Carl Jung, the quote I had from Dr. Jung was life really does begin at 40. Everything else is just, you know, it’s experience you’re trying to build. And that’s that’s where we look back. I I have a I have a great patient. He’s just, you know, regular walk of life. He was a machinist. And he came in one day. He had some circumstances in life and he goes, he goes, “I’m quitting. I’m leaving. I’m going back to school.” I go, “What are you going to do?” He says, “I’m I want to go into early childhood development psychology.” And I go, “Great.” And and he and his wife talked and and he, you know, now he’s now he’s a a brilliant licensed grief counselor um and and and gone to become very much a friend of mine. And then his wife just went through the same thing. She was getting laid off and they’re, you know, their children are about to graduate high school. Yeah. And they just said, “Why why are we staying here when when we’re not getting the gratitude we want and these are the things we’ve always loved and wanted to do? We’re going to take a hit here, but it’s it’s going to go farther there.” And and and I’ve I’ve seen that many times. Seen people come into my office and get adjusted and they go, “God, that’s been holding me back for for 20 years.” And I think now I’m ready to kind of go live my life. And you know, suddenly their relationship is better. suddenly they’re they’re going to go start their own little startup on the side. And and not just 40, it’s you know, I’ve seen that in 20-year-olds and that, but 40 is sort of a majority. And I looked and I go, we tend to have life stability at 40. You know, you you tend to kind of know where you’re going to be in your job, your relationships there. You sort of know your your spiritual path. You’ve learned you’re looking to learn more maybe. um your finances may be stable, your your your friends groups, you know, you know, you’re on the bowling league or you’ve got your softball team or your kids, you know, all all your friends uh uh your children’s friends, parents that you’re groups of and and you come into my office because you go, “This is the lacking piece.” And then I because I like to educate people, I also try to inform them that in this piece when we complete it is going to help bring the circle full around and allow you to finally just, you know, I call it a I call it a springboard. I call it a stepping stone, not a not a midlife crisis. It’s a midlife, you know, it’s just it’s midway through your life’s journey. Now, where do you want the journey to go? That’s that’s where people get confused. So, I I just try these. Yeah. See where it takes you.

I’ll have a little rapid fire with you right now. Beautiful. What’s one habit that someone can start today? You breathe. You know, the the there’s no order to my 40 tips, but I start I start them with breathe. And I said in there, we breathe all day, but we don’t really think about it. Um, and I tell people, I go, just take three to five deep abdominal breaths every day. Do it in the morning. Do it in the afternoon. Do it when you’re angry. do it when you’re in traffic. Just just breathe and focus on actually breathing through your whole body and just sort of slowing yourself down and then go back and approach whatever is going on. That’s simply most parents know this with teenagers. So it’s that’s that’s one of calms the crazy. It calms your nervous system. Calms that crazy, right? And and it and it calms everybody around you. Yeah. And you can respond instead of react when you do take that that pause. Just what’s one belief people need to let go of? Well, I wouldn’t say there’s any one belief you need to let go of. I would say it would be wise. One of my tips is look at your belief systems and see where they come from and see if they still serve you. And if they don’t, let them go and see if it’s truly your belief or it’s somebody else’s or some authority. I know we’re so programmed, right? We hypnotize ourselves. What does being aligned actually feel like? Being aligned, I’m going to use Bruce Lee here. He said to be in equilibrium is to be more or less at rest. So in order to move forward and grow, we actually have to get out of equilibrium in order to move. So being aligned, you’ll have that moment of alignment where you go, I’m in. And then you’ll go, and now I’ve got to get out of alignment in order to move. and then we’re going to keep restructuring. This idea, this concept of alignment is, you know, to me, I go, great. You feel like you’re focused. You feel like you’re on purpose. Then you’re going to doubt yourself. Then you’re going to question, then you’re going to go over here. But it’s I I would say as long as you keep that that overarching objective of where you want to go. Let the journey take you there. That’s aligned. Aligned is being able to be misaligned, but not getting so misaligned that but if you do what that you know like when people come to me it’s not it’s not that they’re misaligned and they’re not going to be. They come to me in my office because they need assistance getting that back towards center so it’s not quite as out of control, right? There’s mental adjustments, there’s physical adjustments, there’s spiritual adjustments. Oh, you’re making me want to go. Let’s start over. I have people fly up here. So, and what would you say to someone who feels lost right now? First thing I tell you is I go take three deep breaths. If you know that you’re right here, then you know where you are. You can never truly be lost. Just take three deep breaths and get present with yourself right now where you are. And a lot of people look back and they go, I’ve been wasting my life. And I go, it’s impossible. It’s absolutely impossible to waste your life. Every single thing you’ve learned, every single challenge you’ve had has been set there to get you to where you are now. Yeah, you may not know the direction you want to go, but there’s certainly a lot of things out there. I mean, you can get on, you can listen to me. You can listen to Mark Victor Hansen. We can we can read your book, Mercy, and probably find some direction there. We’ve I’ve got other mentors I’ve worked with. And and so the second thing I do is I go sit down with somebody and talk to them and say, “I’m not quite sure where where I want to go.” And have a discussion. don’t, you know, have a back and forth like we’re having right now and and just and just go go communicate and go connect in a very simple way, in a very healthy way. Not not in a crazy way, but yeah, that’s a whole other conversation. But but but I would but I would say go go find a friend, go find an individual, go find somebody you can just sit down and go, you know, here’s where I am. Here’s all these different things. Can you look at it from outside for me because I’m too stuck in myself? And do you see any ideas there that maybe I can follow? That’s what a mastermind really was. Yeah. It you don’t have to have a table full of of business leaders to mastermind with. You can have your partner. You can have your best friend. You can have your dog. Your dog probably won’t give you as much info, but it won’t. But but you show you will feel the love. Your dog your dog will love you unconditionally. And and so your cat your cat won’t admit it, but your cat will too.

So to wrap it up, one one question people should start asking themselves today. Where do I feel I’ve been off on my journey and how has it actually helped me on my journey? And that’s a hard one. Yeah. I you know I think about so many things that have happened in my life and I’ve learned to be grateful for them at this point and realize that they are things that helped me to get to the place I’m at and they are things that that helped me and they don’t define me anymore but they helped me to get to where I am today. Right. The lessons you’ve learned. Yeah. What was the old thing? They used to have the the rules for being human that went around. It said life will continue. It’ll give you the same lesson until you learn it and then you’ll get a new lesson. And there’s no end to lessons, right? There’s no end to lessons. And my goodness, when it hits you and you finally learn them, it’s life-changing. And then then you wait for the next lesson. Always a lesson. Always. You know, life is going to happen, right? But it’s just how we get through it and learning to get through it and see it a different way.

So, how can we find you? Um, I would tell everybody go to uh4over40.com. It’s 40 over40.com. Get on there right now. Um, opt into our list. We’ve got a fun little download with some inspiring quotes for you. Don’t have the video series completely remastered and ready to be re-released yet, but if you opt in right now, you’ll be on the list. Uh we’ll even give you a discount for an early bird for as soon as it’s released for you to be able to get on and go through all those 40 tips and utilize them right away in your life. Yeah. And you know what? Get out there and help yourself, guys, because you’re listening for a reason. You’re taking in this information for a reason. And there’s so much help out there for you to to move forward. And it’s it’s masterminds and and this experiences that people put together to help you to move forward and wake up to your worth and to the change and and become fully awake in life. So, thank you so much for coming on Wake Up. I’m I’m grateful to have been on here to help people wake up. Yeah, this was such a powerful conversation. And for anyone out there, if this episode spoke to you, please make sure to follow Wake Up with Marcy so you don’t miss future episodes. Share this with someone who needs this message because you never know who might need that wake up moment. And again, if you’re ready to go deeper, go grab my book, Wake Up You’re Not Broken, and take the next step in your journey. This is your life. It’s time to wake up to it. I’m Marcy Hopkins and I’ll see you next Thursday with a new episode. Have a great week.