Juliet Root is a transformation coach, integrative healer, nutritionist & host of The Woo Cast Podcast. She shares her 15-year journey from starting in the fitness and nutrition industry to moving into the more metaphysical and spiritual work that she is currently practicing with clients all around the world. Her passion is to help people release, reconnect and root into their power so they can live a life full of magic and bliss.
Connect with Juliet:
Instagram @juliet_root
rootedpower.com
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Full Show Transcript
Abby (00:00:01):
Hello, and welcome to the Mindbodyfree podcast. I’m your host, Abigail Moss. And today I’m here with a very wonderful guest Juliet Root, and she is a transformation coach and integrative healer, a nutritionist, and host of the Woo cast podcast, which I highly recommend checking out. There are so many incredible conversations on there, and she shares her 15-year journey from starting in the fitness and nutrition industry to moving into the more metaphysical and spiritual work that she is currently practicing with clients all around the world. Her passion is to help people release. We connect and root into their power so they can live a life full of magic and bliss. Juliet. Thank you for being here.
Juliet (00:00:51):
Thank you. This is very exciting to be on your show. I’ve been wanting to chat with you on your show for a while. So very honored to be a guest.
Abby (00:01:03):
I’m so glad that we got to do this and I’m grateful for the work that you do. So you’ve been on a 15-year journey. So tell us a little bit about that journey. Like how did you, when did that, when did it all begin?
Juliet (00:01:18):
Okay. Everybody brace yourself for a four-hour podcast.
Juliet (00:01:24):
I’m just kidding. But, well I went through a lot of hardships in my childhood. A lot of trauma just kind of keeps things condensed, but a lot of like big T incidents that happened when I was young, my mom getting very sick and not being able to take care of me. I have a twin brother. So take care of us. My, uh, brother ended up being very sick as well when we were teenagers and going through, uh, a lot of that. And then right after my dad passed away from a heart attack. So there were just all, there were a lot of things. And then not to mention all of the webs of trauma that was throughout the childhood, not just those incidents, but just having a very chaotic, messy upbringing. And I sort of had to take care of myself from the time I was very young and I was probably around 10 when I felt like more of an adult than I needed to feel.
Juliet (00:02:35):
And after my dad died, when I was 16, I became technically an orphan. And I had an aunt too. I hadn’t, wasn’t very close with, but she adopted me, but it was kind of odd being adopted at that age because I had already, like I said, been acting like an adult and very independent for all these years. And then I was, I had to move away to a different, and uh, about nine months into that, I ended up taking her to court and becoming a man supported. And I was very fortunate because she was understanding and actually provided me a lot of love and support, even though I was not having it with her being my guardian. And I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. But in those nine months, I was with her and it was very transformative because she helped me be responsible and set some ground rules.
Juliet (00:03:31):
Like if you do these things, then I’ll let you be emancipated. So I had to do a little bit of extra growing up in that time to be able to do that. And when, uh, when I was living with her for those nine months, one of the big pieces of my healing journey, which had kind of already started a couple of years prior, just from, from having a poor self-image, but it looking back it’s, it’s all interconnected in a way that was very healing for me was I had been exercising and taking care of my physical body and eating a healthier diet. And even though it was sort of under the umbrella of, I don’t like the way I look and I felt a lot of self-loathing, but it was very helpful for my mental health and wellbeing because, uh, working out, I think it saved my life and it provided a release and like endorphins.
Juliet (00:04:32):
And during that time, after my dad died, that was the only relief I was getting from feeling so sad and so depressed. And so I would go to the gym when I was living with my aunt every day, pretty much, I remember taking a bus over an hour to get to this gym so I could go and be with myself and work out. And that started my path of loving health and fitness because it just helped me so much. It was so transformative. And when I moved out and moved back to New York, which is where I’m from, I went to pursue it full time and became a personal trainer at barely 18 years old. You couldn’t get certification until you were 18, but I convinced this manager of a gym to hire me. I said I promise you, I will do a good job.
Juliet (00:05:32):
And I don’t know at that moment I felt so in my, in my path and purpose and nothing was going to stop me. And those are really interesting moments in life that I have paid attention to. And that was one of the first moments of, of realizing like when something is almost like divinely in your path and for you, there’s a feeling that you get, or at least that get that it’s like there aren’t a lot of questions and what if, and what if I don’t get it or whatever at that moment, it was like, I will do anything. This is what I need to be doing right now. And so I started working as a trainer and it just kind of took off from there. And for many years I did that. And then I ended up moving to Philadelphia and owning some gyms eventually with a business partner. And that was awesome. I ended up going back to school to get a nutrition degree and that kind of complimented all the fitness stuff. And that is where the more holistic part of the journey began once I went back to school to study nutrition. So I don’t know how much more we want to go into, but that’s the little, like, there’s just sort of the path.
Abby (00:06:49):
There are so many juicy things I want to pull out from what you just said. Yeah. You know, and so like you, you kind of, whether you did or didn’t sign up for it, you got, you got a life of really rapid growth kind of pushed into you early on with all the big T traumas you talked about and you know, as we all respond differently to that kind of stuff and you took it and you’ve just got effing strong.
Juliet (00:07:18):
Yeah. It’s metaphorically and literally who I am.
Abby (00:07:24):
Yeah, I mean, you’re one of the strongest people I know. And, it’s, you know, metaphorically and literally, it’s incredible how, you know, how that can forge people overcoming challenges like that. Not that it’s, you know, an easy process, we dance out of fully unscathed, but to see the way that, that kind of forged you into this path, and I love how you said, you know, working out saved my life and then you stepped into enabling other people that do that. So what kind of changes did you see when you were working with other people being a trainer? Did you have people coming in who were dealing with traumas or needing to move in their bodies? Like what was that like seeing?
Juliet (00:08:17):
Yeah, that’s a great question because it sort of depended on the demographic that I worked in throughout the years. And my first job as a trainer, I worked in more rural areas. I was living in upstate New York at the time. And, uh, I worked with a lot of really overweight and unhealthy clients, which I was really happy to do. So because, you know, for me, a lot of it, this passion had to do with my dad and his passing. He died from a heart attack, but he was overweight and had a food addiction for my whole life. And I watched him slowly kill himself through overeating and drinking and not moving and stressing his body out and being stressed out with work. And it was just a whole dislike of a plethora of things that I just watched him deteriorate my whole life. And so that inspired me.
Juliet (00:09:32):
And I wanted to work with people and help them understand how powerful they are and how capable they are of moving and falling in love with movement. And what I saw a lot was underneath these issues, the core of it was a lot of times trauma, but I didn’t know what to do with that. I was way too young and inexperienced when I started to know, and I was still dealing with my trauma at the time and, or not even dealing with my trauma, I hadn’t even gone to therapy for all the things that had happened to me yet, or saw any healers or coaches or helpers. None of that. It was just at that point, I was in survival mode myself, but I did pay attention and I made a lot of correlations between people’s health and what happened to them in their past, but I wasn’t at the point yet to help them with that.
Juliet (00:10:25):
So it was just helping them on the physical level, which it’s like a, I think of it as layers of this stuff and like the outer layer, like the physical body is a huge layer for people to start to work with. And if you can start moving energy, then other things can start to move too. But it wasn’t my job at the time to be the person to help them with that next layer. But I was like, all right, I’m the first layer helper we’re here. So yeah, I saw a lot of that with people that, that transformation, once they could see themselves feeling better and getting healthier, that then allowed them to have more confidence in themselves and take a next step of, okay, now I want to address this aspect of my life and then this aspect of my life. And it’s cool. It’s like a domino effect when you start taking care of your health.
Abby (00:11:19):
Yeah. It’s incredible. And you know, as someone who has not been like predominantly in the body for a long, large portion of my life, or it’s like getting into a rhythm and a flow of working out and having had some structure for a while where I was working out, you know, and pushing past what I, you know, the mind like let’s give up before the body. And then after I workout, I would just go and have a good cry session. I was like, I think I just found some stuff that had been stored in your body.
Juliet (00:11:51):
Yeah. It had, you know, I’ve experienced that. I experienced that on the regular, honestly, like working out for me is such an emotional release. And oftentimes I have a stationary bike in my house and I’ll get on that thing. And like, my husband will come in, I’ll be hunched over the thing, just sobbing. I’m like, I’m having a good run. I’m just having a release right now. Like, especially if there’s a song that plays, that’s just pulling on a heartstring. I’m like, here it comes.
Abby (00:12:21):
Yeah. I know husbands of spiritual women who are doing lots of Keeling. Like I regularly tell my husband, no, I’m not dying. It’s okay. It feels really good. And just come back later if it’s too much. Yeah. So tell me about nutrition. So you went in there and took that into a more holistic place. So did you find that made a difference for yourself and other people you were working with when you brought in that level? Like that component?
Juliet (00:12:53):
So, as I was getting to the start of my training career, I fell in love and it was a tumultuous, abusive relationship. And I was actually in a very confident place before we were together and feeling like I know my purpose, I’m doing this fitness thing. I feel really good. I’m helping other people. And then, you know, not putting any blame on this person, this is just what happened. We went through a horrible relationship and I lost myself in that situation. And my self-esteem. You know, if, if I, if we think of it as a percentage, I was maybe at like 85%, really high self-esteem. And then by the end of our relationship, I was at 10%. And I went into the super night of the soul from that relationship. It was like, like a one, two punch for me or like, okay, everything is coming to the surface now.
Juliet (00:13:58):
And one of the things that came through was I ended up having, uh, an eating disorder during that period when we were together and I had bingeing and restricting problems. So I was bingeing on food, could not stop thinking about food and, and I was over-exercising. And so to burn off everything that I was overeating, and it just felt like this hamster on a wheel cycle that I couldn’t get off of. And I had so much disdain for the way I looked and body dysmorphia and all of this is happening while I’m in this world of helping people to transform their bodies. And, you know, there is a lot of pressure in that industry of looking a certain way and just being that person, who’s the expert who has the body that people are like, well, I trust this person because they look fit, right?
Juliet (00:14:50):
So there, it was just a really hard time. And we ended up moving to New York City during that time. And there’s a lot, there was a whole new pressure of work and, you know, quote-unquote, making it big in the fitness industry. And, I ended up getting a dream job there. And it was like celebrity training, like all, it was just a wild year of my life of being a tortured soul because I was struggling so badly behind closed doors. Nobody knew, you know, how much I was bingeing and restricting and overexercising, and I was exhausted. And then this, you know, this relationship I was in, we were fighting constantly. It was so emotionally abusive and that it ended up being a turning point for me to take care of my emotional health for the first time. So I ended up leaving him and remembered that aunt that had adopted me when I was a teenager. Well, I called her and asked her if she would take me back.
Juliet (00:15:56):
And I became her roommate and rented a room for her, and moved out to New York again. And that was a big start for me, of taking care of myself for the first time and not fighting so hard and being in survival. And that’s when I started going to therapy, starting to take care of my physical health more, and understanding nutrition from a holistic way. And that inspired me. I wanted to heal myself and my body dysmorphia and heal my eating disorder. And that inspired me to go and learn how to fuel myself properly and how to help other people with that. And I ended up going to a holistic nutrition program because there was something about using food as medicine that just stuck with me. And that was such an incredible experience. I met so many people when I went to school that was all about holistic healing and alternative medicine. And it was not just about food. It was spirituality. And I started learning more about myself on a deeper level and my patterns and my habits and where they come, where they come from, and my trauma and linking everything together. It was like a wake-up moment for me.
Abby (00:17:24):
Yeah. Those moments are so powerful. And it’s funny how they show up. Not long after those nights of the soul, sometimes you just have to let it all crash so you can build a backup.
Juliet (00:17:39):
Yeah. I remember just crying every day when I left that relationship. And it was like that just guttural feeling of like, will this ever end this pain that I feel, you know, it’s just deep, deep sorrow, right. Like crying where you’re like, you know, gagging, like you’re, you know, like you’re so like you just, your, your heart is just, just broken into pieces and it’s just, it’s incredible. It’s good. I think it is good to have those moments to know that they do end. It’s not permanent because when you’re in it, you’re like, this is never going to end.
Abby (00:18:21):
Absolutely. It feels all-encompassing and forever. And so you took action. You change things, you change your life quite significantly in that, in those moments. So was there something, or a moment that was a turning point for you when you started changing your life and taking care of yourself and going into this other spiritual journey of holistic nutrition?
Juliet (00:18:48):
It’s hard to say, well, the turning point for leaving that relationship, having the guts to do that was because I was in so much, I was actually in physical pain for the first time. I’ve never, I’d never experienced an emotional pain then turning into actual physical pain where your body hurts. And I was waking up with stomach pains. My body was rejecting my life. And it, that was a moment of like, I, this is, it almost felt life or death for me, you know, in OAS, like I ha I have to do this and I have to do this now. And within moments, I called my job and quit calling the U-Haul company. And like got out of there. It was very traumatic actually
Abby (00:19:34):
I forgot I feel the power, but I’ve got shivers as you’re talking about it. Like the power of a moment like that, it’s a whole new timeline that you created.
Juliet (00:19:44):
Yeah. It was that intuition saying, like, get out now, like you’ve got to get out now. And I did. And you know, the turning point, I think, was just allowing time to heal, you know what I said, being in that moment of turmoil or a lot of moments of turmoil and going to therapy. And it was you, I always have had a mental fortitude that I can’t explain exactly where it comes from, but it feels like a part of me that’s been with me for the whole, for this whole lifetime, or maybe even previous lifetimes, this part of me that like I can rely on. And she’s just very tenacious. And I’ve been able to rely on that part of myself, even throughout these awful moments. And so the turning point was just like relying on her. And one of the interesting things was I was going through old journals recently, which is an amazing way to see how far you’ve come in life.
Juliet (00:20:48):
And it was a journal that I was keeping right after my dad passed away. And there’s a part in there that just says, this is the most pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. This is, so this hurts so bad, like mourning his loss, but I know that I’m going to be okay. I know I’m going to get through this. And it was just, it was almost like a channeling of something at like 16 to write something like that. It’s like, she always knew, you know, there’s something in this, like something guiding me and I can’t explain it other than I just feel like I can listen to myself in these moments and just keep pushing through. And when I have a feeling that says like, this is what you need to do, like nutrition school and going that route. It was again, another one of these moments of just like, you’ve got to sign up, you’ve got to do this. This is, it happens fast when it’s right. It’s exactly how I ended up in, you know, being in a mentorship with you, Abby. It wasn’t, uh, like I got to think about it. Should I do it often for me, it’s just like, this is it right now. You must sign up immediately.
Abby (00:22:02):
I find things. I react to things in that way too. And I remember that you were the first person that signed up and it was, we got one call, like, all right, let’s do this. But it’s like, you know, you feel the resonance when, you know.
Juliet (00:22:12):
Yeah. I don’t know if every, if it, I think everybody has, you know, their intuition barometer a little bit different, but that’s one that I’ve had enough times now that I’m like, oh, okay, trusting this. Cause this is not, this is like several times now in my life that this has happened.
Abby (00:22:28):
Yeah. Well, thank goodness you’ve got that, you know, especially as he got to navigate tricky stuff. And so, and, you know, just jumping back into what you’re saying before about feeling like this sense of the like meeting, to portray a certain image and feeling so different on the other side of that. And there’s, there’s a couple of pieces about that. There’s one that kind of comes to mind is the concept of a wounded healer where, you know, we’ve got some stuff, but we’re still helping. And I know very few people who’ve reached a level of, alright, I’m there. I’m good. You know, I’ve gotten through all my demons. But I find for a lot of us, it’s a sense of like perfectly imperfect and continues to grow and walk each other home. And I feel like that’s, you know, the need to portray perfection is starting to shift as people talk more about Mountville health issues and struggles.
Abby (00:23:23):
And, the taboo and stigma around receiving help are starting to go away. It’s like if you imagine, you know if you had to, every time you had to go to a doctor visit or to get someone to help you with your body, if there was the same level of taboo, that like would be a lot more people in trouble, but internally it’s just as important. So yeah, it’s, you know, and I appreciate your authenticity and sharing the acts that every time somebody does, it makes it a safer place for the next person too. And so that’s something that I’m working on too because I’ve seen that tendency in myself to want to portray perfection, to inspire and uplift, but you know, no one lives that I know of in a state of chronic constant for production. So just being real, just like being it’s like being able to exhale. Fine.
Juliet (00:24:16):
Yeah. I feel that. And even with clients, I will share some, you know, from my heart, some things that I am going through, you know, in an appropriate way, not oversharing, but I find that it’s really helpful to say, I can completely relate this little incident that happened. It’s like, you, we’re all on this path together of becoming more self-aware and compassionate towards ourselves. And I have many days and moments where I’m still like learning and I’m teaching, I’m teaching myself every day, this stuff
Abby (00:24:58):
A hundred percent. Yeah. We’re all in this human experience and it’s kinda messy and that’s okay. So with that, you went into holistic nutrition, and then you were working with trauma as well. So how did you get into what you’re doing now when you’re working with trauma healing? So you have, like, it’s amazing to have these multiple components because I feel it is so crucial. Like I work with people where we’re working on healing, a lot of stuff, but they have had a lot of digestive issues. A lot of that’s tied to the diet and, you know, the gut mind connection with mental health is so incredibly huge. I feel like we need to kind of address both. So how has that kind of like coming into the circle of what you offer for people now,
Juliet (00:25:50):
It was this natural progression from just working with the body and then realizing, wait, you have to work with the inside of the body through what you’re putting in the body. So then learning about what you put in your body that will make somebody feel super energized and then they even have better performance and they, you know, have better mental health and learning about like the gut mind connection. And then as, uh, I went into a deeper layer after I went to school just to learn about holistic nutrition and kind of what foods work and combinations and all different dietary theories. I then wanted to go even deeper into another layer of it, which is the psychology of eating. Because as I was, I had a private practice, just really doing health coaching and nutrition, which was just helping people really with what they’re eating and how they’re eating.
Juliet (00:26:47):
And I quickly realized that there was a lot of resistance. It’s not as easy to say, okay, here’s what you should be eating to live optimally and feel your best for what’s going on with you. And then to have people come back and have very low compliance. And then it was like, okay, what’s going on here. I was like, I need more tools to understand this connection. And for, I had learned so much myself from having a coach when I was healing my disordered eating and my relationship with my food and body that I wanted to have tools to be able to do that for other people. So that’s where all the trauma stuff comes in. That our relationship with food is a lot of times a metaphor for our relationship with life, how we’re nourishing ourselves, and how we take care of ourselves.
Juliet (00:27:41):
And so it’s like making those connection pieces for people and understanding that, you know, food is powerful in its healing properties, but how you use it. That’s the part where you have to go deeper into what’s programming and your subconscious around how you look at food and how you view your body. What’s the conditioning culturally that we’ve all had. We’ve been really like given so much information and confusing information, you know, as an, as a nutritionist, when we were in school, I remember it was probably like our first week. And they said, you’re choosing a really interesting career path, everyone, because guess what? We’re going to tell you a million dietary theories that are out there and they, and a lot of them diametrically, oppose each other. This is going to be very confusing for you. All right. And there’s scientific evidence backing this research over here to show that this diet is the healthiest and they, you know, support decreasing disease. And then it, and that one’s vegan. And then there’s this one over here, which is me. And it says, this one is the way. And it’s like, wait, what?
Abby (00:29:02):
Yeah. Like having someone like I’ve been needing for a long time, I had been for many years and I was like, this is the way it’s the way. And everyone else is wrong. And then I got candida overgrowth. I was like, I can’t do this diet and, and be okay in my body. So it’s, it’s interesting. It’s like we have beliefs about what food should be, but then the body has its reality of what it is, how it experiences things along with the trauma and everything else.
Juliet (00:29:34):
Well, we’re so nuanced and that’s a challenging thing for people to understand because it would just be so easy for us to know, okay, here’s the plan. And this is exactly what’s going to work for you. And this is going to protect you from, you know, disease and you’re gonna, you’re gonna age gracefully and like all the things that we want for, you know, food and to support us with. But the reality is that each one of us is unique and, you know, I preach bio-individuality when it comes to what people are eating. And that takes a real level of patience and understanding and not rushing this process. And, and I call it playful, experimentation, just being playful with, okay, I’m going to try this and, and not, okay, this is, this has to work. It’s like, no, just try this out, see how this feels and get feedback from your body.
Juliet (00:30:34):
But we live in a real, in a culture that’s all about immediate, like instant gratification. And it’s this way, you know, is challenging. And I’m very upfront with people when I’m like this. I don’t have a one size fits all diet, and I’m constantly even shifting my perceptions of what health is as I’m growing. You know, I’ve been doing the nutrition thing for over 10 years now. And it’s like, for example, even up until recently, I was like, fasting is not great for women. And it was something I, from the research I had, I’d looked at. And, I was not saying to clients that this is a good idea because trends kind of come about, and right now there’s a big trend towards ketogenic and fasting being really, healthy for anti-aging and rebuilding your body. And, but then I like challenging myself on that. Everyone’s nuanced. Maybe it’s not fasting. Isn’t great for certain women depending on their cycle, it’s not just this blanket statement of it’s bad for you. And that’s what we like to, we like to put things in boxes with this stuff,
Abby (00:31:55):
A hundred percent it’s like, then I can control it. And the food is something that I feel like I want to have control over. Otherwise, I feel like I can, it has control over me. And I know that that’s not, it’s a relationship, I love that you mentioned playful exploration and it adds so much more lightness to it. And I love that term that you used biodiversity because it, yeah, it is so different. And even, you know what I need, depending on the season and where I’m at physically and in my life changes too. So if it’s, it is so nuanced and you find, what do you hear? I am trying to make it concrete. Do you find that there’s a certain staff that you move forward with when it comes to a relationship with food, for someone finding what works for them, there are certain ways that aren’t about connecting with their body and just exploring and making note of how they feel after, or what do you think is like the most important aspect when it comes to putting things in your body that are going to be, I love that you mentioned that food is powerful.
Abby (00:33:11):
So how, how do you use that power for you in a world that’s filled with conflicting information?
Juliet (00:33:19):
Yeah. I think that too, it depends on where somebody’s at. And let’s say you are healing your relationship with food because you have been yo-yo dieting your whole life or you’re, or you’re always trying a new plan. Like this is going to be the one that’s going to make me feel the best store it’s going to cure my candies or whatever. I’ve had many friends and clients who are on different journeys. Some are on the journey of always wanting to lose weight. And what’s the best day for me to lose weight? I have, and others are on the journey of what’s the best diet to be the healthiest. And both of those can be controlled in your life and take over your life and your thoughts and your, and talk about taking up brain space. That was actually for me, why I wanted to heal my relationship with food.
Juliet (00:34:09):
I’m like if I spent as much time thinking about what I’m going to eat and what I’m going to eat, if I spent this much time on something else like I could help save the world, you know, climate change or something. I’m like, why am I, instead of thinking about the size of my butt and you know, what I’m going to have for dinner. But I think that you know, when somebody is, has been so controlled like that for so long, you can’t just be like, all right, you’re going to be an intuitive eater. Now go ahead, eat, eat intuitively zero
Abby (00:34:44):
To 60 Jones. Like, all right. Just be completely different from
Juliet (00:34:47):
Everything you’ve known. Yeah. Which some people, you know, some, uh, practitioners preach that to just like, let go completely. And it’s going to be messy for a little while, and then you’ll find your way. And that has worked for some people. Some people have very transformative experiences, but talk about a real letting go. I think for me, it’s about meeting somebody where they’re at and, you know, I think having some structure is important. I’m really big on education. So educating people about food and the power of food and getting people excited about the power of nutrition. And when we think about food, it’s not that complicated. There are not that many foods out there actually that are coming from nature that is just that what we’re supposed to be eating, you know, and the way that, you know, another animal might be eating, you know, the grass and that’s then the leaves and that’s there for them understanding what are we supposed to be eating? Like what, what foods exist out there for us. And then you realize it’s not that many. And so now I have at least some structure to understand, right? These are nature’s foods. These are whole on, in their unprocessed form. What kind of structure do I want next in order? How do I want to put them in my life?
Abby (00:36:11):
I love that. And I love that you mentioned the comparison of like the animal eating grass and it comes so naturally to animals. They know they’re just so in tune with their body and with the world, their environment, as it’s intended to be, you know, not always, you know, in a natural environment for them either, but it kind of makes me think that this is ultimately a really simple thing. And remembering how to be a part of that simple thing. Like you had mentioned briefly that all the social societal programming that we get growing up around that. And I know like so many commercials and someone I mentioned once you don’t see a commercial for apples, you don’t see a commercial for, you know, for simple whole ingredients. It’s always these like super, pre-pack like a super package with these all kinds of special cartoon labels to make it more enticing and extra sugar refined to make it more addictive and all of this messaging for, you know, how you need to look like a woman and how this will be the one thing that will make you feel good or eating more of this as a man will make you more of a man is really, it’s interesting.
Abby (00:37:23):
It’s like, that’s so much simpler than society has made it out to be. It seems like,
Juliet (00:37:28):
Yeah, well, it’s big, it’s a big industry. It makes a lot of money. You’re right. And there’s, and we’re just being enticed all the time. But it’s funny you say that because there were commercials lately of pistachios and I was like, what, what is wrong with these pistachios? Like, why are these suspicious? I was like, I do not trust these commercials. I’m like, what are they doing with these mistakes? It’s just so random. I’m like, what’s, what’s next? You know, bro, is there going to be broccoli dancing, broccoli on my TV? But, yeah, going back to like, how to do what’s the approach people take just, I think learning knowledge is power and learning about food and like what foods are out there. And their health properties are exciting, you know, and having some sort of structure of what humans eat, but it can get tricky in, in the holistic and the spiritual world.
Juliet (00:38:35):
People like when you go a step further, and for those who do eat all healthy whole foods from nature, it can get pretty wild out there. You know, from a fruitarian someone who’s only eating fruits to, uh, you know, the carnivore diet, someone’s only eating meat to like all of these things. And everybody is so sure like this is the way this is going to be the way that you live the longest and you are the healthiest and here’s what’s happening on a cellular level. And it’s like, that gets so confusing for so many people and stressful. And I am a big believer in the power of your belief, in what it’s doing to your body because the mind and body connection is huge with this. And if you believe that you’re eating the right thing, and you’re not stressed out about it, then go ahead.
Juliet (00:39:38):
You may have wonderful results, but if you are stressing yourself out with what you’re eating, even if it’s a healthy diet, then you’re not going to be digesting as well. So that’s the psychology part of it. That was game-changing for me when I started working with people and for myself, it was just being more mindful about how you’re feeling about what you’re eating. If you’re in total stress and you dislike the way you’re eating, but it’s the way because you have what, from what you’ve read, I would say reevaluate that because there are many ways there isn’t just one way.
Abby (00:40:18):
Yeah. And it’s so nice to just hear that there are many ways there isn’t just one way, cause I’ve definitely been in that vise or the grip of like a rigid belief around food and it was damaging my body. And it took for me anyway, a lot, a lot, a lot of healing around deprogramming that all of the guilt and shame around, you know, for me anyway, it was eating meat and facing like for me, all of this past life stuff around that too, having been a hunter and it’s a whole other story, but it involved letting go of the programming also involves letting go of a lot of trauma. And do you find that when you’re working with clients that in that experience of opening up to listening to their body, does that go hand in hand with healing trauma, or what has that been like with you navigating your clients and yourself?
Juliet (00:41:20):
Most of what I do with people is navigate their trauma around their bodies and food. And if that’s the particular reason why they’re coming to see me, and it’s a lot of unlearning from childhood, how they relate to food, how they relate to their body. It’s a lot of ancestral healing around what I’m supposed to look like when I’m supposed, how I’m supposed to be as an eater and making those connections is powerful for people, you know, for myself, I really, it was a big deal for me to heal my trauma around my father and his overeating and you know, my binge eating and what I had witnessed and learned from just observing him and through osmosis, just taking on some of that. And my relationship with food was always a relationship of scarcity, which a lot of people have like there’s never going to be enough.
Juliet (00:42:25):
And so it’s eating everything on your plate and feeling and thinking about when you’re going to be eating next. And that feeling of when, like this, might be my only opportunity. So I’m, you know, gonna do it, I’m gonna do it up and then feeling the guilt and the shame that comes after that. And then perhaps some restriction even to punish yourself, a lot of punishment comes with that. Like I’m bad and punish myself. Now I need to go work out or I need to start my diet on Monday and then go through this whole cycle of deprivation, which isn’t our natural state to be Def deprived, you know, from a real primal perspective, we’re not meant to be deprived of food. So it goes against biology in a sense to be on these diets, which is why they aren’t part of why they don’t work. And understanding that’s important too. It’s like, there’s biology with this or psychology with this. And there’s trauma. It’s a lot of different layers of this.
Abby (00:43:26):
I appreciate that. You can see and work with each layer and, you know, I’m, you mentioned that a lot of it’s ancestral and that feeling of there’s not going to be enough. And I’ve had that too for my, you know, I don’t think my mom ever told me I had to eat everything, but like I just had this thing of like, I can never waste food and think about like going back and ancestry lines, like how many of us through our lineage has been through famine, have been through war times have been through, uh, you know, a drought where the crops didn’t grow and, and just going back far enough to be a human. It was a much more delicate thing to have all the resources that you needed to have enough to survive. And the trauma that gets passed down from that still lingers. And it’s just interesting, even in this world where we have so much, it’s really about the inner world of what pieces of this have not healed yet.
Juliet (00:44:28):
There’s a lot of self-inquiry that happens when you’re healing your relationship to anything in particular, though, relationship to your body and food. And I do it every day with myself. And when I go to eat something or if I’m craving something, it’s a lot of questions. Like one of my favorite questions that I use a lot is what are you hungry for? Because it might not be hunger. A lot of times, for me, it’s, I’m tired. I’m hungry for rest. I’m hungry for connection. Maybe I’m feeling lonely. I’m hungry for a hug. I need physical touch, right? And that tuning in is powerful. And I think many of us are disconnected from our needs in that way. And so food becomes a way to nest to size ourselves and just numb out and distract ourselves. And it’s this moment of fleeting pleasure and, you know, food is wonderful.
Juliet (00:45:38):
And I never want anyone to not have it be pleasurable. I think food should be one of the most pleasurable things that we experience in our life, but at the same time, it’s having more reverence for what our actual needs are. Versus if we’re having a desire and a craving, a lot of times the food isn’t going to support that it’s this immediate, it’s an immediate fix, quick fix, but it’s going to leave you with the same feeling after. So it’s addressing the root of what is at the root of what you need, but the food is, I always say food is a doorway for people of healing. If you’re having an issue with overeating or body dysmorphia or anything like that, it’s really, it’s a healing opportunity for a lot of people. It’s just your gateway into whatever your healing journey is going to be. And that was what it was for me. It was like I’m. So I’m grateful for going through that experience of having an eating disorder, because it propelled me into actually looking at the deeper layers of trauma and why I was, why that was a side of, it was just a side effect. It’s not a problem. It’s just a side effect,
Abby (00:46:52):
A hundred percent. And I can fully relate to that feeling of numbing out. Like I spent years just spending most of my day snacking and in a brain fog. And it was just a way to avoid all of these traumas and fears I had around self-worth around doing this work that I felt called to do, and just letting that take over my biology. And it was, I had asked myself that question too, like, what did I want? And it was a connection. And I thought that food was a way to have that. But then the more I ate that just felt more bloated and brain foggy and grosser. And that wasn’t it, you know, the movement helped to be present with the emotions that were coming up. And I love how you mentioned it’s a gateway hundred percent. Like I’ve found that so much gateway into the body, a gateway into the pain gateway, into moving through the pings.
Abby (00:47:48):
I realized like any addiction, every time that I escaped that opportunity when that feeling was coming up, that I didn’t want to feel every time I numbed that out. I just closed that door to healing a part of myself for a little bit longer, and that didn’t get me anywhere. I just got my two still craving connection, but also feeling way worse than my body. And it wasn’t until I said, I’m going to stop doing this. I’m going to feel whatever I need to feel. And I mean, that has been intense because there are lots of feelings over the years that have been, you know, been numbed out with food, but so rewarding and necessary. And so when it comes to the trauma piece, when it comes to that part, do you feel like, how do you know when you’re ready to go there to look at that?
Juliet (00:48:40):
That’s a great question. I think that it will come up without you planning for it to come up. So I don’t think it’s like, I’m ready now. I just think that it will come up from what I’ve seen over the years of working with clients. I don’t push anybody to go to do trauma work. It’s when you’re ready, it will come through when it’s meant to be seen and looked at. And I think you and I talked offline about this with, especially with hypnosis people, often afraid that they’re going to have a repressed memory. And they’re like, I don’t want to see whatever could be repressed. What if it’s really scary? And I just gently encourage that, you know, you are in control of this. And so whatever is meant to come up will come up because you are in a safe enough place in your life and you’re, you are ready.
Juliet (00:49:47):
And I don’t think there is like no weighing. I think it just kind of unfolds before somebody’s eyes. And a lot of it’s about feeling safe enough to go there. You know, for my own story, I couldn’t do meditation hypnosis any of that deeper layer work for years because I would have a panic attack. My body would tell me, Nope, you can’t go there yet. We’re not ready. And it would just completely clam up on me and I would go, okay, we, you know, it’s not, we’re not ready. We haven’t, we don’t have enough safety in our life, enough stability meeting. My husband helped me. He was a big part of my healing journey meeting a man that was just so kind and gentle. And, you know, I call him my angel. He just has a golden light that emanates from him.
Juliet (00:50:48):
He’s just like this old, beautiful soul that just is this grounding, you know, and it’s no accident that his last name is root. I wanted it needed to route, you know, it was not rooted. And there’s just so much of that that supported my healing being with somebody with whom I could trust and feel safe. And there was no, there wasn’t chaos for a long time. So I needed to have years of not having a lot of chaos and feeling safe and held and supported and, and, uh, just being in that calm or state for a while. And then, you know, another thing that did help me as I went on anti-anxiety medication for a few years, and that medication, you know, supported me in that time. And I had, man, I was so resistant to doing something like that, just being in the holistic world and being so natural and not taking anything, you know, and feeling very self-righteous about that in a way kind of, you know, the way you’re explaining being vegan.
Juliet (00:51:58):
Like I like no way, you know, and having family members who had been on that and watching their journey with it and having a lot of judgment around it and judging myself so much, but it was at a point where it was, again, one of those situations where you do this, or you, or you’re going to suffer. You’ve got to take this chance right now and you owe it to yourself to at least try this. Because at that point I was having panic attacks in my sleep. A lot of things were happening where trauma was like coming up. And I was like, I don’t want to have my day right now. And that’s supported me because it was like a, again, another, like a protective safety layer of, okay, now I can close my eyes and meditate without having the neuro epinephrine, the actual chemicals in my body surging.
Juliet (00:52:51):
And so it was able to do a little bit of deeper work. And I had worked with an imagery therapist, which is powerful. It’s a lot of the work that you do. And that I do now with clients, which is going into the subconscious and, you know, I met many guides and it’s him. He was a beautiful Buddhist man that wasn’t even coming from a place of, of, of meeting your, your, you know, metaphysical guides. He was just really what’s in the subconscious. And I met so many different guides that supported me and I see how magical and spiritual it was now in hindsight we were doing, but he was an art therapist and it was a beautiful experience. But, you know, in terms of when you’re ready, I can, I’ll use just my own story. That it’s just over time, I felt safer and safer. And then it was like, okay, I’m ready for this next layer. I’m ready for this next layer or ready for this next layer. And I’m still healing even deeper now, you know, doing the work that I do with you. Like, I feel like even stuff that was lodged in there from maybe like a past life. Like it’s like, okay, now that’s ready to come out and not just this life.
Abby (00:54:04):
Yeah. A hundred percent. And it’s no. When you mentioned the feeling of safety, I heard once something along the lines of being a healer is really about creating a space where someone can be, feel safe, enough to see and heal parts of themselves. And I feel like the layers are also going into a deeper, deeper feeling of all right, I’m safe to look at this. Now I can, I’m safe. And you know, I’m strong enough, I’m safe enough. I feel like the two of them two can come together, but yeah, it is an incredible thing. And so someone’s going through that and what you said too about medication, I’ve been through that phase of judgments. And, you know, it’s funny how the mind loves to judge. But I met so many people where I didn’t save their lives and it did give them the space to begin healing, to have some space, to move through. And as someone who holds that space for other people now, what are your thoughts on doing the inner work by yourself versus somebody having a guide to help you move through that?
Juliet (00:55:27):
I think you can do both. I think that depends on the person and what they feel is working for them. I have seen people who take on healing work, like it’s their job and they don’t, they’re not working with anyone, but they are immersing themselves in books, in resources and they’re, you know, doing workshops and all the things without actually having a specific person like guiding them on a journey, a healing journey. So I don’t think that there’s one way, it just depends on what works better for you. And for me I always love having a guide or a teacher in my life, a mentor, somebody that I can just go back and forth with and share and feel like somebody is holding space for me, that they are going through this with me in some way. And that’s my personal preference is that I’ll probably always be somebody that wants to have a teacher and someone that I can learn from.
Juliet (00:56:32):
And, and to have somebody hold me accountable and not in the way of like, you have to do this, or, you know, you didn’t do it right. Or a good job, but the accountability of knowing that you have that person, that you’re going to almost be a little, like a little bit forced to face yourself on the regular, because it’s really easy to get too shy, to get shy and run away from some of this stuff. You feel a big feeling. If, you know, you feel like, I betrayed myself again. I didn’t, you know, I, I went back into that old pattern or habit and that’s so normal. And, part of this journey is like sometimes retreating into old, into the old patterns that make you feel safe and cozy and familiar with yourself. And so having somebody that can hold space for you and can see you bigger than that, and keep working with you towards going where you want to go, I think could be helpful. It’s easy to kind of just start the journey and then like to shy away from the journey. But if you have someone doing it with you, you have more of a chance of sticking to it and having it be consistent. So that’s my personal preference is finding someone that you can work with when it comes to this stuff.
Abby (00:57:54):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I found that to be so huge too. I’m all about it, you can get me there a lot faster and a lot more easily than me banging my head against the wall again. And again, let’s do this. And so if someone is looking for a way for you to guide them, looking for you to hold that space for them, that space where they can feel safe and supported and you know, really mind body spirit, cause you’re kind of you to address all of them. Tell me about how they can find you. And, you have a program coming up soon too. So tell me about that.
Juliet (00:58:36):
Well, so I do one-on-one coaching with people and I will take them through a 12-week program. I find it an amazing amount of time to see a huge shift in transformation. And we go through those different layers starting with the body. You know, what are, what’s your relationship with food? If that’s something that you know, well, I think everybody should look at that no matter where you are just, you know, what, what’s going on in your body and does it make you feel good? And is it the right thing to help you have that? You know, minding that gut connection is so important. And then going through the mind, really working on mindset and programming and looking at all of that, and then the spiritual, just getting in touch with, you know, your higher self, your intuition, like, so it’s this beautiful journey that unfolds over 12 weeks of going through those different layers with people.
Juliet (00:59:33):
And it’s just extremely transformative. And then I also, you know, 12 weeks is a big chunk of time. So people will sometimes just do just one-off sessions, healing sessions, or, you know, every other week it is catered to the person. And the, uh, the program that I’m doing is the first group that I’m running, which is sort of condensing all of what I’ve been doing. One-on-one with people into an eight-week program, which is where we talk about all of these things that you and I have discussed in this podcast, the layers of trauma mindset, going into the subconscious shifting programming it’s, but it’s really fun to do it with a group because I can kind of like play off of each other. And I’m in the mentorship with you right now and having other people who share what they’re feeling and what they’re yearning for and what’s bothering them.
Juliet (01:00:28):
And then I was being coached at the moment and watching other people get that is so special. And even, you know, even before I was in the mentorship with you, I did a couple of coaching containers as the participant. And I was like, oh my gosh, I want to do one of these because they’re just so fun. Even though we’re talking about really intense, sometimes heavy things there, you know, it’s like the highlight of my week was like, I can’t wait to like, meet with my group, you know, and be with other people who want to enhance their life and want and are on a healing journey. So yeah, the eight-week group is called a master of your inner world. It’s all about going in there and asking yourself those deep questions and challenging yourself to look at what’s going on in your inner world. That’s affecting my outer world. And the, my perception of my reality, because your perception of your reality is all based on how you see yourself and how you see the world. And so if we can go in there a little bit and ask some deep questions and have a better relationship with that inner part of ourselves, then you really can have such a major transformation. Like so many things change so quickly when you do that.
Abby (01:01:39):
Hmm. It’s amazing how quickly things change from the inside out. So where can people find you?
Juliet (01:01:46):
Yeah, so I may join your program. So I’m on Instagram at Juliet_root, like the tree. And, also my website is rootedpower.com. So all the information about the group and my coaching services there, the group starts soon. So if anybody is interested in joining a program like that, it starts on Wednesday, October 13th, and all the info you can find again on Instagram or my website.
Abby (01:02:15):
I love it. Thank you so much for sharing all this and for doing what you, and I’m so excited for you and everyone who gets to receive this container of support, the space that you hold, and this guidance that you offer. And yeah, it is so fun. I know that in our mentor class that I run with you, it’s like we’re healing these really big deep things, but then at the end of the day afterward, it’s just like, that was just delightful. It’s just so fulfilling. And it’s an interesting dynamic to see how it unfolds with everyone in the group. So,
Juliet (01:02:52):
Well, it’s great that you say that because if you can make this, these kinds of deep topics, you know, trauma if you can make them lighter and more, let’s say fun, but just, they don’t have to be so heavy and scary. If we can normalize this stuff in a way where it’s not scary, it’s a part of who we are that as energetic beings, our bodies store things. And if we don’t look at those things at the moment, then sometimes we have to look at them later and that’s okay. And there’s nothing wrong with that. And just understand that that’s a part of being a human and how we have to take care of ourselves is looking at that. So thank you for doing the work that you do, because it’s been so transformative for my own life and helping me go deeper and helping me access myself even more as a healer and supporting other people. And I’m just so appreciative that I got to, that I’m getting to work with you. I’m really happy about it.
Abby (01:03:54):
Thank you. I appreciate that a lot. That’s what you mentioned earlier. Playful curiosity. Yeah. It can be a lot of fun growing and healing. So happy to be on this journey with you. And thank you so much for being here, sharing your wisdom, sharing your story, and doing this work for people. Thank you so much for listening to this episode with Juliet. It is such a pleasure to get to share in her abundant energy and knowledge and openness and readiness to move forward. And I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. And we talked briefly about the mentorship that I run, that Juliet is a part of, and this is a six-month program that I run a limited number of times per year. And we have very intimate class sizes. And we connect in this way that enables you to heal anything.
Abby (01:04:53):
That’s been weighing you down, connecting with your passion, with your purpose, and sharing your medicine with the world. And you get a whole bunch of tools and how to do that. So if you’re feeling called to show up in a bigger way, if you’re feeling called for something more, but you’re not quite sure what it is, or if you know that you want to work in the world of healing, then go on over to mindbodyfree.com/mentorship and you’ll be the first to know when the next mentor class becomes available. All right. Thank you for listening and wishing you all so much light, so much love, and peace.