Transform your inner critic into your best friend https://puravidahealthcare.com/blog Sign up for Ashley's January Health Transformation Live Workshop: http://learntruehealth.com/yes   Decreasing Stress http://learntruehealth.com/decreasing-stress Decreasing stress and listening to your inner critic plays a significant role in our overall well-being. Once we master ways of decreasing stress and listening to our inner critic, this self-awareness can help us cope with the demands and stress from outside factors. To explain the ways of decreasing stress and listening to your inner critic, Dr. Nicola Dehlinger will dive into that in this episode. Early Years Dr. Nicola Dehlinger first learned about Sigmund Freud when she was in elementary school. She was turned on by his concept regarding analyzing dreams and helping people feel better. When Dr. Nicola Dehlinger reached high school, her interest turned to psychiatry. But doing pre-med in college, she hated it. Dr. Nicola Dehlinger had a hard time connecting with pre-med colleagues. Defining Moment Studying about U.S. health care systems, Dr. Nicola Dehlinger who was then 19 years old, was dissatisfied. She wondered what to do especially since she was almost done with pre-med. One year when she was back at home for winter break, the mom of one of Dr. Nicola Dehlinger’s friends suggested that she talk to her doctor.  That doctor happened to be a Naturopathic Doctor, and a very popular one, too. “As things evolved for me during medical school, I was drawn to mind-body medicine. I wanted to help put back together the relationships between our emotions, mental well-being, and physical health,” said Dr. Nicola Dehlinger. Self-Discovery Dr. Nicola Dehlinger’s first job was at an HIV wellness clinic. Because she speaks Spanish, Dr. Nicola Dehlinger was hired as a medical assistant and worked with a lot of therapists. “I got to hone my skill set around integrating Naturopathic Medicine and physical health with this mental health component,” said Dr. Nicola Dehlinger. “I did it for three years and moved to Colorado in 2006 to help co-found a wilderness therapy organization called Open Sky.” Personal Journey Life outside looked great, but Dr. Nicola Dehlinger soon realized she wasn’t happy. She was in an emotionally abusive marriage and decided to work on herself by decreasing stress. “Through my process of traditional therapy, mind bodywork with my mentor, I started cultivating a relationship with myself,” Dr. Nicola Dehlinger said. “That relationship with myself was what enabled me to get out of a job that was tearing me apart on a personal level. And get out of relationships that weren’t supportive to me on any level.”  Soon after, Dr. Nicola Dehlinger eventually opened a private practice and made time to sit with patients. It was then that she realized that her patients had the key to their healing and decreasing stress. “My job got easy. Just by listening to people more deeply, I started realizing how much wisdom each of us brings to the table but that we don’t see. Because we’ve been told that we don’t know the answers,” said Dr. Nicola Dehlinger. Dr. Nicola Dehlinger also realized that the more she can help people come back into themselves and decreasing stress, the fewer symptoms they have. This way, they can enjoy more health and vitality in their life. “The number one expert on your health and well-being will always be you. And sometimes it’s nice to have a guide. Because we don’t necessarily know which way to go,” Dr. Nicola Dehlinger said. “The body is divinely wise. When you have symptoms, that is the body expressing dis-ease in somewhere in the body.”  Understanding Stress In our culture, Dr. Nicola Dehlinger says we don’t get praised for acknowledging stress. Career expectancy is higher. And the pace in which we communicate now between text and social media, we are expected to process about a thousand times more pieces of information in a day than we were 20 or 25 years ago. D