DR. ANNA MARIE 0:00
And I walked outside, and it was like this weight came off of me. The sky was blue for the first time, the trees were green. My body felt excited, lighter — like I had just broken out of jail or something.
JEN AKS 0:20
Welcome to the Wisdom From Within podcast. My name is Jen Aks, and I am your host. This is where mindset meets bodyset, where we access both so that we can make the most genuine, authentic, empowered impact on those we love and those we serve. Let's get started.
Hello. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm so excited to have you here. I love what you're doing, and we're going to get into it. I'm going to share a little bit about Dr. Anna, who's known as the Mindset Doctor. She is a visionary and a leader with two decades of expertise in human health and mindset transformation. She holds a PhD in natural medicine and is a certified expert in brain health and traditional naturopathy. I just think your wealth of knowledge is so inspiring. And you have built this entire body of work around rewiring the brain. I would love to start by digging into whether there was a moment in your own life where your body knew something before your mind did — and how you got into this mindset work, and how the body informs that practice and that mission for you.
DR. ANNA MARIE 1:52
Yes. Our body is always giving us that feedback. And there is a very specific moment in my early 20s that was life-changing for me. I struggled with depression since high school, but it wasn't something that back then you would call depression. I didn't know what it was. I just knew I didn't feel okay inside. I had friends, I was an athlete — no apparent "trauma," in quotes. And so inside I was like, something is not right with me. But I just kept going through the motions and doing the things, chasing the carrots.
So after high school, I went to college and thought, oh, I'll feel better once I go to college. Didn't work. Then I'm like, oh, well, I'll move to California — then I'll feel better, right? We chase that carrot. And I got to California in my early 20s and I had a great job and I had health insurance. So I thought, oh, I'll just go to a doctor and get a pill — because that'll fix my brain chemistry imbalance, right? Today there's no way to actually measure brain chemistry. But I started seeing a psychiatrist who ultimately kept putting me on medications. I was on three mind-altering medications at 23 years old.
I went back one more time just to tell my doctor, hey, this medication isn't working — hoping for a new regimen. And that day I went in and I noticed things for the first time. People were hunched over, almost embarrassed to be there. The walls seemed like they were caving in on me. I was super irritated inside, really, really annoyed, waiting 20, 30, 40 minutes to see the doctor. I go in and I sit in this leather chair — I'd done it multiple times before, but it's the first time I noticed he didn't even look at me. Then he starts asking: do you want to hurt yourself? Do you want to hurt other people? And then he takes a phone call in the middle of my session.
My heart just started beating so fast. My body was screaming — but on the outside I was being super calm. Inside, my body was like: get out of here. What are you doing here? It was screaming at me. He got off the call. And I remember I stood up and I said, I don't appreciate you taking a call during my session — which was the hardest thing to even voice. Standing up for yourself in front of your doctor, like these people are held on pedestals. And he looked at me like, oh, sorry — as if he wasn't sorry at all. And he went back to the line of questioning. I'm like, I need to leave. And he pulled out of my folder my three prescriptions — already written before I had even gotten there.
I took them in my hand, walked out past the front desk, and there was a little gray trash can. And I threw them in. And I walked outside, and it was like this weight came off of me.
JEN AKS 5:15
Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah.
DR. ANNA MARIE 5:18
It was incredible. And in that moment, I really was like: okay, you are the only person that can make yourself happy. Figure this out. And that's when I kind of set forth on a journey. I was like, if we can rewire computers, we can rewire our brain. And I set forth on a journey to essentially fix what was going on within me. Then everything around me started to change once I started doing that. It was some little light in me — I know not all people have that access in the same moment — but it was a very defining moment in terms of being an advocate for my own mental health, and just for myself in general, and how I'm showing up in the world. And yeah, that was the start.
JEN AKS 6:04
That is such an incredible story on so many levels. But the courage — the thing that really stands out to me is your courage to stand up for yourself, just like you said — to advocate for yourself and then throw those pills out. Your body spoke so loud. And I want to understand that journey. Was that the first moment that you really listened to your body in that way? And I also just want to comment on something you said around that light inside of you — and how bright it really got for you in order to do that. Everybody has that opportunity and that possibility. Everybody has a light. It's just a matter of how dim it is and what we need to do to brighten it up. We all have that capability. So I'm curious: before this experience, had you ever listened to your body in that way before?
DR. ANNA MARIE 7:05
I would push things down. I knew I wasn't okay inside. And knowing the work that I do now — knowing that the body is constantly giving us feedback and saying anything it's telling us is just to help us get back in alignment — I was so far out of alignment with who I was meant to be. I was people-pleasing, living by society's expectations, making decisions from a fixed mindset: well, I have to do this, this is what I have to do — even though inside my body was like, no, you're not okay, make a change.
And I always say: if we don't listen to those subtle messages the body is giving us, our body is going to speak louder and louder and louder — until we are in full dis-ease, or a psychotic breakdown, or can't get out of bed. Because our body is trying to help us. It's saying: put the brakes on. You have one life to live, and I need you to make this adjustment now. I've been saying it for a long time and you haven't been listening. So who is going to show up and scream at you?
JEN AKS 8:17
Like this. On purpose. Exactly. Oh my God, I love you, and I love this message. And I'm so curious — with your expertise and your background and your education — how do you make this real for people? I'm trying so hard with body wisdom and body intelligence, and people are like, okay, it's woo-woo. How do you help them understand the importance of listening to their body?
DR. ANNA MARIE 8:50
Yeah. Well, first — the body is always going to follow the mind, whether it's your conscious mind or your unconscious mind, which is constantly signaling to the body. And most often it's the unconscious — the programs that were imprinted into you when you were little that you are not even aware of. You're running these programs: I'm not good enough. That's not available to me. People don't like me. I'll never lose the weight. I'll always be broke. These are constantly running. And your body is going to show up to validate all of those things each and every day — because you're telling it to. But at the same time, your body's trying to say: make a change, let's shift this.
And we just don't listen. So the first thing I like to say — and I always go back to the brain, because the brain is this amazing operating system. When we're conscious and present, we can access different parts of our brain that will serve us. Most people who are living in fight-or-flight, in worry — they're living in this limbic system, this worry, worry, worry. When you're living in that part of your brain, it cuts you off from what's called your prefrontal cortex. This is your executive function thinking. So you're making decisions based out of emotion versus based out of the big picture.
And you're doing the best you can — it's just you're not accessing that part of your brain. So what we get to do is ask ourselves open questions that force us to go to that prefrontal cortex. For example: what if it wasn't true that I had depression? What if that wasn't true? What's available to me? What if my body was just experiencing it — not that I have it, I'm just experiencing it? And so when I started asking myself these different questions, it started to get me to say, okay, well, what if I didn't have depression? Well, if I didn't have depression, I would show up with more energy every day. I wouldn't talk about all my problems all the time. I would feel better in my body, I would feel more at peace. And then it becomes: why don't I allow myself to feel it now?
Because we get to activate our own pharmacy in our body. We can shift the biochemical makeup, the hormonal chemical messengers in our body in 150 to 300 milliseconds by shifting a thought alone. That's the power that we have. So once I started to understand how I can hack my own brain and hack my emotions, I started to feel better in my body.
Then when I started to learn about the breath — oh my gosh. And you already know about that, your listeners know about that. Just this breath of life that we've been given. To just breathe. To activate that vagus nerve, activate that parasympathetic relaxation, rest-and-digest system. Because when we're in rest-and-digest, that's when our prefrontal cortex comes online. That's when our creativity increases. That's when our sense of safety increases. And when we feel safe, we can be more creative. When we feel safe, we can feel more connected. And that's a primal thing — we need connection and belonging.
But when we're in fear and worry, we exclude ourselves. We go on an island by ourselves. We don't feel okay inside, and we're not meeting those primal needs of creation and belonging. Feeling safe.
JEN AKS 12:40
Yes — we take all those away. I am so happy you are on this podcast right now. You break it down so beautifully, it's attainable. We're in a moment right now where people are very, very afraid and scared — not just in their own personal lives. People are always entering crossroads. Like you said, we go back to this conditioning and it takes us over.
So you mention starting to inquire and ask those questions. You listed a few of them, which is so beautiful — and I'm going to put them in the show notes because I want people to really capture them. And then: what do you do with that information? So — what would it be like if I didn't have depression? What would that open up for me? All of a sudden you come to some of these realizations, you're journaling — then what? Then I become an actress in my own life?
DR. ANNA MARIE 13:44
My friend Courtney McDermott — who I connected you with, and I hope she's coming on the podcast — talks about how we're always playing a character. And she's so right. So it's like: you get to choose your character. What character are you choosing to play? I hadn't heard of that before until I started listening to Courtney. I always thought it was kind of like fake it till you make it, but I love the concept of playing a character. Become your own actress — and start acting in the energy of who you desire to be. You can do that right now.
And the other aspect I really work with clients on — that has been so liberating and healing — is re-envisioning the future. If you can say, I want my future to look like this — and then the next day you're like, no, I want my future to look like this — you can re-envision a future at any moment, any time. And when we do that, it means we can also re-envision our past. You can give your past a different meaning. You can change the whole lens through which you view your past.
Now, you may say, I can't change my past, what's done is done. And you're absolutely right. But what we get to do is take those defining moments from our past — instead of viewing them through the lens of lack, of fear, of I'm a victim, this happened to me — and extract the value gained. There is something beautiful that happened for you that shifted your character because you went through that.
I can't do the work I do today without going through that moment in my early 20s. Without that doctor medicating me and medicating me and medicating me, getting me to the point where I almost checked into a psychiatric ward. I went through so much. I remember standing in a parking lot — my mom had come to visit me and I was bawling on my knees. Like I could cry today. I don't want to be here.
JEN AKS 16:08
Yeah.
DR. ANNA MARIE 16:09
But it's like this happens for us, because it helps us help the next person. If I can help someone else not feel like they are nothing anymore — and realize the power and blueprint that was imprinted in all of us to make a difference in this world — that is what I get to do. But I have to be able to re-envision my past. I can't be the victim of my past. I am amazing because of my past, because of all the things I went through.
And so that's the beauty that we can do — because we can choose to stay a victim of our past, or we can choose to extract that value gain and say: I am a more understanding person because I went through that. I am more compassionate because I went through that. I am more open because I went through that. I'm not going to judge someone based on a moment of their emotions because that's not them — that's just something they're experiencing in that moment. These are gifts that we are given. But we have to shift the perspective of how we're viewing them so we can empower the future that we are meant to live.
JEN AKS 17:22
Oh, incredible. I'm so moved and I feel that so deeply. I feel that moment — you, your mother, that parking lot. Like we've all had that parking lot moment in some way. And I always say — and I know this can be very f**king triggering for people — I do believe that everything happens for us, not to us. Because we've been through it. It's like, don't tell me that happened for me — that f**king hurt me. And I get that. But there's this compassionate leaning into our own life — with compassion and curiosity — to learn and to grow and to know, exactly like you said, that there are lessons within all of it. And we do have that choice. I love empowering that choice for people. It is so beautiful that you did it, and it is serving your purpose so profoundly.
Question — tell us about the work. This is all inspiring this mission and vision and purpose for you. What do you do with your clients?
DR. ANNA MARIE 18:59
So there are so many elements of my life experience and my education that I have brought together into how I uniquely show up and provide space and work with my clients. When we talk about the body always signaling to us — it's signaling emotionally and physically. Biochemically and physically.
So, for example, I will look at the tongue of my clients. Your tongue says a lot about what's going on internally in terms of your foundations of health. I will look at your eyes — I can look very closely and see different fibers and different organ systems being impacted. You can look at the ears, the fingernails — see what's going on. And ultimately, really looking at the nervous system. I can hold someone's hand — whether they're in person or remotely — and there are different techniques I use to tap into someone's system. If they're in front of me, I can hold their hand and feel different energies flowing through their body. Some of what I do, I can't always put into words how I know things or how everything shows up. It's hard to articulate.
But ultimately it comes back to calming the nervous system, releasing different emotions being stored in the body, restoring foundations of health — because we are this energetic being. And actually, if you go inside every cell to the furthest point, the only thing left is what's called a quantum atom. That's only energy. So we are technically more energetic than we are physical beings — but there is a physical aspect to us too.
So I'm not only working on the physical and biochemical — the nutraceuticals, figuring out what food sensitivities you have, what's best for your physical body — but we also have to address the energetics. The emotional, the thought patterns, the re-envisioning of the past. There are all these different layers when I work with people. I use biofeedback, visualization, breathing techniques. If they travel to Bakersfield, California and come to our wellness center, there are different therapies available there as well.
I combine high-tech with old-school holistic health — energy medicine, Chinese medicine approaches. It's not just one technique. Literally, when the person is in front of me, I get little drop-ins of what we get to do. I listen to their body. I listen to what they're saying and how they're saying it. I'm listening to their words — because words carry vibrational frequencies. So there's so much I'm processing to figure out: okay, what is a blueprint of something you can do to start to feel better in your body? To start to show up and have different conversations, to not feel fear, to not feel like your hormones are all over the place. How do we get you sleeping at night? How do we reduce that anxiousness? How do we let the body signal that I'm okay inside? That's ultimately the work I do.
JEN AKS 22:55
Absolutely incredible. I'm so grateful for you on this planet. And I know the people listening — I mean, you would only be here if this messaging and this body of work resonated with you. Tell us about the Happy Whole You podcast.
DR. ANNA MARIE 23:19
Okay. So Happy Whole You — I started the Happy Whole You podcast as part of my company, which is also called Happy Whole You. The reason I chose that name is because deep down I believe everyone wants to be happy. And in order to be happy, we must be whole. And that choice is up to you. That's where the name came from.
I started the podcast as a tool to just send clients information on different topics. I'd see them and be like, oh, we were talking about different types of ADHD — because there's not just one type of ADHD — here's the podcast on the seven different types. Or, we're talking about your liver, here's a podcast on the liver. Because when we have more knowledge, that is an opening, a gateway to be able to do something about it. Now, we have to meet knowledge with action — that's very, very important. We can know all the things and still not do them. People know how to be healthy and still aren't doing it. So I like to bridge the gap between the knowledge and: what is the lowest barrier of entry to get you to take action in a way that's sustainable, that you're going to do, and that will get you the most optimal results over time?
JEN AKS 24:47
Yeah.
DR. ANNA MARIE 24:48
And then the brick-and-mortar that we have here in Bakersfield was really a desire — always there in the back of my mind, going back to that psychiatrist's office with the gray walls. They hadn't updated that office in forever.
JEN AKS 25:04
It just grows, right?
DR. ANNA MARIE 25:06
Any doctor's office that you go into that they haven't updated or that isn't beautiful — to me, that's offensive. It really is offensive. Like, we pay so much money. You may say, oh, well, my insurance pays it. Well, your insurance just paid $500 for six or seven minutes with your doctor, and they can't have the courtesy to make a beautiful space?
So my whole desire is: what if I made this beautiful space? When you come into my center, nobody has any idea why you're here. Whether it's a kid with autism, a business executive who can't sleep at night and is having panic attacks while running a multi-million dollar company, a stay-at-home mom who just wants an hour to herself, or somebody who wants to prevent any negative things from happening — nobody knows why anyone is at my facility. We call it a spa for your brain. People come in here and it's like a spa. Nobody knows who's working on what. There's zero stigma around my brand. When people come in here, there's only curiosity: oh, cool, I want to try that. What's that?
So it's really a mission of mine to create a beautiful space where people can come and align their body so their body can heal itself. Because every organ system, if you put it in the right environment, has the capacity and the capability to heal itself. It's just: are we putting it in the right environment?
JEN AKS 26:40
Yeah. Love it. Love it all. Question. You had this experience growing up, you struggled with your own story that you shared so vulnerably — thank you for that. And then all of that activated you into action and advocacy around your own life. And as a result, you've educated yourself and created this incredible business to support those that need your work. Those that are struggling. I'm curious — through the journey, have you had moments of misalignment again, where you disconnected or relapsed? And how do you get yourself back on track?
DR. ANNA MARIE 27:31
Yeah. I just had one a few years ago. I was working 18 years for a school district — 10 years as a teacher, eight years in administration. I was the wellness director for the largest high school district in the state of California. My job was to reduce a $54 million expenditure on healthcare, and I focused on behavioral health claims. I went into this job and it was like my dream job. I'm like, I'm going to retire here. This is it. I have made it. It was such great work.
About four or five years into the eight years, I started to feel this tug. I wanted to create the brick-and-mortar. And a few things happened within the organization that weren't aligning with my belief systems. You know, I'm the type of person who wants to show up and make things the best they can be — not just show up and collect a paycheck. When you work in government, there can be people that you make very uncomfortable when you're thinking as big as I was thinking.
Anyway, I started — two years before I left that 18-year career — to show up with autoimmune markers in my blood. I started not sleeping, feeling anxious, dreading going to work. But I was making six figures. I carried the benefits for my family. I had full retirement. I had checked every single box. You would be crazy to walk away from that. And I knew I needed to go, but I felt paralyzed to make the decision. My body was screaming louder and louder and louder to me. And I allowed fear to keep holding me back.
I eventually had a moment where I had to make a deal with myself. And the question I asked — which I still use today with any decision I'm making — is: if you were on your deathbed, would you regret staying, or would you regret going and following your dreams? And the answer was very clear. I would so regret staying. As good as it was, as good as I was at my job, as much of a difference as I was making — it wasn't in full alignment and my body was telling me.
So at 40 years old, I walked away from the guaranteed paycheck, all the safety nets, and went full time into my company. And it took me less than two years to 10x my income and make back everything that in my mind I was saying, oh, you're losing all these things. I didn't realize what it was costing me to stay.
And that's the thing: we get to ask ourselves, what will it cost me if I don't? What is it costing me to stay the same?
JEN AKS 30:43
Right.
DR. ANNA MARIE 30:44
And if that pain is greater than what you want to face on your deathbed, you've got to move. You need to make a change. As scary as it can be. So for me, when my body is speaking to me, I try to get quiet and ask myself these open-ended questions — which I've learned through working one-on-one with people and having to reverse them on myself.
And I also work with coaches. I'm a coach, and I have two other coaches working with me. I think that's really important because we have blinders up and we need people to ask us those questions and help us shift perspectives — because we don't know it all. When anyone hires me, I don't know everything. I'm going to keep pointing back to you and helping you get more in alignment with yourself. But I don't know everything. I'm going to help you to a certain extent, and then there may be a point where you get to move on to someone else to work with, right?
So there's this process that I think we all get to be open to — and it's not a one-and-done thing. But asking ourselves these open-ended questions and being in the visualization of what's possible, versus living in the biggest fear — I think that's more important. Because if I had focused on what could go bad if I walked away from that 18-year career, I would have stayed sick and I would have stayed there. Versus visualizing: what is it costing me? What will I think when I'm 95 years old? That's a really helpful way to make knowledge meet action and bring it up.
JEN AKS 32:38
Yes. Excuse me. I love that. And that actually brings me to — first, I just want to really honor you and acknowledge you. And share my gratitude for your vulnerability. I'm sure you've shared this story before, but I appreciate you being here. These are the stories that matter. Our human stories matter because it's what people can hold on to, relate to, feel hopeful by, and be inspired by. And it's essential.
And that piece you just shared really answered the question I was going to leave us with today, which is: what if someone is sitting here listening, saying — my body is speaking and it is screaming, and I am terrified? I know myself, Jen Aks knows, because I've been there too. Leaving a 20-year marriage was the toughest and hardest decision I've ever made in my life. But my body too was screaming, and there was no way I wasn't going to listen — or else I was going to get sick. Like you said: dis-ease, disease. That's where we can land if we don't listen to the body.
So I'm curious from your perspective — even though you pretty much just said it — what does one do in that moment of contemplation and confusion and fear? What is one step they could take?
DR. ANNA MARIE 34:18
First, I would invite them to put their hands on their heart, close their eyes, and take a deep breath. And I would invite you to go through each and every part of your body — and each moment in life that your body has served you.
For example: the fact that you have these hands that could hold someone else's hand. These arms were able to hug someone. Your eyes are able to see your friends, your family. Your mouth, your vocal cords, able to maybe sing, laugh, share what you're grateful for. Your heart that's been beating every single step of the way. Just getting quiet and going through your body with gratitude for all that it's done for you — being very, very specific about what it's allowed for you. Maybe your legs walking you down the aisle. Maybe your legs walking your daughter or your son somewhere. Really getting in gratitude of your body, and then getting in gratitude for those moments.
And when we get quiet and start breathing, we start to calm down and get into that rest-and-digest state where we can access visualization from the perspective of gratitude and possibility. And that allows the body to start shifting its biochemistry — activating calming hormones, reducing cortisol and stress hormones. And when you connect that with a visualization, it is really, really powerful in cementing new neural pathways in the brain.
And listen — if this is hard for you to do on your own, hire somebody who can take you through a visualization. Two years ago, I could have done the breathing and then been eyes wide open, ready, let's go. Like I told you — now I can go to my breath and I don't want to open my eyes and come out of it sometimes. I'm so grateful to have that sense of inner peace.
But it took me a while to get here. So we get to ask for help. Go to a breathwork class. Hire somebody who can help you with that. And then find someone who — because sometimes people ask, how do I know it's the right person? Sometimes we don't know until we're in it. I've spent thousands of dollars on coaches and programs that were like, oof, that wasn't what I thought. But that's fine — you learn something from that as well.
Being mindful that whoever you hire is constantly pointing back at you. They're not talking about their blueprint and how you have to do it this way with all these steps. They may have some type of plan, yes. But when they get in session with you, it's all about what your body calls for and what you need. So finding that person who's going to be with you and give you the space to do what your body needs to do to process this is really important.
JEN AKS 38:29
Yeah.
DR. ANNA MARIE 38:30
Absolutely. So that's probably the one step I would say: get into embodiment. Get into gratitude. Gratitude for every aspect of your body. Gratitude for every aspect of your life that's gotten you to where you are now.
JEN AKS 38:49
Yeah.
DR. ANNA MARIE 38:50
If you have a hard time getting there, hire someone — because the quicker you can drop into that, your biochemistry starts to shift. And you start showing up in a new energy day in and day out, the more you do this. And it's available to each and every one of us. We just have to remember to tap into it.
JEN AKS 39:10
Yeah. Yep. Oh my goodness, I love it. What a conversation. So much to think about, so much to feel about — which is what I say. And I'm very grateful. How can people find you?
DR. ANNA MARIE 39:28
Well, happywholeyou.com is the website. We're at happywholeyou on Instagram. I also have a personal Instagram — dr.annamarie. And I'm on LinkedIn. But you know, it's the internet — if you really desire it, you'll find it.
JEN AKS 39:48
I've got all the links. I'm gonna put them all in the show notes. You've been incredible. I appreciate you so much. I'm so glad we've met, and I'm really looking forward to all that's to come. Thank you. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your presence. Thank you. All right, everyone — see you next week on Wisdom From Within. See you.