Health Tips for Digital Nomads

Astrid: Hey, Rachel. It’s so good to see you again and meet you again.  We have met a couple months ago and, uh, yeah, it’s good to catch up again. Thank you so much for being a guest on the travel and work with human design podcast. Nice to have you here for the people who are not yet familiar with, uh, you and your work and your company.

Can you please introduce yourself? 

Rachel: Well, thank you. First off. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. And you were just on my podcast recently as well. So it’s fun to now be a guest on yours. And I am a functional medicine practitioner and holistic health coach. I own a, an online company called Natural Health Rising.

So I actually work with people all over the world to help them improve their health. And, um, we do that through functional medicine and natural holistic remedies and approaches. And, um, I’m sure we’ll get, maybe get a little bit more into that later on in the show. So I’ll leave it there 

Astrid: for sure. Yes. I mean, I experienced firsthand how important health it is.

And health is one of those aspects when you’re traveling, you don’t really think about your health. But when you lose your health, then you, the next time around. Yeah. Sometimes you have to lose it before you see its value and yeah, we’ll definitely get more into that. But before we, we get there, um, where are your roots from and, uh, where are you now?

Rachel: , I was born in Illinois. So the Midwest in the U. S. and I lived there until I was about 10, moved to Florida for a while. I lived in Arizona for a few years. And then for the past, I think six to seven months, I’ve been traveling full time and I’m in Columbia right now.

Astrid: Wow. Yeah, I, um, I love Arizona. I lived there for, as well. I lived in in Flagstaff. Which area of Arizona were you in? 

Rachel: Phoenix and I still have an apartment there and I, I lived in Tempe for a little bit, Phoenix, Scottsdale, kind of all over the, the place in the Phoenix area. 

Astrid: The valley as they say, right? Yes.

And, um, how did you, uh, go into the nomadic lifestyle? 

Rachel: Well, I always really wanted to travel. First off, when I was a kid, my family didn’t do a lot of traveling and I would always get these scholarships from school when I was in high school, asking me to go live in a different country to study.

And I asked my parents every year, mom, can I go? Could I go? Can I go? And I don’t even know what it was at that time. I was just. So curious, like innately. And she always said no, probably because of safety reasons and concerns and money and whatever. And yeah, so for, for as long as I can remember, I’d been interested in just getting out of my little bubble.

And I didn’t really fully make the jump to experiencing the big world until I was 21 and I went to Thailand by myself. So I was there for a few weeks and that really ignited my passion for traveling. And so as I got older, um, once I started a business back in 2021, 2020, 2021, I finally ripped the bandaid off.

I moved to Costa Rica for a few months, and that was the start of, of me exper experimenting with being nomadic, right? I wound up going back to the U. S. three months after that trip because I got out of a relationship while I was traveling, which was um, and then since then have done Like short and longer trips, um, being nomadic and also living in Arizona.

Astrid: Yeah, it’s, sometimes when you get bitten by the travel bug it catches on, right?  

Rachel:Yes!

Astrid: How do you like the digital nomad lifestyle so far? 

Rachel: I love it I love seeing the world.

I love learning about different cultures trying new foods. Meeting people going on adventures. I’m definitely more of an outdoorsy person surfing hiking all that type of stuff and that’s great. But I’m realizing now doing this full time for six or seven months how much I really miss my community back home and how much how much importance that is to me having my good friends, my good connections.

There’s a really big difference between face times with those friends and being in community and just being able to drive to their house and hang out with them or go to events or network with people and do things on a regular basis with the same people. So I think I really, really miss that, and I didn’t know that until I did this, right?

I had to experiment with the longer term, and now I know that I’m more of a person who needs to have a home base, and then still go on my travel sprees, whether that’s a month or three months here or there, um, because I don’t think the travel bug ever really goes away. 

Astrid: I can totally relate to that because, when I traveled for a year, when I came back home in 2011, I had like nesting fever, right?

I was just so ready to get those urges out as well. So I, I knew that if I were to travel long term. And if this lifestyle would be sustainable for me. I wanted to have a home as well. To have a house base and also be able to travel. I think for me, that’s like the best of both worlds.

And that’s what I love so much about the digital nomad lifestyle?There’s no definition to it. We can just create a lifestyle we want. So good on you for realizing that because yeah, community is so important. Right. And, uh, yeah, really cool. So when you, um, I know that you, we had a beautiful conversation about, um, when we met on the Nomads Cruise, we had a conversation about human design.

So I know you know a little bit about it, but how did human design came on your path? 

Rachel: Um, actually that first nomadic. Like long term stint in 2021 when I was living in Costa Rica, I met a girl who became my astrologer. She’s still my astrologer to this day. Everything she tells me comes true. It’s really crazy.

Um, but she had also, As a part of our initial reading, she also brought out my human design and that is where I heard from it. And then recently, um, I was going through some coursework and trying to learn more about my human design in this year. 

Astrid: Nice has, um, what has human design brought to you in that sense?

Did you benefit from it from knowing a little bit more about, uh, your energetic blueprint in that sense? 

Rachel: I would say so. I always, I wouldn’t say always, but I knew for a long time that I, I had this really good gut feeling about things is like this super strong intuition. And I just thought everybody has this, which I do.

I still think that, but like, cause like everybody must be like this. I just have to figure it out and listen to it. Then when I learned I was a generator, I said, ah, okay. I have like a specific thing in this chart. Okay. Where that is really strong for me because I am this type and some people actually don’t have that exact same feeling that I get that’s super strong.

So I thought that was really cool. And that helped me lean into that more and listen to that more and not question it as much. Um, I also about the responding thing, what I’ve learned is that, um, looking into my environment more is important. And. In the recent years, I started to learn about synchronicities and listen to those and look at those, and now I’m like, okay, this is actually something for me.

Asking for signs, seeing synchronicities, um, I do this all the time, like if I hear something a few times in the same week, I’ll go do it. Um, there was this course I did last year, And one friend started talking about this lady who wrote a book. They’re like, I’m reading this book. I’m like, Oh, that’s interesting.

I’ve never heard of that. Another totally different person, not in my circle who I just met, brought up this lady to me. And then a third person from outside of the circle started talking about this. And I, and then I look online, I’m like, okay, she’s having. This course, it’s the last time she’s ever running this course live and I feel drawn to her work.

And I got like these three big hits this week. So I went up and I signed up for the course. Like these are the little things that I really pay attention to now, because I believe that I should be, um, looking at these things in my environment. 

Astrid: That is so cool. Yeah. And, and, um, it’s kind of funny because human design often comes on somebody’s path as well.

Like sometimes you need to hear it and then hear it again and hear it again. And then something spurs you into action and you know, you might look up your chart or anything, but it’s like, sometimes it needs to kind of, you know, coming on your radar a couple of times before. Uh, we move into action and we, we see it, but it’s so cool.

And so do you actively use your gut feeling in your travel life? 

Rachel: Yes. Oh my gosh. Um, I, so when I started my trip six months ago, I went to Gran Canaria in Spain. Everybody kept asking me, Rachel, where is Gran Canaria? We’ve never heard of this before. All of my friends from the U. S. have never heard of this little island by Africa.

And I said, I don’t know. I just have a good feeling about it. I just feel like I’m supposed to go there. And I loved it there. I had the best time. I went surfing. Um, this was something also in my chart is that I have the shores environment, which has to do with water. And I know you and I had a deeper conversation about how this could be taken outside of water.

But when I think of that, Before I even knew that that was my environment sign, I was always super drawn to water, always felt really comfortable and happy and peaceful by water. Um, so I’m going a little bit off topic here, but yes, like doing that and then. Anytime while I’m traveling, if I feel some sort of gut instinct to tell me not to do something, not to go somewhere, I feel like I’ve prevented myself from some possibly dangerous situations or things that I shouldn’t go do in countries.

And that could be a little bit of just, you know, that the trauma based response as well. But I always listened to that with like, what should I do? Where am I going? And using that as part of my compass. 

Astrid: That is so cool to hear. And uh, yeah, it’s kind of like a guiding principle in that sense, right? Because it’s, it’s, it’s an, if we learn to listen to our bodies more, and I know that you are an expert in, in learning to listen to your body in that sense, right?

Because you, you do a lot with stress, right? Can you explain that a little bit more about, um, Yeah, stress and, and how you kind of became so involved in creating your own company and um, you know, helping people with health. Mm hmm. 

Rachel: You want me to talk about the stress part or the company creation part? Two different stories.

Astrid: Hmm. Let’s talk about the stress part first. 

Rachel: Okay. Yeah. Stress is, everybody has stress. Everybody has stress. We can’t get away from stressful things in our lives. Finances, relationship, uh, Um, time management, et cetera, some of us have also gone through like really traumatic things in our lives, big trauma, small traumas.

This creates, um, another layer of stress to your being into your nervous system. And the reason I’ve, I focus on this as a part of helping my clients and reducing stress and working on the nervous system is because it has a direct impact on your health, your nervous system, depending upon what, uh, if you’re looking at like You know, textbook version of the nervous system where it’s just a sympathetic and the Uh, parasympathetic response, or if you’re looking at the polyvagal theory, where we actually have a few different rungs of the nervous system, if we are in parasympathetic state, which is where we’re, we’re like stress free, we’re good, we’re calm, we feel connected, we feel relaxed, our immune system is strong.

Our digestion is working properly, which means when we eat our food, we break it down. We produce enzymes. We absorb the vitamins, the minerals, the amino acids from it. So we actually get the nutrients that we need from our food. Um, We, you know, there’s a lot of other bodily processes that actually work how they’re supposed to smoothly and efficiently when we’re in that parasympathetic state.

If we’re in a sympathetic state, a lot of people think of as fight or flight, or when you’re feeling really stressed, anxious, flustered, angry, irritated, um, a lot of people can walk. 

Astrid: Overwhelmed? 

Rachel: Overwhelmed, yeah. A lot of people can even just, this can be their autopilot a lot of times. You don’t even realize that you’re in this state because you’re so used to going into it.

And this does the opposite of everything I just said. It weakens your immunity. Which means you’re going to get sick more often, you’re more likely to get an autoimmune disease, like I have experienced, and like my clients I work with, um, you’re not breaking down your food properly or digesting it properly, and so on and so forth.

You’re going to start to see lots of symptoms come up, health problems come up. And we also have another stage, if we’re looking at polyvagal theory, which is more of a shutdown state. Which is where people will go if they’re feeling more depressed, hopeless, like these, these kinds of freeze, fawn, shut down areas that we can go into.

Um, so these things aren’t bad by nature. They’re actually developed. For a reason to protect us, but there are things that we can do to pull ourselves out of those states. Um, things we can do on a daily basis to get our bodies back into that parasympathetic and calm state so that we can optimize our health and also optimize the rest of our lives, our business, our relationships, and so on.

Astrid: Hmm. Yeah, I, I so resonate with what you say from me, this whole journey towards becoming location independent was for me all about reducing stress, right? So that was my main objective was how can I avoid stress in my life? And then I looked at all the different factors and definitely being kind of locked into my nine to five was a very big stress factor for me.

So that’s why. I made a lot of drastic changes in that for in that aspect, but, um, I’m curious to hear your observations about this because when I, um, when I’m traveling and when I meet a lot of digital nomads, I do notice and observe that. Even though we have created so much freedom for ourselves, there are a lot of people who still feel very stressed, right?

They have decision fatigue, they feel overwhelmed. I mean, travel is great, but nonstop travel can be very, very stressful as well. What’s your take on that? I 

Rachel: 100 percent agree. And the first thing I thought of when you said decision fatigue is when you’re traveling really fast, because if you go to, and I did, I’m actually made this mistake this year.

If you go to one place for one month and then one place for two weeks and then another place for a month and then another place for a few weeks, every single time you move. You can’t just resume normal life. You have to learn where’s the grocery store. How do I get around? Is it safe in this neighborhood?

Um, you know, what am I going to do here? How am I going to manage my time here? Especially for changing even time zones. Like that’s a whole nother factor. So you’re constantly thinking so much more and actually doing much more than if you were to just stay in one place for a few months or longer.

Because if you stay in a place for three, three months, four months and so on, within that first few weeks, you’re learning the lay of the land, you know what to do, and then you get into a routine and it feels really good. Right? So that is a whole layer of stress that can be added. And I’m definitely speaking on that from experience.

Um, Then, like I said, there’s the stress of time zone changes. Unfortunately, the, the, the raw truth is that people who travel a lot actually have shorter life expectancies and more health problems because we’re, if we’re constantly switching time zones, it really messes up our biological clocks, right? And so that can affect the nervous system stress.

Sleep, et cetera. So, so that’s a factor to, to think about, like, how far do you really want to go? How often do you really want to change time zones? Um, there’s more pressure to do things, to see more when you’re in a place who wants to go to all these beautiful countries and not do anything, but have their normal lives, which sometimes we, we might do, but like, okay, I came here.

I have to go hiking. I have to do this. I have to do that. So you’re usually overextending yourself. So you can still travel, but be smart about it so that you’re reducing stress. And you can change some of those things that I talked about, like staying in a place for longer or traveling slower, um, having balance and how many things you do and see, and if you travel slower, you won’t feel as stressed to do as many things, right?

Um, like I said, about the time zones, being smart about that as best as possible. And then. Adding in, taking care of your health, like, resting when you really feel like you need to rest, nourishing your body with good foods, um, maybe meditating or having a breathwork practice, having some sort of practice that you can take with you anywhere, which will actually help reduce your stress levels.

And when we do this, then you can enjoy your travels more. 

Astrid: Yeah. Oh man. I, I am so guilty of this in my first, when I started my digital nomad life in 2018, I went super fast. So I kind of moved like every Saturday and every Wednesday of my week, I moved to a new place. Yeah. And it was pretty insane. Yeah. You really, of course, I mean, you want to see as much as possible, but at some point you kind of hit this wall and then you’ll start slowing down and slowing down because slow travel is the way to go in that sense.

And, um, When, when you’re talking about time zones, one of the things that I really enjoyed while we were actually all crossing the Atlantic was that we had a very slow every day, one hour, um, time zone change, right? It was so nice to kind of ease into that process and let us let our bodies adjust in that sense.

Did you notice that as well, that it was kind of nice to be in the middle of the ocean.

Rachel: I actually thought it was the coolest thing ever. And that was my first time on a cruise and we were on the water for quite some time. And I thought, wow, this is a really cool way to travel and adjust your circadian rhythm and sleep in a slow manner.

And I talked about like my talk on the cruise was about sleep and these things. Um, so it was very timely to be noticing that, but. Yeah, I mean, if you can go on a cruise and do it that way, that’s, I feel like it’s a lot better for your body. Unless before you leave to your new location. you have time to slowly change your wake up and sleep times like the week before going to the new place that can also help or be a substitute to uh, to taking a 

long cruise.

Astrid: Yeah, I think giving yourself grace in any of these situations, I think that’s the key to to success here, right? Because when you listen to your body and Um, you know, when help becomes an issue, uh, your body might actually prevent you from traveling. Um, and when your body says no, I mean, it’s a no, right? I mean, your mind or your willpower can be super strong about this, but when the body says no, it’s done.

So giving ourselves grace in that sense. Um, and just. accept that the situation is what it is, might be really helpful as well. And, um, yeah, it’s, I immediately think back of another trip that I took because the start of my, my big trip was, I actually went to my back the day before I was supposed to go on my big trip.

So I went in with a whole lot of pain. Um, and then I didn’t see anything from, from Bangkok actually, because I literally couldn’t. Walk for more than 50 meters. So the only thing that I saw was the garden of my hostel before it, it came better in a couple, um, couple of days. So sometimes you also don’t have a choice in that, that matter.

You mentioned that you were struggling with your health as well. Um, and that’s kind of the reason why you set up your company, right? Could you maybe take us on that journey of how you became, um, so involved with your mission to help. You know, travelers, fellow travelers and people all over the world to improve their health.

Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. So my health journey or my health issues really started when I was a kid. So this was a lifelong journey for me. And when I was younger, I would have really, really painful stomach pains, um, bloating, all these different things, really bad migraines. And It was just something I lived with like all through childhood.

And then once I, Oh, I also got diagnosed with athletes asthma when high school, then once I got started to get out of high school and I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I took dairy out of my diet. I heard it somewhere. I’m going to try this. And my asthma went away and some of my health symptoms went away, like the digestive stuff.

I said, that’s interesting. And there’s, there’s actually more to this than just me being this way. Right. Um, so you would think that the story would end there and I would get better, but I actually got worse. And so through my late teens to my early twenties, my health was declining more and more and more.

My hair was falling out. I was extremely fatigued where I would just fall asleep in my college classes. Um, I had anxiety attacks, trouble swallowing, just weird, weird symptoms. And, um, I also had heart palpitations. And the tipping point for me, because I was going to doctors for years, doctor after doctor, after doctor, Everyone kept saying, Oh, you’re so young.

There’s nothing wrong with you. Um, your blood work looks fine. You’re you just have anxiety, right? These things that we hear from conventional medicine, but I knew inside that something was seriously wrong. So I started doing my own research, listening to podcasts, reading books. And one night my heart palpitations were so bad that I got admitted to the hospital because I thought I was having a heart attack.

And The hospital, the doctors there wanted to do a heart surgery to explore and see if there was some sort of electrical issue. So I went through with the surgery out of fear. And when I woke up, they found that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the electrical parts of my heart. Everything was fine.

So that was really the last straw for me, because that was just absolutely unnecessary. I wound up finding a functional medicine practitioner, and Within the first blood test, everything he ran, he said, Oh yeah, you have an autoimmune disease. Your heart palpitations were because your thyroid is not balanced.

You have Hashimoto’s. And I mean, it was the first time I was heard and seen. And then as soon as I started changing my diet and lifestyle, according to what he was telling me, my symptoms started going away within months. I mean, it was absolutely insane. And. It took a while for me to really get a hundred percent better.

It took years of work and different practitioners and things, but that inspired me so much. I wound up quitting my job in corporate America, went back to school, became a functional medicine practitioner and health coach. And I started my business in the very, very beginning of 2021. And I’ve been helping people get through the same type of auto immune diseases, weird mystery stuff going on since then.

And I’ve had so much success in helping people. Go back to living symptom free normal lives. 

Astrid: It’s it’s such an incredible story and it also, I mean you have so much power in you right to kind of, um, come back from, from this whole process of sickness, uh, and becoming the one who helps other people solve the mysteries, right?

And Honestly, when I looked at your chart, I was like, Oh, wow, it’s so cool to look at your charts and, and knowing a little bit of your backstory, because you, you basically have the channel of awareness, which is all about solving the mysteries and having the insights to do that. And then you have the, the channel, but the keeper of the keys, and then you have the power to empower others to, you know, become healthy again.

And so. I thought it was so cool when I looked at your chart, I was like, wow, you’re so aligned with, you know, how you, you know, how your mission is also from your own experience, of course. But yeah, it’s, it’s so cool. And I think, um, the message of health of, you know, figuring out what works for you as a traveler or as a nomad or, you know, Um, as a location independent entrepreneur, right?

Because once you are in that entrepreneurial mindset, you might be like, go, go, go, go, go, or hustle modes. But yeah, the body, um, the body doesn’t lie in that sense. 

Rachel: And it’s really nice to hear that my chart aligns with things. I love that. 

Astrid: Yeah.

It’s so funny. I mean, also when you’re talking about anxiety, you have a defined head and a defined Ajna and a lot of people actually, um, I mean, there’s, there’s a lot going on in your head, right? It’s like, there’s always. You know, the clocks are always turning. It’s always something happening and, um, there’s a lot of things.

So when we look at the health aspects of the human design system, um, there is so much value into diving into these systems and to figure out, okay, what works for me, right? Because all these, um, generalized dietary regimens are maybe not suited for how you function, right? How you digest food, how you take in life in that sense.

So, how have you been working and traveling at the same time? How, um, how did you experience that, um, because you continued your, your company, right? While traveling. 

Rachel: Hmm. Well, I chose not to leave and do this big of a trip until my business was in a really stable place. Because if I would have done that in the beginning.

And I did, I actually did. And I remember being in Costa Rica and I went through this, this breakup and I thought, Oh crap, like I don’t really have, this isn’t working yet. I need to go home. I need to go get a support system. I need to go get mentors and business coaches and a community. And I need to just.

Stay put so that I don’t have a lot of different things going on and figure this out first before I go back and do a longer travel like that. So that’s the first key. I don’t think anybody who’s like just starting a business should be moving around a lot. Like maybe you could do some trips, but. Um, That’s just a little tip there.

And then now, I mean, all my stuff has always been online, so I never saw clients in person. So it was really easy for me to just pick up and go. Um, even the lab tests that I use with people, we actually order them in line and ship them to people’s houses all over the world. There are some limitations with certain countries.

If you’re in a Underdeveloped place that doesn’t have really good, uh, mail delivery systems. There might be some challenges there, but other than that, we do our calls on zoom. We have a special software where we organize everything for our clients. Um, that’s HIPAA compliant and safe for everything medical related and health related.

And that’s pretty much it. And along the way, I’ve actually been growing my team. Like I hired a, um, a health coach on my team right before I left for my trip. And that’s helped a lot because as I trained her if I ever was in a time zone where my client in the US couldn’t do a call with me, then I could say, Hey, you do a call with my health coach until I’m back over in that time zone.

And so even expanding my team was super helpful to help me be more location independent and go where I really wanted to go. 

Astrid: That sounds so cool. And also, so organized. 

Rachel: I’m very organized. Yeah. Yeah, I have. Yeah. I was going to say, I couldn’t really do it without my team. I have a podcast editor, I have an assistant who’s been with me for years, and she actually lives in Armenia and she, what’s cool is she even came and met me in Spain recently.

Um, I have, you know, other, other people on my team too. And so without them, if it was just me and I was running it, Uh, pretty busy business. I don’t think I would be able to juggle all of this stuff and travel at the same time. 

Astrid: Now you figured out something that, um, that is, uh, I think one of the secrets of, uh, the business rules and that’s delegation.

You don’t have to do everything alone. 

Rachel: Yeah. 

Astrid: And, um, yeah, it’s, it’s really cool. When I, when I look at your charts, um, I also happened to notice that your three, five pro profile and, uh, three fives are definitely, um, according to the textbook version of human design, very much trial and error. Um, have you noticed that, um, showing up in your life?

Rachel: Definitely. I guess I always thought it was just a normal thing, but, um, I can think back to health stuff, like when I give you the example of before I found the functional medicine person, uh, and I was listening to podcasts and books and things like that. Oh my gosh, I was doing everything. I was like, okay, I’m going to try meditation.

Maybe that will get rid of my anxiety. So I’m like, okay, what meditation should I try? I’m going to try all the meditations and experiment with them. Okay, nutrition is supposed to be important. What nutrition am I going to do? I tried the vegan diet. I tried the carnivore diet. I tried all of these different things to see, try different supplements.

So, I’ve always been like that and, and to me, I thought it was just like a normal thing that everybody did. 

Astrid: I think we all do it to a certain extent, right? Because we all have probably trees in our design, but yeah, for the, for the profile, because it’s, it’s the energy from the sun and we get all, you know, 70 percent of the energy from the sun.

It’s such an important factor in that sense. But it’s, it’s really cool to hear, um, how you’re experimenting with things because, uh, I mean, that’s, that’s the beauty of life, right? Experimenting in that sense. When you, when you, um, just referring to your gut reaction as well, um, the, the strategy of the generator is waiting for the response, right?

So how did you feel that, uh, in your life when you started experimenting with That waiting part. Sure. 

Rachel: So some of that. Yeah. Like with the examples I just gave, I would wait a while on a certain diet. Maybe I don’t remember the exact timelines, but maybe it was a month or two. And then I’m like, Hmm, this is making me feel worse.

I should probably stop this and try something different. Um, I’ve been learning more about that recently though, with The, uh, you can tell me if I’m wrong or right on this, but I’m supposed to be more patient. Like if something comes up right away internally, I’m not supposed to like, let’s say something’s going wrong in a relationship as an example, or in your business.

And You’re like, Oh, this is so frustrating. This isn’t working. Instead of just walking up and getting out right away, there’s supposed to be more of like a waiting period before you respond and really make that decision. Um, is that correct? 

Astrid: It doesn’t necessarily have to be because, well, it depends on the person, right?

Because if you have an emotional authority, that might be very true, but as a sacral being, you will know, right? Your body will tell you up and go right now out of the door, right?

Rachel: I see. Cause I was going to 

say I’m not good at waiting for certain things. Like if I feel something I’m like, Oh, this isn’t working.

I don’t like this. Let’s go. Then I’ll, then I just ripped the bandaid off. 

Astrid: Yeah. No, no, no. It’s like the purpose of waiting is more that, um. When we listen to our gut reaction and we feel that response, it’s like quick and go. Right. But it is kind of connecting, uh, and find a time to kind of check in with yourself.

And I think that is something that we didn’t really learn in school. Right. So it’s not like, okay, brush your teeth, uh, you know, put your clothes on. Okay. Let’s do it. Check in with our body. How do we feel? It would be really nice if they actually would teach that in schools, but that’s that kind of checking in to kind of go within and see if you can feel that response in your body.

Yeah, that is, that is kind of an acquired skill in that sense. Um, but a very important one, I think. 

Rachel: Very important. 

Astrid: And again, going back to the whole cycle of stress, right? I think that’s, that’s again, slow travel is the way to go because it’s like, when you’re in that high state of, uh, go, go, go, go, go, go from, from places to places and have to work at the same time, juggling your business and your life and indeed finding out where the next supermarket is, um, and, and deciding, okay, where to go next, or maybe not making any decisions at all anymore.

because you’re so overwhelmed to kind of, that you, that you kind of go into a freeze mode in that sense. I think that checking in like, okay, find the piece to kind of check in with yourself. Yeah. I think that was really, really, really important. 

Rachel: Yeah. Finding stillness and journaling these, these places where you can access, um, how you’re feeling and the depths of what you’ve, what your subconscious has going on is really helpful.

Astrid: Yeah, I remember another conversation that we had. Um, and that was a, um, an interesting conversation about molds. Oh, yeah. The funny thing is that we had a conversation while we’re at the middle of the ocean, right? We were on both on a nomad cruise. And, um, I happen to go to this apartment. Um, On this little tiny place in Brazil and the first thing that happened to me when I stepped into that apartment, I was, I smelled it.

I was like, I’m smelling mold. Oh no. 

Rachel: The exact same thing happened. The exact same thing happened to me in Brazil. Oh wow. Yeah. 

Astrid: Yeah. So yeah, how, how? Okay, so maybe let’s unpack this, right? Because I think we need a little bit more context to this conversation. Why is Mold so bad for us in that sense? 

Rachel: So this is becoming seriously like an epidemic that only certain holistic and functional practitioners are talking about.

Um, so I think it’s really important to, to hear this and listen to this because everybody will come in contact with this at some point in their life, and it might even be in your environment currently. So mold Grows in places where it’s dark. It’s moist. It could be anywhere. It could be in the roof. It could be in the walls under floorboards.

It doesn’t have to be you walk in and you see it on the wall. Like, it’s usually actually not like that. It’s usually in the AC units or something like that. And what happens is sometimes some molds. A lot of molds can produce toxic byproducts called mycotoxins, which is the mold toxin that comes out of the mold itself and spreads around in the air.

And it’s pretty much invisible, so if it’s in the wall or in the AC unit and you don’t see it, but then that AC unit kicks on and blows the mycotoxins all over the place, well now you’re breathing them in. And they’re getting into your tissues and your body. What happens then is over time. And, and totally depends on like, how much mold is it?

What’s the mycotoxin? How long have you been in the environment? What is your health currently like, and what are your genes are all different factors that are going to tell us how are you going to have symptoms and what are they going to look like? So some people, if they’re exposed for a while, let’s say they’re living at a place for a few months, a year longer.

Um, sometimes immediately we can see symptoms. It could be brain fog, headaches, sinus issues. A lot of people have chronic sinus issues and they think, Oh, I just have chronic, chronic sinus issues. Usually it’s actually mold. Um, eventually this can develop into cancer. Unfortunately, I had a client a while ago where she came to me with like stage three cancer.

And I found out too late that it was. From old in her home, um, autoimmunity, kidney problems, liver problems, so on and so forth. So it’s, it’s a really serious thing. If it gets to that point, um, I’m going to pause there and see where you, where you want to take this. 

Astrid: When we travel, we look at accommodations and we might see something that we like. We book it and then we show up at the destination and we step into that door, and then we might be confronted with a space of an environment that is not me really how we like it to be, but still. There’s often not really a different choice then, right?

Because, you know, you might already have paid money for it, etc. Uh, they can’t maybe not fix it in the first few days that you’re there. So what then? 

Rachel: What do you do? Yeah, really good question and really hard to answer. Um, first off, if it’s super bad, And I’ll give you a perfect example. I went home for Christmas this December and my family lives in Florida.

Florida is super humid. It’s a super wet environment. And I went to this Airbnb that was really close to the beach. So really, really humid area. I walk in, I look at the AC unit, Or like the, the vent on the wall. Cause in, in America, we usually have the central, um, heating and cooling systems. You have like the little vent and in multiple vents all over the place, I could see black mold coming out of the vent, black, like really bad black mold.

And I said, Oh, hell no, there is no way I’m staying here. I had already paid the money. I was only staying there for a week. Anyways, I sent her pictures immediately. I said, This is not healthy. This is not safe. I will not stay here. I would like a refund. And of course, I said this in the nicest way possible, but pretty much like this is urgent.

I want to get out of here and I need to go find an Airbnb and I would like a refund. Um, luckily the lady was super sweet understanding and you know, I’m sure she took care of it after I left. She was able to give me a refund and I was good to go. I went to a new place that is. Now, in an example like Brazil, where a lot of language barriers, everybody speaks Portuguese, there’s probably not mold inspectors and people who take care of mold walking around Brazil.

Okay. If you’ve never been to Brazil, it’s, it’s very different than being in Florida or America or anything like this. So, And you might not have those luxuries of getting something fixed or being able to get a refund and leave, et cetera. Um, you gotta do your best, right? Like, if it’s, if it’s super bad, maybe you try to get into a different place.

Maybe you first, if you’re planning on staying somewhere for months, maybe you first book like a week at a place. Or a couple weeks, go stay there. See how you like it before you commit to doing multiple months. And once you’re in that location, you may actually have the leisure of going to check out some other places that are open on Airbnb or something.

If somebody is nice enough to let you go do that, um, 

Astrid: So you kind of need to sniff it out literally and figuratively. 

Rachel: Well, yeah, because one of the biggest signs is that musty smell and yeah, musty smell is a hundred percent. Like, it’s 100 percent there. If it’s musty, it’s moldy. If it’s not musty, it’s moldy.

It doesn’t mean it’s not moldy. That’s the other problem. But I would say a hundred percent, the musty smell is a giveaway. Um, I can give you more examples too, like this place in Columbia that I’m in right now. I’ve been here for a couple of months. I moved in, we turned the AC unit on, slept for a couple of nights and I started having the craziest sinus issues.

I have never had sinus issues my whole life, like bleeding nose. Weird, gross stuff, like building up in my nose. It was terrible headaches waking up in the morning. And I told the person, like, I think there’s something wrong with the AC unit. They came out, they cleaned it. Uh, they cleaned the filter. They left, got a little bit better, but it was still really bad.

And I lived like this for a full month. And I told them again, Hey, there’s something really wrong. Like I actually went to a doctor here because it was so bad and it was so painful. They came out, they cleaned it again. And that’s the thing. It’s like cleaning it, if they’re not a professional mold person, like it’s, it might not really do anything.

Um, but they came out, they cleaned it again and it got a lot better. And so I was fortunate enough to have somebody care enough to say, well, we’ll send somebody out again. We’ll make sure this is taken care of. And it actually really helped. And I haven’t been having these crazy sinus issues for the last month.

The other thing I do is I travel with an air purifier. Now, this doesn’t make the biggest difference. Like, it’s not going to cure the mold problem. It’s not going to get rid of it. But I am affiliated with this company called HypoAir. Um, so if anybody wants the discount code, they can reach out to me. But, um, Um, it does help reduce mold spores and bacteria and stuff like that.

So I travel with it and it makes me, it gives me a little bit of a peace of mind knowing, okay, at least I can slightly improve the air quality in this room while I’m sleeping and I’m spending the most amount of time in this place. 

Astrid: That’s 

actually 

the first thing that I did when I came back home. I bought this tiny little thing that you plug into the wall that kind of ionize.

Yes, 

Rachel: it’s an ionizer. 

Astrid: Yep. 

Rachel: And, 

Astrid: uh, because, you know, thinking of you and your conversation, um, yeah, so there are some small things that you can carry with you to help adjust the environment, right, in that sense. 

Rachel: Mm hmm. Absolutely. And then the other, other thing I’ll say too, is just using your discernment.

Like when I was in Bansko, I really liked Bansko. It’s beautiful. beautiful, but there’s a lot of mold there for some reason. They have a lot of really old buildings. And, uh, I was working out in this gym and you could just hear it. You could see the mold over all the walls and you’re inhaling it. And it smells so bad.

And I’m like, but this is the only gym. And I wound up like reducing my workouts and working out at home some days because I said, I don’t want to be breathing this stuff in. Like this is, I know this is not good for me. So I’m going to do my best to go on bike rides and do yoga at my place. Instead of going to the gym every single day and inhaling.

mold spores when I’m breathing heavily on the treadmill and like working out, I’m going to try and make a better choice between my options that I have here. 

Astrid: So outside, outside exercises versus being indoors, right? Is that, that’s basically, it’s just risking your, that you’re exposed to it then, right?

Rachel: Yeah. If you notice that it’s in a gym, for example, then you can definitely get outside and do some exercises outside instead. 

Astrid: Yeah, it’s so, it’s such a fascinating because it’s, it’s not something that everybody is thinking about, right? It’s not like, it’s not the first thing that’s on your mind when you’re booking, you know, an accommodation.

And of course, there’s so many things to think about, uh, looking back to that stress and decision fatigue, because it’s, it is hard to make decisions with all these things that you need to consider because you do don’t have control over your environment in that sense. Um, But yeah, I think it’s so important to become aware of all these things that, um, do affect your productivity and do affect your general wellbeing.

Right. So it’s, um, when, uh, when I go back to your business, um, is there a specific mission that you have with your business or, um, I know that you work a lot with other immune diseases. Um, That is probably, of course, because of your own experience. But, um, is there anything that you want to share about that?

Yeah, 

Rachel: I mean, I work with a lot of different people. Like I’ve worked with the high performers who are looking to optimize their health. And the majority of the people I work with are the really complex cases, the people who have gone on for years, Doctors and still feel unwell and don’t know what’s going on or the people who have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and, um, My, my hope is to help people rise above the standard of medical care and understand that they can take control of their health.

You can get rid of health issues. You can do it in a more natural way. You don’t have to rely on medications. There’s a time and place for medications, but a lot of times we can do it without. And you, in order to do this, you really just need to have the right information. You have to do the right lab tests.

You have to understand What’s going on in your body and you have to have the right guidance and really use a holistic approach, which is everything from nutrition to exercise, sleep, stress management, supplements, et cetera, in order to get to your goals. A lot of times people think there’s one thing wrong with them.

There’s one root cause there’s one pill or something that’s going to fix them. But it, it really is. I see this time and time again, that it’s a holistic approach. And. You have to look for a really good practitioner to help you. And if you’ve seen many people, you just got to keep looking, unfortunately, because that person is out there to help you.

I promise you. 

Astrid: And if there’s any, um, digital nomads listening to you, um, and, um, if they’re on a different country, you said you do things online. Can you describe that process a little bit? 

Rachel: Yes, absolutely. Uh, I developed what I call the RISE approach. R I S E. And the initial, um, consult will help me understand where are we going to start with lab testing for you.

And that’s the R, that stands for root causes. So that’s understanding What’s triggering your symptoms or your disease through functional medicine lab testing. It’s very different than blood work and conventional labs. It really helps us get to things like heavy metals, mold, nutrient imbalances, hormone imbalances.

These things that are usually the real causes of what’s going on in your body. Um, we ship those labs out and most of them are just done in the comfort of your own home. You, their saliva samples, hair samples, stool samples. If we do need blood work, we can also help you take care of that as well. And then once we have those results, we really have a good map of your body and what’s going on.

And that’s where we go through the rest of the RISE framework. So I is for implementation, and that’s where people are working with me and my team one on one, um, usually for about four to six months. And we’re working with them on nutrition, stress management, sleep, exercise, nervous system regulation, whatever it is to help people become symptom free over time.

The S is for supplementation and support. So there is supplements that are in the mix because we can’t Get rid of heavy metals with meditating, right? Or, or mold with meditating. So we do have to use supplements and then the support piece is super important. Um, we actually give people access to us Monday through Friday to ask any kind of questions they want so that they never feel alone on their journey and get all their questions answered between our calls together.

And then the E stands for elimination. We, we promise that your symptoms will start eliminating throughout the course of working with us. And that process is, um, kind of look a little bit different for everybody, depending upon what’s going on. But, um, we do see that people get better as they implement these holistic changes.

Astrid: I think it’s so powerful. And also, um, people who are dealing with, with stress, um, and dealing with all these, uh, questions about their health and not finding an answer, I think to have somebody where you can, you know, go to and, and be seen and heard in that sense, because, um, that that’s something that in the medical field is so much missing.

You’re just like, you know, Going from one specialist to another and they say, Oh, sorry, I can’t help you. And then you’re out of door again. I think it’s so, um, so. Yeah, really need is to, um, be a, have a different approach to that as well. So yeah, 

Rachel: it’s really, it’s really healing for a lot of people because if you’ve been to 20 different doctors and nobody listened to you, sometimes just talking with us and I sit there and listen to people’s problems and they’re like, Oh, Wow.

I feel, I feel so good now. I feel better. Thank you for listening. And it’s just helps you understand that there can be a different way of viewing things. And then that’s also why we always do our one on one calls for an hour. So that we have a lot of time to chat with people and make sure that everything’s addressed and we hear you.

And then that’s also why we do the support, the messaging support, because. You have questions when you leave the doctor’s office, don’t you? And you don’t get to like message them and ask them questions. And that’s why we provide that as well, so that people can really feel supported and heard. 

Astrid: So cool. Do you use human design in your business in that sense?

Do you look at different aspects of the human design system or do you see any correlations between, between that? 

Rachel: I don’t use it with clients. I think it’s a really cool idea and I would love to learn a little bit more about that. I think there’s maybe just a few. A few aspects if I started there to start to dive into it, but we already do so much that it would, you know, it’s going to take me some time to learn a lot more about it before I go implementing things.

Um, I am trying to use it more from the operation side. So I’m trying to learn more about, okay, who are the right clients? What is a yes or no for me? Cause we don’t, we don’t actually take any client. Like we have a conversation before and make sure that we, they’re going to be a good fit. Right. So.

Listening to my gut more with that. Um, Understanding what business opportunities light me up more and tuning into those things, looking more at content creation was a new one. I learned that apparently, according to my arrows, I have an inconsistent, um, I’m not supposed to like plan my content, which I used to not do until a business coach told me that my calendar looked like crap and that I needed to time block.

So then I started doing that. And then I learned that I’m actually not supposed to do that with my content creation. And so I allow, I still actually time block my content creation and I still try to do it. But if I’m not feeling super inspired, I might actually move it on my calendar. Or if I’m doing something else or have some free space and then I get an idea, I’m like, Oh, I’m going to go make content for the next hour or two, because I, I, I feel really inspired right now to go make content.

Astrid: So 

Rachel: I’m using it more on the operation side or other than the client side right now. 

Astrid: Yeah, and to respond to what you were just saying, I think, um, within the human design context, it’s so important to always shake things with a grain of salt, because the advice that you will get, um, is, it can be your generalized advice, right?

But it’s, you are the quantum of the Everything in your chart. Right. So, uh, yes, you are three, five profile. Um, but you also have a right brain and you are a generator. So you respond in a moment. So it’s always plus, plus, plus, plus, but yeah, I can tell that she might have refrained to your right brain in that sense that you take everything in, in that sense and, um, yeah, what comes out comes out, but yeah, I would definitely highly encourage you to just experiment with it and for everybody who’s listening.

Because once you have that, uh, respond to create, then that’s the way, like, drop everything and just go make that content, right? Because that’s where, uh, the magic happens. And, um, that doesn’t mean that time blocking is not something that is, uh, not useful. It’s just more that when you time block it and you think like, okay, I need to be creative.

I need to be creative. I need to be creative. Yeah, nothing’s gonna happen. You know, you better, yeah. Go out, um, go take a shower or maybe go on a bike ride and then suddenly all these ideas are popping in. So sometimes it’s also about not taking things too strictly and just experiment and play with it.

Right. Because, um, yeah, you are, you are the only person who can figure out if it works for you or not. But. It’s really cool to hear that you’re taking, uh, that operational side of your business because yeah, you are, uh, your business is an extension of your energy, right? And of course you have a team built around you.

So it’s also their energy, but still, I mean, you’re, um, you’re the leader from your, yeah, in your own business. So it’s so cool to kind of see how we can apply these things, um, uh, yeah, in your business as well. But yeah, just know that there’s a whole world out there. It’s called the primary health system.

Um, I am fortunate enough that I work with somebody who developed that system 30 years ago. Uh, so we’re going through all the biology of all the gates and it’s so fascinating. I mean, there’s so much more to learn also for me. But, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s a very interesting, um, thing that you, you can see in your chart.

Oh, that person has, um, more muscle strength or needs to drink more water or needs to keep up their feet up high. Like that’s all there. Right. So there’s whole worlds out there. Which is super cool to, uh, to dive into, but definitely not for now. 

Rachel: I’m going to have to have you read my chart about that. I’m so curious.

Oh, but I did, we had a conversation about digestion, right? Like briefly after the show. And I didn’t know about the digestive thing and you told me that I like to like simple meals and like I eat a piece of steak and then I eat a piece of broccoli and then I eat the potato, right? Yes. Ultimately. And I noticed that in the relationship that I was in at the time, my partner had the, is it like called musical?

Digestion. What’s the Sounds. Yes. And he was the type of person who, and I don’t even know, I didn’t look it up, but he would blend everything together. And he really liked, like, Oh, you got to try this piece of steak with this like pineapple on it. And I would be like, oh, gross. I just want to eat the steak.

And then I just want to eat the pineapple. And that was when it clicked that you had said that to me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I really do like to eat one thing at a time and save like my, my steak and then my pineapple. And then my, my broccoli. It’s so crazy. 

Astrid: Oh, I love to. Yeah. It’s so good to hear that.

And yeah, I mean, it’s, that’s what it is, right? Sometimes it doesn’t resonate just yet because it’s about observing your own behavior. And then months later, you’re just like, ah, I guess I do that. But yeah, digestion is so interesting. And also digestion is also, um, it’s also digesting life, right? It’s digesting.

You know, in information. So it’s again, not doing everything at once, but just take it like step by step by step, but also as a generator, but also with an alternating determination. So of our digestion system in that sense. So yeah. Because it’s not only food that we intake, it’s energy, it’s life, right?

It’s, it’s everything. So, so good to hear. Yeah. I mean, it’s, uh, for me, it’s a very fascinating system and, um, it came on my health journey, uh, and it’s helped me a lot, but I think there are so many things that you just said and refer to in this podcast. There’s so much work there. There’s a lot of shadow work, um, regulating your nervous system, um, emotions. I mean, we didn’t talk about emotions, but. Solar plexus here. And I see you have a solar plexus as well.

It’s funny, we actually have the same gait. I also have gait 37. So that’s hunkering for community around us, but only having half of a channel. Interesting. But yeah, there’s so many things that go into, um, our health. As we round up this beautiful conversation, where can people find you?

Rachel: Um, really easy to remember because it’s the same everywhere, natural health rising, so Instagram, tick tock my website is natural health rising. com. I also have a podcast that Astrid was on, um, the natural health rising podcast. And I would say if anybody wants to message me, I’m most active on Instagram.

And, um, I also have links to, to book a call with me. That’s complimentary. If anybody’s interested in chatting about their health on those platforms as well. 

Astrid: Yeah. And I, I saw that you also have, um, some, um, eBooks about stress reduction, et cetera, right? So I’ll make sure that everything is linked in the show notes, uh, below this episode.

And, um, as a, um, last question, uh, what kind of tip would you give somebody who’s transitioning into the digital nomad lifestyle and also want to work on their health? Mmm. 

Rachel: Mm hmm. Yeah. So take care of your health and make it your number one priority, even if you’re traveling. And that’s because if you don’t have your health, you really don’t have anything.

You’re not going to be able to do much. So it might be enticing to travel fast and see a lot of places, not sleep a lot because you want to do a lot, but that’s going to lead to burnout. As we talked about, um, it might be enticing to. Eat like go to Italy and every day eat pizza and pasta and drink loads of wine.

But the reality is that you still need to put nutritious food in your body to feel healthy and energized enough to enjoy your travels. I’m not saying that you can’t indulge in those things and try these things, but, um, sometimes that indulgence could be a slippery slope. If you’re, if you’re trying to live in this, like fantasy world and then exercise too, you want to move your body, stick to a routine, have schedules definitely becomes It’s harder when, um, you’re moving around a lot and trying to learn new places.

So at the, at the end of the day, prioritize the most important things, your sleep, not pushing yourself too much, listing your body, sticking to a workout routine. And then that way you’re going to keep your health and tip top shape so that you can really enjoy your travels in the future. 

Astrid: Wow. I love that.

And, thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom Rachel