How to Make Time for Self-Care and Exercise with Christine Blanchette on The Healers Café with Manon Bolliger

just blossomed. You know, it took two years to get off the ground. It started in Shaw TV. But running is always in health, right? It’s always been its fuels me, it makes me feel good about myself, like I went running today. And I just love it. And it’s not just running it could be swimming and gardening, whatever, as long as you’re moving, and that, and I’m so passionate about what I do when I want to inspire others. And I feel my running clinic, the people in the running clinic inspire me. It’s not the other way around. I feel like you’re always learning from others. So that’s basically how it started. It’s always been there. I just came out stronger with creating the show in 2013.

 

Manon Bolliger 03:36

So, I mean, I understand moving is, is the thing, but so what is it about running specifically? That that really gets you?

 

Christine Blanchette 03:48

Oh, I feel…I feel free. I feel it’s my appointment with myself. I don’t know. I feel like I know me sounds silly, but I feel like a bird like I’m flying. I got my wings that I’m feeling…I just lose…the mind and body connection. It’s just like, I’m in Zen. I’m in sync with my body and everything just feels right after no matter how stressful I feel at the beginning of a run or workout. It just takes me to a better place. And running, I owe running so much it’s helped me to be I don’t know a better human, a better person overall that balanced lifestyle and to help others so yeah, I don’t know. It’s some people like swimming and whatever moves you is really the objective.

 

Manon Bolliger 04:44

But it’s the connection that you have to your to your body to?

 

Christine Blanchette 04:49

Yes, it just feels. You’re in that mode.

 

Manon Bolliger 04:52

Obviously.

 

Christine Blanchette 04:54

Like endorphins, they have the endorphins. Like I don’t feel like running. So, I say I try in my mind, I don’t want to trick my mind, I’ll say, okay. Oh, okay, if I go for five minutes, only five minutes, but I end up going for a half hour. And then I’ll have my running gear or workout gear, right there. So, it’s a trick. So, after we’re…after been a busy day in meetings, virtual meetings, I have my clothes right there, and it’s ready for me. So, I just ended up putting it on, it just makes it easier, since it’s just the way of my thinking, and it will help others who are watching this or listening. It works.

 

Manon Bolliger 05:37

So, it’s interesting, because so you haven’t been able to fool your…you still have to fool your mind. There’s still there’s still a resistance to it though, really, you clearly are so passionate about it, that you even have an entire TV show about it. So, it’s very, it’s interesting to hear that, you know, but so why is it do you think that you have to fool your mind, you found a way to make it easy? Like you said, you have your clothes ready. You say it’s five minutes, which anyone can do. Right? And then of course, as soon as you get into it, you realize you’re loving it. So, you’re gonna do it longer. Right? But why do you think that is? Or have you thought about that?

 

Christine Blanchette 06:24

I think it’s making time for yourself. I like to call my appointment with myself…self-care. I think everyone needs to practice self-care whether it’s once a day, and I’ve learned this through interviewing some of the guests on the show, but it’s for me, I need to take care of myself in order to take care of others. If I feel oh, I got to send this email. I have to do this. I feel Hey, what about myself? I need this. So, I need…and we all have our days where we’re just so busy. Even if I just okay, well, tomorrow’s another day. But if I can somehow do some bodyweight training or something, doing the stairs, anything, I’ll just I feel like psychologically it helps me. But if I don’t, then I’ll say tomorrow’s another day, as I said, and I just because we’re human, it’s just, you know, it happens so that self-care is so important. And it just helps. So, if anyone listening, watching could just whatever it is, you know, it’s just, it’s vital to help. It helps me to help others. And I think it can help everyone overall. So that’s it.

 

Manon Bolliger 07:35

I mean, sorry. Probably on the tangent, totally unexpected. But it’s actually I’m very curious about this. Because now, if you say it’s self-care, which we all need, and, you know, I wonder if there is a resistance, not so much to running, but to self-care, actually to valuing to actually take half an hour off our busy schedules to do something that we love. So that that’s where the resistance is.

 

Christine Blanchette 08:10

Yes. And I think too is that it’s having a goal, I think that helps with making you want to achieve. So, if your idea is to do a power walk, and you start off, like 10 minutes, okay, my objective is to do 20 minutes next week, like no more than 10% for running when you do. But if you practice and have a goal, everybody needs goals in life to keep moving with our mind and body. If you don’t have a goal, you sort of…you don’t know what it’s like, I don’t you you’re just not the best of yourself. So, what it moves you is to self-care, but also having a goal and whatever that goal is, you start with a small goal and then you have a bigger goal. So, start this journey, whatever the journey is, and if you are always interested in gardening, you can do apartment gardening condo or in your place or could be anything just marking it down to which is very helpful. I don’t always rely on my mind. I have it in my mind, but I always write it down and it helps me. Okay, today I’m doing my 20 minute run. Check it off. And then I’m going to do this, all these goals every day. Just helpful. But that’s in a sense how to how to put it in your schedule. But the resistance is still there right. So, it’s interesting that, you know, there’s some of the things we do without thinking of for which we have no resistance. And yet when it comes to carving out time for self, or to do something that we know, whatever that is, whether it’s running or whether it’s meditating or whether it’s whatever. It’s not uncommon to have this resistance where you have to trick yourself. Yeah.

 

Manon Bolliger 10:10

To actually do it, you know, which can…do you have any other thoughts or insight of why that might be? I mean its quit a phenomenon.

 

Christine Blanchette 10:21

I mean, yes, I mean, it’s that value, knowing yourself worth knowing that when you do something that you love, and there’s not every day, you know, love everything because of time commitments, maybe, you know, you’re injured, maybe you’re just having a bad day, mentally, you know. But I also think meditation, if you can just do your breathing, I learned at your desk, you’re on your…you’re breathing in and just, you’re fine. Your mind is in a better space. And you it that’s another helpful tip is, but I just…and I go through that. So, when I do those, that meditation breathing, I should call it and changing up my workout, whether it’s not running every day across training, or walking, and knowing your worth, knowing that you are, you need to make time for yourself. And, again, resistance does come in, as things come along, like we are, we’re so busy, that we have to make time. So yeah, I think those are the kinds of things that can help. So, I hope I answered your question.

 

Manon Bolliger 11:32

Yeah, it’s a catch 22

 

Christine Blanchette 11:36

I love your question.

 

Manon Bolliger 11:39

It makes a difference. And yet, we have to make the difference to have it happen. Right? It’s kind of a catch 22. Right. Like, we know, the end result? That’s the thing.

 

Christine Blanchette 11:50

Yes. And right, visualization, you know, like, when you visualize, which comes into meditations, these are the, you know, I’ve learned so much from others as well. So, you know, you can reach out to others resources is, it’s just helpful overall.

 

Manon Bolliger 12:10

I think, and I think, you know, it’s fine to have tricks, if it works. That’s the whole point, right? Having it super accessible, you know, like, your running gear right there, or things like that. They’re just easy tricks, right? That allow you to fall into it without, you know, without bringing as much resistance, but I wonder where the original resistance, you bring up value, your self-worth, I wonder if unconsciously so many of us have been trained or receive the interpretation that our own selves are of lesser value. In others, you have to value everyone else, or who you work for, or even if it’s yourself, it’s then your responsibility to the team or the end result or whatever it is, you know, and that your health somehow…it’s like, it’s less you know, and yeah, without it, there’s nothing.

 

Christine Blanchette 13:20

Yes, because if you generally speaking, you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others and you know, we’re worth it worth taking care of ourselves and having a moment to ourselves whether it’s five minutes, or you know, doing your you know, your breathing and your relaxation, you’re at all opening your arms and doing these chair I know I’m doing it here right now, but just knowing that you’re worth, you know, you’re going to be you know, helpful to others and you have family, you know, there’s family, there’s your, you know, your maybe your spouse, your partner, you know, your father, anyone and you need to be that overall, mind, body, and spirit. Practice. It’s, just very helpful. And that’s what I try to do every day. And it’s just when I don’t when I don’t exercise, I don’t feel the same. I don’t, I don’t feel I’m pristine. I feel because I got so much parity, as you probably can tell when I’m talking, I need to work out. It’s really neat.

 

Commercial Break 14:36

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Manon Bolliger 15:19

So, tell me a bit more about you, your program, like, your television program and what made you interested because it’s, you know, we’re kind of doing a similar idea, you know, I did not know, I need to search the internet more, but I just do what I love. So, I just thought I want to, I want to connect with people I want to see, you know, how it is for mostly healthcare practitioners, or anyone in the healing field. You know, why they’re into it, what brought them there, you know, and then just have conversations on what it’s really like to be in that world, you know, so that was sort of my motivation. And then I realized that it’s my natural place to have conversations with strangers. I get to meet all these fabulous people and so I started to realize this is my perfect introvert paradise.

 

Christine Blanchette 16:18

It’s wonderful doing it virtually to you know, with your, you have so much experience and you know, it’s harder to you know, to be your gas and, but, you know, on the show is, it’s about the gas, it’s about, you know, helping others is raising awareness, education, and I am the messenger I’m on there to, to just feed questions and do my research as best as I can and ask questions and whether it’s a dentist or naturopathic physician or medical doctor or holistic nutritionist or reserve dietitian, injury prevention, any, you know, doctors, medical professionals, yoga instructor just, yeah, fitness entertainment. An actor comes on the show who needs to get ready, and how does he work out or her how does she work out? It’s, it’s a wealth of information. I feel and again, I just like to raise awareness and provide education. And it’s up to the viewer on what they want to take from that. And, yeah, so it’s really, you know, as I said, you know, it’s…I’m learning so much from others, so, and from you today and learning, you know, and it’s just wonderful.

 

Manon Bolliger 17:45

Well, that’s how I feel, too. I love learning too. Yeah, what, what really got people interested in this, you know, because, I mean, we’re facing so many health issues, and, you know, on a huge scale, and I think more to come, but it’s almost like it’s like abandoning our, you know, I don’t know the expression in English, but, you know, it’s like, our, our sovereign right to health, you know, we have this, we’ve, you know, we really know what is right for our body, just like, for you, you know, that movement helps and makes you feel good. And yet, you know, we’ve been so cultured into a world where we’ve given up our inner power inner knowing to experts, and we’ve counted on outside stuff, you know, whether it’s drugs or whether it’s legal drugs, illegal drugs, you know, vitamins, you know, an excess of, I mean, all of these things have their place, but the point is, it’s almost like the outside knows better than the inside. And that’s sort of where our society has gone. Right? And, and I think that’s why we have become so gullible to, you know, authority. Instead of actually looking inside and going, well, wait a minute here, my body can do all this magical, wonderful, incredible thing, the very best pharmacies inside of me, you know, these kinds of statements. We don’t…I don’t think we spend enough time rejoicing in that I think you’ve interviewed tons of practitioners, what’s your, what’s your sense of or has this kind of come up in discussion?

 

Christine Blanchette 19:58

Well, you know, in like Dr. Lewis McMillan…you know, he was saying that the more we know, the better, we are armed with information. It’s not enough to take people…you know to rely on the doctor’s advice, sometimes it’s really hard to see a doctor or sometimes it’s just virtual. So, you really have to the onus is on us is our health, the more we learn, and there’s so much information out there cross referencing, and be armored with our knowledge, question things, we have a right to question things. We, you know, just, you know, healing our bodies, you know, whether it’s some, you know, vitamins taking the right supplements, as opposed to why do I need to take Tylenol when I don’t take, I mean, I’m not endorsing, but I, you know, I don’t like taking a lot of pain pills I try to heal on my own. And then I would ask, you know, the gas and, and, you know, just having knowledge. And, you know, it’s really important, because as I say, you know, as you know, it’s really hard to get a doctor, I have to really say well I have to see you in person. Because I don’t want to do a phone call or virtual. I mean, I know I understand with COVID. And I understand, but at the same time that we really do have to question and ask questions, we have a right to ask. We don’t just oh, take liberty. Yeah. Is that true? I like to question everything. It’s how I feel. Just my intuition, you know, and I have guests on the show who talk about that, like Dr. McMillan, for example.

 

Manon Bolliger 21:42

Yeah, that’s interesting. I just had a strange experience. To get my wisdom teeth out. I had these taken out before and now it was on the other side. So, and I don’t freeze, so I warned the dentist that I don’t freeze. And so, they, of course, they assumed as in I don’t do general anesthesia, which is fine. Okay. But of course, I’ll do the local one with the little shot, right? And I see this little gun coming. And it’s like, oh, wait a minute, I don’t actually do that. Because it doesn’t work, you know. So, then I might, you know, you go through the swelling through the all this stuff, the frozen mouth, blah, blah, blah. And it doesn’t actually remove the pain. So, I had two very willing…a fabulous dentist actually, and, and his assistant I don’t know what the qualification was in her role if she’s a dentist to or not. But um, yeah, she was like, oh, my God, like, I can’t witness this. You know, you can’t take out wisdom teeth without anesthesia. That’s insanity. And I said, no, no, I just, you know, I can do it. I’ve done it here on this side, I couldn’t do it on this side, you know, so we did an x ray to make sure that they’re, you know, that they were not completely broken or sideways, where you really do need surgery, and then it’s not appropriate to do it at a dental office anyways. But, you know, mine were clean. They were they were pierced. I mean pierce the skin. And, and the dentist said, Okay, I’ve done. I said, have you done lots of teeth pulling? And he’s, you know, a little bit on the older side. Of course, he has. Yes. I said, so. Let’s do it. But and he goes, Okay, let’s do it. Like, just tell me how it’s…how long it takes. So, it’s like, three, you know, about three seconds, you know, you go in, you roll the tooth, and then you force out the other piece. So, the actual discomfort is one second, and then maybe one and a half, maybe two seconds, at the very, very most, right? And so, I did a meditation, slight hypnosis, you know, I said, just tell me good things, if you’re going to tell me anything at all. And I did, you know, an acupuncture point that I just held. And I just breathed, and I mean they were just exploding with pleasure to see how incredible it is that you know how our mind can really…you know, with our body, right because I was using techniques that allow the body to relax and stay in the present and not create horrible stories. You know, that’s the worst of it. If I were to visualize everything, I could probably get very nauseated. But you know, again, this is something like they go wow, we’re gonna tell everyone this is the first time they’ve had to do this. But there’s a lot of people who don’t do well with anesthesia or it doesn’t work for them. They just say okay, go ahead because that’s the standard procedure, right. And when you when you know that we have mechanisms within ourselves that really allow us to deal with just about anything, if we’re willing, you know, they were so grateful that that I allowed them to witness. And then you know, our hour was done in no time because it didn’t take an hour since this was very, very short. And there was, I just asked for five seconds to prepare. So, I could, and I took Artica, which is a homeopathic remedy to for shock. And also, it stops. You know, well it does both, it regulates that. So, there’s no, you can have blood clot if you want it. But you also can have blood flow. So, it’s actually just allows the metabolism to do what it needs to do for its survival. Right. So, it was just a very interesting experience. Anyways, but that was yesterday that’s why I am sharing.

 

Christine Blanchette 26:06

I know I’m enjoying you sharing this. So, there’s, so you’re the first patient, right?

 

Manon Bolliger 26:16

But, you know, but did it for them, but it’s such a, you know, it just made me realize how much we’ve lost touch with, really what is our, in our power and our strength and how we believe things that we’ve been told. You know, like, you know, like, I know that the assistance and well, oh, my God, no, it can’t be done. We’ve never done this, it can’t be done. It’s like, well, is that true? Is it a true? No, it’s not. Of course, it can be done. Like if it was done…it’s been, it’s done in other parts of the country where people have to pay up country and other countries, or people have to pay extra for the anesthesia. So, they’re, you know, there are places where people do this, you know, and again, it’s like, going back to sort of, like, analyzing all parts of everything and asking questions. Do we need this? Or do we not need this? Is this true? Or is it not true?

 

Christine Blanchette 27:23

Oh, yeah, just having the knowledge, you know, when you feel like, you’re making the right decision for you, and it’s, you know, it’s, yeah, so it’s just like health care. Just like, I repeat myself here, but it’s just so difficult to get even a family doctor. So, time is like, yes. So, I’m very happy to have a family doctor and I see her and I’m glad. But I prefer that I you know, I mean, you know, virtually is okay, but it’s not the basket for me you know, it’s nothing.

 

Manon Bolliger 28:06

You can do all things virtually there’s no way.

 

Christine Blanchette 28:10

Like interviewing.

 

Manon Bolliger 28:13

And so, our time was like literally up Is there any last words you want to leave people with, and your notes will come underneath that people can reach you or your show? So, I’d like to save?

 

Christine Blanchette 28:30

Well, I just wanted to thank you very much for having me. It’s been a pleasure it went by so fast I can’t believe it. That’s all I wanted to say.

 

Manon Bolliger 28:42

Okay, well, thank you.

 

ENDING: 41:33

Thank you for joining us at the Healers Café with Manon Bolliger. Continue your healing journey by visiting TheHealersCafe.com and her website and discover how to listen to your body and reboot optimal health or DrManonBolliger.com/tips.