Sachin Patel interviews Christine Morgenstern Shin about her many facets from fitness, to nutrition, mental health, yoga therapy, and resilience. Christine opens up about her early-life challenges of depression, ADD, a serious mold reaction, Lyme disease, CIRS, and SIBO and how after 20 years, she pursued functional nutrition, Eastern traditional medicine, and yoga, which helped her to live actively. She covers the way she incorporates the polyvagal theory into yoga therapy to help her clients shift slowly to recovery. She describes her ideal client and the passion she has for bringing recovery to as many people as she can. Listen in for a greater understanding of her practice for wellness through yoga therapy and the polyvagal theory.

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin welcomes listeners to Perfect Practice. Sachin welcomes and introduces Christine Morgenstern Shin.

 

[1:17] Christine is a multi-faceted expert. She helps people with diet and nutrition, she helps people as a yoga therapy practitioner, and as a resilience coach.

 

[3:02] Christine went to college for exercise physiology. For 20-plus years, she lived with life-threatening depression, anxiety and ADHD. Fitness was her identity. When she got sick, she felt shame for not being able to heal herself.

 

[4:55] Christine experienced multiple symptoms. She went from being a cross-fitter to being stuck in a chair and crying. Christine tried seven or eight Allopathic doctors and specialists. Her diagnosis was IBS and she was referred to a psychologist.

 

[6:10] She took 20-plus years of pharmaceuticals for depression, anxiety, ADHD, sleep, and birth control. It was very shameful for her as a hard worker and high achiever. She found the world of functional medicine and went to school for functional nutrition. She also found the yoga movement, meditation, mindfulness, and visualization, which led her to yoga therapy.

 

[7:16] Christine started discovering polyvagal theory. She connected with a functional naturopathic doctor, a biological dentist, and a functional disease expert. Her symptoms were Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) due to chronic mold. She was later diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).

 

[9:00] Through Eastern traditions and functional medicine, Christine found a way to heal. She has moved her practice from working with healthy people for fitness to working with people who have chronic health conditions and mental health suffering, assisting with behavioral change.

 

[12:19] Christine had seen seven doctors who had not helped her. So she started researching alternatives and found functional medicine on the internet and took a class on functional nutrition. That class opened up doors for her. Wanting to regain her mobility brought her to yoga. She also tried acupuncture and other alternative modalities.

 

[13:54] In 2015, over the course of a year, Christine was able to titrate off all her pharmaceuticals. Disclaimer: Christine does not advocate for anyone to do that. It is just part of her story. She was open to going back to them if she needed to, but she has not. To Christine, it is a testament to how the body can heal itself if you go about it in the right way.

 

[15:05] Christine describes polyvagal theory as an updated map of your autonomic nervous system. The polyvagal theory was first described by Stephen Porges, Ph.D. Christine uses it to teach her clients to be active operators of their nervous systems. They have the tools to shift from a state that doesn’t serve them to a safer and more connected state.

 

[17:01] Christine discusses how our thoughts and beliefs work with the autonomic nervous system. Christine says the body speaks up to the brain more than vice versa. This is important if you have layered health conditions. To change your story, you first have to be able to change your state. Christine helps people to change their states to be ready to change their behavior.

 

[21:48] Christine describes three autonomic states as on a ladder: top, parasympathetic ventral vagal regulation (safety and connection), middle, sympathetic fight or flight (mobilization), and bottom, parasympathetic dorsal vagal response (immobilization). She explains the hierarchy between the states and how to move up the ladder. Christine notes examples of blended states.

 

[29:05] Christine presents a case study: A woman came to her with dissociations and didn’t know what her trauma was. Christine layered polyvagal theory with yoga therapy. The woman practiced multiple times per day. She came to acknowledge what the trauma was and was able to shift slowly to a higher state and understand the trauma isn’t her. She feels much freer.

 

[33:40] Christine created her practice with a lot of frustration. People don’t understand what functional nutritionists and yoga practitioners are. Talking about a scarcity mindset and an abundance mindset confuses people. Christine has a lot of education to get across to clients. Going through mentorship over the past year has been very refining for Christine.

 

[35:56] Sachin gives a quick shoutout to Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy for putting together the “Ask who, not how” mentorship concept. Our job is to solve patients’ problems and to hire the right people to solve our challenges. Sachin learns from the best and brings it back to share with the mentorship group.

 

[36:29] Christine calls the mentorship priceless. The framework and the tech solutions are excellent for her practice; she acknowledges how the framework has guided her in accomplishing her vision of rolling out hybrid programs and group programs to reach many people has improved her practice.

 

[38:57] Christine entered the mentorship without any list so she started from scratch. She’s building her email list. She’s done challenges, Lives, social media, Reels, and Master Classes since she started the mentorship. She has a platform to speak her truth. She enjoys being on a podcast and connecting with other practitioners. She’s at the point where she sees playing big.

 

[41:21] Christine’s ideal client is a high performer, recovering perfectionist, heavy thinker, overdoer, and a go-getter. You don’t have to be an executive, but a lot of her clients are. She has a lot of practitioners, creators, and entrepreneurs as clients. And supermoms. People tell her they didn’t know they had to slow down so they could go faster in a grounded way.

 

[42:12] Christine works with people that want to release what no longer serves them, whether it’s mental, emotional, energetic, or physical weight. It could be any of those realms. She specializes in mental health and the gut health brain. She works with people with hormone challenges or gut challenges as well.

 

[42:46] Christine has a group foundational program and a concierge one-on-one program. The group is a hybrid program with touchpoints. She has yoga therapy one-on-one sessions with people that want to dive into that more. The clients always come in for one thing but they leave with so much more, including mental/emotional resilience, and connecting with their true selves.

 

[44:01] Christine explains how she, a yoga therapist, differs from a yoga instructor. A yoga class mainly works on foundations and movement, layering in breath and mindfulness. Yoga therapy is more focused on the breath, with a little movement on the side. Looking at the person as a whole, we work on five “layers” of the body focusing on the health and well-being of the person.

 

[48:44] Christine shares her contact information.

 

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

RadiantHeart.health

Radiant Lifestyle Reset

Polyvagal theory

Sympathetic state

Parasympathetic state

Dr. Stephen Porges, Ph.D.

Tony Robbins

Neuroplasticity

Ed Hollowell

 

More about today’s guest Christine Morgenstern Shin

Christine is the founder of Radiant Heart, a lifestyle & longevity practice providing custom wellness support. She specializes in empowering high-performers and recovering perfectionists to holistically navigate chronic stress, anxiety, and stubborn weight loss. Her focus lies in brain health and behavioral change, as well as the interconnectedness between mental health, gut health & hormone imbalance. With primary roles as a Functional Nutrition & Lifestyle Practitioner, level 1 Yoga Therapeutic Specialist for Mental Health, and Board-Certified Behavioral Coach, Christine guides her clients to release what no longer serves them — whether it be mental, emotional, energetic, or physical weight. She utilizes the principles of functional medicine and nutrition, modern neuroscience, and ancient eastern traditions. By drawing from both western and eastern modalities, her approach is unique, bio-individualized, and foremost, rooted in love.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radianthearthealthfromwithin/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinemorgensternshin/

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinemorgensternshin/

Website for Radiant Heart Health: http://www.radiantheart.health/

Website for Radiant Lifestyle Reset: http://www.radiantheart.health/radiant-lifestyle-reset/

 

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Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done