How To Integrate Health And Wellness Into Your Business Plan with Chantalynn

James Swanwick: And I am James Swanwick, the co-founder of Swanwick Sleep and the helper of people in reducing and quitting alcohol and we're speaking to the lovely Chantalynn. Did I pronounce it correctly? Give me another go Chantalynn.Chantalynn: Chantalynn.

James Swanwick: So elegant Chantalynn. So lovely to have you here. Chantalynn is a holistic wellness and lifestyle influencer. She's a very busy mompreneur. She's the president of the Santa Monica chapter of the Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Chantalynn: Yes.

James Swanwick: And Chantalynn believes that how you do anything is how you do everything. And it's so great to have you here on Swanwick live. How are you doing?

Chantalynn: I'm doing fantastic. I was so excited. Thank you so much for having me, because I'm a big fan of the Swannies.

James Swanwick: Thank you very much. I can't believeI've butchered the pronunciation of your name I even practiced before we went live. And then I still

Chantalynn: Think of Shanti like in yoga, Shanti Peace, Chan-ta-lynn!

James Swanwick: Beautiful. I love it. If you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, go ahead and just type in right now where you are watching from and if you have questions or rather I should say, when you have questions as we go along, we would love to answer them for you. And yeah, so just go ahead and post a little comment down below, let us know that you're here on Facebook, and or YouTube. So we're talking today about integrating health and wellness into your life into your business plan. Just tell us a little bit about you and how you see health holistically.

Chantalynn: Well, I feel number one, everything works together. So if you are successful in business and you're miserable in your personal life, that's not going to do very well. And if you say you are successful financially and your health is declining, that's not going to be great either. So it works together, it's important to have health and wellness in everything that you do. So you can enjoy life more, and you can be even more productive if that's what you want to do. And so I think more and more even back in the days, I worked with corporate corporations, and I remember maybe 20, 25 years ago, even like I work with corporate from American Express, and they would send their executives to understand what self-care is all about. And I love that because so it's always about self-love, self-care, and health and wellness because it's what you put in your body, what you put on your body, what you put around you and body, mind, spirit connection because that's what we are, you know, we can't do just one area and let go of the other. So you want to be successful in business? Make sure that also your health is good, your family, your relationships so that you can enjoy your success.

James Swanwick: Yeah, I love that. Hello Cheryl Jones watching on YouTube, hello from California. Melanie asks, says or I've heard the term holistic, but never knew what it meant.

Do you want to just clarify, I know you kind of gave us a nice little introduction there but why don't you clarify what holistic actually means in terms of health?

Chantalynn: Yeah, I like holistic for me personally also means whole, as in w h o l e. You know, looking at the whole picture, and doing all things that are naturally good for you. That what nature intended is what I think of holistic, nature intended us to be happy nature intended us to be thriving and healthy and well, you know. And for me, when I run my Santa Monica, holistic Chamber of Commerce, I think of holistic also is heart-centered. So for the business folks, you know, we all want to be of service and so either you invent a product or you have a service, it's all about being of service. And so it's a heart-centered piece to me, that's also part of being holistic.

James Swanwick: Give us an idea of how you live your life in terms of what do you do first thing in the morning? What do you do throughout the day? What do you do at nighttime as a bedtime ritual? How are you sleeping? Give us an idea of what a holistic life looks like for you.

Chantalynn: Well, I love having a ritual because it's sort of like I used to years ago knowing things that are good for me. So I would create things that I have to do like regimens that I have to follow, and it gets boring and it feels restrictive. And I felt kind of, you know, just obligations versus joy and happiness. So I create, you know, I'm a kind of a sponge. So I just learned from all these different doctors and health professionals and gurus and I developed a morning ritual because I felt that it was a place for me to lean into and to relax. into. So that's my barometers for everything. So creating a ritual for me would be something that's nourishing that makes me happy or makes my body happy. And especially I have a strong morning spiritual practice.

I wake up first thing when I'm still kind of groggy. I start my meditation like that. To me at this stage in the game is a non-negotiable. The ideal for me would be 20 minutes. And I remember I had a teacher before who said to me when I used to say, Oh my god, I'm so busy. I'm trying to squeeze it in, I'm trying to make it happen. It was so much of that masculine energy of like, I got to get it done. It's almost like angsty you know, and I didn't like that. And he's like, y'all need to chill out and you need to go meditate for an hour. I go, I just told you I don't have time, he goes, then do it for two hours because you obviously needed it. And I thought he was just joking, but then, later on, I realized, yes, we do need to balance out our busy life with time to self. So my morning ritual which will be 20 minutes of meditation. It calms me down. My day may not change but my perspective changed and I'm more equipped.

I have a 14 and a half year old son. And you know sometimes parenting is very difficult and challenging and I yell at him and I realized, oh my god, what if I didn't meditate? So it becomes like something I need and I love and then I started with a morning hot liquid drink that I felt I needed to fuel my body after a long night's sleep. And I give up my recipes all the time. It's super simple, hot cup of water, a touch of lemon if you want a taste, and a half a Meyer lemon, and a little touch of cayenne pepper because I like it spicy. And then I put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar first thing in the morning. And my body, what that feels to me is warm, that warm, feels very soothing. So it soothes me, you know, from just touching my mouth, my lips all the way down, I feel kind of warm and fuzzy. And that's how I want to start my day warm and fuzzy.

And then you know, because I get grounded by doing all these rituals, then I start to plan my meal out in the morning. And the next thing I do is I make a green smoothie for my son and I and he's a teenager, I fed him really healthy things his whole life. But then one day, he's out there in the world, eating pizza, whatever, every day if he could, but I give him this green smoothie. And I felt kind of like, I'm giving him something nourishing that lying on his stomach lid. And again, it's about feeling nourished, it's about feeling and I make it so yummy. He loves it. He asks me for it, and I feel like I won, you know, as a parent, that to me is a win. So having these rituals and it also feels nourishing to him that I pay attention to him before my day starts. So that's my ideal-like-quick morning and if I had more time, of course, there's stretching, there's yoga, there's tennis games that I like to play.

I like to play tennis. My ideal week would be three times a week I get to play tennis, and maybe do yoga five days a week. That would be the ideal thing. But you know, all these self-care takes a lot of time. Because I plan about two hours of the morning for myself whenever I could, of course, there are exceptions to the rule of like some days I don't get that, but my meditation I get in, and my hot water. Those two things are like my must go to. Because it makes me feel like I spend some time just to do that. Oh, yeah. And I also try to do oil pulling three times to five times a week.

James Swanwick: What are you trying to do sorry,

Chantalynn: is an Ayurvedic practice. So let's say after my meditation, I immediately put a tablespoon of organic coconut oil. This is for the mornings, I actually have the time and I swish it around my mouth. I put the timer on for 20 minutes while I get my clothes and make my smoothie and do all these things. I believe that it's supposed to pull all the toxins out of your body. But for me, what I noticed right away is my dental visits changed. Like I get plaque some people just do for their teeth. And for me, doing this oil pulling makes my plaque a lot easier for my dentist to deal with. Like, I would sit there and he's not scraping the plaque off of me. I'm obsessed about getting my teeth done. I used to go for a cleaning every three months and he goes that's too much, you know, you're abusive to the enamel. So I said okay, so six months, please. And said okay, but I noticed at six months sometime he had to scrape the plaque a little bit. I mean, that's too much information maybe. But I noticed that that was one of the benefits of the oil pulling, and it makes your teeth whiter, cleaner, fresher breath. And so I incorporate all these rituals as part of lifestyle. So that is not something I think about and it's kind of nice, I just like getting up and I just do these things. And you know, I feel a million bucks before I leave the house.

James Swanwick: Yeah, wonderful. I love that morning routine. I got a few points I want to make on that or just questions, but I want to make sure that I acknowledge the people who are leaving comments on Facebook and YouTube. So we've got let's see, Mia Bianca says what do you think about supplement capsules for those who have no time to make a smoothie.

Chantalynn: Supplements are good, you have to research the companies. And what I love doing is I curate a collection of things that I use and I have a company that I use to make the green smoothie. It's when I have time I put all those extra frozen bananas and yummy fruit so to make it palatable for my son, otherwise, I actually put this powder in a shaker bottle and I'm out the door shaking that bottle and sipping it. Supplements are great. I think you know, you have to also monitor how your body feels. Now for someone healthy, I would say it's really hard to tell if a product is working. I usually give it a good six months, you know, when I research a product, I don't always feel the difference. But knowing that I'm doing something nourishing and my body is functioning as it should, that's my barometer. That's why I'm like, Okay, I'll continue to do that. Because we're not getting enough nutrients in our food anymore.

James Swanwick: Yeah, I don't think that taking a supplement is going to make up for poor diet, lack of exercise and poor sleep. Yeah, you can take all the best supplements in the world that promise the world but I think that they probably mean more I mean, just think of the word supplement, right? It supplements something else. It's not replacing something. It's like it's adding to so, I think if you're going to take supplements, you want to be practicing good health routines. Anyway, as a learning staff, would you agree with that?

Chantalynn: Completely. I completely agree that I think you try to get it from your food and you know, unprocessed things as much as possible. Supplement just helps you here and there it's okay to do that, you know, but I wouldn't, just like you said it's not a replacement for a complete well balanced diet or nutrition.

James Swanwick: We have another question here from Micha and Rebecca: What is the best eye bag remover for a night shifter?

Chantalynn: Well, I would say if you have bags under your eye or dark circle, you definitely need to take a look at your nutrition because that's really where it comes from. But there are products like, you know, cool cucumbers, aloe vera, and then just ice packs for some time for the gentle area of the eyes. But again, I've learned that dark eye circles are usually a nutritional imbalance.

James Swanwick: Yeah, and when you really break it down I believe that you can cure almost any physical ailment through good nutrition and lots of water. I mean, I guess lots of water is part of good nutrition but my partner and I go to an organic farmers markets every Sunday morning here in Brisbane. And it's funny because my mother, I think, still scoffs at us going and paying premium prices for organic as opposed to getting it from the chain of supermarkets here in Australia and Cogo will work because we're paying a premium price. However, whether it's a placebo effect or not just the idea that I'm putting in vibrationally alive foods that are only have traveled less than a couple of hours from the place that they were pulled, from the ground or taken off or they fell from the tree and then they're eaten within 72 hours after purchasing that food and not frozen makes me feel healthier. I think that's reflected in my overall sense of calm. Most of the time I still have little meltdowns here and there. But I think if you can eat nutritious and nutritionally dense beautiful food that's obviously good. Here's the thing I always say when it comes to the price because a lot of people object to the price and they say they can't afford it or etc. You're going to pay for it eventually like you either pay for it for healthy food now or you'll pay for it with medical costs later.

Chantalynn: Completely agree. Food is medicine. You know, Hippocrates have said and I totally believe in that. And I am so blessed. I live two blocks from the farmers market. It's like the world-famous farmers market, the Santa Monica farmers market here. It's where all the chefs in LA come to and I get to learn about the farmers and know about them, I actually have a vast knowledge about soil health. I believe in regenerative agriculture, which means we're going beyond organic. We're talking about doing things that are good for the earth because your soil is a living organism, and the more biodiversity in that soil, which means there will be nutrient-dense foods for you later. And I totally do, I'm not a farmer like I'm funny. I'm like a hippie from the city. You know, like, I'm not a farming girl. I'm not any of those things. But I will use my dollars to support the farmers who are good stewards of the earth because you're right, you either pay now or pay later. And the thing about paying later is you feel like crap. Well, who would want to feel like crap? I don't care about all the money in the world. I want to feel like a million bucks every time I get up in the morning. I want to bounce out of bed. I want to be vibrant and enjoy all my activities because all that money is not going to help you travel the world if you can't have the help to support your lifestyle you know so that's what I wanna continue to have fun in life.

So yes, I would rather pay now, a little bit now. That's my insurance. We really don't rarely see doctors other than getting out of physical exams. And I like to keep it that way.

James Swanwick: Yeah, well, another way just to make it more cost-effective is that if you're willing to invest in a flower pot or and buy some soil, a little bit of maybe fertilizer, organic compost, and actually buy some seedlings and plants, some of your own vegetables, that actually can work out to be very cost-efficient. We now have four or five rows of flower trays etc. Where we've planted kale, bok choy, spinach, tomatoes. We have dandelion, is that dandelion? Dandelion, as I understand it, is very good for helping control or reduce cholesterol, which I've been guilty of having high levels of cholesterol. So I eat that and then we kind of want to get it to the point where we actually don't need to go out to go grocery shopping for any vegetables. Quite frankly, we might go after some other things but for vegetables, we'd like to just grow it on our own and it does require an initial investment because you've got to, you do have to buy some trays or pots or containers. Then if you really want to make sure that the soil is rich you were talking about their shuttling then like with some worms, and we'll get an organic and it's rich and all that kind of stuff and you do have to invest in that. But once you've got it up and running what it really just takes is sunlight, water, and patience.

Chantalynn: Yes

James Swanwick: I might add some love and love and care in there as well, love, care, water, sunshine, and patience

Chantalynn: All of that we all need, even humans love that. As humans with thrive too if we have enough love and sunshine and water and food.

James Swanwick: Where can our viewers find more about you just as we move along here? Where is your site and where can we learn more about you?

Chantalynn: Well, you can I'm working on my website but is Chantalynn.com and because I, you know, my career have kept changing a lot over the years because of all my I'm like squirrel I get excited about things and I go Oh, I want to do that oh, I want to do that and I thought oh my gosh, I'm so add on my career choices. But now what I realized is that you know what, I am a curator of all things great. I love anything that's life affirming. So for me, you know, I do transformational coaching, helping people to be an acceptance of exactly where they're at and embrace that and learn to look for the magic and joy that's already there and not try to be somewhere else. But that doesn't mean that you can't make the plan because we can all improve, we can all expand and we can all evolve and that's never going to end until we die.You know, like that just our process. So how can we have fun with it and incorporate it. So I now understand that everything I'm interested in is all under the umbrella of, you know, holistic wellness and lifestyle. So my website is going to have all the different things.

I have also worked since high school as a celebrity nail stylist, so I'm very much into beauty. And you know, you can tell a person's healthy by looking at their skin, if their skin is glowing, and you know, they're hydrated if you're looking at their skin. And so I come from that Hollywood, I'm part of the glam squad, you know. So I love to use all that experience to make a holistic lifestyle. Sexy and glamorous, because it is sexy and glamorous when you're healthy, and vibrant, and happy. And so that's under the Chantalynn.com. So if you go on there, I'm gonna start, you know, including all the different sectors of things that I care about. Whether it's supplements that I like food, that I love, you know, any kind of products I'm into. And sustainability is a big deal for me, any company that I align myself with I love that.

I enjoy caring for the planet and the earth and I love, you know, we have a new wave of, we call it conscious capitalism. So you know, we have companies who care about people and the planet, just the same as the profit. And I love that and so I love to support that just like I support farmers who are doing good things you know.

James Swanwick: We posted a link to that website in the YouTube comments and the Facebook comments down below. So if you'd like to learn more you can go to Chantalynn.com- C-h-a and t-a-l-y-n-n. Someone on Facebook says thank you I'm a proud son of farmers. Both mother and father are wonderful.

Chantalynn: God bless you. There's not enough farmers in the world right now. I think in this country, we have like 10% of the population of farmers. I mean, that's why I love my farmers.

James Swanwick: We've got Antonello watching from Manila in the Philippines. Big shout out to you Antonello thank you for watching. We've got Da Vinci, Alessia Homero. Hello!

And yeah, now you've mentioned water a few times there. I am of the belief but it's funny I can have a belief but still not take an appropriate action. But I am of the belief that if we just simply drink so much more pure healthy water, particular spring water, maybe water that's not doesn't have fluoride or chemicals in it. We could also probably reduce the number of physical ailments and sickness and things like that. The more water you drink, the less food you tend to crave, which might mean the less sugary crap that you eat. The more water you drink, the less stress and anxiety you feel. The more water you drink, the better your skin looks. And so the more confident you feel. The healthier you strive to be, the better you feel, and so forth. What are your thoughts? I know we talked about nutrition, and it almost seems just too simple, right advice, like ah, I'm going to come on a show. Listen to see how I can fix that. My health and the answer is eat good food and drink lots of water. But how good, how important is drinking lots and lots of water?

Chantalynn: It is so important. I am actually, I've been accused of not drinking enough. Every time I go see my doctor, even my acupuncture, she was oh girl, you're all dehydrated and they have to end and my I get thirsty because I'm active and the water, water is life. Water nourishes all of my cells. And for those people who are trying to work on their diets or whatever I suggest, if you drink warm liquids, it actually helped to calm the cravings and the hunger calms down a lot. And so like you say when you drink more water, you eat less, and the water is so good for your lymphatic system to remove all the toxins in your blood. It helps your circulation and it helps to cleanse your blood. So that's how important water is.

And I now know that I constantly have to have water near me, I have to have a bottle to remind me to drink because sometimes I forget. And if you and I drink a ton of water, because I'm very athletic and I go out and I play tennis, and I'm drinking and I want to get big jars of water so I can remember to keep drinking and replenish this. As I sweat I'm losing a lot of electrolytes and things like that. And one of the tricks is to add a little salt to my diet if I want to retain the water.

If you're dehydrated, that's a trick. You know, eat food and eat more miso based food, so you can get more salt into your diet so that you can retain the water because a lot of times that's what happened when you're dehydrated. You're not able to hold on to it and you're not having enough so having more salt makes you drink more water.

James Swanwick: Yeah, I used Celtic or Celtic never, never quite figured out the pronunciation. Which one is it?

Chantalynn: I mean either, I call it Celtic because I like the sound of it.

James Swanwick: Yeah. We do have a lot of Celtic salt. Some people just think salts in general are okay and good for you but there's a quality of salt there and if it's Himalayan pink, Himalayan sea salt or Celtic salt, that has lots of trace minerals in it. As I understand it.I put, sprinkle it on over my food and it makes me drink more water but not out of like I'm thirsty, it's more Oh, I just want to keep feeling good.

Chantalynn: And I think with the COVID pandemic right now I've added a new thing to my ritual. Also, I forgot to mention because I've only been doing it for four months. But after my oil pulling, oh it's very important If you do oil pulling, you need to spit that oil, the coconut oil in the trash and not in your plumbing because it will clog your plumbing and then afterwards, I would actually gargle with hot water and Himalayan salt. And I would gorgo in my throat and making sure everything is clear and then I brush my teeth. And you know the quality of salt is actually really important. I don't actually use, I don't even have regular table salt in my house anymore. I love all the good trace minerals so I would buy Celtic salt, Himalayan sea salt. At the very least, sea salt is what I cook with.

James Swanwick: We have someone watching us live on YouTube right now. Les Ellio says, lemon and honey will hydrate you on a cellular level.

Chantalynn: Do you know who Les Ellio is? I think that's my sister. Anyway, yes, lemon and honey is so good for you.

James Swanwick: I think your sister sounds very smart.

Chantalynn: A super smart actually.

James Swanwick: A viewer on Facebook Vannie Sharkey says, Chantalynn I read about you, when I saw you the next Swannies guest. How did you get involved with cancer schmancer ?

Chantalynn: Cancer schmancer is started by my dear big sister Fran Drescher and I met her in 1996 as her manicurist, her regular manicurist as was on maternity leave, and I was working at the Ritz Carlton here in Marina Del Rey and one day they call me they asked me hey, do you mind coming to Ms Drescher room and give her a manicure? So I showed up and I gave her a manicure and ever since then, I guess her other manicurist never came back. She couldn't get it so I became her next manicurist until this day. I still see her and give her manicures. But we became really close. And I got to watch her because I was seeing her every week. It sort of feels like every time anything big happened in her life, I was there to witness it. You know, and we watched her two years, a doctor's later to just get the proper diagnosis of uterine cancer. And it was a crushing blow. And what I love about her and am inspired by her is that she takes lemons and makes lemonade out of it, and she used her pain into purpose. You just transform it into purpose and help so many people. So she started Cancer Schmancer, that's the name of her book, when she shared about her journey from cancer to health because she's now 20 year well, and I'm so thrilled about that. And so we talked about having a lifestyle where you don't get cancer in the first place. And so I'm very passionate about that, because I've always been into a holistic lifestyle. And then the other part of that is we help women once they get the diagnosis, to take control of their body is the mantra of cancer Schmancer where we tell you to please do your research. I know it's a personal choice, whether you'd like to chemo or not, if you want to do alternative medicine, it's a personal individual choice, but please do your homework. And don't just take your doctor's word for it. Go get a second opinion, third opinion, listen to your body. She had to go to eight doctors, something was wrong and no one knew. And she kept going. And I don't know that scared me also, when I first heard about it, because I'm thinking, here's someone rich and famous, she could go to any doctor she wants, she had all the resources in her fingertips and they couldn't find out what's wrong with her. Imagine it was me, a regular person, you know, with my doctors, I would just listen to what my doctor says. And he'll say, there's nothing wrong with you. I might have just trusted that, I don't know. But I'm glad that we're telling people, like listen to your body, get in touch. If something is wrong, let's get to the bottom of it. You know, you hear whispers of it, which cancer schmancer does it. Gives you tips and when you start hearing whispers of phantom pains and aches, you know, pay attention. Just listen to your body. So I'm very passionate about it. And of course, I love her. She's my girl. She's such a humanitarian. And so you know, I really look up to her and emulate myself, because that's how I want to live. She is such a bright light, and then a very enlightened being. And I only hope to be more like that.

James Swanwick: Oh, wonderful. Thank you for sharing that story. Tell us about your sleep routine. What do you do to ensure that you get a great night's sleep? Because talking about nutrition, we talked about water. One thing that's often overlooked, maybe less so these days is the quality of our sleep and its impact on our overall health. So what do you do to ensure that you have a great night's sleep?

Chantalynn: I have to say I have a ritual, obviously, but I'm blessed in that I could sleep any anytime, anywhere, like if you say, hey Chanti I'm going to be with you in a few minutes, just, you know, take a seat, I could just sit down in a chair and fall asleep. I mean, it's God's gift to me. I can eat anytime, anywhere, and I can sleep anytime, anywhere. But my goal is my, ideal I am always looking for something that I could aspire to do is to have eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. So my thing is to try to eat dinner early. So my routine was, start like having dinner at 5:30 or 6 o'clock as much as I can. And again, I'm not about being a stickler or a militant person. I'm saying, that's my goal. That's my ideal. That's my sweet spot, but life happens. So you know, but it's either 70/30 or 80/20 of the time you can do your routine, that's when you stick to it. You do the best you can. So my idea would be 5:30 6:00 o'clock dinner, then you know you have a couple of hours to relax, clean up, and hang out with my son. Have a good evening. Maybe watch a show or read a book or whatever activities you have. And then I would like to turn off all electronics, two hours before bedtime, so that it doesn't mess around with my bio rhythm. Not that I, like I said, I'm not that affected at all, I can lie down and go to sleep, my son, not so much. He's a high functioning teenager, he's very smart and his brain just keeps going. So it's actually more important that I stick to the routine for him. Because when he lies down, it takes him a little bit, you know, so you can go freshly right off with a computer or TV or whatever, and go to bed and just expect to be out. So we also do meditation at night. And for my son, whenever I'm home, and,I try to be home every evening at that time if possible. I do a little meditation and a body scan, kind of Reiki healing for him, just to help him calm. And also just as I help him, I'm falling asleep. And I'm sure a lot of parents who are watching they know like you put your baby's asleep and the baby is not sleeping but you're already falling asleep. That happens all the time since infancy. But with him, you know, I really try to give him that time to chill out, relax, and you know, clean up and get into PJ's.

Having rituals, again, not to be militant but to help us relax because we know what to expect and what is to come. So as soon as we finished dinner, if we can get our showers in without PJs on, we're already kind of like getting into that mode. It's like Pavlov's dog experiment. You know you have a routine so as soon as you put the pj on you're like I'm yawning already. So that's what I like to do at night is turn off the arrow and I don't sleep with the phone as much as I could, I turn off all electronics, because it's just not natural for our biorhythm. Years ago, we go to sleep when the sun goes down, and we get up when the sun gets up, that's normal. But, we live in the modern world and, which I also love the fact that we can communicate with you in Australia, me in the US, you know, it's amazing. It's awesome. The technology that we have to make sure that we honor our body systems because that's also part of health and wellness and productivity. If you're healthy, then be more productive.

James Swanwick: Yeah, I've used to use the alarm on my iPhone to wake me up each morning and then I changed it to buying a little $7 portable alarm clock, battery operated. I use that just to ensure that I sleep past it. And I put my phone now on airplane mode and leave it in a different room. Because what was happening was that the alarm was going off on my phone and so when the alarm goes off you know, grabbing the phone and then of course, because your hands on the phone you're tempted to start going into it and then your reactionary mode almost right away. So since I've shifted that it's enabled me to be more present in the mornings.

I write down 20 things that I'm grateful for in my journal here, my gratitude journal each morning. And I've got pages and pages of things that I'm grateful for. At the moment, I'm doing a, I'm up to 11 minutes of meditation. I've done a 10 day silent meditation called the passionate previously. I must admit that I have, I wouldn't say it's a love-hate relationship with meditation, but I have an on-again, off-again relationship with meditation. When I'm doing it, I love it, but then it's very easy, frightenedly easy. In fact, for me to just skip it, and to go weeks and often months without doing it until I remind myself to go back and do it again. Anyway, just sharing a little bit of my struggle with meditation but it's just my challenge maybe.

Chantalynn: Well, I feel you because I actually was like that too. I never could stick to one kind of meditation. So what I would suggest is, make what works for you, what makes you have to start feeling into what makes me feel relaxed, what makes me kind of drop the day, whatever that may be. And it could be just simply a breath, I do these I love breath work. So breathing exercises is one of my favorite things. We could just, you know, take a breath, hold it, while I hold the breath, I relaxed the body. It's all about relaxing, tapping in and I love there's a beautiful monk who talks about meditation, he goes, it's the monkey mind. Don't try to shut the monkey mind, let mind go and just say Ah, I see you, I hear you. This is what we're doing.

I also love those Deepak Chopra, 21 days meditations. If anybody ever done those, it's so cool because it's very short. And he has a fun story to tell you about whatever concept it is. And then you have maybe five minutes of meditation, listening to those who were also really helpful. And actually, I'm in the process of doing a 21-day abundance. That's a protocol given to me by the Sherpa center, in my Facebook group. So I actually have a group right now. And it's kind of fun because you're not doing everything by yourself. And it's nice to have accountability partners and responsibility partners. And again, for me, everything is not about being militant. It's about how I ease into it, make it work. So if I can't do a 20 minute meditation, I'm not gonna beat myself up about it. I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna do some breath work. And you know what, sleep is a kind of meditation. Whatever that is that lets your body relax and let you not think so much.

Chantalynn: Someone just texted me. Oh, she's watching. Thank you Franny

James Swanwick: Hello Franny, nice to meet you virtually.

Louise Jeon is asking- do the Swannies mask come in any other colors ? Yes. So the question is about the Swanwick Sleep mask but I don't have one with me at the moment but the answer is yes we have the colors that come in the color black and blue. So we have a 100% pure silk sleep mask that's oversized deliberately that goes over the top and silk actually is very good for your skin because it retains the moisture of your skin as opposed to cotton which can leave yourself wrinkles and dehydrate you. If you can get silk pillow slips that's another great thing as opposed to cotton pillow slips because if you sleep on your side, or on your front, and your face is in there over the course of many hours, your skin being rubbed up against cotton is going to leave you with wrinkles and dry skin. But if you're lying the same way on silk it actually is retaining the skin's moisture. So just a little tip there.

Antonello asks, my mother in law's got a problem staying asleep. She typically complains of waking up at about 1:00 or 2:00 am and then she just can't get it back. Is there any holistic approach to helping her get her sleep back? I'm just worried about her health.

Chantalynn: Well, first of all, I don't know how long this has been happening for her. Is that something that just recently happened because you know, a lot of people's sleeps are being disturbed by the whole COVID and you know, everything that's going on in the world, which is understandable. Again, there are actually homeopathic remedies that you can take that is natural. You can try it. I think one of my girlfriend who's watching, and she has taken some stuff that she says actually works for her. I never had to so I can't speak from experience. I just know that if anything happens to me, I go to the homeopathic pharmacy first as the first place I go. And also, again, all of these things that we're doing in life, the most important thing is self-awareness. You have to ask yourself, you know, how am I feeling? How can I get more relaxed? And even when I do the body scan you know, I think I'm lying on my bed, I think I'm relaxing, but then I tell myself, okay, relax the top of your head, relax your forehead, relax your skull, to pay attention to it. And even to the point where you know when it's my heart or my internal organs, I'm telling my internal organs to relax. I put my hand on there and the same thing, what I asked myself all through the day is , what am I feeling? And where I'm feeling it in my body? And you put love and attention there. So it depends, is she worried about something? Has something bothering her? Is her diet? What does she eat before she goes to sleep? You know, maybe lately she's been eating something that's keeping her up, has too much caffeine, she's drinking green tea? You know, which is healthy for you but you have to understand your body system and everybody's a little different.

James Swanwick: Yeah, I think I want to just concur with what you're sharing there. The gold standard of sleep, as I understand, and have researched it, and it involves, in my opinion, in my research, exposing yourself to as much natural light as early as you can in the morning, and then blocking as much artificial light. For example, in the evening, as well as ensuring that you don't eat in the last three hours before you want to retire for the night and sleep ensuring that you're not drinking coffee within eight hours of bedtime, ensuring you're not drinking alcohol within three hours of nighttime I should say or bedtime. So, herbal teas and all those kinds of things are fantastic because they're relaxing, they're very good for you, it prepares you for sleep. However if you're drinking herbal tea, while staring into a screen watching Netflix, rolling through your phone late at night and you'd be up lying in bed, then you are compromising your ability to be able to sleep the way that nature always intended you to sleep.

Also the lights in our homes, quite frankly, are filled with artificial blue light which triggers our pituitary and pineal glands which stimulates them, which suppresses our body's ability to create melatonin. Our company's clinic has just come out with these better night's lightbulb, which have almost no blue light in them. In fact, they're yellow in nature and when you put them in and you place them around your home ít's a beautiful calming white with no artificial light. And if you use those in conjunction with obviously wearing a pair of orange blue light blocking glasses, which blocks out the blue light. So if I do this right here, you can see it's blocking the artificial blue light, then you will find that you'll fall asleep quicker. You'll sleep deeper and you'll wake up feeling a lot more refreshed. So everything that Chantalynn was talking about there is absolutely true.

And in addition, first thing in the morning try to expose yourself to as much natural light as possible because our skin has receptors in it and when the sunlight hits out it tells our internal body clock which is named our circadian rhythm. This is wake up time. So now it's going to flood with the daytime hormones. And then it knows that about 12, 14 hours later, it's time to start flooding the body with nighttime hormones such as melatonin. And again, all of that is a holistic approach, right Chantalynn none of that involves going to the doctor and get a prescription Xanax or aim the Ambien. It's just taking a holistic approach of eating well, getting sunlight, blocking artificial light at night, doing some breath work, drinking some herbal tea. Making sure you're not eating or drinking alcohol in the last few hours before you go to sleep. As you know, I help people quit alcohol. Just don't drink alcohol. Just stop doing it but if you're gonna to do it, don't do it in the last three hours before you go to sleep.

Chantalynn: Yeah, I think that's great advice. I am not a huge drinker, but I am a big foodie and I love to have a nice glass of wine some time with my dinners. And I totally agree with you. And especially for me, I'm very much of a lightweight, it's kind of like I can't have too much, it's poison in my system, I turn pink, you know, a lot of Asian people turn pink. We don't have the enzyme to break down the alcohol, so we're being poisoned, or blood poisoning until it leaves our system. And so it is something that, again, I'm very conscious about and you know, and I try to drink a ton of water to flush anything out of my system. But yeah, I love to get a good night's sleep and it's important.

James Swanwick: Chantalynn you mentioned your son a few times, I'd love to ask you about him. But first, you actually came to America as a Vietnamese refugee back in 1977, as I understand it? And you're one of The thousands of "boat people". And so I wanted to ask you about that. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about why that experience has made you so passionate about everything today?

Chantalynn: Well, you know, I was nine, almost turning 10. We live about two and a half years under the communist regime in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 75. So this was November of 77. And my mom and I escaped out of Vietnam. It's a harrowing journey. And when got to Malaysia, when we saw land, our boat kind of broke apart, and half of the people actually did die. You know, not everybody knew how to swim. And my mom and I got separated. So I was struggling, flailing and I, at one point, I told myself that no one was coming, that this was it, and I was surrendering. And I have to say my mom was very prophetic. Before the trip, she said, put on a red t-shirt, a long sleeve red t-shirt. So in case we get lost in the crowd, I can spot you. And I think to this day, that was the reason why I was saved because my mom and I got separated. And I was, for sure dying. I told myself, no one's coming. This Malaysian village fisherman came out and saved me. So I must have just surrendered and floated to the top, bobbing up and down who saved my life. And from that moment on, for me, this is the promised land. And this is why we're here so that there is a future for myself and my son. And I used to tell that story. And I said, I wasn't supposed to be here. I wasn't meant to be here. And he would correct me and he said, No, don't ever say that. You are totally meant to be here because you're here and if you're here, that means I get to be here. And I said, Okay, you're right. And, in fact, because the whole COVID and me pivoting all my work around. I am actually writing a memoir. And I'm going to probably call it- Little Red Shirt. And to talk about my journey, coming to America, and that's why to me, everything in life is icing on the cake. I've been worse. I didn't think I was going to have a life. So here I'm saying to myself, here's freedom. What can I do with it? What am I gonna do with my life? How can I leave a legacy? How can I be of service? And all the things that I've been through, how can I use that information to help everyone else around me? So that's why I'm passionate about everything. Because I can, I can be.

James Swanwick: Thank you so much for sharing your story with us with this gentleman. Beautiful. And your son is I'm sure, a reflection of you and your values and the way that you see the world.

Chantalynn: He's a mini me for sure.

He is a total mini me with better qualities too. He's super smart. He's a very sweet, sensitive, 14 1/2 year old boy. He's an empath. So he feels very deeply.But I also love that he's just your normal, you know, hot blooded American boy. He's excited about life too. And all he wants to do is get his way and he gets very creative in getting his ways, and I love that he's into sports. He loves to play basketball. He loves to skateboard, and we live here in Los Angeles. And now he's told me he's into surfing. So I'm going to try to find my great surfing instructor because that to me is like living here near the ocean and being a surfer is like a dream. I'm not a great swimmer. I did learn how to swim after that whole accident or incident back when I was 9. I actually talked myself into learning how to swim but I have to tell you, I'm not comfortable in the water like he is, he's a fish, and I love that about him. And he, you know, he's an entrepreneurial mind. He loves to make money, he sees I'm working, he sees you know, he's always asking me how he could make money. He started out babysitting. And then he says, you know, that takes a lot of my time, I want to make more money. He's always constantly thinking about how to make money. And I said, what kind of life would you have? And he's always very present. But he was always thinking about how he can do better and get better in life. And I love that because I just want him to be happy. One of my favorite poets or philosophers is kaluza bond, and he talks about how children are not your possession. So my prayer every day is that I can be a good enough mom to support him on his journey of whoever he needs to be, whoever he's meant to be in this life, and how to be of service. That's the one thing I keep talking to him about, like how can we be of service. And then, everything else will fall into place. But also the balance of, learning about business, he loves business. And so, it's a great combination. He's my greatest teacher because I want to teach by example. So therefore, I behaved myself way better and then when I wasn't a mom, you know, I'm more conscious and more aware, and I have to remember everything is an impact. What impact am I leaving for him, and I do that again. I'm not perfect, not the perfect mom by any stretch of the imagination, but I do my best and I put my heart into it, and he deserves it and he deserves a happy mom too. So that's also the other side of, again, balance, you need to be the best parent you can. But part of that is you also have to be the best human being. And that means you have to be happy to pursue your own happiness. I can't help anybody from a place of lack and I did come from that culture where you self-sacrifice, and now that I'm here, I'm like, wait, there's a balance I can sacrifice. But knowing what I'm giving or what I'm offering, and make sure that I didn't cut myself short.

James Swanwick: You've mentioned a couple times Chantalynn a body scan and breath work. So I just wanted to bring our viewers attention to the fact that you could ask Chantalynn about her guided body scan about her breath work. We've actually put Chantalynn Instagram details there in the comments. If you're watching on YouTube, you can go to it's Chantalynn.la Is that right, your Instagram?

My Instagram is chantalynn.la and I'm also on Facebook and on LinkedIn. Those are my three and I do Twitter but it's more of like I linked it to my other accounts, but I'm very active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. LinkedIn, it's more professional, Facebook feels a little more intimate and casual, because I can do all my groups that I do like, like, for instance, right now, I'm doing this 21 day abundance group, you know, and I can guide people through. And then on Instagram is just, another expression of how I live my life, I tried to share that.

And yes, I would offer all of your viewers if they're interested, you know, I can do a body scan virtually or over the phone to help you. It's a very relaxing thing. I would also offer something like a Ho PonoPono, which is a Hawaiian practice of forgiveness. Because I believe forgiveness is not about forgiving the other person so much, but it's also letting go of the anger you're holding or the resentment that you're holding. It's not healthy for you because you're the one hurting.So I love those kinds of practices, too. So people can pick me up.

James Swanwick: So there are details on how to reach out Chantalynn in the comments down below. Especially if you're watching on the replay, we have a lot of people who watch the replay. Later on, you can join us live. So there'll be details in the comments down below. Whether you're watching this now on Facebook or YouTube. Go in there and you can learn more about how to get in contact with Chantalynn and maybe do one of her guided body scans, maybe do someeath, work with her and talk to her more about her holistic approach to life.

Chantalynn, thank you so much for giving us your time and your guidance here on Swanwick live. We appreciate you and thank you for inspiring me to go and live a little bit of a healthier life more holistic and take more of a holistic approach.

Chantalynn: Well, thank you so much, James. I'm a big fan. I love your products. I love what you're doing to help people because I think sleep is really really, really important. I feel much younger and prettier when I have eight hours of sleep. And I'm a different person, and I love your products and what you're doing. So thank you so much for having me.

James Swanwick: Thank you so much and you're welcome. All right.