Welcome to What What Amber Do with your host Amber Howard, your weekly post of guidance, inspiration, and strategies to have your small business and whole life thrive. We bring you incredible guests who share their real life experiences of being an entrepreneur so you can have your whole life work. Now, here's your host, Amber Howard.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to What Would Amber Do. It is my privilege and pleasure this morning to be speaking with a dear friend and kindred spirit, Nisha Kumar. Nisha is a healer and teacher and real estate agent who is committed to inspiring clarity, health, peace, and prosperity for all of the people that she comes into contact with. Thank you, Amber. So great to be here. Yeah. So talk to us. Tell us. How did it come to, you know, what's your journey? I know you started out as a healthcare practitioner, and there's probably lives before that, but how did you come to becoming an entrepreneur and deciding to create something new around your how you contribute to people?

Well, I didn't necessarily set out to be an entrepreneur. This was a bajillion years ago when I went back to school to become a naturopathic doctor. And what I didn't know is by virtue of practicing naturopathic medicine, because it's not regulated by the government of Ontario, you essentially, you know, it's in private practice. So you become you're you're a business owner. You essentially become a business owner by virtue of becoming a naturopathic doctor in Ontario. And uh that was my sort of original, I guess, journey into being an entrepreneur. But from there, uh, you know, I've continued. So I no longer am in clinical practice full-time. Now I'm in a couple other businesses, but that was sort of my initial, my initial journey into it. I also come from a family of entrepreneurs. My mom used to own a couple of hotels, run hotels. My dad is entrepreneurial. So there is that that in my family history as well, a little bit.

It's interesting because you're not the first person, like the guest I've had to kind of talk about this, like you know, entrepreneurial spirit that gets into families. And and it makes me think to some of the the training I've had in what happens with us in our childhood. I think part of it is like we're part of a network of conversations. And if you start out in a network of conversations where like mom and dad work nine to five, or dad works and mom doesn't, or you start out in a network of conversations where the family's entrepreneurial and are running their own businesses. I think that kind of shapes the way you see the world and and what you see is possible for yourselves. Not like people who were raised in families that are nine to five don't go on to become entrepreneurs and stuff like that. But I do think your originating network of conversations within your family does play a really big role in in kind of how you you shape your world as you grow up.

Yeah, I love that you said that. The network of conversations or what there is this network of conversations around, you know, looking back now from here, I never really thought about that much, but like be your own boss, you know, create your own thing. Um, so that's really, really interesting. You know, it's funny because I wasn't it, it's it's like even though my family sort of did that, it wasn't um, it was like they were always like, you can't necessarily go into business. You're too honest, you're too straight, and you're too honest, you can't go into business. So I was always like, I wasn't gonna go into business, but I did, and I am.

So good. So I'm curious, what had you, you know, what had you choose the path of naturopathic medicine as a you know, like as I said in your intro, and at my experience with you as your friend and someone who's known you for years, you're so committed to people's well-being. But what was it about naturopathic medicine, or you know, what some people might consider more Eastern forms of medicine versus Western? I don't even know if that distinction is particularly helpful, but whatever, we make it. Um, what was it that appealed to you about naturopathic medicine?

Yeah, so I actually, so I said my family has had some business tendencies, but actually my family mostly are comprised of doctors. So my dad was a doctor, my brother's a doctor, cousins are doctors, you know, everything from gastroenterologists, pediatricians, neurosurgeons, family doctors. And I didn't want to be a doctor. Now, the reason I didn't want to be a doctor is because I grew up with my dad being a doctor, and we had this box of medicines we used to keep, he used to keep in the closet. And if I sneeze, right, or if anything went wrong, it was like, okay, go to the box of medicine, go to the box and let's get something that's gonna help you, right? And it was usually prescription medication that my dad was trained. So, and then when I did some shadowing when I was thinking about medicine, because it was going to be my path for a while, I shadowed a couple doctors, shadowed an uncle of mine, I shadowed a few people, and I saw that they would bring patients in for you know five to 50 minutes, typically talk about something very quickly, and then hand them a prescription and patients would leave. And uh for me, I mean, I value Western medicine so much. I I know um prescription medication is a can be a godsend. I value Western medicine. I come from a family of doctors, but it just didn't resonate with me. So I I chose not to be a doctor. And so I was sitting, I was a software engineer. I became a software engineer. I was working at my first job in Boston and I was sitting behind my desk coding and thinking to myself, you know, I really want to be with people. Like I don't think I'm supposed to be coding for the rest of my life. I love coding, don't get me wrong. The high of getting a piece of code right is extraordinary. Um, just the accomplishment, the sense of accomplishment I had from coding, but I knew that I was, I just really wanted to work with people. So I hired a career counselor. I went to see her, had a conversation with her, and she said, you know, you should be a doctor. And I said, Well, it's funny because I actually know that I don't want to be a doctor. But she said, you know, just think about it. So I went to see a few other people after her because I already knew I didn't want to be a doctor. I went to see an astrologer, and she even said to me, You should be a doctor. Everybody I went to see told me I should be a doctor. So I thought, okay, you know what? What do they know that I don't know? So I sat on my balcony and I thought about a day in the life of, right? So I pictured myself with the white coat, I pictured myself with a stethoscope close by, a patient's coming in, like a patient coming in, me talking to them for a few minutes. But it it dawned on me in that in that moment that I wanted to be able to work with people. Like I had this deep longing to work and support people, but in a way that was much more in-depth and um really honoring that they know themselves more than I could possibly know them, even though I may be the expert in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, um, you know, the human body in that way, just recognizing and honoring that the person sitting across from me is the expert in their body and working with them in that way. So that's when I decided when I when I sort of realized that that's what I wanted to do. And then I'd heard about naturopathic medicine. I had heard you can spend 45 minutes up to an hour with your patients, and so that's what I did.

So many things. I love that what you're pointing to, I think is this notion that we're more than just our physicality. And and so it's like when you talk about knowing the person knowing themselves, like there's like an honoring in that. And and I love the analogy when you're talking about pulling out this box of prescription drugs and this box of medicine. Like that is a I think that's a really apt analogy for for Western medicine, not right, not wrong, but there's a box. And and the the care fits inside the box, and sometimes the box expands for sure, but it's like there really is a box, and it's like what's inside the box counts as medicine and and how you know, and what's outside of the box doesn't. And so I think that's really powerful to just get that for you, you wanted to heal people, but in a way that wasn't constrained by the box.

Yeah, and you know, I had a not I had my grandmother. Um she was somebody who did that. And um, I'll share this. So I found out later. So my my family was really resistant to me studying naturopathic medicine. It was like that's quackery, it's it's pointless, like you're gonna be wasting your time and your energy and your money. So I found out later, you know, my grandmother used to practice, she's not around with us anymore, but she practiced natural medicine sort of in her space. And um, and there was a child that my that I think my aunt had a had a little girl, and that little girl got sick, and natural medicine was used to help her, and she didn't survive, she died. And so, you know, my family was um very much against you know trying to not using appropriate means or appropriate resources to help someone. It's really they saw it like Western medicine, this is appropriate, this works, and it does, but there's there's just so much available outside the box, like you said, but you want to be responsible with it, right? You want to be responsible with people's health and responsible with what you're using, whether that's Western medicine, prescription medication, herbs, you want to be responsible with all of it. Um, but yeah, it's not always um it can be outside the box and it deserves all of it deserves you know to be studied and honored and respected for the medication that it is. Anything you do, overdo. Anything anything can become uh the the most what am I trying to say? A herb that's beneficial can become somebody else's poison, essentially.

Um I mean that's harsh, but yeah, no, I I know yeah, what what's there for me to say is like I just really want to honor the courage that you you exhibited and that you have, Nisha, to to say like it takes something in the face of families' definitions for success. And you know, this is like the the the concept for my book. Like it's like creating a life you love based on your own measures for success and happiness. And when you when you live in a family that has very clear notions of what it looks like to be successful, what it looks like to be a successful healthcare practitioner, and your you know, your willingness to kind of say no, like and I I'm gonna I'm gonna create this in a way that honors me and my self-expression. I think that's that's very powerful. And it takes it takes courage to do that. So I just really want to honor you and for being someone who was willing to pave your own way when it would have probably been much easier with the support of your family to to do things the way that they wanted you to do them. Yeah. So why why is people's well-being so important to you? Why does it matter to you that people have have optimal well-being, that they have peace and and prosperity and and health? Why are those things that yeah?

Well, I see I see those things as you know, when you're not healthy, it can stop you from living a life it can stop you from living the fullest expression of your life. So my commitment really, what I want for myself and what I want for everyone is to really enjoy life as much as possible. I want to have as much fun in this life as possible. I want that for me, and I want that for you, and I want that for everybody. And I think it's possible to have as much fun and as much adventure in this life as possible when health is not a barrier, when money is not a barrier, you know, and those things are handled. And so I really see health as an access to creating and having a life, an extraordinary life. And I'm committed to that.

Yeah, it's interesting because it really is a foundation, right? I mean, it's it's one of those things that when you don't have it, nothing, you know, it impacts our ability to create everywhere else in our life. And I know for myself, it's uh it's not always been the top priority in my life. And I even if I look now, I'm like, is it the top priority in my life? Do I put that first? And I don't know that I do. And I think that's probably true in different ways for for many people. Um it's always the last, the first thing to go off the to-do list, you know.

Yeah, well, when you have it, when you have health, it it's so easy to take it for granted. But when you don't have it, and you would do any, I mean, most people would do anything to get it. So to take care of yourself, I really see that as um again, access to an extraordinary life.

On the sorry, wow, I need more water. On the show that Anoop and I, who's a mutual friend of Nisha and myself, that I do a show every Thursday morning with Nina and Anoop. And we had this woman on the show yesterday who shared that she had been confined to a bed as a result of some neurological issues for like 1,400 and something days. And she said she really discovered in that time, like this whole idea of how busy we are and that there's always so much to do. That that really disappears when you're confined to a bed for that long and you literally can't do anything, and you're forced to stop and observe life from a very different place. All of a sudden, for her, um, you know, whether the floor got cleaned that day or not really didn't matter because it just really, I think, you know, it put things in perspective for her that life continued, even though she wasn't doing all of the things that she would normally do. They got done, things got taken care of and handled. And that was a real pause for me because I'm still pretty big doer. I have a lot on the go. I think I rest more now than I ever have before in my life. But I I just really got, yeah, we're we really are addicted to doing. We really are addicted to doing. And at what expense, right? Yeah, yeah. So talk to me about health heroes. So you were, you know, you were in clinic, you were a practicing naturopathic doctor, and you had your own business and that, but now you've created something new with a partner. Yeah. So yeah, what's health heroes all about?

Yeah. So Health Hero, so Health Hero, actually, I, as I said, I was um working at my first job as a software engineer a million years ago. And at that job, I met a woman named Rachel, and she was also a software engineer. And so, fast forward, I think 20 years and sometime over the last year and a half, you know, when pandemic, when COVID came out and the pandemic was sort of fresh and new, we connected over um Zoom, like we all do. And uh and um yeah, she told me what she was up to. I told her what I was up to, and we decided to collaborate. And she had founded Health Hero in 2019, and it wasn't, you know, I think it wasn't very active. Um, and so then I I joined her as co-founder, and inside of our commitment, our camera, our commitment is really mental wellness for people, so that people are supported on their own transformative journeys through through life, that people get connected to that they have the power to really um say heal themselves, but there's there's so much power that each one of us has to affect our own wellness, really getting people connected to that, getting having people be supported on their journeys. Um, that's what we've that's what we do. And we've been we've been playing inside that realm for the last, I guess, eight months that we've been together. So recently we wrote a book, and how that book came about is, you know, we were doing some work inside of a hospital supporting doctors and nurses in their own mental well-being, um, given frontline workers we're dealing with quite a bit during the last year and a half. And one nurse in particular said to us, you know, I have patients that come into my hospital and they're psych patients and they're waiting for psych beds in the emergency room. And sometimes they're waiting in the emergency room for days or weeks, and I have nothing to give them. Do you think you guys could come up with some resources? And we were like, Yeah, you know, we'll see what we can do. So we came up with resources for people in the emergency room who are waiting, without a tablet, without a phone, without even pen and paper sometimes. And they're very simple, effective resources that you can just do. So they involve, you know, things like breathing, things like paying attention to your environment, um, all sorts of like very simple exercises. And we just kept going. So we've had great feedback on those exercises. We kept going, we created more exercises, and we wrote a book. So the book started off as a journal as a journal. It's turned into more like a resource, well-being guide book that you could take with you, you know, anywhere. You could give someone as a gift in the hospital, or you could, you know, as you're waiting, um, kind of get connected. It's really about getting connected to you, getting connected to how you're feeling. You know, are you taking care of yourself? How are your boundaries? Are you taking care of your of others at the expense of yourself? Um short meditations, like short guide into how to even meditate and uh those sorts of things. So we have that coming out in a few weeks.

That's so good. So the well-beings are these different resources, like these different tools. Is that it?

The well-beings are yeah, they're very, they're just like acute, they're a character. The well-beings are characters, and these well beings deliver these exercises. So that's what the well-beings are. I mean, they're just beings that deliver the exercises, and they're cute and they're not threatening, and they're they're lovely, and they make me feel good, they make people feel good.

I love that. That's so good. Yeah, where did the idea for the well-beings come up?

Like that's Rachel. So she's creative, you know, she's she's um, she stayed in corporate and and uh is a creative person, and she came up, she just drew these beans and resonate.

Yeah, I think it's like easy for people to access, right? And um, so good. So let's, you know, I had a friend show up the other day and they were dealing with panic attacks. And this is someone I've coached in the past and really important to me, and they just kind of called me out of the blue and they were like, I'm I'm just in it. Can I stop by? And I don't know that I've necessarily dealt with a lot of like anxiety through my life. Like I've dealt with a lot of negative self talk and you know, stress, and you know, perhaps feelings of being overwhelmed. But I know how crippling anxiety can be for. People and so what in your experience, Nisha, what is the impact of people dealing with like anxiety, especially for like prolonged periods of time?

Yeah, you're right. Like anxiety can be very crippling and it can it affects all levels of life, you know, it it affects people socially. Um, it can affect them at work, it can affect their relationships, um, their own sense of self-worth. Just functioning. I mean, it can it affects all aspects of life and it is quite crippling. It can be quite crippling. Um, but and it deserves to be, you know, looked at, honored, and treated as best as possible.

Yeah, I think like no matter how far we've come, and I, you know, I do acknowledge the great strides that we've made, especially, I mean, can't speak for other parts of the world, but here in Canada, around recognizing mental illness and and anxiety and depression, all of these things, I think there's still a bit of a stigma around it. I think there's still a little bit of like a that it's not the same as a physical ailment. And my mom always used to, my mom who's dealt with a lot of mental illness over the years. She used to talk about, and I love this analogy of like the wheelchair on the inside that like, you know, like when when you're going through life and you actually have a physical wheelchair, people have no problem making accommodation for that and like taking care and and taking greater care with people who have physical ailments. But when your wheelchair is on the inside and people can't see it, that it's somehow that that's different. Um yeah, it just made me want to sit there and think about that.

That's so interesting. I think that's where self-care, you know, and self-love really comes into play. Like you're right, people can't see it. And I'll tell you, there's so many more people that deal with anxiety, with mental health issues than than we know. I mean, we report, so one in five children deal with some sort of mental illness or depression, um, teenagers. It's it's high. Like there's people are in silence and on their own dealing with a lot. And there is like you talked about this culture of doing this pressure that I think we put on ourselves to accomplish, to do, to create, to be better, to be more. And it is debilitating. And if somebody is dealing with depression or anxiety, or even, you know, there's all even comparing yourself to somebody else, that can be debilitating. Like it just it doesn't really serve anybody, but it does require self-care, it does require self-awareness, um, compassion for self. I mean, all those things, I can't overstate them enough, how how those can make a difference, you know, and even if it's not full-blown mental illness, but really the culture that we're living in when it comes to, as I said, comparing, working harder, being more, being better, doing more, you know, that sort of, if we can shift that with compassion, self-care, being easier on ourselves, you know, not being so hard on ourselves. That that sort of culture makes it difficult to function for even for the best of, you know, for somebody who's not dealing with mental illness, let alone somebody who's dealing with anxiety or depression, or um, you know, it's really no one, no wonder there's a stigma because we live in a culture where you gotta look great, um, be great, be more, be the best. But it's, you know, it's all it's all kind of fake. It's not it's not reality. Most people don't feel that way and they're dealing with things. Everybody, you know what I've learned over my time in medicine is every single person is dealing with something. Every single person is dealing with something. Whether they look like perfect from the outside, um, it doesn't matter who they are, they're dealing with something. And that something is important to them and it matters. So compassion is necessary, I think.

Well, it's so interesting, right? Because it's like I'm thinking uh that one in five number you just said, like it's all about what we put inside the box and what we don't. Like I think for my like work with human beings as well, Nisha, I think five out of five human beings deals with something related to mental well-being, right? Whether it's like the constant voices in the head and you know, like anxiety or or overwhelmingness, like stress, like we all deal with these things. And I I know from the the training that I've done, and you know, we could talk about this. You and I both are kind of pretty, pretty geeked out learners. We're always learning something new and looking to learn new things and like in that space, but um there is a real correlation between our mind and our body. And back to what you were saying earlier about wanting to, you know, treat the whole person, right? And like this idea that the person knows themselves best. Louise Hay, other personal development people over the years have talked about like disease as like dis-ease, like that disease is actually like it starts with a mind that's not at ease or a body that's not at ease, right? And so I wonder sometimes if we, if we, if there was more linkaging of the the impact of all of our thoughts and and the stress and and the brain patterns in our subconscious mind and the impact that that actually has on our physical well-being, that it would be taken a little bit more seriously and saying, wow, hold on, like what if we started there? Like, how much, how much less physical ailments or disease would we deal with as human beings if we started with having people really get the power of their mind, having people really get what becomes available when we start to get in the driver's seat of our mind and be responsible for our thoughts and think about the things that we want and and really get that if you're constantly afraid or you know, thinking about cancer or whatever, then that's gonna create hormone shifts and and you know, secrete hormones into your body, which is gonna, so it's like there is a real tangible link, I believe, and I'm not a doctor, so I'll I'll own that, um, but between our minds and our bodies and and our souls. Like I think it's it's all of it. And um yeah.

It's so connected. I mean, if I could, if if I leave any sort of legacy whatsoever, that is what I would want to leave, is is that we are our physical, mental, emotional, are intimately and intricately connected. You know, when there's rage or anger, it shows up in the body. Absolutely. There is, there's, I'm without a doubt, I'm clear that there's a conscious, sort of psychological, emotional equivalent to every illness that pops up. What I'm not saying one creates the other or is cause for the other, but they pop up together. So the emotional, physical, mental, all of that is intricately connected. You can't, you can't separate the two. I'll give you um, so I I love this conversation. This is obviously something I'm very passionate about, but I dealt with for myself um chronic urinary tract infections from the age of three years old. Okay, so when I was three years old, I had my first urinary tract infection. At five years old, I remember being in a hospital, being prodded and poked because they were trying to figure out what's wrong with me. And then I just dealt with it. It's something I dealt with. And when I first read Louise Hayes' book, You Can Heal Your Life, it talked about this feeling of being pissed off connected to urinary tract infections. So over time, and in my studies, I explored this, like being pissed off. And at one point, I think eventually, you know, I'd already become a naturopath. I had done so much work with my with myself and you know, with my relationships and my anger or sadness or my life story, all those sorts of things. And I was still dealing with urinary tract infections. So I sat down and I meditated and I said, you know, rather than trying to prov like trying to run away from this pain, I'm gonna go and into it, I'm gonna see what it's about. So I sat down and meditated and I actually went into it. And I I wish I could explain it, but I really did get connected to where that pissed off little girl, like where that originated, and I had this visual, and in that visual, I saw just how angry this three-year-old was, just so pissed off, and I cried and I cried and I cried because behind all that anger was so much sadness. I just cried and cried and cried and cried and cried, and um I released it and I've never had to deal with it again. I haven't dealt with anything like that since. I've seen people, I've seen people let go of fear, resentment, anger, regret, and have their body transform in front of my eyes. I've seen it, you know, over a couple of weeks or maybe months, but I've seen people transform and and uh it's extraordinary, it's all connected.

So just reminding me, and and I love I love what you're sharing. So when I was like in my early 20s, like I left my husband when I was 20, you know, two small kids. I was working two jobs, like oftentimes I could take the kids to daycare and I'd go to work at the grocery store. I didn't, I had dropped out of high school when I got pregnant with Matthew. So here I am on my own, two children, um, 20 years old. And so like I would work nine to five at the grocery store, get the kids from daycare, take them home, feed them, and then go to the bar and work at night. Like I always had two jobs. And um, it was around that time that I got diet, I was dealing with like crippling pain in my body. And I was talking to my doctor, and he's like, Well, I think you've got circumstantial depression. And I'm like, Yeah, well, if anyone had my circumstances, they'd be depressed. Like, I don't know what you're saying, but okay. But like, you know, so they diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. Now I know that this diagnosis has a lot of like contention. I know there are some doctors that don't buy into it. I can tell you that the pain I experienced at that point and the and the lethargy, like I would, and I was very driven and I was a good soldier. So I would go to work and I would do everything. But by the time I got home at the end of the day, like I was bedridden, I couldn't walk, I was in so much pain. And and then when I started to, and this has been, I'm not speaking for anyone else who has fibro, like, but this has been my experience of it. When I put myself in university and I started moving towards the life that I wanted, the symptoms of fibromyalgia disappeared. And so I've come to believe for myself anyway, that I think it's the physical manifestation of depression in the body. Because how could you possibly not have people like have some kind of physical manifestations of depression? And I was very depressed at that time in my life. Like, you know, I was doing the things that I needed to do, but you know, life was very bleak for me then. I I didn't, I didn't see a future and I was dealing with a lot of shame and guilt from my past. And and when I read Louise Hayes You Can Heal Your Life, I have a gift version of the book, and at the back of it, it's got all of these, like all of these ailments and then the probable thought causes. I have always, my body has always hurt Nisha to some degree. I and I just expect my body to be in pain. Doesn't matter what you know what level of well-being I had, like there's always been pain. And Louise Hay actually says that pain is like punishment. It's like for guilt and shame. And I was like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. So, like guilt and shame, like thought patterns of guilt and shame show up as pain in the body because it's like we're we're punishing ourselves. Um, so I think there is something very real about that relationship between our thoughts and our minds, and then how and the energy that that gets created, and then how that shows up in our in our bodies. And and and it and it could be like in terms of an energy, it could also be in terms of the life choices that we make. If we're dealing with a lot of shame and self-loathing, then maybe we're drinking more or we're doing other things to numb out those feelings of pain, working too much, whatever, you know, wherever the imbalances are. Um yeah, yeah, that's true. So, yeah, one of the things that you I know that practices that you've taken up in in your studies and in your practice, like in your for healing people is Ayurveda. And uh yeah, talk to talk to us about that. Why what is Ayurveda and and why, you know, why have you found this these practices around Aururveda to be so helpful with for people with their well-being and for you?

Yeah, Ayurveda is actually the first um form of natural medicine I studied. And it Ayurveda is an Indian system of medicine that dates back about 5,000 years. It was really um comes from some old texts, uh the call the Vedas, and it's the science of life, and it talks about basically how to keep your body in a state of balance. So Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga. So most people are familiar with yoga. Yoga is the movement, and Ayurveda is the medicine. Uh so I found Ayurveda when I first moved to Toronto way back in 2007, and I started taking a class, you know, one weekend a month, and I fell in love. I fell in love with how simple the explanation of health can be. So Ayurveda looks at health and looks at life in terms of five elements uh air, earth, air, earth, fire, water, and space. And everything inside of earth is made up of those elements. And so when we look at balancing the body, you can make use of those elements to bring the body back into a state of balance. So with anxiety, the idea with Ayurveda is that there's an imbalance of air and space. So there's a lot of thoughts happening up in up in the head area, there's a lot of like um movement in the in the head, a lot of a lot of uh chaos, just chaotic movement and thoughts. And so one of the ways to to combat that or to balance that would be grounding, getting grounded, literally like coming back to the earth. So standing on the earth, breathing intentionally, um, you know, rhythmic patterns of breath, just really bringing, keeping warm, you know, um, warm soups, warm stews, just really using the elements to bring the body back into a state of balance. And I fell in love with Ayurveda for the simplicity of for the simplicity and wisdom of it. Like I didn't know why, you know, you should wear a scarf in the winter, or why you should drink hot soup, or why stay out of the cold, or you know, there's certain things that we just sort of take for granted when it comes to health. And Ayurveda for me explained all of those and made had them make sense. And it's very simple and and it comes, I mean, my my grandmother, as I said, practiced a natural sort of medicine. And I think she practiced those principles of Ayurveda. So there's sort of, I feel connected to that, and I feel connected to that medicine. I use it, I mean, it's what I it's what I how I live, like I use it on a daily basis. You know, after a while, I think those practices start to become a little more just ingrained in habits. Um, and I love it. Yeah.

Yeah, I I I definitely agree. I mean, I haven't studied Ayurveda, but I know for myself with my gratitude practice, like I've noticed that it's kind of gone from like this thing that I do to just kind of who I be. I find myself more often than not walking through life. And I'm just so freaking grateful. Like for all of it, even the stuff that doesn't like it's like I'll get an email about uh, you know, something on one of my projects, and it's like, you know, everyone else is super stressed and they're like in breakdown. And it's like, and I'm like, oh, I'm so grateful. We've got a problem to solve. Like, like just grateful for all of it. And and it used to very much be when I first started, kind of like, okay, you know, I really got the importance of gratitude. And and and, you know, it started with this practice of like, okay, 10 things in the morning and 10 things at night. And and it was very kind of like mechanistic. But then over time, like I don't even write a gratitude list anymore, but uh because I just feel so grateful for my life all the time. It's just like who I be. And and I think that's from my training, I now know like I have created new neural pathways in my subconscious mind, like in my in my brain and in my subconscious mind that that that state of gratitude is just an experience of life for me now. It's not something I have to try to do. And I think that that is like, how freaking cool is that that we can do that? That we can, we're not stuck with any, like at that point, you really get you're not stuck with anything.

Yeah, that's one of the things we try to do with the book is really expose people to different practices so that they can get connected to what works for them. So, like something that works for me, you know, might not work for you, something that works for you might not work for me. And like the more exposure you can get to some of those practices and get connected to what do what do you want to take on for your life on a daily basis as a habit that's gonna make a difference for you, and then and then have that become part of who you be, part of how you live. It's very supportive. And I think that's what we wanted to do with this book is expose people to those practices. So we have like a two-minute meditation, you know, if people like meditating, or maybe they don't, maybe some people can't sit and meditate. So maybe it's journaling, gratitude, some other practices, you know, to get connected to. So you can kind of say, okay, well, I like this and I don't like that, and I'm gonna use this in my daily life and then start to build those habits that support you. So good.

Now I I want to shift focus a little bit, but not really, because for those people who are listening, when I kind of created who Nisha was, the fact that Nisha is also a real estate agent might have kind of stood out a little bit, like especially given the nature of the conversation we've had. And it's not like this side thing, it is actually very connected to who you are and fulfilling on your commitments. And uh I'll never forget that conversation that you and I had. Oh, it must have been 2018, I think, on the on the steps of the post office building out front of, you know, in New York City on in Madison Gardens. I don't even know. We were on a we were you were there to as production support for a course that I was in. I don't know why I was out of the weekend. Maybe I wasn't feeling well. It will, I maybe I think maybe I wasn't feeling well when I was told to go get some fresh air. And you and I just had this really, there are these moments in life, right? Where and and for me, it was like my sense of you is at that point in time you were looking, you were searching for direction. And there was like a little bit of a like, I'm not quite sure where I'm supposed to be going. And and I shared with you my my vision for the world and what I'm up to and what I'm committed to. And and just the for me, the experience of partnership in that moment, Nisha, where you were just like, Oh, I want to be involved in that. And I'd love to hear for you what that was kind of because it's so interesting. We all have our own perspective or point of view about experiences, right? It and they're shared. It's not just my like it's that wasn't just my moment, that was a moment that you we participated in together. So I'd love to hear your thoughts about that and how that kind of precipitated you to move into a new space around being a real estate agent and yeah.

So, oh gosh, yes. So we had, I remember that moment vividly, like I can see you in front of me. I remember that conversation, and you shared about your commitment for people owning homes. And I something lit up inside of me like, yes, I'm committed that people have access to safe, loving, affordable homes. And something inside of me just really uh recognized that this was something I'm so committed to as well. And I asked you, can I, I wanna, can I, I wanna take that on for myself too? And you're like, yeah, sure. So so I did. And what's interesting is I declared that I would take that on. And two weeks later, I ended up getting having access to a property that was pretty run. Down and needed a lot of love. And when I saw this property, I walked into this property that normally you might walk in and be like, oh, this is terrible. I walked in and I felt so excited, that same sort of feeling, like I know exactly how to renovate this property, and I'm gonna have a family make this their home. I'm gonna create it so that it's it's safe, it's lovely, it's like a beautiful home that I would want to live in, and I'm gonna have a family live in this home. And so I ended up doing that and ended up progressively getting into real estate. What I want to say about that before even like going back a little bit is I got connected to um, so I've been on this journey of self-discovery for, I mean, my whole life. And so I got connected to something called human design about three, two or three years ago. I was in Collingwood in this ski town, Collingwood, Ontario, I'm sure Collingwood. And a friend of mine said to me, Hey, you want a human design reading? And I said, Yes, I would, because I love all those sorts of things. And so she gave me a reading and she talked to me about my specific, how I'm designed, how I'm, you know, my energy type. And what I got connected to was that the way I was operating wasn't necessarily in line with how my energy wants to operate. So if anybody knows human design, there's there's four different energy types in human design, like four or five. And I'm a projector. So what that meant for me is I was really like operating as if I were someone else. I was I was trying to go and create things and make things happen and and just do it, you know, all those sorts of things that we're told to do. And that doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for my energy type, it doesn't work for who I am, how I'm built, how I'm designed. And what I had to get connected to is stop doing, stop trying to make all those things happen that you keep trying to make. And when I got that message, I was like, part my brain was like, really? Like you want me to stop doing all the things that I've been doing? Like, how am I supposed to get ahead, get further ahead if I stop doing all these things? And the message was really no stop. Like what you want is going to come to you. It's just how my energy is. So I stopped. I stopped doing all sorts of things. And I just got connected to doing things that made me happy, which is probably how I ended up in New York doing, you know, at that weekend that you were at, just getting connected to doing things that make me happy without trying to create anything or force anything. Because being an entrepreneur, you know, you got to go out and you got to create. That's the message. You got to go make things happen, like go make stuff happen. And um, I stopped doing that. And when I stopped doing it, the things that really lit me up or light me up came to me. So that conversation that we had around supporting people inside of home ownership, this house that I ended up renovating and renting to a beautiful family that still lives there today. Um, becoming a real estate agent came out of that. I never in a million years thought I would have become a real estate agent. And then it just sort of happened, like somebody, you know, I rented this house, I got into investments, I started learning about money. Um, and I was invited to do real estate. And I my my heart said, Yeah, my brain said, Are you kidding me? You want to do what? My heart said, Yeah, I want to do it. So now I I do that. Um, and I love it. And what's interesting is I totally, you know, forgot this memory. But as I'm I'm practicing real estate, you know, I'm I'm in the office, I'm making calls. I sort of had this thought, like, how did I get here? Like, how did I end up down here? And then I had this flashback to when I was nine years old. I lived in Houston, Texas, and I only lived there for a few years. But I remember going to my best friend's house at the time, Feetai, and we would play Legos and we would build houses with these Legos. And then we would flip through magazines and and um put furniture in these houses. And that's what we would do. We would take apart our Legos and then we would build another house, uh uh, kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, all those sorts of things. And I loved it so much. And so I just got connected to that, even without having that conscious memory. I mean, I had no conscious recollection until that moment that I really love houses. And I, and it was kind of like, you know, something I couldn't have created myself. I just had to like stop and just allow flow to happen. And that came from human design. It came from getting connected to how I'm I'm built. And for anybody who doesn't know what human design is, human design is literally um similar to astrology, but it's it's an energetic is created at the time of your birth, the time and place of your birth. So the stars are in a specific formation at the time of your birth, and there's four or five different energy types, and you get connected to how you operate. So, what's the best way for you to make decisions, the best way for you to operate in the world. And when you're not operating the way that you're designed to operate, because we're conditioned with so many messages to operate in other ways than we normally do, you know, there's frustration or or bitterness that can happen, which is what happened to me until I stopped operating that way and started getting connected to how I actually my energy levels, you know, I don't have loads of energy to do tons of things. And that's okay. That's just how I'm built, it's just how I'm designed.

I love it. And I just had this great thought. So, for you know, for those of you listening to this conversation right now, Nisha and I committed to, and we've, you know, we started to build a project team and work our way towards um building a community of earthships and tiny homes by the end of 2022. And so I think maybe once we're a little bit further along, it'd be really great to have, you know, you and Siobhan and Jackie and and Elsa on the show and anyone else who's part of that core team, and we can have a conversation about this community and what we're out to create and and why our ships and all of that great stuff. But uh, you know, Nisha, I'm sure this is not the last time I will have you on the show. And I just like thank you for being in my life. Thank you for being a partner. Um, I love you so much and everything that you're you're creating. And uh I definitely think, you know, you and I'll probably have a conversation. We've talked about human design, but I think that I just saw an access to to maybe understanding things and discovering that at a little bit of a deeper level for myself. Uh, because you know, perhaps there, there, there's to me, it's like, what are the optimal ways to to be to be living your life in order to create everything? Because we can have it all. And and it's all possible. And there are, you know, it's about always like for me, it's about kind of finding new ways to to create in life that perhaps pre produce the outcomes that you want in a way that is um easier, yeah, more fun, more enjoyable. Um because we get to be the creator not just of the results, but of our experience of attaining the results too. So just you know, for thank you so much for being part of this conversation. I just really loved having you on the show today. Thank you, Amber. You're welcome. For everyone listening, you'll be able to find out information about the book and about Health Hero and um in the in the show notes for the show. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's episode. For show info, visit what wouldamberdo.com. And for information about Amber Howard and Associates' offerings and services, visit AmberHoward Inc.com.