272. Discover Ancestral Health Wisdom - Holistic Hilda

Kara Goodwin: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Meditation Conversation, the podcast to support your spiritual revolution. I'm your host, Kara Goodwin, and today I'm so excited to have Hilda Loreta Gore, Hilda, a k a Holistic. Hilda is the host and producer of the Popular Wise Traditions podcast, which has over 10 million downloads to date.

She's a certified health coach and ancestral health advocate, and has traveled the world exploring traditional practices for optimal wellbeing. Hildas shares the best of experts, experiences and epic adventures on the podcast, her holistic Hilda YouTube channel, and on ancestral health [00:01:00] tours and conferences.

She's also a podcast coach and the author of Podcasting Made Simple. She especially enjoys helping people in the health and wellness space launch and improve their shows. Hilda has energy to spare thanks to her love for sunshine and liver worst. 

You're in for a real treat. With this episode with holistic Hilda. She has a really amazing spirit with some grounded and practical advice for living your life in a wise and aligned way, aligned with your purpose with the planet and your humanity. I tried to think of another P word, but that's not happening right now.

I love how she talks about implementing more holistic changes into her own life and how she took one new thing at a time so it was manageable and not too abrupt. I really, I. Value and appreciate holistic Hilda's approach and I would love to clone her. So we had many more people like her lighting the path forward for ways to have more [00:02:00] holistic living in our individual lives.

So be sure to listen to her podcast wise is traditions to learn more from her. Before we get started, I just have two quick things. First is simply that if you find this. Podcast worthwhile. Please rate and review and tell your friends. That's a free and easy way to support this show and help it grow, and I really, really appreciate it very, very much.

It means so much to me to read your reviews and get your feedback and to know that we are connected through this format. And a second thing is to invite you to check out all the partners of the Meditation Conversation podcast. Which you can get to through the meditation conversation.com, and also check out kara goodwin.com for more resources specific to meditation.

I have the meditation immersion online course to go deeply into your own meditation practice, as well as the Healing Hearth online community where we meditate together regularly. There's a large meditation library to help your [00:03:00] meditation practice and other ways to help your spiritual growth. So learn more@caragoodwin.com.

And now enjoy this episode.

So what a joy to have you here, Hilda. Thank you so much for being here.

Holistic Hilda: I'm glad we could work it out. I really do travel a lot, so it's challenging to make the schedules mesh, but they did.

Kara Goodwin: Yes, yes. Thank you so much. And we met actually at Pod Fest, which is a podcasting seminar, and you have this magnetism that just can't be ignored. And then I heard you, Speaking on another podcasting talk, and I just couldn't wait to connect with you further. And you have this fresh kind of counterflow perspective on, on everything, but on podcasting, that really resonated with me, and that just translates also to your approach to life.

So why don't we start by talking about how this holistic approach to your, to life in [00:04:00] general, began for you.

Holistic Hilda: Well, I really feel like it began before I was born, which sounds really weird, but maybe not to your listening audience 

Kara Goodwin: No. 

Holistic Hilda: is open to anything. But in essence, Kara, I feel like. I had a shaky start to life, but it could have been worse. So let me back up and tell you. My mom got exposed to the German measles when I was in utero, and even today if this happens, the doctors are quite sure the baby will be born with a serious birth defect of some kind.

And they told my mother, it is likely your child will be born unable to see or speak or hear. And they suggested she. Terminate the pregnancy, to my relief. She didn't. And when I was born, there was nothing apparent to the naked eye. But over time, as the doctors listened to my heart, they detected a murmur.

In a nutshell, they found that I had a hole in my heart between the lower two ventricles. And so this was the defect, not obvious again, to [00:05:00] the naked eye, but very serious nonetheless. And they were like, oh my gosh, the blood is flowing in your baby's heart in a direction it shouldn't go in.

Kara Goodwin: In a counterflow.

Holistic Hilda: yes.

Kara Goodwin: Oh my goodness.

Holistic Hilda: Yes. and they call babies with this condition blue, bl blue babies because it means their blood isn't oxygenating properly and you know, they don't have a good quality of life. And so the doctors were even saying, we don't know how long this child will live. We have to do open heart surgery. So

Kara Goodwin: As a

newborn, 

Holistic Hilda: yeah, I wonder if like, the fact that it was all so shaky made me think about what is my purpose here?

And. You know what, if I die tonight, I sometimes will go to bed. And now I'm remembering I was afraid to sleep because I was afraid I was gonna die. And you know, there's that little children's prayer if I should die before I wake. And I was like, oh my gosh, if I do die before I wake. But by the same token, I was cognizant of the fact that it wasn't worse than it was.

And through the doctor's skill, the hole was repaired when I was at age nine. And though that was [00:06:00] also traumatic and scary, I came out with this new lease on life. And people ask me like, what do you wanna do? You can do anything you want. I thought, oh my gosh, what do I wanna do first, I wanna thank God, like I feel like I'm here for a reason.

And secondly, I wanna help people, including myself, live the healthiest and best life as long as I can.

Kara Goodwin: Wow. I mean, trial by fire and to have recognized that so young, I mean nine years old, that's exceptionally young. to feel that gratitude for just the, and the preciousness of life itself. That's really

Holistic Hilda: I think it was really profound and transformative. And when I was about 12 or 13, first of all, I remember being ashamed of my scar cuz it's about the size of a T. It's rather. Noticeable. And as a kid when you wanna fit in those teen years, I was like, oh no. I tried to wear swimsuits that would cover it up.

And my mom was like, oh, let's wear dresses that cover it up. So I [00:07:00] felt a sense of shame and embarrassment about it. But then I remember seeing a doctor one time for a follow-up appointment and she said, you know, this reminds me of the Christian Cross that it might not have been necessarily like this, it could have been more like a T.

And I was like, like that made me feel. Marked in a special way, like set apart and loved by God. And I did already have this connection I felt like I had with him. So it, it really tied it all together. and so now I see the cross as, the big T on my chest, which is like a cross, like I see it as a sign of what I've been through and what I'm here for.

Kara Goodwin: Wow, that's beautiful. That's profound. So how did this, these early experiences pave the way for the work that you're doing, the purpose that you have now and and the wise traditions way?

Holistic Hilda: I feel like I, at first, Was focused more on just physical [00:08:00] health. And so I became a certified fitness professional or a gym rat, however you wanna call it. And I taught classes a bunch of days a week. Like that was awesome and I felt strong and good, but I started to realize maybe even before that, Kara, that health.

Good health isn't just attained by diet and exercise. That's the mantra we hear all the time, right? Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. I'm like, oh my gosh, no. This is multifaceted. I knew that my faith was informing my health, my emotional set point, and how I would try to persevere through things. My mindset, my relationships, all the things are informing our health.

So my. Eyes were opened along the way, I would say in my twenties, to the fact that health is multifaceted and the traditional part didn't come in until probably my thirties, you know, by this time I had four kids in five years. It was quite a whirlwind. but I like to do everything all the way.

I was like, let's have these babies. I don't want one in kindergarten. The other one in high school, never. That shall not be my fate. So we had 'em in a [00:09:00] row and and that's been wonderful too, but, I think I realized, oh, I wanna nourish them. and I wasn't sure how. So what I was hearing was, you know, dietary guidelines and I was trying to feed them, you know, low sugar, low fat cereals for breakfast and all these things.

But Kara, my kids were constantly hungry. And honestly I was too. So that's when I started rethinking the dietary piece and realizing, oh, maybe, you know, eating real foods that our grandparents would recognize as food, like eggs and bacon, even though they've been maligned. Maybe these things. Butter can actually satiate and provide nutrients that aren't available in kicks or life cereal.

So I started making a shift there and it was really over time, but when I really started traveling the world and getting this kind of wander lust, not just for myself, but to explore and uncover and present to the world, was when I became associated with the Western a Price foundation. And that's a whole other story, but they opened my eyes to traditions around the world that are great for good health.[00:10:00] 

Kara Goodwin: I love that. Well, that was actually part of my next question because I know that your podcast is part of the Western a Price Foundation. can you share a little bit about what this foundation is?

Holistic Hilda: Yes, this is one of my fav favorite stories to tell. I almost always wanna start it with, once upon a time, there was a dentist researcher in the 1930s, but it's a really cool, true story. So there was this dentist, he had kids in his clinic in Ohio, and he's like, what the heck? These kids have crowded teeth, tons of cavities, poor behavior, poor eyesight, and hearing, and he was contrasting them, Kara, with people he would see in the National Geographic magazine.

He's like, these people look amazing. They've got good posture. They look optimistic and happy and healthy. I'm wondering, first of all, do these people in the magazine exist? And second of all, if they do, what are they eating? Because I'm certain that their diet is affecting their health. So Dr. Price and his wife, Florence.

Spent 10 years literally traveling the world. Every summer [00:11:00] they would go, maybe she was a teacher, cuz I don't know why they did summers, but every summer they would go from the South Sea Pacific Islands to Switzerland, to Alaska, to Kenya. They traveled the world over the course of 10 years to find untouched indigenous people groups and to document cuz he really was a researcher, not just a dentist.

And they would document all the things they found about their diet, their circumstances, their health, their dental health, and so forth. And it was fascinating because what they found was everybody's diet was different. Of course in Alaska it was seafood, whatever, seal oil. In Kenya, it was like meat and milk and blood from the cows and the goats.

And in Switzerland it was all dairy, butter and cheeses, right? So he put the pieces together and realized, oh, when people eat their traditional local dietary foods, you know, the things that were naturally in their diet. The whole real foods that our grandparents would recognize as food. They're healthy and well.

But when they depart from that and start eating what he called the displacing foods of modern commerce, when they start eating the white [00:12:00] flour and the refined sugar and the canned oils and whatnot, then their health started to deteriorate. He wrote a whole book about this, but the main thing I wanna say is Dr.

Price, what he found in the 1930s is still valuable for us today. If we eat whole real foods, single ingredient foods, as my friend in Australia, Cindy O'Mara says, single ingredient foods, we are going to fare much better than if we buy the packaged, you know, ply displayed foods from the grocery stores.

Those foods are marketed with money as the bottom line for the people producing them. They don't have our health in mind and. In contrast, when we eat foods that are like straight from the farm, whether it's eggs or meat or fish that you fished yourself, like these things are life giving. They're so close to the source too.

So there's a lot to think about. But mostly I would say as Michael Pollen does eat foods that your grandparents would recognize as food, and you will fare far better [00:13:00] and have less of the chronic conditions that are plaguing modern man.

Kara Goodwin: Well, I was gonna mention Michael Poland because it, it sounds so intertwined with, With, oh, what is that book? The Omnivore's Dilemma. but it's funny that Dr. Price was from the 1930s, because that's like my grandmother's era. So when I think about, would my grand, because the whole thing with his book is like, would your grandma know what that is?

And and I'm like, my grandma was around in the thirties, you know, that was When she was becoming, she was a young mom, or not? Not yet, but but that was her era, you know, and, but it sounds like she would have already been ha exposed to some of the things that were the problem in the thirties when he was noticing these things in Ohio.

Holistic Hilda: A hundred percent and. The reason I've followed in his footsteps car is cuz I wanna see with my own eyes. I guess I'm a little bit of a, I call myself Dora the Explorer 2.0 [00:14:00] I'm like, let me see for myself. So I have been to place with indigenous people groups and they do have still the displacing foods of modern commerce in small amounts because they're removed like in remote areas of Mongolia or in Kenya.

I went to this small village and. They were drinking sodas because Coca-Cola's market shares are falling in the US so they're starting to export their stuff. And I actually went to Kenya because somebody contacted the Western, a Price foundation, a Messai warrior actually contacted the Western, a Price foundation.

He said, send someone over. We're all getting sick. It's almost like he put s sos up in the sky. He said, we're all getting sick. I have diabetes, my wife has asthma. He had begun to see the physical degeneration that Dr. Price recounted like about a hundred years ago. Right. So you're exactly right. it wasn't new then, and it's not new now, and it's actually even worse in the modern cities.

I remember talking to a young girl in Nairobi and she said, Elda, What you're talking about when I go back to my [00:15:00] grandmother's village, they're all the older people are out in the sun. So they're getting the benefits of the sun and grounding and all the things that we city people have to work on. But anyway, you know, reacquainting themselves with nature and exposing themselves to the wonderful healing sunlight and eating the food that they're harvesting right then and there.

And she said, I see how healthy and robust those people are. And the girl in Nairobi said, when I come back to the city, We're all pale. We're all eating fast food. We think it's posh, is how she put it, but we're really suffering. And she said, as a matter of fact, this week I have an appointment at the hospital to figure out what's wrong with me so she could see the contrast.

And I think we all can, if we open our eyes. You know, the problem with these wonderful foods on the supermarket shelf and even DoorDash and you know all these things, is that they're so convenient. But they're coming at a cost. They're coming at a cost, and we're sacrificing our own health. At the altar of convenience and we don't even realize it.

So I, I really wanna encourage the listener right now, even just to make one dietary change. This is how I started. I was [00:16:00] like, oh my gosh, this is a lot. I'm not gonna start cooking bone broth and rendering my own lard tomorrow. but I could do one thing at a time. So I literally followed like the Chinese calendar the year, the dragon, the year the oxi is like, okay.

This is the year of butter. I'm going to make a year where I just replaced my margarine, all my synthetic oils and stuff with the healthier ancestral fats that were like lard and tall and duck fat and butter and coconut oil, and I'm gonna make that shift. And then the next year will be fewer processed foods in my cabinet and so forth.

And that made it easier for me.

Kara Goodwin: Oh, that's a great tip. I love that. You know, again, when we talk about Dr. Price, I'm very, Interested that he talks about the teeth and the crowding of the teeth. I have never heard that before. I mean, I, everything else that you talked about, I'm like, yeah, those are like ty typical signs of malnourishment, but like the crowding of the [00:17:00] teeth.

and I've noticed just in the last few years, a difference in how orthodontic, you know, how they're treating children. Like they're starting really, really young and. So I'm just like, my mind is trying to catch up with what that does. Do you have insight on what the crowding means and that type of thing with the teeth?

Holistic Hilda: A hundred percent. So Dr. Price said Teeth tell the tale so you can tell from the teeth how healthy a person is. Think about the movies, Cara. Think about Home Alone. And those two criminals trying to get that kid, you know, they often show criminals in movies as the ones with a crowded, imperfect teeth because you can just tell by looking at them, something's wrong.

They don't look well, right? So Dr. Price made the same association and what he realized is when there are nutrient deficiencies in the parents' diets, their offspring are often born with narrower faces and crowded teeth, and a susceptibility to cavities and [00:18:00] so forth. But when the parents have the optimal, most nutrient dense diet possible, then the children will be born with the wide faces, with room for all of the teeth in their jaws.

It's fascinating. He went to Peru and he found a bunch of ransacked tombs, actually, I think in Lima or off the coast of Lima there, and he studied over a thousand skulls, and they all had. Perfectly set teeth. Like, one of my husband, my, not my husband, my dad calls, piano keys. They, the teeth look like piano keys.

They were perfectly set. And these are people, you know, hundreds of years ago. So now why are our teeth so crowded? it's because we're lacking the nutrient density. And this was a key finding that Dr. Price had. He said, we today, and this was in the 1930s, he said, our diet is much less rich in the. Fat soluble vitamins, which we all need A, D, E, and K, and the traditional diets are 10 [00:19:00] times more rich in these fat soluble vitamins.

He actually sent food back to his lab, you know, from these traditional people groups. He met to compare with the standard American diet of his day. And so what we're missing, why our kids seem to all need braces and like you said, have interventions at younger years, what we're missing is nutrient density.

It's almost like Kara, we go for quantity over quality with our food. We're like, let's bulk up. Let's go to Costco. Let's get, you know, three bags of chips for $5. You know, it sounds like a great deal. But we're sacrificing the quality and we need to go back and look to the quality. And you may have heard me mention a bunch of times nutrient density and a lot of animal foods, including the fats I was describing, if there are any vegetarians or vegans listening, let me explain.

So Dr. Price actually wanted to find vegetarian or vegan people groups and he didn't, and it was much to his disappointment. He was like, wait, where are the people who are thriving on primarily plant foods? He couldn't [00:20:00] find them. And this foundation that I'm working for now in his name, advocates Eating Animal Products, not because we don't honor the animals, we absolutely want to, but much as our ancestors did, we wanna eat them nose to tail.

And so we don't wanna waste the animal. And this is one secret our ancestors did too. And Dr. Price noted they would. Eat the organ meats, which are actually super nutrient dense. You can get so much iron from liver as opposed to just eating a bunch of broccoli or spinach, you know, that will give you some, but you need to eat a heck of a lot mountains full to get the right doses that you need.

anyway, it's fascinating. But animal products are not to be avoided. I mean, I don't want them coming from concentrated animal feeding operations either, but they are to be embraced when the animal has had a good life. On a regenerative grazing situation, sustainably raised, grass-fed, grass finished.

and this seems like a super high standard, but it's how they always used to be and it's super nourishing to us because I know your show focuses on energy and spirit. The energy of the animal that we consume, the [00:21:00] products that come from that animal, let's say eggs or cheese or butter. I want that to have positive energy, right?

I don't want it to have, the energy of an animal that was sick cuz it was too crowded in some situation and being shot up with hormones and antibiotics. So even energetically, I vibe with my vegetarian and vegan friends cuz I understand that we want to be conscious of what we consume and what we put into our bodies and in our spirits.

Kara Goodwin: I love that. Well, that explains the liver worst from your introduction where you say that you love the sunshine and the liver and liver worst, and that's where all the energy comes from.

Holistic Hilda: Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it takes time to accustom our westernized pallets to these ancient foods. You know, I haven't had a Dorito in a or a taquito in a long time, but I'm sure it just tastes really good because the chemists work to make these foods hyper palatable and. So it's challenging, but liver worst is a nice gateway into getting into organ meats because you can just [00:22:00] slather some mustard on it or put it on a sandwich with some tomatoes and onion and sourdough bread, and it's amazing.

But it, it does, it's an easier one to take in than to start eating like beef hart or something, you know, or, but pat is also nice too. So there are ways, there are definitely ways and my body only feels the better for it, including my energy as well.

Kara Goodwin: That's interesting. I've been a vegetarian for at least two decades. I can't really remember when. I think it has been about 20 years. but you are giving even me something to think about where it's like, hmm, is this, is there an opportunity here? I don't know. Interesting. Interesting.

Holistic Hilda: It's something to think about. Right? And just, I love your band and your podcast because I think we. Need to do some deep listening. If I could just share it briefly. When I went to Australia, it gives me chills and it's really moving every time I think of it. But I talked to some aboriginal women and they said, in our culture, Hilda, we have the tradition of Dari.

This is not the [00:23:00] Diri do. This is not an instrument. It's dira. It's deep listening. And one woman said to me, I was just gonna be a hair stylist until I started listening to what I felt like my ancestors were telling me. They were speaking to me through D Dreams, she said. And so she shifted gears and now she has custodianship over acres and acres of land that she, you know, wants to use as a place of study and of respite and, it's just, it's fascinating.

But, so this concept challenged me, Kara, because I'm sometimes a human doing instead of a human being. And I need to do that deep listening because I might just hear. What my ancestors want me to do, what my deep intuition is calling me to do, what even the voice of God might have me do, like I, but if we're so busy doing, we're not gonna have that moment to listen and hear and respond.

So I think it's important to become human beings once again and avoid the human doings so that we can learn from that deep listening moment.[00:24:00] 

Kara Goodwin: I love that. I just a week ago took a day where I intentionally got rid of everything that I had to do while my kids were at school. And I just, and I was, I was like, this is a B-day. This is just, I'm just gonna be, and it, and I'm, and it was like, It's like a me day, but a me day to me is more of like pampering, like go get a facial, go get a massage.

But it was like go in the forest and be, and like observe and be part of it and just recognize that life is happening and that there's a rhythm to it and that we are in it. And and you're absolutely right. We only really get that through. the be because we can. It's so easy to even just intent.

Okay, I'll set aside a time for my be time my be, I have to be careful cause I'm a beekeeper too, but not the b e e. But but, and then we think that they're, okay, how [00:25:00] do I do that? What are the things I need to do? To be. So what do I, let me make a checklist of the things that I wanna do in order to have a proper B Day, you know?

Holistic Hilda: Yes. Oh my gosh, you're challenging me so much. Cause I remember the last time I had nothing on my schedule and I remember thinking, if I don't get things done today, at the end of the day, I'm gonna be disappointed. It was good just to be aware of my own thinking. Right. So I read this book over and over called Awareness by Anthony DeMelo.

He was a Jesuit priest probably in the 20th century. And. It's helped me so much of to have awareness about who I am and what I'm doing and how I'm being. And it's just been so fantastic. And so I'll notice myself judging myself or judging others. I'll notice thoughts like that and I'm like, okay, I don't need to change that right away.

But an awareness helps me see. Maybe areas that might need some transformation, let's say. But I also wanted to speak to the young [00:26:00] moms right now because I remember that time when my kids were little and you just want a second to pee by yourself,

Kara Goodwin: Yeah.

Holistic Hilda: just be by yourself. Right? Can I just pee today? without an audience, right?

That's what you want. but you can be even with them. And this is what I mean. We, it's too easy, especially now to have your phone close by and let me just answer this text or get distracted and tell the kids to play by themselves while you go toss in another load of laundry. There's nothing wrong with those things.

I'm not trying to judge those things. But what if you were actually just were, or you were being with the kids? By your side, you're playing in the dirt with them. There's no agenda, there's no, okay, mommy's gotta go in five minutes cause I gotta go wash the dishes. Like you can be wherever you are. Even in the midst of this conversation, I can be right or I can be thinking, oh, I have this thing next.

No, no, no. Like, it's so helpful to stop and know that we can be, even if we can't take that whole Bday. But I like the B-day idea. I'm gonna try that again. Thank you.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. Well, and I love what you said [00:27:00] too about just having that presence of, if we're with our kids, I mean, my kids are older now. They're 15 and almost 13, and, but I remember I. my son in particular going through a really hard time. we lived in Italy for four years, and when we first moved over there, it was a rough transition for him and I, when I saw the most progress with him was when I like deliberately sat on the floor with him, with whatever it was he was doing, like if he's playing cars or whatever.

I was sitting with him, I was doing what he was doing. and I was just being there and it wasn't like, you know, doing some sort of play therapy where I was trying to get 'em to talk while we did, or whatever it was. But the shifts in his mood, his attention, his confidence, just from that [00:28:00] simple act of being like, okay, you have my full attention and we're just gonna be together, was profound.

So there's so many layers to it, you know,

Holistic Hilda: so beautiful. And what if we also were, now I'm getting in everybody's business, but what if we also took time to be with our spouses? Like in your stage it can be super transactional and businessy. I remember my husband and I'd be like, okay, you pick the. Baby number two, you know, up from soccer and I'll pick up kid number four from ballet and we'll meet you here and who's making dinner?

You know, it becomes transactional. Right. Or business-like. And what we need to do also is remember, oh, this is someone I love and appreciate and honor and how can we be together? And watching I get the whole Netflix binge watch, binge watching shows. That's great. but I think also you mentioned.

I think you beekeep like being outside together is so healing both relationally and our relationship with the earth. So it's something to think about little getaways, even mini vacations or retreats, you know, even if it's half a [00:29:00] day or an hour while the kids are still at school and you both wrapped up some work, you know, let's take time to be with one another.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. Oh, I love that. That's awesome. you talked about all the traveling that you've done in the indigenous people that you've been able to, to meet with. Are there any other. Are really impactful things that you've taken away from your travels that contribute to your holistic approach that you wanna share?

Holistic Hilda: It's easy to travel and encounter situations. With your mind made up

Kara Goodwin: Oh,

Holistic Hilda: and we can, you know, see a friend on the street and be like, oh, that's Tom. he's such a gossip. I, I really don't wanna talk to him. and have like a pre-judgment. And when you travel, you can do the same thing.

You can be like, oh, You know, that's weird. That's a weird practice. I'm not gonna pay attention to that. I really go with an open mind and I reserve judgment as much as possible. And you know what happens when I do that? I learn. I learn. I'm not closed off. And so [00:30:00] I think I've taken this practice in a way it's been healthy with myself, so I'm not judging myself or prejudging like, Hilda, you always do this.

It's like, no. I did that yesterday. It doesn't mean I'm gonna do it today or whatever it is, you know, I'm more open with myself, I'm more open with other people. I can observe things with curiosity and instead of a prejudgment, and it's really been amazing. It's really been amazing. The most recent example I can give you is in Mexico.

I was invited to be a part of a peyote ceremony, which is this ancient like, Plant medicine ceremony where you take it in a group with shaman and all these things and you know, I come from this like Christian faith framework and some people might have said, oh, you shouldn't have set foot in there.

But I was like, you know what? This is an ancient practice that I can learn from and honor and respect. I observe wise traditions in my dietary practices. Why wouldn't I respect a different form of faith or a different expression of connection with the earth and stuff? I'm telling you, this thing [00:31:00] was amazing.

it was so powerful. Like when the shaman were first calling to God, and by the way, it's not like they believe in a million gods necessarily. They did respect the four elements of the. Earth, the fire, the wind, and the water. But they talked about guardians of the elements as subjugated under a creator.

So for those who are like, oh no, that's not Christian, don't be so quick to judge, I would say. But anyway, when they started the ceremony, there was this wind blowing as if a storm was gonna come, but then it stopped. So it was really dramatic. It felt like, okay, somebody's listening here. And then we were up all night long.

I really am a girl that hasn't like, had a lot of, mind altering substances. So I just took a little respectful bite of the plant medicine and was like, if the spirit, great Spirit wants to talk to me, you know, he could do it without this. But anyway, that was how I managed all that. because I was also trying to be wise to me and oh my gosh, it was just a fascinating night.

And then when they wrapped things up, we were literally up all night long. They did another, you know, gratitude moment and the wind blew [00:32:00] again, and then it stopped. And I was like, oh my goodness, this was beautiful. And they said these beautiful things like, thank you grandfather fire and thank you.

Uh, you know, and it was just this personification of the earth. You know, you've heard of Mother Nature and maybe in Latin America but it was even. Deeper than that, I would say it was a communion with these elements. And if you really think about it, and I don't know much about the Ayurvedic tradition, but they say we're made of these elements anyway.

 like we all have these vita or petta elements in us of fire, wind, earth, and spirit, or water. So it's fascinating the way they were relating to the earth. And all this to say, I thought it was amazing just because, I was approaching it respectfully and openly and not judging it. And then I got to experience also the next bit.

We did this, the Mascal, which is like a sweat lodge situation, and it, I almost, you know, burst out crying. It was painfully [00:33:00] hot, but again, it was cathartic. And when we came out of the sweat lodge, we had to like crawl out of the door, like a little igloo shaped thing that we were in a mud hut. And when we crawled out it was like a rebirth.

And I was like, whoa. And again, what I see, if I'm being honest, Is a parallel between all the faiths of the world because these people might have had a more, let's say an indigenous expression of their faith. But think about how Jesus said you must be born again. You know, and some things are not born out of this spirit only, but by water.

Like there are so many parallels to me from my Christian framework and other perspectives and relationships to God that I'm just constantly learning and. Able to appreciate what I see and it's a beautiful thing. So I say, whether you're just meeting a friend in the street or you're traveling around the world, go with an open mind.

Don't prejudge. Oh, squid. I would never eat that. try something new. It is challenging, but also just in a health mindset, it helps build new neural pathways for your brain. It keeps you young, gives you some longevity, [00:34:00] if you will, and it's just a lovely way to enjoy all the things that life has to offer.

Kara Goodwin: I love that. that's really beautiful. And it brings to mind like when we did live in Italy, somebody came to visit us and an older woman came to visit us, from England. And I took her to the supermarket cuz I had to go to the supermarket. And she was, and there was something that they were doing.

That was like, she wasn't used to, I can't even remember what it was, something to do with checkout. And she's like, why are they doing that? And I'm like, well, and I tried to explain a little bit and her response was foreigners. And I was like, you're the foreigner. You're, you are not from here. But it was so funny, this quick judgment of like, oh, foreigners, you know?

And it was like, wait a minute, you, what are you talking about?

Holistic Hilda: That's so funny. And the other thing is we have been inculcated with the idea of efficiency in the United States, and if something is done a different way, we're [00:35:00] like, oh, that's so inefficient. She might have been looking at some things happening in Italy in that way, but what do we miss? Again? Things come at a cost, right?

What do we miss when we're shooting for efficiency? Only if we're just trying to, get our kids out the door. It's like boom, boom, boom. Maybe we missed a connecting moment that time when you were playing next to your kid, just. Is so beautiful to me because you were slowing down. That wasn't very efficient, Kara, but it was beautiful.

And so I wanna help us drop some of those kind of prejudgments and guarded ways of living as if our paradigm were the only correct one because we may be missing something.

Kara Goodwin: absolutely. Yeah. That's it. That is so wise. It's, somebody was just talking to me. a musician was just saying very recently that you know, that she was being, Guided by somebody in the industry to, basically just like release things quickly, kinda, you don't have to go to that level. You don't have to make things complicated.

Use this stock photo, the stock image or whatever. And she [00:36:00] referred to it as like fast food. Processing of the music and she didn't wanna do that. Like she wanted it to be deliberate and layered and to have different like levels for different people if that's, you know, who can, and they can hit different people in different ways and that kind of goes.

That just brings that parallel with what you just said because there is this, like, there's the efficiency, but then we're always skimming the surface and not going into the, like, the richness of what's around us and.

Holistic Hilda: Yes, and you see it in architecture too. I was in France last fall and a simple gate on. The exterior of a home would be handcrafted sometimes. And I was like, look at the attention to detail. It's functional but beautiful. And you know, somebody invested love in that, right? And here we're like, let me just pick something up from Home Depot and it's good enough.

And yeah. I love that your musician friend still wants to put that [00:37:00] personal touch and that creative beauty into her work that's, or his work. That's absolutely beautiful.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. you also make me think of too, when we moved back to America five years ago, and I remember taking a photo of my reflection one day after I'd been here for a couple months and I was in like yoga clothes, like workout clothes. I, and I had a Starbucks. Like disposable cup and I was walk, or I was, I had just walked out of Starbucks and I looked and I just caught my glams.

I was like, oh my God, I am totally pre immersed in this culture. I took a picture for my close friends that like, one's in Italy, you know, is Italian, one's French, and I was like, oh my God, you guys, I, America got me. I'm totally back now.

Holistic Hilda: Oh my gosh. Wow.

Yeah, it happens. It happens. But as you were about to say, probably, you know, we can retain [00:38:00] our essence. As long as we know who we are, and I do wanna encourage, you and the listener and me too, when we're talking to other people, we're often talking to ourselves, right, to remember who we are, to take time, to be aware, to be mindful to.

Be present because otherwise we will get swept up. There's a lot of programming that's coming out there and you and I know it, even from the podcasting space, like get those downloads, use chat G P T and I'm like, oh, chappy gp, goodbye. You know, I don't want that stuff because I wanna have my voice.

I'm a human being and I don't wanna forget it. And Staying grounded, literally physically outside in Nature is one way to be and to remember who you are, but just even just taking moments to be present, whatever you're doing is one way to remain human in a an increasingly AI world.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. Yeah, that, that is a beautiful segue into my. My next question, which is, you know, you're a podcast coach, that's one of the hats that you wear, but your approach doesn't just apply to [00:39:00] podcasting. it just seems like maybe podcasting is just the niche or the medium, you know, that you're comfortable in.

But do you have any seeds that you want to plant for listeners about having alignment for whatever their profession is?

Holistic Hilda: I think it's the same thing I tell people in the health and wellness space, like health isn't the destination. Love is, and. I say that because people sometimes are like, what supplement should I get and what hack? And I've got brain fog and somebody said, this is good and methylene blue, and you start acquiring all these things, but it's like you've got this desperation in it.

And sometimes in work or our careers, the same thing can happen. We wanna get to the next level or we start getting a victim mindset like, my boss doesn't appreciate me and I'm overworking and we forget. There's gotta be joy in the journey and you don't wanna climb the ladder of success to find, as they say.

You're up against the wrong wall. You didn't land where you wanted to be, and yeah, I've learned that it's [00:40:00] important to, yeah, have joy in the journey and to. Be and attract the things you want. Live the life you want now because tomorrow isn't promised to you. So it really does go back to being, and maybe that's a lot of ideas at once, but I guess I would say don't think of a certain level of career or monetary number as the thing you're trying to attain.

Think about the life you want to lead and if what you're doing now aligns with that, great. And if it doesn't, You can find a way to do it. And I'm gonna tell a little story. there was a man, I think it was in the Philippines, he was fishing. He was like a poor fisherman, basically. He was just fishing.

And this probably American came up to him and said, Hey, I see that you're fishing. That's great. He is like, why don't you buy a few more boats? And the guy was like, why should I do that? He said, so you can oversee a fishing company. and so the fisherman guy was like, oh, okay. Go on. He's like, yeah.

And then once you do that, you can make a lot of money And, And then you can, retire and do whatever you like and what would you like to do? And he is like [00:41:00] fish. So this visitor was trying to improve his life and he was really happy fishing. He didn't wanna have a company, he didn't wanna oversee all these people.

He didn't wanna make all that money. He was perfectly content. And so that's probably a good picture for where are you right now, are you content? And if not, then something's not aligning. Lead the life you wanna lead right now. Don't wait until tomorrow.

Kara Goodwin: Hmm. That's so beautiful. Thank you. Well, holistic Hilda, this has just been like a tall drink of water. It's just so nourishing and such a, a. It's quenching my thirst. How can people connect with you? Find out more about you and continue to learn from you.

Holistic Hilda: Oh, thank you so much, Kara. This has been amazing for me too. I love how the universe works things out that way, right? You think, oh, I'm gonna go give on this podcast, and I got so much out of it as well, so people can follow me on [00:42:00] Instagram. I'm holistic, Hilda. And I've got my YouTube channel, as you mentioned, at the top holistic Hilda, where I put up videos about some of the things I've done and I'm doing and traveling and so forth.

And then I host the Wise Traditions podcast, which has this food farming and the healing arts perspective. And so I do hope people will check it out because it's not just about, I was talking all about the animal products, but there's so much more, right? There's ferments, there's also sleep, there's avoiding non-native electromagnetic frequencies.

Like there's a lot of things that. Are wise and valuable on the show that I think would be ave benefit to your listeners, or at least I hope so. 

Kara Goodwin: Oh, beautiful. Well, yes, everybody definitely check out her, podcast. Traditions and the YouTube and there's a lot on Instagram as well. So you're, I just really honor everything that you're bringing, and helping to normalize some of these things that are so close to us that we've just sort of released over [00:43:00] time.

And it, it is time to bring them back into our lives so that we can be more, more complete on all levels.

Holistic Hilda: A hundred percent. Thank you so much, Kara. It's been a pleasure.

Kara Goodwin: Thank you, Hilda. 

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