Your Community Can Determine Your Lifespan

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going on, everybody.

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Welcome back to the elemental Evan show.

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Today is a mini Monday episode.

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So it's going to be a little shorter.

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Than the wellness Wednesday episodes.

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Nonetheless, it is going to be packed with some incredible information

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regarding health and wellness.

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This is actually going to be on a very.

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Interesting topic, because I don't think it's an obvious one, but nonetheless,

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it is one of the most important topics when it comes to longevity.

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And really what this is, is it's all about your community.

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It is all about your relationships and the quality of the relationships.

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So if you're listening to the show and you are wondering why the heck

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I'm talking about relationships, when it comes to your health and wellness.

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Well, it turns out that they are actually some of the most important things in

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determining the length of your life.

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So for example, when I first started studying blue zones, which are

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areas in the world where they have abnormally high levels of people

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who live to be centenarians, so to a hundred years old or older,

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And in these blue zones, they have a few common themes, but one of them, and

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one of the big ones is actually there.

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You know, the relationships that they have, the community, the, uh, connection

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they have with their friends and the quality of the relationships, right?

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Like how, how many people do you know that you're able to really confide in and

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share, uh, your, your feelings with right.

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And essentially just not being alone and lonely, right.

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Because what fun is life?

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If you have no one to share it with, uh, aside from yourself and in that way,

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I really believe we are kind of pack animals because, you know, we really do

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rely on the support of our community.

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Um, it does benefit us in many ways.

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And, uh, there is a study that I'm going to be talking

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about in this podcast, which.

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Definitely points to it and really blew my mind when I learned about Um, yeah.

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Once I learned about the blue zones and the study.

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That's when I really started understanding that, you know, health

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is way more than just the food that you're eating and the exercise that

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you're doing, it is all about, you know, the way you live your life.

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It is a lifestyle.

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Um, that is, you know, why I call myself elemental, Evan or this not myself,

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but this podcast, elemental oven.

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It's just because I look at all elements of health, right?

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I take all elements into consideration.

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I base our health off of the five elements, earth, water, fire, air,

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and ether, because through all of those elements, you can connect

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to every part of your health.

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So getting in to today's episode and to this study.

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This study.

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Literally spans over 75 years.

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So this is a very long study.

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Um, it started in 1939 and went to 2014.

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K was composed, uh, sorry.

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It was put on by Harvard.

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So in this study, Harvard took.

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456 poor men from Boston.

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In 1939.

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And 268 male graduates from Harvard from the classes of 1939 through 1944.

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What they did is they studied the physical and emotional wellbeing

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of these two groups and the most important thing that they found.

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Wasn't there diets, not their exercise routines, not their sleep patterns

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and not even their level of income.

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The most important thing.

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Turned out to be good relationships, which is completely wild, right?

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I mean, they studied a pretty significant group of people over

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a very significant amount of time.

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Right.

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I mean, they followed them for a long period of time.

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They had multiple generations of scientists.

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Contributing to this study, right?

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And they found that the most important thing was just good relationships.

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So.

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Our relationships and how happy we are in these relationships

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is a huge factor of your health.

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The study is really interesting.

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Because obviously it's, you know, too easy for us to just really focus

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on the physical aspect of health.

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Like I said, you know, with what we eat and.

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And the exercise that we do, but a lot of times we forget the fact that.

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You know, we have this mental and emotional wellbeing that really

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plays a role in our overall health and wellness as well.

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And one of the best ways to cultivate a good emotional and mental state

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is to be around people that lift you up and support you and are, you

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know, just good energy, someone that

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Uh, you know, when you, when you hang out with them, you feel energized, right?

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Not drained, obviously.

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Cause that would be not a good relationship there, but someone

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that when you hang out with them, you leave feeling more energized.

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Right?

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This is.

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So beneficial for us to have this community to have connection with people.

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And really at the end of the day, to just even have four to five people

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that you can really, you know, depend on if you were in a pinch or, uh,

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you know, turn to, if you were.

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You know, in a bad situation, like, uh, maybe you break up with your,

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with your boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever it may be, and you need someone

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to turn to, or, uh, you know, like, I don't know, you get a flat tire.

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Who are you going to call to come help you?

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I like having people like that, or even just simply someone that you

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can go to and, uh, you know, spend a little bit of time with and, and,

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and just joke and have a good time.

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You know, we, we actually really.

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I need those things in our life.

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And like I was saying with the blue zones, There was a, there's a blue zone in Japan.

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And all the women in this, uh, little blue zone.

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They have like this group of friends that, you know, they went

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to school with when they were kids.

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And they still hang out and they like.

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Have some drinks together.

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I think, I don't think it's alcoholic.

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I think it was like tea, but they would hang out, drink some tea and just like

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talk about the old times, play some games.

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And like, they just had a really beautiful sense of community.

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And when I compare that to some of the communities that I see out here,

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Uh, in the U S it's definitely not the same, you know, a lot of the times.

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When you get old, you typically are, you know, put in a old

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person, retirement home.

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You are no longer.

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Uh, surrounded by family, unless the family obviously goes and visits you.

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And obviously there are reasons for doing this, right?

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Like you don't want to feel like you're a burden to anybody.

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Uh, people have their own lives.

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You don't want to be an infringing on that.

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And, you know, you want to feel like you are able to still take care of yourself.

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And all of that is well and good, but I think we lose a lot of the community when

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we do that, obviously in the retirement home, there is a community, but, you know,

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even if you take it down to like my age,

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I was living in a house where I did not know my neighbors

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just here, not that long ago.

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Right.

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I didn't know who lived to the left or to the right of me, which is a weird thing.

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I don't think that's a, that's a normal thing.

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I think we You know, at least have a first name basis with people and definitely in

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the blue zones, you see that they have a very, very strong sense of community.

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A hundred percent in pretty much every blue zone that you look at.

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So having community is something that's very important.

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And if you're looking at a way to cultivate a better community, which

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by the way, you don't need to have.

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A ton of friends, you don't need to have this massive friend group

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of like 50 or a hundred people.

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Right.

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Because at that point, really, I mean, how quality are those relationships?

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Uh, we're really wanting to focus on the quality relationships.

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So even just four to five people could be just enough, That might be all you need.

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And as a matter of fact, that might be all the time.

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You have to have really good relationships with just four to five people, right.

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With a hundred people.

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I mean, that would be almost impossible to have really, really good

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relationships with every single person.

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So.

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Uh, you know, focus on the quality, not the quantity here.

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But if you are looking to find.

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You know, better friends for one.

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I would say, find what your interests are, whatever your interest is.

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Uh, let's say it's yoga or maybe it's, I'm shooting a bow and arrow, or I don't

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know what, you know, just anything.

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Uh, if you, if you're into yoga, go to yoga events, right.

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And connect with people at these events, um, you know, make friends through that.

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So you'll have that common, uh, common interest there.

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If you're into shooting a bow, then go to an archery range and

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make friends there, you know, and so find, find what you're into.

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And then you'll find people who are naturally going to kind of be into

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similar interests as you as well.

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Uh, and aside from that, one thing I really wanted to touch

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on was, uh, you know, I've been going to a men's group, which.

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Honestly, I had no idea what that was going to be all about, but what it

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ended up being was just a group of guys who meet up every Thursday at

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the space bar in Pasadena and just have some really good conversations.

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We vent.

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If we have anything we need to get off of our chest.

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Um, you know, something that we can feel very comfortable saying in this little

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group setting where, you know, no one's judging you, we're just here for you

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and listening to what you have to say.

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And, and it's a really cool thing.

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So maybe looking into even a group like that, Would be very beneficial, but

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definitely, definitely cultivate your relationships that you already have.

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Okay.

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If you have relationships with people and you have been neglecting them, then

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go ahead and make those relationships

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But also remember that quality is better than quantity.

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And if there is a bad relationship in your life, just as a good one

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can be good for your health, a bad one can be bad for your health.

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So if someone is toxic in your life, do not feel bad in cutting

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them out because it is not serving.

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You find a relationship that is healthy and is going to benefit

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Uh, you know, literally in the long run right in the longevity here.

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So anyways, that is going to do it for today's episode.

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Uh, I really.

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Can't talk about this enough.

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Community and connections, relationships.

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They are so important, even though they seem very minuscule, they are

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incredibly, incredibly important.

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So make sure that you do take time to focus on this.

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And remember that health is not just the physical aspect, right?

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There's so many other portions to it.

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So making Spend some time on those other portions as well is going to be key, but

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yeah, that is going to do it for today.

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And, uh, thank you all very much for tuning in to today's episode.

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Uh, feel free to go look.

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So you can obviously just click on the link there.

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And yeah.

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If anyone that you know of could definitely benefit from the

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show, then please feel free to share this episode with them.

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Uh, that's what this is all about.

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I'm just trying to really, you know, give this free health and wellness information.

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Uh, and put it out there, give you the information.

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So then you have the tools to work with to better your own life.

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And yeah, that's pretty much going to do it for today's episode.

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Just wanted to take a quick second and mentioned that if you are looking to, you

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know, really support this show in some way, then I would definitely recommend

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checking out some of the links that I put in the show notes, such as Organifi.

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Or energy bits, which are to.

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You know, incredible companies that.

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I have some really, really fantastic products.

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I know that the holidays are coming up, so there are probably going to

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be some really great sales going on.

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Uh, Organifi usually does some pretty good cells.

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And you get a 20% discount code and they usually apply that discount code

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with the, or already sell going on.

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Right.

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So definitely check them out.

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Their chocolate gold, their green juice, their red

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Yeah, everything pretty much is bombed, but those are my top

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three that I really, really enjoy.

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So.

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Be sure to check them out.

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It's a great way to support the show.

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Just click the link in the show notes and yeah, that's going to do

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it for today's episode, everybody.

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Uh, you already know the motto of the show.

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It is do everything with good intentions and connect to your elements.

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And until next time, y'all have a great rest of your day and I

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will see you on the next episode.