Discovering Life’s Sweetness: Lessons from Italy
Episode 212
Welcome back to another episode of Integrative You Radio! In this episode, we take you on a journey through our recent experience in Italy, exploring the profound lessons we learned while immersed in the rich Italian culture. From the vibrant community life to the emphasis on being present, we share how the simplicity of life in Italy had a profound impact on our perspective. As we delve into the topic of food, we discuss the difference in approach towards nutrition and quality ingredients in Italy compared to the United States. The absence of organic labels is replaced by a reliance on farm-fresh, locally sourced produce, creating a cost-effective and genuine food experience. Our hosts reflect on the value of simplicity and balance in life, challenging listeners to reconsider societal definitions of success and happiness. Join us as we explore the sweetness of being present, the importance of family time, and the profound lessons learned from the Italian way of life. Interested in learning more about Dr. Nick & Dr. Nicole’s courses, memberships, or private work? Learn more at Integrative You . Have a quick question, Would you like to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at 732.913.0009. Our mission to innovate humans & Healthcare does NOT start and stop with us! This is why we are also dedicated to helping other practitioners in evolving healthcare too! If you are a healthcare leader and are looking to up-level your clinical + business excellence Learn more about our course membership: Limitless Healthprenuer and start boldly disrupting this industry! What you’ll learn: Embracing Simplicity: The podcast highlights the profound impact of embracing simplicity in life, as observed through the Italian culture's focus on quality ingredients, locally sourced food, and the absence of unnecessary complexities. Prioritizing Presence: Italy's emphasis on being present in the moment serves as a key takeaway. The hosts share how the Italian lifestyle encourages gen
Topics: life, italy, unknown, italian, family, being, simplicity, lessons
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Discovering Life’s Sweetness: Lessons from Italy
- Embrace Simplicity in Daily Life:** Observe how the Italian focus on quality ingredients and local sourcing creates a genuinely satisfying food experience without the need for excessive labels.
- Prioritize Being Present:** Learn from the Italian lifestyle's encouragement of genuine connections, family time, and stepping away from constant busyness.
- Rethink Your Definition of Success:** Challenge societal expectations and explore how prioritizing balance, family, and well-being can lead to true happiness.
- The importance of presence and mindfulness
Pull quotes
This is the place where you become limitless. **Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior.
We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare.
If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place. **Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive.
Transcript
**Unknown:** Welcome to Integrative U Radio, hosted by Dr. Nick Carruthers and yours truly, Dr. Nicole Rivera. This is the place where you become limitless.
**Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior. We are also covering how those topics affect the human and family dynamics. We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare. If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place.
**Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive. This is Integrative U Radio. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative U Radio.
**Unknown:** So you get to not only hear us on the podcast, but you can see us if you are on YouTube or on our social page with our fun new platform that we're using. And so I'm here with Dr. Nick, as you can see. He always kills it at the intros here, guys.
**Unknown:** It's, it's great to- Literally you're waving. It's a podcast. I, I was gonna say, this is gonna be bad because now just for people that listen, I'm, I'm not gonna talk anymore. I'm just gonna do hand gestures the entire time.
**Unknown:** And I swear he didn't just pick that up from Italy, which is actually the topic of this podcast, is, is sharing the amazing experience that we had, but some of the biggest lessons that we learned while being abroad and being immersed in the Italian culture. We're here to talk to you about our depression and why we're depressed. We're ... That is, uh, very accurate.
**Unknown:** We're, uh, we're two weeks back now, and, um- And the depression's growing ... I can't say that I'm any less depressed than when I first got back. But we'll put on a really good show for you guys. But Italy, I think, you know, for, for us and for me, is that it, it's a culture that is very in alignment with my personal values and also the values that we share as a family.
**Unknown:** So I do think that that has influenced why we enjoyed it so much. Yeah. It's, I mean, just walking around in the community that's there, it's like it doesn't matter how big or small an area, like, every place has the little square, the little plaza in the middle. And what's just- Piazza ...
**Unknown:** amazing that ... Yeah. Is that all these kids are just running around, and they're playing, they're giggling, they're singing, they're laughing. You know, some of them are play fighting, and none of them are on their phones.
**Unknown:** And it's just, it's ... We see here, it's like, you know, we live on a pretty awesome place, uh, on an island here, and there is a group of kids driving a golf cart by, and every single kid was on their phone. A- and then I was just like, "This is why. This is, this is why I'm depressed." Well, uh, if anybody has ever followed anything about Italy or they've been there or they are friends with people from Italy, there's a couple of terms that have been coined there.
**Unknown:** And la dolce vita is probably the most well-known, and it's really just the sweet life. And then there's dolce far niente, which is the sweetness of doing nothing. And what I realized when I was there, it was really about dolce di presente is, is what I'm coining because it was the sweetness of being present. And that is really what you're talking about, Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick, is people were a lot more present. There was a lot of engagement of people sitting in the piazzas having conversations, from groups of, of old men to families, to kids playing soccer in, you know, these little cobblestone alleyways. And if someone was sitting down for dinner, uh, because everybody for the most part, where we were, we were in the south, and it's very warm still, so outside dining is happening a- almost all year round. And so you really can see m- you know, tons of people and, and tons of families sitting down for an espresso to dinner to lunch, and you don't see those phones.
**Unknown:** You don't see that. And if anybody was pulled out- And, and what's amazing is it's not like you don't see the phone, and it was they went down for a quick espresso and a pastry or something. It's like no, like, you're there for at least 45 minutes, you know, up to the typical average an hour and a half to two hours. Yeah.
**Unknown:** It's like ... And it's just, you know, the first couple times we sat down I had, you know, not anxiety, but I was just kinda like, "Okay," like, "What am I gonna do next? What we gotta do?" Like, um, then I realized, like, there is nothing to do. Like, it's let's, let's just focus on the quality of being and not the doing to try to get the quality of being.
**Unknown:** It was like we do everything in verse here. We try to do more and have more so that we can experience more of ourselves. While over there it's like they have less, they do less, and in doing all that less-ness, they're being more of themselves. Well, I think there is, there is a sweetness to life being a little bit more simple, and that's why they're not as focused on doing, doing, doing to have, have, have because they're, they're living in the present, and they feel more joyous and more fulfilled by having that quality connection and having a little bit more freedom, not necessarily being bound to, you know, working eight, nine, 10-hour days, uh, because they have to have these things.
**Unknown:** Don't get me wrong. The cost of living there, um, and I know that this is different in the north of, of Italy, uh, but the south of Italy, the cost of living was a lot less. Uh, so I know that that does play a role. Coming back to the US has, you know, we...
**Unknown:** Everything has been on the rise. But since being back, it has been wild. Wild. Uh, you know, the amount for a flight that's anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes, you know, the cost of broccoli.
**Unknown:** It's... It, it, we are living in a, a very challenging time when it comes to being able to just afford feeding our families. So we do understand that- Well, and the sad part about it is, is that, you know, we got Baby Q what you got, I don't know, a thing of strawberries, what, an orange. The only thing that wasn't local- Two oranges, strawberries, uh, grapes, and bananas.
**Unknown:** Apple. Yeah. I mean, the bananas wa- wasn't local, but everything else was local there, and all that was what, five or six euros? It was five euros and 50 cents.
**Unknown:** Yep. And it- And it's like here, the strawbe- strawberries alone were I think seven, eight- For organic ... dollars for organic, and they're organic. You cut them inside, they're white.
**Unknown:** They have no flavor. Over there, they were smaller. They weren't labeled organic because it was just real food, and with that, Baby Q takes a bite, and he's got all this strawberry juice running down, so I steal one of his and taste it, and it was freaking amazing. And on...
**Unknown:** You're just like, "This tastes delicious." Like, and that's, like, what's amazing about the food there. You talk about living a simple life, they don't go crazy on having to add all these other things. They keep their dishes so simple, and that, the beauty of that simplicity is because it tastes amazing because it actually just has all the flavor of being real. Quality ingredients.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And that's really, when you ever watch any of those shows, you know, Chef's Table, and they're showcasing some of the top restaurants in the world, that is the, the leading statement of any of these top chefs is it's about your ingredients. If you don't have quality ingredients, you don't have quality food. And so a lot of these really fantastic restaurants that exist all over the world, they are sourcing...
**Unknown:** They either have their own farms, or they are working directly with a farm in a partnership in order to make sure that they are getting good quality clean food from meat to dairy to produce. And so- And then talking about places that have, like, restaurants that have their own farms, there everybody has at least a small garden. You know- Yeah ... it doesn't matter where you're living, like, everybody has at least a small garden.
**Unknown:** If you're living up in the hills and you have more space, you have... Like, the, the food is such a big part of their lifestyle that the... it's not just the food of eating food. It's the whole process of growing the food, like, having that appreciation for taking care of it, nourishing it, and knowing that it's gonna come back and nourish you.
**Unknown:** Like, the, the flavor and that cycle is just amazing. Well, it's so interesting because prior to going, something that I have been saying, and it's been somewhat jokingly but also at the same time somewhat serious, is that, you know, Dr. Nick and I, anybody who's ever worked with us, you know that we've educated you on food. We've educated you on how to avoid toxins, and some of our podcasts have probably been depressing to people because we're talking about how toxic our environment is, our personal products, the food, the wine, the, the coffee.
**Unknown:** You know, you have to go through... You have to jump through all of these hoops in order to try to live a non-toxic life and eat food that is not killing you. And we moved to South Carolina in order to create a better life for ourselves but also for our son because our primary focus has been to evolve healthcare, and we put our heads down and put all of our energy and resources into our business, our practice, and we loved every second of it. But we, we paid the price in the sense that we kind of lost track as to who we were.
**Unknown:** Um, we also didn't really have time to prioritize a family. We honestly didn't even have time to prioritize each other, but we are in it together, so we were more accepting of the fact that we were tired and burnt out, and sitting across from each other at... eating dinner at 9:00 PM not even speaking to each other 'cause we were brain dead. Yeah.
**Unknown:** And- If we weren't in business together, we would be divorced for sure. 100%. 100%. So if you are an entrepreneur and your spouse isn't, please, uh, go give them a hug now.
**Unknown:** Um, but what we, you know, we were always jokingly saying is, like, one, the food has no flavor anymore. The food is so expensive. It's so hard to find anything that's halfway decent anymore. You know, we're gonna have to have our own farm.
**Unknown:** And, you know, as we-expanded on the conversation with each other, you know, we were, we were really just talking about the bigger picture behind our transition, the bigger picture behind what do we want for our family, um, and also just the state of the world. And we couldn't help but just say I think that the revolution or the evolution of healthcare is actually helping people get back to the basics, helping people to understand that trying to just work your way up a corporate ladder or have this booming business, but you and your family actually have no idea how to cook a meal for yourself or how to, you know, hunt your own food, God forbid we're ever put in the position that we can't access things, you know, being able to, like, understand how to nourish ourselves, that is something that a lot of people have lost track of, and I think we need to get back to that. And then you go to Italy and they never lost track of that. You know, don't get me wrong, there are Italians that have moved to other countries, Germany and Switzerland, so they can advance their careers- Well, and we weren't in any, like- ...
**Unknown:** but the people that still give a fuck ... we weren't in big cities where we were either. I mean, we were in- Yes, 100% ... smaller towns.
**Unknown:** But people are, are... You know, you could go there and say, "Oh, well, these people are not successful," quote-unquote, and really at the end of the day I f- I wanna challenge our audience to redefine success. You know, if success is about the money in your bank account and the growth and scale of your career or your business, but relationships are suffering, your nutrition is suffering, your health is suffering, you know, is that really success? Because something that I find so fucking alarming right now, and this is the, the husbands or spouses of people we work with, the, AKA the ones that never worked with us, and just honestly just talking to people and talking to family members, the idea, the American idea of work, work, work until you retire, and then retire and then live your life and enjoy your, your money and your time, there are so many people that are one, spending their retirement in doctor's offices, not on a golf course or in Florida or on an island, or they're passing away within five to 10 years of their retirement.
**Unknown:** And it's just like this... If you start paying attention you will be like, "Wow, thi- this is the reality for a lot of people." And we need to reevaluate what are we spending the, the three-quarters of our lives doing? And great, you have money in the bank, but what if you never get to enjoy it at all, or you don't even have anyone to share it with because you've ostracized all of your relationships? Yeah, it's, uh...
**Unknown:** I mean, as you know, I'm always looking at the balance of things, but, you know, talking about happiness, happiness is definitely an, an internal thing, and in America most people aren't happy, so, you know, that's why we're, you know, based on consumerism as a nation, you know? Yeah. The, the more unhappy a person is, the more they're going to consume externally. Um, we know the whole process of biochemistry and everything, why that and how that occurs.
**Unknown:** But it's like over there, you know, even, you know, we did a cooking class. You know, we value food and we value that, so we did a cooking class, and good old Barbara, uh- ... you know, chatting with her, you know, she, she still works her ass off 'cause it's, she lives in tourism area, and, you know, for eight months she's working her ass off, but then, you know, that rest of the time she's traveling. So even though sh- she has that hard work ethic, it's, it's not that she works hard for 20 years and then takes the break.
**Unknown:** She, she maintains that, that balance- Yeah ... throughout the year and, and gives her t- body time to reset, gives her mind time to reset. You know, we were talking like, "What's the biggest thing you're gonna do in these three months?" She's like, "I'm gonna sit and read." She's like, "I don't have time to read as much when I'm constantly working, and I'm constantly entertaining, and constantly doing all these things." 'Cause she had, what, like she had her own huge garden. She had tons of olive trees.
**Unknown:** She had walnut trees. She had all these different, uh, fruits and vegetables that, like she would make the, use the olives for, make their own olive oil that she would use. And, you know, it was just like how much time and preparation goes into all of that, that the thing that she set aside, you know, on her priority of values was reading. So it's like, okay, well, now I'm gonna relax, but she said she's still gonna wake up and, like she...
**Unknown:** Her, she would get her workout from more of, like the outside and the garden, but she wouldn't have time to go to the gym. So she's like, "I'm gonna go to the gym 'cause I like going to the gym, and I'm gonna read. Those are the two things I'm gonna do in these three, four months while I get to relax until we start back up and go crazy again." But also one of the primary things that she was prioritizing with that time off was not just for her to be solo 'cause she needed a break, but m- the trips that she was taking, she was prioritizing being able to bring the entire family. And so her daughters also made sure that they had the availability to go on, you know, the cruise and some of the other trips that they had planned.
**Unknown:** So, uh, despite, you know, if you're busy or you're vacationing, family is always at the center of most of the decision-making, and it, it was very refreshing and very, very nice to see that, um, these families, despite the kids being, you know, in their 20s, they're still prioritizing that quality... time together. Um, 'cause I, if Q thinks he's getting rid of me, he's not, in his- ... teens and 20s.
**Unknown:** But I have this list, and it's very, very long, but, you know, I wanna kind of pick and choose a couple of the really key things that really stood out to us while we were there. And, you know, a lot of it is piggybacking off of what we're talking about, but there is no organic, as Dr. Nick said, that, that doesn't exist because it's farm fresh food, end of story, and it's extremely cost-effective. Uh, so there's no major certifications for it to be labeled organic because that's not their reality there, and a lot of it is coming f- locally.
**Unknown:** You know, you have these little farm stands, and they're... That produce is not coming from anywhere, uh, i- in a different region. It's coming from that region, with the exception of something like bananas. I think bananas were the only exotic fruit that we saw, though.
**Unknown:** There was no papayas, there was no avocados. Uh, it, those things don't grow there. Um, and I thought that was really fascinating. And the other thing, there's no kids menus.
**Unknown:** It's not a thing. There's no... And there especially is no kids menus with, you know, fried foods and whatnot. Kids go to restaurants and they get what they get.
**Unknown:** They get what is on the adult menu. If there is a small child, they will make the accommodation to maybe do half the portion size, but there is no such thing as feeding the kids differently than the rest of the family, and I thought that that was really huge. A- and what's also interesting, talking about, like, families going out for dinner, like, A, the big thing was there's no separation of the menus. The food you get is the food you get, and, you know, th- they're, they're little, but they're just a little s- little adult.
**Unknown:** You know, why are they eating anything different? But also, th- they're a little adult, they were treated like little adults, you know? Mm-hmm. A, you go out here and most families don't bring their little ones, and it's not accepted to bring your little ones.
**Unknown:** And in doing so, it's like, how do we, how do we learn best? We learn the best through actual experience. And because we're... Our little ones aren't experiencing real life- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** and when I say real life, it's like even when they do go out, what do you see? You see a tablet in front of them to shut them up, to distract them. Yeah. So they're actually not learning how to interact.
**Unknown:** They're not learning how to behave. They're not learning how to have manners. They're not learning anything to create that community. They're constantly disconnected.
**Unknown:** You go over there, and it's like, we didn't see any kids. And, like, we... Like, don't get me wrong. That's right.
**Unknown:** Like, we put a good amount of time, and effort, and focus, family values, everything, figuring out Baby Q's values f- that he has already for himself to, to be able to serve him, to be able to keep him engaged, to be able to allow him to be connected, and we do a great job on that, and he was, quote-unquote, "a bad kid" over there. He wasn't, like, bad, but he wasn't... Like, over here in the States, he's an amazing kid. Over there, he wasn't anything special.
**Unknown:** Like- He, he just- Well, and also, like, his... He... You know, there were a couple of times when we were out that we were like, "We need to put a movie on," because he's, he's not used to sitting and dining for this long period of time, and he... It was a new experience for him because, you know, most of the restaurants here in the US, you're in and out, you know, because everybody's working on tips.
**Unknown:** They, they... The restaurants make money on turnover, and over there, the servers, um, make money, uh, they're, they make a salary. So they're not rushing you out. You could sit down for two to three hours, and everything is very, very slow.
**Unknown:** So if you're sitting down, chances are you're not getting up for an hour, some... If you're sitting down for dinner, you're probably not getting out of that restaurant for two to three hours, and so that's very, very different than the culture here. A lot of times you could be in and out of a restaurant in 45 minutes, and that's partly, you know, because of- Partly why our digestion's screwed up. Yeah.
**Unknown:** But I find it interesting, 'cause some people might be like, "I can't bring my kid to a restaurant because my kids buck wild." And, you know, uh, when I was observing over there and looking at these kids that were so behaved, and they were all different ages, and I was like, "What is really the root of this?" So yes, part of it is it's, it's a normal occurrence going out to eat and going... Like, people are out and about all the time there because everything is walkable. There's, there's piazzas in these villages, i- i- even if they're tiny. So people are out and about constantly.
**Unknown:** There is not a lot of sitting home and watching TV. It's really about, like, going out in your, in your village, and in your city if you're in a large city. But the other factor is that I observed these kids, adults, whomever, eating sugar. Like, croissants and cookies are a very normal breakfast, and I was apprehensive about giving Q that, and- He wasn't ...
**Unknown:** you look and you're like, one- ... these people are not overweight. These kids are not overweight with distended bellies. And then you also don't really see, um, hyperactivity.
**Unknown:** You know, kids are hyper. That's just kids. But, like, hyperactivity to the point that you're like, "They l- this is abnormal," or they look neurologically stressed. So you're sitting there and you realize it's a compilation of things.
**Unknown:** It's a compilation of being out and about and dining together is a normal part of culture. It's a normal part of connection, and there's an expectation that you're gonna engage with the people around you.Then there's also the lack of food dyes, and there's a lack of high fructose corn syrup, and there's a lack of really toxic ingredients that are stressing kids' neurological systems that are making them bounce off the walls. So these kids tend to be more calm, which allows them to not need some type of distraction while sitting out dining. Yeah, I mean- So it's, it's very interesting ...
**Unknown:** you create one, you have to go to the equal and opposite extreme to, to stop that from occurring, so. Yeah. And it's like we are so specific on what we feed ourselves in Q, but, you know, it is just unfortunate, but there is so much shit in the food. They're tampering with organic now.
**Unknown:** You know, going to Whole Foods now that it's been taken over, uh, the quality is not what it used to be. They're not using local companies and local farms like they used to. So honestly, the food in the US is getting worse and worse by the day, by the minute. And I realize that both myself and Baby Q, like his stomach got flatter, my stomach got flatter, and it's wasn't about fat.
**Unknown:** It was, it was a distension from bloating from toxins that are residing in the gut. And we're two weeks back, and the distension is back for both myself, and I see it specifically in Q. Not all of us have the beautiful genes that Dr. Nick does, that he can have abs no matter what he does or eats.
**Unknown:** It's a curse. It's a curse, I swear. We, uh, we highly dislike you. I was, I was g- I was like, "She's not saying my name." Um, but also just kind of on this topic, I think one of the, for me, um, I know a lot of people classify the big box stores as being very convenient and accessible, but the big box stores are one of the reasons why we have so much poor quality in our food, in, in the amount of chemicals that are even in our clothes because we are looking for accessibility and cheap.
**Unknown:** And, you know, when y- we were over there, I did not see one big box grocery store. There was no Walmart, there was no Target, there was none of that. Well, and the funny thing is the cheapness is a facade because things over there were actually more cheap than over here. Cheap.
**Unknown:** But over there, there wasn't the preservatives. There wasn't any, anything to make it cheap so it could last longer. So it shows that it's not the cheapness that we're over here, it's the profitability. So we're so concerned- Yeah ...
**Unknown:** about profit instead of actually living, which is... I mean, you know, when the profit comes back to making all that money, which is how we started this conversation, is that, you know, we have all these people that are working their ass off to make all this money, and then when they finally retire, they, they, they, their body actually has the time to catch up, and what's it gonna do? It's gonna start healing. So then it gets sick, then it breaks down because it actually has the time to start healing.
**Unknown:** We don't think of the body breaking down as a part of healing, but that's actually the gift of time that allows us to heal. That's like why somebody can run a marathon, and soon as they hit that finish line, they collapse. But they could have probably just continued running another two, three, four, five, six miles because the body can keep going until you stop, and once you stop, you give it time to be able to heal, and sometimes that heal is a feeling the breakdown. So I think that- Sorry, I might say something ...
**Unknown:** you know, one of the reasons why we're sharing this is because we have this conversation all day long, and trust me, we give ourselves pep talks on a regular basis of sometimes when you're doing, doing, doing and you don't feel any happier, you don't feel any more joyous, you don't feel any more grateful, you don't feel any richer, it's sometimes about pausing and just focusing on being a little bit more present. And I know that there are going to be stressors in life, and there are things that come up that, you know, we worry about. But we're not in control of our future, and if we focus on the past and we f- we have the idea that the past dictates the future, you're gonna never be able to live in the present because the past is done. Yes, you might have a memory of it, but just because something panned out the way that it did in the past, that has zero effect on how that would affect your future.
**Unknown:** The only way it affects your future is if that is what you expect. If you expect your past to recreate in your future, it will. It will 100 times over, and that's why Dr. Nick and I, we talk about cycles.
**Unknown:** Things happen in cycles. You'll have cycles of pain, you'll have cycles of worry, you'll have cycles of, of grief, you'll have cycles of shame, cycles of depression, and it really comes down to people living in the past and worrying about the future and having zero ability to live in the present. And if we can make that a practice, that we just make these little micro steps to be a little bit more present, it's gonna change your world. And if you are like, "I don't even know where to begin", get your ass on a plane and go to Italy.
**Unknown:** They'll teach you. You don't have to talk to anybody, just observe. Just watch, and you're just like, "Shit. Okay." It's definitely-More difficult here, I would say, um, to be present.
**Unknown:** Because over there, the lifestyle, it doesn't force you to be present, it's just created to allow you to stay present. Where the lifestyle here, it's more designed to actually keep you away from being present, and to living in the past- Ooh, entertained and distracted ... to having that, yeah, to having that worry, to having the fear of the future. It, lifestyle here is more created to that.
**Unknown:** So it's like in the States, and honestly anywhere, you know, the top two things we can do to be present is to get crystal clear on what's most important to you, your highest values, and be conscious of connecting everything that you do, everything that you think, to serving that. Because, you know, the happiness, happiness is an emotion, and all energy is in a state of balance, so you can't have happiness without the sadness. Yeah. But what, what's fun about life is that it's the mind, it's the perception that can either connect to the sadness or connect to the happiness.
**Unknown:** So we have the choice, and the choice is a conscious decision. Things in the past, yeah, they can be shitty, it can be painful, it can be stressful, it can be traumatic, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that there isn't good that's inside of that, because the solution's always inside of the problem. So if there's a problem, there's also a gift, the solution. And if we're trying to live a one-sided life where we're only experiencing good without bad, well, we're gonna feel a lot of chaos, a lot of turmoil, because we're trying to only experience part of life.
**Unknown:** You know, when we go to Italy, you know, one of the things I was saying is like these buildings are gorgeous. And why? Because they were raw. Like, they're, they're, they weren't like the States where a beautiful building doesn't have any imperfections.
**Unknown:** Mm-hmm. It's the imperfections in the buildings in Italy that made it beautiful. You know, it's like here, it's like you go on social media and it's like everybody has to look completely perfect. You can't have a pimple, you can't have a zit, you can't have a scar, you can't have anything else.
**Unknown:** And it's like there, it's like the beauty is the rawness. The beauty is actually saying, "Hey, look at this. I've lived, and living is beautiful." If, if you look perfect, if everything's like that, it's like you haven't lived because there's no distress. Life is a combination of chaos and order, stress and eustress.
**Unknown:** And it's like that's the beauty of life is, and that's what allows us to be present, is to get in the middle, in the center of everything, the good and the bad, and to be able to use it to serve ourselves. And that's what- And that's what allows us to be present in, in a state of love. Yeah. I, I honestly kind of want to leave it there because I think that that is the ultimate lesson i- in all of it, is, is being present, but also, uh, s- is stop creating the fantasy of the one-sidedness.
**Unknown:** And there is so much beauty in the imperfections, and so much beauty in knowing how to navigate the hard stuff, um, with grace. You know, this isn't about avoiding the hard stuff, it's just navigating it with more grace and more gratitude, because it's, it's always gonna be there, and if you think that you're gonna be able to live a life that it, you get rid of it all, you're gonna set yourself up for a real big nightmare. Awesome. Thanks for joining us, guys.
**Unknown:** Well, we hope that you enjoyed this. Um, you know, Italy was a such amazing trip, and I highly, highly recommend it, especially if you love food, and you love scenery, and you just like love really, really friendly people that are all about conversation and connection. It is a fantastic, fantastic trip, and we, we can't wait to go back. Ciao.
**Unknown:** We thank you so much for being an avid listener of Integrative U Radio, formerly known as Integrative Wellness Radio. We appreciate all of your support. We love your comments. Please visit us on social media, as well as our website to see all of the fun things happening behind the scenes, and the new amazing content and courses that is being rolled out on a monthly basis.
**Unknown:** We hope to see you there.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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