194: Dr. G – Healing the Body & Mind to Create with Soul
“The answer to us is not an algorithm; it is so much more complex than that.”
– Dr. G
Welcome back to ONKEN RADIO (previously NION Radio), the podcast where we explore the body, mind, and soul of the creative entrepreneur. I’m glad to bring you another episode of taking your creativity, business, and life to the next level.
Creative Alchemy is using the process of creativity to take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. Sometimes, certain blocks stop us from activating our inner creativity. It can be anything, but most of the time, these things are just within us. — trauma and unhealthy habits are just some of them.
Today, we have Dr. G in the house to help us navigate these blocks and dismantle them Dr. G is a holistic doctor and oncologist. He’s got his own private practice concierge service for individuals, healthcare, and private doctors. He is also a Creative Alchemist through his podcast, Heal Thyself, where he talks about the self-healing process (and how you can do it too).
In our conversation, Dr. G shared his personal experiences and insights on healing the body and mind. We also talked about the mind-body connection and lastly, we discussed the practical ways to achieve harmony in ourselves and everything around us so that we can create with soul. I’m excited to dive in, so let’s get started.
Who Is Dr. Christian Gonzalez?
Dr. G is a naturopathic doctor, specializing in integrative oncology. He is also a co-founder of The Swell Score and the creator of Heal Thyself, a weekly live IG series that serves as a community for wellness and healing.
If you’re curious about how Dr. G’s work as a naturopathic doctor (ND) differs from that of a medical doctor (MD), you need to know that both have almost the same curriculum, including difficult science courses.
However, if you’re studying to become an ND, you’ll spend a number of hours on nutrition subjects, including Herbology as well! MD students don’t study Eastern medicine, and a little sprinkle of healing people outside conventional medication is something that Dr. G believes is necessary to provide complete healing and cure.
Aside from providing holistic healing to his patients, Dr. G also has his podcast called, Heal Thyself. Not only does he talk about his healing process, but he also does amazing reviews of all kinds of different products, from supplements to mold.
Though Mr. G is greatly enjoying the field he’s into today, the story of how he got into the holistic side of things is a hard one. It was his mom’s cancer and her eventual death that led him to believe in the value of providing healing for one’s whole being. This is what led him to discover and gain the wisdom that he’s going to share with us today.
Alchemize Your Health by Healing Your Mind and Body
My philosophy of Creative Alchemy focuses on transmuting one thing into something better. I think that you can alchemize everything in your life — which includes your health, mind, and body.
There are many ways to improve one’s health. You can improve your health by eating healthier, working, out, and meditating. Another way is to conquer your fears because fear sends toxins through your body. Dr. G explained how this works:
“If you’re told something and the persistent message to you is that you need to be living in a fearful state, your body’s going to react based on what your brain perceives. That’s going to send a signal to your adrenals, and your adrenals are going to release cortisol. When there’s too much cortisol, there’s also massive amounts of stress.”
– Dr. G
Dr. G also explained that with stress and trauma, physiological effects are also felt. Your breathing can change, and it just weakens you everywhere. This is where chronic diseases thrive. With your health hanging in the balance, it might be hard to achieve creative transformation.
To achieve healing for our mind, and ultimately our bodies, Dr. G gave the following tips:
#1: Build Rituals
Whether it’s meditation, journaling, breathwork, yoga, or anything else, you must have your own space to be quiet and just be present. This will keep you focused so that you can connect the mind and the body.
#2: Learn Breathwork
For Dr. G, breathwork is the most immediate and easiest thing that one can do during stressful periods. According to how he explained it, it allows you to move your diaphragm, stimulate your vagus nerve, and put yourself in a parasympathetic state. Dr. G even pointed out that it only takes like five breaths in and seven breaths out, for 20 times, and you can already start your self-healing.
#3: Discover the Benefits of L-theanine
L-theanine is an incredible amino acid found in green tea. It promotes alpha brainwaves in the brain, which is what we get when we meditate or when we’re about to go to sleep.
Before taking L-theanine, Dr. G recommends asking your doctor if it’s right for you.
#4: Avoid the Victim Mentality
The victim mentality is not going to get you very far in life. However, it might require you to heal first your trauma so that you can start to heal the rest of your life.
Dr. G explained that healing from trauma requires letting go of your resentment — having all these piled-up feelings puts you in a diseased state. Though it might be easier said than done, learning how to forgive gives you liberation. You’ll feel like a new person. Energy will just start flowing how it should be, and you’ll be vibing with authenticity.
#5: Be Vulnerable and Speak Your Emotions
In an ideal world, any person should never be afraid to be sensitive. One should learn how to understand their emotions and not be afraid to speak up about their feelings. Learning to find your voice and express your emotions is one of the universe’s ways to heal us.
If you’re a man, get rid of toxic masculinity. By getting in touch with your vulnerability and articulating your feelings, you can get into loving and fruitful relationships whether it’s with your parents, siblings, business partner, or someone you’re romantically involved with.
#6: Create with Intention
When you’re creating with intention, you allow your feminine energy to lead your masculine energy. It’s allowing your intuition to lead you in expressing your creativity. For Dr. G, the problem is that men aren’t taught to get in touch with their feelings.
When you’re creating with intention, you feel liberated. It gives you that feeling that there’s a vibration between you and everyone else around you. Once you let your feminine and masculine energy work together, you’re able to feel and understand others better. That’s where the magic happens with your creative work.
#8: Express Gratitude
Having the inner feeling of gratitude is healing. So imagine its healing power if you expressed it to others!
Dr. G doesn’t shy away from telling his friends that he appreciates them. We need to be able to express our appreciation because gratitude is the highest frequency there is. It’s the easiest thing to do to heal your mind because all you need to think about are the blessings in your life. It shifts your vibration and you start seeing that everything is beautiful. That’s healing.
Doing all these steps will help you heal your mind and body. They will enable you to alchemize your health so you can create with soul.
How to Tap into Your Creative Alchemy
Just like what Dr. G said, once you’re able to heal your health, you can start creating with your soul. This allows you to express yourself. But aside from its benefits of transforming your art, expressing one’s self also plays a part in holistic healing.
“When we’re creating, we’re being aligned with our truest nature. It puts you in that flow state wherein you’re in a hyper present. You’re not stuck in the past or present. If you’re not stuck in the past, you don’t think about those depressive thoughts, words, actions, feelings. You’re also not stuck in the future and not tied up in those thoughts, words, actions that are causing anxiety. This lowers your stress level and gives amazing benefits, not only to your body but also to your brain and nervous system too. This allows you to get in a meditative state, where there’s a synchronization of hemispheres.”
– Dr. G
The interchangeability of the relationship between healing and creativity is beautiful. You need to heal to create and with creation also comes healing. And I believe that everyone’s creative at something. It doesn’t have to be painting, photography, or drawing. Art could also be your business. It could be your podcast. Your art could be whatever you want it to be!. I think it’s really about the act of creating and getting what’s inside out. It’s a therapeutic space, too.
To get into this creative space, where you’re just sensitive and self-aware, Dr. G and I agreed that you need a specific space set apart for creativity:
“You need to have a place set-up where there can be mini activations to tell you [that] you’re going to get in touch with your vibe. Here’s where all the arts and creativity are going to happen. I feel like I’m talented at writing poems and songs. I’ve been setting up my place in space, and turning off my phone.”
– Dr. G
A creative space could be a room in your house where you can allow yourself to flow, but it can also be as simple as turning off one’s phone to allow vibrations to come into your mind and soul. Dr. G provided more of what his creative space looks like.
“While my red light mode is on, I have a little couch and a table with my journal there or a writing book. I’ll just like to put on a candle. That sets the vibe and the mood for me. Sometimes while writing, I would also listen to instruments that get me going. So it just depends on what the vibe is, but everything is there right in front of me like my headphones or my Spotify on. That’s how I set up my creative space.”
– Dr. G
Aside from this physical set-up, Dr. G also treats his podcast as his creative space. Not only does it allow him to speak his mind, but he also sees it as a way to showcase his talents in the performing arts.
Every one of us is a Creative Alchemist. We are the artists of our lives, and we have the freedom to create our life’s masterpieces. Whether it’s through your phone’s red light or the disbursing light of the sun when it rises, it doesn’t matter! As long as it gives you the feeling of joy, love, and resonance with yourself, then be assured that you’re creating something beautiful.
How to Harmonize Our Bodies
With good physical and mental health, we can create with soul. And by creating, we also receive healing. To be the best creator that we can be, it’s also important to achieve harmony for our bodies. The Principle of Correspondence emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for everything in your life because it allows you to change part of it. This is strongly applicable when we’re talking about our role in putting our bodies in harmony. Dr. G gave his insights on some practical areas where we can put this into application.
“The best and the cheapest way to harmonize our body is moving our rhythms with Earth’s rhythms. A good example is the light of the sun. Whether it’s getting sun in the morning, midday, or even in the evening, the sun sets the rhythm for your body to harmonize correctly.”
– Dr. G
There’s this principle in Creative Alchemy on rhythm — it discusses how everything flows in and out. Metaphorically speaking, the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left. I think that this perfectly fits the importance of keeping our bodies in tune with the Earth’s rhythm.
Another practice to keep our body harmonized is to know that we’re also responsible for everything that’s happening to us and around us. Thus, we can transform our inner world despite the condition of our external world. The Principle of Correspondence beautifully explains this, too, saying that it’s only from the acceptance of our responsibility that we can be able to change a part of it. Dr. G shared his insights on this matter.
“If we’re saying we are creating our reality, then it stands to believe that we’re creating all of the good and the bad, too. The minute you take some responsibility on some capacity for what happened to you then you also give yourself the power to overcome or to let go release, surrender or forgive. … We have to take responsibility for everything, so we can give ourselves the power to make a massive change. This applies to depression. By not only focusing on the inciting factor that results in depression but [by] taking some level of responsibility, we take control of things. You can say I had a part in this creation. I’m a creative being, and I’m creating this life.”
– Dr. G
Ultimately, knowing that you’re the one who’s in control of your life, can help you come up with creative ways on how to harmonize your body. This would lead to transformation so you can start being more loving toward yourself and others.
Be a Creative Alchemist with Dr. G
Alchemy is defined as the process of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary, sometimes in a way that cannot be explained.
With that being said, I define Creative Alchemy as using the process of creativity to create a lens through which to perform alchemy. These principles not only apply to artists and creatives in their own creative processes, but to anyone who wants to create an extraordinary life in color for themselves. It’s important to alchemize your thoughts, emotions, and other inner blocks to create life’s masterpieces.
Dr. G has been a wonderful guest, and I truly appreciate the time he spent with us. Not only were we able to learn how we can alchemize our mind and body to healing, but we also got to learn about a few tips to help us tap into our Creative Alchemy.
If you’re an entrepreneur looking for ways to create extraordinary transformation in life and business, make sure to connect with Dr. G on social media. He’s on Instagram, and you can also easily access his new platform, The Swell Score. That platform is going to be an online marketplace where you can do subscriptions or just buy anything that you want when it comes to health, so please make sure to check it out.
If you enjoyed today’s episode, please screenshot it and post it to Instagram and tag me, @nickonken, and Dr.G, @dr.christian.gonzalez. Make sure to leave me a review on Apple Podcasts — I’d love to hear your feedback.
Until next time — create your life by creating every small moment.
Nick Onken
You can Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts. And please leave me a Rating and Review!
“There’s a place for all medicines, I just think we have it upside down.”
– Dr. G
Some things we learn in this podcast:
- How grass can help ground you [2:30]
- Why nature is important for health [2:45]
- Why TCM has too much influence over peoples’ health [7:00]
- How Dr. Christian Gonzalez got involved in holistic medicine [8:20]
- What the requirements are to become a naturopathic doctor [12:00]
- What a naturopath is [13:45]
- What a constant state of fear can do to the body [18:00]
- How chronic low-grade stress negatively affects people [19:30]
- Dr. Christian Gonzalez’ creative outlets [44:30]
- How expressing yourself heals [51:00]
- Ways to harmonize the body [53:10]
Links Mentioned:
Connect with Dr. G on Instagram | LinkedIn | The Swell Score
