"Achieve Your Healthcare Business Goals with Less Stress in 2023"

“If you don't have one minute for your life - for yourself - you really don't have a life.” - Andres Ruiz

Introduction:

Join us as we talk with Andres Ruiz, motivational speaker and life coach about motivation, mental health, stress and time management. Functional medicine and integrative health providers bring wellness to their communities, but what about your OWN health? Learn about how to organize your healthcare practice for better health and greater success in 2023.

Andres Ruiz is a motivational speaker, life coach, and radio show host on 1030 AM The Voice, 106.3 The Groove and 92.5 Urbana.

He is the author of the books Morning Warrior Secrets and The Blueprint on How to Turn Goals into Achievement. Both books were #1 on Amazon.

Andres has also been featured on CBS, NBC and Fox. Andres' Mission is to help our youth and his clients do what inspires them to make the world a better place. Andres has been speaking up about mental illness, mental health, and recovery for NAMI for several years.

Summary:

0:00 Introduction to today’s episode.

1:45 How he started his speaking and motivational business.

7:27 Expectations vs. Reality.

11:55 The power of forgiveness and self- forgiveness.

18:42 The first step to forgiving ourselves.

21:57 The importance of recognizing stress.

29:24 The importance of self-love and gratitude.

33:13 The importance of establishing a morning routine.

36:39 The blueprint on how to turn goals into achievements.

40:28 Do it now.

Transcript:

Jennifer Wenzel  0:00  

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the latest Root Cause Marketing webinar series, where today we are talking about reducing stress as a health care provider as you grow and scale your business.

Landy Miyake  0:16  

Thank you, Jennifer and we are so excited to host our guest today Andres release ash. He is a motivational speaker and life coach. He speaks on mental health stress time management. Today, of course, we're focusing on functional and integrative medicine providers. And in his motivational experience, he's also a life coach. He is the radio show host on 1030AM The Voice, 106.3 The Group and 92.5 Urbana. He is also the author of the books “Morning Warrior Secrets” and “The Blueprint on How to Turn Goals into Achievement.” Both of his books have been number one on Amazon. Andres has also been featured on CBS, NBC and Fox. His mission is to help our youth and his clients do what inspires them to make the world a better place. He has been speaking up on the topic of mental illness, mental health, and recovery for NAMI for several years. And we're just so excited to see how his techniques can be applied for our functional medicine providers or anyone really in the healthcare industry. So welcome!

Andres Ruiz  1:45  

Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for providing the space for me, I'm really grateful. And also really grateful for being in a space where, you know, we have two people who are really giving and have a big heart. And also just like just getting to know you a little bit more. I really enjoyed just chatting with you a little bit before we had this conversation. So really grateful to be here. Thank you both.

Jennifer Wenzel  2:09  

Thank you, Andres, so glad to have you here. So tell us a little bit about what you do. I know you do speaking and motivational work with youth and adults. So tell us a little bit about how you've built your business and how you've gotten to where you are today.

Andres Ruiz  2:28  

Yeah, so before I was doing all this, like I was working jobs that I really didn't like I was just really unhappy with my life. I was working a lot of call center jobs. I don't know if anybody's ever worked call center jobs, but oh my god, those were - yes. So you feel me, those were headaches. And I struggled a lot during that time to really just find out what it is that I wanted to do with myself with my life. And so I struggled with that. And because I just didn't have a vision of where I wanted to go, I started to get a lot of anxiety in my life, like my anxiety was like through the roof, it was really bad. And because of that I felt I fell into a really bad depression. And I just didn't know where I was going. I had a job, I was paying the bills. But in my heart, I was telling myself, there's gotta be more to this life than what I'm doing right now. This cannot be it. I know that I was made for more. 

And I know that all of us, we all have something special within us that we want to pursue. But there's that self doubt that gets in the way. And that's what was causing me self doubt was, I didn't feel worthy enough because I had family friends who were lawyers, doctors, engineers, surgeons, and I was over here just high school diploma felt like I was not good enough. And because I was going through a lot of depression, I was coping with my depression by drinking alcohol. I was taking pills while I was drinking alcohol. I was doing hard drugs like cocaine. At one point almost overdosed on coke. It was a really scary experience. I was also a womanizer. Like I was always like trying to look for love in other people trying to make other people make me happy. And I just had chaotic relationships, and I was also eating a lot of unhealthy foods. 

And because of that now I was weighing 265 pounds, and was even more depressed because of my physique. And when I found out that I was going to be a dad that changed my life forever. I got on a diet and started exercising. I lost 80 pounds. I felt better about my health, but I was still struggling with like, where am I going? What am I going to do with my life? I remember this one particular motivational speaker by the name of Les Brown that said, many people will leave the universe without a trace and under their name you can put not used up and I said man, he's talking about me. Like that's when I started to tell myself I know I need to do something else. I know I need to do something different. And that's when I pursued stand up comedy. 

I'll be very honest, I was terrible. I still remember this one particular experience where there was this old lady in front of me in the audience. And she was eating, and she looked up and she went [meh]. And she just kept eating. I was like, oh my god, like, I'm a terrible comedian. So it was a really bad experience. 

Jennifer Wenzel  5:17  

That's worse than being heckled.

Andres Ruiz  5:19  

Yes, yes. This guy is terrible. So then that's when I started in pursuit of public speaking. I got into public speaking because I wanted to get better as a comedian. But then I fell in love with motivational speaking. And then that's when I started to just give presentations for free for middle schools, high schools. And then eventually it got to where somebody asked me, Hey, so how much do you charge? And I said, you want to pay me? Okay, so that's when I started to get paid. 

And then people ask me, how did you follow your goals and your dreams? How did you do this, that's when I got into life coaching. And then I did life coaching and motivational speaking part time, while I was doing the jobs that I really wasn't enjoying, that were paying the bills. And then eventually, when it got to the point where I was making enough money as a motivational speaker and a life coach, that I was making the same amount as I was, in my full time, that's when I said, I have to follow this, I have to follow my heart. And that's kind of how I got started, kind of like, in a nutshell, where I was where I'm at right now. 

And, I mean, I just have been so blessed to be able to connect with so many people and serve so many youth, nonprofits, organizations, you know, speaking to health professionals, like at Banner, I mean I just feel truly blessed to be able to speak to a lot of the people that are doing so much great work, you know, like practitioners that are listening, you know, I appreciate each and every one of you. And the reason why I say this is especially because just recently my nephew, he went through lymphoma. And he got to the point where he was at stage four cancer and, you know, almost dying a couple of times. And I just saw these practitioners, these people that were there for them that that, you know, showed them a lot of love. You know, I appreciate each and every one of you so much, you know, even more now that I was there firsthand to see, like, all the amazing work that these people were doing for my nephew.

Jennifer Wenzel  7:27  

Yeah, our audience, the people who do functional medicine are a particularly special group as well. Everyone in healthcare, of course, is a hero in my book. But people in functional medicine often work for a lot less money, because they're often working for themselves. And they're trying to get to the root of oftentimes, what's chronic disease, what's keeping people unhealthy, where, you know, people are experiencing, you know, weight gain, fatigue, brain fog, dry skin, or just, you know, things that have plagued them for many, many, many years. 

And traditional conventional medicine tries to just treat the symptoms, and that are functional medicine, practitioners of the world, work hard to be investigators and try to get to what actually is going on inside a person's body, their own personal health journey to get back to health again, and, you know, yeah, there's there's that traumatic care for people who need urgent, you know, desperate medical treatment now, like cancer treatment, or you know, emergency room treatment. And then there's sort of the other side of the coin too, like, how do you help people who have been feeling awful for a very, very, very long time and don't even necessarily have any hope that they'll feel better? So we have, we have a fantastic group of people that we help, you know, get their voice out to the world so thank you for, you know, recognizing the wonderful work that the providers do.

Andres Ruiz  8:53  

Absolutely, yeah, I mean, it's just something that is really, I think that's something that we need to do more of, is just showing appreciation. And this is something that I teach a lot of people when I go and give presentations. It's like, you need to start changing your expectations for appreciation, and everything changes. Because when we're expecting things to go a certain way, or expecting people to do things a certain way, and they don't do it, then we get upset. And like one of my great coaches told me, expectations equals suffering. Because when you expect people to do things exactly the way that you want them to do, you suffer, because if they don't do it the way that you want them to, you're gonna suffer because of it. And that could lead to stress, just expectations alone. If we don't manage our thinking in regards to that, that could lead to feeling anxious, resentful. You know, I have family, friends, people that I've coached, who they're when they're speaking, I hear expectations in that conversation. And that's the root cause of why they're feeling this anger, this resentment. This resentment then leads to anxiety, that anxiety eventually leads to depression. And depression leads to us doing things that are not good for us drinking alcohol, you know, not eating right, not not sleeping, right? And then why do people start to get sick? It's because of all these things that they have not been paying attention to. And it just started off with just an expectation. And so if we can get to the root causes of the way that we think, how many people could we heal with just that thinking alone?

Landy Miyake  10:34  

Right? Yeah, absolutely. And I'm probably gonna screw this up. But I've heard there's a saying, you know, the gap between, you know, expectation and reality, or where those needs are met is where resentment lives. And so yeah, you know, like getting rid of just that peace, of expectation. You know, no matter what area of your life. Yeah. And it's, it sounds like such a simple concept. Of course, okay, let me just flip the switch off, right. But it's never as simple as that. So when you do identify that, with your coaching clients, you know, what types of, you know, actionable, sort of tangible things? exercises, do you give them that they can, you know, take with them right away and implement in their life as soon as they walk out the door?

Andres Ruiz  11:35  

Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you for asking that. And so this just reminds me of one of my clients who she has a lot of resentment and a lot of anger towards one of her parents, you know, she felt abandoned. And, you know, she still continues to feel this way. And these are a few clients that actually have that deal with abandonment. And what they think is that, like, they have just really bad luck with relationships, you know, they keep attracting people who continue to abandon them. And the thing is, if we don't forgive these people from our past, that hurts us. And usually it's the parents that did something that caused us to get hurt. If we don't forgive those people, what's going to continue to happen is that they're going to continue to show up in our lives. And I don't know if any of you have ever experienced this, but let's say you go into a new job, or you meet somebody new and you're like, for some reason, I don't like this person, this person irks me, makes me feel a certain way. And really what that person represents is your narcissistic father, or your mother who was very controlling, or was very like, just this person who was always trying to tell you what to do, that person is going to continue to show up in different people. 

And for my clients, what I teach them is the forgiveness, the power of forgiveness, where you can do something as simple as just journaling, you can journal and just write out all your thoughts, what you're thinking about them and how they made you upset. I to this day, I still have my journal here where I'll journal all if my wife says something that upsets me, or if my kids do something that upset me, or if that person that I'm doing business with does something that upsets me, I journal about it, I don't keep it in here. 

You see, when you keep that stuff suppressed, that's when the suffering continues to happen. And a lot of people then say, well, you know, I just get my mind off of it, I'll listen to music, or I'll go have a coffee, or I'll go do this avoiding is only going to make it worse. It's like sweeping it under the rug, and then eventually, that rug is just going to just all this stuff is going to come out, you know, the Cheetos, the all the dirty stuff, the marbles, whatever it is, it just comes out and you're ready to explode. And then you're like, why am I having this anxiety attack? Why am I having this? This panic attack? Why am I feeling so angry, so upset, because you avoided those emotions, you know, and whatever you resist will persist. And it'll continue to come your way. But once you forgive, and you let go of being mad, it's - you're going to be free. 

And another thing that we have to do is we have to forgive ourselves. Many times, we are the person that's the hardest on ourselves. And if we want to forgive other people, but we don't forgive ourselves, we can't do that. Because you can't give what you don't have. If you don't have self forgiveness, you cannot forgive other people. And, and actually, would you guys like to do a little little activity right now really quick to get cool. So we're gonna do so what I want you to do right now is I want you to put your hand on your heart and close your eyes. Okay? Close your eyes. And then what I want you to think about is something that you have kind of been hard on yourself about. And I want you to just think about that. And then say to yourself your name and then say, I forgive myself, and I love myself and then breathe it in, and then out and do it again. And I want you to say it out loud: “I forgive myself. And I love myself.” I want you to say it out loud.

Jennifer Wenzel  15:26  

I forgive myself. And I love myself.

Andres Ruiz  15:29  

Breathe it in, breathe out, say it again, I want you to say with conviction, say with love, say it with all the love in the world.

Landy Miyake  15:39  

I forgive myself, and I love myself.

Andres Ruiz  15:42  

Breathe that in and breathe out. And it's just one more time. Show me some love. Come on.

Jennifer Wenzel  15:50  

I forgive myself. And I love myself.

Andres Ruiz  15:54 

Breathe it in. All right, then you can open your eyes. Excellent. Okay, cool. I just want to ask you like, how did it feel to just say that to yourself, I forgive myself and I love myself, how did you feel?

Jennifer Wenzel  16:11  

A little weird. But also it felt really nice and comforting at the same time.

Landy Miyake  16:17  

Definitely it was uncomfortable for a minute, but I was smiling. But maybe it's because I felt weird, because like smiling is my default. 

Andres Ruiz  16:25  

So I just want to acknowledge you, first of all, both of you for being willing to get out of your comfort zone and for doing something different. And everybody, everybody feels weird when they first do this, because it's something that is not common practice. And but really, if you really think about it, it's it's it makes a lot of sense to give this to ourselves and forgive ourselves. But we don't do it. Because we were never taught that we were never told, Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. Like, take it easy, you know, you have to have some that have that self compassion. 

And, you know, I want to share this. This other tip with everybody who's listening, is in order for us to have self compassion, we have to first recognize that the first step is recognizing that we're being hard on ourselves, being aware that man, like I'm being a little too hard on myself. And then the second tip, the second step is saying to yourself, like treating yourself like you would a good friend. You know, because if your friend - like let's say Landy goes to Jennifer and says, Oh my god, I'm so stupid. I messed up. I did this, Jennifer would be there for her and say hey, Lanie like, don't be so hard on yourself. Like, you're not stupid, like, let me hold the space for you. But it's Landy against Landy. It's like, Oh, I'm so stupid. I'm so we don't treat ourselves like that. But we have to look at ourselves and say, you know, it's alright. It's okay. 

Like the other day. I remember I went to go drop off some mail. For one of my clients. I was gonna send them a book. And then when I got there, I was like, oh my God, I forgot the book. The whole purpose. totally do that. And then I was about to tell myself, oh, you're so and then I said, Wait, although it's okay. You made a mistake. I can still go get the book. 

Jennifer Wenzel  18:18  

And no one got hurt. No one was injured, no one got killed.

Andres Ruiz  18:21  

Nobody got hurt. But in the past, I would have been like, Oh, you're so stupid. Ah, man. Now we have to go back again. Oh, I'm irritated, upset. But now I caught myself and I said, sorry. Sorry. You know what more time to spend here. Listen to some personal development audios. Changing the perspective. 

Landy Miyake  18:42  

I just want to before we get too much further too. I just want to kind of make sure that I'm on the same page as you because you're just you have so many great tips. So what I'm hearing based on you know, the conversation is that you know, the first step is like learning how to forgive ourselves. And a way to do that is to, you know, journal those thoughts to get it out of you. Which is really great. You know, I would like to journal more, I need to journal more, but that's another topic right? But I wanted to ask you kind of a follow up question on that for people who are like me, like they know they should get it out, you know, all these things, but say they, they don't want in there. They don't want to journal, they don't want to write it. You know, do give them other options like recording it or you know, not avoiding it. Definitely that was very clear. Like we don't want to just put the music on or watch our Netflix show and like it, but do you have anything else for like the person that's like, oh my gosh, I just can't journal?

Andres Ruiz  19:58  

Oh, yeah, for sure. So another thing that you can do is you can just voice it out. You can even record it on your phone. Or you can also just call somebody and tell them hey, like, I just want to, like tell you, this is what I'm feeling. You could just hold the space. I do that with my wife, sometimes she does that with me. And she just told me, I just want you to listen to me. I don't want you to say anything. Just listen. That's it. And don't say anything. Because I know that you probably have some advice. But I don't want your advice. I just want you to listen. Okay, cool, cool. I listen. 

And I learned that the hard way. Because, you know, if you're just saying, Well, why don't you just fix it? That's because men, that's what we do. Well, why don't you just go do this, this and that. That's it. And then they're like, it's not like that, you know, men and women are different. But that's another topic. But then, I think that it's also important that we're voicing it out. So you can do that, as well. 

You can also do some guided meditations that are on YouTube, where you can do a forgiveness meditation there, and it'll guide you and tell you exactly what to do. I do that with my clients, where you know, we'll have a talk, and then I just what I do is I have them, close her eyes, they relax her body, and then I get him into the meditation where I have been visualized their relative in front of them six feet away from them, their face and their whole body. And then I just have them visualize the relative saying that they are sorry for all that they did to them. And then in return, they forgive that relative. And then during the meditation, I remind them, just remember that this meditation is for you, it's not for them. Because if you continue to hold on to this anger, it's like you are drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. And so that anger does not serve you at all, so you gotta release it. And so those, those are other tips, you know, for the people that don't want to journal, you can also, you know, do that as well.

Landy Miyake  21:57  

Yeah, and that's really great. You know, because we all have our cell phone devices, too. And with a recording, we can record it or download an app or something. So that's really great advice. But what I'm hearing too a lot from you is, a lot of this is like mindset stuff, and self talk stuff. And so that is, you know, good news on the one hand, but it's also like very, very hard work. For these people, you know, busy people, I mean, life is busy for all of us, it's just at what level, right? And so, for people who, you know, embrace and are aware of these, like you said, number one thing is recognition and awareness, they are recognizing that, you know, the stress management needs to happen now that they're reaching very, you know, toxic and unhealthy levels and showing up in lab results or their relationships, etc, etc. 

And so, for the very, you know, overwhelmed already busy person, but they're aware that something needs to change, in addition to that journaling, and just vocally getting that information or feelings out in whatever, you know, mechanism that works best for them, you know, what is like? Or what are some other things that like super busy, super highly stressed people who are just constantly on the go, you know, that they can just squeeze in, you know, during, in between appointments or, you know, shuttling the kids back and forth, etc.

Jennifer Wenzel  23:41  

Protect your mental health, yes, when you're super stressed and overwhelmed.

Andres Ruiz  23:47  

Yeah, that's a great question. And this is actually something that I did with some health care workers a while ago, where it's called Positive Intelligence. We call it PQ reps. It's really called mindfulness. This is something that I learned from one of the coaching programs that I took. 

And so there's a few different mindfulness activities that you can do at any moment; all it takes is 10 seconds to reset your brain. And so we can actually do some right now. So I'll show you. 

Let's do a seeing meditation. A visual mindfulness meditation. So I do this one a lot with kids and then with healthcare workers to just kind of loosen them up a little bit because sometimes it can be a little bit too tense in there. 

What I want you to do right now is I want you to look at your thumb. So look at your thumb and look at the color of your nail. Look at the color of your thumb. And look at how ashy, your thumb is. Well, mine's actually I didn't put on lotion, so don't judge. But look at this thumb. Like if it's somebody that you love. Say I love you thumb.

Jennifer Wenzel  25:00  

Love you, thumb. I love you.

Andres Ruiz  25:02  

Excellent. Okay, cool. So that right there, I see you smiling, you guys are smiling. So okay, that's one of them. That's seeing meditation. And then the next one that we're going to do is, right now what I want you to do is I want you to close your eyes. 

Close your eyes, take a deep breath in through your nose, out through your mouth. And right now, as you're breathing, I want you to focus on the sounds that are going on outside of your house, or your office. And just focus on those sounds and just keep breathing. Focus on the sound of my voice. Your breathing, keep focusing on those sounds, that's all I want you to do. And now I want you to focus on the sounds going on inside of your office or your house. Just keep breathing. And keep focusing on my voice on the sound inside of your house, your office. And now I want you to bring your attention to the noise of your breath. And just keep breathing. Just focus on the noise of your breath. And just keep breathing. And then when I count to three, I want you to open your eyes. Just keep focusing on that breath. 123. Open your eyes. 

Okay, so real quick, how did you feel right now? What was that like for you?

Jennifer Wenzel  26:38  

For me, a lot more centered and focused.

Andres Ruiz  26:44  

Landy, how about yourself?

Landy Miyake  26:45  

Yeah, like a feeling of grounding.

Andres Ruiz  26:51  

Yeah. And that's exactly what you did. And that took you 30 seconds. Maybe we probably went about 40-45 seconds. But this tool alone has transformed my life. Because I do these PQ reps throughout the day, I probably do, like 10 minutes a day, during the day. And so, like just today, I was taking a shower. And then I started to think about this investment that I'm gonna make. And then I started to think about my business. And then I started to think about these clients. And then I started to think about the event I have on Sunday. And then I started to think about all these things. Oh, yeah. And then the kids, and then this and that. And then I said to myself, whoa, whoa, how many thoughts are in there?

So I just in that moment, I took a deep breath. And then I felt the water on my body. And I just kept feeling the water and just focusing on the water. And then this is another tip that I want to give you. And then I started to feel gratitude. I sort of feel gratitude for the water that I had in that moment. I said, God, thank you so much for this water. And then I heard my two kids outside of the door yelling at each other. Thank you God for my kids being healthy enough to beat each other up. And then I started to focus on my health, I have my arms, I saw a woman with no arms the other day. Thank you God for my arms. And boom, I was like, Oh, my god, yeah, I feel better. But imagine if I would have stayed in all the things that I needed to get done, I would have taken away the pleasure of the moment. And we always have to remember that this moment is all we have. The past is done. There's nothing that we can do from it, but learn from it and grow from it. The future, we don't know what's going to happen. But what we do know is that we can focus on the positive right now. And I'm not saying you have to be positive, like Pollyanna or something like that. I'm just saying, Look at what's in front of you. Because what's wrong is always available. But so is what is right? What are you going to choose, it's all about perspective. But when you're constantly going, going going and looking at all the bad things or the things that are coming up, you're gonna get more of that because we're focus goes energy flows, you put your focus on the negative, you're gonna get more of that you put your focus on on the good stuff, you're gonna get more of that choices, aren't we?

Landy Miyake  29:24  

We always have that choice and I just want to come back to it because I just think it was so beautiful. When you talked about your experience, right? Well, we start that monkey mind going down the rabbit hole. And that you recognize that and that in and of itself takes lots of practice. I practice that too, but but what I love the most about what you said is that if you would have allowed your mind to continue down that road and you didn't recognize it and you didn't have, you know, the wherewithal you know to come to a place of gratitude, you would have robbed yourself of that moment. Like, I just feel this so, so beautiful and so profound. 

And I'm actually going to try and take that for myself too when I'm having those moments because yeah, I'm type A perfectionist, recovering perfectionist, overthinker. Hello. Yes, that's me. And so I have multiple opportunities daily, hourly, you know, to put something like that into practice. And so thank you for saying that. I just had to really acknowledge that. Because it's just, it's so, so simple, but yet, not easy. It's not easy.

Andres Ruiz  30:41  

You're right. And it's not easy, because we don't practice enough. And for me, I practice every day like I do. My morning routine consists of self love, where I wake up. And then I say, first thing I do is I say, Thank you, God for another day. Thank you, God for my health. Thank you, God, for my house. Thank you God for like a bunch of things that I can name. 

And then I just go into the bathroom. And then I look at myself in the mirror. And I say to myself, and I learned this from Louise Hay. At first, and I'll tell you this, when I first did this, I was like, Am I going crazy? Am I losing my mind, but I just looked at myself in the mirror. And I say, Andres, I love you, I appreciate you, you're gonna have a great day today. And, then I just tell myself some affirmations. I look at myself in the mirror. And then I just just pull myself up to like, get going. And then right after that, I do 20 minutes of meditation. And then after that, I do 20 minutes of yoga, I then work out for about 20-30 minutes, like an intense workout, and then I take a cold shower. And then I just started my day off with like, just, I feel powerful. I feel so excited for the day, I feel energized. 

And throughout the day, I tell myself these, these affirmations of you know, I expand in abundance, success and love every day as I inspire those around me to do the same. Thank you God for this life. And I practice those all day - I have it in my car, I have it here, I have a reminder of the gratitude. 

And that routine, like changed my life, I even wrote a book about it, that “Morning Warrior Secrets.” That's what inspired me to write that book because I wanted to help other people with their morning routine, because the way you start your morning could determine the rest of your day. And if the way you start your morning could determine the rest of your day, it'll eventually determine the rest of your life. 

So how are you waking up? Are you waking up looking at emails and looking at all these things that are just like setting off the alarm in your brain? Are you looking at, you know that an earthquake happened or the world is in peril, I mean, we have so much information that is very, could be very bad for us. But we also have really good information that we could use to benefit us like right now, you could be learning something like this. That's what I like to do. I like to learn, I don't like to look at the gossip that's going on with, you know, in the news or whatever, I want to look at stuff that will help me grow and evolve.

Landy Miyake  33:13  

I think yeah, for sure. And if you don't mind, maybe we could talk a little bit more about that too. Because I think that, you know, with something like this, you know, we're talking to, you know, very overwhelmed, stressed out, very busy, pulled in 1000 different directions type of people, right, but these people are also having to show up to work and pour into others, right. And so, you know, we've talked about really, really great tools to use journaling or talking about it by calling a friend. You know, great tools. 

But I like the idea of maybe just establishing a different morning routine. And again, even that in and of itself can be very stressful because you know, the people that we're talking to like what morning routine, like I get up at 4am, I've got to shower myself before my baby wakes up, you know, in a cycle goes on and on. So what type of solutions would you provide for someone that they just don't even have really control over that morning routine? Because of so many of those external variables? What's one thing, one thing that those people can implement right away? You know, simple, quick, what would your advice be there?

Andres Ruiz  34:39  

That's a great question. And that's why in the book, I also have a shorter morning routine. So you know, you don't have that hour. You could have like, for example today, I woke up a little bit later than what I usually do. And I only had 15 minutes to do my morning routine. So I said, Okay, I'll do five minutes of meditation. I'll do five minutes of stretching, five minutes of workout, and then get in the shower. 

When I started doing meditation, I couldn't sit there for 20 minutes. And then when I would hear people say, I was like, Are you out of your mind? Why would you sit there for 20 minutes, you're wasting time. But really, you're actually saving time because you're saving that stressful moment that you'll have later on that will keep you down for a few hours. So what I started doing was I started doing meditation for 30 seconds. And both of you just did meditation for 30 seconds. And you saw that it's possible. 

So I always like to start off with little habits, where yeah, let's start off with 30 seconds, then you go up to a minute to 5, 10, 15, 20. So I went from 30 seconds up to 20 minutes, but it had to be over time, it didn't happen, like right away. And now I probably meditate, like about 30 minutes a day, because I do the 20 minutes, but then also do the PQ reps, like I showed you earlier, like one minute, where I just sit there in silence, or sometimes I'll just go outside. And then I'll just be looking at the sun, you know, with my sunglasses, just like staring into the sun and closing my eyes, taking a deep breath in. And before sometimes people would walk by and I'd be a little bit too embarrassed to do it. And I don't care if people just pass by and they're like, Look at this crazy guy, just look at this. And, but I am doing that because I know that it's good for me. And it's just something that has really transformed my life. 

And I teach this to one of my clients too, you know, like, it's something that, hey, if you don't have one minute for your life, for yourself, you really don't have a life, you really have to at least give yourself those 5-10 minutes a day. And it doesn't have to be right in the morning. It could be throughout the day.  

Jennifer Wenzel  36:39  

That is profound. I love that phrase. So we've heard a little bit about your book now about the morning warrior routine. Tell us a little bit about your other book. What is the focus of that one?

Andres Ruiz  36:51  

Yeah, so the “Blueprint on How to Turn Goals into Achievement," that is pretty much just giving you the step by step process on how to get from where you're at, to get to where you want to get to. So you go, we go through clarity, because a lot of people lack clarity. And that's why a lot of people struggle.

And that's what I see with my clients. They don't have clarity of where it is that they want to go. You get clarity, you also find out who it is that you want to be because a lot of people don't know who they are. So once you find that identity, then we create the strategy and why you want it and then the action. And it's a very short read, we're talking like 47 pages, I call it - this might be TMI, but I call it a toilet book, because you cannot get to chapter two in the bathroom. But it's a really short read. 

And I've had a lot of people just tell me like, wow, this was really cool. I actually read the whole book, they felt a sense of accomplishment because they read a book. And I like to write books that are really short, that they're just right to the point. And that way, you can just start taking action. And also it's like a little guide where you can write on it too. So you can, it's kind of like a workbook slash book. So that's what the book is about. 

And then I didn't mention it to you but I also came out with a new book this year called “Do It Now - Secrets to Overcome Procrastination.” So that one is obviously about procrastination. And I was actually procrastinating on that book for a while. So you know, just to let you know, I still deal with procrastination. I'm not gonna lie to you that I'm perfect because I still have challenges. But I've gotten way better at procrastinating, like I am not better at procrastinating, but better, I've not procrastinated so much. 

But you know, it's something that I really believe that it's extremely important because procrastination could also lead to being stressed, feeling anxious. If we don't, if we don't do the work that we need to get done. It could be very, it could be very stressful. But I give tips where it's just very basic tips that you can just implement at any moment, at any time of the day. And they can be very helpful for you to make sure that you're getting your work done.

Jennifer Wenzel  38:57  

So give us an example of something - obviously, we don't want to give away your book, but what is an example of what we could do?

Andres Ruiz  39:07  

So one thing I like to use with my clients that I was like, I just can't focus, I just can't keep focusing on my work, I give him this one, it's called the 50-10 or the 25-5. 

So the 50-10 rule is where you just put a 50 minute timer on, and you stay laser focused on whatever it is that you need to get done. And during that time, I like to put on some upbeat music to like, you know, just get me motivated. But I don't look at my phone, you see when you look at your phone, or when you get distracted, it then takes you 11 to 21 minutes to get back into laser focus. So if you can imagine if you're constantly getting messages and you're looking at your phone, you're trying to do work, you're never gonna get it done. 

So that's one that I tell people and then I also tell them you can also do the 25-5 where you just do 25 minutes of laser work, and then 5 minutes or 10 minutes of rest. Then I also ask them, what's your number? And I've had people tell me, I couldn't really only focus for five minutes. Perfect, that's better than nothing. Whatever works for you, but choose a number and stick to it and just do it. 

And since it's called “Do it Now,” I also give them bracelets where it says do it now. It's like a reminder of just do it now. Do it now. So whenever people are like, thinking about procrastinating, you just tell yourself in that moment, do it now. Because when you hesitate, then you stop yourself and you don't do it. And hesitation is also a form of fear. Because you hesitate anytime there's danger, or maybe it's like a boring thing that we have to do, or we're being lazy, whatever. 

And as soon as you hesitate, that hesitation is a fear, but it's also a habit. And we created a habit of hesitating, consistently that now we hesitate anytime there's a challenging thing that we have to do. So in that moment, just say do it now and just immediately just do one little thing. Because your words have power, your words turn into a thought that creates the way you feel, and that feeling creates the action you take. And that gives you a negative result. You're gonna continue to procrastinate. So you have to watch what you tell yourself. It's very important that we tell ourselves to just do it now, just get it over with, come on, you can do it. Come on, let's go!

Jennifer Wenzel  41:29 

Yes, the weight of things hanging over your head that needs to be done that you don't want to do - as a person with ADHD that wasn't diagnosed till I was an adult, I can tell you that, the feeling of relief and the lessening of the burden of getting something done right away, versus having it even like a little tiny thing hanging over my head. It'll go for days, weeks, months, and I haven't gotten to it yet. And the collective impact of those undone things is awful. It's crushing. So I can very much empathize and resonate with what you're saying here. So since we've got some tips from your first book, we got a tip from your most recent book, how about just a couple of tips for the folks from your second book about moving things forward? What can our functional medicine providers or other health care practitioners listening to this immediately put into practice after hearing it?

Andres Ruiz  42:31  

Yeah, so I would say that something that's very important, I think, is just like the clarity piece, you know, like, clarity on how are you putting yourself out there? How are you connecting with people, you know, like, the marketing piece, I think is extremely important. 

You know, like, for myself, personally, I always like to put out videos, on my socials, just to let give people a tip on, you know, what I do, and you know, just I give all the content, like all the good stuff, I just give it away, where, hey, if you do this, you'll get better. Or you'll get your goals, if you really do this, you'll get there. 

And with healthcare providers, you know, even giving simple tips like one to three tips on a blog, or maybe on a video, Hey, guys, if you stretch your leg this way, or if you take, you know, ginger or something, this can actually help you reduce this. And people will appreciate that. And whenever they feel like they need help, the first person they're going to think about is that person because they already gave them value before they even work together. 

So I really believe that that one has helped me out tremendously, where I'm just giving a lot of information, where I've had people message me on on Facebook, and they'll be like, hey, that one about caring about what people think or say about me, that really resonated with me, you know, I know you do coaching, like, what is it like to work and together and and then I'll get a client out of it. And why because I was just coming from a place of just giving and expecting nothing - like no expectation, like we said earlier, just sending value people's way. And then some way somehow, maybe not necessarily from that person, I'll get business. 

But the world and the universe has a way of bringing amazing things to people who are out there, to those who are just out there serving and helping other people. So I would just say being of service is something that I think could just really help all these people that are listening there and are of service. But if you can just give those little tiny tips to people, you can be a total game changer for people to come to you more.

Jennifer Wenzel  44:42  

What a wonderful way to wrap up the interview and a perfect segue into your own contact information. How can people find you on social media so that they can learn more of these tips that you can give them so that they can also then help their patients in a better way too?

Andres Ruiz  44:57  

Yeah, so you can check on my website at Ibelieveinmyself.org. Or you can also send me an email if you want, you know, anything I can help you with, IbelieveCAL@gmail.com. That's my email. And then you can also check me out on Facebook, Andres Ruiz, or you can also check me out on LinkedIn at Andres Ruiz as well. And if you have any questions, you know, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Honestly, all of you that are listening or that are doing this work, you know, I really appreciate everything you do, and we need more people like yourself.

Jennifer Wenzel  45:30  

Thank you so much, Andres. It's been so great to talk to you today.

Andres Ruiz  45:35  

Thank you so much for having me, I want to say thank you, Jennifer and Landy. I really had a great time. Thank you so much.

Landy Miyake  45:41  

Yes, we appreciate your time.