Don't wait until you are feeling anxious to practice this one! Jump right in where you are and practice pendulating. Luis teaches us how to feel where we are now, and where we feel anxiety in our bodies. 

We are not our anxiety, a part of us feels anxious. What does the rest of us feel? Using this tool Luis is able access the parts of himself that are not anxious and that have capacity, so that he can walk into life more embodied.

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Click for story-time with Luis as he reads a favorite chapter that was cut from his soon to be published book, FOOD THERAPY (April 2026). He posits that processed food is disassociated from the land. Often GMO crops are altered to survive glyphosate, wrecking bio-diversity, increasing chemicals, and providing reduced nutrients. Two pounds of GMO altered soy beans contained 9mg of glyphosate. No wonder 81% of the US population has recent glyphosate exposure, an exposure that increases our risk of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Cheap processed foods create conflict in the earth and disease in our bodies. 

Rather than depleting the soil and our bodies, organic crops, such as beans, add nitrogen back into the soil increasing biodiversity. Eating locally grown crops and animals is a symbiotic relationship that gives Luis purpose: to honor those nutrient dense plants and animals that feed and nourish his body. For him eating is a ritual prayer of gratitude to the earth. Eating close to the land allows his body to feel more, to tap in to aliveness, in all of it's discomforts. 

But what if you are feeling low? It's the body's way of asking to be held. As his friend Asha Frost says, "Feeling low? Go lower." Let the land hold you by eating balancing foods that connect one to the land in a relationship of reciprocity. What we eat isn't just about us, it's a vote for the land. 

[Ep. 119] The Myth of Normal w/ Daniel Maté

[Ep. 188] Feeling Low? Get Lower - Navigating Chronic Pain, Illness, & Generational Trauma w/ Asha Frost

You can read more about, and register for, the Money Trauma webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/money-trauma-how-your-body-relates-to-finances

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

On today's episode, Luis shares his favorite herbs, specifically for supporting PMS or menopause.

Building on the previous episode about herbs for liver, he explains how the liver is helpful for women's hormones. He teaches how to make the "triple root infusion", as well as when and how much to drink. He also includes two other herbs that can help with alleviating symptoms from a cycle, PMS, or menopause. These herbs help by addressing nervous system health, adrenal health, blood health, digestive health, hormonal balance, and blood sugar levels.

Everyone's body is different, so please consult an herbalist and/or doctor with any questions, especially if you're pregnant or planning to be.

You can find the episode about herbs for liver health here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/278649/episodes/16838021

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

On today's episode, Luis discussing the importance of liver health for full body and metabolic health, as well as it's relationship to recovering from stress and trauma.

He explains what role the liver plays, and what dietary choices can change the liver's ability to function. He then talks about two herbs to help support liver, what they do, and how to make an herbal infusion.

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

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You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Walk with Luis on a cold day as he chats about doom scrolling and horror. If someone has high somatic empathy, when they watch horror on a screen, it creates an adrenal response as if the horror is happening to them. Bodies brace for the impact of impending doom, but instead of impact, they move on with their lives in to the world, still braced. How does one interact with their life and community if they are braced for someone else's reality? What neighborhood needs are bypassed if one is living detached from their own space and place? 

Luis offers several questions to contemplate as we consider our own relationship to horror and somatic empathy. If the horror isn't happening to us, we have the privileged of choosing to feel, or not feel, horror in our own body.  

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Feeling overwhelmed? Most of us turn to carbs, which results in a hit of dopamine that turns on our adrenaline response. The faster a carb turns into glucose, the sooner we experience a low blood sugar induced adrenaline response. Historically we had to work hard to get that spike of dopamine and glucose, but our animal bodies have not evolved to keep up with machines and the processed foods they produce. Now we sit at desks and cars, consuming much higher levels of refined carbs. This leaves us, and the land, depleted. 

Luis wonders, how much of your diet is refined grains, and how much of your diet is whole grains? How does your body store trauma as fat? Why do you crave what you crave?  

Curious about how to work with this idea in your body? Luis outlines an Appetizer For Your Stress Response, along with a simple dessert recipe and a somatic practice.

If we eat to be balanced, that is where health emerges. 

You can read more about, and register for, the Money Trauma webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/money-trauma-how-your-body-relates-to-finances

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Ever wake up in a panic, with a dry mouth and a nightmare? Join Luis for this bed time snack sized podcast. Your nighttime woes might be a glucose spike cascading into an adrenaline rush. Luis outlines the physiology of what happens in our bodies, along with yummy, practical solutions to experiment with. Give it a try, and notice how you feel.

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Sitting in Costa Rica, by driftwood and the sea, Luis contemplates the mysteries of nutrition. Having studied the dense and "boring" side of nutrition, his fear of being wrong was triggered when he was called out on social media. This experience prompted his beach-side musings on efficient and non-efficient proteins, how individuals process carbohydrates, and his historic obsession with being right. 

Do we eat to suppress and comfort, or to feel, recover, and nourish? We can turn to nutrition text books for facts to find out, but there is also the indigenous research of tuning in to the wisdom of the body. Our body can help us decipher the wisdom of our cravings. When we are under stress, and likely to have cravings, our bodies need protein to turn amino acids into neurotransmitters that help balance our mental health.  Luis had a stressful double day and he craved a big fat salty chocolate chip cookie... tune in to see where the wisdom of the craving took him. 

You can read more about, and register for, the Money Trauma webinar here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/money-trauma-how-your-body-relates-to-finances

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Ever feel anxious, panicked, or  like a "floating head" detached from your body? When in these states we can lose our instinct to tend to our body. For example, we might not realize we need to eat, pee, or take a deeper breath. 

Maybe you need a pillow, one of Luis' favorite strategies for being with stress and trauma.  The humble, and often accessible, pillow technique is explained, as is the back up for when you don't have access to a pillow. Using a pillow can help stimulate the parasympathetic response and bring blood flow back into the body, resourcing the body, and perhaps allowing us to respond from a more resourced place. Remember, it's a practice.

Listen to the episode about postprandial blood flow here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/278649/episodes/16437452

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Luis reads us a chapter of his upcoming book "Food Therapy" (2026). In it he discusses how eating is relational. Our body receives the being of a plant or animal and digests it, breaking it down into chemicals that relate to our bodies' chemicals. In this unconscious alchemy food becomes our bodies. We often use this shift to change our chemistry and avoid feeling. 

Luis worked with three wives, all who said if they gave up chocolate they would get divorced. They helped him realize that food can be broken down into three categories: depressants, stimulants, and balancers. Understanding these categories became Luis' compass, what he calls the Quiet Diet, used to navigate his own recovery from binge eating. When we embody how foods affect us we become a conscious alchemist, sober to how we actually feel. Food is a potent medicine that can shift our inner ecology and build our capacity to heal from stress and trauma. Have you noticed, how does your body relate to food?  

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Large amounts of refined foods have the power to elicit big hormonal responses in our bodies. If we have a subconscious desire to shape shift to a new state, we often go to food to make that change for us. Depressed? We might reach for foods that make us feel more alive. Wound up and anxious at the end of a long day? We might reach for foods that depress us enough to fall asleep. 

What we eat, and how much of it we eat, has the potential to release opioids, serotonin and dopamine into our system, facilitating that shift for us. It is the state the food puts us in that we are addicted to, not the food itself. Luis asks, what need is the food meeting and what is the state change I am after? He offers a practice around binge eating to help us relate to our animal bodies and start to release shame. Join Luis and explore how we can relate to ourselves in ways other than with food. 

You can read more about, and register for, the Menla retreat here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/menla-retreat

If you use the discount code HLN700 before April 15th, you can get a $700USD discount off this retreat.

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

Learn more about the self-led course here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/self-led-new

Join the waitlist to pre-order Luis' book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com