EXPLORING Naturopathy & Mind-Body Medicine

As a multidisciplinary healer herself, our founder Jen stays beautifully curious. Our team is forever asking questions, always looking for expanders, and never assuming we know it all. It’s about remaining open to learning something new, to experimenting, to rejecting or accepting theories, and to operating on an intuitive level about what it means to self-care.

Our latest expander is naturopathic doctor, Nadia Musavvir. She, like many on her path, came into this world because modern, Western medicine failed her, because she needed to intuit the best solutions to her problems, and because she became radiantly well after doing so.

Her practice is dynamic, it’s personal, and it’s loving — and she came to it from individual struggle.

There are a painful number of stories like this: We are suffering, only to be met with an “I don’t know” from the expensive, high-paid professionals we are trained to trust. Or, even worse, given generic drugs with side effects that are only meant to mask symptoms or experimentally diagnose issues. So often we are given generic advice about fiber and hydration — nothing that our very first Google search or, ehem, common sense, couldn’t answer for us early on.

Eventually, Dr. Musavvir started studying Kinesiology for her Bachelor’s of Science, and was able to focus her degree on Sports Psychology and Nutrition. She is extremely passionate about both of those areas, and they influenced the trajectory of her career in becoming a naturopathic doctor with additional training in mind-body medicine.

Dr. Musavvir’s practice philosophy is one we deeply align with.

Dr. Musavvir gets to know her clients on an individual level in order to inform her plan of action.

When we asked what role energy plays in Dr. Musavvir’s practice, we were met with kinetic delight.

Dr. Musavvir uses unique protocols for cultivating optimal gut health and promoting longevity while preventing premature aging.

Best ways to do this:

Implement mindfulness practices around eating. Think deep breaths, moments of silence, prayer, etc., because digestion begins before food even enters the mouth (as you smell and see it, different enzymes start being released). Support digestion further by having some fresh squeezed lemon in water before meals, or apple cider vinegar before meals, or even a digestive enzyme.

And once food is in the mouth, chew food slowly and thoroughly!

Include fiber-rich and prebiotic foods in the diet to fuel microbial diversity… i.e. asparagus, banana, dandelion greens, endive, honey, leeks, etc.

Because so many ailments and symptoms are long left unchecked by traditional Western medicine, we wanted to know which ones she finds that prevail.

“Toxicity. We are inundated with chemicals [daily], and yes, the body has innate detoxification capabilities. However, we are faced with chemicals on every front: in our personal care products, cookware, cleaning products, fragrances, exhausts, heavy metals. And then electrosmog! All the EMF [electromagnetic frequency] — which, yes, makes our lives convenient — is becoming a bigger issue, and again, why I think energy is such an important factor that cannot be ignored.

All of these forms of toxicity have become so normalized that we don’t know how to separate ourselves from it. We must start with “detoxes” of sorts, from our devices and tech, until it becomes habitual to take breaks.

So what does self-care look like to Dr. Musavvir?

• Rest according to the circadian rhythms of the day by sleeping before midnight, waking early, and exposing my eyes to sunlight, eating most earlier in the day and less later in the day.
• Exercise according to the menstrual cycle — adjusting my training and eating to where I am in my menstrual cycle. i.e., HIIT week 1, heavier weights week 2-3, barre/yoga week 4.
• Making sure to sweat/move daily, aiming for most movement earlier in the day.
• Qi gong, breathing exercises or meditation in the mornings.
• Castor oil packs + herbal tea in the evenings.
• Recognize when I can push and when I need to pull back.”

We hope this conversation with Dr. Nadia Musavvir leaves you as inspired as we are to continue tapping in, listening to our bodies, and trusting it to tell us what we need.