Incorporating Mind, Body, and Spirit in the Intuitive Healing Journey With Dr. Maryska Taylor

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.

Dr. Maryska Taylor

I feel like this week's episode is a masterclass in intuitive healing. It's something we all need and can benefit from, especially when you're living with a chronic illness. But sometimes how to do it. Isn't that clear. So we're doing a deep dive into what intuitive healing looks like. And Dr. Taylor talks about how we all have the tools to start right
We're also talking about what it really looks like to have boundaries. And look, it has nothing to do with confronting anyone. I think that's one of the things that holds us back from, from having boundaries. And, , it's got nothing to do with confronting. It's much more about self-love than it is about, , aggression towards other
But we're going to really talk about boundaries and what those look
and Dr. Taylor is just living proof that just because we may need to slow down and listen to our bodies and get in touch and calm things down. And all of that does not mean that you can't have an amazing, fulfilling life doing some really, really wonderful things. So please enjoy this week's episode.
And visit Andrea Hanson, coaching.com for more on Dr. Mariska Taylor resources that we talk about in the show and transcripts from today's episode. Welcome to the live your life, not your diagnosis podcast. I'm Andrea Hanson, author, motivational speaker. And master certified coach. When I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I was told. I would never reach my goals. But I did. And I'm on a mission to prove that life with a chronic illness can still be expansive and quite remarkable.
Everyone has their own unique path. I'm talking to people, living with a chronic illness that come from different backgrounds, have different points of view and are achieving amazing life goals of all kinds. To you inspire you To achieve what you thought was impossible. These stories are raw. Uncensored and judgment free. Listener discretion is advised
[00:01:58] Andrea: We're talking today with Dr. Mariska Taylor. She is a naturopathic doctor, a mind body therapist, a clinical hypnotherapist and intuitive healer. She's a mystic without a monastery. She helps women go from being burnt out, struggling with illness and putting their needs last, to being deeply connected to their intuition, truly caring for themselves and tending to their greater healing and soul's purpose.
She runs an online monthly membership community called the nest. That's focused on holistic and doable self-care solutions, feminine energy, intuition, and body wisdom. Her signature healing methodology. The art of living serves as the divine backbone of this membership community, as well as her high level bespoke personal transformation program, the Phoenix. How are you? Thank you for being here, Mars.
[00:02:51] Maryska: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
[00:02:54] Andrea: I'm so excited that you're here today. There's so much to unpack. I think there's so much to your story, that people are really going to relate to. I just want to address first and foremost, you were coming to us from the Caribbean.
[00:03:07] Maryska: Yeah, I , I live on a, a little island in the Caribbean in Turks and Caicos yeah.
[00:03:14] Andrea: I have much respect for anybody who says, what? I need to move because it's what my soul is calling for. And I know it's what I need. And you just pick up and go to a place like the Caribbean
[00:03:25] Maryska: Yeah. And we can talk about that in a minute, how that even came about because it was a big part of my healing journey, but yeah, no, there was, I remember when I came here for the very first time after I got engaged to my now husband I just fell in love with the water. It's my favorite color.
It's this beautiful Aqua Marine. And this place has always just held this healing energy for me. So, when we had the chance to move here, I was like yeah, that's what we're doing. We're going. I moved from Canada. Right. So it wasn't like I just hopped over from Florida. Like this was a big shift so we, we left winter essentially.
[00:04:04] Andrea: Ugh. That's amazing. I did the same thing a little bit opposite. We were in Texas. And so we left summer because it gets so hot, but I, I totally, I love that because I'm the same way New Mexico is like my healing place. And when we had the chance to move back to the Southwest, it was a hard yes, because of that same thing.
So I want to start with you are a naturopath tell for those who don't quite know what that is or what it's like to go to a natural path. Tell a little bit about what that is, what that entails. If you have a specialty, just talk a little bit about that.
[00:04:41] Maryska: Yeah. It's a good question because a lot of people either have misconceptions or aren't quite sure what we do. So in Canada and the us and in some parts of Europe I can speak to that, because that's really where the profession is regulated. So we, I went to school in Toronto. I have an undergrad in science and then I did a master's and then went on to do my doctorate.
And so I have a doctorate in naturopathic medicine and we are trained, the same as a, a regular medical doctor would be with like, anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, all of those things. We're able to diagnose disease. The difference between us and more conventional medical practitioners is what we use to treat.
So there are many naturopathic doctors who are able to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs. I, however, do not. So I've chosen not to, in what I use as kind of the tools in my toolbox, I use botanical medicine. So using plant medicines to heal. So herbal medicine traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, herbs Ave, medicine, nutrition like holistic nutrition lifestyle.
And then also I guess, more my specialty or what my focus is. Even though I have all these very tangible tools, what I found to be a glaring. Absence in the medical world is, the mind body, soul aspect. So, mind, body medicine looking at limiting beliefs and psycho neural immunology neuroplasticity.
So how our beliefs affect our biology or become our biology, you could say. And then also spirituality. So when I went to school, we got a lot of the mind body stuff alongside of the nutrition and the herbs and, reading labs and all of those things, doing medical tests, all of that.
However, the spiritual part of it was really missing. And so I went in search of that outside of my formal education. And I have a master's in theology which came about because. I had a radical healing, which we can talk about
that sent me that sent me on this search because it wasn't a gluten-free diet or, or any pharmaceutical or any herb for that matter that had caused my healing to take place.
It was actually a shift in my perception, but also I think a healing on a spiritual level. And so that's always been in the background for me and it wasn't part of my formal education. So I went searching for that. And hence why intuition and soul led healing is such a big part of my offering and what I do, because I, I think, if we just focus on treating the body, we're missing this enormous other part of ourselves
[00:07:28] Andrea: Yes, I totally, I totally agree. Take it back though. I'm always interested in how people get into things, especially what they were doing before they were diagnosed. So talk to me about, were you, did you get into the naturopathic medicine before you were diagnosed?
[00:07:49] Maryska: no. So this is, this is the, this is the wonderful part of life. Right. And how life gives us these things that changes the trajectory.
[00:07:58] Andrea: What were you doing before you were diagnosed?
[00:08:00] Maryska: yeah, so I was on track to go to conventional med school. And actually just to back up a little bit further, I had always had an interest in health and wellbeing. The more, I guess my family and circumstance and harnessing and, and supporting that interest just steered me towards conventional medicine.
Because that was the norm. However. I, so I had actually been diagnosed with psoriasis when I was in like my late teens and used pharmaceutical means to help the first time at the same time, my mom took me to see a naturopathic doctor, which at the time I had no idea what that was. And he used acupuncture and some dietary stuff, but at the same time, I was getting these really intense treatments with a dermatologist to help with the psoriasis.
And it, it worked for the time being, I feel like it really suppressed the illness. And then when it resurfaced, when I was in my undergrad on track to become a conventional, medicine medical doctor on school going into med school, I had a lot of stress and a bunch of stuff going on in my life.
I was depressed and , , just the weight of everything having to have the perfect marks I was volunteering at, emergency room at the children's hospital. I was working in another job and all of the things, and this rise is returned this time, more aggressively. And I went back to those same treatments with the dermatologist, however, this time they didn't work.
And then what they wanted me to do was, take more intense drugs. And I was soon signing waivers for skin cancer and and also, recognizing that it would for affect my fertility. , At 21 years old, 22 years old, that's a really big decision to make. So I went searching for alternatives and I just happened to be taking.
At the time. Of course it was a, a new elective that was offered by my faculty called mind body medicine. And out of curiosity, I, signed up for it. And so this is where I laugh at like the Seren serendipity of what was happening in my life at the time. So here I was, dealing with this chronic illness and, and this health crisis and supposedly on track to, go into conventional medicine, but then this opportunity to take this elective that actually held a different paradigm of healing and wellbeing and how to app like different way to approach illness.
And that changed my life. Because within that course, they talked about, looking at the body in a whole different way and how the mind, how the thoughts could affect it and, and different things. And so. I went off on a, a bit of a journey with that. Just exploring. And so, because conventional medicine wasn't able to help me.
That second time I went looking for alternatives. I still didn't know naturopathic medicine existed. I just knew that there had to be something else there needed. Like I needed something else. I needed something like the conventional path didn't feel right. Didn't feel an alignment for me.
[00:11:12] Andrea: One thing I'm curious about is
when we get diagnosed, sometimes it can be quite a shock and it can push us off of our path. What was it like for you when you were on one course? And then all of a sudden you're like, I've got to. Change. I need to pivot and look at things and go to these different classes and look at this different type of medicine and not only look at it, but really give it weight and understand that the Western medicine and going back to the dermatologist just was not in alignment.
What was that journey?
[00:11:46] Maryska: Yeah, it may sound graceful in retrospect however, at
[00:11:49] Andrea: I know it always does, right. I, I sound so ful in retrospect,
[00:11:55] Maryska: however, at the time it was like an undoing, right? Because I had this paradigm that I had adopted at a really early age of what it meant to heal and what it meant to be a doctor. And that had to fall apart. And, my mental health at the time was not so great. Like I was depressed and really struggling.
I mean, when you're 22 years old or 23 years old, and you're covered head to toe with psoriasis, like it takes a toll on your self-esteem and not to mention the physical pain and how it was affecting me socially. And like all of the things like I had, I had a guy break up with me because he didn't want to be known as the, the guy that was dating the girl with the skin thing, like it was, it really took its toll.
Yeah, he was a, a real gem that one,
[00:12:38] Andrea: it sounds like you lost a lot.
[00:12:41] Maryska: yeah. Yeah, so, like it really, it, it took its toll. So yes, there was, there was all of this happening kind of like, within my human mind. Right. But there was, when you ask what was the pivot and what kind of helped me move through, it was, I've always had a connection with my intuition and there's always been that voice, , that voice of reason or wisdom, my higher self, whatever you want to call it, your soul.
That was just in the background, like it's okay, baby girl, like we're going to get through this. And then when, when life gave me opportunities like it did with that course, that mind, body course, that little voice is like, oh yes, let's go there. So there was this duality of. Yeah, there's suffering and there's all of this going on, but at the same time, there's this wisdom in the background that's gently nudging and navigating and I'm following these curiosities.
And so when one door closed and I felt that it wasn't in alignment for me to move ahead with these really aggressive pharmaceutical drugs and make decisions about my fertility at such a young age, I was like, okay, well, there has to be something else. And that's I feel like when we make those choices and we take a leap of faith, that's when Providence sets in and by Providence, I mean, that caring, nurturing hand of God or the universe or whatever you want to call it, , like where there was once a wall, then there becomes a door like, , where a window opens or however the expression goes, but it's this idea of.
I guess I was open and I always had that little voice, that little niggle that, sixth sense or something in the background that I was listening to. And so all of this, if I think back to that experience of what was happening at that time, yes, there was all this immense suffering, emotionally, physically, everything.
But there was also this like little beacon of hope in the back of my mind that maybe there was something else. I remember this one night, it was like a, on my knees, praying like to the divine, whatever it is out there saying, you gotta help me because I can't do this.
And um, , I reached a really low point where the suffering was so bad and I felt so lost. I didn't feel supported by many. Of, the areas of my life. My family and, and friends were always very supportive, but I just mean like the conventional system, I didn't feel supported by the system of medicine.
I didn't feel like there was, it was offering me anything. And so I turned to, to God and was like, okay, I get me out of here. If you're real, I actually prayed if you're real, get me out of here. And because I also, how could I then devote my life to a system of medicine that's just failed me. And so I was having this like existential crisis well, like I thought this was the direction I was supposed to go.
This doesn't feel right anymore. It's actually failing me. I feel abandoned by this system now what do I do? And so, yeah, I just turned to the divine and was like, okay, if you're real, help me out. And then that's when I feel like the miracle happened. And I had this opportunity to join this singing group in California.
And I, I took it and I left I graduated, but I, I, I took off and I went to California. I, I didn't go to my graduation, but I graduated with my undergrad and I took a year to go explore and just figure it out,
[00:16:14] Andrea: that's so great. Yeah.
I am a big believer in traveling and leaving where you are to go and find so many things about yourself and about your situation. And it's, it's like this melting away of who you were, melting away of this old identity. And especially when you find that things within that construct are not working, going someplace to allows you to just melt it away and have almost like this new start, this rebirth.
I think there's so much wisdom to be found. Is that where you had your, your huge spiritual aha in CA.
[00:17:00] Maryska: yeah. It was where I would say I had, I guess, what they call a spiritual awakening, which in my mind was just an opening of my mind to a different perception, a different paradigm. But what had happened, that saying, wherever you go, there you are. I wasn't like, I didn't necessarily like change.
I went to California, my surroundings changed. And sometimes I feel like that's what's needed in order for us to just see things differently, to see our issues or to have life mirror back to us things in a way that we can, just look at it a little bit differently, respond to it differently. And so, yeah, I, I went and became part of this gospel group and this gospel singing group out of California.
And so I moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia. So I moved across the continent
and, um, ,
from the east coast to the west coast and joined this group, I didn't know a soul. And they were all very. Happy and intense and , it was very, it was very Christian and it was very, but it was also ecumenical. So all different denominations, which was really beautiful.
And at the time I was not that at all, like I was, , I had, I was drinking a lot smoking a lot of weed and, and doing things that, to help me with the suffering and numb myself out. And so to go from, this environment where I was, overachiever, trying to. You deal with the overwhelm by numbing myself and whatever, like partying and doing whatever and going from that to this like Christian Christian gospel group, it was like, , it was kinda like going to rehab. It was hilarious. But , it was exactly the medicine that I needed because these people were so loving and they embraced me with open arms and, and that's what I needed. I needed an environment where I felt supported and where I felt loved and accepted, no matter what I looked like. And there was within that community, what I found as a voice of love, and I found a lot of support and being sitting on a tour bus, we traveled back and forth across the us.
And we traveled overseas. We went to South Korea, we went to the Azores like Portugal. We went all over
[00:19:14] Andrea: Wow. So it was a serious
[00:19:17] Maryska: Yeah,
[00:19:17] Andrea: endeavor. it was, a serious choir.
[00:19:19] Maryska: Oh, yeah. We had a full piece orchestra and eight vocalists. Like we were the real deal and, and we were performing in places like the DMZ for the American troops. The demilitarized zone between north and South Korea.
We were on television. Like we, it was, it was a full on real group and um, , but it was those moments. So I loved singing. I grew up singing my whole life and on stage since I was three years old. And so doing something that I loved that was changing the frequency of, my body cells, but also being in a loving, caring environment where I didn't have to, I didn't have the stress of, Having to maintain my GPA or, have all of basically the, the pressure to be perfect was gone.
And yes, some people could say, I had a healing because the stress was gone. Yeah. That's a huge part of it. But there was also a shift in my perception that was happening. And because when, on the tour bus between performances we, I had a lot of time on my hands. And so we would stop off at, burns and noble or different places.
And I would grab books on health and wellbeing and holistic healing. And because that course, again, like going back to that last year of my university experience in my undergrad, when I took that mind body medicine course that lit a fire within me. And it was. My soul was like, Ooh, more. I want more, I want more of that.
So any book that I could get my hands on that was talking about a more holistic approach, a more natural approach to healing. That's what I wanted. So I was following my curiosities. And then, in the meantime also doing something I loved and I joined that group when I was, it was may. So I graduated from school and, and went and, and in July I had this crazy healing.
And what I mean by that is, may and June and most of July, I was still covered head to toe with psoriasis. And then we were in South Korea and singing and we went to a leper colony and we also went to insane asylum. These are like some pretty intense places to go
into. Um, but it was.
Yeah, but it was this idea of, like you're amongst people, especially at the, at the Lepar colony, because leprosy is such a disfiguring illness. And in many ways, that's how I felt. Right. I felt like a Lepar. And so there was something about being amongst these people and opening my heart and having so much love and compassion for them, and the idea of then having that love and compassion for myself.
And it's too much to go into right now and, and this conversation, but it was that shift within me. I think it was literally like just opening my heart to love. And, and I had, again, this whole narrative happening in the background of changing my paradigm when it came to healing and within two weeks, the psoriasis was.
It started to rapidly heal again, there was no specific diet, not that diet doesn't help. There were no medications, it was literally the energy within me and like the tension and the self criticism and all of these things evaporated now, were they gone for good? No, that's, that's the, that's the journey, that's the work.
But I think that happened to me in that moment. And the psoriasis was gone for a very long time. It happened to me and it had to happen to me in that way, because it was such a tangible shift. And I mean, shift as in like baby, like beautiful, clear skin. And then I came back to my family. We, we actually, when we came back from overseas, we went to Canada and we did a concert in my hometown and my family couldn't believe it.
They were like, oh my God, your skin's clear. My friends couldn't believe it. And I'm like, it was such a tangible contrast. Like it was a healing. And then I've basically spent, the last 20, some years trying to understand what happened and, well, not just trying to understand what happened, but going into that whole field of mind, body.
So medicine. Yeah. Cause I understand what happened. It's now just getting it out there for other people.
[00:23:50] Andrea: Yeah, it, and it's an interesting thing too, when you go through and I, I get it. It's when you go through something that is so visceral. And so, like you said, tangible and just undeniable, and you can feel that shift it has something to do with that mind body connection, where you let go of any kind of preconceived notions that you have, or that you were holding that other people had for you.
Because a lot of times we take on other people's stories about us, and sometimes we kind of force it on as our own story. Um, I think going into that moment where, , something is different and , there's a change and you can feel it on that visceral level sometimes taking it and then putting it into that mental, verbal explanation level can be, can be hard.
It's in your body that something happened and , what happened on that body level, on that emotional and spiritual level, and then getting it back out to okay, here's how you recreate it. And here's how you tell other people who are in completely different situations to get into that spot for themselves.
Like that can be hard,
[00:25:10] Maryska: Yeah. And also that was to me. So I left the singing group eight or nine months later and ended up coming back to Canada and then I was like, okay, well now what, because I can't go back into conventional medicine. Now I need to, I need to know what happened. What was it that caused that healing?
What was that all about? And so I continued to follow my curiosities, right. And follow that intuition. And again, the synchronicities I happened to stumble upon naturopathic medicine. and at the time it was the opportunity to, go into go into medicine, learn about the body, go further into the pathophysiology and like all of these things and diagnoses, but with a different lens.
So with the lens of, Hey, mind affects this, our beliefs affect this, affect the physical body. Again, I think there's still a missing element. Like the spiritual part. I think that schism happened long ago. , with the church and state and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing because I, I'm not talking about religion here.
I'm talking about spirituality and, and the recognition that we are spiritual beings or energetic beings, whatever, however, whatever language you'd like to use. But there is this vitality or this spiritual essence of us that has a tremendous impact and influence on our wellbeing. And that cannot be denied.
I, that like in my life anyways, and what I've seen in my clinical practice, my personal experience to me, that is an enormous factor in health and wellbeing. And sadly it's been left out of conventional care.
[00:26:53] Andrea: Yeah, I, and I can understand. I feel like conventional care. I mean, It's so different, right? When you look at the conventional care, the Western care, if you will and the pharmaceuticals and things like that versus the holistic and I, I am in the yolk that you don't need. They're not mutually exclusive.
I think you can use both if you're in alignment. Yeah. If you're in alignment with it, but it is interesting because I don't see how something like a spiritual and I, I get it. I'm the same way. It's not, we're not necessarily talking about a specific God. We're not necessarily talking about things like the law of retraction.
Right. It's not, it's, it's something
[00:27:36] Maryska: It's not dogmatic.
Yeah. It's not dogmatic. Yeah.
[00:27:40] Andrea: But be, and it's almost because it's not dogmatic. I don't see how that could fit in anywhere with conventional. Like, I feel like it doesn't have a place there and that's okay. Like just leave conventional medicine, leave that there. but still address it when you go into things like the mind body and the holistic medicine, like that's, I think where that spirituality and that attention to spirituality, I think that's where it should live.
[00:28:08] Maryska: Yeah. The way that I explain it to people is first of all, I believe that there's a time and a place for everything.
[00:28:14] Andrea: Mm.
[00:28:14] Maryska: There is a time and a place for pharmaceutical interventions. There's a time and a place for chemotherapy. There's a time and a place for everything. The way that I like to explain it to people is if you picture it like a pyramid and there's different striations of that pyramid, like different levels of that pyramid, the very bottom.
And if, sorry, if you see that pyramid almost like a hierarchy of intervention and on the bottom of that pyramid, that bottom tier is lifestyle interventions, things like your diet, your sleep like all the things basically that you have control over that you do daily, your daily self care habits.
That's like the bottom tier, very gentle interventions. However, gentle does not mean ineffective. It just means they're gentle. Right? They're and they're easy to implement. Maybe not sometimes for people because of habits, but , they can be then the next tier up would.
Know of intervention. That would be like where you have botanical medicine or acupuncture counseling, things like that, where you're going outside of your daily habits and bringing in helpers or mentors or some, someone to provide a service or using plants, that sort of thing. As the, as the medicine, the next year up, I would say would be pharmaceuticals, right?
Or biodentical hormones there, it's an intervention. It's a little bit more intense. And then at the very top of the tier, you would have the things like chemo surgery that, so there's a time and a place for everything. The way that I see the spirituality and the intuition is that it is the wisdom that guides you to, where am I going in this H.
So it's not that it is only just in one tier intuition is the guide. It's the wisdom that you're using to discern what is an alignment for me and what do I need in this circumstance? And maybe in that circumstance, you need chemotherapy, maybe in the circumstance you need counseling, maybe you just need to move more.
Maybe it's a combination of, of several things. So I feel intuition, I, I hear what you're saying in that, where like maybe it doesn't have a place in the conventional paradigm. And I would say, I agree with you. I, I think it's used to discern what, what do we actually need to heal ourselves and to nav navigate I don't want to say mind field, but to navigate the landscape.
[00:30:44] Andrea: Sometimes it feels like a minefield
[00:30:47] Maryska: yeah.
[00:30:48] Andrea: I wouldn't disagree with that. Yeah. I mean, what I'm talking about as far as like the spirituality part of it though, it's I don't necessarily as much as I love, like my neurologist and other doctors that I've been to, I don't necessarily want them talking to me about my spirituality and intuition.
what I mean? Like I just, I don't feel like that's their
[00:31:06] Maryska: It's not their specialty.
[00:31:07] Andrea: It's not It's not, their specialty. And I'm, I'm really big on bringing people in that have their wheelhouse and using them to the best of their abilities. I don't want to make my doctor also have to worry about things like my emotional wellbeing.
That's not their thing. Like they don't need to do that. And I think that it's, I love the intuition part as far as where it is that you want to be on that triangle. And I also think that. They always, I, when I was diagnosed, I immediately went into a Kind of a combination of the pharmaceuticals, but also the holistic, because I looked at it as doing things, especially that lower part of the triangle that you talked about with stress and sleeping and, maybe eating more healthy, moving your body, working out that kind of stuff.
I feel like that. Gets your body in the best shape to be able to use these pharmaceuticals because it's, sometimes you don't need as much as you think you do when your body is more receptive. And sometimes if you're just in this moment of just high inflammation and your body is not accepting things, then you're going to need a lot more pharmaceuticals to really help.
So to me, I feel like get at least on that bottom level
of
that triangle, get the foundation because that if you are going to go in and have any kind of a pharmaceutical, which you're right, like some of those things are pretty, they're, they're no joke. So it's get your body to the point where it can be as healthy and as receptive as possible.
So maybe you don't need quite as long or quite as much. Is that how you see it? Do the basics
[00:32:44] Maryska: Yeah, I think, I think regardless, regardless of where, what you choose on that hierarchy of what feels right for you for an intervention or what may be needed given, the circumstance and, and the illness that you're facing. I think that that bottom tier is essential for everyone. Like having good quality sleep is so important for how our, our body detoxes for how we make our hormones and how we deal with stress, like all of these things.
And yes, having that foundation is going to make your body more resilient against possibly the side effects, the possible side effects of a lot of these pharmaceutical drugs. Cause they don't come without them, and. It may be a necessity to take certain things or to have certain treatments.
But if you have the foundations of health, you're going to be more resilient and have a more healthy terrain. And that healthy terrain is going to make you, not just more resilient, but you're going to be able to bounce back and you're just going to be stronger in general. So, yeah, I agree.
[00:33:49] Andrea: Yeah. I love your story. That you've always been in connection with that intuition. And not only to me, there's two different things, right? There's hearing your intuition, but then there's also listening to your intuition. Cause a lot of times we hear it, I think more often than not more often than people think.
And you can tell me if, if you disagree, but I think more often than people think they hear their intuition, the bigger thing is whether or not you listen to it or second, guess it, or think that it's nothing or just kind of like, oh that I don't know. I'm going to, I'm going to take what this person says over here because they know more.
So I think that a lot of times. It takes a big diagnosis or a big situation with our body, for us to go into that mode of oh, okay, now I need to start listening.
Now I need to start paying attention. So how do you help people who are in that very beginning stage of listening to like, how do they know? Because they've been, and I, I might be talking from experience a little bit, but like when you've been hearing it, but you've been pushing it aside for so long, it's almost like it's such a whisper, , it's kind of like when you have a friend and you don't listen, you don't listen after a while, they're going to stop telling you because they're like, why am I going to bother?
That's what happens right. With our inner voice. And so how do you start listening to that again? And. Actually following through and not second guess.
[00:35:20] Maryska: Yeah, that's so important. That's a good question. So I think I want to start by first explaining, we have been trained in many ways to not trust that voice and to go outside of ourselves for the answers and to quote unquote, listen to the experts. And I think, the way that I was trained in my, Undergraduate and, and beyond was to have critical thinking.
And so, yeah, I would go in search of of the expert opinion. I would read the research, but I was also taught from a really early age by my parents, the ability to discern. And so then when I got into, academic studies, this idea of having this critical thinking is so important, there is however I think, and, and, and I think that's an important skill, first of all, to not just blindly take the expert opinions and I say experts like with the quotations because you're the expert in you.
I'm not saying that there's not value and merit in going outside of ourselves and accumulating, wisdom and listening to others and, and gathering information. I think that's essential. To the learning process and, and actually to intuition because you, you need something, you need to gather this information and then you need to be able to bring it inward and discern.
And so in my mind, I think, there's this external versus internal, a lot of us are, have been trained to just listen to the external voices and ignore the internal, not trust the internal, but it, so basically when I am teaching people to listen to their intuition, it's to recognize that difference, that duality, first of all, and then to start taking, to pay attention to the internal because you're right.
It's always there and it may begin as whisper. , Symptoms or, that gut feeling, the spy sense, the, intuition that, Hey, maybe this isn't a good relationship for me, or maybe I need to change jobs or, that fatigue, maybe there's something there. And then I have found through my experience and, as an over a decade of practice and also with myself and my healing journey, if we don't listen to the whispers, they soon grow into, a bit of a yelling
[00:37:45] Andrea: Yeah. And, and a lot of
times, yeah. And a lot of times that yelling actually means that you're like grounded,
[00:37:52] Maryska: Yeah, what's the, I, I love the expression. It's at first the divine will throw a pebble and then it'll throw a brick. And so it's, sadly I think because we've been conditioned to listen outside of ourselves more than listen internally. I think for some people, for most people, it usually the volume has to be raised quite a bit and often a brick before we'll stand up and pay attention.
And so. I think, the first step with intuition is awareness. , This is where mindfulness comes in and becoming like just gathering awareness and paying attention and objectively sitting back and viewing your life and what might be happening with an internal dialogue because the, the voice is always there and it may be very subtle, but when we create space to, to listen, and that's why meditation is such a great tool, often people have this misconception, that meditation is that you have to sit and empty your mind, and that's not true.
Meditation is actually just taking space out of your busy day of your schedule to sit in silence so that you can become aware of and pay attention to, and to observe the mind. And when you can take that time to observe your mind. You can start to see certain narratives or certain patterns of behavior or thoughts that will emerge.
And that is that's the beginning, because if I'm always having like certain thoughts, say I, whenever I sit in silence and I'm returning to, so, and so who did me wrong then that's something that needs to be healed,
[00:39:24] Andrea: Yeah. And I think that's something that's, it's so easily overlooked. I love that you brought that example because we think it's almost like our mind is just not paying attention. Like, Ugh, I can't focus. I just keep talking, thinking about, Angela and what she said last week and how annoying she is.
And sometimes you can completely miss the mark of no, no, no, that's what you need to look at. Like, why is your brain going back to Angela and the crap that she's trying to start and what is in there and how, how does that how can that open up into more information about yourself, about your intuition, about what's going on in your brain?
Because I, yeah, I totally agree. I think what's go like the dialogue in our head is so very important.
[00:40:09] Maryska: It's golden it's golden information. If you can create that time and space to just allow it to be, and this is where mindfulness again is so important because with mind meditation, I'm specifically talking about this as a tool now it's um, again, I'm not going in, I'm not trying to quiet that chatter.
I'm observing that chatter. I'm creating awareness. I'm observing. What are the patterns? What are the things that keep coming up and. Then that tells me like what's going on in my internal environment. And it's often that chatter once. I mean, when you sit back and you allow space to just observe it, the irony is that it will calm down and then you will have that stillness.
And then that is when that voice, that intuitive voice, that wisdom, that higher self that's, when you can hear it very clearly, the next step beyond, creating the space to listen is trusting it,
[00:41:05] Andrea: That's often the harder step, because a lot of times, like you said, we're taught not to listen to ourselves. We're taught to listen to authorities instead of ourselves. So that trust, I think is really interesting. It's it's an important step.
[00:41:19] Maryska: A hundred percent. And so learning to trust and, at first you may need to sit and create that stillness and quiet to be able to hear. But after a while, it's like an, it's like a muscle, right? Like you, you, the more you use it, the stronger it gets then you'll be able to hear it while you're standing in line at the grocery store or when you're driving and you it's you hear the voices says stop now or turn here, because that voice is always there.
It's just, we're not necessarily tuned in to listen to it. And so it's really a skill. It's just a skill and everyone can learn it, everyone. There may be those who are more, I guess, just attuned and more highly quote, unquote intuitive. , But I really feel like all of us are intuitive. All of us had the ability to dial in and listen.
And the reason why I feel like that is so important. And I stress that with those that I work with is because that, I feel that voice is a necessity. To know what is an alignment for you and your healing and what your body needs. And so I, because I don't believe in one size fits all medicine that, that doesn't, that doesn't work
[00:42:33] Andrea: it can't. It can't work.
[00:42:35] Maryska: yeah, we're individuals.
And again, you may have 10 people with Ms or 10 people with psoriasis or 10 people with whatever, choose a chronic illness. They will all respond differently to the same treatment. And so this is where personalized medicine or individualized care is so important. So looking at the individual, allowing them, , the space and the time and giving them the skills to listen to their own innate wisdom that is saying, when I eat this, it hurts me.
Or this relationship is toxic. I need to create boundaries or, what, I really feel like I need a new job or I need to move or. Need to move house or maybe I just need to move my body more or maybe I do need to try this, this experimental treatment or this pharmaceutical drug drug, but this is where like the nuances come about with individuals and and this idea of individualized care.
And I strongly believe that, yes, I am a quote unquote expert. I've devoted, 20 some years to, to my craft. And I think I'm damn good at it. However, I'm not the expert in you. You are. And so that's where it really needs to be a partnership between the practitioner and the patient. And that's why intuition I feel is so, so, so important because , it was funny if a girlfriend of mine left me a message this morning, while I was working out and she had gone to see a doctor in.
In a big city, she had left island and, and gone to see this doctor and she had such big hopes and she went in and she realized really quickly, this guy wasn't going to listen to anything that she had to say. It was just like, get in, get out. And she used this phrase. It was so interesting. She was like, I didn't want to tell him any of the holistic stuff that I was doing because I didn't want to give him anything to judge me.
[00:44:32] Andrea: Oh, wow.
[00:44:33] Maryska: And I thought, oh, isn't that so sad and how many people have a relationship with their practitioners like that, where it's, they're not actually in partnership. It's, it's much more of an authoritative or like it's actually kind of a toxic relationship
[00:44:47] Andrea: Yeah,
[00:44:48] Maryska: , We feel like we can't share or can't talk about anything alternative because God forbid you'll be judged.
That's crazy.
[00:44:57] Andrea: I think it's interesting because going back to what I said before, I think, I believe in bringing in people into my world, my community that are going to help me. So I'm going to listen to a doctor. I'm going to listen to a, therapist I'm going to listen to, , whoever it is and everybody has their lane.
And it's up for me up to me to keep them. In their lane, like it is not my neurologist job to tell me what they think about any kind of natural healing.
Like they're not going to be able to do it because there's no double blind study that they can refer to. And if there's no double blind study that they can refer to in their lane, it doesn't really work, which is fine. I'm going to jump over to someone else's lane where they know more about it and they are going to tell me if something works.
[00:45:50] Maryska: I agree with you, there's a certain, I think along with the intuitive part, another important thing is sovereignty and taking responsibility and not expecting your practitioner to work miracles. And I mean, yes, there's a lot of amazing, talented people out there who can offer a tremendous amount of wisdom and, and are quote unquote healers.
All that means in my mind is I help facilitate that healing for the individual. I'm not the one doing the healing, their body and, and their mind and their soul is what's doing the healing.
[00:46:23] Andrea: , the individual is the miracle worker. Right. You're teaching people how to be their own miracle worker, because I feel like that's the only way it can work.
[00:46:30] Maryska: And you just said it, you teach people to be their own miracle worker. And what that means is they accept responsibility that that's not like resignation and oh, was me. And then, taking on the energy of victimhood, that's very different. I'm talking about, taking responsibility as in realizing that my actions on a day to day basis are what's contributing to the sum of what's going on in my life.
And if I can recognize my power and, really seize the sovereignty that I have over that, I think that that's a really big deal.
[00:47:04] Andrea: So there's a lot, a lot of things that you teach your clients through your memberships and all that kind of stuff. What is the top thing that you do in your own life that helps you either get get centered or get , calm, get grounded?
[00:47:25] Maryska: Yeah, I would say there are two things. One I guess is my overall philosophy to illness. And how I've come to view. The challenges that may arise because, , with chronic illness, it's not like you treat it once and then it's done. And maybe it is for some people, and that's amazing, but there are those of us, who have relapses.
And, and I guess my overall philosophy on that is that it's like not in any way, shape or form of punishment, it's actually a barometer. And it's my way, my body's way of speaking to me. And I think it's overall an invitation to transformation. I think my symptoms are always an invitation for me to deepen my practice of loving myself and accepting myself and putting down, that sort of criticism putting down the sort of, of hustling and, and go, go, go.
It's always a bit of a, an opportunity I would say for me to look at my life and see, where am I out of alignment. So, and seeing, I guess, to. Symptoms as an invitation to this transformational journey that, Joseph Campbell refers to as the hero's journey. And so I just, I guess it's my overall philosophy is, is a big part of how I remain grounded.
Um, Because I just return to that and I always find meaning I think finding meaning in what's going on is really important to me. And then there's practices that I do in my own life on a regular basis. I, I have a spiritual practice where I pray and I meditate and I journal and self reflect. So when I am dealing with a relapse and I have emotions that arise, whether they're hopelessness or, , any, anything like anger or anything like that, I have a way that I'm able to process them instead of stuffing them down, because I know that that's actually not going to help me.
It's actually just going to make things worse. So to have, I think there's skills that I've learned over time that help me mentally, emotionally, and then, certain things that I do in my life that I know my body needs. I need sunlight. I need the ocean. That's why I moved to where I am. That makes me feel better eating certain things, making sure I move, making sure I have very strong boundaries because I tend to merge with other people.
And what I mean by that is. , I, I live in a, an amazing community and they're very social. And so often I can, like so many people I can forget my own needs and, and drift into and lose myself in my community and social engagements and all the other things that are going on. So just making sure that I keep my boundaries in check and that spiritual practice that I do on a daily basis is part of what keeps me present and aware of what I need.
And so I just fine tune it. So I guess it's the skills of boundaries and saying no, and also having this place within me that I can return to and listen to that wisdom.
[00:50:19] Andrea: Mm, I love, I love boundaries. We could talk like another hour about boundaries because I think they're so , I think they're really important. I think they're often misunderstood as far as what boundaries, mean, I think a lot of people think boundaries are like, if you do this again, I'm going to do this.
And it's that's not
[00:50:38] Maryska: Yeah, I agree. There needs to be this removal of the aggression out of, yes, in some cases, aggression may be warranted, but , asserting a boundary doesn't mean conflict necessarily. Right. It's just saying, I'm recognizing that this, this is what my needs are and I'm going to, I'm going to meet them.
[00:50:58] Andrea: Yeah. And I think that's the key, right? It's. These are my needs. I am going to meet them and really boundaries have very little to do with other people. They're going to do what they're going to do. It's all about, this is my need. This is what I'm going to do. And there doesn't have to be any kind of threatening anger or anything like that around it.
It's just, this is how I'm going to take care of me. And I think there's something very beautiful to that, but yeah, I think a lot of people think boundaries are like, I'm going to tell them if they do this again.
[00:51:29] Maryska: Exactly. It goes back to that personal sovereignty. Right. It's knowing that I have the power to assert my needs and meet them.
[00:51:36] Andrea: mm-hmm
[00:51:37] Maryska: , it's assuming responsibility.
[00:51:40] Andrea: so I think one thing that you do kind of the overarching theme of your health journey, I guess, people who know me know that I don't use that word journey very often. I don't know why I don't know what it is, but the overarching theme is one that I think a lot of us have. early on, there's a kind of an eye on the prize type of a, a thinking where there's hustle, there's working hard.
There's probably lack of boundaries. There's probably a lot of people pleasing. There's certainly putting people before you and just work, work, work, and, and going there. And then when there is something like a diagnosis, or even you don't have to have a diagnosis, it's just your body is, is throwing a brick at you.
telling you that something is wrong and then you gotta slow down. There is a worry. And I, I talk about this a lot with, with my clients. There's a worry. Once you slow down. That means your entire life is like meditation for 24 hours a day. And you can't, you have to like give up all of your dreams and forget having a fulfilling life.
It has to be quiet. And, some of us are told, I mean, I was certainly told that when I was diagnosed, like you just gotta, forget that original career and do something quiet and, , you definitely went to a place that helped you slow down.
You definitely quit the hustle, but you also are doing these amazing things. So it's not like your life is all about meditation and ,
[00:53:12] Maryska: Oh, gosh,
[00:53:13] Andrea: swimming, right? It's like you have this amazing community, you've got the nest, you've got the Phoenix, you've got all these things and these people that you're helping.
So talk a little bit about that and how, just because we need to slow down and listen to our bodies and get in touch and calm things does not mean that you can't have an amazing fulfilling life doing some really, wonderful things.
[00:53:37] Maryska: Yeah, no, I agree with you. I like to see it as cyclical. There are times like there's an ebb and a flow, just like, , mother earth has her, her cycles. , We have a winter and a spring, a summer and a fall. I feel like. Our lives can be like that too. And, and the healing journey, if we can, , refer to it that way.
Um, I think it's cyclical. I think there are times where, I'm moving through another cycle right now. I've had a chronic um, an infection. I was dealing with Epstein bar and it knocked me down and it took its toll on me and I had a lot of fatigue and I couldn't get out of bed.
And, I think I've gone through enough of the cycles to trust that that it's a cycle and I won't stay in bed forever. And so, if you think of this idea of the cycle, there's like, , with winter it's like a fertile void, it may seem like there's not a lot going on. , , It can seem pretty bleak and at times, and, and desolate and, and, yeah, when I was in bed and.
Couldn't function because I had this chronic virus that was, my body was having a hard time dealing with. I felt, I Def I definitely felt moments of oh my God, is this what the rest of my life is going to be like? But no, because you, again, if you engage with things, engage with your intuition and, and are looking to heal, I really feel like life will give you answers and people and mentors and helpers will come along and, and, there's a reason and a purpose for that time.
because just like with winter, what comes after winter spring? And if it wasn't for winter, you wouldn't have the beautiful buds and, and all of the things, blooming. And so, yeah, I went through a winter, a personal winter and where I couldn't function very well. And, but I kept looking for answers.
I kept trusting the little breadcrumbs that the divine was leaving for me to follow and by the divine, I mean, like my own intuition or whatever. And then I got some test results back that told me, oh, I'm, there's a food allergy that I'd actually didn't know about.
And that was hindering my body's ability to fight off the virus I corrected. Bam energy starts coming back. So it's like spring and then it emerges. And then I'm in my summer right now. I'm like, boom. And I'm like, got my own podcast going on. I I'm seeing patients again. And like all of these things, I'm not sitting around in Lotus pose meditating all day long.
I still definitely have that practice that I return to. That's a constant, no matter what season I'm in, but if you happen to be in a winter right now, or you're in a summer or you're in a fall, like fall is like the culmination where you can experience like all the beautiful things and, and sit back and look at your accomplishments and look at how far you've come and your healing journey.
And, knowing that you may return back into winter again, you may have a relapse and that's okay because you won't stay there. And every, every time I enter into a winter or I enter into, a little bit of a relapse, there's always something more for me to learn about myself about, , it, it for me again, I think it's just the perspective that I've learned to take perhaps to keep hope high and to keep a high vibe that doesn't mean I spiritually bypass and don't go into the I don't wallow because trust me, I, I can go to low places and feel all my feelings, but I, I think it's important to sit back and look at the forest through the trees or see the forest through the trees.
And, and I, I feel like healing is cyclical and yeah, with every winter I feel like it's an opportunity for me to go deeper into knowing myself and to healing some patterns.
[00:57:16] Andrea: I like that. I it's that idea that it's being cyclical means that it's going to come back around again. And I think some of the fear is when people feel some kind of a relapse or they feel per perhaps for the first time, they of feel their body is doing something. And that can be part of why we can push it off and be like, Nope, Nope.
That can't be it. So I'm not going to listen because there's that fear that if we do slow down or if we do enter into this winter spring will never come. And it's no, I gotta push it off because I just gotta get these things done. And really the more productive thing is to.
[00:58:02] Maryska: embrace
[00:58:03] Andrea: take a yeah. Is to take that moment.
And it's also, I think there's the, there's the mindset perspective of it, of knowing that this is not a stopping, this is not forever. And in fact, this is just an opportunity to learn something more because you're right. There's always something that we learn about ourselves when we do need to take a moment.
And, I, I like to think about it as like a melting down a, just just, just getting rid of, of all of the stressors, kind of like what you do with California. Right. We can do little mini versions of that whenever we want to. And within that space, there can be so much to learn.
And just because we enter that space doesn't mean that we're not going to leave it sometimes. In a week, right? It doesn't even have to be months and months or years. It can be a couple of days. It just depends on, on what's going on. But I love that idea of looking at it as a cyclical as a season, because we're always going to come out of it.
[00:59:04] Maryska: yeah. And I think too, it's important, , it's not that if you find yourself in a winter, or in that, , that part of this healing cycle, it doesn't mean you're not moving forward and it's not a step back. It's just it's just, where you are in, in the point going forward, it's just like another destination along the journey.
And so I, when it, and when they come and, and maybe they won't, , I've just gone through one. Maybe I won't have another one for 20 years. I don't know. Maybe it'll be in eight months.
But I, I think it's, it's trusting that there's a purpose and there's a reason and I'm still moving forward.
And if this is what my body's asking of me right now, I need to trust that I need to respect that. And it also doesn't mean that the hopes and the dreams and all the things that I want to accomplish will never happen. I'm just going to trust the timing of my life. And I'm going to trust that, perhaps this is a moment for me to take a breath and pivot because maybe those things are going to happen, but maybe they're going to happen in a different way and a different timing.
So, yeah.
[01:00:11] Andrea: Yeah. I mean, I, it's interesting because at first glance with winter, everything looks like it's dead, but roots still grow in the winter time.
They never stop growing.
[01:00:23] Maryska: There's So
much happening under that snow in that ground. Right. That's often, if you want to use that analogy, that's often when the roots grow deepest, right? Like where there's there's just so much activity happening under, under the ground. And it's because of that foundation that from which spring can come and summer will flourish and we culminate and celebrate the fall.
So it's, like it's, and by the fall, I mean the harvest and all of that. So I, I do believe it's cyclical. And so if you ha, if you're someone listening to this and you're having a relapse, I encourage you to, don't lose hope and it doesn't mean that you're you're stuck or that you're stopping, or that you've even taken a step back.
It's another step forward in the journey. You're just entering into a new cycle.
[01:01:13] Andrea: Amazing. Well, I have taken up more than enough of your time. I could talk to you for another two, three hours, but tell people where they can the best way to find you.
[01:01:23] Maryska: You can connect with me on Instagram. I'm on there often. And um, I have , my own podcast called the nest podcast with Dr. Mariska Taylor that you can seek out.
[01:01:33] Andrea: Fantastic. And yes, I will have links to all of that stuff on the show notes at Andrea Hanson, coaching.com. Well, Mariska, thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate this. I really enjoy talking to you. And so many juicy nuggets have come out of this.
[01:01:49] Maryska: thank you. It's such a pleasure talking with you. If you like the show, don't be shy. Please give us a five-star rating and review. Follow us on apple podcast, Amazon music or wherever you're listening right now. To see complete show notes and resources mentioned in this episode
visit AndreaHansonCoaching.com. Thank you for joining me And until next time take care