Episode 264: The Importance of Putting Yourself First with Dr Tiffany Smith
Put yourself first. We are bombarded with marketing messages; we're told we're not doing enough, we're not being enough, we're not pretty enough, thin enough, left enough, right enough. Pick a thing. When it's this loud out there, it's hard to remember the smallest voice in the room, which is you and your intuition.
Dr. Tiffany Smith is a trailblazing functional psychiatric nurse practitioner and founder of Aroma Functional Nutrition She found her calling by helping her combat veteran husband recover from debilitating pain, PTSD, and other conditions. She witnessed the debilitating effects of the Western medicine approach and turned to functional medicine and nutrition to create a holistic approach to healing.
With her practice, Aroma Functional Nutrition Psychiatry, Dr. Smith aims to help her patients live better lives by identifying the root cause of their conditions and creating a customized treatment plan that incorporates lifestyle changes, counseling, coaching, and natural supplements. She believes that medication should be a last resort and that empowering her clients to take control of their health is the key to lifelong wellness.
Taking control of health and wellness
Dr. Tiffany loves empowerment. As a self-proclaimed DIYer, she likes to take control. She became a nurse and eventually went back to school to do a Master's in Education, where she found herself working in a crisis unit for 55+ adults and asked herself, why is there a revolving door in mental health?
In working with her husband, she learned more about functional and lifestyle medicine. She learned aromatherapy to help treat him.
“Sometimes I just talk to people and be open, and in that conversation, they're able to release, and those symptoms can dissipate,” says Dr. Tiffany. “And in our [health] system, it's like, oh, you're sad. … You've been saying for two weeks you can't sleep and you have a loss of appetite. You're not remembering having an issue. Oh, you qualify for a major depressive disorder, not the human aspect that, again, life is just beating you down, and you were screaming for help.”
Dr. Tiffany created her own practice to give that support and add wellness back into the business side of medicine and health.
“So with treatment, let's start with first life navigation and where you are and what's really pressing on you,” says Dr. Tiffany. “Then we can get into the physical stuff of physiological stuff and anything else and go from there. But that was huge. That's I love to help other people get that DIY part, that empowerment, to take control.”
How to put yourself first
Dr. Tiffany says when life has you by the throat, do what you can to step out of the situation. Find moments for you – even if it’s just a few extra minutes in the bathroom to take a breath and bring your head above the water.
“Make sure you are on your schedule, you know. Make sure you have that time for you. Identify those things that make you happy that bring you relief,” says Dr. Tiffany. “You're going to be able to remove a lot of the barriers that are inhibiting you from hearing yourself, and because you need to hear yourself to figure out how to get out the heck of the stuff, you're in, right? And all that noise prevents you from doing that.”
Be fair to yourself. It’s ok to say no. Look for opportunities to take the burden off of you.
“Pay attention to what you're putting on yourself, how you got there, and then start to be very, very protective with yourself and what you bring on, what you say, who you're around,” says Dr. Tiffany. “You first. Because if you aren't, well, if you aren't doing okay, how does that affect everything else. So you first.”
You have to pause and pause frequently. If you're very stressed, you have to pause a lot.
“This is where you take your pauses. You remember you and who you are. Tell yourself the things you love about you. Surround yourself with people who tell you how awesome sauce you are, and believe them. Accept them. Take their word.”
Dr. Tiffany says most people don’t come to see a psychiatrist at the beginning of their symptoms; they come at the end when they’re at their breaking point.
“Find you. All it is is that journey back to you one step at a time,” says Dr. Tiffany. “Love yourself, love you, love you like you love those closest to you.”
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