COURSE PROGRESS
[progressally_progress_pie_chart post_id="26351" size="100"]
COURSE NAVIGATION
MODULE 6
HOLISTIC DIMENSIONS IN MOOD & IMMUNITY
Welcome to Module 6!
In this module, we move into the realms of mood, emotions, and the immune system – doing a deep dive into each through the lens of Eating Psychology and Mind Body Nutrition.
When it comes to mood and emotions, many of us tend to judge ourselves and can often feel overwhelmed or out of control. So this module puts a different perspective on how to understand mood and emotions from a deeper, shame-free perspective.
We’ll explore the key influences on mood, including nutrition, thoughts and beliefs, environmental factors, metabolic status, and personal circumstances. You’ll come away with a clear understanding of how to correct imbalances through belief change, dietary change, and making important changes to other arenas of clients’ lives.
You’ll also discover key distinctions for harnessing the mind, mastering emotions, working with anxiety and depression, and how to call upon archetypal masculine and feminine distinctions to empower your clients’ mental and emotional well-being.
Also in Module 6, we’ll learn the maps, tools, protocols, distinctions and techniques that can help us empower the intricate system that is our immunity. You’ll discover the key causes of low immune function, as well as distinctions for working with immune-challenged clients – and how we can empower our clients to gradually restore their immune health.
Let’s get started with your Module 6 Overview Video … and then be sure to complete all the items in your Module 6 checklist below!
Overview Video
Greetings.
Once again, friends. Mark David here,
founder of the Institute.
I trust you are well,
and I trust you are learning some good things
and in a good way.
And thank you, thank you, thank you for making it this far.
So up until now, you've learned quite a lot
and I certainly hope that's your experience.
You know, you have so many distinctions
and hopefully you're beginning to feel comfortable
with the material now, more confident with it.
This is a good time to allow yourself
to feel more grounded in so many of the elements
that we've been learning in mind, body nutrition
and dynamic eating psychology,
and an understanding how to relax into the life
of your client and relax into your own journey As a
practitioner, you've been learning quite a lot around how
to actually help the people that you are charged
with serving and,
and this is to me some
of the most rewarding work we could do in the world.
Helping others in their journey feels good.
Bringing some light into the darkness, helping people heal
and transform their experience of food, of body
of health and of life.
You know, it's just good work. It's meaningful.
Now, oddly enough, one
of the great ways we can better ourselves and feel
and feel better about ourselves is
to better the life of another.
It's this weird and fascinating way that the world seems
to be designed.
It's a win-win for everybody.
So as always, I wanna honor you for making it
to this point in the training,
and I certainly want you to continue to benefit.
And the good news is it's not over.
I want you to continue to grow
and to receive great value from this work.
So that's what you're going to get in this new material
that we're about to dive into.
The learning's not over yet,
and we're gonna be diving into two
of my most favorite topics, which are mood and immunity.
Let's talk about mood first.
Now, when I say mood
and working with mood issues, I'm defining mood issues as
the mood swings that people experience.
I'm defining it as the melancholy, like depression that
some people experience.
It could be the anxiety or the fear, uh,
or the stress that often happens where people say, oh,
my mood's not in the right place.
I wanna get more control over it.
I'm also going to define mood as our emotional flow
because your mood, my mood,
our mood might be great one day and not the next.
Your mood might be wonderful in the morning,
and then it's low in the afternoon.
Mood fluctuates. There's a flow to it.
And unlike perhaps some other systems
that make a distinction between mood, emotions,
and feelings, um,
I'm gonna lump these terms together to make things simple.
So if you've learned different distinctions around these,
I'm just asking you to jump on board.
I'm gonna be using mood, feelings
in the same emotions, defining them roughly the same.
So the bottom line here is that as humans,
you probably don't know this, we could be very emotional,
we could be very moody, we could be very feeling beings.
You know, previously, what often happens in helping
professions, and especially in the medical world,
is when we get into the conversation of our unwanted moods
and emotions like depression, like anxiety, like fear,
these are always seen as the enemy.
Even the term mood has a bit of a negative connotation.
Uh, it's seen as something wrong, moody, you know?
Now for sure, there are times, there are people,
there are situations, there are clients
where they have a locked in emotion,
they have a locked in mood, meaning a locked in fear,
a locked in anxiety, and they want to change that.
And understandably so.
If we have it, we want to change that as best we can.
It just feels like we're stuck in it.
It could be that a client is chronically anxious
or they're chronically low mood, or they're bouncing back
and forth between ups and downs.
So yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
You and I, we wanna find ways to intervene in such cases.
Absolutely, yes, we wanna find out what's going on there,
and there's a huge amount of people who are simply going
through their emotional flow, and that's just the way it is.
So we're gonna learn how to distinguish that,
which I personally find to be very helpful and important
because we are moody, emotional feeling beings, some
of us far more than others, and that's how we naturally are.
It's natural. We have our highs, we got our lows.
So you're gonna learn how to work with your client so as
to not make their natural flow wrong.
Indeed. Can you let that be okay for yourself?
Can you learn to distinguish with your client
that they are simply in a down cycle right now
because that's their flow?
Or are they in a place where they, where you need
to help them get unstuck?
So a big part of our job as practitioners is to learn
as always, to listen to mood, listen to the emotion, listen
to the feeling once again, to see what message it has
for us, if any.
As you are going to be discovering like every other symptom,
like every other attribute of the body, of the psyche,
when we have a certain mood, a certain emotion that seems
to catch our attention,
it's probably got a good reason it's pointing somewhere.
It might have a message for us.
So before you and I look to take away our client's mood
and change it, we gotta get a little cozy with it.
First. We have to listen to it.
We have to actually see what it's saying
before we kick it out the door,
because usually that's why we can't kick it out
the door in the first place.
We're not listening. So
for sure you're gonna learn when it comes to mood, some
of the important dietary distinctions, food, nutrition,
dietary distinctions that are important to work with.
I'm talking about the nutritional tweaks
that certainly help us better regulate our mood.
Super important. In other words, what are the foods
that affect my client's mood?
What are the substances that are impacting their mood?
What are the lifestyle practices
that might be influencing unwanted moods?
And indeed, what are some
of the underlying metabolic conditions
that might be impacting my client's emotional flow?
So we're going to learn how to work
with these nutritional distinctions,
these metabolic distinctions as best we can.
And you'll see, as you might guess,
that when we have an imbalance of macronutrients, protein,
fat, carbohydrates, when we're meal skipping,
when we're a chronic dieter,
or we're if we're following an extreme diet,
these can all create unwanted ships
and changes in mood.
So you will certainly learn the distinctions around that
because we focus on nutrition
and eating psychology, we're going
to focus on learning when our client's moods are
indeed springing from nutritional imbalances
or springing from imbalances in how they're relating
to food, which makes them have oftentimes food choices
or choose a diet that can literally be distorting their
brain and their body chemistry.
Now, consider this. If we had to
divide the world into masculine and feminine polarities
and put everything in the world into one
of those two categories, I would say that mood belongs more
to the category of the feminine archetypal.
Feminine meaning mood is changeable, it's unpredictable,
it has so many different layers.
It's complex, it's a flow. It's like water.
It has different directions. It's colorful, it's beautiful.
It's a dance mood defies logic.
There's nothing logical about people's moods.
Oftentimes, it doesn't have to have mood, doesn't have
to have an intellectual reason or explanation.
This last part is important, doesn't have
to have an intellectual reason or explanation.
That's because the feminine in us, all of us,
and particularly in women,
the feminine wants freedom in its mood.
The feminine wants to express
what it expresses without having to explain
and justify it without having to detail it out
and break it down.
The feminine in us just wants to feel what it feels,
what it feels without having to explain it
and intellectualize it and
Look at where it came from.
So we're going to learn how to dive into mood
and notice the nuances of when your client
might actually be in self-judgment because their moods go up
and down and that's their natural flow,
or their moods might be extreme,
but maybe that's their natural state
or it's their state for right now.
Now even for a lot of our male clients,
there are some male clients who are just more emotional,
who are just more feeling beings.
How do we learn to work with that?
How do we learn how to intervene with diet
and with lifestyle practices so we can help our clients get
where they want to go in terms of regulating emotions
and regulating the mind in a good way with food?
So ultimately, one of the points of learning about mood
and emotion and feelings is
to indeed have a little bit more, say a little bit more,
I don't wanna say the word control,
but a little bit more control over this thing called
mind and psyche.
Harness it more.
Because if my moods aren't running me,
if I have an understanding about them,
if I'm riding the wave of my emotions, instead of letting
that wave overcome me
and drown me, then I'm harnessing my mind
as a tool and I can focus it more.
I can be more creative, I can be more accomplished,
I can get more done in my day.
I can have goals and I can reach them.
I can better be the person I want
to be when my mind is more focused, when it's harnessed,
when it's not out of my control,
because my mood has me all over the place.
Many of our clients, many simply need some education,
some coaching in working with mood so
that it's not drowning them so it doesn't control them so
that they can, so that they can use the power in their moods
as a source of fuel and energy.
Wouldn't that be a great tool to have?
Now, my friends, we've just talked about mood
as falling under the rubric, the category
of the archetypal feminine.
When we dive into the topic of immunity, you are going
to see that immunity can be considered
to naturally fall under the category of the masculine.
Think for a moment about the definitions
that you've heard about the immune system, such as
the immune system is charged with defending against anything
that's toxic, harmful, or invasive to your system.
Your immune system is essentially, no kidding,
your inner army, it's your inner marshal artist.
It's your internal ninja who's protecting you.
It's your awesome guard dog.
We happen to live in a world like it
or not, whether you've noticed it
or not, that's constantly at war with itself.
My friends, there are parasites that are looking to disable
You. There
are all kinds of interesting viruses and bacterias
and yeast and tiny little organisms that just wanna, uh,
kind of mooch off your body and live in it
and pull your energy and weaken your system so
that little organism can feast
and have a nice big house to live in your body.
Interestingly enough, most organisms like that parasites,
bacterial yeast, they don't wanna kill you.
They just wanna weaken you enough so
that they can have you as a host.
Additionally, we live in a world
where there are an endless amount of human made poisons
that we're exposed to in the environment.
My point in all of this is
that the immune system is charged with handling all of that.
The immune system has to say, I gotta protect myself.
Here comes all these substances, hitching a ride on my food,
getting into my body.
I'm breathing in this air that has all kinds of toxins
or all kinds of organisms.
The immune system is here to defend us.
It's looking to find out who the good guys are
and who the bad guys are.
So in a weird way, the immune system is
that black and white.
It's that masculine in terms of its archetypal energy.
So my friends, in the big picture,
we're gonna look at immunity from a
mind-body nutrition perspective.
We're gonna look at the simple, basic clear science
of immunity so we can best see the nutritional tweaks
that make, that we can make with our clients
to inspire their immunity to the best
and in the most healthy direction.
We're also going to look,
and this is very important at the psychology of immunity,
because my friends, the immune system in many ways
has a personality.
Just like your digestion has a personality.
Each person's immune personality is quite different,
quite interesting, quite fascinating.
So you'll be coming away with distinctions
that will help you work with immune challenge clients,
not only using diet, not only using nutrition,
herb supplements, but you're going to be able
to better understand when your client's mind emotions,
when their story, their life stressors, their journey,
how these might very well be impacting the function
of their immune system.
And that is a big one, my friends,
because for many people, that's where the action is.
Now, I want to state
and remind us of the obvious
when it comes to immunity.
You and I, we live in a time when we're under a lot
of assault and attack, and it's a big challenge.
It's not easy being alive on planet earth
and handling all the toxicity that's coming at us.
I don't know if you've noticed that. Indeed.
It's hard because so many foods are problematic.
The meat is often bad, the dairy is often bad,
the air is bad, the food is bad.
Even organic food that's coming out now can be tainted.
So it's easy to get frustrated
and understandably so, which is exactly why it's important
to find a way to empower ourselves in the
conversation around health.
Because immunity, your immune system is actually here
to empower you.
The idea of having a strong immune system is so that you
and I and our clients, so we can walk
through the world feeling strong and protected.
Strong immunity means I can go anywhere
with relative confidence.
Think of people you know in your life
who are always getting sick, they're constantly getting
colds, cough, respiratory infections, flus.
They're sensitive to food, sensitive to this, sensitive
to pets, sensitive to all kinds
of environment, whatever it is.
And it's hard for them.
I'm, I'm not knocking them, it's hard for them to walk
through the world with confidence.
It just is because their body seems
to be really limiting them
and they can't necessarily go into this restaurant
or that person's house, or maybe they
can't go into that city.
A lot of people can't even walk into nature into the country
because they'll go into an allergic reaction.
So, so this is a real concern.
What I'm saying is when our immune system is strong,
we can go with confidence, we can be in the world.
So the goal of helping our clients have a strong immunity
is essentially to help them be on planet earth,
to help them walk through life with good boundaries,
with good protection.
So again, we're gonna look at all the interesting
dietary factors, the lifestyle factors,
the mind-body nutrition factors that will impact immunity
as well as the key personal and emotional factors.
Both are important. I'm
gonna give you a couple of hints here.
When we leak energy,
when we have leaky boundaries,
if I'm constantly being a doormat in relationships,
if I don't know how to say no, if I don't know how
to say yes, if I'm always walking through the world
with anxiety, oh my goodness, this is gonna happen.
That's gonna happen. If I'm bracing against the world,
then I'm lowering my emotional immunity,
which can in turn lower my actual real life
metabolic immunity.
Now, hopefully you remember me saying
before that sensitivity is good
because it is, it's exquisite.
If you're a sensitive person,
your client's a sensitive person, you ought
to put your sensitivity up on a
pedestal, give it a big kiss.
We're gonna learn how to empower our sensitive clients so
that they see their sensitivity not as a ball and shame,
but they see it as an exquisite
feedback mechanism sometimes.
Sometimes our job as practitioners is
to help our clients learn to believe it or not choose
Their sensitivity.
Meaning to honor it
and to accept it, which then allows them to choose
with dignity and empowerment, the kind of situations
that are best for them and most helpful for them.
Instead of 'em feeling bad about themselves.
'cause it's a toxic world. So we're gonna look at the
personal and emotional practices that we can do, um,
that can strengthen our personal immunity
because then our literal physiologic
immunity has the potential to become stronger.
Works both ways. Empower one, and you empower the other.
You know, for example, who are the people I need
to be letting into my life?
Who are the people I need to say no to?
What are the situations I need to be inviting into my world?
Where do I need to say no and set a boundary?
What kind of books should I be reading?
What kinds of media should I be absorbing?
What kind of media should I avoid?
What kind of TV should I be watching or not watching?
Should I let my kids play these crazy video games?
What empowers me? What empowers us? What weakens me?
So these are all distinctions.
These are all choices that can potentially result
and often do in a stronger immunity or a weakened one.
Now you've been seeing that in this training quite a bit.
You've been learning that yes,
there's always the scientific, metabolic,
nutritional doorway to walk through.
There are just about always things we can tweak in terms
of diet, in terms of lifestyle,
maybe in terms of supplements.
But unless we do the corresponding personal changes,
my friends, the kind of changes
and transformations in our life
that helps us evolve as humans.
Metabolic immunity doesn't always reach its rightful
potential, it's just what I notice.
It's what I'm postulating.
So with all that said, I am very excited for you
because you're gonna learn a lot of great information.
You're going to learn great tools
and distinction, uh, to use for yourself
and with your clients.
And as always, please, please,
please experiment with the material.
Try it out on yourself.
Begin to practice it with your clients.
If you're already in practice, for those of you
who are seeing clients, I'm confident you're going
to come away with great tools that will help you take
yet another big step forward in your professional practice.
This is all good news, my friends.
Thanks as always for your great effort.
Thanks for doing good work in the world.
I look forward to seeing you on the other side.
[progressally_objectives post_id="26375" objective_id="1" layout="hide|left"]
Checklist
MODULE 6
Use this checklist to track your progress for Module 6.
REQUIRED
[progressally_objectives post_id="26375" objective_id="1,2" layout="hide|left"]
Click to track your progress for all module videos.
[progressally_objectives post_id=”26375″ objective_id=”6,7″ layout=”hide|left”]
[progressally_objectives post_id="26375" objective_id="3,4,5" layout="hide|left"]
OPTIONAL
- Read the supplemental materials, and complete all supplemental exercises.
- Read the Module 6 suggested reading books, & complete the corresponding reading list questions.
- Jump into our online community, and ask any questions about what you’re learning!
Course Materials
MODULE 6
Complete all learning sections for Module 6 by clicking through each of the course content links below.
SECTION 1
Mood & Emotions
SECTION 2
Immunity
Journaling
Exercises
Supplemental
Materials
