Part 1: I Have Herpes!

In this new season, Zesty Ginger’s co-founder, FDN trained, holistic health coach and NLP trainer, Megan Blacksmith is starting her first ever solo podcast series.

In this episode, Megan shares about her experience with having the herpes virus and shares deeper about problem trance and how trance can be used in subconscious programming in a fabulous way. She also talks about how her experience became a wake up call and how it became a sign that she was becoming detached to herself.

Listen to this podcast as Megan takes us to her personal journey to lead us through her understanding of how we could allow our body to do what it knows and to know that it has the perfect blueprint of health inside to know that it can heal itself.

Ready to learn more?? Let’s do this!

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Megan Blacksmith: 

Well, hello there. Megan here. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a long time, you know that Dr. Alex has done a ton of teaching and series and pod classes. So for example, all the way back to season one episode one pod class series, there’s 24 of them all on the cycle. And then there’s the Advanced Series and then there’s the one all about emotions and the 28 days of our cycle and what’s happening when so there is a ton of content from Dr. Alex and here I am, Megan Blacksmith, co founder of zesty ginger. I’m an FDN DAPT trained in Chris Kresser’s program holistic health coach and NLP trainer. Known mostly for my mindset ninja skills. That’s my favorite thing that I love. And I am starting my first ever solo series with this announcement. I have herpes. Yeah, I said it. Well, actually, I’m a person who had in the past, has experienced the symptomology of the herpes virus. So TMI, Megan, if you’re thinking that, this series is not for you, because we’re gonna go deep, a lot deeper and a lot more vulnerable than that. And that is my purpose of sharing this today. That’s all guys. I just wanted to get that off my chest. No, just kidding. So this is what happens. Our clients come to us in what we call problem trance. You all know what trance is right? When you’re scrolling on social media, when you’re driving in your car, when you’re taking a shower and trance derivational search, you go inside and you are in that state where things are going directly into your subconscious mind. Well, trance is amazing and trance can be used in subconscious reprogramming in a fabulous way. And when you’re in problem trance, that means that’s all you can see. You become only focused on the problem. That’s it, the problem. And my problem trance, the bane of my existence, the thing that I decided whether I was healthy or not, whether I was worthy or not, was all based on the herpes virus. That’s right, all of them HSV one HSV, two, and even herpes zoster. I had shingles, which is what that is at age 27 When I was running marathons and felt at my prime. So even saying herpes to me had all this shame. There’s a lot to work through. There’s a lot to unpack. And yet, I have decided and decided that I would say this publicly on the podcast because if there is just even one other woman out there that realize she is not alone. And trust me you’re not because it’s over 50% of the population. And I haven’t checked that statistic in a long time. So it may be more. I want you to know that, one, you’re not alone and two there are solutions. So when our clients come to us they often think something is the problem right? So it may be your period is the problem your acne to the problem your autoimmunity is a problem your migraines are the problem your extra weight, your physical pain, whatever, the discomfort. And I used to take that at face value. So yes, it is a problem. We’re not going to tell you it’s not a problem because it is and yes, there are physical ways to support this. And we love them. We love Functional Medicine and we love supplements we love all the things we love detox tools, etc. And they say same time over the years I’ve honed my coaching skills and becoming the master mindset ninja I am, now I always ask more questions. So how is this problem? How specifically is this a problem? 

Because what you’ll find and what I’ve found underneath this is very different than what we think the problem is. Let me give you an example in a totally different category. Okay, so I was on a coaching call with one of my mentors. And somebody asked about Zoom, zoom breakout room. So he was trying, about to run a program, he wanted to run a program, he said, “You know, everything’s good. I’m all good to go. The only problem I have is that I don’t know how to do zoom breakout rooms.” And there I am, you know, I’m sitting on a coaching call. And I’m like, “No, that’s not a really big deal. Or you just Google it and zoom breakout rooms. We’ve done it, it’s not that hard.” And I watched my coach, as he went ahead and asked a bunch of questions. And he’s like, “You know, how come that’s a problem? Like, what about that?” And just kept digging into it more and more, and actually kept bringing this guy up higher and higher out of the problem. And eventually got him to a certain place where he’s like, “Well, you know what, the Zoom breakout rooms aren’t your problem It’s that, how are you going to fill this workshop?” And that’s where he got it. That’s where he hit it. This person thought and I do really believe that he thought and I also really do believe that I thought, at certain times in my health journey, that certain things were the problem. He thought the fact that he didn’t know how to create the breakout rooms was the problem. Meanwhile, while my coaches were doing this whole coaching thing, which I didn’t understand at the time. I went over to zoom, Googled it, and it’s like how to do breakout rooms, and I put the link in the chat. So, is that what he needed? Did he need a how to? To actually create a zoom breakout room? Probably not. Because that was a simple solution. You go look it up. What was actually going on underneath that is he didn’t believe that he had good enough information to share. He didn’t believe he was worthy of being a coach. He didn’t believe that he could have a business that he could be successful. He didn’t believe that money was meant to be for him. There was all these things underneath this whole example of zoom. So for me, the viruses became my barometer of health. That was my Zoom breakout room. Interesting analogy. But these weren’t just annoying. This this whole virus interaction wasn’t just annoying this was this would be sometimes full body aches, my skin would hurt to touch. Headaches, be in bed for days, and then a painful outbreak. This was like a whole I felt like I had a flu. I felt like I was my just everything. Fever, my skin. Not always, sometimes. And I became focused , heavily focused on viruses as the problem. So, here we go into research mode. When you’re in problem trance, and that’s all you can see is the problem, then you focus on it. So how do I be boost my immune system for viruses? There’s that’s that’s a couple of weeks of research definitely can do that. How do you fight those viruses see it, right? There’s gotta be some herbs for that. Yep, there’s a book about antiviral herbs right there on my bookshelf. What foods should you eat? What foods should you not eat? You know, I should definitely not eat nuts or eggs or certain foods, feed them and you can go down a rabbit hole, there’s all these things and how much celery juice do you drink? Right? Don’t ever eat sugar, because you know, that definitely feeds viruses and do all the functional lab work. And even for me, at some point, I got to the point where I was taking a prescription antiviral gasp. I had a lot of beliefs around that, too. It took me about, I think it was like, four or five years till I even was willing to consider the idea of an antiviral. Because there were beliefs like, well, am I a good holistic practitioner if I need something out of the conventional world. And that’s where the lovely Dr. Alex has brought me so much insight into using all the things we have. And then it really means nothing. There’s there isn’t this shame, in our opinion around conventional medicine, and it provided a certain relief for a certain period of time for me. I did some posts around that blue pill back then there are lots of people like oh my gosh, thank you for not making this out to be this horrible thing that maybe we thought it was, you know that in this functional holistic world, it was like, you must be able to do it all yourself. And I really believed that was an important part of my journey. And I still definitely know that that didn’t solve any underlying problems. And unfortunately, actually became a situation where it got a little bit worse because then as long as I took the antiviral I was okay. What if I even forgot it for a little bit? Not good. 

So I did all the things, all of the things and they didn’t work. You know why? Because herpes wasn’t the problem. It’s like googling how to set up the Zoom breakout room when the real problem was not knowing if you’re good enough to host an event, do you know enough where someone listened to you, I don’t have the confidence to speak. And what’s fascinating is I had this virus for probably over five years before experiencing any symptom. I wasn’t even affected in the slightest until I had a very significant emotional event in my life. And that’s when I started to deal with the actual symptoms. And that was a clue for me. We all seem to have things like that sign, you know, there’s something that tells you things are off. So for many of our clients, it’s like autoimmune flares or really painful periods or migraine. So whatever that is for you, you know, just replace here. For mine, those viruses were the wake up call. That was the clue that I was detached from myself, I wasn’t really truly being myself. And so, I want to take you on a very personal journey over the next a dozen or so podcasts to lead you through my understanding of how I could allow my body to do what it knows how to do to know that it has the perfect blueprint of health inside to know that it can heal itself. And to know that it is required to go way beyond the supplements, and the detox protocols and the foods. And if I had known that, maybe I wouldn’t have done quite so many elimination diets, although it’s all part of the process in my belief. And honestly, sometimes, those things are easier. Some of the looking deep or deeper, looking inward, looking at yourself, and truly figuring out knowing yourself can be scary, at the same time really rewarding. You know what happens when you focus on not the problem for six years, you get not the solution. So my deepest desire is that as you’re listening to this story, this, you know, for the past four years that I’ve been on, I’m hoping that there’s something small that sparked inside of you if it hasn’t already. One that says like, I want that. I want to truly restore my health from the inside to be so confident in my body, that a physical symptom is just that it’s just feedback. It’s not failure, doesn’t mean I’m not doing the right thing that I’m not working hard enough that I need to do more, be more research more, Google more. Just that I can feel good and learn from the bumps in the road. And that’s all they are. They’re there. They’re the up level, they’re the sign that I have shifted. I’m a new identity. I trust, like fully trust myself and my body. Who wants this? Who wants this? So if you want this and you are willing to go all in with me, we are here for that. You know, we just finished our first ever week long training. And we watched practitioner training in person that I mentioned didn’t and we watch what I’d consider to be miracles happen in one week with people. When people show up and they’re absolutely ready to look inward, to dig deep to do that work. It is amazing what can happen in just seven days. Like true long term transformation when you allow, change that environment and allow yourself to experience something different. Allow yourself to step into a new identity let go of old limiting beliefs all negative emotions, find new strategies and be the person that you’re ready to be right? Totally in a new place, hearing how other people did it knowing that it’s possible. So I’m not going to ruin the end of the story. Although if as you’re listening you’re having any inkling or urge to send me an email or a response about you know, another diet or another book or another supplement for herpes and just want to let you know that I do not need that. And on an even bigger note, you may have missed the whole point of this episode. 

But honestly, that’s what we love about coaching. It is more about the patterns than it is the content. When people send us emails or information, sometimes we go into solution mode. Because what you think they’re telling you really is the problem. And then when you start to look at the patterns, look at what that is showing up. Where are those beliefs? So if you’re here and you’re like your brain is irritated or challenged by this concept, then what is that pattern telling you? You know, or you’re thinking like, “Oh my god, I finally found like Functional Medicine and root cause and supplements. And isn’t that supposed to be the root cause, Megan, and now you’re telling me there’s something more?” Well, I believe that we’re all here in life to learn as this life school. And we’re learning deeply . Dr. Alex and I believe we’re here to learn something really deeply. And that, for us, has been a way to help women reprogram their subconscious mind, reprogram to new identity. And because of that, we have had to go through it ourselves. Many, many times, learning so we can teach and then we can share and then we can evolve. So this whole series I’m about to share has been one of my deepest and hardest life lessons. Because next episode, I am going to take you back to where it all and I mean, all fell apart. And from where it fell apart, I’m going to take you on a journey with me. Where I was looking for any possible answer my deep soul searching my couple weeks of neurofeedback, my psychedelic journeys, my 18 days of training the rock my world, I run in with Dr. Joe Dispenza, and much more. So this whole saga I’m about to share has led me to the the work to do the work the way we do it. To have a very unique approach to health. Why we include things like subconscious reprogramming, why we are now training practitioners, to use this subconscious reprogramming. And the other things, the other techniques with our clients. So although many parts of it were painful at the time, I know this was all part of my purpose. And I cannot wait to share this with you. So stay tuned for this series. If you have not subscribed to the podcast, go ahead and subscribe. So you’ll get the update when the next episode is out. And please, if you get any benefit out of this or think the series coming up, this could help you or a friend, go ahead and share. Share this, maybe don’t tag them publicly, if you are calling out their herpes, but you know, share with a friend. It’s not really about herpes, right? You got that? I hope you got that that’s not the problem. That’s gonna get awkward. So we love, love, love to have you here every review and every share helps us out a ton so we can have great guest experts, more people in the future. We’re always learning and growing. So as always, thank you for being here. And I cannot wait to get into this very deep series with you.