69 - Simon Luthi : The Rocket Shaman on Self Love As the First Step in Healing

Stacy Griffin: Welcome back to Autoimmune Adventures. Today we are joined by Simon Luthi, also known as the Rocket Shaman, a former corporate leader turned healer, author, and speaker whose work integrates lived experience with science inspired practices for transformation. After more than 25 years in the corporate world, including senior roles at major firms, Simone's life was reshaped by burnout, autoimmune illness, and cancer. Those experiences didn't change, just change his life. They changed how he sees healing, leadership, and human potential. Simone is the author of "Becoming the Rocket Shaman," a memoir and practical guide that has reached number one as a top new release on Amazon.  

It blends memoir, neuroscience, energy medicine, and ancient wisdom to help people reclaim vitality when conventional approaches fall short. What we appreciate about Simon's work is how grounded and integrative it is. He invites people to explore how symptoms, intuition, nervous system regulation, and identity all play into healing without bypassing medical realities or adding pressure or shame. Simon, we're really glad to have you. Welcome to Autoimmune Adventures.

Simon Luthi:  Oh, thank you so much for for having me. You know, um whenever I hear my own bio, I get goosebumps. Not out of ego, but like, you know, I didn't really think my life was anything spectacular or special. Uh but when you hear somebody else actually talk about all of the, I guess challenges you could say, that I have overcome, and I'm here alive and well to uh not only share the story but to encourage others, uh, you know I just get a little choked up. And uh, so, again thank you for having me and uh more importantly, thank you for the work that the three of you uh are doing in in shedding light uh, you know to the very difficult topic of autoimmune and mystery illness, because when I was diagnosed back in 2016, um, I wish I had some of the topics and information that you are all now putting into the world.  

Um, as many of you know, when you're going through some of this, it's hard, right? Because you feel very alone. Um, you know, medical system sometimes just gaslights you and you know, you think you're crazy, your family, your, your, your, your circles. Um, so again, thank you for the work that you're doing and I'm uh uh just honored to be a part of it this morning.

Becky Miller:  Well, thank you. We're we're glad you're here and we appreciate that. Um, we heard a little bit about it in your bio, but if you could share with our listeners, we'd like to hear it kind of from your point of view. What initially drew you to the work that you're doing now? And how do you feel like your own health journey? Because like you said, health journeys are kind of crazy sometimes, and I think all of our listeners have kind of been there, but how did your own health journey shape your path to the work that you do now?

Simon Luthi:  Yeah, I'd be happy to share. Maybe what I'll, I'd like to do just before I start. Um, health is such a personal experience. So, what I'm about to share with all of you and your listeners this morning is my personal experience. Um, and obviously I wrote the book to be an encouragement to others. Um, and I always say if I could heal myself, so can you. But recognizing our circumstances, surroundings are all individual. They're all personalized. Uh, so I don't want to generalize when I talk about it even though it may sound sometimes that I'm generalizing. I come from a space of really encouragement. Um, so my journey started, well I guess I should start um, it started when I was three years old when I had near-death experience. At the time I didn't know that that already played sort of a part and we'll talk probably a little bit about these guideposts later on, but really um in 2016 um, or in I should say in 15 it started I uh, took my son on a on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic and all a sudden felt a pain in my shoulder.  

Now at the time I was mid-40s. We were um bringing freshwater lines to uh to very primitive housing and I thought oh well you know digging up trenches maybe I've just overdid it and I'm getting old. Uh, but then I started to having issues just of climbing on top of a truck. Um every move started to just ache. Uh, came back to the US and saw my trusted orthopedic doctor and he thought I had an impingement. Um, went to go get physical therapy and electrotherapy at the time really knocked me down. Like, I felt even worse after uh after being exposed to electrotherapy which I thought was odd. And so it just took a downturn. It got worse and worse and worse. So the pain traveled from my right shoulder and my left shoulder and into my hands, into my arms, into my legs, into my uh, my hips. And when I was really uh at my worst, I couldn't really get out of bed. I was my hands were were swollen shut.  I could not open them at my free will. I had to like literally force them open uh in the morning. Spent uh you know probably 30, 40 minutes in the pool just to try to get uh get going.

Simon Luthi:  Sitting at the office 20 minutes and I could hardly walk. I um uh it was just you know insane. And of course at the time I was still very much in uh I lived in Arizona so you know went to one of the top clinics thinking they had the answers, and I don't know how many x-rays and blood tests and uh, and and I went under, but they finally diagnosed me, and I want to pause on that, because I think for most of us that is a key moment when the doctor finally says "this is what you have." There seems to be a little bit of a relief. Okay, I'm not crazy. I'm not making this up. There's something going on here. Um, and today what I'm hoping to explore, we go a little deeper beyond the diagnosis.  

Um, because I think there that's an important aspect of it because the diagnosis is just one part. So, in my case, um, they diagnosed me with a zero negative inflammatory arthritis, which is basically a way of saying you're inflamed, we don't know why. Um, but you know, sort of in the bucket of autoimmune mystery, this is sort of the the bucket we don't know and let's just throw it in this basket and uh, you know, off you go. Um, and in my case, I really have to thank the doctor because I read so many blogs and and online forums where, you know, people are really frustrated with the current medical system. Um, the doctor did one thing right. He said, "I'm going to give you um Plaquenil, or prescription for Plaquenil." For those of you who don't know, it's a malaria medication and it's proven that it works in RA type situations. And he goes, "But I want you to go see an ophthalmologist, because one of the side effects of it is you could go blind." And at the time I thought, okay, excuse my explicit, but my eyes are the only fucking thing that's working. Um, why would I mess with that? And in in retrospect, that was the key moment.

And I really thank this doctor today from the bottom of my heart to making this statement because that was the moment where I said, "Uh-uh, not my path. I don't want to just, you know, put uh water on an oil fire. I actually want to get to the bottom of what's making me truly sick." And that was the beginning of,of my healing journey um of exploring all kinds of logical, illogical, um western, eastern, naturopathic, uh energy, all like I threw kind of the kitchen sink at it. But again, I'm here uh with not I'm not taking any medication. I'm not taking any supplements. I am alive and well. I'm as you can see, my hands are moving freely. Um so you know healing is possible but sometimes it is hard to find and I think um in my case the frustrating part was that the healing was here but the medical community isn't necessarily educated on what needs to happen and what can happen and what is a possibility.  

And then to really add insult to injury, when you find what you want and what you need, insurance is most likely going to deny you. So, here we are. And I see a lot of head nodding. And uh I'm assuming everybody that's listening goes, "Uh-huh. Yep. Been there, done that.

Alysia Thomas:  So, it sounds to me like you had um the very familiar journey of um probably being gaslit a little bit and um mess, messed with and ignored and overlooked and all of these things until you finally got a diagnosis. And even then, your diagnosis was a little vague. And um, but we we all I think have experienced some that to some degree. I think that's something all our listeners are going to resonate with as well. Um, but did you you you have said that "your body whispers before it screams." Looking back, what were the whispers that you ignored before you went and sought help?

Simon Luthi:  Yeah, one of the things that now has even been proven by a lot of studies is that what chronic stress can do to your body. Uh, right. And in my case, chronic stress wasn't necessarily so much work related. Yes, I had a stressful job too. Um but I think in my case I've been living in a marriage that um was high stress because we just were both of us I don't think were capable to expressing our feelings in a way that, "hey I need X uh so that I can give you, you know, Y."  

Um, and so, you know, we got married super super young, trying to raise children, uh, trying to make it work in the United States, but I think my home life wasn't really in congruence with what my energy system was. And what's interesting about that, I'm not sure whether uh your listeners are following the work of the HeartMath Institute. um they're doing some amazing work uh on kind of brain heart coherence. But even if you think about um what stress actually does um of high cortisol levels in your body constant uh we now know that that being in in kind of a high stress environment actually does have an impact on a lot of diseases whether that's cardiovascular but also into autoimmune. And so I, I feel like in my case, I've been not living in congruence, meaning I've had a career that I was good at, but not necessarily doing the things that I was meant to be doing. And um I didn't have a time to really relax coming home. So it was also high stress in that in that environment.  

Simon Luthi: And again, for for all of those listening, this isn't an attack on my ex-wife. This is literally a recognition of both of us trying to do the best we could. In my case, um, I was just super, super, super stressed out and feeling like I could not live up to expectations. Part of it is because of my upbringing and how I was raised and my own trauma that, you know, I've been through.

Because I do believe we have these existential guideposts um in in our lives. So again, go back to I got diagnosed um I have this Plaquenil medication in my pocket and I had reservations taking it because of what the warning that the doctor said about my eyes. Right? So I'm on a business trip. I'm coming back from New York uh sitting uh in first class and um, I usually don't talk with people. I put on my Bose headset. I have my my you know my podcast or my my shows on on my iPad and the guy next to me had uh we used to have at the time these Bose headsets and then you had a name tag kind of attached to it so that people knew like who's what because everybody had those things. and he worked for a company that I recognized, because I had worked for somebody that sold that product when I was tw, you know, 13, 14. So I struck up a conversation. And we started talking and so one thing led to the next and he shared with me that his wife had passed away a couple years ago, and I go, "Oh no, you know, what happened?," and it turned out that his wife had the same diagnosis  went on this Plaquenil and within five years developed lupus uh, you know more chronic illness, cancer, and passed away. Same age, same medication right I'm like You can't make this up. But if I, if I needed more like, you know, confirmation that, okay, Simone, you already have reservations. Your your intuition tells you to not go in this med, find another way. And now this man sits next to you and it's basically telling you the story.

Simon Luthi:  And so I think what I what that that boost that it gave me was, okay, I want to see my kids grow up. I want to see my kids get married. I want to see, you know, my my life. I want to live a long and healthy life. So, I have this this almost this fork in the road, right? I go this road, I could be dead in five years or I could go this road and the chances of living a long and healthy life are much much better. And so, that's what I did.  

And I walked out. I, I left uh my my marriage of 21 years. I said, I, I need to get out. I need to get healthy. I need to find myself. And so that's been kind of a one of those I think crucial guideposts that really gave me the strength to do what I knew deep down that I needed to do in order for me to get healthy. And that started really kind of my journey into Europe. And maybe we can, you know, if you want to, we can talk a bit about what I found in Europe and because those are some some of the practical things around autoimmune that I didn't know about at the time. but just more from a energetic emotional aspect of it. high stress. Uh that was the whisper that I ignored, and then the full scream really came when I couldn't get out of bed.

Alysia Thomas: I think that's so interesting that that was your whisper because we all I mean all of us are just taught stress is just a part of life and you know we know it's toxic. Stress is inflammatory. We we talk about this, but we've also talked about how if you are in an environment or a relationship um that is not conducive to healing, you're you're never going to get better. You're never going to get better. And I can't think of a harder thing in life than to do what you did. To say, "Okay, this isn't going to be the place I can heal." And, and choosing, choosing to take care of your body and yourself. That's that's got to that had to have been a gut-wrenching decision. Um, but a courageous one in many ways.

Simon Luthi: Yeah, it's, it's rough, right? I mean, it changed my family dynamics for forever. Uh it's a selfish uh thing to to some degree. Um, but when I look at and when you can separate yourself, I guess, from all of that to go, hey, I'm alive and well and I'm here now with this beautiful book that, you know, my my goal is to inspire millions with it.  

You know, maybe that's, that's, that's my my purpose in life, right? It isn't so much in "you should, you should not," and sort of the what are family dynamics and what are the the structures and maybe my my plan wasn't you know to live in that in that environment but my plan really was doing things what I'm doing this morning with uh with the three of you right and uh but that's...

Alysia Thomas:  Or maybe it was just chapters, you know, may you were where you were supposed to be when you were supposed to be there and that was a chapter. It was a beautiful chapter and that chapter closed and you're on you're in a new chapter in a new phase of life.

Simon Luthi:  There you go.

Alysia Thomas:  And I think that's, that's...

Simon Luthi:  Sure.

Alysia Thomas:  ...beautiful.

Simon Luthi:  For sure. Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  And I think that when we have when we have this underlying mission, motivation, need in our lives to be who we truly are, when we have that, when we awake to it, you can't go back to sleep anymore. You have to be in it, right? You can't just sleep it away and ignore that you've had this realization and this coming to yourself. So I think that often in the chronic illness community, you get these people that have this deep high achievement feeling that they need to have all the things and do all the things and then chronic illness teaches them that maybe all of that isn't the answer. And I know that you came from a place of high achievement and being out there in the world. So what do you think as far as burnout culture is concerned? How do you think that contributes to illness in your opinion?

Simon Luthi: Yeah. Look again um when we go back to some of the studies that the HeartMath Institute has been doing, I found one area very ,very interesting. So many of you you know have, of course, studied positive affirmations and/or just you know kind of the feelings uh around emotions. And so one of the studies that that they have done is to look at kind of the left side.  What are some of the uh emotions feelings um you know that are more lower vibrational if you will right? So this is you know anger and fear and resentment uh and all of that and um some of them are more high blood pressure more high cortisol kind of thing and then so if you kind of think of a of kind of a quadrant right with four uh with four corners. kind of top left is kind of that high blood pressure uh anger uh you know resentment the you know really rage could be kind of in that but then also on the bottom left um you would have sadness you would have emotions that are less intense um and your heart rate is lower but still full of cortisol because it's not actually in a positive um affirmation if you will and then on the on the right side you would have all of the, you know, joy and uh and laughter and all these things, but also these can be in a, you know, party mode can be high heart rate, high blood pressure kind of thing.  

Simon Luthi: They're not necessarily healthy even though they are more in a DHEA kind of longevity um hormone. But what's really interesting about their work is that as you start to shift kind of out of this fear-based world into more of a positive um environment and there's lots of studies by other authors and by other people that are way smarter than me. But as you kind of move away from this feeling of I'm not good enough, you know, I'm angry all the time. you know, I you know, somebody just cut me off on the road and I'm I'm get I'm having road rage and you move kind of back into this um more moments of bliss and and and again I'm I'm sounding like this is you know unicorns and rainbows I that's not what I mean at all but because we are in such a um unique environment in our own healing journey in our own lives when we can take a moment to stop and respond versus react to our life situations. We have choices, right? We can stick in this like poor me, oh my god, everything is horrible.  

And I think that exacerbates um our degradation of our physical body and emotional well-being. And as we start to move into a more positive um feeling state, you don't even have to believe it, but you're starting to practice um uh this attitude of gratitude, I guess, right? And so now these studies have shown that actually as you are moving into this attitude of gratitude, what the chemistry body is doing. So you're you're having a complete hormonal change, right? You're moving from high cortisol to more of a um you know DHEA. I can never pronounce the actual hormone, so that's why I, I abbreviate, but you can Google it. Um and so in my case, it started with self-love. you know, when you go, "I'm not good enough and now I just left my ,my wife and I left my family, you know, I'm I'm just a horrible human being." Um, and you then go, okay, wait a second, time out. Like, is that really true? Do I really believe this about myself? And you start to question these beliefs that I've had for many, many years.  

Simon Luthi: And one of the key areas that I found in my healing journey um was the beautiful work of Louise Hay. Um and she has several books out called you can "Heal your body," and "You Can Heal, Heal Your Life." Um, she found that by every illness has some connection to an emotional imbalance and also an organ can actually start to whisper and scream and it has to do with something. And in my case, I started to read that and I go, "Oh, you know, I actually put everybody else first before myself." And you know, for those of you that are um in the church, there's this Bible verse that says, you know, "Thou shalt love your neighbor like yourself." I always look at that as, oh, you need to take care of everybody else first and then you, you come last. Well, if you actually look at it, it says you should love yourself first so that you can take care of others better, right? Now, let's pause on that for a second. Everybody listening, are we really in love with ourselves?  

And I know this sounds a bit hokey. I would almost venture out to say that's the hardest part, right? Because we see all the blemishes and all the negative things and all the stuff that's wrong. But when you start to question where is that coming from? How am I conditioned? Right? And it could be upbringing, can be family cultures, could be our parents, could be our, you know, experience in school and being bullied and being whatever, right? It it forms this reality, and recognizing that that's part of our healing story as well is healing our emotions. I found the easiest way was to start telling myself, I love you. I love you. I love you. And I started this uh you know I was again still high executive job. I parked about five minutes from my office and in the morning you know 50, 60, 70 times, I would just repeat to myself, "I love myself. I love myself. I love myself. I love myself."  

And I didn't really believe it at the time but I just knew this book was recommended to me. I, I was like you know what what I got to lose. I've already hit rock bottom. And all of a sudden, I found myself in my uh, home completely alone, washed over with this amazing bliss um of just contentment and gratitude and love um, for myself. And and so that I believe was a practical step in my healing journey to acknowledge the pain that I've been in both physically and emotionally and spiritually and just start to reconnect with the little boy and with my soul and my, my I guess source essence. Um and that kind of you know opened up a rabbit hole of things. So wait, if I can improve my mental state by simply just telling myself something, what else is possible? And so that has really led me to a lot of the positive affirmations. You can uh you know read them in in the book as well.

Simon Luthi:  Our mind is powerful.  And when I say I could heal myself and so can you, I mean it. Our mind is powerful. And we now know that our body is more electrical than biological. And so if you start filling your thoughts with positive affirmations about yourself, about the realities you're in, I 100% believe that you can start to tell to change the cell structure. You can start your healing. But again, your healing, my healing may look different.

Becky Miller: Yeah.

Simon Luthi: But just getting into this state of positivity of uh you know responding versus reacting. I found that like because I usually get asked at the end and maybe I uh you know I already kind of jumped ahead but I usually get you know there's something else you want to share with with our listeners and I usually end with that but I felt like this was a good moment to share.

Becky Miller: It's a great moment to share that. I think we have um and you you might have heard them. We have six tenants that we all kind of stand by. And our very first one is, you know, having a a positive, uh mindset, a growth mindset.

Simon Luthi: That's it.

Becky Miller: And because your mind is so incredibly powerful and it is, in my opinion, there's a lot of pieces that come together for healing, but your mind is the very first piece because if you don't think you're going to get better, it doesn't matter what you're given, what tools you're given to try and help, you're not going to get better if that's your mindset. And so, and we talk a lot about how uh, the difference between positive mindset versus toxic positivity because we recognize that just saying, you know, just saying it once and saying, "Oh, I'm going to be better." It doesn't make my lupus disappear. It doesn't make whatever." But having a positive mindset, because healing, I think the other thing, too, is when people hear healing, they think it's a momentary boom, I do this and I'm healed. And I think all of us here can attest that healing is a process. Um, you know, reading your book and in your work that that that definitely has been the vibe that I've gotten.  

Um, we would actually love to hear, as you were saying, things that you discovered in Europe. I know I have a friend who's been touring that area who has autoimmune disease and she was saying the whole foods, the lack of preservatives, um kind of the calmer lifestyle, she's in the best shape she's been in in years. And so I would love to hear your take on what you found in Europe.

Simon Luthi: Uh yeah, happy to share. And it's to some degree infuriating uh, as well, right? Here in America, I think our bodies are under attack. Um you know, by uh the the foods we eat and and really just access to clean foods is super super hard. Uh you know, sugar in every product. Um, you know, even uh we looked at bacon the other day and we couldn't even find bacon without sugar added to it. It's crazy, right? So, and we know sugar is not really a healthy thing uh, in in anything. But let's just be practical for a second, right?  Because we talk about autoimmune. I'm not here to, you know, kind of change the way uh you know things are happening. I just want to acknowledge that you know it's really really difficult um, here sometimes to to live a healthy lifestyle.

Um so in my case right so I was diagnosed with this zero negative, uh inflammatory arthritis. I was like not my path and through a couple different serendipitous um, uh ,moments I ended up at this clinic in Switzerland and a lot of I would say end-of-the-road Americans are flocking there because you know they just have been given up whether it's cancer or or or autoimmune or even mystery. So uh ended up at this doctor and they finally did the right lab. So what ended up coming out of this was I had a heavy metal toxicity. Um I had uh environmental toxin overload and I had food allergies. And so in my case um, and you know that's and these are what's infuriating about this is all these lab tests are available here in the US.  

But you know what the lab test for the heavy metals I think the last one I saw was 600 bucks and insurance doesn't pay for it. It's crazy. But you know in my case so the I had I think arsenic I had mercury and I had um, um, lead or something else. I would have to go look at it again but basically an overload. So again starts kind of a a Pandora's box or a rabbit hole of okay so where is this coming from and how do I get out of it? Uh a lot of um dental um work had to get done.

So you know many of us have um, um, um, amalgam fillings uh which kind of acts as a battery in your mouth. Many of us have root canals which um are also not uh the healthiest thing has impacts as well. Um so the first step was basically to fix my my my teeth I guess uh so to speak. Now with that you can obviously could go to the regular dentist but um, that's very dangerous to do because they don't know how to actually safely remove amalgam. So if as you can imagine somebody comes and drills now you have all this dust and you breathe it in. So you have to go see a biological dentist that has special fans and filters to actually suck that out. Otherwise you're just going to repoison yourself with it.

Uh and then the other way to get rid of heavy metals is um, you have to go through something called chelation therapy and it's a special salt compound that's administered intravenously that binds the heavy metals uh through it and then you pee it out. Um and sometimes it takes a couple rounds of those, uh, and again to just bring a little attention to um the craziness in America. There is three agents that you need in order for you to actually bind them and these were developed I think after second world war or Vietnam war or uh, you know agent orange and some other uh you know things that happen. So the US army actually figured this out, of how to actually treat vets with this um, but here in the US FDA only approves two out of the three uh agents that you need, and the third one is important because you basically have to also bind heavy metals in your brain.  We know it's gelatin and all that. So the two agents that are available here even if you can afford it are actually not enough to to get you to a place, right? So uh, in essence I had to go to Germany um, to uh Switzerland and Germany, to to get treated uh for this because I knew even if I did it here I couldn't do the right things.

Um and there is amazing uh, technologies out there. I was treated with introvenous laser. Uh so combination of uh very yummy I you know I said yummy IVs, okay, sorry. But like you know, like really yummy IVs in a sense, because it was filled with good vitamins, nutrients, minerals um that help the body uh start to go through this healing and for a good three years or so I had to really change my diet a lot. So I I can't under state how important that is. So, I went gluten-free. I went vegan. I didn't drink coffee. I, I eliminated all my sugar uh, uh out of my my diet.  

Simon Luthi: But my my doctor in Switzerland said, you know, do this for, you know, three, six, nine months, maybe a year. You may be able to introduce things again. You may be able to have a pizza again at some point. Um and and that's true. So, for about two, three years, I basically just changed things around. So again, I think we're so taught about quick fixes that, you know, going on this journey um you know, two years or so is hard. But again, I sit here in front of you, I'm not taking medication. I'm, I'm very limited in my supplementation. I am completely healed. I don't have any pain in my body. I don't have any joint pain left. I have no nerve pain. All of that um uh, went away after that after that uh, treatment.

Stacy Griffin: I have to say something really quick. It, it goes back in my opinion to you sitting in that car telling yourself, "I love myself. I love myself.  I love myself." Because when you really love yourself, you're going to take that two years to heal yourself if that's what it takes. You're going to stay the path. So, thank you so much for sharing that. I really appreciate it.

Simon Luthi:  Yeah, you're welcome, Stacy. And that that is the that is the big piece, right? Do we do we really love ourselves in a way where we can put ourselves first, right? And I hope that everyone listens has a support system that sees it, right? Because it's hard to see us not being healthy. I go back to, you know, to my ex-wife. It was hard for her to see me not getting up, limping around. Couldn't, I, I mean, I couldn't even empty the dishwasher anymore. I couldn't lift my hands up up a certain angle. You know, I was a drummer. I couldn't play drums because I couldn't hold the drumstick. So, it's hard for our environment to see us in this way.  

And you know, in my case, when I said, "Uhuh, I'm abandoning all of those things. I'm going a different route." Um, she couldn't fathom like, "Why? Why the hell would you go if if a doctor has already said like, here's medication, take the medication and be better." And again, I think the what you're what you're alluding to and and again enforcing, Stacy, is when we love ourselves enough, I think we we then listen to the little whisper inside and say, "Okay, what's next?" And you know, it is hard when you then go against mainstream and against your family and and all that. But again, I'm saying this because I could heal myself and so could you. And if you have a, a, a nurturing environment, if you have a beautiful spouse, partner, family that supports you, you know, they will understand because if you put yourself first, if you love yourself first, you'll be stronger in the process as you get better.

Alysia Thomas: But you have to create it for yourself, right?

Simon Luthi: Good.

Alysia Thomas: If you don't have those things, you have to create an environment in which you can do that. Um, so I, I'm fascinated by all of these things that you're sharing. Some of them are very to me very practical. But I'm sure some of our listeners that are kind of new don't understand or maybe haven't done their own research yet to understand the impact that heavy metal toxicity could have on us and and the impact it has on our autoimmune issues specifically. You know, having a dentist that knows how to do this safely, things like this. But I, I know for me in the beginning of my own journey, all of that sounded crazy to me. I was, we were raised with parents who were also dealing with a whole lot of health issues themselves. They did the very best they could, but you did what your doctor told you to do. Period. The end. That's that's was how we were raised, right ladies? Like you go to the doctor, you do what you're told.  

When you go to the doctor repeatedly, and you're not getting better, at some point you start seeking anything that will help you feel better. You start looking other places, you start saying, "Okay, what else could be?" You dig deeper and you find things that you found. Um, so I think for our audience who maybe is at the beginning of their journey, um, there are so many resources available to us, you have to dig for them. I mean, we want to make we want to make this stuff known to everybody, but like you said, insurance won't cover it, or you can't find a doctor who will even even order a test or you know, there's a lot that comes into play in a journey like this. And self-love is absolutely something you have to have for yourself in order to say, I'm going to dedicate myself to figure it out. I'm gonna dedicate the time, the energy, the money, whatever it's going to take to get well.

So, to me, if I had gone back in time to when I was a newbie getting on starting my journey, hearing all this would sound a little bit woo-woo to me, you know what I'm saying? A little woo-woo. But to me now, I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally." You know? So, it kind of moves to your next to to the next question. You use words like somatic and energetic healing. Um those are familiar to me but they might not be to our audience. So how do you explain those idea th, those ideas in a way that feels grounded and accessible to people?

Simon Luthi: Yeah, thanks for asking that question, Alysia. It's um, and I will acknowledge absolutely, right? I think um we are well I, I think if you really think about it, we as human beings have been on this earth for thousands of years and we've made it without modern medicine and without pharmaceuticals. How? Right? So you go back to basics and I think we have become so you know again everything is stressful you know you get up in the morning you have to get coffee first before you can function and then you race to uh, on the train or, or in the car and you got to race to work and then you have a packed calendar, and then you eat at your desk and and come home, and then you're so exhausted that you need a glass of wine.  Like that's the life that most Americans and most westerners uh have accustomed to. It's become the new normal.

And um you know when you think about how we used to live right we were much more in the seasons you know winter was here for rest you went uh by the sunshine when the sun went up you went up when the sun went down you went uh you know to bed because we didn't have electricity and of course we also were um able um to be more in tune with you know energy and everything that's all around us and what I have learned is that it's super, super important for me to have a grounding practice. Grounding meaning, okay, feeling something's off even today. Not I mean, not today, but like you know, on a day I could go, hm, I just don't feel grounded. I don't feel balanced. Something's off. And you know, we tend to then wanting to fix it right away. Whether that's through, oh, I need to go for a jog or I need to go drink a glass of wine or I need to go whatever, you know, you fill in the blanks. We, we, we have lost the ability to actually sit with what's going on and, and understanding okay, something's off.

So when I talk a bit about somatic uh, experiences so uh what I have started and many of you are going to shudder now I actually do cold plunges in the morning. I got uh introduced about a year ago or over a year ago by a buddy of mine uh and then I studied um I don't know whether you've heard of the guy, Wim Hof. Uh so he you know is basically claiming that cold therapy is is also very very beneficial to a lot of uh diseases. Uh and he combines it with breath work. And um for me this has been a really amazing practice to understand something's off. I'm not going to react. I'm just going to see where is this coming from. And if I can't really pinpoint what's coming from okay so what can I do about it? So, and again in the morning I, I sit in 38°F uh, water uh for a couple minutes, and I practice breath work.

And um you know there's one thing that's called box breathing.  Uh, so even um, I guess the Marines and/or any you know high stress military uh personnel is taught in the military that box breathing, is more, box breathing meaning you breathe in for four, you hold for four, you breathe out for four, you empty for four and so on. And it's interesting when the breath starts to become your superpower. One of my teachers um Alberto always would say, "All I am is my breath. All I am is my breath," because if you think about it without that we stop to exist. So the life force of that um has really become something where I go oh okay so if I actually do conscious breathing somatic breathing there's a ton like again there's so much um now science gone into this and so much practice different kind of breath work you can do you can YouTube you can you know kind of as I said read Wim Hof's book or there's a lot of information out there but the breath itself of regulating our nervous system and uh the ability to actually tap into our uh, what I call intuitive intelligence uh, is is astounding.  

Simon Luthi: Uh and so yeah, so that's what I have started integrating and honestly everybody around me is sick with the flu. I have not been sick with anything since I've been doing this. So and I just watched a documentary on Swiss TV where they basically tried to um scientifically prove what's going on. They couldn't like blood tests. There's no difference between anybody going in cold water and somebody that does not. But everybody that does it goes, "Oh my god, I feel amazing. I feel so alive." And it's almost an addiction by now. Like I'm in Arizona, you know? So don't don't judge me for being not very ecological, but I haven't had to have a little cooler to actually get my water down to that temperature, because I can't I'm not in Minnesota. I can't jump in in the lake, right? But um again, inte, starting to integrate um things such as breath...

Alysia Thomas:  Yeah.

Simon Luthi:  ...work into your healing practice I found super, super ,super um important for two reasons. One, it calms your your nervous system. Uh and it, it, it just grounds you in a way that where you can start to begin your day in a okay, all right, I'm, I'm grounded. I'm solid. I'm good. what is it what is uh in store for me um, and uh, that's been that's been one of the you know most beautiful practices for me to as I start to you know continue this longevity journey right it's not just a once and done like a pill and or a surgery but you have to kind of stay on uh this path to just change and rewire your brain and rewire your activities and start to come up with new routines for you that reall,y you know, help you stay healthy.

Becky Miller:  Yeah, I was going to say I think, and I think, like you said, coming up with your own routines is important because you kind of have to adapt them. I was smiling when you said cold, you know, the cold therapy thing because all of us have experienced that and I um I actually have Raynaud's so I have problems with my fingers and toes if they get cold like I can't keep them warm and they I lose circulation in them and stuff. But my solution to that...

Simon Luthi:  Yeah.

Becky Miller:  ...because I still find benefit with the cold plunges, is I will just stand in the shower and keep my hands and feet away from the cold water, you know, so that I can keep my hands and feet warm because that's where I have the circulation problems. But just even even if it's just the cold water running over your head in the morning, like you said, it's invigorating. It...some people would say it wakes them up, but it there is something and like I said whether or not science can find it out, there is something that helps for sure. I would agree.

Alysia Thomas: I don't know...

Simon Luthi: Yeah. And listen, I don't I, I don't have what you have, but I hate my fingers being cold. I don't, I don't put them underwater. I just hold my hands uh you know, up. I started even buying these neoprene booties and and and gloves that you can wear. Uh as well, out of the same reason. Uh you know, I just I, I, I hate my hands being cold. The rest of my body I can I can handle. But yeah, that's a good that's I like cold showers. And listen, it's I hated it when I first started. I thought I was going to die the first time I jumped into this water. I was like, um, but there's something after a while when you start observing like even your body starts to regulate. You actually get warmer in cold water. Um, you know, and I was like, huh, this is so interesting. And then after about a month or so, you kind of you're good. You go. Uh, but yeah, at the beginning was hard for sure.

Alysia Thomas:  I don't know anybody who's tried it,who hasn't sworn by it and stuck with it, and you know.

Simon Luthi:  Isn't it wild? It's like, yeah.

Alysia Thomas:  If it's something that miserable and you keep doing it, you know what I mean? There's something to it. Like...

Simon Luthi:  I, I know, right?

Alysia Thomas:  There's got to be something to it.

Simon Luthi:  I have the same as you. I have not found anybody that says you either just go, "I tried it once, it's not for me, can't do it." Right? But then as you uh get better at the practice. So there's got to be something there. Don't know.

Becky Miller:  Well...

Alysia Thomas:  Yep.

Becky Miller:  I was going to say it's been around centuries. If you think about even like the old Roman baths, they had a cold room and a warm room and you know, and I think yeah, it'll be interesting. I'm sure that eventually science will catch up to that one because I really think there's something to it personally.

Alysia Thomas: t That it's funny enough that you mentioned Minnesota. It's it's a culture here. There's a sauna and cold plunge culture here in the, in the specifically in the winter. They have little villages that pop up with little traveling saunas and they have cold plunge tubs out in the air and I think it's absolute insanity, but, but I know there are benefits. So, you know, you got to find your own way. I think it's a it's a good thing to bring up though.

Becky Miller: Yeah. Well, Simon, this has been an absolutely delightful conversation. I we're going to have to have you back because I feel like we haven't even gleaned everything that we want to for sure. But, um, as we're wrapping up, if you could share with our listeners just if they get one thing from our conversation today, what would you want them to get from it?

Simon Luthi: Yeah. See, I knew this question was coming up, right?

Becky Miller:  Yeah.

Simon Luthi:  So, I was um looking through my book again uh, in kind of preparation for uh, for this interview. And one thing that came up uh is um I wrote a chapter about I call it spirited acts of authenticity and kind of create your new beginnings list. So as you, as you recognized that something is not in congruence in your life you know through this mystery illness um, I felt like that there was new beginnings that can open up space for growth, healing, uh and creativity.  

And so I kind of put the simple guide together to kind of craft your own new beginnings list. But I think it's important to end with this because people wouldn't listen to this podcast if they weren't interested and also are looking you know for help. Part of it is we're a community, and we got to we got to support each other and that's a that's you know think number one you're not alone. there is, you know, an amazing amount of people that have gone through what you're going through, but you know, you're, you're, you're supported. And so, I think there's a couple things um that I would want you to do. One is kind of reflect on your current space. Uh, you know, take a moment, pause, journal, where are you in life right now, emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually? And maybe there are some things that you notice that may not be in congruence or not in balance uh where you're at. And then you know maybe let go of the past. And I know this is a has sometimes a bit of a you know everybody says let go of the past and all that.  

I don't mean this to like don't, or ignore everything, right? But it's maybe there is things that are holding you back like my marriage where, I was like you know what we tried we tried our best but we've reached a point where you know I, I'm I'm I can't do this anymore. And letting go of that and letting go of the guilt and shame of uh of leaving a partner and being divorced was one. And then maybe the one like most powerful thing is dream boldly, right?

Simon Luthi:  You're not a victim of your circumstances. You can change where you're at, right? So what would your life be if you could dream without limits? Like what experiences, adventures, or personal transformations do you want to invite in your life? That's a, you know, that's a big big part of it. And, um, out of that maybe becomes this new beginnings list. Uh, and again, if you're interested, you can read my book. I talk extensively about this new beginnings list. I came out of this autoimmune and mystery with, and I don't call it bucket list because for me, it has a negative connotation.  

I want to live a long and healthy life. And this new beginnings list was kind of this dream list of things that I wanted to do. It was everything from taking a photography class to learning how to do pottery. Right? Remember, my hands couldn't even hold drumsticks. Now I'm going to get on a pottery wheel and create pottery. I did it. And I think having that list uh was sort of a, a northstar almost like giving you a little bit of hope. Uh so again, taking stock of where you're at, releasing the past, and start to dream boldly uh with new experiences that you want to bring in. And I, I am convinced that will be uh a game changer in your current situation.

Stacy Griffin:  Thank you so much. We are so happy that you came and chatted with us today. We will give our audience all of your links. We want them to be able to go to your website. We want them to have access to finding your book easily. We'll make sure that they have access to all of that. But we just want to thank you so much for coming and chatting with us.

Simon Luthi:  Thank you so much for having me and for the important work that you're doing. I really love your podcast.

Alysia Thomas:  Thank you for um your dedication to our podcast and and your support to what we're doing. We are so grateful to have Simon on today and the care and the honesty that you bring to this work. I want to challenge our listeners to take um that self assessment that he just recommended to do that and to take some power back about how you're going to live your life going forward. Um we we often will tell people on our podcast that nobody's coming to rescue you. You are the main character in your story. You've got to take um some responsibility for that and that starts with self-love like we talked about. So if you want to learn more about Simon and his work, you can connect with him at the rocketshaman.com. And we will also, as Stacy said, leave his contact information and resources in our show notes.

And as we wrap up, we want to leave you with our reminder. Remember, you are worthy of joy. Disease does not define your life. You do.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Simon Luthi's website: https://www.therocketshaman.com/