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Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:00:00

You.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:03

Dr. Zarya Rubin is a Harvard educated physician, a functional medicine health coach, and a keynote speaker. She helps passionate, high achieving women get to the root causes of chronic illness symptoms and burnout so they can heal from the inside out and truly thrive. She is right up our angle. She is a founder and CEO of Dr. Zarya Boutique Functional Medicine Practice in Portland, Oregon, which happens to be where I live, which makes this even more of a bonus. Thank you so much for being here with us, Dr. Zarya. I'm so excited to talk to you today.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:00:36

My pleasure. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:40

I know. I feel like it's going to be hard to fit everything in because we have so much to learn from you. So let's start with functional medicine, because I'm not sure that all of our listeners have been exposed to functional medicine and kind of understand what is different about functional medicine.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:00:54

Yeah, sure. It's a great question, and it's something that I love talking about. So functional medicine, the way I interpret it, it is a branch of medicine that focuses on holistic integrative healing. So we try to look at the whole person. We believe that all the body systems are connected. So if you have a toe problem, you might go see a toe doctor, you have a stomach problem, might go see a GI doctor. But we in functional medicine believe that there's often interconnections between all the body systems because the last time I checked, your head is attached to the rest of your body and your blood and your cells are flowing throughout. And so things are not as isolated as I think we make them in our more conventional modern medicine world where everything is so subspecialized. So we look at things like environment, exposures, toxins, stress, diet, sleep, nutritional levels, like, what are your vitamin levels? We look at the nitty gritty of your labs and the biochemistry of it all and how it all comes together to either form a state of wellness or a state of illness, and finding that balance, making sure that everything is working together. Kind of like a symphony. All the instruments are in tune and everything is making beautiful music instead of a lot of loud noise. The first time I've used that analogy, and I'm a musician, so I'm like, I love it. I'm going to go with that in the future.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:33

I love it. I love that. Yeah, we actually had Will Help and was on talking about internal family systems, and we actually had this whole conversation around internal family systems with it being a symphony and the different things out of tune or a drum being too loud or different pieces like that. So, yes, we love the music analogies. Bring it in there. But I love the focus on wellness instead of just looking for disease or checking off a list of oh, well, that's not wrong. So you're fine instead of trying to find that middle ground of what's really going on and how does everything work together?

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:03:02

Yeah. Because we also believe not waiting until things are so far down the road that it's an actual serious diagnosis. And we believe in sort of really catching things early and checking out these imbalances and regulating things and putting things back into concordance and balance before they get to the point that really there's a lot of damage and a lot of inflammation occurring and that it's much harder to reverse.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:33

Yes, definitely. So what led you to this focus of looking at things more holistically instead of just specializing in one area or one piece of medicine? Yes.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:03:43

So I used to be a subspecialist. I know. I studied internal medicine, and then I studied neurology, and then I focused on adult epilepsy. And so I did so much advanced training and so many years of fellowship, residency and this and that, the other thing. And in the end, I burned out. It wasn't the right fit for me, for my personality, for my nervous system, working in a very busy tertiary care academic hospital with very sick patients, crazy hours, being on call. I was working at Columbia Presbyterian in New York City. It was like an incredible job and opportunity, and it was very prestigious. And I was, like, very successful for all intents and purposes from the outside, but on the inside, I was really unhappy and just really burnt out and had undiagnosed PTSD and was just kind of making it through every day, but not very successfully going through the motions. And I realized that I just couldn't live my life on layaway, waiting to be happy one day. So I made the very difficult decision to walk away from a career in medicine, at least conventional career in medicine, and that was probably the hardest and best decision I've ever made. And I did a lot of other things. I worked in industry. I worked at a startup. I ended up in the pharmaceutical industry for a number of years and helped pay off my debt. It was a very challenging career and it was wonderful. But I became a mom late in life and decided I wanted to focus on my daughter and my family. And that required a lot of my attention and time and focus and energy. And I wanted whatever next stop and next career to be something that would fit in with my life, not that my life would have to fit somehow around my career and the nooks and crannies. I wanted my life and my family to be the priority and my career to be a priority, but to be more flexible and something that it could be adaptable and so racked my brains, like, what can I do? What can I do with all my medical knowledge and all of my skills? But that is sort of a different format. And I happened upon the fields of health coaching, and I went back to school. I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York and did this health coaching program. It was wonderful. I learned so much about the human body and nutrition and coaching and how it's different from medicine. Kind of like the difference between an orthopedic surgeon and a personal trainer. I mean, they're different, they're complementary. It's just different things. And I really liked it, but I was getting tired of telling people to drink more water and eat more greens and get more sleep and, like, all those things are super, super important. And if we did all of those things, we'd all be much healthier. But the sort of the neurologist part of me and the medical part of me was craving more detail, more science, more nitty gritty. Like, oh, I want to dive deep and check people's, like what are their hormone levels or what's their cortisol look like.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:07:24

So I discovered functional medicine as the perfect bridge between conventional medicine and modern medicine that I had studied and more integrative holistic nutrition and health and health coaching. That it was somehow this happy medium, that I could do a bit of both and live in both worlds, merge them together, use all of my skills and all of my people skills to create something incredible that women really need.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:07:55

I love this. And we actually talk a decent amount on our podcast about that Skill Stacking aspect of really looking at your life and your career, the things you've done, the things that you love, and finding this unique space where they all align that you can offer yourself to what is needed in a way that really complements who you are and what you have to offer in a way that brings you joy and brings that purpose, but at the same time fits with who you are and fits with your life. So this is so beautiful that you're doing this, and it's such a needed area.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:08:30

Thanks. And it's not easy, let me tell you. There's a lot of iterations. I have had more careers than people change hairstyles or underwear. I tried a lot of different things, and finally I realized that working for myself was kind of what I wanted to do as well. Although being an entrepreneur is really tough gig very rewarding also. Yeah. For people who are still struggling with that, it's not something that happens overnight or comes easily. You got to just keep at it and keep searching for that, right bit.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:06

Yes. No, that's exciting. And the work you're doing is so exciting because I think it's wonderful to have your level of experience and your history in these different areas in the way that you've brought them all together. Because that level of information from your past career in medicine, to bring that to your current work in medicine, I think probably is so valuable for your clients.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:09:32

It's a pretty unusual mix.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:34

Yes, I love it. So can you talk to us more about how that looks with your work and about how with burnout, how those things play out and come together and your clients.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:09:44

Sure. So I feel like burnout is something that is so common, especially right now, especially post pandemic, burnout rates have skyrocketed both during the pandemic and after. We're not seeing as much recovery as one would think. You would think, oh, now the burnout rates should be going way down, but they're not because I think we've just hit this breaking point where we've been trying so hard to do all the things, especially as women, and that takes a toll. It takes a toll on you mentally, takes a toll on you emotionally, and it literally takes a toll on you physically and can manifest in many different ways in actual physical ailments, if not frank, diagnoses and disease. So stress related illness, high blood pressure, diabetes, autoimmune disease, cancer, sleep disorders, anxiety, mood disorders, depression, they're all connected to burnout, which comes from having the nervous system on such a high, consistent, constant level of stress. And we're not designed for that. We're designed as human beings to have bursts of stress that then dissipate. You're chased by a saber toothed tiger, you run away, you escape, or you kill it and bring it back to the tribe. That's what we're designed for. We're not designed for these sustained levels of constant stress that come from either the world we live in, the news, what's going on every day, social media, the constant barrage of stimuli and technology and information overload and all the stress of modern parenting and relationships and all of these things that didn't exist so much in the past. There were different stressors, of course, but there's just a lot. Pandemic was kind of the last straw, I feel, for so many people. So that shows up in so many different ways. And I think a lot of people often come to me and they say, like, help me be more tolerant of stress. And I'm like, yeah, actually we're going to do the opposite. I'm going to help you to be less tolerant of stress because that's the secret. We don't want you to take on more and more and more stress until things just fall apart and break. I want you to recognize early on what your signs and symptoms are of too much stress and overwhelm and address those rather than let them become chronic and become constant and cause real disease.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:12:34

Yes. There's this element with boundaries that's so complicated, that is so important.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:12:41

Boundaries. Oh, my gosh, I've discovered boundaries late in life and holy moly. Holy banana. So Carrie Cole is really kind of this boundary guru. I don't know. She wrote a book called Boundary Boss. I recommend it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:12:58

Really?

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:12:59

Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:00

Writing that down for that in the show notes for Folks boundary Boss.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:13:04

It's really terrific. It really talks about what boundaries are, what they aren't, how to create them, how to enforce them, how not to feel like you're being a jerk and being mean, how boundaries actually help you and help the other person.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:19

Yes.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:13:22

It's a skill that needs to be taught and acquired and learned. And I think as women, we're often such people pleasers, and we want to be liked and we want approval and that we lose sight of our own boundaries and our own limitations.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:42

Yes. Because there is a lot of fear about defining ourselves if we're not liked, if we're not seen as that person, and how we can see ourselves as being that and who we let down and what that means about who we are if we do have boundaries and the complications of doing that.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:13:58

Yeah. And just reframing that narrative and that story that we're telling ourselves that we're going to be less well liked, or you might even be more well liked if you're clear about things with people and they don't feel confused.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:13

Yes, exactly. And that clarity piece is huge. We had on episode 42, Catherine was on, and she talked a little bit about this beautiful example of somebody spoke up in one of her workshops that said that they did have good boundaries because she was surprised. Nobody ever says that they have that. And they said that they and their family, their sister, that they can call and say, if I'm the last person you have to talk to, you have five minutes, but otherwise I can't do this right now. And that they can say that to each other. And I'm like, that is amazing. And to be able to have that check in and to establish that right. So to be the friend that could actually call and say, how are you doing? I'm having a hard time. Are you in a place that I can talk to you to start with that so that it's safe for that the person to be able to say, actually, I've had a really bad day. If you need me, I'm here, but if not.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:15:04

I can only do five minutes. Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:04

If I'm the last person, call somebody else. And to start normalizing that, and to have it with your kids you talk about with them, like, would you be in a place that I could talk to you right now? And if not, that's okay. And what does that feel like? And to start normalizing that, because we've never been taught that or normalized that.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:15:22

Yeah. I love it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:23

Yeah. Boundaries are something yeah, that we weren't taught. And so it's something that we have to teach ourselves and have to learn about. And it's harder when we're older, but it's important. So important.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:15:34

So important. And it's so important to protect your mental and physical energy, too. You can't just give it all away and expect to feel great and to feel like you have the time and the energy for the things that you want to do for yourself. If you're constantly giving it to other people and you're not filling your own cup, it's the whole concept of pouring from an empty cup versus having it overflow and fill the saucer, and then you've got plenty to go around for, like oxygen mass principle. I always tell my clients to put on your own oxygen mass first because otherwise you are not any good to anyone.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:16:12

Yes, exactly. I remember when I was in a former life, I was a mental health consultant, and there was a teacher that had a really rough experience with one of the kiddos in her class that was having a hard time. And when I came in to meet with her afterwards to kind of debrief and talk with her about it, she shared with me that she found out that morning that her father had died and she'd come into work. And she was definitely someone who prided herself that she came into work even though she found out that her father died. And my conversation with her was, you really should take care of yourself and stayed home because the interaction you have with that child, that did not go well. You were in the place to be what that child needed, because you need to stay home and take care of yourself. So you staying home and taking care of yourself isn't just about you. It's about the kids in your classroom as well, because they need the best of you. And when you can't give the best of you, you need to take care of you and stay home and take care of yourself. Because that's why the situation got so out of control and came to this level, because you weren't taking care of yourself first. So as much as people try to frame it as being selfish to stay home because your father died and you just found out, and you take care of yourself, it's not selfish. It's for everyone that you need to take care of yourself. Because it's okay that you can't be fully present after something like that happens. It's okay that you need to take care of yourself. It's necessary that you take care of yourself. I hope that person recognized that at the time. I think she was furious with me that I wasn't patting her on the back and being so proud of her that she came to work even though she had this really bad thing happen. That instead it was like I really needed you to stay home today, and I really need you to take care of you because it's so important that you can be in the place to respond to this. Because these little kids, they aren't the ones that have to be the adults. They're the ones that unfortunately will have blowouts and have bad days. And we're the ones that have to be understanding. And so it was such a hard conversation to have. And I could see in her other people in my life that are the same way that they're so I'm going to be here no matter what, even if I'm sick, even if I'm this and not.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:18:24

We have to reframe all of that hustle culture and yeah, I'm going to go to work even if I'm dying. I think hopefully the pandemic has changed that.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:18:36

I hope so.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:18:38

No more going to work. Sick people. Just don't do it. Just get on zoom, stay home, don't give everyone else your garbage. And it's just we need to celebrate. That not the yeah, I dragged myself to work the day that my father died. I mean, goodness. Like, what have we taught people as a society that is some sort of badge of honor that should be shameful? Take care of yourself and your family and have time to grieve and be with your emotions and not be forced to push it all down and just show up for work because, yeah, it's not going to go well, obviously.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:19:21

No.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:19:22

We'll have a much happier, healthier, more productive world if we just simply take a moment to pause and what do I need in this moment? And maybe sacrificing myself on the altar of busyness and hustle, is not it?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:19:40

Yes, exactly. And to be able to recognize that the best thing you can do and to congratulate people and celebrate people when they choose to take care of themselves. And I make such an effort. I had somebody that canceled recording an episode of this podcast because they had a family situation that came up with one of their kids, and my response to them was, thank you for giving me as much notice as they did, because they did give me a decent amount of notice. Good for you. I totally praise you for taking care of you and your family because that is the most important thing. And I welcome you to let me know when you can reschedule this, because we need to, as individuals, celebrate and support when people draw boundaries, because in my entire life, I have people that will tell me, like, you should tell them no. You should tell them no. And I'm like, you would be furious if I said no to you. You need to be the person I could safely say no to before you tell me to tell no to other people.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:20:33

Yeah, totally.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:20:36

I mean, to model more of that, but yes. Back to your work more. I want to hear more about your work and some of what you've done with clients. Can you give us some examples of some of the work that you do?

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:20:46

Yeah, I mean, without revealing too much information about folks, the way I generally tend to work is I love to take a very detailed history from people. So most of the information is going to the story. Like, tell me your story. What's been going on with you? When did it start? What's bothering you? What's your past experience with this? Is this new? Is it different? Or when was the last time you felt great and had energy? And for some people, it's like 20-30 years ago. And I'm like, oh, my God. We do a deep dive into diet. Like, what does a typical day look like for you? What does breakfast look like? Lunch? Dinner? Snacks? Like, are you snacking late at night? Are you skipping meals? Are you eating all fast food? That tells a lot of a story. So gather a lot of that very detailed information. And also, what medications are you on? What supplements? How is that playing into the picture? And then if folks have had lab work done recently, I ask for that, or I ask them to get it done before we work together, because you can learn so much from just the basic blood work, basic stuff that you get at your annual physical. Not to knock doctors, because they're amazing and they're working really hard. But oftentimes I will see a report that says, check everything great, and then I will look it over, and I will find so many things wrong, because we just take a different approach, and we look at the blood work with a fine tooth comb, and we also don't just look at the normal value. Like, if it falls within the normal range for the lab, everything's fine. We look at well, where is it on the range? Is it 0.1 above the lowest value, which is an average, by the way, from probably men of a certain age and a certain weight doesn't hold true for everyone. So is it normal or is it optimal or is it suboptimal for you as an individual? So I look at everyone's blood work very differently and really specifically and in relation to what their current situation is, who they are, what their symptoms are, what medications they're on, their age, et cetera. And so that's really helpful. And that often uncovers so many hidden things that we can dive deeper into. And then in terms of the diet stuff, we really go deep into that. We talk about what changes can we make? How do we figure out how to have more home cooked food without stressing you out? Well, I don't cook. Okay. There's things called meal prep kits. Have you heard of that? They're awesome.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:23:37

Yes,

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:23:38

I'm a big fan of meal prep kits. Hello, Sunbasket. I love you. Because they really do help bridge the gap between folks who they don't know how to cook. They're not necessarily wanting to learn how to cook, but they want to eat healthier. And that's a really great way to do it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:23:59

Yeah, I've noticed. They've helped me save all my grocery bills because I tend to waste things. Unfortunately, when I go to the grocery store and I have big aspirations, whereas they give me exactly how much I need to cook, exactly what I need.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:24:11

Yeah. And it's often inspiring and you're like, oh, I've never tried that before, that's kind of cool, I might do that again.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:24:17

It's a reason why fiance loves Israeli couscous. He never would have had Israeli couscous if not for meal kits.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:24:24

There you go. Yes, it's good. My daughter loves it too. Which reminds me, I got to make it again. I haven't made it in a long time.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:24:31

So we do work a lot on that. We do a lot of elimination diets, so we also do food allergy testing, but I try to reserve the hardcore functional medicine testing because it can get very expensive. So I don't just order all the tests for all the people. Very specific and tailored to the individual. So if I suspect what's going on with food allergies and it's very specific, I'll just say, you know what, let's cut out gluten and dairy for a while and see what happens, rather than run this whole panel of food allergy testing. Sometimes it's indicated for sure and sometimes folks want it, and sometimes it does help motivate people if they are not really believing it or if they don't want to. But it's my favorite stuff and if I can show them a test that shows like four plus reaction to something, then they might be more inclined to give it a try. I know food eliminations and food diets, they can be really hard to implement and I try not to put people on those forever unless it's really indicated. And sometimes people think, well, I feel so much better on this different diet, and then if we reintroduce the food and they feel so much worse, then we take it away again and they feel so much better, they're like, done, I'm going to just stick with it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:25:55

at the hospital, like six or: 07:00

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:27:05

Yeah, we need a big sort of wake up call because I always use this analogy with my patients too. It's like the frog in the boiling water. Okay, so if you take a frog and you put it in a pot of boiling water, what's it going to do?

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:27:22

It's going to jump out. But if you put the frog in room temperature water, you turn up the heat slowly, slowly, slowly until boiling.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:27:35

Never even notices.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:27:36

It's not going to notice. It's not going to leave. And for so many of us, we have been doing the same thing every day for so long. Exposing ourselves to things that are possibly toxic for our own body, things that were possibly inflammatory, things that are possibly allergens for us and we don't notice. We just feel kind of crappy all the time. And we're like, just how I feel all the time. Maybe this is just life. Believe me, I personally have been guilty of this. Maybe it's just motherhood. Maybe just being a mother is just like really shitty, really exhausting. Then it was like, no, I have this diagnosis. I had so much going on in my life when my kiddo was little and realized, wow, I really need to totally change my life and really focus on stress. Because I was like, but I eat all the kale and all the broccoli and I walk and this and that, and I exercise and I was doing all the right things except for stress.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:28:42

Yes, well, and a lot of times when you go to doctors, and I can say this because I'm not a doctor, so I can be more contrarian, but when you go to doctors, a lot of times like, oh, you're just getting older, or you can never expect to go back to that. And I know that when I would been through a really difficult time. And they're like, oh, you can't expect to remember those things again. And you're just going to get things wrong now, and you're not going to have good memory, and your memory is just going to change as you get older, and things are going to be different, and you're not going to be good at those things instead of actually like, how can we address any of this? And so it's so nice to have somebody like, oh, no, you should have energy. Yes, you should be able. To remember things. You should feel better. Like, this isn't normal. It's not just motherhood and getting older. And I feel even more so as women that things get dismissed a lot in the medical community is not listening to symptoms the way we're feeling.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:29:31

Yeah, women get dismissed a lot. Everything gets blamed on, like, oh, it's just life, or just hormones or whatever it can be. But often more than that, it's more complicated than that. And yeah, there are often things we can do about it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:29:51

Yes, there are things you can do about it, and we can be empowered to do things about it. Instead of like, oh, surrender to your fate, just go. There was somebody I was talking to me, that was telling about their future mother in law that basically she just sits in a room and watches TV and is just surrender to just being old and miserable or whatever. And it's like, no, we don't have to surrender to being old and miserable. There's things we can do.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:30:15

We look at the Blue Zones, this concept of these societies around the world that have the highest percentage of centenarians, so folks who live to 100 and beyond, but who are healthy. And so it's really fascinating stuff. Dan Buttner is a guy who looks at this and does this research, and I think he's published a book on Blue Zones. And it's so cool because we see a lot of similarities among these societies. They're people who stay physically active. They eat mostly a plant based diet with some mostly fish and not a lot of meat. They drink a little bit of alcohol. They have a very close knit circle of friends, connection and friendship being so important, community, socialization, and they're active, they keep working in some capacity for a long time. So there's all these indicators and things that we and there's often intergenerational types of society, and we don't do these things and we don't facilitate these things. And I think we could do a lot better. And especially post pandemic, there's so much isolation. People are so lonely, and we need to recreate that sense of community again, bring people back together.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:31:40

Yes, we had Dr. Robert Miller, she was on an earlier episode. I feel like she was back probably in the 20s, probably around episode 20. But Dr. Robert Miller, she talked more about the Blue Zone and a great story about somebody who outlived the doctor that told them they weren't going to they weren't going to make it because they moved back and walked around the vineyard. And the type of I forget what type of exercise that was, where it was just part of your life that you worked it in to keep active and doing those things. But the connection relationship piece, that stuff is so important as well. It's very important. It's so exciting, the work you do, and that you have this lens. So I definitely want people to be able to connect with you because you do consult, so people can connect.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:32:21

I offer free introductory consults for folks. For now, they're free. If things get busier, I'm probably going to have to start charging for them. But for now, they're free, and you can book them on my website or through Instagram. It's either a phone or a zoom consult that we can have where you just kind of tell me what's going on with you, I tell you a bit about who I am and what I do and what my approach and philosophy is, and we decide whether it be a good fit to work together. And right now, I'm only really offering little short mini packages of three sessions to work together, like, three 1 hour sessions for a package. And I find that that works for folks where we can really kind of get into things, try to solve things, see what the outcomes are, and then if we need to have more sessions, we can. But it helps people really get a jump start and get on top of things quickly rather than, like, neuron out lots and lots and lots of sessions, which sometimes I used to see folks over a three month or six month period, but that's a lot of sessions. And then there's, like, holidays and travel and whatnot, and it ends up being just difficult to stick with it. And so I feel like these short focus births of working together really works well.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:33:44

Nice.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:33:45

Folks want to connect with me, they can do that. They can book a free consult. They come hang out on Instagram, they can sign up for my newsletter, and they can join my free women's Facebook group. It's a private group that's very supportive. We're doing a fun decluttering challenge right now, which is like, people are like, well, what if the hell does that have to do with stress and burnout and functional mess? And I'm like, you'd be surprised.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:34:09

It's all connected. I joined your Facebook group just for this challenge because I was excited.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:34:16

It's so great to have you there.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:34:17

Yes.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:34:18

I feel like when we have so much clutter around us in our physical environment and you can't focus, you can't relax, it's actually kind of stressful and oppressive, and you need a calm environment. Your bedroom, if it's overflowing with stuff, how can you sleep well? If your office, if your desk is covered with crap, then how can you work clearly? So I feel like letting go of what we don't need is a really key concept. So many areas of life. It goes back to boundaries, goes back to containers, it goes back to decluttering, it goes back to elimination diets. It's letting go of what we don't need and keeping what we do need and what brings us joy.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:35:03

Yes. One of my listeners, when we had the person for around feng shui in one of the really early episodes, probably around four or five, when we had that episode, somebody connected because they'd spoken about how your outward world is sometimes a reflection of what you're feeling internally. And so that decluttering thing is kind of that if you're feeling a lot of chaos and it's reflecting your outside environment, like organizing that environment kind of helps you with those are reflections of each other. And so that kind of mirroring is a good reason why to be looking at that decluttering, because that is sometimes an expression of the inward stress that you're feeling is that outward expression of it. And so that is an important reason to look at the decluttering. One of my listeners was like, oh my gosh, that resonated so strong with me, around me looking around my front room and where things are at, and like, yes, this is how I feel right now and this is stressing me out.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:35:57

Where is that thing that I need? Or like, oh, you buy it, but you already have it, but you can't find it. And it's like, that's stressful. Yeah, it adds to our chronic baseline stress levels, which we just don't need in life.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:36:11

Yes. So we're going to get to all the ways to get a hold of you and it's going to be in the show notes. But tell us the Facebook group now since we're talking about it.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:36:17

Yeah, it's called burnout to brilliance. It's on Facebook and it's a lot of fun. It's only for women, it's private, doesn't cost anything, and we just hang out. We talk about healthy recipes and some functional medicine stuff and clean beauty stuff, which is another fun side gig that I have. And then right now we're focusing on decluttering because that's just what I'm focusing on. And I'm like, hey, if anyone wants to jump on this and boy, has it taken off.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:36:52

People connected with it.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:36:53

It landed with people. I was like, okay, I'm not the only one who needs to declutter around here.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:36:58

I hit a nerve, I'm nervous. So Burnout to Brilliance, you can search for our Facebook groups or we'll have the link in the show Notes for sure. So that's great. So the other thing we want to make sure we get to is our self care spotlight or something I will rename eventually. It's more about life maintenance and how you maintain yourself in this world. So can you share with us what you do for self care, for your maintenance?

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:37:21

Yeah, so it's so important for me to get sunlight and daylight, especially living in Portland. So I actually can't really see it here. But I have a light box that I have on my desk nice. That I turn on in the mornings because we don't always have external sun. I mean, today we do and it's gorgeous.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:37:48

Finally. It's been a while in Portland.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:37:51

I get out there and get the vitamin D and go for walks with my dog. But I also find I love doing yoga, but I also find I do need some a little bit more hardcore exercise that's not too stressful. So. I love Bar Three. Bar three is my jam because it is no impact, but it is cardio, muscle work, weights, flexibility, like flow. And there's some mindset, breath work stuff at the end, too. So I find that it really encompasses so much. It's such a great workout. You burn so many calories. It's just really satisfying. And so I try to do that as much as possible. And I do love the group exercise vibe. Of course, for years during the pandemic, I didn't go in person. The studio was shut down. I did it online. It's not the same.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:38:44

That energy and that vibe of being surrounded by other wonderful women who are all there to do this and to really take care of ourselves. So I love that. And then I also meditate every single day.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:38:58

Nice.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:38:59

And every night. So. I love the headspace app. Little plug for the Headspace app. I don't get any kickbacks from them, but I do love that app. The most insight timer is also great, and there's a free version of that one, so highly recommend. Insight timer. And meditation doesn't have to be this big, scary black box. I think for a lot of people, it's very intimidating. And even for me, I was like, I can't meditate. I'm too stressed to meditate. Forget it. And that was ridiculous. That's exactly why I needed to meditate. People fear that they can't be still or they can't be quiet or it's too calm, it's too quiet. I need to be stimulated. No, you don't. You need to meditate.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:39:48

And that's why I love the Headspace app. It was the first attempt at meditation where it made my busy mind make sense. Like the way they explained the meditation made my busy mind make sense.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:39:57

And they have this great intro course where you work up to it and they explain it. And meditation is not the process of clearing your mind and having no thoughts.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:40:08

Yes.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:40:09

So people think, Well, I'm doing it wrong.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:40:13

That's what I thought for years. I was doing it all wrong because.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:40:16

My mind you're doing it right because you're noticing your thoughts. Yes. And that is all that we can ask, is that we notice our thoughts and we come back to it. We come back to the centering, we come back to the breathing, we come back to the focus. But you're going to have thoughts. They're going to come and go like clouds shifting in a blue sky.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:40:39

Yes. And it is kind of that practice of letting go and non judgment of the fact you're having those thoughts. Whereas before, when I would try to meditate, it was a complete practice in self judgment the entire time because I would be so frustrated myself that I could not have a clear mind and that I couldn't stop thinking. And that every time, because I would do yoga and they would try to get you and I'm like, no, my mind just doesn't stop. And I just get frustrated myself the whole time.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:41:04

And the more we notice and the more we observe and the more in tune we get with our body, with our breath, with our mind, the more we are going to be able to find that calm. We need it.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:41:19

Yes. And it's so meaningful, so for so many things. I love it. Yes, that was beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And then for our takeaway, for our audience, for our grit wit that they can take away and apply to their lives, what would you like to share with us for that?

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:41:34

A little bit controversial, but this is what I tell my folks and it's very simple. Do one thing less. We at heart, we are always trying to cram in more. It's like, OOH, I have this errand to run. Can I run this other errand at the same time? Can I squeeze this in? Can I fit this? And I've got all these appointments booked, but can I fit this other appointment in as well? And what ends up happening is that invariably we don't have enough time to do all those things. Like maybe theoretically we'd have enough time if everything goes perfectly and there are perfect parking spots and we hit all the green lights. But that's not how the real world works. So if we take something off of our plate, do one thing less, it allows us more space and breathing room to do those other things well and with less chaos and less panic. The other analogy I use is like when you're like if you're clearing the table or something and you've got all of these plates and cups and forks and things and they're all stacked high, and you're like, oh, there's that one more cup. And you reach for it and you try to balance it and all the dishes crash to the floor. If you had just not picked up that one cup and just be like, you know what, no, I'm not going to take that. I'm going to do it next time. I'm going to make two trips from the car with all the groceries so they don't fall and the bag breaks or I throw my back out and then out of commission for three weeks. So this is my revolutionary act that I would propose all of you try do.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:43:20

One thing less. I like the one thing less, as you were saying all of that. I had this image of me when I was in my mid 20s, probably, and I had roommates and the roommates never emptied the dish drainer because we washed dishes by hand, dish drainer, and I was not going to empty the dish drainer. And there was, like, one bowl to put on top. And I'm like, I'm not going to empty. I'm just going to put this bowl on top. And it was a glass bowl. Obviously not a good decision on my part. So I put the glass bowl on top, and, like, a bunch of dishes fell off, and the glass bowl shattered all over the floor. Other dishes broke. And so my roommate came home to me sitting at the dining room table, painting watercolors with broken dishes all over the kitchen, because I was like, just couldn't even deal. I just went and got my watercolors and started watercoloring, and my roommate came home, was like, what happened? I'm like I'm watercoloring right now. I'll clean that up later. I was like, I'm at capacity. I will clean that later. Because, yes, I should not have put that extra bowl on top. But that's what happens when you put that extra bowl on top.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:44:26

When you push that extra bowl, there's a reason. There's the expression like the straw that broke the camel's back.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:44:32

That's the thing. Was that Siri trying to help you.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:44:37

Out with that straw? Yeah, we don't need your help. It's a classic expression for a reason.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:44:43

Yes.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:44:43

I think that it ties back into so much stuff that we talked about, about different reframing, different societal expectations of this. More, more and and more do. Faster, faster, faster. Busier, busier, busier. Doesn't work. Doesn't work in the long run.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:44:59

Yes, it's okay to take one thing out and find the one spend your energy finding the one thing to take out instead of finding your energy trying to find the one thing you squeeze in. I love it, Dr. Zarya.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:45:10

Perfect. So let's tell people again where they can find you. So give us your Instagram handle if that's one of the best places in your website.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:45:18

My instagram is @drzaryarubin. That's on instagram. My website is www.drzarya.com. My Facebook group is the Burnout to Brilliance group, and you guys can find me there. You can sign up for my newsletter. You can join the decluttering challenge that's going on right now. And I do have an exciting partnership that I was going to talk about for a couple of minutes with an endometriosis clinic here in Portland, the Northwest Center for Endometriosis and Pelvic Surgery, which happens to be my husband's clinic. Dr. Nicholas Fogleson, he's amazing, and he's an endometriosis surgeon. And I know that endometriosis is one of those conditions that is so common among women and is so under diagnosed. And there's often a massive delay between time to presentation with symptoms and actual diagnosis because doctors don't believe women, and they're just told, like, well, periods are painful. It's normal. But it's not normal. No. And if you're doubled over in pain with your period and you can't function and you can't go to work, that's not normal. We should not normalize this and we should believe women and listen to this. And there's often just so many different manifestations of endometriosis. So I'm going to be working with the clinic and helping patients by providing them with functional medicine, coaching and counseling and services and testing either pre op or post op. Because often these patients require complicated surgery and there's just a lot of help that they need for the pain and also for they want to make dietary changes. And it's, like, complicated and it's a lot of work. And my husband and his partner, Dr. Shanti Moling, who's an incredible surgeon as well, they just don't have the bandwidth and the time to spend with patients to talk them through this for hours and hours and hours about how do you implement an anti inflammatory diet, how do you relieve stress at home. These are really tough things that require a lot of discussion and we'll leave the surgery to them and we'll leave the health and wellness and functional medicine coaching to me. So, yeah, for folks who are patients there or who are thinking about it or who have endometriosis, it's a great resource and I'm so lucky to be partnering with them.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:48:03

That is so exciting. They recognize the need for that to be integrated and women will get that additional support as part of that.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:48:10

Well, they know that outcomes tend to be better when patients implement these other lifestyle changes, but they're really hard to do. Yes, it's like, well, the studies show this, but it requires a lot of support and oftentimes typical medical clinics and offices, they just don't have the time to make that happen for patients. So we're really excited that we're going to be able to provide this.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:48:33

Yay, that's so wonderful. Dr. Zarya, I'm so excited about you doing your work period and about the lives that you're impacting and this perspective, it is so exciting because people that listen to my podcast know that I've had my frustrations with medical systems and delays, with getting supports around stuff. And your philosophy and your way of doing things is so beautiful and so important. So I'm so excited you're doing what you're doing.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:48:57

Well, I'm really excited to be able to share it and to have these opportunities like being on podcast like this. And I love public speaking, so if there's any other opportunities for events or workshops or conferences or summits, I'm really happy to do that as well and speak at your next event or anyone's event who's listening, who needs a speaker. I have a couple of gigs this summer that I'm really excited about. Just speaking about burnout, about work life balance, about burnout in medicine. That's a real near and dear to my heart topic. Yeah, it's just want to get that message out there and share it. We're not alone as women with this struggle that we have and need to just support each other and take care of each other.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:49:45

That's wonderful. So yes. So connect with Dr. Zarya, Instagram website, all these places, facebook group. That's wonderful. Thank you so much for being here today.

Dr. Zarya Rubin [: 00:49:54

Thank you for having me. It was wonderful.