SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey guys, are you ready to transform your mind so you can transform your life? Coach Wiggle brings you one-on-one coaching and expert guest weekly to get you to grow. Because happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy go.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Looking for personal growth? Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Yeah, so number one was understanding what was going on. So every day we would meet, and first he started coming to me because I couldn't move, right? And we worked together for about a month. It's actually pretty crazy because I mean, this could be a whole nother podcast, but I'll sum it up. I was in the hospital in the intensive care unit for about a month, and people beside me are being told they have two weeks to live, three weeks to live. And I'm like, I'm 22, I'm not 70 years old. I didn't live my life yet. Like, what am I doing here? That's pretty much it was terrifying. And nothing was showing up in my tests. And so they said, Miguel, we have to either send you home because your life is not in danger, or if you want to stay at the hospital and work with this doctor, we have extra rooms in the psych ward. So that was their offer to me. Either go home or stay in the psych board where the extra beds are. I was like, I'm not crazy though.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

But um essentially I think you didn't you didn't accept that. You didn't say to yourself you're crazy, or did you think for a moment that you might be crazy? This might be all in your head. Did you ever go there?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

No, good because you okay. I knew I knew I wasn't crazy. And they also said, you stay as a volunteer. Like you can go home anytime you want, but honestly, it's just proximity to the doctor. We got many extra rooms in there. So I ended up staying there for about a month, but that gave me the opportunity to work with my doctor. And every day he was drawing things on the board for me, uh, explaining principles like the stress threshold, what would happen if I stood up and walked around, why the symptoms are there, how to get rid of them. Um, but it built we built some like framework. So I understood why the symptoms came in the first place, why they're not going away, and they're getting worse, and also how do I get rid of them? Um, and so the first week I was bedridden. Second week, I graduated to a wheelchair, third week graduated to a walker. Um so first it was understanding logically what was happening. Essentially, there was a glitch in my nervous system in my brain, and all that we had to do was update that software.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Welcome back to the Transform Your Minds, the Transform Your Life radio podcast and television show. I'm your host, Life Coach Marina Young. And sitting in the guest show today is Miguel Batista. Miguel and I are going to be talking on the topic healing the nervous system and reclaiming your life. Welcome, Miguel.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, thanks so much for having me here. And first off, I just want to say, you know, thank you for doing what you're doing. I've listened to many episodes of your show, and really what you're building here is something super special. And I just wanted to acknowledge you for that because I know it's not easy doing hundreds and hundreds of episodes, but from that, you're creating a huge impact. I'm honored to be a part of it. And uh one more thing before we kick this off. For everybody listening, just do me a huge favor, go leave a five-star rating and review on whatever platform you're tuning in from so Myrma can impact even more people. So I already did mine over on Apple Podcasts. So just come join me and I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Wow, thank you so much for that, Miguel. I like people that you know, you know, acknowledge and give back. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. I love what I do. I not only love um uh leaving an impact, but I also love learning. This is life school for me. Every time I come on and I interview an expert like yourself, I go and make changes in my life. So I'm learning as well. So so thank you for that. All right. So as we dive in, I want to start off by asking you guys a question. Have you ever felt that something was wrong in your body, but no one could tell what it was? This episode is for anyone who has been dismissed, misdiagnosed, or told everything looks normal while silently suffering. My guest today is Miguel Bostista, a former athlete whose life changed overnight after severe burnout left him completely debilitated, bedridden, and fighting for his life. After countless hospital visits and no answer, Miguel hit rock bottom, moving in with his grandparents, how sad, being spoon fed, and spending months in a hospital. Well, what happened next is nothing short of extraordinary. Within 10 months, he went from being bedridden to hiking a mountain in Hawaii. Now he's helping thousands of people recover from conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID through nervous system regulation and brain retraining. So if you've ever struggled with unexplained symptoms, burnout, or emotional and physical exhaustion, this conversation can change how you see your healing journey. And that's what I want to bring to you guys. You know, I have been doing themes in the show, and this episode is gonna go into the nervous system regulation theme because it's very important. And once I started, you know, thinking of that theme, then everywhere I go, I see that. It's the big thing now. Nervous system regulation is very important. So that's where we're gonna be spending some time on. So, Miguel, I want to set the table for a conversation and understand your backstory. So take us back to your life at 19. What changed? What were your first symptoms and how the date progressed?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's been a long, long journey. And um, maybe I'll start with a 50,000-foot overview and then we can get into the nitty, nitty-ditty group, uh, nitty, gritty details. But yes, uh, yeah, my name is Miguel Bautista. I run CFS Recovery and you know, recovering from just mysterious debilitating symptoms like brain fog, for example, where no matter how much you sleep, you wake up feeling mentally drained and fatigued, where no matter how much you rest, you still feel like a zombie, along with dozens of other symptoms that just don't make sense. You know, um, those are the kind of things I experience. And, you know, it can feel very frustrating and hopeless. Uh, people dealing with these things, they want nothing more than to get back to who they used to be. Many people who are really sick, just they just struggle to find answers that actually work while being told it's all in their head or or you know, they're going crazy, and they end up trapped in this cycle of surviving instead of truly thriving, right? Losing years of their life to an illness that nobody seems to understand. And so, for a very high level, what I do is, you know, like you said, we help them fully recover using nervous system-based approaches and neuroplasticity. So they could not just get their life back, but really upgrade to the 2.0 version of themselves. So although we've worked with thousands of individuals, we have countless hours of case studies, you know, I'm somebody who actually went through this myself. I uh, as Myrna said, I was dealing with a lot of symptoms. I was hospitalized. I dealt with 50 plus symptoms at my worst, completely bannered and hospitalized, had to go from that to using a wheelchair, then a walker at 22 years old, um, and really build my life from scratch. But now I don't have any more symptoms. But what I'm really most proud of is watching people cry tears of gratitude or just being able to feel the wind on their face again without symptoms, or spend time at the dinner table with their family without any headaches, and really enjoy life again. And so I find it really interesting when people look at me today, they they say, you know, were you really that sick? Because you look pretty healthy. You could you could do a lot of things in your life. Um, and they're like, What's the secret sauce? Like, how do you do it? And um, there is no secret sauce, there is no one magic bolt to all of this. And my life isn't always how uh wasn't always how it is today, but it's been a long, long journey to get here. And it all started with um was really just pushing myself to my absolute max. So we actually rewind to go to when this all started. I think like a lot of people who develop these mysterious symptoms, I see something very common across all people. Like I was, well, I still am, but very type A personality, perfectionist, very analytical. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be quote unquote successful, right? And that led me to overworking myself. I was 18 and 19 years old, just overworking myself, um, having really a really bad sleep routine. I'd sleep maybe three or four hours a night because I was always working, I was taking a lot of coffees, energy drinks, um, putting in long shifts to try to be, you know, the best I could be, quote unquote. But that only led me down a pretty reckless path where I just kind of ignore the signs. And people who are type A personality, when they start developing these symptoms, some like symptoms like brain fog or insomnia or just some anxiety, before you even know what anxiety is, is you just try to push through. You almost see it as a a sign, a challenge of like, I'm not weak, I'm gonna overcome this thing. But eventually, you know, you you double down on how much work you're doing, and that leads to leads to faster burnout, right? And so it's a lot of symptoms dealing with it.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah, right. You remind me of this other interview that I did. I told you this is life school. I did an interview with a Navy SEAL, and he was talking about the same kind of thing where whether it's type A personality or just he is trained to go, go, go and never, you know, when you go through naval seal training, right? What you gotta do. So he exited that, and he was still in that mode, and he had the same thing where his his body just shut down. Um, and and and and now he's doing the same kind of work to help people um to recover from the burnout, and your body is resisting all that extra work that you're doing. So, what were you? You know, I'm still understanding you were an athlete. So, were you burning out yourself trying to to make a team stay on the team? Or what was going on?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, it was it was really just, I guess, watching a lot of YouTube videos, seeing all these fit people, and uh you're in this like endless competition with these people you see online, but also with yourself. Like, I guess there was some kind of body dysmorphia where you look in the mirror and you're like, no, it needs to be better. I need to do more cardio, I need to get more shredded. But you you kind of apply that to all aspects of life. It's it's a very extreme way of approaching life, but uh for me, it was more so just like I was a personal trainer at the time, trying to get as fit as I could, but ironically, it was wrecking my body.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

So you weren't you weren't on like a football team or something that you wanted to make the team or you know, something like that. You were just your type A personality, wanted you to be the best that you can be. I get it, I understand that. Yeah, I get it, right? So, okay, so why is that part of the you know, uh, the nervous system? Um, how how does the nervous system play into that scenario that you just gave us?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, so essentially what I learned um over the years, I mean, I had seen 40 or 50 plus doctors. It wasn't until I was completely bedridden in the hospital that I learned how the nervous system actually plays into all of this because I was absolutely at rock bottom, didn't think I was gonna make it another day. I was I literally couldn't even open my eyes in bed, but uh they paired me up eventually with this doctor who knew exactly what was going on, while all the other doctors had no idea. And um, everything he told me stuck. And the most important thing that really turned my recovery around, my whole journey that kind of gave me a second chance at life was this whole idea of how this is a hypersensitive nervous system issue that's causing the symptoms. But basically, how did this happen to me? Essentially, he told me we all have this maximum stress threshold of what is our limit of stimulation or stress our body can handle. Right now, over the years, you'll have things like finances, relationships, the pressure you put on yourself, lack of sleep, diet, all of these different factors come in and those things start to stack up. And eventually, if you push hard enough, you can go over that maximum stress threshold. And what that does to our brain, it kind of causes this supercomputer of our brain and our nervous system to kind of glitch out, right? It's like a glitch in a supercomputer, and when that happens, our brain is essentially trying to stop us from bringing on more stimulation that we can handle. So it's almost like a yeah, it's like a protection mechanism against ourself. So if I wanted to go do a workout, well, guess what? It would give me heart palpitations and have my legs burning. If I wanted to go study more about business, it would give me brain fog, you know. So it was throwing in all these different symptoms. But when you don't understand that's what your brain is doing, you you feel like your body is attacking you. You feel like your body is shutting down, right? And so it creates this anxiety loop of people thinking, you know, oh, my heart skipped, am I having a heart attack? Or, you know, my legs are giving out, do and I'm trembling. Do I have early onset of Parkinson's? Because what I've seen is when people start getting this, first they chase diagnosis. And um, I also want to be clear, I did all of this myself, so I'm not judging anybody. This is what most people go through. There's three things. First, they chase diagnosis, they go from specialist to specialist, hoping somebody will finally tell them what's wrong. But all the tests keep coming back normal, right? So now they don't just feel sick physically, they start to feel like they're going crazy. Like maybe they're making it up.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Somebody maybe might call them a hypochondriac, they're imagining things. That probably happens, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Absolutely. So it's a pretty dark place to be. So once they can't really figure out a diagnosis, they start to take it upon themselves, right? So they throw supplements and treatments at the problems, and hundreds, sometimes thousands or tens of thousands of dollars spent on things trying to fix their mitochondria, detox their liver, um, heal their gut, and maybe they get a little boost for a week, but then they're right back to where they started or worse. And um, now they've added the whole belief that okay, nothing works for me, right? So it starts to really mess with people's head. But third, people end up reverting to what they know best, which is just pushing through, right? They think if if I just force myself to go through this, if I just be more positive or or power through like I used to, I'll just break out of this. But that does the opposite effect. So the body kind of punishes them for it, right? So one good day, they start to feel decent, they try to jump back into things right away, it leads to three bad days and they end up crashing. And then they're now they're terrified to try anything because their world becomes smaller and smaller because they don't know what's going to set them off. And so, usually all these approaches they typically treat the symptoms, but they don't address, uh, they don't address the source, which is why none of that stuff typically works. And so the source is the nervous system that's stuck in survival and protection mechanism mode, right? So it was really important for me to understand my body wasn't broken physically, there was just a miscommunication between my brain and the body, which my brain aka the nervous system. And it's doing exactly what it's designed to do when it perceives danger. The problem is it doesn't know how to turn off. So until you address that, until you teach your nervous system that it's safe to come out of survival mode, nothing else sticks. Settlements don't stick, treatments don't stick. So that is kind of the key to all of this, at least what I've found.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Wow. And I'm sitting here and I'm thinking of someone that is going through those symptoms. And the first thing they do, they go to the doctor, they run a butt blood panel because they're thinking maybe I have a, you're right. They're thinking of diagnosis, maybe I have cancer, maybe uh, you know, um, maybe my organs are failing or something along those lines. And then it comes back and the doctor looks at the blood panel and says, There's nothing wrong with you. Um, but I bet you anybody they don't they don't prescribe rest. Maybe they tell them to get iron or something. Now, now, you know, because I'm in the in the in the wellness space, I might think when I hear nervous system regulation, I immediately go to meditation. Is that any the so what did you do? Let's talk about you for a minute. When uh your doctor said to you, okay, or the doctor understood what was going on, what was the first step to getting better? What did you do? Are you looking for daily immune support without the pills? Let me introduce you to Immune from Grooms. They are sour pineapple gummies packed with vitamins, minerals, and botanicals designed to support immune health, stress, resilience, and overall wellness before you feel run down. So, what makes immune different? They are packed with comprehensive 13-in-one blend with vitamin C, zinc, D3, B vitamins, elderberry, oshawagonda, turmeric, ginger, fiber, and more. Designed to work together, not rely on one hero ingredient. They're designed for daily use with balanced vitamin C, 200 milligrams, zinc, 15 milligrams, for consistent long-term immune support, not megadoses meant for emergencies. And they have stress support for patrogens like ashwagonda and holy basil. These help address everyday stress, a key factor that can weaken your immune system. So, who is immune for? Anyone who wants to stay well before things go downhill, especially people who deal with busy schedules and everyday stress, which is all of us. Or you travel, you're commuting, and you're exposed to germs, you know, in the airplanes or seasonal dips in wellness. Do you always get the flu during flu season? So if you're ready to improve your immunity, click the link in the show notes for a coupon code and let's start building up your immunity.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Yeah. So for me, there was really three main concepts that I had to do in order, right? Number one, it was first of all, understanding what is even happening. Because once things start to make logical sense, you can get out of that emotional and very reactive state, um, where you're in this downward spiral. So, number one, it was understanding what was going on. Number two, it was learning how to respond to symptoms. Uh, and then number three, it was just building capacity. Building capacity was the longest stage because you're going through these we call a progress cycles. Um, but nowhere, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So nowhere in there to he tell you to go meditate and uh you stimulate your vagus nerve because that's where I would go. Any there, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Um, I mean, that was one of the things, but I mean, people can meditate as much as they want, but if they're still freaking out internally and they're questioning like every time their symptoms come, but what is that? What is that? What is that without the understanding it they you know they kind of get stopped?

SPEAKER_02 21:09

All right, all right. So go through your stages. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah, so number one was understanding what was going on. So every day we would meet, and first he started coming to me because I I couldn't move, right? And we worked together for about a month. It's actually pretty crazy because I mean, this could be a whole nother podcast, but I'll sum it up. I was in the hospital in the intensive care unit for about a month, and people beside me are being told they have two weeks to live, three weeks to live. And I'm like, I'm 22, I'm not 70 years old, I didn't live my life yet. Like, what am I doing here? That's because it was terrifying, and nothing was showing up in my test. And so they said, Miguel, we have to either send you home because your life is not in danger, or if you want to stay at the hospital and work for this doctor, we have extra rooms in the psych ward. So that was their offering to me. Either go home or stay in the sideboard where the extra beds are. I was like, I'm not crazy though.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

But um eventually I think you didn't you didn't accept that. You didn't say to yourself you're crazy. Or did you think for a moment that you might be crazy? That's might be all in your head. Did you ever go there?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

No. Good.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Because you okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

I knew I knew I wasn't crazy. And they also said, you stay here as a volunteer. Like you can go home anytime you want, but honestly, it's just proximity to the doctor. We got many extra rooms in there. So I ended up staying there for about a month, but that gave me the opportunity to work with my doctor. And every day he was drawing things on the board for me, uh, explaining principles like the stress threshold, what would happen if I stood up and walked around, why the symptoms are there, how to get rid of them. Um, but it built we built some like framework. So I understood why the symptoms came in the first place, why they're not going away and they're getting worse, and also how do I get rid of them? Um, and so the first week I was bedridden. Second week, I graduated to a wheelchair, third week graduated to a walker. Um, so first it was understanding logically what was happening. Essentially, there was a glitch in my nervous system in my brain, and all that we had to do was update that software. Thing is, time like waiting to recharge wasn't gonna fix it. I had to like manually intervene and update that myself, which was step number two, responding well to symptoms. Basically, prior to meeting him, and this is how most people think as well, when they feel the sensation in their body, immediately when they're in survival mode, they think worst case scenario, right? It also doesn't help when the doctors aren't telling them, giving them answers, and they go to Google for these answers. Because Google, Dr. Google, is one of the worst things you can do when you're freaking out about um about certain symptoms. And so any symptom that came up, my initial response before met him was okay, yeah, vibrate internal vibrations and shaking. Uh-oh. Google says I have early onset of Parkinson's, brain fog, Google says I have early onset of dementia, uh dementia. Right. So my brain would always think worst case scenario. The problem with that is every sensation on one hand led to more fear and panic on the other hand. More panic and fear led to more emotions or led to more symptoms. It's like a magnifying glass on the sensations. And so I had to interrupt that. I basically had to kind of neutralize my response to those sensations and say, oh, that's just a glitch. That's a hypersensitive nervous system. And one thing that really helped myself and also everybody we work with is um, you know, as long as you've had all your tests and scans done and you've been cleared medically, that your organs are actually okay, just know that it may feel like this thing is trying to kill you, but it can't. Like it's not just gonna shut your body down. Um, if anything, it's still gonna do the opposite, it's gonna stimulate your body, but it feels like it's trying to kill you. So when my doctor said, I was in a wheelchair, he said, you know, if you really wanted to, you could go run down the street right now, it would suck. You'd I mean, you'd be going through hell with the symptoms, but it you're not gonna die, Miguel. It's not gonna kill you. But that was my biggest fear. That's and so once, yeah, yeah, once that was off the table, you know, it removed a lot of the fear because I could deal with discomfort, I could handle a lot of pain, but what I can't handle is like the thought of this thing killing me. But when I knew I couldn't do that is my goodness, yes. Exactly. So once I learned that, it made it a lot easier. It was still very difficult to respond to all the symptoms, but it was better, and that's how I slowly started getting better, and then that led to step number three, which is building capacity, you know. Essentially, it's kind of like working out. And as a personal trainer, this made so much sense to me. You increase activity, right? Which is for me, it was maybe just sitting up in a wheelchair feeding myself. That was a big jump from what I was doing. So I'd increase activity, I'd have this kind of flare-up with symptoms, but that was equivalent to like getting sore from a workout. My nervous system was just adapting to the new level of stimulus. And so I'd have this flare-up, but I'd then I'd pull back, just like you take a rest day after working out. But most importantly, I had to respond well to the fear when all the symptoms came up. But if I did it right, uh for everybody we've seen when they do it right, your body actually unlocks a new level of capacity, and you do that over and over and over again to the point where you don't have symptoms anymore. So that's how that's kind of how I overcame it.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Wow, this is such an important conversation in so many ways. I mean, uh, I have never actually been introduced to something like this. I know of the mind-body connection, and this is like the fourth time I've told this story, so it's just amazing. The other day I was at the gym, and I mean, fourth time I've told this story on my podcast. But it seems to be connecting everywhere. But I was just um something that shows us the mind-body connection, because that's the series I'm in right now. And I was at the gym last week, I think it was, and I just gone on the elliptical and I'm wearing a Fitbit, and I just started maybe five minutes in, and my Fitbit says, danger, danger, slow your roll, you know, and I looked at it, it's not your heart rate is 160. So my first immediate response is, Am I having a heart attack? I'm not working out that hard. And the minute I thought, am I having a heart attack? The same thing, my system responded. I started getting warm all over and whatever. But immediately, exactly, my body responded. But then I immediately countered that went, this thing is wrong. Some kind of glitch in the system. You know what I mean? I'm not having a heart attack, I'm a healthy person. I mean, I could still have been having a heart attack, but my point is that I went to the fact that I exercise every day, I eat well, I'm healthy, you know what I mean? So this must be wrong. And I continue working out. I didn't stop. I continue working out, check this thing, and you know, it came back normal. And the elliptical also has um uh something that's checking your heart rate as well. And that was like 116. And I'm thinking, okay, this thing is wrong. But I I repeat this story to tell the mind-body connection. The minute you have a thought, your body responds. So, but you're taking it to a different level where you know you're in this cycle where you're thinking you've got this uh, you know, mortal disease that is killing you. And every time you get a symptom, you're thinking you're closer to the grave, right? So I understand the fear. I understand that, you know, even if you're 90, you're probably still gonna have a fear, but you have to fear more when you're 22 and having lived your life. I remember there was one time I was in the hospital and I had a blockage. So, you know what I mean? And I'm thinking, I mean, I wasn't sure if I was thinking I was gonna die, but I said to myself, you can't die. You've got you gotta go to India. Number one on my bucket list. You gotta go to India. You can't die now. So I can't, you know, but listen, um, you can't always, you can't always say that. You know, I just finished watching Christopher Reeves' um, you know, Superman, you know, biography. And I've read his book and I've watched this thing like four different times, not this particular one, but they keep having different ones. And he was telling himself he was gonna walk again and he believed it and was trying. And then when his wife got cancer, she's saying, Oh, if my husband thinks he can walk again, I think I'm gonna be healed. They both died, right? So you can't always influence your um reality by your mind, but you can you can try, right? And so um it's it's an amazing thing that you did, and it's an amazing thing that you you worked through, and I'm glad that you did it because your life would have totally sucked if you didn't find our doctor or find some kind of acupuncturist or somebody in the not conventional medicine space, because you're going now to functional medicine, you're going now to Ayurvedic medicine and all those things that are different from yeah, let me check your blood planning plan out to see what's going on. So that that is amazing. And and the and the other side of that is now that you've gone through it, you can help people, but kids, can you imagine um uh what you just talked about, you know, sitting in a wheelchair and and having to build capacity to just feed yourself? That is that is amazing. I mean, I can't even fathom that. So and you circle back and yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

You know, it it was a very dark time in my life, as you could imagine. And I think a lot of people as well, like they're going through these things. I think one thing that isn't talked about enough is is like the the identity loss that people have, you know, they feel like they they lose who they used to be, they don't even know who they are anymore. So if somebody is dealing with these types of symptoms, like long COVID, very similar symptoms, we actually treated exactly the same as chronic fatigue syndrome. But there's somebody listening to this right now who probably used to be the most driven, active person in their circle, the one who never sat still, was always working, always moving, just always showing up. And maybe they were that person that everybody else could count on, right? The top performer, the top athlete. And then something happened to push them over that stress threshold. Maybe it was COVID, maybe it was years of pushing too hard, maybe they don't even know exactly what trigger it. But now they can barely make it through the day without needing to lie down. And maybe they've seen 10, 20, 30 specialists, maybe they spent thousands on supplements and treatments with all the tests coming back normal. And now they're sitting there thinking, if nothing's wrong with me, why do I feel like slowly dying? Right. And how this affects their life, you know, they probably stop making plans because they don't know if their body's going to cooperate. They've watched birthdays and holidays in life happen from the sidelines. And the worst part, I won't do this a lot myself, is they start to believe that's just who they are now, that they have to settle for that. So here's what I want them to know. On the other side of all of this is that version of you who wakes up and actually wants to get out of bed, jumps out of bed. They're hiking, they're traveling, they're spending quality time with their family, and they're back to doing the things they love. And they're not tracking every symptom, they're not second-guessing every decision, they're not watching life from the sidelines anymore. They're actually participating in life. And that's what I love about this whole space. What I what I've been through and what I get to do, what I have the opportunity of doing is helping people understand that these things they're dealing with, the fatigue, the crashes, the brain fog, they're not random, right? And they're definitely not all in your head. They're just signals from the nervous system that got stuck in survival mode. And once you understand what's happening, recovery just stops being a mystery and it actually becomes a process. Like there are actually things you could do. It's different for everybody, but it's almost like a formula where you absolutely can get your life back. Granted, as long as you've had your tests and scans done, I've seen people go from bedridden to skiing again in a year. People who are couched on work again, and this people overall get their lives back. So it's there, it's on the other side of this journey.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. I was telling you before we hit record that I had a gentleman on uh, you know, my show that um talked about that, and he was, yeah, he was in a wheelchair for a while, and then he understood um the energy leak, which is a totally different. It wasn't anything to do with the nervous system, but it was your your cells leaking energy and what allowed you to leak energy again. It's still not something that's gonna show up on your scans, right? It is, you know, a different form of this same where your body just shuts down and you, you know, you're better in. So, you know, I love what I do. I love bringing this content, I love learning myself because now if I if I have someone that's in my circle that's having this, right, now I'll be able to point them to, hey, you know what? Maybe you should look into this. Maybe you need to go see Miguel or, you know, or Harry. You know, someone, these people that is this in that. You don't need to travel to China anymore. If you know, you can get it done right here. So um that's amazing. Now you mentioned it a minute ago, long COVID. Um, and that's one of the things that I wanted to understand. Didn't make sense to me. I mean, I understand the nervous system as far as being in fight or flight mode or, you know, um uh chronic fatigue under brain fog and system, you know, the capacity that you just talked about. But COVID is is is a virus. I don't even understand that. So tell us about what's going on with our bodies where COVID is affecting our nervous system.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Yeah, so long COVID, it's actually well, with the diagnosis of long COVID or even without it, you know, if you feel like you have long COVID, sure, there's these things like microplots, um, protein, mnr, mRNA, things, things like that. But if you've had tests and scans from a doctor and they they their hands are in the air and they're saying, well, there's nothing we can really do, you know, just keep resting. We actually treat it exactly the same as CFS because all we see COVID as, and we've worked with literally hundreds and hundreds of long COVID cases, and they recover exactly the same as people with CFS. Um, we look at COVID as just one of those other um buckets of stressors that push people over their stress threshold. So people who typically have get long COVID.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

So it's a stressor, but it has nothing to do with the medical condition.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

No, like the medical condition of long COVID.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

The medical condition of COVID, because COVID is uh, you know, a virus, it's affecting your lungs. You know, you get this, you know, uh Cicadian storm or whatever they call it, that kind of thing. So yeah, it's it's it's has nothing to do with with the disease, it has to do with the stress on your body. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Yeah, exactly. Um, as long, and I want to make this very clear, uh, as long as you've had your tests and scans done and the doctors don't really have any other options, which is, I mean, that's most people long COVID. So, you know, when when people get long COVID, everybody we've seen, it's not like their life was perfect right before they got the COVID. Like they were burning the candle on both ends, they had that type of personality, they were already stressed to begin with, and they were dealing with some kind of sensations in their body. Nobody ever gets long COVID, who was just living a super chill life, uh, not working a whole ton, not having a lot of stress on their plate, right? And everybody we've seen just they were kind of exaggerates the thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Yeah, they were kind of burning the candle on both ends, and something was gonna tip them over, anyways, right? Something was gonna be that final straw that broke the camel's back. And when people with long COVID, it just happened to be getting a very intense flu, which is COVID. So it could have been COVID, it could have been a family member passing away, it could have been a job change. Any one of these things could be the thing that breaks the straw that breaks the camel's back. For people with long COVID, it just happens to be that very intense flu, COVID. Uh, and so they'll they'll do research on it, they'll try to detox and things like that, and sometimes it does work. But for the people who typically have the symptoms stick around, it's because their brain is was the brain was already hyperactive to begin with, right? They were already type A, already burning the candle on both ends. So the approach is actually exactly the same. I would say out of the thousands of people we've worked with, about 60 to 70 percent of them are diagnosed with long COVID. Um, but it's the exact same approach we use, as long as they've cleared out any other things happening in their body.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

Right. Like, you know, I mean, to me, I think when people think they have long when when the doctors say you have long COVID is when the COVID symptoms stick around, like you have the collar way or you know, some of the other things. Um, so you're saying that they had the symptoms, but the doctors say there's nothing they can do where they don't have the symptoms, it just feels shitty.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yeah, no, but it's it's it's exactly that. Like they they've had COVID, but it's been three or four years. Why are they still feeling those symptoms? You know, and it's it's more than just the coughing. Like maybe the coughing and the runny nose actually went away, but the brain fog is still there, if not worse. They feel aches in their body, um, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, insomnia, palpitation, shortness of breath, all these things. And it gets worse when they try to exercise or they go up a flight of stairs. So they have to be very careful with what they do during the day. And it almost feels like they're living life walking on eggshells. I have a second guess. If I go up to the mall, am I gonna be able to walk around and keep up with everybody else? Or if I go to this dinner, is is this the noise and people laughing and you know, the people bringing plates and stuff, is that gonna be too stimulating for me? Because for normal people, that's no problem. But for people with a hypersensitive nervous system, that could keep them up for days, you know, and that could flare out symptoms, but very sensor.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Wow, I'm learning so much for me, Miguel. This is amazing. I'm hoping you guys are learning as or you're blown away with this conversation as I am. Because this is like new information to my brain. All right, so thank you for that explanation. I mean, I couldn't get the connection, but I understand it now, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

So when we get to the other side, what does it look like? Do you get are you back totally to your pre-stressed days? Or, you know, sometimes you still get a flare-up. I mean, Han, what is it like on the other side?

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Yeah, that's a great question. This is a question I get asked a lot. Like, Miguel, are you really recovered, or are you just in like quote unquote remission? Right. And I think one of the one of the beliefs people have when they first start their recovery journey is I miss my old life. I've got to get back to what I was doing. I want my old life back. You know, so there's this, there's all these memories of their past life. But what we found is if you go back to your old life, you'll probably fall into the same patterns, which is pushing yourself way too hard, being very extreme in your thinking, uh, not giving yourself enough rest, right? So if you go back to your old life, you'll likely fall into the same patterns because history repeats itself. So what we really harp on is we're not getting you back to your old life, or that shouldn't be the goal. The goal is to create that 2.0 version of yourself where you're truly thriving, where you're truly living life and enjoying it, you know. So I'll use myself as an example. I am far, far past my capacity of what I used to do. You know, uh, I was on so many coaching calls last week and they're like, Are you really recovered? I was like, Well, I can work more than I used to, I can exercise more, um, I sleep better, I'm happier. And if we were to look at my old life, if that's like if that was the target of getting back to there and that was like a hundred percent recovered, well, I'm at like 500% recovered right now because I've far surpassed it.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

So that question, you get better.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

You get better, you get better, and most importantly, once you understand the stuff, you stay better, right? You're not looking over your shoulder thinking, is this thing gonna come back? Am I just gonna relapse? Like, is this gonna come hit me out of nowhere? It's not how it works. Like, once you recover once, you'd have to be kind of reckless or just ignore all the things that helped you get to that place. You'd have to do the opposite of that to get better. Now, I've tried, I've I've tested it. I am my own guinea pig just to make sure the stuff actually works because we're working with a lot of people. I showed up to Hawaii with zero training. I don't run. Uh, I was running on like four hours of sleep, and there was a marathon there in Hawaii in the hot sun. And I was like, you know, I'm curious. If I do this, am I gonna get symptoms? I'm curious. I will put my body and my reputation on the line just to see if I'm really recovered. So I ran uh the first portion of it, it was like 10 kilometers at like 5 a.m. on four hours of sleep and zero training, and I did it and no symptoms. I actually ended up doing hikes for the next six days. To watch the sunrise. Um, and I thought that was really cool. That even broke my beliefs around like, can you really surpass your previous level? So life does get a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Um, and that's why you could even look at this whole thing about that is that you didn't hit your capacity level, meaning that you didn't. I I guess that's why you're testing it. You're testing it to see if your body is gonna go back to the burnout, right? Okay, right.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Yeah, and that was like an extreme test. Like, I wouldn't recommend that for people, like even for a normal person, that is pretty crazy, but um, it I think it's just it helps, it helps show that there is a whole nother life after recovery. And I've seen it with so many people, like so many people who were living a certain life, got super sick, felt like they just got robbed of everything they've built for 40 or 50, 60 years of their life, but now they're actually happier. They're like, I actually do feel way better, I have more energy, I sleep better, and now I appreciate things that I didn't used to actually appreciate uh as much, like spending time with family, like eating good food, like getting good sunshine, because it's not until you're unable to do all of these things that you truly appreciate what you have in front of you. So it is like a gift.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

I understand that totally. I am so conscious about the fact that I have a great light. And I know that any minute it can change, you know. Looking at I told you the you know, documentary on Christopher Reeve, one minute he's Superman and one minute he, you know, um paralyzed from his neck down, you know, from his shoulders down. Um, yeah, things can change in an instant, right? So yeah, you've gotta, you've gotta appreciate and and and be grateful every single moment, every single day that you can do so many things that other people can't do. But, you know, um this conversation was such so fantastic because you don't have to break your neck, you don't have to, you know, have a disease, you don't your nervous system can just shut down. And it's it's it's amazing that it can do that. So awesome. So all right, so tell our listeners about your um recovery program um uh for you know people with CFS. And I and you can explain what that is and long COVID and related conditions, you know. You know, how do they get in touch with you? Um, you know, what do you offer? What does it look like? That kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, we have so many different resources for people. Uh, most of it is completely free. So I have a YouTube channel called CFS Recovery. There's almost 2,000 videos on there. Uh, I spent many hundreds of hours filming these things to basically answer any questions you have about recovery, any roadblock you're running into. There's a YouTube channel there. Um, and we also have our different recovery systems that people can use uh where we can work one-on-one with people. We have a diagnostic assessment, really, so that the recovery is data-driven. We can actually look at your symptoms, look at where you're at, your history, all of that stuff, and create some kind of personalized plan so you know what to do, not just physically, but also like mentally and emotionally. What are the biggest things to work on? Um, so I would recommend actually going to the YouTube channel first, getting familiar with it. Um, but I do have something that I put together specifically for your audience because Myrna, one thing I love about you is you're constantly providing so much value for these people. Um, so I wanted to do the same. So I put together something called a recovery roadmap protocol. It's a free resource. Um, it's not for somebody who wants just a magic pill or a quick fix, it's not going to cure you overnight. Um, and it's for somebody who is open to new ideas about how they can go about their recovery if they have CFS or long COVID, right? So if you're dealing with these symptoms, which a lot of the time it falls under this exact category, and you're doing all the right things, you're following the advice, you're resting when you're told to rest, uh, pushing when you're told to push, but nothing is actually working. And you're just super frustrated. This is for you, right? So there's two parts to it. Part one is it's the recovery stage identifier. It's a very short diagnostic. It shows you where your nervous system is at, um, why what you've been doing hasn't probably hasn't worked and what you should be focusing on right now. And uh part two is what I'm most excited about. And honestly, I debated whether to include this or not, because this is for our paying clients, but for this, it's free. It's the personalized recovery report. So it's that detailed personalized analysis based on your situation that kind of maps out what's keeping you stuck, what you need to change, what to double down on, but more importantly, like the exact order those changes need to happen in. So it's like a sort of recovery decision-making framework. So I put together a special page for this podcast. It's at www.cfsrecovery.co slash Myrna M Y R N A. Once again, that's uh CFSrecovery.co slash Myrna. If you want that recovery stage identifier and the personalized recovery report, all right. It's it's like a it's like a package, the recovery roadmap protocol. You'll be able to get immediate access to that. So something special for your audience, Myrna.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Thank you, Miguel. That's beautiful. Yeah, I mean, I think this was a really amazing conversation. And um, there should be a lot of people that um, you know, that would be able to go to your page and um get more information because you know, once your brain is expanded with knowledge, I love that. I haven't said that in a long time. But once your brain is expanded with knowledge, there's no going back. So now your brain is expanded with knowledge. So now you need to get more detail and and heal yourself because that sounds like a really sucky existence. So I, you know, I hope that um, you know, this conversation at least, you know, triggered something in you is that yeah, you can feel better, you can uh live your best life right now. So you don't have to settle for not feeling well. So it's amazing. So I will have definitely links to um uh you know Miguel's, you know, you know, page. What is your regular website? Just CFSrecovery.co.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Yeah, that's a regular website. Okay, all right. I'll also definitely link out to that. What's your social media handles?

SPEAKER_00 50:52

It is CFS Recovery on Instagram and YouTube. It is also CFS Recovery.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

Okay. I like that. All right. Okay, awesome. All right, wow. This was an inspiring and eye-opening conversation. You know, and if there's one thing to take away from today's episode, is this just because your symptoms aren't understood doesn't mean that they're not real. It doesn't mean healing isn't possible. Miguel's story is proof that even at your lowest point, your body has the capacity to heal when you begin to work with it instead of against it. So if this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs hope today and who needs to hear this information. I know you know someone that is, you know, stuck with burnout and low energy and don't want to do anything, and maybe it is not to the other end of the spectrum, but it could be getting there so they can they can um um benefit from this information as well. And if you're ready to start transforming your mind and your life, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, and visit myhelps.us, which is the show page, for more resources. And I will have, you know, a short article on my conversation with Miguel there. So you can head over there for the blog and you'll see all the links there. It's very, you know, the the link is very easy to remember. But um uh yeah, so I will have that. Now, um, Miguel, I really enjoyed our conversation. So as we wrap up, do you have any final words of encouragement for our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 52:35

Yeah, I want to leave them with this. You know, if you've been dealing with this stuff for months, years, if not even if not decades, just know that as dark as it may seem, as uh as crazy as the stuff you might have read on Reddit or Google might seem where there's no recovery for the stuff, or like 5% recovery rate, just know there are thousands of people all around the world recovering from this letdown, right? Just from from what we've seen, we we have over like 60 hours of recovery case study interviews, but that's just us. Imagine all the other people out there who you never even hear about. So if they can do it, and if there's some stories and people out there who've had this really bad, hospitalized dark room for years, and now they're out there living their life, imagine what's possible for you. And so don't give up, don't lose hope. And there's obviously a reason you're still listening to this right now because you do have that little spark of hope. You know, you wouldn't be listening to something for an hour while dealing with your symptoms if you didn't have that inside of you. And that's exactly the kind of person who overcomes this kind of illness. So I believe in you, Myrna believes in you, and there's so many people who have done what you're trying to do, and um your life is is waiting for you on the other side of this. So you got this.

SPEAKER_02 53:54

Yes, yes, yes. Hope and encouragement. That's where we're that's where we're selling here. Hope and encouragement. So that's amazing. All right, Transformers, listen, and remember your healing starts in your mind and flows throughout your body. Miguel, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you guys for tuning in to this week's episode of Transform Your Mind to Transform Your Life. Until next time. Namaste.