#148: Why You're Anxious, Tired, & Sick—and What to Do About It | Jackie Mulligan
So many of us feel depleted and exhausted, yet we might not know why. This is especially true for those of us from divorced or broken families. Research shows that children of divorce typically have worse physical health and more emotional problems.
But thankfully, that doesn’t have to be your story. Going from depleted to healthy on every level is not only doable—but simpler than you think, according to my guest.
In this episode, we discuss:
9 often-overlooked pillars of health that could be sabotaging your wellness.
The top 4 areas of health where most people need to start.
Quick and simple tips you probably haven’t heard to feel and be your best.
If you’ve struggled with your health in any way or just desire to be healthier, this episode is for you.
For 10% off, use code: RESTORED10 (valid until June 15, 2025) Comment end
Get Dakota’s FREE Guide: The Biggest Fitness Mistakes to Avoid
Links & Resources
Full Disclaimer: If you purchase through the links on this page, your purchase will support Restored at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
To leave feedback, comment below or contact us.
Enjoy the show?
To be notified when new episodes go live, subscribe below.
As a bonus, you'll receive the first chapters from our book, It's Not Your Fault: A Practical Guide to Navigating the Pain and Problems from Your Parents' Divorce.
TRANSCRIPT
Transcript produced by artificial intelligence. Please pardon any errors!
Jackie (00:00)
Everybody's busy.
Everybody drinks a lot of coffee and we're just becoming used to feeling sick and tired all the time It's just become the norm, you know Not having a healthy digestive system not being able to sleep through the night Like these are things that are very very common my goodness people will say to us all the time like wow This is really radical and we'll respond and say no what's radical is how we're living now. This is radical We're living in a rat race is radical bodies are designed to heal themselves. We shouldn't need all these other factors
Wow.
Joey (00:31)
You're a master
at this. This is so helpful and I love it. ⁓
Jackie (00:34)
have
nine wellness pillars that we use to define.
Joey (00:37)
What are some of maybe the the misconceptions or myths around like health and wellness?
Jackie (00:42)
You know, we are the ones who overcomplicate it. Giving your body some predictability and some consistency is a really great way to maintain balance and order. We are all overcommitted. We are stretched and our expectations are so unrealistic of ourselves.
Joey Pontarelli (00:59)
Welcome to the restored podcast. I'm Joey Panarelli. If you come from a divorce or broken family, this show is for you. help you heal your brokenness, navigate the challenges and build healthy relationships so you can break that cycle and build a better life.
My guest today is Jackie Mulligan. After years of stress and compromised health, Jackie found a secret that led to freedom and on every level. Now she helps others find the same through reform, a Catholic functional medicine and holistic wellness apostle, which she founded and now leads as their CEO.
Through their week course and live sessions, Reformist helped thousands, priests, moms, CEOs and more heal mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Jackie holds three master's degrees, one in in secondary education and a third master's, which you'll soon hear about in this show. She's also a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, holistic nutritionist, certified nutritionist consultant and so much more.
I think the reality for so many of us is so many of us feel depleted, we feel exhausted, yet we might not really know why, be able to put our finger on it. And this is especially true for those of us who come from divorced or broken, dysfunctional families. For example, research shows that children of divorce typically have worse physical health and more emotional problems. But thankfully that does not have to be your story. Going from depleted to healthy on every level is not only doable, but it's simpler than you think, according to Jackie.
In this episode, we discuss the nine often overlooked pillars of health that could be sabotaging wellness. We talk about the top four areas of most people need to start. Jackie offers some quick and simple tips you probably haven't heard to feel and be your best. And if you come from a dysfunctional or a divorced Jackie shares some powerful truth that could rewire how you see yourself and what you believe is possible. And Jackie opens up too about the moment that just changed everything for her in her health journey.
and the breakthrough that you had in that moment. If you've struggled with your health in anywhere, you just desire to be healthier, episode is for you.
Now in this episode we do talk about God and faith and if you don't believe in God you're totally welcome here. Anyone who's been listening to this show knows that this is not a strictly religious podcast and so wherever you're glad you're here. If you don't believe in God my challenge to you would be this, just listen with an open mind. Even if you skip or take out the God part you're still going to benefit a lot from this episode. And with that, here's our conversation.
Joey Pontarelli (03:16)
Jackie, welcome to the show. It's so good to have you.
Jackie Mulligan (03:18)
thank you so much, Joey. I'm grateful to be here.
Joey Pontarelli (03:21)
For everyone listening who doesn't know reform wellness is, what you guys do, would you give us a quick explanation?
Jackie Mulligan (03:27)
Sure. We are Catholic functional medicine practice and holistic wellness apostolate. And so we define health as the state of the body and the soul together. And we invite the people that we work with to return to a life of simplicity centered on Christ. And so essentially we help people reclaim wellbeing, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, to help them become the best versions of themselves.
so that they can experience the fullness of life the Lord promises us. And so work with priests and religious, but we work with mostly laity, in person and online from all over the globe.
Joey Pontarelli (04:08)
Beautiful. And who's the typical person you work with in terms of like lay people? Is there a certain age or is it kind of run the gamut? Men, women, just curious.
Jackie Mulligan (04:15)
Well, we work with mostly women, but it's interesting because the men that we do work with will say, wow, guys really need this. Do you work with more men? But I don't know if it's a timing thing or just that.
sometimes reform in itself appeals to more women in our approach, but we do typically work with women, though we are welcome to working with anybody. so, yeah, I would say that women between 30 and 50 are like main clientele, but certainly not limited. I think some of our favorite pairs to work with are like mother daughters, which is really beautiful.
But really, Joey, we have, you know, CEOs and athletes and moms and like I said, religious, you know, everybody really comes through for different reasons. And not just looking for physical healing, but actually I would say mostly for other kinds of healing. And it's really beautiful for us to be able to help all these different walks of life.
Joey Pontarelli (05:12)
Beautiful, no I love that. And I'm curious, why do you care? Why do you care about this? Why does this matter so much to you?
Jackie Mulligan (05:19)
You know, I was just at dinner last night and I was with the Dean of the school that I'm about to receive my, my master's in theology. just handed in my thesis and it was a really just a huge milestone for me. And we were talking a little bit about reform and she, she stopped me and she was like, you really love what you do. And it really is true. And I feel so very grateful for that gift. I feel such purpose in,
in what I'm doing. And I think it's because I had such a personal experience in the beginning of starting reform. And that was my own realization that if I wanted to be holy well, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, I really needed to put the Lord at the center of my life, to not compartmentalize him, to not give him access to some areas of my heart or some areas of my healing or some areas of my life.
but rather give him access to everything, which he saw anyway, but gives us free will. And so I love it because I really do see people healing. It's so much more than even what we offer, but it's watching what the Lord does in people's lives. Like when they give their yes and live from a place where they're really embodying their truest.
identity as a beloved daughter or son of Christ and really allowing themselves to tangibly believe that and feel that, but then approach their healing from that place, knowing who the Lord is that nothing is impossible for him. Like really amazing things happen. go through all of the barriers that we once put up and we begin to desire to live better.
And I watch that every day, Joey. I watch people say yes to the Lord in big and small ways. And I am really a facilitator. I'm guiding people toward the ultimate healer. I'm certainly not healing I do love it so much and it's such a gift. And I care because I want people to go to heaven. And I want them to be healthy while they're here and experience everything that we get to offer earth.
I fully alive means that we receive the gift of the joy and the sorrow. It's not just perfect, but it's like the cross is being fully alive and that is the joy sorrow, right? And so St. Augustine has a quote attributed to him that would maybe summarize, you know, my real why. that is that,
Joey Pontarelli (07:33)
Hmm.
Jackie Mulligan (07:48)
taking care of your body as if you're gonna live forever. So really revering the gift of your body, but then taking care of your soul as if you're gonna die tomorrow. So there's this like sobering invitation to tend to your whole person that you're prepared for longevity and heaven. And that's really how I believe people will be motivated to tend to their wellbeing in a very holistic but realistic way.
Joey Pontarelli (08:14)
love all that and no I could tell you care so deeply and it's beautiful. Congrats on the finishing your masters and you see it so often that you know I think I'll speak as a man it's so easy to compartmentalize life like I know people who maybe are very spiritually strong but their bodies are kind of falling apart or on the flip side I know people who they're completely ripped like they're super strong healthy like in that regard but
they take care of their body to such a pristine level, their souls are not in good shape. And so I'm sure you see that left and right. So it's so cool that you're trying to bring that balance, trying to bring that harmony, trying to just help people live that life fully alive. And other thing I know we were talking before we recording about just like life and how it's hard. I it's an important paradox to acknowledge that life can be hard, there can be challenges.
But you could also live it in a really full and joyful way. It's not meant to be drudgery constantly. It's not meant to be something that there's no joy in. It's not all discipline. There's so much goodness in life. There's so much beauty. There's so much truth. So yeah, that's kind of a paradox I guess I've been wrestling with a little bit lately of how life can be hard, but it can be so good and so beautiful. And that's something I've realized, I'm getting married and starting a family too, how my life did not get easier, certainly.
married, know having kids and everything but but in so many ways has gotten better And so I think there's an important lesson there, but yeah, I love to hear your thoughts on any that
Jackie Mulligan (09:37)
Well, it certainly doesn't get easier and I think that that's sometimes the fear of like, why would I change if this might get harder? It's already hard or I'm already suffering. So if I allow the Lord to be a part of this healing, what if he doesn't do what I want him to do? And what if I don't get better? What if I suffer and sacrifice even more and I'm worse off?
That's a very understandable fear, certainly. But I think what we're all really desiring, Jo, if we peel back all these layers, is a deep connection and intimacy with the Lord a meaningful, purposeful life. And I think our vocations really bring that out. And what we have to do is not only reorient our priorities toward our vocation, but first, going back to identity,
reorienting our lives to first have a relationship with the Lord. And I know not everyone who listens has a relationship with the Lord. And so even just that curiosity of, you know, what am I truly hungry for? What am I yearning for? And am I expecting this fulfillment that I might be only able to find in place to come from people or places or things or
quote unquote And so what you likely learned entering into different aspects of your vocation as a husband and father is that you have to reorient your posture toward the duties being served first, first of course toward the Lord, but then toward your wife and then family and then your work. And so I think that when those are
out of order, we become out of order, like literally broken, and, and sick. and so maybe it's not easy, but we can simplify it. And I don't think we actually ever really want the easy way, but we want the, feels right. What feels peaceful? What feels, like there's true connection. Cause things can be hard, but when you're doing it with someone,
you know, the yoke is lighter. so first, you know, are we trying to just be self-sufficient and self-reliant and do it all on our own? Or are we allowing the Lord and others to help us even in the midst of the hard? So those are just a couple of thoughts on what I would say on life being hard and the easy way as well.
Joey Pontarelli (11:53)
I love that. I recently gave a talk to high school students on this topic of life being hard and pain and everything. And there was a mom, a woman who shared a video from, I think one of the former coaches of the Duke women's basketball team. And she had this awesome couple minute clip. We'll link to it in the show notes about how life doesn't get easier, you just get better at hard. And I thought that was really brilliant, kind of summarize some of what we're talking about here. The other thing I just wanted to mention,
I love how you have a definition of health because I think so often we talk about health, the wellness, whatever, but we never really know quite what we're talking about. And so I love that you have that. I think it's so important to have that blueprint. But I'm curious, what are some of maybe misconceptions or myths around health and wellness that maybe we fall into believing that are kind of harmful?
Jackie Mulligan (12:39)
we let things that are part of defining our health fully define our health. And so it's the scale or our body composition or our bank account how many friends we have, followers on social media. I think sometimes these indicate maybe how well we are doing or our health.
reframe that in a lot of ways at Reform. We have nine wellness pillars that we use to define our health because there are so many different ways that the world invites us to measure our health that I think are not fully indicative of our whole person well-being. And so we have faith at the center of all of our pillars. And so that's the first one. And the eight other ones are sleep, stress management, personal growth, nutrition.
play, functional movement, community, and space. So we take all of these different pillars and we help people to approach them not only with the Lord, but with the motivation to open to letting the Lord inform their decisions. So for example, as we approach nutrition, know, there are
at this point, gazillion different diets we could follow and a different, a lot of different ways that could motivate our macros or our weight or, a lot of different factors that can contribute to our choices in nutrition. we ask people to simplify it in the sense of how would you eat if you remembered that you're a beloved daughter or son of Christ? You know, how would you choose to nourish your body?
if you really rooted in your truest identity and if you want it to be healthy physically and spiritually. the truth is that most of us know how we ought to eat. We know we ought to eat real whole foods. We are the ones who overcomplicate it it really doesn't have to be complicated. Now, nutrition and food can be medicine and there are certain seasons where certain foods can help us more than others. But intuitively, Joey, most people know that
sugar isn't going to make them more healthy or that alcohol isn't going to make you more healthy. And so, there isn't like a good or bad, but rather approaching the wellness pillars, in a rightly ordered way to say, well, if I really understand who I am and who the Lord is, then I would choose to nurture my body, in a way that would really be life giving. And, and I do find that people stop focusing so much on
the scale macros or about the foods that they're eating or not eating and focus more on like the freedom that comes with their identity. And often when using nutrition as example, because it's one of the most common ways that people measure their health. But when people are focusing on a diet or on their nutrition, even if it's for a good reason, like to heal their gut,
Sometimes that becomes like the center of their life, becomes the idol, like the only thing they're thinking about is their nutrition and there's not a place for the Lord or for healing to happen that attachment and control.
Joey Pontarelli (15:39)
That makes so much sense. And I love what you said at the beginning, especially too, just kind of misattributing, or using the wrong measuring stick for health and wellness and all that, because I think, yeah, so common. But I love everything you said. I'm curious, of the nine pillars, what are the ones that are like the most immediately helpful for most people? Like, obviously, I'm sure it varies from, you know, this person to that person, but what are the ones that you guys see like, ⁓ you know, typically these like one, two, or three,
are the most immediately helpful.
Joey Pontarelli (16:07)
Okay, real talk, if you've been trying to get in shape so you feel better physically and emotionally, but nothing is working, you're not crazy. I've been there myself. I recently read a free guide by Dakota Lane, a certified personal trainer who we've partnered with that's helped about a thousand people. And it was really helpful for me personally.
In the guide, he breaks down the biggest fitness mistakes that we all make like under eating, overstressing, or focusing too much on the scale. And he gives really simple practical tips that you could actually use that you can implement today.
And so if you're tired of feeling like you're never gonna get in shape, just click on the link in the show notes and grab the guide today. It's totally free and it might just be the thing you need to start feeling healthier physically and emotionally.
Jackie Mulligan (16:46)
Yeah, the ones that we have to do every day. So faith, prayer every day, sleep and nobody gets enough of it. ⁓ And really nourishment, nutrition, nourishing our bodies. I would even venture to say that stress management comes up right after that. know, people come and think we're gonna go right into movement or tell them exactly what to eat and we don't even get there until like that, you know, the second part of our course, but.
really approaching their health of first to say, are a body and a soul together. You're not a body without a soul. They're not two different parts of you. They're one whole and one affects the other. And so it's almost like why you're not sleeping or why you're not praying is more important than what you're doing when you're praying or what you're eating. And so we're looking at the real motivation, the why, and we have found
that when your why is connected to the Lord and heaven longevity, you're more...
able and willing to be consistent than if it was something fleeting like I want to lose 10 pounds or I want to make X amount of money. Those things are motivating in a very temporary way. And so it is beautiful to give it real meaning and depth. But I would say that most people need, we start with their sleep and their prayer life and we see so much change. see more, we see weight loss happen without even touching nutrition and just looking at
prioritizing sleep and prioritizing the relationship with prayer.
Joey Pontarelli (18:16)
I love that. I was listening to Gary Brekka. He's like a biohacker for anyone who isn't familiar. biology and did whatever degree in that. And then he was working for an insurance company predicting how many months people had to live. And he just learned a lot about health by looking at all these different places. So some people maybe don't follow all of what he said, but I found a lot of what he said helpful. And one of his lines is that belief disconnected from biology. Like biology and belief are like
so tightly wound and I also love that like the body soul combination how we're yeah certainly we need meaning we need grace we need all those things but curious in all those like four that you mentioned you know sleep nutrition faith and you know stress management let's put that in there too what's like one tip that you would give to everyone listening maybe in each of those if yeah you pick where to start but I'm curious if they had like one quick tip if you're like passing someone on the street what would you say to help them improve in that area
Jackie Mulligan (19:10)
Yeah, of course. For faith, I would start there because we need the Lord. We need him and in order to have a connection with him and to invite him into our healing and to not do this on our own, we need to pray. And so we recommend only praying every day, but praying early. So prioritizing that first things first. So prioritizing prayer before you touch your cell phone, before you start answering emails.
give him the first fruits and we recommend 30 minutes a day. You might want to work your way up to that. and there's no formula. you know, there's a lot of different, really beautiful ways to, to pray. but yeah, starting with prayer early and often, to reorient your day and to hand over your day to the Lord. You know, Joey and I were just speaking before we started the episode of how we like to come into the day with our own plan. And when that gets changed, you know, sometimes it can feel.
Frustrating or disrupting, but the truth is that that's the way it is every day. We just think we have control. And so it's so beautiful to hand over keys back to the Lord who has the keys anyway. And that's a really beautiful thing to do in the morning to hand over your worries, to offer your intentions and to prioritize the things that might be on your plate that day. So that's how I would start with faith. With sleep.
Absolutely prioritizing a time to unplug and having a consistent bedtime and wake time so that our body has so many different things that it has to do during the day to sort of manage your stress and the things that are so unpredictable that giving your body some predictability and some consistency is a really great way to maintain balance and order.
but to also allow you to have adequate rest and sleep. So this might sound crazy to some who don't get a lot of sleep, but we recommend seven and a half to nine hours, minimally, for adults. I think a great time to unplug around nine, nine thirty and getting to bed around 10. The earlier you can unplug, the better. The less time you have with blue
which can disrupt the production of melatonin, the better. that's, that's sleep, nutrition. This sounds a little bit too straightforward sometimes, but I don't think enough people do it. And so one of our recommendations is to sit down for your meals for 20 minutes, not eating on the go, not eating, ⁓ while you're working or in front of a screen or driving or commuting. but rather sitting down for your meals.
saying a quick prayer of gratitude for the food that you're about to literally going to fuel your body for the day. ⁓ but also it helps you to slow down and chew your food and give adequate time for digestion. Gut health is like the root of disease these days. And, ⁓ I think it's a lot of, because of how we're eating, ⁓ or maybe even more so than what we're eating, but also, Joey, if you think about it, you would
Joey Pontarelli (22:03)
Hmm.
Jackie Mulligan (22:06)
want to put more nourishing foods on your plate if you're going to be sitting down and presently eating and allowing yourself to nourish slowly. And sometimes I think we don't pay attention to what we're eating because we're just eating it on the go and it's just out of convenience. so sitting down for your meals sounds relatively straightforward and almost overly simplistic, but there's so much that can happen in being present and sitting down with your food.
All right, we have one more that I'll go over, stress management. So stress management, I think you have to know what your stressors are. So one of the most inconvenient things is to pause and actually identify what is on your plate. Like what are your stressors, what's on your plate? And so taking the time to really define, these are the top three things I'm stressed out about. And being very, very honest about can you control any of those stressors?
Joey Pontarelli (22:31)
I love all that. Yeah, this is great.
Jackie Mulligan (22:59)
And if you can, what it take taking one step toward that, that stressor most people will realize that, they're stressed and they don't, skip this step and they just start doing something just to get something accomplished rather than the thing that, that actually is urgent and important. and so really identifying what's urgent, what's important and what you have control over. Commonly we see people stressing about things that are
not in their control, that it's God's business. They need to hand it over to him, that somebody else's cross that they can't fix. So identifying where you maybe need to hand it over in prayer or to delegate or ask for help. And just that small five minute reflection can often reduce stress, but also help you to see that your mind might be making something bigger than it is, or that you have very little control over the worries that are keeping you.
stressed.
Joey Pontarelli (23:52)
So good, wow, you're a master at this. This is so helpful and I love it. So if I got this all right, let me see if I got it all right. So prayer 30 minutes a day before phone, before email, before screens and work and everything like that. With sleep, get to sleep by 10 p.m. at least, start shutting down an hour or so before, if I maybe heard that wrong. Don't use blue light if you can to help your melatonin production so you can fall asleep and have a restful.
night and then get up at the same time every morning if you can. When it comes to nutrition, sit for at least 20 minutes to eat your meal. Don't eat on the go. Don't eat in front of a screen. And then when it comes to stress, just really identify what are the stressors, what's controllable, what's not. Control the controllables and then leave the rest to God. So did I get that?
Jackie Mulligan (24:35)
Absolutely. Yeah, you did. You're a good student,
Joey Pontarelli (24:36)
Awesome, love it.
Trying to learn,
no, I need this too. Cause yeah, and on that last note, I think it's so easy, especially if you overcommit or have the tendency to overcommit like me, ⁓ that you can, yeah, just kind of run ragged, like you said, and just be on autopilot to where you're just like, you're not even breathing. I find myself at time, like if I like feel my body, I'm like literally tense. And so I think it's helpful to step back and to think through like, okay, you what do I need to focus on? What's like you said, the most important.
the most leveraged item that's gonna help me. So anyway, love all of that. was curious, kind of shifting gears a little bit, about like the nervous system. So I know we can't spend too much time here, but I'm curious, like, know, talk to me like I'm a third grader and teach me a little bit about the basics about the nervous system that might be helpful on the content and the courses that you guys have.
Jackie Mulligan (25:20)
you
Sure. So we have two parts of our nervous system, our parasympathetic and our sympathetic. So our parasympathetic is our rest and digest, and that's where we should be living most of the time. Our sympathetic was our fight or flight. that is if basically if we've experienced a stressor, if, you know, somebody ran a red light or you're being chased by an animal, like you would tap into the fight or flight and then you would quickly recover and go back into
your rest and digest or your parasympathetic. that is how we are designed. Our modern world lives in their sympathetic and sometimes taps into their parasympathetic. And so I'm actually gonna connect this to something you just said about overcommitment because we are all overcommitted. We are stretched and our expectations are so unrealistic of ourselves. And I think what we often see at reform
is want to skip over the basics because it feels too simple and they think I have to do something harder. the recommendation I just gave you, they sound like, oh, I kind of knew that. And that's like relatively simple. Like I can pray every day and I can unplug, but nobody's doing it. And so we want to do these harder things. We want to train for a marathon or lift really heavy, you know, say yes to more and more commitments, which aren't bad things.
but they need to happen after we have the foundations in place. And what we help people do is literally set a new foundation with consistency and prioritizing a simple life where things happen at the same time or in the same way every day, where you're literally living a daily rhythm, which is how we were intended to live. And then you can fill it in with other yeses, but your first yes is to the Lord, to health, and to heaven. Like those yeses happen every day.
And then you can give other yeses to additional things on your capacity. And, I think that's the only way we can really live in our parasympathetic. Otherwise, as you say, we can just say yes to everything. And we're sort of just like a ping pong ball. You forget to breathe and you're just reacting and surviving. And like, we were not meant to be in survival mode. You know, we can be in our sympathetic and seasons of, big traumas or big stressors, but
you're designed to then go back into your parasympathetic and like recover and rest and not the other way around. And so sadly we see almost everybody that comes through our door completely depleted, stressed out, exhausted, they're not even realizing that they are. What we have deemed as normal is that everybody's busy. Everybody drinks a lot of coffee. Everybody, you know, escapes when they're
Joey Pontarelli (27:55)
Mm.
Jackie Mulligan (28:04)
you know, into things that really don't make us healthier. When they need a little adventure or fun, and rather than being childlike, it ends up being childish. And we're just becoming used to feeling sick and tired all the time. It's just become the norm, you know, being reliant on coffee or medications.
Not having a system, not being able to sleep through the night. Like these are things that are very, very common. If you're sitting around the table with your family or friends, like everybody would, would say one of those things. And what we need to normalize is being healthy and for our bodies to live in the way that they were intended, but also to, have days that were at the pace that, that they were intended to live. so, you know, Joey, people will say to us all the time, like, wow, this is really radical. And.
will respond and say, what's radical is how we're living. Now, this is radical. We're living in a rat race is radical, but not living simply.
Joey Pontarelli (28:59)
Love it. couldn't be true. Yeah, gosh, so much there. I do want to touch on a couple more things before we close down. ⁓ Hormones. So hormones are obviously something that are being talked about a lot now and people have hormonal imbalances or all these problems that will come up. So yeah, I'm curious if you would teach me again, like I'm a third grader on hormones and like how we can get in an optimized state there.
Joey Pontarelli (29:21)
If you come from a divorced or broken family, or maybe you know someone who does, we offer more resources than just this podcast. Those resources include things like a book, free video courses, speaking engagements, a free assessment, online community, and much more. All of our resources are designed to help you heal from the trauma that you've endured and build virtue so you can break that cycle and build a better life. And so if you want to view those resources for yourself or someone that you know, just go to restoredministry.com slash resources, or click on the link in the show notes.
Jackie Mulligan (29:50)
I don't want to oversimplify it, but maybe I will in the sense that our body and starting with our hormones will be in order when we give it the environment in which they can be orderly, meaning that we're getting enough sleep, that we're eating enough and eating consistently nourishing foods. The number one thing that affects our hormones is stress.
so that we're managing our stress. And so our bodies, again, shouldn't need to predict, is Joey gonna sleep tonight? Is Joey gonna nourish me today? Are we gonna be working 14 hours or are we gonna have a little bit of a rest time? There needs to be predictability day and consistency so that there can be order and bodies are designed to heal We shouldn't need all these other factors.
but the best way to manage, your, your hormones and to keep, regulated is to have a daily rhythm and consistency. you can look, nature teaches us this, Joey, where, know, when, when it's sunlight, that's really when we should be out and, doing, and when it's a dark out, this is where we should be resting.
and so we can learn a lot from, from the natural world, but even our circadian rhythm where every 24 hours we're given the opportunity to begin a new, but also, the day light and the darkness, like help us to know when it's time to shut down and when it's time to slow down. and we sort of have just modernized all of this and just keep going until we say stop.
And that affects and really disrupts all of our natural hormones.
Joey Pontarelli (31:21)
Okay, no, it makes so much sense. And there's so much I wanna say. One, I was just thinking of just how depleted we all are on so many levels. And I think that just, it makes so much sense that if you kind stop the depletion, start to nourish yourselves in whatever way that might look like, like we're talking about, then you're gonna be happier, you're gonna be healthier. I bet your emotions fall too with people being depressed or anxious all the it makes so much sense. yeah, I...
I had to kind of face this in the last year to some extent because I took this, I went to some physical therapy for my shoulder. I tweaked it, working out and the therapist is like very holistic and she was like wanting to know like, it seems like you're, you you present yourself as like being pretty calm, but interiorly she's like, I wonder if like you're kind of living your life and like the sympathetic. And so like in that fight or flight mode, and I took an assessment, like kind of self assessment that she gave me. And I realized like, my goodness, like,
So much of my life is like you said, lived in that. So I've been trying to like learn to, you know, to do what you've said. But so I'm really excited to go through the course and make use of what you guys offer. But on that note, I'm curious if people are wondering like, yes, I need this. Like, this is so important. Like struggling in this way or that way with sleep or hormones or, you know, nutrition or, you know, whatever, faith, especially. so how do, what do you offer? Like, how, how do I get it?
Jackie Mulligan (32:39)
Sure. We have an online course called Reform Online, and that's really the first way to begin working with us. So it's 12 weeks. It's essentially self-paced in that you can watch the courses as you're able throughout the 12 weeks. But we also offer live sessions throughout each month. And so there's ways to engage with us live throughout the course, and then also there's prerecorded classes.
we have a cohort starting in June 2nd, Joey, that we're actually just launching today. So it's perfect timing. ⁓ and, it's, it's going to be everything we offer in our foundational course, which is, is going deeper into all the pillars that of health that I named earlier. But we also have a theme in addition to that, which is on metabolic health and body composition. So that will, we'll be focusing on that this summer. And it also includes.
a private consultation with myself or Dr. Bridget. So a nice way to have some one-on-one personalized attention and care, but also to journey with a community toward Christ-centered healing and Christ-centered wellness. So I would say starting with our course, if you're not quite ready or you want to learn more about reform, we have our Instagram page where we share free content.
all the time throughout, actually after Lent, because we're offline for Lent right now. But on our website, we have a tab also that is an events tab, and we offer quarterly workshops on different topics, free webinars every single month. So there's a lot of different ways to get to know more about reform. And then certainly, if people are interested in our course, that would be the best place to fully dive in.
Joey Pontarelli (34:09)
it so good and I'm curious how many people have you served and are there any neat stories that are kind of top of mind of like amazing transformations that you've seen?
Jackie Mulligan (34:17)
Yeah, we have journeyed with thousands of people now, which is just such an incredible gift for us and from really all corners of the globe. We almost have lost count of the amount of countries now that we've worked with. It's just truly, it's humbling and it's amazing and it's such a gift from the Lord to even show us, not everybody comes from the same background or beliefs or comes with the same health ailments.
but it's just showing how ⁓ as a body of Christ, we all need him and we all need healing, which is really beautiful. I think that when I see a father or a mother come to us who are depleted and they have somebody in their life that needs healing, whether it's a spouse, whether it's a child, and their first initial yes toward reform is that they want to learn so they can help the other person in their life, but...
One of the first things we teach is that if you want to reform someone else, you have to start with yourself and let the Lord reform them. so there's this beautiful surrender and reorientation of trust toward the Lord. But then there's like this detachment.
where the Lord gets to help that person that they love and care so much, but their own reformation increases their capacity to love, to serve, to pray. I mean, it's so beautiful. And so it's sort of like a two-for-one deal. It's like they're healthier and more capable. And now their life and their witness is teaching the others in their household ⁓ also how to live. But...
the Lord's also now free rather than them being distracted to like freely help, you know, those who they love too. So that's really one of my favorite, you know, kind of repetitive stories that we see over and over. And I think one more that I'll share, Joey, is, you know, having priests or religious, makes me emotional to even say, but come to us who care so much about their soul and, ⁓ and they just, their bodies are tired and run down and a bit broken and they start prioritizing.
their wellbeing in the sense of nourishing consistently and sleep and managing stressors and realizing that they're probably too much on their plate. And then their capacity to receive clarity in prayer or to pray more often or to pray more deeply, basically their connection with the Lord is just increases tenfold. And we've had a priest say to us, know,
I noticed that what I was nourishing my body then ended up being the nourishment I gave during my homilies. Like it was like when I fed myself well, I fed the people I was preaching to well. And it was like the Holy Spirit had space to move and to breathe. And I just thought like, ⁓ my gosh, this is, it's so beautiful. So we have thousands of beautiful stories, but I think that's these two common themes are the ones that really make this work just such a gift.
Joey Pontarelli (37:01)
I love it. So good. I could talk with you forever. There's this one story I was thinking of sharing of, I heard this a while ago. don't, haven't been able to track it down, but apparently Pope John Paul II, Saint John Paul II, a seminarian at one point asked him, you know, how do I have a good prayer life? How do I deepen my prayer life? And apparently he said, he said, sleep, exercise, and eat good And I thought it was like brilliant. And so, so anyway, I just think what you're saying makes so much sense of just, you know, if you want to live.
Jackie Mulligan (37:22)
Mm. Mm-mm.
Joey Pontarelli (37:28)
life to the fullest on every level, then yeah, what you guys are offering is what we all need. So thank you so much. I wanna give you the last word. I seriously could talk to you forever. I love the work that you're doing. And so just keep up the awesome work. I know there's people in your life, you know people who come from broken families. And so I'm just wondering like, they're listening right now. And so what encouragement, what advice would you give to them, especially as it relates to their just all overall health and wellness because
So often what we see is when they come from broken families, when they come from dysfunction, a lot of imbalance in their soul and their bodies and with their emotions. And so what final encouragement or advice would you give to them?
Jackie Mulligan (38:05)
Thank you for question and encouragement. would remind us and them that we're not alone and they're not alone and that we have the best Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can even fathom. I mean, it would blow us away if we knew really how much we are loved. And to let that love drive out any fear.
because I think when we believe the lie that we're alone that we can never be whole or never have a healthy relationship or be healthy in general, it puts up a barrier around what the Lord can really do. And so when we really desire healing, I don't know if there's a better person to pair with than the Lord. And so go to Him, nothing is too big, nothing is too broken.
And I think that...
with every yes toward life in him, every yes of like taking good care, you'll increase your capacity to be able to heal. I think that's what we all desire is an increased capacity to know his will, to feel his love, to know his mercy. And that just requires giving him just an inch of our days, an inch of our wellbeing and he will do the rest.
Joey Pontarelli (39:19)
What a good woman, what an amazing organization. To get the resources that Jackie and her team offers, can go to reformwellness.co, again, reformwellness.co, or just click on the link in the show notes.
That wraps up this episode. If this podcast has helped you, free to subscribe or follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast app. Not only is that the best way to avoid missing future episodes, more subscribers that we have, the more the apps will suggest our show to people who are looking for help, and it only takes a few seconds. And you've already done that, I definitely invite you to rate or review the show. We really appreciate that feedback, and that helps people find the show as well.
In closing, always remember you are not doomed to repeat your family's dysfunction. You can break that cycle and build a better life. And we are here to help. And keep in mind the words of C.S. Lewis who said, you can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.
