Covid: Keep Kids Grounded in Turbulent Times

How can we help our children feel safe, happy, and grounded during these challenging times? Dr. Stanton Hom, a pediatric chiropractor, Hilary Boynton, the founder of School of Lunch, and Hilda Labrada Gore, ancestral health advocate share personal stories along with recommendations to help our children thrive in uncertain times. The conversation covers the importance of nourishing our children well, giving them a strong sense of who they are, and getting them outside and in nature as much as possible. Hilary, Stanton, and Hilda also emphasize the responsibility of parents for setting the tone of the home, and the role of love and spiritual practices in providing a solid foundation for the children’s health and mindset.

Stanton Hom’s website: futuregenerationssd.com

Hilary Boynton’s website: schooloflunch.com

Hilda Labrada Gore’s website: holistichilda.com

Become a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Check out our sponsors: Primal Pastures, Cold Plunge, HartETF.com

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Episode Transcript

HLG: Children are increasingly isolated, stressed and anxious these days. How can we as parents give them a solid foundation and help them feel safe, healthy and happy? This is episode 338 and there are three guests. Dr. Stanton Hom, Hilary Boynton and I were the panelists at a live event in Thousand Oaks, California. Stanton is a Pediatric Chiropractor and the host of the Future Generations Podcast. Hilary is the Founder of School of Lunch, a group committed to reversing the trend of chronic illness in the next generation. She’s the host of the School of Lunch Podcast. I am a mother of four and the host and producer of this show.

We kick off the live event with our personal stories of childhood fears and experiences. We dive into recommendations to help our children thrive in these uncertain times. We discuss the issues that are dragging them down from increased screen time to distancing and masks. We talked about strategies for how to help them feel grounded and encouraged. We talked about everything from providing nourishing meals and having the children help in the kitchen as well, to getting them outside in nature as much as possible. We also cover the importance of developing family rituals, spiritual practices, and cultivating an environment of love in the home to give our children a much-needed sense of security.

This is the fourth episode in our COVID series with a special focus on children. Before we get into it, I want to ask you straight up to become a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation. We depend on you. This podcast and every initiative of the foundation is member-funded. We need your support. It’s only $40 per year or $30 if you use the code, WT10. Join now and help us continue reaching people with this life and health-saving information based on ancestral wisdom. Go to WestonAPrice.org and click on the Become a Member button. Thank you in advance.

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Stanton Hom’s website: FutureGenerationsSD.com

Hilary Boynton’s website: SchoolOfLunch.com

Hilda Labrada Gore’s website: HolisticHilda.com

Become a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Check out our sponsors: Primal Pastures, Cold Plunge, HartETF.com

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HLG: Welcome to the show. I am here with good friends, Stanton Hom and Hilary Boynton.

SH: Thank you for having me.

HB: Thanks, Hilda. I’m excited to be here.

HLG: I’m excited to be with you guys. We’re going to talk about an important topic. It’s about how we can help our children thrive in these very tumultuous times. I want to start by asking you guys about your childhood. Can you describe a little bit about what your childhood was like?

SH: I grew up in Southern California. I grew up a very hybrid Asian-American. It was interesting. I didn’t know at the time that I had very significant social anxiety. I didn’t realize it at the time but my mom tells my wife over and over that I didn’t order for myself at restaurants. My cousin was four days older than me. She would always order for me. I didn’t realize that I had reading comprehension and dyslexic learning challenges and things like that.

I was extremely fit and athletic. I swam competitively from the age of 5 to maybe 12 or 13, and I loved playing. In LA, you don’t think about this but we went to the park. We caught crawdads. We played a lot. Now, I’m realizing the level of the diverse microbiome that I had exposure to. We had a DO pediatrician and it seemed to fit very well with my parents’ philosophy of raising us. We didn’t have a ton of antibiotics. We didn’t have a ton of different medical interventions because there was always like, “Let’s watch and wait. Let’s see what the body does.”

Otherwise, I was the fourth oldest of fifteen cousins. I’m a pediatric chiropractor now, and people ask me how and when did I want to learn to work with kids. I’ve been doing that since I knew I was older than my cousins. I’m the fourth oldest and I’ve seen every kid come in. When new patients come in, there’s a five-month-old in the audience. In my mind, it’s like, “How do I build rapport?” I’ve always been that way. I found out that my mom’s mom was the village doula in Tainan City, Taiwan, and her sister was the village midwife. Somehow, I was maybe epigenetically programmed to be a focused chiropractor.

HLG: Hilary, what about you?

HB: I grew up in a small colonial town in New Hampshire. It couldn’t be more opposite from Los Angeles. I had a very idyllic childhood. I’m the youngest of seven. I spent my summers in Maine with lots of time outside, free. There was a bumper sticker that we put on our cars, “Ocean Point Maine, the way life should be.” It’s that carefree and beautiful experience as a child, and friends that you stay in touch with forever, and your summer friends. I skied every weekend in New Hampshire. I was a passionate soccer player my whole childhood from five through college pretty much. That was a huge part of my life.

My dad has passed a couple of years ago from severe dementia. I look back and my dad used to say, “How did I get to be so lucky to have a beautiful daughter like you? How did I get to be so lucky to have a wonderful wife?” He was always in gratitude, it seemed. He’s never angry, he’s quiet and reflective. I can look back as an adult and appreciate the safety, the consistency and the traditions. I literally have a relative straight off the Mayflower. My mom is a Colonial Dame and was very interested in genealogy. We live close to my grandparents. We always have holidays together. Food was a part of it all, and the community and family. It was my whole childhood. I feel blessed with the family that I was blessed to be a part of.

HLG: To share a little bit about my story, I didn’t know who I was as a kid because I was Latina. My mom is from Mexico and my dad is from Cuba. I was raised in a White homogenous neighborhood in Maryland. I don’t know if my family was ashamed of our heritage, but it definitely wasn’t anything we were proud of. We would spend summers in Mexico but I felt different all the time.

Not to mention that I was born with a birth defect, a hole in my heart between the lower two ventricles, which meant the doctors were monitoring me for many years. I couldn’t be super active. I was uncertain in my body and in more ways than one. When I was nine years old, the doctors did open heart surgery. I started to realize, “There’s more I can do and more I can embrace.” Tell us a little bit about any childhood fears that you had growing up.

SH: I can remember pretending I couldn’t read my writing. I wouldn’t speak in front of the class. I remember I would say physically, “I couldn’t read my writing,” when I could read my writing. I would have this level of anxiousness. I would say that to this day, it’s still one of the things that get me.

HLG: What about you, Hilary?

HB: I was thinking about this and I have a couple of things. I don’t know where it stems from, but one was a fear of failure. As a kid, I was always very driven to succeed and to do my best. I remember getting cut from the state soccer team when I was thirteen, and all my friends made it. I was like, “I am coming back with a vengeance,” and I went for it. That was the grit. I have a lot of grit in me that maybe I inherited from my dad or my mom. It’s the sheer determination to accomplish what I set out to accomplish. I don’t know if it’s just a certain drive or that fear of failure.

I also was reflecting because Hilda asked me this. I think I have a fear of death. My mom’s sister and husband were killed in a car accident before I was born. They were leaving a party at my parents’ house. They were parents of a two-month-old and a three-year-old. We believe she fell asleep on the way home. My parents adopted their two children. Four years later, I was born. There were three previous kids from my dad’s first marriage.

We’re this mixed family and that was always a part of my story. It was that my aunt and uncle died in a car accident and these were my cousins, but they’re my brother and sister. For me, I gained a brother and sister. I didn’t know my aunt and uncle. There was no real loss for me. I felt the loss for my mom and the family. For me, it was always a blessing in a way because I had a brother and sister that I might not have had.

WT 338 | COVID — COVID: What they don’t see or recognize is these children are more scared than ever. They’re so afraid of their own healthy bodies.

I was literally in the shower and I thought, “I don’t think I was afraid of death because I lived certainly in my teenage years like I was invincible,” like most of us and taking risks. My mom was always worried about something happening to us. She’s always giving that extra reminder to buckle your seat belts and pull over if you’re tired or whatever it was. That was a constant reminder that life can be snuffed out in a moment and you’re not coming back.

I was in the shower and I thought, “I don’t think I was afraid of death but I witnessed the fear of death.” Not that it was the main thing of my childhood, but at least from my perspective because it was such an amazing and unique story as a family. As an adult looking back, I can reflect that I don’t want to live in fear of death, especially in these times. I don’t want my life to stop. Not that my mom did, but I don’t want to stop living for fear of dying. I don’t want to project any of that on my children. It’s certainly a time to promote living to our fullest potentials.

HLG: I had a hole in my heart that the doctors couldn’t fix. I also had an emotional hole in my heart. My parents divorced when I was about eleven, a couple of years after the surgery. I felt different. I was looking for approval, affirmation and love that couldn’t be filled or fixed by any doctor. I’m mentioning these childhood situations and fears because it’s important to think about what the children are going through now. These fears we’ve mentioned like fear of failure, fear of death, not being loved and social anxiety, all these things are still present in many of us and probably our children as well. I wanted to ask if you all have noticed any of these things in children or other things because of our times maybe?

SH: I spoke at the City Hall and the mayor of San Diego is welcoming and giving a mayor’s proclamation for vaccine passports. What I know is that my child wouldn’t be welcome in certain businesses, restaurants and places. When you talk about being different, being isolated or not being the same, that’s something that we’re seeing not just normalize but that’s a low grade. It’s a mayor’s proclamation that’s being celebrated and being paraded in.

Acutely in my office, we see a lot of children who have neurodevelopmental challenges and neurobehavioral disorders. Have you talked to any pediatrician? Have you talked to any OT, PT, speech pathologists, ABA, educator or any school counselor? We know this is an epidemic that has already been bad. It was already a tsunami that was overwhelming our healthcare system that they don’t have a lot of deep root cause resources for.

We had a child come in, and this is one of the multiples because you see kids are more vigilant about their masks, distancing and things like that because what’s happening is before it was normalized, there are neurobehavioral disorders normalizing these learning challenges. If anybody is experiencing this, I’m not saying this to marginalize anybody. If a dog were to walk funny or they’re learning how to walk or something, we would say, “That’s weird. What’s going on?” Kids miss milestones. They crawl funny. They don’t roll over or don’t crawl at all. They toe walk. There are many things that have become normal or “common.”

An eight-year-old came into my office and his parents thought he had strep. They went to Rady Children’s Hospital. They’d go into a normal pediatrician. They did all the testing and he was negative. The doctor very nonchalantly was like, “Maybe we should just do a COVID test.” Immediately the child starts screaming, hitting his head, banging his head on the floor, thinking he is going to die. That was the first thought that went into his mind, then immediately he’s like, “I don’t want to kill anybody else.”

For me, I take these proclamations and politicians putting forward what is seemingly socially acceptable that that’s the next step. It’s okay. Let’s just check to see if these people have received this injection or not. It might seem appropriate if that provides real protection or whatever it might be. What they don’t see or recognize is all the other things that happen, which these children as young as 7 or 8 years old are more scared than ever. They’re afraid of their own healthy bodies. They’ve been told that just because you don’t have symptoms doesn’t mean that you won’t get someone else sick and you won’t kill someone else. What I’m seeing is a level of normalization that has amplified into a complete acceptance or blindness to what’s the fallout for children now.

When the world feels so out of control, food is something we can take control of. We can take control of our health and be the best versions of ourselves with real food.

HLG: What can we do as parents to flip the script to get them back into being human and experiencing real life?

SH: I’m a little lucky. I’ve shared this with some of you already. I have a two-year-old. I still turn her around and move her in a different direction. I don’t have five teens. I see in the teens in my practice going like, “I don’t know what it would be like applying for college. I don’t know what it would be like wondering what other kids are doing.” It’s already one thing to have screens, social media and comparison to what everybody’s highlight reel is.

I’ll even say this. In California, a few years ago when SB-276 was passed, we had parents saying, “Do not tell other kids that you haven’t received any shots,” because there was so much comparison, pressure, vilification and demonization. This is a tough question because I think we don’t know from whatever the day in March was in 2020 what the future holds. The level of uncertainty and the dynamic change that is happening that we and the kids are faced with is hard.

This is a tough thing because I am not a parent of a teen. I don’t know what eleven years from now will be like. What I know is those tough conversations have to happen. Those radical compassionate, radical integrity, radical accountability, not just 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now moment. In clinical practice, that’s what we do. People come in and we’re like, “Let’s rewind 10 or 20 years.” If it’s a child, I’m epigenetically wondering what parents have been through 10, 20 years ago.

I’m also thinking at this moment, “If nothing changes, where are they 10 or 20 years from now? If they do change and accept whatever recommendations that I’m brave enough to give, where will they be in 20 years?” When I say that, what I mean is it’s hard for kids already. The level of parenting, mentorship and leadership that we’re being called to do is something we’ve never done before. Maybe it’s something we always did ancestrally. You’ve talked about that, and this whole show is about tribal nature.

The one thing that I didn’t say about my childhood is that I grew up with fifteen cousins, all my aunts and uncles. I grew up with multiple generations. I know where my great grandparents are buried. I don’t know that that exists as much now. My daughter is a daughter of the American Revolution. My wife’s family goes all the way back to the Mayflower. Returning to that ancestral level of bonding and tribal community is such a huge thing now.

HB: That sparked something within me about it’s important for parents to be on the same page and be a united front. That’s critical. Many parents are divorced or separated. It’s a challenging time to communicate. There are many challenges. The ancestral wisdom that used to be passed down has been broken. We’ve lost that like how to eat, how to commune and mentor one another.

I remember the first day of the Manzanita School, the head of the school was saying, “Your children need mentors other than you.” I was like, “That’s great. Sweet. It’s not all on my shoulders. Somebody else can help out.” It’s true. It’s even a harder time now that we’re in isolation. I was thinking about the mentors and coaches that were in my life that made a huge difference. They were not my parents. I was motivated in a different way. Maybe it’s time that we create a new definition of what family is. As Ronnie is saying, she cooks for kids in her house that are not her kids just to mentor them, which is nice.

The other thing that is important that I’ve realized is that how I feel when I feel lit up, excited and around people make me feel good. Every time we get on Wednesdays, something shifts in my body. Every time I’m at an event like this, something shifts. I know how I feel when I’m down the rabbit hole on my phone like, “The world is going to whatever. I don’t know what’s happening.” I can feel it inside of me. It’s not always an easy choice but a choice to go towards the light and those people that are happy. Hilda and I talk a lot about leading with a sweeter song. I feel like I’ve had to let go. That’s one thing I learned growing up, that death can happen in an instant. There are no guarantees.

You can do everything to make sure you buckle your seatbelt, you have a ride home or whatever it is, but there are no guarantees. I want to model for my children being in that space of light for them that they feel good. Not that it’s going to be 100% all the time perfection because we know that’s impossible, but to be conscious about that. Awareness is a huge thing because we’re all not perfect. Perfect is boring and we’re just doing the best we can every day. To consciously step back and be like, “Am I being that light? Do I need to seek out some people that can throw me out of light?”

HLG: I interviewed Bruce Lipton on the show. He’s the author of Biology of Belief. He said, “This time might feel like we’re the cells of a caterpillar and the chrysalis walls are closing in on us. We can freak out or put our energy as that cell to be a part of the transformation or to be a part of what’s beautiful that’s going to come out of all of this.” I’m mentioning this because one thing we can do is live our best lives, which might sound funny. More is caught than taught by our children.

My children now are in their twenties and up. The energy that my husband and I have brought together in loving each other and loving God is not perfect, but doing our best has been caught by our kids. It’s a beautiful thing to see them thinking critically. Not each of them is exactly on the same wavelength that my husband and I are on, but we’ve done our best. We can respect the choices that they’re making, knowing that we’ve equipped them as best we can.

The other thing I want to say is I disagree with you respectfully on this, Stanton. I think we know exactly what to do. I go crazy when people tell me, “I don’t know what to do.” I’m like, “You do know what to do.” This is what you need to do. You don’t need my advice. What I learned in Australia is some Aboriginal people said, “In our culture, we do a thing called Dadirri, which is deep listening.” It means that they’re still and they stopped to listen. When you do something like that, which is radical and counter-cultural to being on our devices and information, I feel like people are obsessed with, “Give me more information. What is this person saying? Tell me more about what the other side is saying.”

It’s a distraction from being still. If we would stop, be still and listen, you will be surprised at what you hear. You may hear the voice of God, your conscience, or some deep inner knowing that tells you exactly what you need to do. I don’t think we need to hear anybody’s advice. We don’t need more information. I don’t think information is going to change the world or your family. Love is going to change everything.

My suggestion is to do some deep listening. Listen to what you’re supposed to do because you will know and you will get clarity. I’m sure of it. If you don’t think you can find it from within yourself, seek it from something higher than you. There is something pulling for us as sons and daughters of God. Something is pulling for us so that we’re going to get through this and our children.

52-54% of our children already have chronic disease. It’s not going away. It’s not something we can ignore, it’s not something that our kids can ignore.

Someone said to me, “Our children and ourselves have chosen this time to be here.” That’s one way of looking at it. Others might think, “Someone chose this for us.” Either way, we’re here. It doesn’t matter to me what your theology is on this point. The point is you’re here and there’s a reason. You are parenting your children because you are the right person to do it.

I don’t want you to feel like, “I’m not like Hilary. I don’t put the best food on the table.” It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be like Hilary. “I’m not like Stanton. I didn’t go to West Point.” We need to stop comparing ourselves to other people. We need to do some deep listening and do the best we can and love. That’s going to transform our children’s lives and our family lives.

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HLG: What role does food play in preparing our children to handle these times?

HB: It’s so important because it’s something that, as we all know, is foundational. It can be life-changing and healing on many levels. It’s something that we all partake in like eating every day. When the world feels out of control, it’s something that we can take control of. We can take control of our kitchens and health, and be the best versions of ourselves every day by fueling ourselves with real food. It doesn’t need to be an elitist thing. Buy what you can afford and cook real food. Make it real. Seek out your local farmers if you can and do the best you can.

HLG: How does that help them?

HB: In different times of war or unrest, when you were potentially worrying about a bomb landing on your house, you have bomb shelters or you had to go under your desk. You had a plan to protect you and keep you safe. This is ultimately a great time for us as parents to take a hold of the reins and to empower our kids with, “This is your safety. This is your fallback if you have a healthy immune system.” Food, lifestyle, the sunshine, movements, sleep, and all of that has to do with it.

Food is something that we as a family can decide to prioritize. As parents, we are making this a priority and this is a non-negotiable. Many parents struggle with, “It’s such a battle. I don’t if they can eat this.” Every child at this point, unless they’re two or a little bit older, know that something is up. It’s a time to push that message a little harder that your body is your temple. You only get one and it’s easier to prevent something than to be fighting your way back trying to chase health.

It’s an opportunity to say that you’re capable and perfect. You’re a thriving human. Take the steps as parents to learn yourselves, to decide to get in the kitchen, and make it a conversation in the household, who’s going to handle what? Feeding and nourishing a family can no longer fall on the shoulders of one. It has to be a family affair. It has to come as the top priority of how we’re going to do this. The kids should be a part of that conversation. They should be participating in the kitchen too, sitting up on that counter, cracking eggs, and getting eggs from the chicken. Whatever they can do, have them partake in it.

I call all of you to become the ancestors in training to start to bring back that wisdom. It has been broken. We have to take the responsibility to relearn that and take control of our kitchens, support our local farmers and take control of our health. We have a responsibility to pass it on to our kids because if we don’t, you can tell that the train has already left the station. We have 52% or 54% of our children who already have a chronic disease. It’s not going away. It’s not something we or our kids can ignore.

Food plays a huge role. It’s a huge opportunity. It’s so simple and I’m willing to teach anybody who wants to learn. You have to earn your street cred. It is work. We can’t get away with just coming home and being like, “I don’t know what we’re going to do. We’re just going to order take out every night.” That’s perpetuating the problem. You have to put in the work, but you earn your street credit. It feels good when you make that first loaf of sourdough, or you’ve properly prepared your beans, or you’ve used the whole animal, there was no waste, and you honor that animal.

You showed your children exactly where their food comes from. As hard as it is to admit that an animal died for your nourishment, you talk about those things. That is the most important thing. The most important conversation we can have is to educate ourselves. The hardest thing is to decide to do it. It’s an easy choice if we’re afraid of a virus or death. That is the one thing to decide to do. Do your best every day, little by little. I promise you, within a few short months or a year, you’ll be teaching it to other people. They’ll be coming to you for advice. That’s how it spreads.

SH: I agree with everything that Hilary just said. I come from an Asian-American family. Food is how we speak. I probably had social anxiety because we don’t express verbally nor physically. Watching my mom with my kid is like, “You have jokes? You say I love you?” I remember being a young lieutenant at 21 years old. I was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. All young lieutenants are single guys. You can make the rounds of all the restaurants and take-out food quickly. The number of times in Oklahoma, you can go to Cici’s Pizza. It’s an all-you-can-eat pizza bar.

Every time you’re in a different ecosystem, you’re coding your biome to be more diverse, to be more adapted, to be more resilient, to be more intelligent, to be more connected. And it’s free.

I remember one day, I was like, “I’m done. I can’t do it anymore.” I called my mom. I made her read to me recipes of foods that I remembered. She’s like, “I don’t do recipes.” She doesn’t to this day. “How do you make your Chinese chicken salad dressing?” “I have no idea.” She ballparked it. I do it by myself. You have to go through it. We got into our first unit and we were all still roommates. Every night we switched back and forth of what we would cook. It was miraculous that young single men in the Army could make their own food.

It started with like, “How do you make a grilled cheese? How do you make ramen?” Ramen like not just out of the packet, but how do you actually put other things in it, how to make it creative and make a broth. You fast forward that two decades and my wife to this day is like, “You’re an amazing cook.” I’m like, “I don’t know where that came from.”

My grandfather was a chef and basically, that’s how he brought our family through Southern California in different types of restaurants. My mom got married and she says she didn’t know how to cook. She started from nothing but then it imbibes and ferments. It creates this whole culture. What you said spoke to me, you become that ancestral person because that’s what it was. It was the recipes, sometimes to the minutiae of the specific types of herbs from specific areas. That was the lineage.

We now understand that the nutrigenomics to epigenetics, to how we pass on things, to how we defend or how we have building blocks for every single cell of our body is based upon the things that we are exposed to but eat. When it comes to my nieces and nephews, you would hand them something and they would say, “Is this organic?” They would ask that next natural question. That was shocking but that’s actually normal. That’s what normal should be but it doesn’t happen like in a blink of an eye. It happens through this whole grit.

When my kids were little, I remember they would come home from school really hungry. We get a snack and then shortly after, they would get another snack. I started teasing them. I was like “For my seventh snack.” They kept eating snacks. I didn’t see what was right before me. They were hungry but it doesn’t mean they were hungry for food. They were hungry for nourishment. I wasn’t giving them what their bodies needed most which is more real food, fats and protein.

They were probably getting little pretzels and slices of apples. It was just all carbs and it was nothing that was going to help tie them over until dinner. Thank goodness, I found the Weston Price Foundation and I started feeding them differently. Instead of turning their noses up at it, they were like, “This is amazing.” They were happy that I’d found something that was feeding them well.

It reminds me of what Sally Fallon Morrell says. She says, “If we nourish ourselves as well, it’s like we’re high all the time.” She’s exactly right. Don’t you want that for your children to naturally be happy? You’ve talked about this Hilary at school. You said, “This one kid was like, I used to be like this up and down all the time and now I’m like this.” The difference was the food. The nourishing food she was helping put out at Manzanita School.

This is helpful in these times because they are turbulent. What you want to do is nourish your kids well so they will be happy and less concerned about what the kid down the block said or what the mom on the playground said when she ushered a little kid away from them. You want them to feel content that it doesn’t bother them anymore or to some degree. I have a couple of more questions. Besides food, what are some healthy habits that you have with your families that can help shore up kids at this time?

HB: I would have to echo that getting out in nature. That’s one of the reasons we chose a Manzanita School. It’s a nature-based school and the kids are out in the land every day. The high schoolers are out camping like 40 days of the year without phone access, which is awesome. I have one kid that was always like, “I don’t want to go. I hate camping,” then he’d go and come back totally a different child and lit up in a different way. We forget that. It is that consciousness and awareness.

When I was with the Manzanita School the very first year several years ago, it was up North somewhere. At the end of the camping trip, the head of school was standing there and the kids were all in a circle. He’s like, “I want you guys to acknowledge this beautiful land, these redwoods and look at these massive redwoods. At the base of every Redwood has billions of microbes that are keeping it alive.” I was looking at him. I’m like, “You are a Redwood. You are no different than a Redwood.” It dawned on me that we are superorganisms. That’s something to teach your kid.

We are not just all human. We’re cohabitating with trillions of viruses, fungi, bacteria and parasites. We’re way outnumbered. When you think of yourself as part of nature and as nature, then that for me is the a-ha moment. When we look at something in nature with total respect and awe, whether it be a sunset, peacock, Monarch butterfly or a Redwood, and if we could shine the mirror and say, “I wonder if they could look back at us, what would they say?” It’s like, “You can walk, talk and climb the mountain.”

If we could unzip ourselves, give ourselves that same respect, and nourish ourselves as we would nourish our plants, we even treat our pets better than ourselves sometimes. Getting out in nature and taking a walk after dinner. Having a pet is helpful for that. We have to take the dogs out. Wherever you are, get outside and get the sunshine on your face. That consciousness of, “I’m outside. I’m part of something bigger than me.”

I remember what my medical intuitive friend said to me once when I was freaking out over a health thing. She said, “Go outside and lie on Mother Earth. Release all your fears to Mother Earth.” This is when I lived back in Massachusetts. I was like, “What?” I’ll do anything so I lay there. I’m trying to write another book. I wrote like, “I couldn’t imagine what Mother Earth could relieve me of.” Now I’m like, “I can’t imagine what Mother Earth cannot relieve me of.”

Nearsightedness is an epidemic because we don’t let light hit our retina and our body from a vastness of a horizon as much as we used to.

In a short span of time, I have become nature-connected and had that a-ha. It was infused in me throughout my childhood. It was given. We’re always in nature. I feel like as Tommy John said to teenagers, “Tell your parents to push you out the door and then beg them to lock it behind you.” We have to get them outside. It can be a battle sometimes. I see it with my kids as much as they don’t necessarily want to go. Once they’re out, they go.

HLG: I’m 100% with both of you. That’s so powerful. Another thing that can help our children be void during this time is to help them feel safe like little family rituals. We always read two books with each kid before bed and before the bathroom, all the things you used to do, you can still do. Know that that’s providing a great sense of security and a stable feeling for them. In our family, we used to sing every morning before they’d go off to school or little things, and the conversation around the table at dinner time. It’s important to also help them make that spiritual connection.

I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve been to Australia, Kenya, Peru and Cuba. Every group I’ve encountered has some spiritual practices as well. I got back from the Advanced Medicine Conference in South Dakota with Rashid A. Buttar and Dr. Carrie Madej, and all these people. Every single person on stage were scientists, researchers and doctors. They were all talking about this being like a spiritual battle. I was like, “What’s going on?” They know we’re energetic beings.

I’m mentioning this because, on some level, you sense that this power is fighting against what we’re trying to do, which is being human. Help your children tap into that in whatever way, shape or form you may do. I have a friend who has a list of family principles on our wall. In our family, we pray together in the morning. Help your kids find that grounding because they’re going to need it. We’re going to need it too. I want to close with this final question. If the parents here could do one thing to help their children thrive in this time, what would you recommend that they do?

SH: I’m going to echo what you said because when you say being human, it’s a human being. It’s not a human doing, your to-do list, occupation or labels. It’s that we’re spiritual beings having a human experience. Recognizing that something as simple as there is something greater than us. Especially, our practice, we help families bring life to the planet. Prenatal and pediatric chiropractic is very unique because instead of it being an obstetrician, midwife and then a pediatrician, we’re trained in both. That’s special.

I’ve interviewed thousands of moms. At this stage, not one has said that the process of taking 2 half cells to 26 billion cells being in plus or minus 280 days is something that is consciously controlled. It is neat. It is evidence of the miracle that is humanity. There’s only one way on the planet. There’s no other way. I don’t care if this virus is real or not real. I don’t care if it’s whatever.

The fun fact is when you are covered in a blowout diaper, in a single gram of baby poop is 10 to the 8 viruses. Somehow, they have the whole world mesmerized by one. If the wisdom that grows a human, there’s only one way onto the planet, we all are of this miraculous infinity of divinity that is omnipotent, omniscient, everywhere and there’s nowhere it is not, then it is in these times. It is in the uncertainty. It is in us. It’s in your kids.

The head-nodding is in agreement and the fact that you get it, but I don’t think we get it. I would say that I don’t get it. I can say it. I can see it every single day but it’s hard sometimes. If you tune back in, it’s silence sometimes. Throw the phone away, get outside, ground yourself and recognize that science can’t create a single human cell from nothing. All the women in the room and all the men, because we were either made this way or you made it 26 billion times in utero. That’s a miracle.

HB: We can spend a year planning our weddings and then we don’t put any thought or planning into having a baby. Think about that for a sec. It’s such a miracle. It’s such a gift. It’s so important. That’s why I’m passionate about feeding the children so that they can know what it feels like to feel good, and that their microbiomes are set up to deliver that big, huge, giant gulp of beautiful and beneficial bacteria to inoculate that baby’s gut when it comes through into this life.

We’ve gone so far but we can get it back. When you cut your finger, you don’t tell it to send more blood to flush it out, clean it and then scab over. It just does it. You don’t tell your body to make a baby. It just does it. My biggest advice would be to reflect on how miraculous we are, and how perfect of a design the human species is. It’s incredible. It is our birthright to have health and access to fresh and beautiful food, and to be loved.

I encourage everybody to reflect on what’s possible in a short amount of time. I was listening to Zach Bush about pretty much, I don’t know how many days, the entire world changed. Imagine what can happen in a few short days if we raise this awareness and collective consciousness, and if we keep banding together, communicating and talking. There is a message and it blows my mind.

If anybody cannot see by now that there is no message of, “Let’s get healthy, America. Let’s get healthy in this world,” what can we do to be better, stronger, more vibrant, and more resilient human beings? If you think about that, who’s going to take care of you? Who’s going to come to your rescue? You are responsible for your health. We’re all responsible for our children for a certain amount of time. We only have them for a certain amount of time, and more is caught than taught.

I don’t remember one conversation we had around the family dinner table growing up, but I remember that we always had dinner on the family table growing up. It’s a feeling that I remember. That ritual and expectation that I want to pass on to my kids are not always pretty. I can attest to that. There can be punching and swears like, “Can we not talk about video games?” It’s that beautiful communing, reflecting and decompressing from the day with nourishment. Whether they remember what we talked about or not, they will remember that feeling.

HLG: You might have heard the story of Odysseus. He’s a Greek mythological character. He was trying to get past this island with these sirens. The sirens would sing out and they would distract mariners going by. They would cause their boats to crash because the sailors would start going that way. They’d crash on the rocks and they would die.

Odysseus was super curious about what these sirens sounded like. He said to his crew, “Lash me to the mast. I’m going to have my ears unplugged, but don’t listen to me if I say go that way.” He knew it was dangerous. He had the crew members lash their own hands to the oars so they would stay steady and row past this island of sirens with their sweet song. They got by, they were all happy and they made it through.

There was this other guy, Orpheus. He had a completely different strategy. He also knew that they were going to go past the island with the sirens singing their sweet song, ultimately pulling people to their death. He grabbed a magical lyre. He sat in the front part of the boat. He led his crew successfully past the sirens by a sweeter song.

I want to end with this because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, our emphasis has been on that sweeter song. It’s on loving your family well. It’s on nourishing your children. It’s on leading with positivity, hope, joy, letting them be outside in nature and all the things we’ve said. This is what’s going to help them thrive. If you’re anxious and feeding yourself with anxious news and stuff that depresses you or discourages you, you don’t have to say a word, your kids are going to know it. They’re going to feel it.

They don’t have to have you say it. They know something’s wrong, “What’s wrong, mom?” They can tell. I urge you to lead with a sweeter song. Fill your life with all the beautiful things that make us human. The right food, get that sunshine, get out in nature, find community, reach to a higher power, whatever it is that nourishes you. That will trickle down and nourish your children well so they can thrive in this time. Thank you much to both of you for being on the show. Thank you all.

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HLG: Our guests were Stanton Hom of FutureGenerationsSD.com and Hilary Boynton of SchoolofLunch.com and me, Hilda. You can find me at HolisticHilda.com. For our review from Apple Podcasts, “Very informative by RunnerGirlNAE.” “It’s important to learn the old ways and things that have worked for thousands of years. Some modern advancements are really not advancing us. This show shares important information that would make the world a much better place if people only knew and wanted to learn. Thank you so much for the time and energy that you put into this, Hilda and Wise Traditions. It is a blessing to me and my family.” You are welcome, RunnerGirl. Thank you for your review. It means a lot. You too can leave a review on Apple Podcasts to let folks know the show is worth checking out. Just go to Apple Podcasts and click on Ratings and Reviews. Thank you so much, my friends. Stay well. Hasta pronto.

About Stanton Hom

Dr. Stanton Hom is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He earned a bachelors of science in Chemistry/Life Science/Pre-Medicine and was fortunate enough to be selected for an internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was afforded the opportunity to witness brain surgery, open-heart surgery and many other wonders of modern medicine. It was also here where he decided not to pursue medical school.

After a meritorious career in the military and upon arriving in San Diego in 2005, he had the incredible opportunity to live with his brother, Steve, and become his chiropractic patient. This transformed his life to a point where PTSD, severe digestive problems, chronic pain and stress became a thing of the past. His own self-healing, inspired him to take on a new mission of chiropractic.

Dr Stan graduated from the Southern California University of Health Sciences, Los Angeles College of Chiropractic in 2010 and has since served the San Diego community with excellent chiropractic care. He specializes in the whole family: from preconception through birth, infants, childhood and beyond. Together, he and his team have built one of the top clinics in Southern California.

About Hilary Boynton

Hilary Boynton, the founder of School of Lunch (SOL), is a mother of five who refused to accept the quality of food her children were being served during school lunch. She began a relentless mission to change the status quo, and eventually took over the lunch program at her local school in Topanga CA. She worked with local farmers and food producers to create an affordable nutrient dense meal program that was based on the foundation of ancestral ways of eating. The results were astounding. It all stemmed from what she calls a Regen-Living lifestyle, where we strive for a symbiotic relationship between our bodies and our external environment.

Hilary went on to start her company School of Lunch with the goal of making real food accessible to everyone. SOL strives to inspire, empower, and connect anyone that wants to make a change in their own homes and communities. The first School of Lunch initiative was the Lunch Leader Training Academy. This week long intensive retreat gives parents, educators, and home chefs the foundation for making a change in their own lives. Hilary is now working with her team to create an online learning platform scheduled to launch soon. It will provide entertaining and inspirational videos, classes and webinars to help educate and connect people everywhere.

About Hilda Labrada Gore

Hilda Labrada Gore (a/k/a Holistic Hilda) is an ancestral health advocate who has traveled the world exploring indigenous practices for optimal well-being. From Kenya to Peru to Australia to Ecuador, Hilda has uncovered ancient traditions and wisdom that can benefit anyone, anywhere on the globe. She is convinced that the secret to good health lies in looking to the past for guidance—not in some pricey program or product. A translator in a former life, Hilda specializes in translating complicated concepts into easy-to-grasp steps that result in vibrant health.

Hilda is a biohacker, an Integrative Nutrition certified health coach, and an ACE-certified fitness professional. She is also the host and producer of the Wise Traditions and Tradiciones Sabias podcasts, on behalf of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Hilda shares the best of experts, experiences, and epic adventures on the podcasts, her Holistic Hilda YouTube channel, and on ancestral health tours that she leads. She also is the director and producer of “Holistic Hilda Productions”: movies that highlight ancestral wisdom.

In addition to being a health coach, Hilda is a podcast coach and the author of “Podcasting Made Simple.” She especially enjoys helping people in the health and wellness space launch their shows.

Hilda has energy to spare thanks to her love for sunshine and liverwurst.