#145 - Mindset Strategies with Dr. Amy Iaquinta

In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Dr. Amy Iaquinta about her morning routine, thinking positive thoughts before bed, mindset tips and strategies, becoming an expert and much more.

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Announcer  

Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.

Unknown Speaker  

Hey, Amy. Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How's your day going?

Unknown Speaker  

Right, Ryan, how are you?

Ryan  

I'm doing good. We're just talking about the cheer weekend that I had and driving nine hours to get back in New Jersey by 1am. But I feel surprisingly refreshed, at least right now. So I'm excited to talk to us. Let's kick this off by you telling my audience of morning upgraders who you are, what you do for a living, and then something you are grateful for.

Amy  

I am Dr. Amy Aya Quinta, and I am a functional medicine practitioner, I also have a background in chiropractic. And that's what I do, primarily. But I also am a mindset coach. So my practice kind of evolved into that organically. So that's a big part of what I do as well. Something I'm grateful for. I'm grateful to be on this podcast right now. I mean, there are a million things to be grateful for today. And that's one of them.

Ryan  

Thank you, you said it was a natural getting into mindset coaching, I want to ask you mindset tips and whatnot, but just curious how your business moves in that direction.

Amy  

Yeah, interestingly, I mean, I've been doing functional medicine for a long time. And kind of my backstory for myself is that I went through, you know, it's probably been 15, close to 20 years now, went through a big, hard, horrible time in my own life, where I had to kind of pick up the pieces. And so because of that, I spent a lot of time and money and, you know, everything, trying to basically reinvent myself. And so I learned a lot of things, and I developed a lot of tools for myself to change who I was essentially, you know, pick up all the pieces of a devastated life. So, strangely enough, you know, with functional medicine, I'm dealing with a lot of people. It's all health issues. But you know, there's a lot of lifestyle changes people have to make, a lot of that is mental and emotional stuff, where you have to change, maybe change the way you eat, or change how you're dealing with stress. So what ended up happening is I just naturally started teaching people what I had done myself personally. And it's strange because, you know, first of all,, their results would skyrocket when I would implement the mindset, mindset stuff, but people started seeking me out just for that. And so then I ended up, you know, kind of branching off and, you know, dealing with athletes dealing with people, you know, with anxiety, you know, all kinds of things that weren't even functional medicine related. So that's kind of just how it grew into that.

Ryan  

Do you have anyone that just is working with you? Is your mindset coaching? Or is it kind that they go hand in hand, Functional Medicine and mindset coaching?

Amy  

For me, functional medicine always includes the mindset because there's so many, you know, I mean, anyone, not anyone, but you know, functional medicine, doctors read labs, they, you know, make suggestions, they put together protocols, but they don't typically do the mindset stuff, but I always do both. Because I think that's really part of healing mentally, emotionally, physically. But then I do have a part of my, I won't call it part of my practice, I do have a business where, you know, they may come in and have nothing to do with health and wellness, it might just be for their own mindset, you know, they're going through a divorce, or they're, you know, it could be anything, it'd be an athlete trying to, you know, rebound after a game, you know, that sort of thing.

Ryan  

I want to talk about some of what you said, your mindset tools and tips and stuff, I want to pull some out, pull some of that out of you. But first, let's go to your mornings. How do you start your morning routine?

Amy  

always starts the same way. It doesn't matter what time I wake up, it always starts with a meditation for me. I mean, meditation is critical in my life. Meditation. For me, a lot of my meditation is actually mental rehearsal. So there are so many forms of meditation that I've studied, but mental rehearsal is a big part of my meditation. So you know, I may meditate for 30 minutes. If I have a different schedule, I might meditate for two hours, it could be anywhere, but it always starts with that. And then that's usually followed with, you know, a workout. And so that's kind of the two things I do in the morning. But, you know, Ryan, I know yours is a morning protocol, but I do find that a nighttime routine for me is critical, if not more, sometimes. So I have a nighttime routine as well that I do. And I'm a big reader. So I always wind down with reading. I'm usually reading for my books at once, but I'll just read, you know, maybe a chapter of each, and that it always ends again, with putting something into my brain that's positive. I might listen to a podcast, I might listen to a YouTube video of something positive, and then I fall asleep meditating. So I'll start meditating. And then when I start getting drowsy, I will shut it off, or I'll shut it down, however, I'm meditating. But I always fall asleep to that. Because of the subconscious, I'm big on the subconscious brain. So the subconscious is really open at that time, whereas you're waking up or as you're going to sleep, so I, in my routine, never ever, ever go to sleep with negative thoughts, or, you know, putting bad content into my brain. So that's really, I think, critical. So I do both.

Ryan  

I've had a few guests talk about the nighttime routine as well, sort of like the book ends in the morning at night. I think it's the only nighttime routine I can really think of, I do read a lot as well, but not necessarily a night per se, like on a regular basis. But the only routine I can think of that I have for the nighttime is when I'm in bed falling asleep, I'll think about like how the day went, kind of like what's on my mind, what I want to achieve the following day, just kind of like positive things, you know, whatever comes to mind, because I like to like to think I don't know, for sure, but something you kind of alluded to this, but you know, when you're feeding yourself, certain thoughts, as you're drifting off to sleep, your brains probably guess is probably working on it as you sleep, right? It is

Amy  

working on it. And it's being programmed that subconscious, because you know, it doesn't really have a filter. So it will accept everything as true. So that's why I think mental rehearsal as you're planning your day out because I do have that part of my nighttime too, is you know, let me set my objectives for tomorrow. So as you want your day to go tomorrow, you might, most people might go, okay, these are the things I need to get done. But taking that one step further and mentally rehearsing how you want that to work out will really seep into the subconscious. And then tomorrow, your brain just naturally will be automatically looking for opportunities without you doing anything because it's got that the in the programming now. So I think that it's super important to take it to that step.

Ryan  

And not really a hard left, either. And you're laying in bed just thinking about things, you know,

Amy  

right? Yeah, most people are thinking about things, but they're thinking about it in a more stressful way. Like, Oh, I gotta get this done. I gotta get that done. I gotta make sure. Take the one step further and go, let me see how that, you know, let me see that going really well go to the end, the end result, oh, I accomplished that. Like, you can even imagine yourself the next night feeling how good you felt that you got all that stuff done. So that step further is really important.

Ryan  

I actually replaced that nighttime thing I mentioned with a bad habit, which I was I found myself. One night, I couldn't sleep, and I got on my phone. And I somehow serve an ad for Candy Crush. And I was like, Okay, this has been downloaded like 500 billion times. There must be something to this thing. And I found myself addicted to the darn game like I couldn't like I was playing it, I would get into bed. And I would start playing the Candy Crush game. And all the lights are flashing, the phone's vibrating and the candy is being crushed. And I put the damn thing down. And that's like the worst thing for your sleep. And so I realized it, and I deleted the app on my phone. It was honestly hard, though, because I like playing it. But I saw what was happening. It was like pulling me in. And so I deleted it.

Amy  

Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna do something like that, I don't think there's anything wrong with a wind down routine. But you might want to do that one, like a couple of hours earlier, because of all the lights and all that you might want to start that wind-down, you know, at 9 pm or whatever. A couple of hours before your actual sleep time.

Ryan  

If there are any candy crush developers listening, good job, you definitely deserve to be there. Right. All right, let's go back to mindsets about tips and strategies. I also want to mention something that I forgot is that there was sort of a business lesson in what you were saying. Because you said, you do the functional medicine with the mindset. And so, for the business owners listening, it's it sounds like adding the mindset was a nice differentiator for your practice. And that was very smart.

Amy  

Yeah, it I mean, I didn't do it on purpose. But that is what differentiates me from other functional medicine doctors.

Ryan  

Yeah, that's smart. Or let's talk about tips, tools, strategies, you know, we can go for, you know, two or three minutes or whatever. What do you think is your best content to share around mindset?

Amy  

First of all, okay, tips. You know, I have a blog that has 60 actual tips. They're called Arrow Tip, you are unstoppable. dotnet. That's all free content for people. If they want to go to that, they can look at that and find 60 tips with actionable steps to start shifting things. So that's my number one tip is to get the tips. But I think the biggest tip, honestly, is something that I did for myself years ago, you know, it's like, people, I would see people that were experts in things, you know, expert experts in functional medicine, experts in GI experts in hormones, experts, you know, people might play a sport people were experts. And at some point in there, I thought, you know, what do I really really want to be an expert in and I decided I want to be an expert in mastering my own mind basically, And so I think that that just changed my whole life. And I did it out of necessity, as I said, but when I made that firm decision, you know what I'm going to master my mental and emotional game that changed everything because most people are trying to manage situations outside of themselves. And the one thing that goes everywhere with you is you. So when I started mastering that, everything changed. So I think really people making that decision to say, you know, what, I'm going to change myself mentally, which affects my emotions. And that, that has to really be a decision because you have to be really uncompromising in that dedication to changing who you are, and developing yourself and furthering yourself as a person. So I think that decision is probably my number one tip, because once you do that, then there are all kinds of tips after that, you know, consume, proper, you know, nutritional, nutrient-dense content, mentally, I always talk to people about their food that they're consuming, because that's part of functional medicine. But you've got to consume mental food, you know, and your mental self-talk is critical. So, you know, there are a million tips I can give around that, but if you haven't made the decision that I need to change this, none of those things really last. Like anything else, it's like doing a diet that you didn't, you know, you didn't decide you actually were going to become a different person. And that's another tip is deciding you're going to be someone different than you currently are. Which, you know, is different than I'm going to do this thing. It's I'm going to be this new person who naturally does those things, if that makes any sense.

Ryan  

That does mean you're making me think about the book. To Jocko willing cook me, I'm probably butchering his name, but he talks about like full ownership, and, and his other personal books, I read about making a decision and fully owning that decision and sticking with it. And because you're right, if you're not really, you're not really fully committed, it's probably not going to last long. And so I think that's smart, you know, make the decision and stick with it. Right? I will give a plug for your blog, too. I meant to mention that. It is good. It's really you could tell you poured your heart into it. And it was very meaty content. That is very insightful advice. And I like the branding of the arrows and stuff like that. So yeah, everyone listening, I definitely recommend you go check out those tips. Very, very well-written content. Thank you. You're welcome. How do you handle challenges? Now? I mean, obviously, no one's perfect. We still get flustered. So even though you've been working on your mindset for a while, life throws you a curveball. What do you do?

Amy  

Yeah, I mean, that's life, right? It's always gonna happen, no matter how great a mindset you get. But I will say that the one thing that I, you know, really have changed about myself is when I when a challenge comes, I tend to see it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. And it's an opportunity for growth, no matter what it is. When you view things that way, that automatically sets you up to have an easier time doesn't mean you feel great doesn't mean you know, you don't have negative thoughts. But right away your brain, once again, I'm big into the science behind mindset. I like the spiritual and metaphysical aspects, too. But I like to combine the two, and I'm really more into the science behind it. So once you make that decision, like, Hey, I'm going to use this as an opportunity, then the brain right away goes to seeking out that information for you. Like I said before, you know, and I'll give you an example when COVID came, I do still have a big part of my practice was chiropractic after COVID. It kind of I went down to two days a week. But when COVID came, rather than freaking out and getting scared, I simply decided, and I made this decision firmly in my mind, this is going to be the best thing that ever happened to me. And I just kept going with that. And that was a huge challenge, you know, for everybody, even myself, but it my brain started to see the opportunity, and everything shifted again, you know what I mean? And it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I mean, I hate to say that because I know there are a lot of people that lost people, including myself, I lost a couple of people that I know so I'm not like making light of it. But I'm just saying that I decided this challenge and this obstacle is going to be the best thing that ever happened, and right away, my brain started to see where's opportunity here. So I think that is really my approach to any challenge at this point. Yeah, I

Ryan  

can I have personal experience with that too? Like you make it make a decision to go down a certain path, and then you know, all of sudden you're meeting people that you weren't expecting to meet or things happen, you know, sometimes good, sometimes bad. We keep on keep on going on the same path with us. under percent commitment, and it's, you know, it's amazing what opportunities can come your way.

Unknown Speaker  

It really is. It really is amazing.

Ryan  

All right, Amy, I've got one last question for you. This is great. I love talking about the mindset stuff. But I do want to end with a question I asked a lot now. And that's the meaning of life. I like to ask it because everyone's experiences are different. And so their answers are usually different. Not always, but sometimes. And so, through your personal experiences and life thus far, what is the meaning of life?

Amy  

Yeah, I think that always evolved that answer. But at this point, I would say the meaning of life to me is really to experience it. And that can come with, you know, good experiences or harder experiences, but it's really to experience it. And the second part of that, I would say, is really to create, I think we're creators, so to create the life you want and create the experience you want. So going back to your last question, how do you handle challenges? I really see that as I'm here to experience life. And I can choose to experience this in a way that uplifts me and uplift the people around me and uplift the world to a higher place. Or I can choose to, you know, experience that from a lower level. And so both of our experiences, but I'm going to choose the one that, you know, makes the world a better place, basically.

Ryan  

Yeah, and there's so much experience in this world. It's amazing. Like, I talked about this a couple times on my show, but we've we started doing road trips in 2020, during COVID. And it's like, we just go to the US but it's amazing how much stuff there is to do in the US from like, just parks and just educational stuff like museums and just great restaurants and interesting people. And it just, it's there's so much in the US to experience once you just get out there and just travel. It's, it's mind-boggling.

Amy  

There is so much but also don't forget to experience every day, the most mundane things. I'm sitting here looking out my window at my bird feeders, and it's like, sound like an old person. Now you know what I'm saying? But just like, just the everyday thing. There's a train going by. It's the most beautiful experience. It's just the so don't forget to everyday little things. We don't have to like to go forever and go far to experience. Just joyful moments. So I think

Ryan  

I'm glad you said that. That's why I love going on walks with the dog, right? So great. Well, Amy, if someone wants to connect with you, where should we send them?

Amy  

You can go to your unstoppable.com That's my website. And on there. There's a tab for the blog, which is your unstoppable net, but you can even go to either one of those sites and find me. Perfect. Thanks for the everyday chair. Great job. Thanks, Ryan. Take care.

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