Shannon Kate, welcome to the QVC podcast.

Thank you.

Happy to be here.

Yeah.

I'm so excited to do this.

So I want to dive into your story, um, because as we were just chatting about, I love, I love the stories of people especially who have, like, a very strong business background or from what we would consider like a very sort of traditional way of doing things in the world.

And then they find their way into.

The wellness lane because.

Right.

You know, we can talk about, you know, people are like, oh, you know, I don't do that.

That's not my deal.

Like, let's go to the doctor and get into all this other nonsense.

So walk us through.

Walk us through your story.

You're an investment banker, you're doing all the things, and now here you are, right, Creating a media company for light.

So tell us what happened.

Yes.

So, yes, I am the I'm pearl wearing hippie dippy now.

But anyway, so I did.

I worked for an investment bank.

I lived in Los Angeles.

And, you know, I was.

I was doing all the right things and.

But I wasn't feeling my best and I knew something was off and I took the traditional route.

I went to my functional doctor.

By that time, you know, I was in my 40s, my hormones were crashing, and I actually, I went to the doctor and she, this is a true story.

She said, I'm sorry, Shannon, I think your ovaries have just fallen asleep.

This is just a short period of time.

And I said, well, can you wake them?

Can you wake them up?

And so I was having all these experiences and I wasn't getting, you know, I was.

The people that I was expecting to have the answers didn't have them.

So I did what everybody else did.

And I think my story is no different than anyone else's, which is I searched for answers, and once I didn't get them from the people that I thought should have them, I.

I took it upon myself.

And when I first took it upon myself, I became, you know, what a marketer's dream.

Right?

I read every email, I signed up for every influencer's, you know, thoughts on health.

And I mean, even this morning when I look in my email, I have to share this with you because my.

My struggle with health was that.

Not that I didn't have solutions, but.

But I was overwhelmed with solutions.

There were so many solutions in the health marketplace, and I was completely overwhelmed by them.

And so if there was, you know, someone would say, oh, I've got something for that.

Oh, text me that, oh, I have someone for that.

Oh, I'll do that.

So I was just chasing solutions, but still really feeling miserable and not figuring out why I couldn't get my body to a place where I wanted it to be.

And so even this morning, I have to share this with you because we are in this chaos of health.

It says, okay, so, one.

These are all.

Okay, so these are all.

Because what I love that you did was, okay, so you're.

You're having health issues that are affecting your quality of life.

Yes.

Go to your doctor, everyone.

Which we all do.

And they're like, yeah, your labs are okay.

Don't worry about it.

Or whatever.

No, you're just, you know, know, getting older.

Oh, you have young kids.

This is normal.

Basically, a million different ways of saying, like, I got nothing.

I got nothing.

I got nothing.

Yeah.

So some people slink away and are like, oh, I guess.

I guess this is just life now.

That's.

And then some people, like, you are like, no, I don't accept that.

Nope, that was me too.

I'm like, this can't be right.

Nope.

And then the journey begins.

It's like, where to go?

There's so much.

And yeah, you sign up and so you're still.

So you are just going to share with us some.

Yeah.

And then you start to get.

Problem isn't like, oh, I got nothing.

The problem is I got so much and I don't know exactly thing exactly.

And I had everything.

So, you know, I wasn't methylating my B vitamins.

So I went on, you know, the big chase for methylcobalamin.

And I thought if I could get my supplements right, then everything would be fine, you know.

And then I, you know, and then I had heavy metals.

And so what I didn't know at the time was that my best chelator for heavy metals was actually melanin, was actually the sun.

But there were so many things about light that I didn't understand at that time.

And I didn't understand that light was actually what moved the needle on so many of the com.

So every complaint that I had, whether it was.

Whether it was, you know, gut issues, I was having bloating, I was having hormone issues, I was having sleep issues, I was having thyroid issues.

I was, you know, I had anxiety out of nowhere.

I just didn't know I wasn't operating optimally.

And I couldn't figure it out.

And I was given small little tidbits and I chased down there, I chased this, I chased that.

And then I'm still noticing.

And I mean, no one can even have a conversation anymore with a group of women or a group of men.

All people are talking about is, you know, carbs and protein and fat and what should I be doing?

And what I know now is that it comes back to energy over inflammation, right?

And that one third of the story is food, but two thirds is light and grounding.

And our bodies as electromagnetic beings, we are not this kind of, you know, we aren't just a function of these diets.

And this, you know, this morning in my email, you know all the headlines and I every morning you open up your email.

So one common, one common fruit turns sleep into a fat burning machine.

And that was the email that I responded to.

What is that common fruit?

I need to find out what that common fruit was.

And I was a very intelligent person, but boy, they had me because I was searching.

I didn't feel well.

I wanted answers and I really wanted to find them.

And I was, I tried everything.

I tried everything under the sun except the sun.

And that was what I needed to do.

And even this, you know, memory loss linked to five common additives.

Are they in your pantry?

So I would fall into this kind of.

Oh, so I would check my pantry.

I probably had, I read that email five years ago, I probably would have undone my pantry, figured out if I had these five ingredients and actually thought that those were contributing to things like why I wasn't sleeping, why I didn't have energy, why my hormones were dysregulated.

And I didn't realize that my relationship with light and my daily routines around light were actually what were really going to move the needle on all these issues that were bothering me most.

And so that was so, so eye opening.

But just in terms of results, just changing how I felt.

I mean, I literally was so fatigued.

I was so fatigued.

I mean, in the afternoon.

And then of course, I go to my caffeine and you know, I'm trying, oh, I'm going to load on more supplements.

I mean, I kept loading.

Oh, it must be the collagen protein.

Oh, I didn't juice my celery this morning.

Oh, I didn't count my steps.

Oh, I didn't do this.

I didn't do this.

And there's kind of this cycle of disappointment in what I'm not keeping up with because there's so many solutions.

So there, it wasn't possible for me to achieve health because I couldn't, I couldn't really follow all these solutions.

There were so many when the real solution was embarrassingly simple.

It was embarrassingly simple, which was reconnect with nature.

And it was starting my day without my phone, not sleeping with my phone in my room.

Starting my day with morning light as early as possible.

Sunrises are optimal, you know, know, grounded in the earth, facing east, no contacts, light in my eyes, light on my skin.

Connecting to nature and actually listening to nature.

I mean, I realized that I just had become so disconnected.

I didn't even hear birds anymore.

I mean, I know that sounds crazy, but I literally was so disconnected that I, I had all these natural frequencies that I were, was just completely disconnected from.

So.

Wow.

Yeah, it's amazing.

And it's, you know when you say like I didn't even hear the birds, I totally feel that.

And it's like the way that, I mean there's so much in what you just said that we, that we can unpack, but the idea that so many of our health issues have come about because of the artificial barriers that we put up between ourselves and what really drives our biology, which is nature.

And then on top of that, within those barriers, we've filled it up with harmful frequencies that are harming our biology and cut ourselves off.

And so we go to find solutions for that and we're just inundated.

And the, the digital marketing sphere has so completely taken over, which, you know, I, I think it's great that people are able to, to run a business off the Internet and work outside the system.

I think that's amazing.

I have no problem with it.

But in order to maintain your social content, like we're just, just completely overwhelmed with these tips, as you said.

So talk to me a little bit.

So you were like navigating through like pro tip after pro tip after pro tip, which doesn't lead us to the fundamentals.

Right.

So how'd you get there?

I did a lot of research, a ton of research, and I enjoyed it.

And the most shocking part of the research is that it wasn't a deep dive, it was a very shallow dive because there is so much research, there are thousands and thousands, you know, over 80,000 PubMed articles about circadian biology.

And so what I learned is that my health and wellness was all about my relationship with light.

And it was about this Nobel Prize winning concept of circadian rhythm, which is bright days and dark nights.

And it felt so simple, too simple.

And I think because we're so marketed with so many solutions, we don't believe it could be that simple.

We don't believe that it could be that basic.

It must be Harder, you know, we must have to pay for it.

It's like, you know, there's, there's, you know, economic theories about how you value things.

And some people will value, even if it's the same item, if something's more expensive than the other, then they think that has more value, which is so interesting to me because the best value, I mean, they say the best things in life are, are free.

And it's true for your health, whether you want to believe it or not.

And I wanted to pay.

I said, oh, if there's a detox, I can buy.

Oh, there's a juice cleanse.

Oh, the collagen proteins.

Sign me up.

It was this endless cycle of sign me up.

And I was signing up for indoor things and I needed to sign up for nature.

And interestingly enough, you know, as I did the research and as I really, I love history as well, you know, I looked at how we evolve and where we evolved.

You know, we evolved on the Eastern Rift of Africa in the sun, you know, full spectrum sun.

And that is how our brains evolved.

And yes, you know, we all took these migration paths and we have mitochondrial DNA that really inform, you know, how our bodies work.

And if you look at the work of Doug Wallace, he's actually the chief of, I'm sure you know Doug, he's the chief of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has done incred research on our mitochondrial DNA and he's shown us that while we continue to look at research on our nuclear DNA, that our mitochondria are the one that are informing us of whether we get sick or stay well.

And that 85 to 90% of cancers and disease are attributable to our mitochondrial dysfunction.

And how do our mitochondria do well or not do well?

The light we provide them.

So the very mechanism in our cells that determines whether we get well, stay well or get sick is dependent on light.

It's dependent on frequencies, it's dependent on the daily routines that we do around light.

Our mitochondria need full spectrum light, they need infrared light.

In fact, they can't produce ATP unless they have infrared light, which is 43% of the daily sun.

So just getting outside, you're providing your body energy that has nothing to do with food.

And our emails.

My email this morning was all about food and the ingredients in my pantry and the food that's going to help me sleep and the food that's going to do that, and food nourishing food, local grown food, very important.

But I'm a numbers person.

And if you say I can focus on the 2/3 or the 1/3, I'm going to focus on the 2/3 because that is the driver for me.

That's what moved the needle for me.

Do you have to eat healthy?

Should you eat healthy?

Of course.

But what I'm saying and what I learned for me is that how our bodies operate was not just about food.

It was about the water in our body, the grounding, the energy that we could create by connecting with the sun.

And these are kind of basic, you know, I'm dumbing down quantum biology, but it doesn't have to be.

It's very simple.

If you can't say it in a simple way, I don't think.

Yeah, I mean, it's.

The sun's stupid.

Like, that's it.

It's, it's about building your day around light.

And we can't always do that.

Right?

We're, we're not, you know, our ancestors, we're not naked in the sun all day hunting and gathering, but we can create opportunities in our day and prioritize light.

And we prioritize light above everything else.

That means when you're looking at your day, I'm not just looking at, oh, this is what I'm going to do today.

I'm looking at my day of, this is what I'm going to do today.

And how does light impact that?

Am I going to have a meeting during UVA rise when the sun is around 10 degrees?

No, I'm actually going to allow myself to build my day around the sun.

I mean, we've built our life and our harvest around the sun for thousands of years.

I mean, that's how we live.

That is so true.

And we're like, oh, let's take this, take the light cycles into account and people like, do you understand my schedule?

Right.

Exactly.

It's not a, this is not a new thing.

No, it's not a new thing.

And we're about to, you know, go through daylight savings again.

I mean, we're constantly toying with Mother Nature and, you know, you sound so silly.

Never fool with Mother Nature.

Well, don't.

It's true.

It's very true.

We, the sun.

The sun is perfectly calibrated for us.

Every single wavelength of light is calibrated for a certain reason for our body, to keep us healthy.

Whether that is the visible light spectrum that we can see, the red, orange, blue, green, all the things we learned.

Or is it infrared that we can't see.

Infrared is incredibly important.

And it's available to us all day.

And uv.

UV is incredibly important to us.

And so, you know, I got this email this morning.

Add this to coffee.

312% faster fat burn.

312% faster fat burn.

But what people don't know is that beta oxidation is fat burning.

Beta oxidation happens to our body, in our body to help us burn fat.

What do we need for beta oxidation?

We need UV light.

So we're getting all these emails about how we need to burn fat, how we burn fat, we burn fat outside.

We burn fat, we help our metabolism outside.

And I think it's so funny that, you know, these continuous glucose monitors are all the rage.

I was just in New York City, and all these women, you know, slapping them on and saying, oh, my gosh, I can't believe when I ate a hot fudge sundae, it didn't increase my glucose as fast as my quinoa salad.

But they're missing controls for light.

They are chasing down all these modalities, and they think they're digging deep because they're using a continuous glucose monitor.

And that's what doctors use.

But the fact is, is the.

That light is much more powerful to that equation than anything that they're learning from the continuous glucose monitor.

In fact, had they just got 15 minutes of red light, they would have reduced those blood glucose spikes by 27% just by getting red light, just by being outside.

So they've.

We're thinking of food and we're thinking of health in the context of.

Of blood sugar.

And blood sugar is very important.

But how is our blood sugar regulated?

Our blood sugar is regulated when our mitochondria are working properly, when we're getting red and infrared light, when our cells are churning.

When our cells are churning, they can deal with a whole lot, but we're not letting them work properly.

And our mitochondria are powerhouses from 10th grade.

They're powering down.

And when they power down, we can't accomplish the basic things that we want, like sleep, metabolism.

All the things that we're complaining about all come back to light.

So it's.

Shannon, you're a powerhouse.

You're a powerhouse explainer.

I love it.

I love it.

And because, yeah, I mean, this is what's missing, and this is sort of what we're all here for, is to bring this piece back in.

And as you said, it's not about replacing anything.

I mean, it may end up replacing some things.

It turns out you might not need certain things once you get outside, but it's not about replacing modalities or making everything about this.

It's about understanding that this is fundamental.

So as you said, okay, so Doug Wallace has showed us unless you have a rare genetic disorder, everything, every chronic illness comes back to mitochondria.

Right.

And all the research has shown us that mitochondria are totally light dependent.

Yes.

And yet your peers are all drowning in glucose monitors and you know, 800 different email tips every day about a whole array of things without coming back to first principles.

Absolutely.

And the sad part to me is that you know, and I know you've had some amazing people on your show when you're talking about nervous system regulation.

You know, all these solutions, ironically are such a detriment to people's nervous systems.

And for our mitochondria to work, we have to begin with our nervous system.

We have to be in a state where we can actually accept information and relax into it and research and be curious.

But everyone is so dysregulated.

We have so much information.

So that's kind of number one.

That's a big part of it and we are so connected.

Say a little bit more about that and like what your personal experience is and what you found in the research.

So you know, we've talked a little bit about how light supports our mitochondrial function.

We need it to be healthy.

And yes, every important biological process.

Talk to me about that felt sense of safety because anxiety is, I mean it is so pervasive.

It is from 4 year olds to 80 year old, you know, like everyone seems to be struggling with that in some capacity.

And the way that we all went to food and supplements for our health situations for anxiety, we're all going to a psychological solution, right.

Which again, very important.

Right.

But if we don't look at also from this perspective, we're missing something.

So talk to me like what you've seen around that.

Well, I think it's, it's, there's two parts, right?

There's, there's the daytime light and then there's the avoidance of blue light at night.

And what I saw in my experience was that, that second piece, my relationship with artificial light at night was a huge driver in anxiety and cortisol.

And so I kind of prided myself, oh, I'm a night owl.

And you know, at the time, you know, I had young kids and so I'd get them to bed and then my night, that was, that was my jam.

That was when I was going to get stuff done, I was alone, I could, I could think, I could accomplish and so what I actually was doing was, was just the opposite.

So when my kids went down and I was, you know, unknowingly helping them with their circadian rhythm, I was really disrupting mine.

And so the night for me was a blue light moment.

And what I've learned in my study of light, and it's really fascinating, but that as I said before, the sun is perfectly calibrated and that the sun works as a team, which is what I say, is that all these wavelengths work together.

And they never are solo, they're never rogue, they're never alone, they're perfectly designed.

And, and even studies on UV light, I mean, when they, when they demonize UV light, they studied UV light on its own.

Well, of course it doesn't work when it's on its own.

It is always accompanied by infrared and the other visible light spectrum wavelengths.

So we never experience light solo, except for one thing on this screen.

And this is intense blue light solo, and is not matched by red.

It's not matched by infrared or UV or any of the other colors of the visible spectrum.

And that's not natural.

It's light we created.

And it's very useful so you and I can speak to each other.

But it's not how we were designed to accept light.

And so what I found personally, and as I reflect back, I realized that, boy, in the evening, I was ingesting a lot of high intensity blue light that was unaccompanied by the other wavelengths.

And that was what was going in my eyes and on my skin.

And what I learned is that we have non visual photoreceptors in our eyes called melanopsin.

And melanopsin is particular to, particular to both our eyes and our skin, but it's a blue light detector.

So we're designed to see blue light because we're designed to see blue light in nature.

And let me explain.

So blue light is our timekeeper.

When we get up in the morning and we see blue light in the morning, it tells our body to wake up.

It's our blue light.

It's cortisol.

It raises our cortisol.

This is when raising cortisol is good in the morning.

And blue light allows you to do that.

It's your wake up and go wavelength, also accompanied by rain.

It's embedded in that spectrum.

Embedded in that spectrum.

We go outside, there's blue light in there.

Okay, there's blue light, but it's not alone.

There's blue and red and green in the morning because we need all These wavelengths to start our day.

And yes, we need to put our melatonin away, bring our cortisol up and start our day.

That's how we do it.

But fast forward to the evening.

I'm creating an artificial environment on my screens when I'm doing my shopping or whatever I'm doing at night that I need to get done.

I'm actually taking blue light that's unaccompanied by these natural wave, other natural wavelengths.

How it happens in nature.

I'm increasing my cortisol.

I'm increasing my blood glucose.

I mean, if I was wearing a continuous glucose monitor at 11pm at night while I'm doing my online shopping, it doesn't matter what I'm eating, that monitor is going to spike because of the blue light.

It's not about food.

It's about light.

Okay?

So I just wanted to say that again for everyone who may be new to this arena.

Blue light at night, even if you're not eating anything, will spike your blood sugar.

So ladies with the glucose monitors, put it on.

Actually, don't pop open your laptop and watch what happens.

Right, right.

And that is, I find, like, this piece really blows people's minds.

It blows my mind.

Every time I hear it, it blows my mind.

I'm like, what?

Right?

And everyone says, oh, gosh, you know, it's late at night, and then they're walking over to their cabinets, right?

And they're having the midnight snack.

And then the next morning they're saying, oh, why did I do that?

Well, I can tell you why you did that.

You did that because you were bombarding yourself with blue light.

And it's not.

I mean, it's not your fault.

You don't know it, but it's increasing your glucose, it's increasing your cortisol, and it's actually reducing your insulin sensitivity for the following day.

So then you wake up and it's just this vicious cycle.

And like, oh, my gosh.

So that blue light spiking me, it's going to start a craving.

I'm going to have a midnight spot snack, which then wrecks, wrecks my sleep.

And I've already wrecked my sleep with the blue light, okay?

And it crushes me.

So it's increasing your blood glucose, it's making you want more snacks, and it's crushing your melatonin.

So your melatonin is this master antioxidant that you need for sleep.

And what we found and what the research is showing us is that melatonin is more than just a sleep Hormone.

And we kind of treat it as a sleep hormone.

Right?

I mean, it's who I can't tell you, even my own daughter.

I mean, the melatonin gummies by the bedside, that's what everyone's go to is.

Oh, good.

Okay, I need to get to sleep.

I'm gonna pop.

Is it a 5 milligram night?

Is it a 10 milligram night?

And this is kind of the cycle of chaos that we're in because we don't understand melatonin.

And melatonin, it's called the night hormone, but it's made all day.

In fact, it's only 5% of melatonin is made in your pineal gland.

95% is made in your mitochondria.

It's made at a cellular level.

And how is it made?

It's made from all this infrared light, all this red light that you've been in the sun all day, 43% of daytime light.

That's your melatonin gummy.

That's where you're going to get your sleep.

By creating the circadian rhythm by exposing yourself to bright light during the day and this darkness at night.

That is where sleep comes from.

That's how you build melatonin.

And your melatonin is what is required for you to do critical cell repair.

So during the night autophagy, this is self cleaning.

This is.

And I just did a reel about this, I haven't posted it yet, but I had two trash cans, you know, I had the blue recycle and I had the black trash can.

So autophagy is what happens when you recycle and repair.

That's how you have restorative sleep.

So it's not just about sleep, it's about repair.

Because if we didn't repair, if we didn't run our dirty dishwasher every night, we're going to wake up with dirty dishes.

So we need to recycle and repair.

We also have a process called apoptosis, which is cell suicide.

It sounds scary, but it's necessary because if cells aren't working for us, if they're cancer cells, we need to get rid of them.

But all this is dependent on the melatonin that we're making.

This master antioxidant that we think comes in a gummy, but it really comes in our relationship around light.

It's just so powerful.

It is just so powerful.

Shannon, I'm so glad we're doing this.

I love a good high level overview.

It's like my favorite.

I mean, I know the deep dives are very popular.

But this is really like, it's because it's just so important to like go up high and look at all of it from a high level perspective.

And what you were saying, it's like, what is the thing that is going to move the needle in one direction or the other on all of these things, right?

And it's light, slash darkness.

Right.

And, and I mean when you look at the research, I mean, for anyone that wants to take, I mean, deep dives are really helpful and I, my most important piece of advice is be curious.

You know, just keep being curious.

Notice the things you know, read your emails, read all your wellness emails and just observe them.

Don't act upon them, just observe them and see.

I mean, that's a frequency in itself.

So you're taking in these frequencies, these marketing frequencies.

They all affect you, you know, whether they're positive or negative.

You're taking them all in.

And so, you know, the research is there.

I mean, we can talk about the Swedish Cohort, I mean, 88,000 women, you know, is saying that, you know, that your failure to get outside and your failure to get in the sun has a bigger impact on, on your health and smoking.

So this is really powerful information.

We have to be outside, we have to reconnect with nature and that's how our body works.

So it's a light story.

But I mean if you look at, you know, if anyone wants to do a deep dive, but I mean, if you look at equals MC squared and the photoelectric effect, we absolutely need electrons to use the photons of light.

How do we gather those electrons?

Well, some of them come from food.

There's electromagnetic, you know, I always say, you know, food is an electron, electron barcode.

So we're gathering electrons from food, but that's just part of it.

The other part is nature.

So we're gathering these electrons from the ground.

We have this unlimited supply of electrons and our body needs those electrons to gather these photons.

They all work together.

They all work together.

And these are basic everyday tasks.

They're not even tasks, they're just your routine.

So in the morning, you absolutely need to see natural sunlight.

First thing, do not check your phone.

Do not look at what happened last night.

Do not start the reels, start in sun, start in light.

It is perfectly calibrated.

It is your friend, it's outside and it wants to make you better.

It wants to make you better.

It wants you to operate at your best.

You just have to allow it to.

You just have to get outside and you have to connect with nature.

Love that.

And yeah, I mean, on the topic of deep dives, I just wanted to, like, park here for a minute for me.

So as a person in the world, right.

Like, my interest in health strategies is like, how much do I need to know and how much do I need to do in order to live my.

The rest of my life?

Now, somebody who works in the health space, those health strategies and how they work may be their life.

That might be their.

Their entire focus.

But for the client or the patient of those people, which is where I put myself, I just need enough information to be motivated to make the change.

And I'm good.

So if you feel like you need to deep dive into every paper that came out, but it's not unless you're.

Unless you really, really want to go for it, but it's like, just give that intellectual part of you enough to chew on to be like, oh, this makes sense.

Right?

And that's it.

That's all we need.

Exactly.

Because that's what you're providing here today.

So thank you very much.

Right.

I did the deep dive, but it just like, there's chaos in everything, right?

And there was time.

I really, Yeah, I just really want to talk to that person who's not the researcher, who has a busy life.

And it's like, what are you ladies talking about?

Right?

And I had to look, yeah, I did the deep dive, and that's why.

But I had to stop.

And I'm always learning.

I research every day, but I did a deep dive and I developed a really good foundation.

And what I realized is that our body is incredibly complex, but the solution is embarrassingly simple, and that is getting outside every day.

And yes, I have poured through research article after research article, and that is really important.

And ironically, I think the best way to take the deep dive is to focus on the everyday, because then your mind will open and you will actually be more ready for the deep dive.

And the deep dive won't overwhelm you as much.

Interestingly enough, I think people start deep dives in places where they actually may still be sick and where they're experiencing cognitive haze and they have brain fog, and then they do these deep dives, and then it becomes more overwhelming.

So why I founded Squint was.

Well, number one, I wanted to teach my kids early what I learned late because it was overwhelming.

I.

It was this aha moment, and I thought, oh, my God, Gosh, I need to let them know, let my family know, let my Friends know, but it's really important to know that your health really starts in cycles and routines that are basic and every day.

We are circadian beings.

We live by rhythms and when.

We can live by simple daily rhythms.

And just in the back of your mind, think of light.

When you're, you know, going to a restaurant and they say, do you want to sit inside or outside?

I want to sit outside.

Choose light.

Whenever you have the choice, choose light.

When you can take your coffee outside, when you can take a phone call outside, when you can take your shoes off and be barefoot, and you don't have to be barefoot to ground.

You can connect to the earth in so many ways.

You can go swimming.

That seems extreme to some people, actually, but just go out with shoes on and hold a tree.

This isn't about being hippie dippy or being fashionable.

You can wear your Manalo's and go hug a tree.

You know, you can be all those people.

You can.

You can be everything, and you can be healthy.

It just has to include light in nature.

You don't have to, you know, wear, you know, a macrame necklace and a hemp sack skirt to understand nature.

It is science.

The research is there.

It is overwhelming that circadian biology is the biggest driver to your energy and your strength.

And if you aren't living your life by light, if you aren't using and being informed by light to manage your day, then you have so much room to be healthy.

It's so exciting because it's so simple.

And once you start making these changes, you will.

You will really, really feel it.

And it's really incredible.

Yes.

And I love that framing because it is exciting.

I've, you know, sometimes broached this topic maybe with, like, a mom on the playground.

And I have been met with, like, what another thing to worry about, like, all right, like, oh, now I have to think about the light coming out of their eye.

Like, well, yeah, sorry.

But on the flip side, it's like, if you come at it through the portal of all of the.

All of the health issues and all of the mental health issues that everybody is struggling with, and it's like.

And you don't know anything about light, there's so much room to grow.

It's like, such exciting news.

So exciting.

It's so exciting.

And, you know, I think part of the journey of health is that we are in this chaos, you know, and so the irony is that, you know, there's a lot of us that are doing the research and saying, oh, it's about light, it's about grounding, it's about sound and frequencies.

And so we don't want to contribute to chaos.

I don't want to contribute to chaos.

We don't need any more chaos.

So what I offer and why I started Squint Essentials was to create a place for very basic daily routines that were actionable and doable and not overwhelming and that people could build slowly.

But you have to build.

That's the non positive part.

There is an urgency to this and you have to start this now because it's so important.

Your mitochondria every day are deciding what kind of environment are you providing them and you need to give them a break.

They're overwhelmed.

They're overwhelmed by non native electromagnetic fields, they're overwhelmed by the blue light in our screens, they're overwhelmed by storms, stress, they're overwhelmed by our dysregulated nervous system.

So be nice to yourself, be kind to yourself.

Start easy.

Just start with Morning Sun.

Start with Morning Sun.

Make that a foundation of your day every day.

Don't do anything else, don't read the emails, unsubscribe, unsubscribe to everything that doesn't have to do with light.

And start easy, start with Morning sun.

And don't beat yourself up.

If you have a day where you're not doing it as well as you know, just get out there, get Morning sun and try it and, and make it part of your day.

Make it a routine.

It's consistency over perfection and just keep doing it.

I love, and I love that that you founded Squint Essentials, which is like, would you say a media company with a very, a very tight focus to share this information or tell us how it works.

And you talk about sharing protocols like let's, let's hear some of the top.

Ones that people, you know, it's light and grounding, you know, it's light and grounding.

And what I want Squint to be is, you know, a launch pad to further learning.

But it's going to be a place where you're going to start.

You're going to start with the basics, you're going to start with Morning Sun.

And what I try not to do is create more chaos.

I am very boring in the sense that I say the same things over and over.

I try to say them in different ways because what I learned through all this is that, you know, I, someone said something about light five times and I didn't understand it and then the sixth time, oh, it clicked and I Said, oh, that makes sense.

That makes sense that we are, you know, that vitamin B is a chromophore for light.

Like that.

All these things that I, all these modalities that I had been trying and trying were all just trying to capture light.

I mean, that's what we're about.

We're about capturing light, using it, absorbing it, emitting it.

It's all about.

We do that.

And it sounds so basic and a little bit hippie dippy, but the science is showing us that that relationship with light, bright, full spectrum sunlight during the day and darkness at night is.

And it's.

And the numbers show it, the research shows it.

So to the extent that you can kind of move the chaos away, quiet your mind, forget the emails, forget the ingredients in your pantry that they're telling you to hide from, forget, you know, the chocolate that's 37% healthier than broccoli.

All these things, you know, we love.

Oh, chocolate, red wine, I'm in.

And it's not about that.

But we get inundated by the chaos of those solutions when really the best thing is to start your day with light, take sun breaks throughout the day, ground as much as you possibly can during the day, and block artificial light at night.

It's pretty simple.

It's pretty simple.

And as you said, you know, as you were saying earlier, almost the reason that, that people reject it, like, oh, what?

Like just that, like, you don't have to be true.

And there is a certain amount of courage involved in following the guidance that you're offering here, which is to simplify down to the most essential thing and focus on it till it becomes an ingrained part of your life.

Right.

I think that that feeling of overwhelm underneath, like the avalanche of pro tips that we subscribe to and scroll through every day, there's a certain kind of safety in not having to make a decision, right?

Like if there's so much noise, there's so many things and it's like, I'll do this and try this and la la la la la la.

And even mixed in there, there might be some light tips.

But if they're just.

If it's just like this pro tip and that pro tip and this really.

Oh, blue blockers are just like a biohacking trend, right?

Like, if it's just all locked in there, we don't have to make a decision because it's just so much noise.

And it takes courage to pick something and follow through.

And I think sometimes we consciously or unconsciously hang out in the Noise, because we're not ready for that commitment.

It's very true.

And it's not to say that sun and grounding are the only modalities that.

I mean, obviously, hydration is a huge part of our health, and I'm a big proponent of, you know, water that's, you know, has minerals added to it.

If you want a vortex, I mean, there's a lot.

But I guess what I'm saying is part of protecting yourself from this chaos is keeping it simple.

Because as soon as you start going down the road, then you're getting into, you know, and all these things are important, fascia and lymph.

And there's a lot of things that you potentially could do to improve your health.

What I'm saying is start here.

This is the start here moment.

Start with light, start with grounding, and then you will be in a physical and mental place where you can actually start discerning what makes the most sense.

But for me, I was in such a state of nervous system dysregulation, I just.

And I'm competitive.

I was like, I'm gonna win.

I'm gonna win.

I'm gonna.

I'm gonna get that idea.

I'm gonna get the latest hack, and I'm gonna get the hack that everyone's going to, you know, everyone's going to do.

And it's insanity.

It's so embarrassing.

But it was.

And then I think, too, our health care, instead of looking inward and thinking about how our body works and how we're connected to nature, we are all about health as it relates to a cocktail party.

We're all about health as it relates to conversation and connection.

So.

So, interestingly enough, I think that we're finding ourselves connecting to other people by speaking about health, because we're speaking about our challenges and what we're trying and what we're doing.

I'll send you this.

Oh, you send me that?

You've got a guy for this.

Oh, I've got a gal for that.

And so, ironically, we're making these connections on health, but they aren't connecting us to nature.

They aren't connecting us to light.

They aren't connecting us to the actual solution.

So I love the conversation.

I love that people are thinking about their health.

I love that people are searching for solutions.

But I started squint to save you a lot of time, because time is your most valuable asset.

And I've done the deep dive.

Meredith's done the deepest dive.

There's a lot of people that are doing deep dives.

But every day, the deep dive presents itself as very easy, actionable daily routines around sun and around grounding and around light.

Yeah.

And again, just to reiterate, because this is, you know, I really want this episode to be useful for the person who is.

Who is not going to take a certification in applied quantum biology.

Right.

This is for the person.

Person who just wants to feel better.

Yes.

You know, share this with that person in your life.

And this is the fundamental.

So we.

You implement, you know, we implement everything that you've been saying, Shannon.

And it's like, okay, then when I go for lymphatic drainage, or then when I go, you know, my.

At least I.

My.

I know where my body is.

Is.

Yes, I know where it is.

Right.

And I know what it.

It can do on its own.

Exactly.

Okay, then where do I need help?

Yes.

And that's the point.

That is the ultimate point, knowing what your body can do on its own.

Because we never trust our body, because our body gives us a lot of signals.

You know, we're hurting, we're aching, we're sore, we're whatever.

But those signals are just from our body trying to help us, trying to give us a signal to say, hey, maybe you need to change things up.

And those signals are, you need to change things up about light.

Because that's what I respond to.

That's, you know, deep down this cell in the middle of my body, that's what they're responding to.

You know, they don't real.

They're not count.

Your mitochondria isn't counting calories.

It's counting electrons.

You know, it's counting frequency.

It's counting the environment that you're in.

It doesn't care whether you're a paleo or carnivore.

It cares about how you are interacting with your environment.

We were never intended to live inside, especially in winter, with our thermostats to 80 degrees.

Our mitochondria respond to both light and temperature.

And now that we're going into winter, we need to live by nature.

And so what that means is that, you know, if you're living in Minnesota, you know, go out and go ice fishing.

You know, go out and.

And get in snow, get in ice, be cold.

Tell your mitochondria where you are on Earth.

Because if you're in your house, in your snuggly loungewear and your ugg boots, your mitochondria doesn't know where you are.

They think you're down at the equator, and you're not.

And Your diet is also a reflection on where you are too.

So your mitochondria are not expecting you to eat mangoes and bananas.

You know, they're sensing that you're in a cold environment and so you need to adjust those electrons accordingly.

That's a whole different discussion.

But the point is, is that our mitochondria, they are our sixth sense.

They are telling us, you know, this is what's going on.

They sense what's going on.

They sense everything, every frequency.

They sense a fire engine driving by.

You know, they sense noise pollution and sound pollution and, you know, the, the air we breathe, everything, they're taking it all in.

And I think we just need to do a better job of allowing them to see what's around.

And what's around is the sun and the earth and the trees and being outside.

Yeah.

And that is a really, I think, like a really, really good way to think about it.

And that's what has always stayed with me, is that I'm filled up with sensors sensing my environment, sensing my light environment, sensing my dark environment.

And they're, they're instructing my body.

So if I cut myself off and then replace that with, with this wi fi and blue light, it's, it's really.

We've created like a perfect storm for mitochondrial destruction.

Yes.

And if we start in that fundamental place, then we can create a foundation that alleviates some of that.

That.

Right.

And it's taking the dog out for a walk on a winter's day.

You know, it's all.

I'm glad you brought up winter.

Yeah.

Because I always thought, oh, God, winter, I have to move somewhere warm.

It's like, no, I just have to.

Like go for a walk every day.

Exactly.

And maybe you don't bundle up.

I mean, maybe you just, you know, maybe you wear a short sleeve shirt.

Obviously you don't want hypothermia, but, you know, maybe you push yourself a little bit, but just connect with nature.

I think, you know, we have a very, you know, everyone's, you know, trying to get the next answer, even on modalities that are helpful.

I mean, cold plunge, great modality, but people are reading into it.

You know, oh, I'm doing 47 degrees.

Oh, I'm at 50.

Oh, you're only at 50.

Oh, that's not.

And it's just, it's just like this cocktail conversation of our health.

And it's crazy to me.

And the part point is, is that our mitochondria are looking for signals and anything below 98.7.

That means, you know, I, I mean, this isn't that complicated.

You just need to get cold.

You don't need to perfectly perfect your cold plunge temperature.

You just need to be more in sync with your environment and you need to, if it's winter and you live in a cold place, you should be cold.

That's what your mitochondria are expecting, right?

If it's winter where you are, we, you should feel cold on a regular basis because it's cold.

It is, it's cold.

It's cold.

We got our little seat heaters in.

The car and we're so smart.

We're, you know, they say, you know, we're, we're so smart, we create all this technology, we create seat warmers, you know, we create, you know, meta glasses.

You know, we create all these things, but yet are they a reflection of how we evolved?

No, we actually evolved our brain in the sun.

We didn't evolve it inside.

And if we want to continue evolving, if we want to stay curious, if we want to not be overwhelmed by mental health issues and mental health issues, you know, in 2030, the numbers are off the charts.

And if we don't change our daily routines, and that's why there is urgency to this, because we're moving in the wrong direction.

But the beauty is that the solution is very accessible every day and it's free.

Yes, yes.

Shannon, this is such an important message and I just love the way that you've framed it.

And I think it's time for us to get off the treadmill.

Just get off the health tip treadmill, go down to the basics, down to the fundamentals, down to the foundation and live from there.

And I obviously, and you and everyone listening, probably we have access to just an abundance of health support.

And the beautiful thing is that when we need it, we can go get it.

But it, you know, if we're living in, if we've got those fundamentals in place, it doesn't feel like a treadmill.

And I, and I also want to say like, there's always, you know, like, and you mentioned this too, right?

Like healing is non linear.

We could start here and end up somewhere else and go.

And it's like now, you know, we just are almost unlocking each door that needs to be unlocked, whether it's healing, trauma, whether it's changing our food, whatever it is, for sure.

But this is the, this is the solid ground that we can stand on as we walk that path.

Very, very true.

And I think we're in an environment, I Mean, even, you know, Hollywood, all the lessons, you know, it's the biggest loser, you know, it's, it's these.

But, but health doesn't work that way.

I mean, every day we have an opportunity to change our health, which is so exciting.

I mean, every day you have an opportunity to reconnect with nature, to reconnect with light, and to rebuild, to rebuild the photoreceptors in your eyes, to rebuild your mitochondria, you know, and it's, it's so hopeful and it's very easy if you just take it slowly and not let it overwhelm you and don't.

It's not another thing.

Sun and grounding aren't an add on.

They're foundations.

And I think when you use them as foundations, they'll give you the clarity.

It'll make you feel like you're in a place where then, then you can decide what's the next step.

Then, then what do I do?

And then when you get that clarity, I think when you start reading those emails, you won't be overwhelmed by them.

You might even giggle, you know, you might even say, oh, you know, it's overwhelming.

So just cancel the chaos and start with the basics.

The Squint Essentials.

Love.

So where can everyone find the Squint Essentials?

So I have a website which is www.squintessentials.com.

i think the most fun place to find us is on Instagram at Squint Essentials.

And so I usually have a theme for the week, but it all comes back to light.

So I give checklists every week, but they're always about light.

It's all the same things over.

But they're good reminders because.

Because we get busy in our life and we can't divorce ourselves from tech entirely.

But, you know, we can use little tips.

You know, maybe you throw away your earbuds.

That would be a great start on tech.

And maybe instead of those earbuds, you use wired headphones, you know, all these kind of basic things.

So be gentle on yourself.

Don't do what I did, which is, you know, try everything all at once and just say, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win.

I'm gonna win.

Because you're gonna lose that way.

You're gonna lose Bitcoin because you're gonna be overwhelmed.

So take, just like I said, start with morning sun, you know, and then at night, dim your lights.

Figure out ways, you know, as we're about to go through a time change.

So I have, I'm talking, you know, next week at squint about, you know, it's dark.

You know, we're all having these

moments.

Oh my gosh, it's 7:30 and it's dark and I'm not even tired yet.

You know, what are we going to do?

And our normal behavior is, oh, I'm going to go watch four shows of my new favorite show.

And that's fun, that's great.

But again, what is the context of light and how is that going to help me feel?

What's that going to do to my cortisol?

What's it going to do to my glucose?

What's it going to do to my melatonin?

What kind of sleep do I want to have?

You know, so you don't have to live by the fire every night, but you do have to make a few changes to your everyday routine and it will feel really good.

Yes.

And there, you know.

Yeah.

And some nights there's a show to watch.

Of course.

Can wear the orange glasses.

Yes.

You can mitigate little workarounds.

There are, I mean every night I.

Go to bed really early.

Right.

You don't have to go to bed at 7.

But if your new favorite show is on and then they say, do you want another episode?

And then, you know, you better be wearing blue blockers.

Your body is wanting you to because your body finished its day.

You know this, your cells got the last blue light of the day, that natural blue timekeeper when the sun set.

So your body's expecting the day to be over.

When you go to your shows, you're starting the day again.

You're giving your body that midday blue high intensity light and saying, oh, it's time to wake up again.

It's the middle of the day.

So use man made smarts which are blue blockers.

Block the blue.

You don't have to not watch shows anymore, but you might need to watch shows in a more mindful way that is very, very doable.

Yes.

I'm having flashbacks.

I had a job for a while coaching women in finance who had just had babies and they all had their routine and they, they would leave work earlier now that they had a baby and then they'd, but they wouldn't want to fall behind their peers so they would put the baby down and log back on and I, when we, you know, is my job as a coach to support them through to their goals and those were their goals that I think back down like, oh, right.

I wish I could have at least told you to put a filter on that.

Laptop screen.

I know.

And you know, we just don't think about it.

And I didn't think about it.

In fact, you know, when I was working, my badge of honor was that I had three screens.

I had a Bloomberg and I had this and I thought I was so cool, you know, this, I had made it.

I was a three screen businesswoman, you know, but at the time, oh my gosh, I think about what I did and I think that period of time was incredibly detrimental to my health.

You know, I thought I was winning, I thought I was superwoman, but I didn't realize.

I mean.

And the worst part of it is that I worked market hours.

So.

But I

was in California.

So I would wake up at 4:30, I would wake up at

4:30 in the morning and then I was a hard worker worker and I would stay at my, you know, desk till 5 o'.

Clock, right.

In the winter that meant I never saw the sun.

I literally never saw the sun during periods of the year.

So imagine.

And I didn't, you know, imagine.

And now we know your poor body, your poor cells.

I know, I know, but it's true.

We just don't think, like, we just, just don't think about it.

No.

And there's things that feel so important and they are, I don't, I know that, you know, career is, is of course a really important purpose and I don't want to take away from that.

I have, I have friends now who work in Manhattan five days a week and you know, but I tell them like, can you, could you eat lunch outside?

Right?

You know, just, just these little things because it's just not on the radar.

And so I really appreciate, Shannon, that you are putting it on the radar for people and reaching, you know, reaching especially women because the great thing is like, you feel good now.

I feel good now.

I mean, I do think, I don't know that I'll ever quite get my mitochondria back to where no, I wouldn't have been if I hadn't trashed them.

Right.

However, I can live my life.

So these, whatever is going on with anyone listening, take heart, right?

Like when given the correct inputs, our bodies can do amazing things.

Yes.

And I, and it's very true, you know, I trash my mitochondria too.

And truth be told, I trash my mitochondria every day that I live.

Where I live that's full of 5G, you know, I, I mean we have so many inputs and then we can talk about food and everything is, that's in Our food.

So for me, these daily routines, they're not optional, they're mandatory because I have done enough damage with all my artificial light, and I did enough damage by thinking I was a California girl, but I really wasn't at the beach much, you know, and.

But that's not to say, you know, I, you know, I have zoom calls, I'm in meetings, but I take sun breaks, so there's way to mitigate it.

It isn't an all or nothing.

It isn't.

Oh, well, that's all well and good.

I have a job.

I can't.

Of course you have to go to your job.

You have to do your job, but take a leadership role at your job.

Bring your meeting outside.

Encourage these meetings outside.

Take sun break.

You know, people.

Take smoke breaks.

Take a sun break.

Let's rename it.

You know, there's lots of things we can do if we do it together.

And once we're all educated, I think we'll all feel better and we can all help each other.

Yes.

And that's.

Yeah, that's a great spot to wrap up, as.

I don't.

That's another thing people do.

They're like, oh, I have to change every light bulb in my house.

That's overwhelming.

I'm not going to do it.

I have to.

Overall, I have to quit my job and move to the Bahamas.

I can't do it.

Never mind.

It's like, no, no, no.

Any.

Every small change.

Every small.

Any small change makes a difference.

Start small, small change.

Yes.

All right, Shannon, thank you so much.

This was incredibly fun.

Thank you so much, Meredith.

And thank you for all you are doing.

You're my hero.

And, you know, you were a big part of getting me started on all of this, and so inspired, so grateful for you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Shannon.