Tend the Garden of Your Mind: Transformative Healing Through Mindfulness and Spirit

What happens when you face a stage IV melanoma diagnosis? Georges Cordoba, our remarkable guest, knows this battle all too well. Once caught in a cycle of surgeries and pharmaceuticals, Georges defied his prognosis by turning to holistic healing methods that have kept him cancer-free for over a decade. His story isn't just one of physical recovery; it's a testament to the transformative power of healing the mind and spirit. As a holistic coach and functional nutritionist, Georges shares the tools and mindset that guided his path to wellness, offering hope and guidance to those facing similar health challenges.

In this episode, we explore how Georges's journey through fear and uncertainty led him to embrace the healing arts, tune in to the power of the Spirit, and practice forgiveness of self and others. We dive into the emotional aspects of healing, discussing how forgiveness and visualization became crucial parts of Georges's recovery process. Insights from his experiences underscore the importance of resilience and emotional intelligence in battling chronic illnesses, revealing that healing is as much about the mind and heart as it is about the body. Georges's narrative shines a light on how changing your perspective can empower personal growth and recovery.

Listeners will also discover practical strategies for enhancing health and well-being. From the significance of mindful eating and gratitude to releasing emotional burdens through meditation, Georges provides valuable insights into fostering a healthier lifestyle. His story is a powerful reminder of the impact that positive habits and mental focus can have on our overall vitality. Whether you're facing health challenges or seeking inspiration for personal growth, Georges's journey offers a blueprint for embracing holistic wellness.

Learn more about Georges:
Calendly: https://calendly.com/coach-georges/transform-your-health-vitality-holistic-coaching

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@healinginsideout

Instagram: @coach.georges

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georges.cordoba

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/georges-córdoba-76883427

Beating the Odds book: https://a.co/d/38Pki8y

Website: https://www.qualevita.com/

Email: coach.georges@qualevita.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Holistic Health and Cancer Recovery
• 6:24 An Aggressive Battle Against Cancer
• 18:39 Healing Through Forgiveness and Visualization
• 30:33 Transformation Through Emotional Intelligence and Resilience
• 37:43 Mindful Eating and Taking Action

Transcript

Georges Cordoba: 0:00

I found out and this is something that people should listen to that we will. Any cancer patient will continue to have recurrences until he or she finds the root cause, what caused the disease to come in In this case, cancer, which was my experience and once you find that root cause, which is usually a combination of the mind and emotions, which manifest in the body, exactly it manifests in the body.

Jami Carlacio: 0:35

Yes.

Georges Cordoba: 0:36

Once you clear that clutter, your healing starts again.

Jami Carlacio: 0:47

Welcome to the podcast Emotional Intelligence your greatest asset and key to success. I'm your host, Dr. Jami Carlacio, coming to you from the Greater New Haven, Connecticut area. A s an emotional intelligence or EQ coach. I'm committed to helping people develop both emotional intelligence and mental fitness. That is, you'll come to regard problems as situations that help you learn and grow. Eq is a way of being and doing in the world that enables you to develop and sustain a positive relationship with yourself and others, at home, at work and everywhere in between. Please subscribe to this podcast and tap the like button so more people can enjoy the benefits of EQ. And now here's the show.

Jami Carlacio: 1:33

Hello everybody, and welcome to the podcast. I am so glad you're here and I'm very glad to introduce you to my new friend, Georges Cordoba. He is, I don't know, nothing short of a miracle-- that might be the way that I would describe you. A nd I am excited for you to tell our audience your story. So today we're going to talk about wellness, and we're going to talk about the different ways in which our Western society thinks it can make us well, and how a holistic approach is actually often an even better answer. So with that, let me tell you a little bit about Georges. So, first of all, he is a stage IV melanoma and metastasis of the brain cancer survivor. Yes, you heard that right-- and he fought the disease for 10 years and he had 10 surgeries, including four craniotomies. The pharmaceuticals nearly destroyed his body. So he took a leap of faith and went into the natural, holistic route to heal. And here he is after 12 years, free of cancer, and God bless you for that. I just think that's so amazing.

Jami Carlacio: 2:57

So seven years ago, george just took another leap of faith and he transitioned from being a chief technology officer to working in health and wellness, and that's why I have him here today. So he works with people who are dealing with cancer or the threat of cancer and he helps them to transform their health and their vitality. He became a holistic coach and a holistic master of transformative coaching and a functional nutritionist and a professional speaker, and he's also a rapid transformation therapist and I'll let him tell you a little bit about that. And he's also a hypnotherapist and a Reiki master. So Georges and I connected on a lot of different levels, and so it made sense for me to ask him to be here with us today.

Jami Carlacio: 3:42

He's also an Amazon bestselling author for his book Beating the Odds my Journey Through Holistic Health to Overcoming Advanced Cancer, and as an athlete, he played NCAA Division I tennis for New Mexico State University. He enjoys competing in 10K and half marathon races, and he is, let me see, an accomplished piano player, having studied at conservatory. So, george, if there is such a thing as a Renaissance man, I think you're looking at him right now and all of his information will be in the show notes. So welcome, welcome. How are you today? Very notes, so welcome, welcome.

Georges Cordoba: 4:26

Very good, very Jami, and thank you for inviting me. I'm honored to be in your show and to share with your audience some good stuff, including, obviously, my journey the 10-year battle with cancer.

Jami Carlacio: 4:42

Yes, and before we get to that, I just want to say a couple of things, because I am working as a substance use disorder recovery coach in a clinic and what I find is that a lot of people are medicated on a lot of stuff and doctors used to medicate me as well and I am no longer on medication because actually I found a lot of healing through holistic health measures myself, whether it's yoga, meditation, reiki and just really adopting a different mindset. Positive intelligence and emotional intelligence have really changed everything for me, and I have found that the thinking has so much more to do with your health than sometimes the drugs, and sometimes they can be detrimental. So I just wanted to start with that, because I think that might be a springboard into you telling us a little bit about your story with drugs and chemo and then finally getting to this place of drug-free and cancer-free.

Georges Cordoba: 5:49

Yeah, sure, as many people know, there are about 12 rules of the mind. One of the rules is that the mind goes to what is familiar. And for most of us, particularly in the West Western societies, what is really familiar in our minds is to go to an oncologist and in a way give him or her all the power and we become a patient and basically do whatever they say. So I did that and my Greek. I'm half Greek and half Spanish. My parents are from Madrid and Athens. On my Greek side of the family I grew up seeing family members my grandfather, his brother, my grandmother's sisters, then an uncle, then another uncle, later on my godfather, and then, three weeks before I was diagnosed, my mother passed of cancer. So when I looked at my family landscape, you know from the Greek side, I really thought I was doomed. I mean, I fear the disease. Since then and three weeks, like I said, after she passed, I couldn't warn her I got. I was diagnosed already with malignant melanoma. I started at the top of my scalp and I did that. I just went. I basically I couldn't believe it, I was in shock, but I everything happened and next thing I know I'm. I'm at a oncologist's office I was recommended to him. The whole journey started Um. First of all I was lucky because the same day I got my diagnosis I was because I have family doctors. I mean doctors in my family I was able to be seen by one of the top dermatologists in Southeast Florida I was living in Miami, Florida at the time, from Sylvester Cancer Center, and I reached out but he couldn't see me in seven weeks. So I called my buddy he's my daughter's godfather and he said no worries, I went to school with him and he'll see you today. So we managed and in the afternoon he removed my first lesion in the brain and basically he did recommend going with this surgeon oncologist. He'll do a sentinel biopsy, which was, by the way, invasive, and that's when I started just accepting all this stuff coming into my body. In no time I had my first surgery, which, by the way, this tumor in the top of my head came back, and so I had my first craniotomy. And at the same time the doctor said I was going to get two for one. He actually removed 23 lymph nodes from the right side of my neck because there was a biopsy behind my ear, a lymph node that came out positive. So they decided to take a whole branch of lymph nodes and there were three that they couldn't get to. He couldn't get to and so he decided without asking my wife or anyone I was asleep to actually sacrifice one of my neck muscles to get to those three lymph nodes. And it so happened that out of the 23, those three were positive. So you know, that was basically. I consider myself lucky with that and obviously I had some issues later on because that muscle was not there and you know, if you see me without a shirt you can see that I have a cavity there, even though nature is amazing. The other muscle there's two there, really kind of like made it up, but not completely.

Georges Cordoba: 10:14

And right after that they put me on this. They started to try things. Melanoma was pretty unknown here in the States. I n Europe, especially in Australia, they were way ahead of us in terms of prevention and things like that. So they put me on interferon.

Georges Cordoba: 10:34

I was five months in this drug that actually it was killing me From the get-go. I just felt horrible me from the get go. I just felt horrible. I kept trying to keep my positive attitude, saying, well, if I feel horrible, imagine what it's doing to these tiny cells that you can't see without a scan, but really it was taking a toll on me. Five months into that, I'll go pretty quickly. Five months into that, I'll go pretty quickly.

Georges Cordoba: 11:05

I was having some issues on my left ear and they did a biopsy of one of the lymph nodes by my ear and it was positive. So they decided to extract 22 lymph nodes on my left side of my neck. But no, they didn't have to sacrifice a muscle or anything like that. Two of those 22 were positive and that started my journey. They tried. Because the interferon didn't work, they put me in a different type of chemo and we tried that I was in remission. We tried that I was in remission, as they call it, a few months, maybe six, seven months, and then it appeared again and this time was in one of my glute muscles. Melanoma is so aggressive and unpredictable that it's really a rough type of cancer to beat, or even for doctors when they're doing what they know. So all in all, I was having surgery, then I would have treatment, then remission, then recurrence, then surgery, treatment, remission, all through eight years In year eight, after three months being clear of cancer.

Georges Cordoba: 12:34

All of a sudden I started to stutter. I was stuttering. I was speaking more Spanish than English, as Spanish is my first language. I was speaking more Spanish than English, as Spanish is my first language. And at one point, you know the kids and my wife they were wondering, they knew something was wrong. I was getting these massive headaches and so they kept asking me if I was okay. I said yes, but they noticed certain things, like I would go and brush my teeth and come out of the bathroom and when my wife would go in, she'll see the toothbrush with the paste, but I didn't brush my teeth.

Jami Carlacio: 13:13

Oh wow, so there was definitely some misfiring going on.

Georges Cordoba: 13:18

Yes, yes, and so there was terrible things. That happened for a few days and so she was already very. That happened for a few days and so she was already very, you know, suspicious my wife and the kids. And so one morning, after that incident with the toothbrush, she asked me are you okay? I was going to go see a client in downtown Miami and I said, yeah, she goes. You want me to drive you or take the metro rail? And I said, no, I'm fine, I'll just park there.

Georges Cordoba: 13:51

And it was a whole day thing. Then we had a couple of meetings and a presentation. So I get there, we go, everything's fine. And I go to lunch with them three of them and myself. And as we ordered lunch next thing I know they finished. Then I had my plate was full and they kept asking me I would say, no, I'm okay, but go ahead and eat.

Georges Cordoba: 14:23

So they realized something was wrong. They paid the bill and then they actually made sure that we went across the street in the middle because they knew something was not right. And as we were going up the elevator I lost my vision. [Oh gosh], for a few seconds it seemed like eternity, but I completely went blind and that really scared me. It just came back. So my client, actually the CEO asked me for my wife's number and called her and she said do not let him go, take the car keys and I'll be there. I'm going to take the Metro Rail, and that was good and downtown from where we lived, where she worked she's in the medical field, by the way she got there and we didn't drive. That particular Metro Rail took us to the hospital and we saw the oncologist. He made a call and so he was waiting for us, and they asked me a few questions which I did not answer. I was wrong. They asked me who the president was and I said Ronald Reagan, you lost a few decades.

Georges Cordoba: 15:41

Yes, I did and uh, you know, he would ask, he would ask me for, for like a color in in Spanish, and I would say it, and then I had a hard time. It, you know, repeated in english, things like that. Uh, so he made the decision right there says, look we, we're gonna keep him here, we're gonna hospitalize him, we have the best surgeon, neurosurgeon, in in town and one of the best in the country. He was only 37 years old, by the way, but uh, so that was my first mets in the brain and ended up having a surgery. It was close to 10 hours. They opened up. I don't think you can see it.

Jami Carlacio: 16:28

Probably not. It's kind of hard to see.

Georges Cordoba: 16:31

Yeah with the lining, but it's from ear to ear like on my front lobe. At that time the tumor grew so fast it was almost like a key lime Not a big full-sized lime, but a key lime.

Jami Carlacio: 16:45

That's big, that's big, it's still pretty big, oh yeah.

Georges Cordoba: 16:48

It was really affecting a lot of my like I said, my vision. I was stuttering.

Jami Carlacio: 16:54

And your memory. I mean, it sounds like it affected every single part of your life.

Georges Cordoba: 16:59

Absolutely. That's something that I didn't mention, but when I was diagnosed, my kids were already going through the trauma of losing Yaya. They called her my mother, their grandmother. They were very close to her and all of a sudden I had a hard time deciding do I tell them? But I did say I did. In the afternoon when they removed it it was an ambulatory procedure the first one, so I told them I called my wife. She was do we do it? And we realized yes, we'll do it, and it turned out to be pretty much a trauma for them Right off the bat. My youngest and only girl, Claudia, seven years. She was seven years old, she was ... "Dad. Our family is breaking, we lost grandma and now you know what's going to happen with you, and so that added a lot of you know. That whole experience added a lot of stress for me.

Jami Carlacio: 18:01

However and we'll go back to the craniotomies and stuff- Well, let's also get back to like the difference between Western medical treatment the traditional, so that we can move on to some of the like why, you're here today.

Georges Cordoba: 18:18

Yeah, absolutely. You can read about the kids in my book. And so I had my first granuloma and again I accepted. They said, look, we're going to put you on a six-week radiotherapy in your head. So you're going to come for six weeks, monday through Friday, and we'll do radiotherapy. They did say that one of the effects there could be that I would get more tumors, and so I accepted. They said, look, we recommend you doing this or whatever is around there, we're going to make sure it's gone.

Georges Cordoba: 18:55

But what happened actually was the opposite. All of a sudden eight more tumors showed up and they were all melanoma and we tried to . . . t hey tried to get rid of the small ones with gamma knife. I had two gamma knife procedures. They're really a surgery in a way it's a two hour to three hour procedure where they try to go with targeted radiotherapy, like laser beams, to those tumors, and it was successful for a couple of them. There were three that definitely needed to be extracted and thank God for that, they were operable. But there were two that were not operable out of the whole thing. But there were two that were not operable out of the whole thing. So I just took the news and continued to do my stuff.

Georges Cordoba: 19:48

But at that time, when they came back and I had, after the two gamma knives, and I had my third craniotomy because I had the first one, like I say, it was a recurrence they had to really go in there and open up. So on my third one, they found this new drug, this new chemo that would penetrate the brain and that was good news to them because the brain is very, very protective for toxic stuff. So I agreed you know, my wife, everybody the doctors in my family, yeah, take it, you stuff. So I agreed, you know, my wife, everybody the doctors in my family, yeah, take it. You know this is great and, by the way, it was oral. There were capsules and each capsule so you have an idea was $1,000.

Jami Carlacio: 20:37

Yeah, so a lot of people if they had to have something like that. (A) it's not accessible to everybody. Well, yeah, I mean you have to have a certain kind of insurance or you have to have a heck of a lot of money.

Georges Cordoba: 20:49

Yeah, we kind of had both. My wife had an amazing insurance with the Baptist Hospital down there, but, you know, on year three, three, we had already consumed our deductibles and all this stuff. So we had to start tapping into 401ks, IRAs, college funds for the kids. We had it all figured out. You know, five kids we have, you know so I, and now there are adults. But so that was another tough situation.

Georges Cordoba: 21:23

So I took this. This was supposed to be five pills, one Monday through Friday, one pill a day, take a break for a week and then go five more days. On my sixth pill, my sixth capsule, which was on a Monday, I made a decision that this stuff was killing me. I was literally off the roof. I mean, I was so tense, so anxious, so I just don't wish this stuff to anyone. And so I did a lot of praying. I always meditated and visualized with my tennis career, so I started to use that even more than before just to make a decision.

Georges Cordoba: 22:11

I was faced with this decision to say, look, I've been going on this eight years and it's the same cycle. I end up with the surgery, they give me treatment, I go to remission, reoccurrence surgery, and I cannot live like this and, needless to say, with this type of drugs. And so I talked to my wife about this. You know, we called the doctors in my family. They all thought, no, keep, keep going. You're doing good, you're strong, you're an athlete, you have a great attitude. But I, I said, look, I know inside of myself, and I have to say this our intuition is our best coach and, by the way, healing happens, and you know this from the inside out. You have to make some changes, some radical changes, but it takes some faith and courage to do this type of decision.

Jami Carlacio: 23:07

You got tired of all of the surgeries, you got tired of feeling sick, you got tired of not getting well, but you talked about you know I can't do this anymore and you began praying. So it sounds like faith entered into the picture. And then you mentioned intuition. So why don't we spend some time talking about the role of the mind and move on from some of the physical stuff to some of the mental and emotional and spiritual stuff?

Georges Cordoba: 23:40

Great, and those are the three other legs that they teach in Azahel, as you call it. But yes, on the mental side, particularly when I decided to go natural, I began to do a lot of visualization. For example, I would do this two or three times a day. I would imagine the Pac-Man creatures that game Pac-Man, these creatures eating up all the tumors in my body, in my head, wherever they would be, and I also, because I'm a person of faith, I would see this, basically this graceful ray, a holy ray, coming down to me. In my case it was light blue, coming from inside my head and going through my body, melting every possible tumor in my cell within, and a couple other things that I would do, knowing that the mind learns by repetition. Right.

Jami Carlacio: 24:48

So how often like you did this every day, but for how long at a time did you do it? For several hours?

Georges Cordoba: 24:54

I did those three and then I found out about forgiveness, so I started meditating on forgiveness as well, probably altogether about six hours a day, so all the time.

Jami Carlacio: 25:11

That's a lot, so that's a lot. People might think I don't have the luxury, but I think if you're trying to save your life, then you do those things because you probably couldn't work anyway. But what's the role of forgiveness? How did that fit in?

Georges Cordoba: 25:28

Yeah, you know, I found out. I just did a talk in Toronto last weekend and there was a holistic MD. He's an MD but he's now applying more holistic approach in his practice. He's not an oncologist and he did say that all disease, all chronic disease, without exception, are emotional. All chronic disease, without exception, comes are emotional. And because of those emotions and other things that we do mindset and anxiety and eating fast and all this stuff we produce serotonin and we produce cortisol which is very acidic for our bodies. And if all disease starts in an inflamed body, now we know the formula, but forgiveness and I'm writing a book. The title is Forgiveness is Healing.

Jami Carlacio: 26:22

It is, but yeah, I mean who thinks, forgiveness, I've got cancer. I'm imagining these Pac-Man person things eating the cancer cells and you're imagining this beautiful divine blue light healing you.

Jami Carlacio: 26:41

What made you think forgiveness was so important?

Georges Cordoba: 26:44

Well, it is said that if you seek, you shall find. I was just a master in Google, looking around and trying to find my own information because everybody has something to tell you and it could drive you crazy and very confused. So I did it on my own. It was me with Google and somehow somehow one of my employees.

Georges Cordoba: 27:21

I don't know why she thought about this, but gave me a book titled Emotional Intelligence and I forgot the author right now. It's been a long time. But with that I had the intuition, the discernment to look into forgiveness. The intuition, the discernment to look into forgiveness. And I realized that I had a lot of clutter in me in terms of forgiving others, being forgiven, and the toughest one, forgiving myself. So I actually humbled myself. I basically surrendered to the process, to the universe. I called it God and I said you know, I'm going to put my faith into action. Faith without action is dead. So I looked and looked and I started to.

Georges Cordoba: 28:02

Really I got at work forgiving people. A couple of them were passed away, but there were some exercises that you can do, surrogate stuff. There were some exercises that you can do, surrogate stuff, and I managed to do it very well in a retreat, a spiritual retreat. But the ones that were alive, I just went very humble, said I forgive you. And many times it happened because I wasn't a saint, let's say I was a youngster. They didn't even remember that I did have that poison on me. I had that stuff on me and then, you know, and then asking for forgiveness and forgiving myself. There's one scene that I think is what really stopped the recurrences on me and my wife and I, my friends, they all, everybody, just really they had me already in the cemetery.

Jami Carlacio: 28:58

Oh gosh.

Georges Cordoba: 28:59

Especially the doctors and stuff. So they invited me everywhere they could. I said and we love music, like you said, so many of us liked Fleetwood Mac and they were in town, so we went to liked Fleetwood Mac and they were in town, so we went to see Fleetwood Mac. My wife and I enjoyed the concert but we cried from the very first song. We looked at each other, we cried and we just forgave each other. We were just hugging for two hours, two and a half hours, two and a half hours and, uh, both myself and and her, we can, you know, just say, look this, that was healing.

Jami Carlacio: 29:41

I was just healing this tear. D id you send Fleetwood Mac a thank you card? no, I didn't, I should have yeah I should have, so, so let's just talk about this a little. We could get sidetracked on Fleetwood Mac very easily. So the forgiveness thing is huge because you mentioned a very important word in there poison and a lot of what's in our bodies is poison.

Georges Cordoba: 30:06

It is.

Jami Carlacio: 30:07

And it came from our heads. It may have been something you ate, but oftentimes the thinking, the patterns, the rumination that's poisonous. And that's where the cortisol can come in. Right, the stress hormones come in, because all of a sudden we're thinking this is bad, or that person is bad, or that person wronged me, or I'm a bad person. So, speaking about emotional intelligence is important, because emotional intelligence isn't just about emotional regulation that might be the umbrella way of thinking about it but what's more specific is resilience.

Jami Carlacio: 30:49

You know, in the face of difficulty, what do we do when we are faced with, whether it is something small like a financial setback, or something really major, like recurrent brain cancer, where you think you're going to die and they keep taking out your lymph nodes and part of your you know, part of your brain. I mean you can't get much worse than that. But your thinking shifted. You started relying on the divine instead of on human intervention, and human intervention is good. I'm not going to poo-poo doctors, Doctors are great.

Jami Carlacio: 31:27

They serve a really important purpose in our world. But clearly that kind of medical intervention may have saved your life, with the lymph nodes especially. But what really seemed to turn things around was that you changed the way you looked at the world and the way you looked at yourself and the way you looked at other people.

Georges Cordoba: 31:50

Absolutely yes.

Jami Carlacio: 31:51

And when we don't forgive, when we're in this blaming mode or shaming mode, those are all the opposite of emotional intelligence and that's where you know, and again, forgiving ourselves is important, but we can't get to the place of this kind of maudlin self-pity of oh, I'm a bad person. We're not bad people.

Jami Carlacio: 32:14

Sometimes we do bad things or we make bad decisions or we make decisions that didn't turn out the way we expected or we didn't think them through. There's even different ways of thinking about that and, yeah, there are real harms in the world. But one of the things in the recovery community, especially in 12-step programs, is forgiveness. You know, one of the biggest keys to recovery is forgiveness.

Georges Cordoba: 32:45

Absolutely.

Jami Carlacio: 32:47

And you know, if you go to bed mad, if you go to bed thinking, you know you have nightmares. You start thinking about things. I talked to a lot of people all day, every day, and I see how their thinking got them where they are.

Georges Cordoba: 33:04

Yes, absolutely Absolutely. You're just right, you just couldn't have said it. I couldn't have said it better, and it is so important because I found out and this is something that people should listen to that we will. Any cancer patient will continue to have recurrences until he or she finds the root cause, what caused the disease to come in in this case, cancer, which was my experience and once you find that root cause, which is usually a combination of the mind and emotions, which manifest in the body.

Jami Carlacio: 33:48

Exactly Right.

Georges Cordoba: 33:49

Manifest in the body.

Jami Carlacio: 33:50

Yes.

Georges Cordoba: 33:51

Once you clear that clutter, your healing starts again. I am very blessed to really have done a minor in nutrition when I was in college, competing and obviously studying engineering. But I did a minor in nutrition to have an edge playing the game and so that helped me a lot later on. And, like I said, doctors are not. They're not nutritionists, they're not psychologists, they're not acupuncturists, they're not massage therapists. They just know what they do and that's great. They're trying their best. I would not be here without those 10 do, and that's great, they're trying their best. I would not be here without those 10 surgeries. Maybe you're right. I mean, the ones in the brain were really key. I could have a stroke or whatever. Nothing happened. But I agree and this is something my wife and I discussed earlier the years that I was cancer-free I never said I'm in remission. That psychologically leaves a little seat in there that it could come back.

Jami Carlacio: 34:59

No, I'm free of cancer, yeah yeah. So that is so key. I have seen that I used to think of myself as a victim of my life, and when I was a victim of my life, I was a chronic migraine sufferer, and that was a big thing. Migraines ruled my life. There were days I couldn't get out of bed. There were days I could not get out of bed and I had started getting these when I was six. So from the time I was six until a couple of years ago, when everything literally turned on a dime for me and I stopped realizing I was not my trauma, I'm not a victim, I'm not my disease, I'm not, I'm just Jamie a beloved child of a loving God.

Jami Carlacio: 35:50

And as soon as I shifted my thinking, everything in my life changed.

Georges Cordoba: 35:55

Everything.

Jami Carlacio: 35:56

It was complete transformation and you know I still like Haagen-Dazs ice cream. I'll just put that out there for everybody that I haven't quite given up ice cream, but I do put better food in my body and I put better thoughts in my head every day in my body and I put better thoughts in my head every day.

Georges Cordoba: 36:16

Absolutely that's. It is key, boy. I don't know how much time we have, but it is. It is key to nourish yourself. Don't, don't allow people or the media anything to step in the beautiful garden of your mind. You keep it with flowers, with nice, beautiful green trees, and don't allow anyone to damage that. Until then you start growing weeds.

Jami Carlacio: 36:39

That's one thing.

Georges Cordoba: 36:41

And then, in terms of what we put inside of ourselves, if we learn to love ourselves and be you know, just give ourselves a pat on the back, being proud of ourselves. Many things happen as well, including on the emotional side, with the nutrition, and you just said it, but I'll repeat it you know, if you are stressed out, producing cortisol, you remember a song, something that happened in the past through a movie or whatever, and you're eating, or you're eating just in 10 minutes. There is the same for us nutritionists 25% of our digestion and nutrition is the things we put in our mouth, our food, what we eat. 75% is who we are when we're eating.

Jami Carlacio: 37:29

Oh, I love that. Oh my gosh, I can't believe. You just said that. That is so awesome. It's who we are when we are eating.

Georges Cordoba: 37:38

Yes, absolutely. And that's what goes wrong. We start our, we interrupt our digestion over and over, weekly, monthly and yearly until the body gives up. And what happens? For example, we in America, the average person chews six times before they swallow. So we send our stomach a bomb. You know, it's supposed to be processed in our mouth. We chew more, our saliva enzymes help us process the food and then we swallow. If we don't do that, like I say, the average person and I'm not saying they're, they're chewing, uh, let's say jelly, or, or, or, you know, a mashed potato. But if you're eating something that you need, it's some, the average.

Jami Carlacio: 38:28

You like meat, especially meat meat you chew. Yeah, that's why we have teeth.

Georges Cordoba: 38:33

Yeah, exactly 20 to 32 times. So once because we don't do that or we're in a hurry, we have to do errands, we're stressed out, maybe we're really going mad with traffic, we do not have a good digestion and with time, the stomach all it does. I don't know what to do with this. It's not processed, it sends it as fat. The fat produces acidity, and not only that, we didn't get the nutrients we need, so we're hungry three hours later and there you go. That's why half of our more than half our nation is overweight yeah, well there, yeah, yeah you know, there's there's something called mindful eating.

Jami Carlacio: 39:15

Yes, and it would be a luxury for some people that maybe feel like I don't have that much time on my lunch break. But the idea of when I and I don't do it all the time either, but when I do what I do, when I do mindful eating is I thank the earth for the food. I thank the soil that made it possible for the food to grow. I thank the farmer that planted the food. I thank the person who harvested the food. I thank the person who picked up the food from the farm and drove it to a store. I thank the person at the store who put it on the shelf and I thank God for giving me the means to buy the food to put it on my table, and I thank God for the opportunity to eat it with whomever I'm eating with, like my son or something. And just slowing that and by the way that didn't take very long.

Jami Carlacio: 40:13

I'm eating with, like my son or something and just slowing that and, by the way, that didn't take very long. I said it slowly, but in my mind it doesn't take long to make all of those sort of thank yous in my head before I dig in. But just doing that reminds me of where that food came from, even if it came from a fast food restaurant.

Jami Carlacio: 40:35

It grew in the ground somewhere. That bun, you know, that meat, or that piece of lettuce or whatever it is that you're eating, you know it came from the earth.

Georges Cordoba: 40:47

Absolutely Awesome, yeah, awesome, yeah. Actually, the first couple of weeks in my program we only work about, on the physical body, about how to eat and how to actually. I even have a couple of documents. One is called Sensual Eating and it's really all about, and I'll send you some of this stuff and then, if the crowd wants, you'll have a link that you go to my site and download some.

Jami Carlacio: 41:12

Yeah, that would be great.

Georges Cordoba: 41:14

But there are some tricks there to help our body restore and, like I say, knowledge is power. Once you know it, now you have to take action, and so in many cases, uh, we have to. You know, I have to make sure my client goes through some routine and I give them action steps for 21 days. That's the beginning of a change of a habit, and so it is wonderful because they really see a fast change in their body, in their energy, the way they sleep, which is very important too, energy the way they sleep, which is very important too. So, but but just to end up the whole thing with the, with the meds, yeah, if I knew then what I know now, I would have never gone through oncology and in terms of chemo and radiotherapy, it's just not we do.

Georges Cordoba: 42:14

You know, I needed to find that when I say forgive myself, I always ask why, why, why? Until really I found and I said to myself hey, this is your fault, you caused this. You're in a hurry, you're trying to do your MBA, you want to progress as a CTO, then your kids, you're camping, you're the soccer coach, and I was doing so many things, playing tournaments, and all of a sudden, this source said hey, you know what You're killing yourself here, have a lesson. And you know what you're killing yourself here, have a lesson.

Georges Cordoba: 42:46

And, and, and you know, I got what I got yeah but uh, but it's all from the inside out and taking action yeah, it is and it is.

Jami Carlacio: 42:56

It is a taking action thing. We need to wrap up because we're running out of time, but it's important. I just want to stress this because it's all well and good to listen to this or watch this podcast and say that's a great idea, but if you do the same thing tomorrow that you did today, you have not made a change. Maybe, maybe Georges's or I planted a seed and good, Maybe the seed will germinate and maybe the next time you sit down and you think you're in a hurry, you'll slow down or you'll say wait a minute. What am I holding on to in my body? That's poisoning me.

Georges Cordoba: 43:38

Absolutely yes.

Jami Carlacio: 43:39

And you know, I took some people through a meditation today and I took them through a forest and then I brought them into an open field and I brought them to a little hill and on top of the hill was a basket and I said this is a bottomless basket, it will never fill up. But I want you to mentally write down all your problems on pieces of paper and put them in the basket and then leave the basket alone.

Jami Carlacio: 44:07

Don't worry about the basket, don't worry about it. And then I invited them to imagine a divine light on them and on the basket, and I said just follow the divine light and just let it take you where it's going to take you. But don't worry about the basket. It's not going anywhere and you don't have to do anything. And I put a few of them to sleep, which is probably okay. But that's okay, because they were finally able to let go of something.

Jami Carlacio: 44:41

And we all hold on to so much. We have stress in our shoulders and stress in our necks and stress in our stomachs. Our stomachs tense up and then we're not digesting properly. But I think it's it's. You know, you talked a little bit about weeds. Emotional and positive intelligence is. We have the neural pathways and we have one that's been well-worn, and that well-worn pathway is the pathway of a judge, and you know, the judge, jury and executioner you know the people pleaser, the controller, the hypervigilant, the hyperachiever, the victim.

Jami Carlacio: 45:20

And then the path of the sage is the one with empathy and forgiveness and innovative thinking and thinking outside the box and then taking action. The last of the five sage powers is activate. In other words, you can be empathetic and compassionate and innovative and explore ideas, explore new things. But you can do all those things If you don't take action, then you may as well just go sit back down.

Georges Cordoba: 45:52

Exactly, absolutely, you know, an illusion, basically, I'm sorry, an intention without action is an illusion. There, you go, and you know it happens every year New Year's resolution by March everybody stopped. Yeah, you have to continue taking action, and you know what the year will go by. You either stop or you follow through. And now you're, you know, very proud of yourself that you made something happen. Your goal was reached.

Jami Carlacio: 46:25

Yeah, and just one other thing I want to just remind people if you make a goal and you make progress and then you stop making progress for a while or you slip, that's okay. Just get back up and get going again, right? Everybody falls off a bike when they're learning how to ride a bike. If everyone stopped when they fell off a bike, nobody would be riding a bike in this world. That's correct. So get back on your bike and it's never too late. Clearly, George, right, You're not 22, are you?

Georges Cordoba: 46:57

No no 22 times 4, no times 3. I'll be 64 now, on October 12th.

Jami Carlacio: 47:05

Oh, happy birthday.

Georges Cordoba: 47:08

Yeah, thank you yeah.

Jami Carlacio: 47:11

So, on that note, I invited Michael Bublé to join us for a moment in our studio.

Michael Buble: 47:23

It's a new life for me.

Jami Carlacio: 47:33

And that is our show. Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, Georges, for sharing your story with us and for giving us all some hope. Thank you, there is a better way, and as I said, if you liked this interview, please remember to like and subscribe to this channel so that more people can enjoy the benefits of emotional intelligence. And until next time, I'll see you all at the PQ gym. Take care everyone. Bye-bye.