❤️‍🔥 Looking for the phoenix: fire update   

What a month! Exactly four weeks ago, my husband and I fled as the LA fires destroyed our precious neighborhood and we have been displaced since. Our house didn’t burn down, but we won’t be able to move back in, so we’re in a bit of limbo. In this time of uncertainty, I’ve felt a mix of emotions: deep sadness for friends who lost so much, fear over the fire’s chemical toxicity, frustration at relentless human consumerism (of which I’ve been complicit) and its increasingly devastating impact on Mother Earth and human health, and paralysis from the avalanche of communication streams in the modern world—leading me to feel the daily desire to simply smash my iPhone. Meanwhile, while displaced, life marches on: sourcing organic ingredients and preparing healthy meals, flying cross-country for a family member’s surgery, supporting Bobby Kennedy at the Senate Hearings, finding a new place to live, writing my newsletter (hi!), speaking in front of 2,000 women this past weekend, being targeted with simultaneous praise and vitriol on the internet, filing 1099s, reconnecting with friends… and all the rest. I know how profoundly fortunate I am, and things still feel hard, so my heart goes out to everyone on planet earth dealing with any type of struggle (aka, everyone!). 

Spiritual pushups

Spiritual wisdom says hardships happen for us, not to us, but embodying that truth in the storm has been hard for me. I catch myself thinking, Once we’re settled again, then I’ll feel calm and grounded again…  

But my spiritual guides remind me: NOPE! There are no future material circumstances that will give us what we crave. Peace, safety, calm, gratitude— achieving those is an inside job.

They are simply mental states we cultivate now, in the present, through prayer, meditation, breathwork, and intention. Spiritual guide Cathy Heller reminds us that we are magnets for our own energy: wholeness attracts wholeness; lack attracts lack. If I want to feel grounded, I can simply cultivate that in my body right this second. That’s the miraculous power of our consciousness, but it is a superpower we (I!!) sometimes forget to use (As T Swift would say: “Hi, I’m the problem it’s me! 👋 "). As I reflect on my emotions of the past month, I realize, “Of course I’m a bit overwhelmed: Have I been meditating? Have I been praying?” Clearly, not enough. This isn’t rocket science. Time for a reboot: today. 

My dear friend Lillian Cohanzad shared with me this weekend: “We can see this fire as a tragedy, or we can write a story of adventure leading us to our highest purpose.” And as I revised Lillian’s statement over and over, a realization came to me: During a moon ceremony I hosted in July, I voiced an intention to call in clarity for my next creative project. Since birthing Good Energy last May—a synthesis of 36 years of experiences and thought—and speaking on the topic for nearly five years across hundreds of outlets, I’ve felt with certainty that new art wants to emerge through me. And oddly, in the wake of these fires, I feel the first threads of creative inspiration weaving together. The calm river in me (ie, my true self) beneath the mucky complexity of the last month (ie, my ego’s fears) is whispering that January 7th marked the close of my first life chapter and the opening of the next. As a devoted servant of magic, I know my job is to surrender to the ride, look for the signals from the universe, pray for the strength to follow them, and trust the journey. And my hope is that wherever that road leads will be of service to you, as well. ♥️✨ 

Resources during times of uncertainty

• 📚 Pema Chödrön, Comfortable with Uncertainty 

• 📚+🎙️ Cathy Heller, Abundant Ever After Podcast and Book

• 📚 Anything by Thich Nhat Hanh

• 📚 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

• 📚 Paramahansa Yogananda, Living Fearlessly

• 🎙️ David Ghiyam podcast, including this episode: “Why You Feel Empty After Expansion” 

• 👣 Lots of walking, sleep, sunlight, and organic whole food meals

• 💊 Extra resilience supplements: Florasophy Fiber, Magnesium L-Threonate, L-theanine, Liposomal Glutathione (I alternate between LivOn and BodyBio), Ashwagandha, Liposomal Vitamin C

🔥 Fiber after the fires: The unsung hero of detoxification

🫘 We ALL need more fiber, now more than EVER. My wonderful friends at Florasophy have offered Good Energy Newsletter readers 20% off their organic fiber by using the code DRCASEY at checkout! You can purchase here. 

If you’ve read Good Energy, you know that I am obsessed with fiber. So much so that it is one of the 5 elements of Good Energy meals! In the wake of the LA fires, and in light of the fact that February is Heart Health month, I think it's important to revisit fiber as a critical tool for supporting comprehensive health, and especially detoxification. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate found in plants that is not fully broken down by the body and therefore does not get converted to glucose in the bloodstream. Instead, the gut microbiome ferments certain types of fiber into beneficial postbiotic by-products like short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)—including butyrate, acetate, and propionate—that get absorbed into the body through the gut. These short chain fatty acids regulate metabolism, improve insulin and glucose levels, regulate hunger and appetite, and promote anti-inflammatory effects in the gut and body. 

Colon cells are unique in that they use microbiome-derived short-chain fatty acids as a key fuel source, making the microbiome’s fermentation of fiber essential for maintaining a healthy gut lining. Without adequate energy, the gut lining can become a weak barrier between what is in the gut and what enters the bloodstream, a phenomenon called “intestinal permeability” or “leaky gut.” When this happens, the gut becomes like a tattered piece of fabric on a microscopic level, allowing harmful substances to enter the bloodstream and generate chronic inflammation, which is a root cause of many chronic diseases we face today.

✍️ Read more about leaky gut: Newsletter #36: 🧠🌾 Wheat, gluten, and mental health: Exploring the link

As one research group noted, “the loss of (gut) barrier integrity is considered to contribute to inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and metabolic disorders.” The concept of “leaky gut” isn’t even remotely fringe anymore despite what some say: it’s published about under the name “intestinal permeability” (same thing) in every top journal.

💩 Fiber as a detoxification tool: POOP OUT THOSE TOXINS!

Wildfire smoke in Los Angeles exposes the body to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) consisting of microscopic airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller, which can penetrate into the lungs and bloodstream, contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The wildfires also release polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are hazardous organic compounds formed during the incomplete combustion of materials like fossil fuels, wood, and tobacco, many of which are known to be capable of damaging DNA. And to make matters worse, the smoke and fallout also may contain toxic heavy metals like lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium, which originate from burning vegetation, buildings, and industrial materials, posing risks to neurological, cardiovascular, and immune health. 

Fiber mitigates these effects by supporting the gut microbiota, enhancing bile-dependent toxin excretion, and reducing “enterohepatic recirculation,” whereby bile and toxins excreted by the liver into the gut are reabsorbed back into the bloodstream instead of being eliminated. Soluble fiber ferments into short chain fatty acids like butyrate, which strengthens the gut barrier, limiting toxin absorption. Fiber also supports liver detoxification by enhancing detox liver enzyme activity. 

Before we take fancy expensive supplements to protect our bodies from the toxicity of the modern world, a key step is simply to get enough fiber and hydration, which most of us aren't!  Unfortunately, the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans state that over 90 percent of women and 97 percent of men do not meet the recommended daily intake of fiber, which is already set at an extremely low 25 to 31 grams per day (depending on age and gender). Ideally, we should aim to consume 50 grams or more of fiber daily. 🤦

Regardless of whether you were affected by the LA fires or not, fiber is going to be a great friend for living in the modern world filled with 80,000+ synthetic and industrial toxins. Fiber helps detoxify heavy metals, pesticides, plastics, endocrine disruptors, and air pollutants by binding them in the gut and preventing reabsorption into the bloodstream. With all the toxins in the modern industrial world, we absolutely want to set ourselves up to poop out as much of these as possible.

✍️ Read more about microplastics and environmental toxins: Newsletter #21 and Newsletter #24

🫵 Action item for you this week! Stock your kitchen with a variety of fiber sources (see excerpt from Good Energy below for ideas) and Florasophy and track for a few weeks how many grams you’re getting per day, with the goal of at least 30 grams per day, and working up to 50 grams. It’s not hard, but you have to be cognizant of it! Do it for healthy stools, mental health, heart health, AND detoxification!

🥦 Getting the fiber we need: Soluble and insoluble

Since most Americans aren’t getting enough fiber, it's important that we know which foods have the most fiber, and consider supplementation with healthy organic fiber to meet our goals. First, know that there are 2 different types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. 

Soluble fiber dissolves in water to form a gel-like substance that undergoes microbial fermentation in the colon, producing SCFAs like butyrate, which regulate gut lining integrity, immune function, and metabolic processes. In contrast, insoluble fiber remains intact as it moves through the digestive tract, increasing stool bulk, accelerating colonic transit time, and mechanically binding toxins, heavy metals, and bile acids for excretion. While soluble fiber modulates blood sugar control and fat metabolism by delaying nutrient absorption and influencing enterohepatic circulation, insoluble fiber primarily enhances gastrointestinal motility and facilitates detoxification by physically expelling waste and toxins from the body. We want a good balance of both! 

The American diet is lower in soluble fiber compared to insoluble fiber. While both types of fiber are lacking in the standard diet, soluble fiber deficiency is more pronounced because many of its best sources— including legumes, beans, flaxseeds (the best source of soluble fiber), chia seeds, psyllium, nuts including almonds, sesame seeds, beets, eggplant, oranges, pears, and other fruits and vegetables—are underconsumed. 

🤩 Key benefits of soluble fiber  

• Boosts satiety & GLP-1 naturally

• Blunts blood sugar spikes after meals

• Removes toxins from the body (!!!)

• Binds and excretes excess cholesterol and harmful estrogens

• Feeds microbiome, produces SCFAs

• Regulates water content in the colon for better poop consistency

In his book Fat Chance, Dr. Robert Lustig describes fiber as “HALF of the solution” to the obesity epidemic. That’s a big deal! Get it!

Sending you so much good energy this week 💓 

Casey

In order to meet fiber goals (which I believe is CRITICAL for health), I take Florasophy every single day. Florasophy is the only organic soluble fiber supplement that optimizes digestion, enhances detoxification and promotes overall wellbeing. They have different blends for people whose bowel movements are regular, loose, or constipated. Key benefits of Florasophy: 

• Certified Organic: Customers have assurance that what they say is in the bag is actually in the bag. 

• No added fillers/colors/flavors: All ingredients in Florasophy are functional soluble fibers. It also allows for you to flavor to your preference or add to your favorite recipes (check out favorites at thinkflorasophy.com)

• Blend of 5 different fibers: Different fibers do different things in the body, and just like you wouldn’t eat just broccoli and consider that sufficient for diversity, the same is true for prebiotic fibers that feed different microbes in your gut.  In fact, countless studies have shown that the ingredients in Florasophy are able to reduce the risk of the most common and concerning diseases faced by humans today including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, cancer, and obesity.

• Clinician developed and research supported: Board certified functional medicine nutritionist, Megan Barnett, MS, CNS, created Florasophy to be “food as medicine” to address her patients’ biggest challenges around gut health, glucose balance, cardiovascular risk, and hormone balance. 

• Clinical use for a variety of conditions: The company even has a guide for using the products clinically to aid with IBS, high cholesterol, hormone issues and breast cancer prevention, blood sugar management, and weight management. 

How I use it:  I mix 1 tablespoon in a glass of water or in a smoothie to start the day! So simple! My fiber insurance policy!!!!  

🌎️ Lastly, I want to mention that one of the reasons I love Florasophy is because of their commitment to sustainability. They use organic ingredients, the product is in paper pouches (NOT PLASTIC!), and they ship in 100% recycled mailers that are compostable (!!), so my compost worms get to eat too!!! 🪱 

Again, the incredible team at Florasophy have offered Good Energy Newsletter readers 20% by using the code DRCASEY at checkout! You can purchase here.