The Importance of Self-Love in Achieving Your Dreams with Dr Tiffany Smith

Deneen L. Garrett: 00:02 00:15 This week's guest is Dr. Tiffany Smith, a trailblazing functional psychiatric nurse practitioner and founder of Aroma Functional Nutrition. Dr. Tiffany, tell us more about you.
Dr. Tiffany Smith: 00:17 01:37 Well, first, thank you for having me. So yes, I am Dr. Tiffany M. Smith, and I am an integrative and functional psychiatric nurse practitioner. And what that means is, is that in our healthcare society, you typically, when you go see, so my role is like that of a psychiatrist, which is an MD. I am a nurse practitioner. So I started as a nurse and got advanced training to become a provider. So I'm like the nurse version. It's a nurse doctor kind of position. So I assess, I diagnose and treat mental illness. But when you go see a mental health provider, normally it is medication that you're going to leave with. But for me, I get to the root cause of what's really going on. I identify, is it circumstantial, physiologic, lifestyle? I look at everything about the person and treat the root cause so that you do not have to just be placed on medications just because you're sad. You know, if you can't sleep, then you get the sleep pill or you're anxious or you get an anxiety pill. It's like, what is really causing this? And sometimes it's not physiological, it's circumstantial and vice versa or both. And so I utilize holistic, natural and lifestyle modalities to treat patients.

Deneen L. Garrett: 01:38 02:19 OK, and I know we're going to kind of talk about what got you there. One thing that I wanted to mention, at least for myself, when I'm praying, I'm praying to to reclaim my health and to no longer need the medication. Right. So kind of like we talk about. So no longer. having the ailment or whatnot, that medication. So that's where I'm at. So I'm with you on that. So you found your calling by helping your combat veteran husband recover from debilitating pain, PTSD, and other conditions. Share what it was like witnessing the debilitating effects of Western medicine on him.

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 02:20 05:42 Okay, so let me paint a picture of what life was like, you know, we, we had two or three kids at that point, I think we had two, and we were bringing in the third. And it was harder and harder for him to go to the grocery store, go to the kids functions. So he was pretty much bedbound and In Western medicine, you know, it was like, there's pills, there's procedures, but so he had muscle relaxers and they kept him down in the bed for at least three days, just knocked him out. So he had no pain, but he couldn't even, he couldn't live in his life with quality. And then, you know, different procedures were invasive for like joint pains, you know, steroid injections and whatnot, so invasive. And he tried some of those things, but the quality of life just was not there. And he got to a point where he said, forget it. I don't want anything else with Western medicine. And it's like, OK, so how are we going to get our quality of life back? How are we going to do this? Because this is the health care system that we've been trained in, because he also later in his military career became a nurse. So We didn't know we're stuck. And so we had to do some research. And the first thing that came to us as a solution was aromatherapy. And that's the utilization of essential oils for the therapeutic benefits. And I couldn't get any any information on how to utilize this from Dr. Google or people. So I went to school and got a degree in aromatherapy. And as I was creating blends, we found blends that worked for him. And then he started to get up out of the bed. And then he started to get back engaging in life. And he said, it is amazing to me that something you rubbed on me got me out of pain better than any pill that I've ever taken. And so at that point, he's up, back engaged. Now it's how do you prevent going back there? And that's where we start looking at lifestyle medicine, our lives and how we were living and start making better choices. We started looking at with functional medicine. I got additional education in lifestyle and functional medicines. medication, but functional medication finds the dysfunction within our bodies and treats that. That's that root cause treatment so that it's not reoccurring. So I started working with him with these modalities and he is the most active person. He gets like 20,000 steps a day and I have, you know, hashtag step goals, right? Yes. He is amazing. And so we're living our life. And so I saw that my patients in my traditional practice were really suffering with a lot of the same things. So we created our own practice and started to bring in this knowledge. All that knowledge I gained from him, I start to share it with others. But one of the biggest things is the impact of our lifestyle on our health. And so that's what I really carry forward in my message. And we named our company after our journey, Aroma Functional Nutrition Psychiatry.

Deneen L. Garrett: 05:42 06:03 Love that, love that. So Women of Color, An Intimate Conversation is about empowering women of color and elevating their voices. So thinking about your journey, thinking about what brought you to functional medicine and nutrition to create a holistic approach to healing, what three actions can women of color take to tap into their power and voice?

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 06:04 07:21 Such a powerful question, because I believe that with all of the distractions, all of the notifications and the cell phone and social media and all of that stuff, we have to, it's hard for us to focus. So what we have to do is calm the noise so that we can hear ourselves, hear our own thoughts and intuition, because we're so influenced by everything else. So taking time where you're really checking in with yourself to make sure that you are in alignment with your destiny and where you should go. The second thing is to get rid of things that no longer serve you. Get rid of anything that does not bring you joy, happiness, or peace. And if you're not sure which side it's on, you put it on probation. And then you see which side it falls on. So get rid of things that no longer serve you. And the last thing is always put your self-care first. Put you first. Because without you, everything that you do and are involved in or care about can't get its goodness from you. So you have to put yourself first, and that's not a selfish thing.

Deneen L. Garrett: 07:21 08:49 Right. And you know what? And if it is, so what? Right. Right. I mean, so what? However, you know, we should put ourselves first. You know, the airlines have been telling us for years, you know, if there's a situation, put your mask on first. Right. So they're telling us that for a reason. And so there's a lot to that. And what you're talking about, actually, you know, definitely ties in very nicely with this next part, which is often Black women and other women of color do a lot, or even they do too much. We do too much. We do not always prioritize self and self-care. So me personally, like what you talked about, those three steps, pretty much I incorporated that on these past two months. I took a two-month social media break. And so to do what you said, to calm the noise, right? To get so caught up and focused on social media, because with the algorithms, you gotta constantly post, post, post, post, post. So that's like a job within itself, right? And then seeing things that's happening with other people, sometimes they can depress you, have you questioning yourself when you know you're on the right path. And so, yeah, getting away from all of that. You know you've already given us calm the noise, get rid of things that no longer serve you and put yourself first. Talk to us a little bit more about the importance of taking time for ourselves in the power in the pause.

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 08:50 10:43 Yeah, so in taking time with yourself, it is even if it's just two minutes a few times during the day, it's amazing because it's going to calm the nervous system, which is going to decrease any potential for anxiety or reactivity to situations. If you just take a few moments and just breathe and just kind of be here now, wherever you are, it's going to help you approach the next things. more mindfully. So we're talking about preventing auto accidents, preventing like a slip and fall, preventing being argumentative and irritable, which could lash out at someone at work or with the kids. Taking time for yourself also helps just your detoxification and the drainage in your body. When you are mindful in your breathing, It helps your lymph nodes to drain toxins out of your body and move and increase circulation, not just the oxygen, but the blood flow and the lymph. I mentioned calming the nervous system, and it also can help with hormonal balance by taking a moment and pausing. You're getting back to homeostasis, that balance, when you're taking a pause for yourself. And when you take the pause, I mean, it's a loaded thing of things that you can do for yourself, but it's those things that bring you joy. If it's listening to your favorite song for a few minutes, watching a comedy show, just stepping outside and letting the sun beam on your face. The simplest things to planning an extravagant spa day, whatever that is, it's important to do that and know that it's okay to do that and put you first.

Deneen L. Garrett: 10:43 11:48 Yeah, absolutely. And another thing that I did, and I'm sure I did it during my two-month pause, is that I created a peaceful space for my mind. So I bought a new set, you know, the, the couch, the chairs, the table. And then I also put like, and I love art, so I'm really big into black art. And so I had, um, I don't know, I'll call it a blanket. So a blanket with a, you know, a big, um, face of a black woman and her hair and a scarf and everything. And there's like matching pillows. So that's my space on a porch. And that was definitely my, um, happy place. right to just sit and being outside, being able to breathe fresh air in the sun, you know, shining down on me. So absolutely to all of that. So I honor my late sister author and poet soul true by asking about dreams deferred, which is the title of one of her books. Please share a dreams deferred moment.

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 11:48 13:27 Oh man. So I actually wanted to go into mental health immediately after nursing school and I didn't, I was at that time you had to have so many years before you can become a nurse practitioner to go from the bachelor's to the master's. So I got into medical surgical nursing, you know, cause that's where the jobs were at that time for nurses. And it wasn't until maybe a decade or so later that I was working on a psychiatric unit as a nurse. And I'm like, and it was a crisis stabilization unit. And I'm like, oh yes, I remember now. I really wanted to delve deeper into this field. And so that's when I went back to school and got my master's as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, got a doctorate degree in clinical nurse leadership and all of the other education with my husband. And that's what got me here today. I remember when I first applied, I didn't get into a school. And so I had to process that. And that took, I don't know how long it took before I got into my actual school, but I want to say maybe another year or so on the journey of just finding a good school and getting accepted. So it was definitely a journey getting here. Yeah, but I'm so glad I arrived.

Deneen L. Garrett: 13:27 14:19 Yeah, same here. And you know what? Sometimes we are supposed to go on a journey so that we have to talk about right to for others to aspire to and and to be able to inspire other people. Like that's kind of what happened with me when I first launched my podcast. I was on, you know, I was hesitant. And then I finally did it. And I realized that for me, a lot that happens for me happens so that I can share it with other people. So I can tell them why I did this, that, and the other to get to this particular place, as opposed for it just happening, right? Because if it just happens for you, what's the story in that? What's the testimony in that? Like how does a person duplicate that? So absolutely. I know you really want to talk about this. So I empower women of color to live a dream lifestyle. What is a dream lifestyle and how are you living a dream life?

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 14:20 16:58 All right, what is a dream lifestyle? A dream lifestyle is whatever helps you be in a state of well-being, whatever that means for you. So that means that if you like to spend your weekends undisturbed, binge-watching Netflix, then that is your dream lifestyle. If you wanna travel the world, that's your dream lifestyle. If you wanted to run a marathon, be in a healthy relationship, raise kids, that is a dream lifestyle. And this question reminds me, I watched this show on Netflix called How to Live a Rich Life. And he asked, what is your rich life? And so this reminds me of that question and my thought process around it. And we all have a different dream lifestyle, but it's all attainable. I do believe that if you, if you can believe it, you can achieve it. Absolutely. You know, so what is, how do I live a dream lifestyle? Oh man, how deep do you want to go? What's important to me at this moment, I've just empty nested my last child. So it's all about me and my husband live in our grown and sexy life. Okay. Yes. So we are, you know, defining that every day, what it means to us, but it's all about us spending time together. And we have prepared for this for a long time because now I've always worked from home, not always, but like 2015, I want to say before COVID, I've worked from home. So I've always been shifting to freedom. You know, for me, it's about location, freedom, financial freedom, time freedom. That's the dream lifestyle for me to do whatever I want to do when I want to do it and financial abundance. And so we have that, we are in that place and position and we're always like, okay, what do you want to do now? Let's do this. And it doesn't have to be super complicated. It can be, we just bought a new Nintendo Switch game to play, you know, but it's about quality time together. I mean, we also just bought a new RV too, but it's just big and small, these little things about how we can value and grow the time we have. together, you know, and that's that's the dream lifestyle for me.

Deneen L. Garrett: 16:58 18:23 And I love that. Right. And like you said, it is absolutely what you choose for yourself. Right. And everybody has a lifestyle. Like for me, number one is travel. Right. You mentioned travel. That's me. Like travel, travel, travel. As long as I keep doing it, I'm happy. Now, I'm in a dream stage. Right. So for me, as a dream lifestyle coach, I have three steps. So first is dream. The second one is to, it's a three plus. So the second one is define and design. So in other words, define, like you mentioned. And then the third is to drive towards that dream life. So I'm back in a dream stage, right? To be able to think, okay, now that I've been living like this for over a year, what's the next part of it, right? What's the next part? And so I'm back in that dream. And for me, the way that I'm dreaming is really kind of going back to pausing Or, you know, I'm in a noise and being aware is to see, okay, what really does the universe want me to do? Right. And that's where I'm at. I'm, I'm there in that part, you know, again, I'm calling it the dream phase. I'm being open. I'm pausing and to proceed. Okay. What do you want me to do? Cause I know there's things that I thought I should have. And those weren't necessarily the things for me. And so I'm just being, you know, Aware. to see what's next for me at this particular time.

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 18:23 18:35 Yeah, it's cyclic, you know? It is. It's a cyclic thing because it's a journey. Life is a journey, so we're never stopping. We're always striving for that next thing. And that's what makes life so beautiful.

Deneen L. Garrett: 18:35 18:36 Right?

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 18:36 19:23 Absolutely. Yeah. I love it so much. You mentioned how you took the two-month break, and then you created this beautiful place during this time. And you know when what came to mind is how what we think about we bring about that thing. And when you take those moments, look at where your thoughts are. And what are you bringing into your life, and it's just as simple as choosing to think something different to get to that dream lifestyle that you want. So, you know, what you thought about and focused on, you brought about and elevated in your world. So I wanna just, I'm stating to your audience, what is it that you're thinking about? What do you want? Give it attention and watch it grow.

Deneen L. Garrett: 19:23 20:58 And I love that you emphasize that because I did share with another guest, I was sharing how with me, like with men. So we were, the person I was speaking with was talking about trauma around losing her father. And I lost my father when I was young as well. And both of us, it had impacted our lives. For me, I didn't realize it had impacted male and female, just in general relationships. I didn't realize that. And none of it really came to mind until I was well, you know, an adult. And so it's like that part of my life, I'm just like, oh, that's just not for me at this particular time. So career and my son and everything else came first. And so I was sharing with her how like a week or two ago, you know, I'm like, I flipped it, you know, and I really emphasize and I said, this is what I want. Right. I want this in my life. And, you know, I want this to be a priority and number one. And so that evening, you know, not necessarily the same exact day, but within a few days I went somewhere. And I noticed a guy looking at me. And I had not noticed that, right? Because I'm constantly with blinders on. And so the point that I'm making is I shifted to be aware of what was going on around me. And once I did that, I saw it. Like, I'm sure it was happening all the time. I just didn't notice it. And so now I'm on the lookout for it, right? I mean, I knew that. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Yes. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. So what before we wrap, what would you like to leave the guest the audience with?

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 20:59 22:20 Yeah, so what I like to leave the audience with is this free 21-day Love Thyself journey audio podcast that I have. And everything in our life starts with the love that we have for ourselves. When we're seeking out an intimate relationship, when we're caring for our families, when we just want to live that dream life, we have to love ourselves to achieve it. And so it's every day, it's a daily task and education that you would get that'll help you dig deeper into you and really make sure you're loving yourself, just digging into your own well-being and helping you achieve the life that you want. So you would get this by texting self love as a compound word to 702. 919-4249. 702-919-4249. And you'll text self love and that'll give you access to this free audio podcast. And it just helps you to just calm the noise. You'll start to see things that serve you and don't serve you and help you move towards your goals and live your life being aligned with yourself.

Deneen L. Garrett: 22:21 22:53 I love that. And I thank you so much for the gift. And so it definitely will be part of the show notes. So, um, I will be. So, you know, if you don't catch it just from her speaking it, you'll be able to see it. So I actually just texted it. So we shall see. So Dr. Tiffany M Smith, I so appreciate your time, your voice. on women of color and intimate conversation and enjoy the rest of your day.

Dr. Tiffany Smith: 22:53 22:56 Thank you so much and you as well. Goodbye.