Marie Aspling, Rational Balance

Episode Notes:

Marie Aspling, founder of Balans, was on a PhD track in Bio Chemistry. Born in South Africa, raised in Sweden, educated in the USA, she looked at her life goals and came to the conclusion that we were working on the wrong end of the problem.

Instead of treating the symptoms, why weren't we treating the system itself?

She pivoted and began Balans (the Swedish word for "balance"). 

Fast forward to the present, she has created a new style of wellness company that treats the staff and clients with respect and as individuals. 

Joins us as we talk about how she got here and her philosophies for a healthy, mindful life, both professionally and personally.

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INSIDE THIS EPISODE:

Today's guest can be found at www.bostonbalans.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariebalans/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marie.aspling.5

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This episode was produced by Matt McKee, with help from Suzanne Schultz and http://www.CanvasFineArts.com, the specialists in coaching for creatives, and editing by Bill Shamlian at Orb Sound.

Transcript

Marie Aspling Rational Balance
Cherry Bomb! The Podcast Transcription
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, feel, life, science, question, balance, body, create, art, understand, based, sweden, problem, open, stressed, left, belief, put, podcast, grown
SPEAKERS
Matt McKee, Marie Aspling

Marie Aspling  00:00
I think that's when we have to check in with ourselves if we get triggered by statement. If we feel a need to defend something, we can actually ask ourselves, why do I feel so offended? Could it be that there's some truth because it's fear based, we hold on to beliefs because of attachment. We want to protect because we don't feel safe. But what if we feel safe to any reality, then we can have a more open conversation about things.

Matt McKee  00:27
Hi, I'm Matt McKee, and welcome to Cherry Bomb the podcast a series of conversations with people about food, art and sustainability. Today I'm speaking in the studio with Maria is blank, founder of the spa balance, and the winner of Boston's best 2018 as a wellness guru. This episode is sponsored by guacamole, part of my sweet last series of photos, I created the series with a mission to start conversations in the room about the bigger topics of food, art, and sustainability. This podcast is the companion piece to that project where I get to share with you some of the discussions which we blast is inspired. You can browse and purchase images in the sweet glass collection at the art of Matt mckee.com. Please share this episode to your Facebook, Twitter and all your social media so your friends can listen and join in the conversation. Very welcome to the studio, I have to be honest, I've always had a challenge when it comes to the physical, you know, the people who are athletically inclined, I was never athletically inclined and it always went to either, you know, as the hardcore the the karate people and things like that, or that raw sports kind of thing, which I was never really into, or was really the woowoo way out stuff and your spirituality and zoning out but even more flowery than that. And which goes against my science background, because it doesn't hold up if you start throwing science at it. Not that I'm against it. But it just, I always had a problem with it. Now I've got somebody in front of me who is combining both aspects of that understands the science understands the more emotional side of it. That's this is going to be fascinating to me.

Marie Aspling  02:03
Well, you're hitting on major points, which has been part of my personal journey, because that's exactly where I came from science in it, we can get into definition of what science is right? But my old belief was that science something that could be proven, measured stats data, right? And I came from a very rational mind. So anything I didn't understand with my mind, or my intellect that didn't exist, which so I kind of ditched a lot of those things. Yeah. So 15 years ago, well, a little bit more 17. I used to look at people doing yoga, make fun of them. I say, who needs to breathe? If you want who I am today, I'm the one saying let's breathe. Yeah. So that was a very humbling experience. Yes, because I used to judge I used to say, that can't work. But then for some reason, they put me on a path of trying it. Still with resistance, still going through a lot of exploration, right where I still said, that's not going to work. And over the years, it's gone me much deeper into the emotional body, the mental body in the physical body and the spiritual body and how they all are one. They really are so interconnected. So I missed out on a lot of that I thought of the physical bodies, the physical body. But now also as a body worker, when I treat clients, I realized so much is stored in our physical body where the emotions are stored, a trauma is stored. So there's so much wisdom and also now we're going to energy. Energies real? That's why we vibe with certain people. We don't vibe with others, right? Yeah. Can we measure it? Can we put science into it? There have been some studies but it's it's less measurable. It's something that

Matt McKee  04:04
we feel we have developed the sciences. Well, that's that's kind of where

Marie Aspling  04:09
science may be a little bit behind. Right. A certain things haven't been looked at, for various reasons, too. There's a lot of funding going into certain science projects, right? With certain incentives we can talk about

Matt McKee  04:24
that was the big money behind science money.

Marie Aspling  04:26
Yeah. And the monetary gain. And that's we can get into the medical field farmer food, we can talk about all those when it comes down to a financial motive these days are more cautious. I asked more deeper questions, okay, who's behind the data? Who is providing this information and claiming that it's science also that statement? I take a little bit more lightly now because I recognize that science doesn't have all the answers because certain things have to be looked at So my personal journey has gone much more into the spiritual aspects, the universal philosophies of deeper questions, our connection to nature, our connection to our soul, our connection to our body. And I think a lot of us what I see in my private practice were so disconnected. Yes. And when we're disconnected to this the fiscal body, we are disconnected to our emotions, our mind and all that influence each other. So if we have a belief of I don't deserve to feel well, well, we may have destructive habits, right? Yeah. And then we say, Oh, I'm not inclined to, to eat healthy. You know. But it's deeper than that. So I'm very interested in that now,

Matt McKee  05:44
like, completely agree.

Marie Aspling  05:45
Thanks so much.

Matt McKee  05:46
We keep thinking because we got the big cerebral cortex up on top, that therefore we have gone beyond the lizard brain animal that we were. And yet, that's still the base emotions, the base chemistry is coming from that lizard brain that is saying that we want to be near water, we need to be loved, or we need to be whatever. I agree to that. Your background is fascinating to me, because it's much more international than most of the people I end up meeting in everyday life. Where were you born? Originally?

Marie Aspling  06:18
I was born in Africa. So my family had moved from Sweden to Africa. And my father was involved in starting a glassblowing studio there to help to build community and provide or opportunities through help organizations. So he's an engineer, but his passion has been glassblowing. So he got to build a glassblowing studio in Switzerland. And it's actually still up running. Oh, wow. Yeah. And when well, glass, and I happen to be going there,

Matt McKee  06:48
combining science and art again.

Marie Aspling  06:50
Yes, yes. I think now, I'm starting to connect how I was raised and how influenced I was, and we share a lot of those qualities. And yeah, the artistic sides, there's something the scientific side of me, used to suppress the artistic. And I didn't think of myself as an artist. I thought of myself as a scientist. But the older I get, I realize, I am an artist, and I'm a Libra. Like, I explore so much through shape and form and creating, like my the body work I do is an art. But it took me a while to move from a scientific, physiological anatomical perspective, into actually understanding human movement is as an art. So the artistic and scientific together, my parents fell in love with South Africa, but then the apartheid happened. So they felt that it was unsafe, I moved back to Sweden where I was raised, I felt like I never really belonged. And I think it's because my journey has taken me to where I am today is because I am different, I need to embrace the truth within me. So I couldn't live by these constructs, that my culture and my society held for me and the way I was raised. So I always had that little rebellious side of me. So as soon as I finished high school, I put myself on a plane and flew to New Zealand to just get away and find myself I apply to three different education. So how is it sure if I want to be a doctor or a PT, or if I want to go into medical research, so I apply for all three, I got accepted. But then I said, Listen, I need to get some life experience. So I flew across the world figured the further I get away, the better. And it actually tie me back to when I was born. My parents were there in Africa with a Swedish couple that I'd never met. But I was named after her. Her name is Marie two and they immigrated to New Zealand as glassblowers. They currently practice one of the largest glassblowing studios and very much artists. So I emailed her said, hey, you know, this is me. I'm now 18 years old. Can I come and work for you? Because I grew up in the glassblowing studio, so I could engrave I worked in the gallery and I knew customer service. So she's like, Yeah, so I flew to New Zealand, lived with them for a year, I bought an old old car and took out the backseat. I sewed curtains and traveled the islands on the weekends. While I worked for accommodation and a little bit of salary. I ran a cafe I got up three o'clock in the morning I baked all the the cakes everything from scratch a pack. Yeah, I picked oranges and they had apricot trees and olive trees die bacon cook a lot. So round the cafe, early early morning. And then I worked in the gallery and then I traveled Wow.

Matt McKee  09:38
So the van life before the van life was the thing. It really

Marie Aspling  09:41
was. So yeah, so and then I went back to Sweden for education. I decided to go for the biomedical science degree for years and I accelerated programs I got into a researcher school they took four students from chemistry, math Medicine and biomedical science, only 20 students got accepted into this researcher school, which combined an undergrad with a master's. That's when I got my first experience in pharmaceutical research AstraZeneca. I did a thesis there. And then when I graduated, I was offered the PhD position in Boston. Wow. And I said, Well, I've never been to America. And here we go. And I was raised with a very Americans, not the great country, kind of like it's very against America, they have their misconception and Miss judgment, because they see certain things. I think there's just a very limited mindset. But I said, I am going to explore it. I knew I wasn't meant to do the research at that point. That's when I started to shift my values and my direction in life, but I wasn't sure yet. I was hungry to see America. Boston is like the mecca for research. It was an opportunity I couldn't turn down. So I said, I'll go. And here I am. Those reasons we moved to New Zealand. And now my experience here, it's just been very nice to see different cultures, different countries, politics, economics, and religions. And just understanding that how different systems work,

Matt McKee  11:15
or don't work. Is there a commonality between the different systems? It always seems like humanity, like any living creature, or organism, I should say, strives? That's what we do. We're always striving towards something, or away from something. Oh, yeah. Yep. In looking at these four different systems, that you were living within it, are you seeing some commonality? That's a great question. Not that this is a political show. But I've

Marie Aspling  11:41
never thought of it that way. Basically, that the summary and conclusion I came with is, we often so much fight to be right. This is the right way. This is how we should practice. This is the politics we should be practicing. This is economical system we should have. And it's always about who is best who has the right way. And what I basically came to that anything works at the end of the day, like I saw such different systems. And yeah, you can argue that some of them are broken, some of them don't work, this works better. But at the end of the day, no system is perfect. And I think what it did for me, it opened me up to saying, let's stay open instead of having this as the way Yeah, black and white. I'm right, you're wrong. So for me, it's made me even more inclined and open to coming back to more fundamental humane kind of philosophies and saying, How can we respect each other's differences? How can we work together more than saying, the separation that I feel that the world is living in? It's creating, like, we have to be right, instead of saying, Okay, what does this population need, and we do not need separation? We need unity. We need to honor different values, different religions, different views, instead of creating opposition's and fighting and all that.

Matt McKee  13:10
Yeah, it always seems like the sum is greater than the parts. Always any one dogma, whether it's science based or religious based or political based or economic based, always has flaws in it. But when you take the best of all those different worlds, put them together, that's when things move forward.

Marie Aspling  13:27
Right. Coming back to are we scientific, or are we alternative? A lot of people use holistic, right or preventative? This like why can we be both? Yeah, why can we be spiritual and scientific? Because sometimes it's not black and white. Right? And I think a lot of problems and conflicts arise from that place. Yeah, of black and white, right or wrong? Is that a saying, hey, share your views. And there is always some truths to some statements.

Matt McKee  14:00
This is true. I believe that

Marie Aspling  14:01
and I think that's when we have to check in with ourselves if we get triggered by statement. If we feel a need to defend something, we can actually ask ourselves, why do I feel so offended? Could it be that there's some truth because it's fear based, we hold on to beliefs because of attachment. We want to protect because we don't feel safe, but what if we feel safe to any reality? Then we can have a more open conversation about so I came from my PhD position and found myself struggling I actually had my first panic attack,

Matt McKee  14:35
but that wasn't came to America.

Marie Aspling  14:38
Well, it took me two years, like now looking back, I made a journal I journal every day. I go back in my journals every year to kind of understand my life story. Looking back at what happened I really think that it started to open up another part of me call it spiritual call a connection to universe call it whatever right, but it was another dimension because I was so focused on research I was a scientist, I was really good at what I was doing, feeling like a robot doing our stem cell research, I was working with rodents, that involves a lot of killing of mice and handling animals. And that was never a problem for me. Until one day, if I'm supposed to inject these things and bleed them and test them, my hands stopped over the cage. False goes up, and I started cold sweating. And I didn't understand what was happening. Because I'd been doing that for quite a few years. Something to said, You can't do this anymore. And I couldn't so took off my lab code. And that was a day when I decided to change my careers. I just realized, like, I can no longer ethically support this, I need to do something else. I'm not saying that medical interventions are not required or not great. But I think what shifted for me is the main focus, how can we prevent disease? How can we be healthier? To avoid a lot of sickness? Right, we're getting sicker, we're getting sicker younger, we should focus more efforts on how do we elevate health to prevent the needs for Pharma. When I look back, that's what ultimately happened, I could no longer support what I was doing. And I saw signs of science that I personally didn't feel

Matt McKee  16:16
that I could stand for. So I was working on the wrong end of the problem. Yes,

Marie Aspling  16:20
I wanted to address the root cause. I also saw the human nature influencing the outcome of experiments that we come back to intention and incentive, right. And humans have egos. And they want to prove something coming back to proving the Right, right. Like any other field. Yeah, that will happen through research. And I got to see that side. And I said, I can't do this anymore. So I put myself through schooling here. That was a crazy time. Because I came here, I had no social security, you're an immigrant and no safety, I had a suitcase, build your life on having credit history, I come from a socialistic country where having a credit card is looked at as crazy, that is judged you do not have credit cards. In Sweden, you have a debit card. So you earn and you only spend what you have here the opposite, you have to charge your credit card to build proof that you could pay your bill to them be able to buy a house or so credit history was new to me. I had been very independent, back home and self sufficient for many years. But it was like starting over. Like how do I start a life in this country? You know, that was overwhelming. But I went back to school, as I left two and a half years of a PhD position. And people had a lot of feelings about that, that I left the doctor's degree to become only a personal trainer, massage therapist. So that was looked at as

Matt McKee  17:44
not the best decision in life. I can see people judging Yeah,

Marie Aspling  17:48
but I had to do it. So I worked I, I remember, I would the 5am to 5pm as a trainer, then went to school at night to become a massage therapist. And then I was promoted and offered this position to open a very well known health club. My then General Manager recruited me to be one of the top tier trainers there in 2007. And then while I was there, I had my own massage practice. And then in 2010, after overcoming a lot of problems, personal situations, that was hard, and actually I ran the risk of not staying in the country, because I'm here on a green card. So not knowing if I was able to stay but I wanted to stay. And then in 2010, I was able to start balance my

Matt McKee  18:37
what is balance about?

Marie Aspling  18:39
Great question A means balance in Swedish. It's a lifestyle. It's embracing and working with our body in mind to feel the best we can feel and kind of coming back to not relying on pills and medical interventions and fixing symptoms and say how can we actually eliminate and reduce some of the symptoms by being more connected to our bodies and our needs? Because I recognize when I was working in these more corporate settings, but I found that they represented wellness, that I did not feel well, I was overworked. I got really burnt out a few times. I felt it wasn't authentic to call myself a wellness practitioner while I was facing extreme fatigue and running myself into the ground because corporate is all about quantity. Yeah. Coming back to Money In center, right. So when I worked in these corporate settings, I felt that they were preaching something but they weren't living it. And that to me is very conflicting. I have to align my actions with my beliefs. I can't stand for this because it's a non alignment with what I truly believe. So then I left the corporate and said I have to create something that is in alignment with who I am and what I believe Leaving. And that is our work environment where we can thrive, where we have more freedom, independence that workers that are there can set their own schedules have influence on how often they want to work, how much what hours, because someone who has migraines may not be great to show up to work at ADM, someone who is a single mom may not be able to come until 11. So kind of working with the individual in meeting the individual where they are, instead of being the boss and the employer to say you have to be here, then you have to do what I tell you. I feel that that confines people and it actually holds people back. I think employees start resenting the boss, and it just doesn't create a supportive environment. my well being my health, number one priority is a non negotiable in my life. So first, I need to put myself in that situation where I can do my job the way I want to do it. They also watch the clients thrive, because I felt when I brought them into these more conventional settings in the corporate structure, they were stressed, they compare themselves to this person. And I was like this is just toxic. And I'm here to promote wellness. And I felt like it was so distracting and sent the wrong messages

Matt McKee  21:15
you just described my only yoga experience, I got thrown into a class and I was right next to this young petite person who was able to touch her elbows to the floor. And all I could think of was the comparison of the gazelle and the water buffalo. And I thought I'm going to go into the tree pose fall over kill her that was stressed the entire time that I was going to do something stupid,

Marie Aspling  21:40
completely taking away from being able to go and embrace that. So that's a distraction. So I wanted to hold a little bit more sacred space, to open a client's body in mind to really start connecting more step one to change his awareness. If we're distracted, we are not able to connect. And if we're not able to connect, we're not going to be able to change. So I wanted to create a space where it wasn't pounding music 50 Different people around you. So that was my step one. And for myself and my clients to build a space that just held different type of energy and allowed for deeper work. I was living on a couch at the time, I didn't even have a home. So it was not that I was necessarily settled in any way. But I decided that this is what I need to do. Put everything ahead every penny. So I signed the lease. Only within six months, people started to approach me because at that point, I had built up a good network and people said, What are you doing? It sounds like it's great. Practitioners started coming over and asking me if I wanted to add Pilates. And I'm like, I've never done Pilates, but I'm open to it. So we just kept adding and building. And then over the years, I mean, I never managed a business. I don't have a business degree. I'm self taught. I've never had employees, and I got up to about 2025 people before COVID. To manage. And that's been a journey in itself. Yeah. But to me, it's like, balance is not me, balance is everyone who has been part of it since day one of opening. Because everyone contributes, everyone brings something to the table. And I've never been the owner who has a strong agenda. And some people don't work well with that people want the dictator, they want people to be like you need to show up here. And so when I offer flexibility actually can stress some people out. But it has attracted those who believe in more independence, who thrive in freedom, who appreciates that kind of culture, where we grow together, yet to sense in the visually, and I have never had this one goal or saying this is my business, we are going to do it my way. I've actually grown the most if I ask, What do you think, what do you think we should do next? And letting the team be part of the growth. And we've grown away so I've could never ever have grown. My main goal has always been I don't hire a position. I hire the person with potential. So I don't want to confine saying this is your job role. I always say what are your strengths? What do you throw the most in? What are your qualifications were but then I've had people going from being a front desk to like social media manager because they've shown an artistic side that I didn't know about. I feel that it's so important to shift the focus from control. Because I see that in business owners it's control. Yeah, we take a great risk when we do that because we can find and define people and we miss opportunities. I opened the first location 2010 second location 2015 When you train and mentor based on values, that is then transferred down and values to me are still Longer glue than control?

Matt McKee  25:03
I think that's very fair. Can you describe a little bit about how you feel you are chasing the dream of sustainability with?

Marie Aspling  25:10
Yeah, absolutely. As I'm getting more connected to our role in this world and our responsibilities, I think we often grow up thinking my vote doesn't matter. My actions don't matter. And I can't create any change, because I'm just one out of 7 billion people. But if we all think that way, that will lead to us, right. So it really humbled me when I made that connection, what I do, will really have a ripple effect, it will influence the people around me, because people watch, and they copy what you do, not what you say. Yes, very true, right. So by actions, not only can I feel good about my choices, because I leave a legacy, right and leave a footprint, and I can choose what I want to leave behind after my lifetime. And I think we often minimize what we can do in a day. But if you think of in a lifetime, what we can do to either elevate the health of our selves and the planet, or distracted, that comes down to choices. I try to teach with lifestyle, we tend to over complicate health, we tend to think that we have to run marathons and workout seven times a week and and we have to only eat this. And what if we just implemented small changes that over a week, a month, one year, five years, 10 years really have profound effect on our tissues that are more interested in sustainable changes. I had a conversation today to the non attachment. What's mine is not mine forever. Everything is impermanent, right? Yeah. So we really borrow everything. My house is my house now. But I really hope that it will serve someone else one day. So to me is how can I reduce the destruction of the planet and that ties into if we have children or not? There are children in this world. I do believe that it's our children. So your children are my children, because they hold our future, right? So. So we don't have to have biological children to relate to the future generations are caring for children. I was a foster mom and foster son for three and a half years. So being a mother, to me, it's just so many different ways of looking at motherhood. It's very selfish to live a very destructive lifestyle. To think of me, me, me, right? So instead of saying, Well, you don't care about the planet. But that's about you. I find that a little selfish and self absorbed, to be honest. How can we take more responsibility? Human nature's we don't want to take responsibility because it's hard. It's hard to face the truth. And the truth is, if we don't take responsibility for our body, we will suffer if we don't take responsibility for our finances, we will be broke. If we don't take responsibility for the planet, the future generations are not going to do so well. Yeah, instead of living in an illusion that I won't see the problems of this while we're just closing our eyes to a real problem. So the way I implement that in life, and I opened my eyes to it is I see a cup being thrown out. And it's like, okay, well, what if every person does that every day, and I especially see the takeout. So I cook a lot. And just cooking and bringing glass Tupperware to work instead of buying takeout, you go takeout, then there's the cup of coffee, and then it's the sleeve around the cup, and the lid. And then we have sandwich wrapped in paper, and then that goes into a bag with napkins. And that's just one meal. Yeah. And then that's three times a day for each person a boils down to habits. It's so quickly, we create new habits. And we don't often think about it and coming back to awareness. So step one to change is to take a step back and say, How am I living my life? And most of us don't ask that question. reducing waste is number one. I think if we could all take more responsibility every time we throw something down the trash, but that would be huge food waste should be composted.

Matt McKee  29:16
How can somebody become more mindful?

Marie Aspling  29:21
That's a great question.

Matt McKee  29:24
We're uncovering the secrets of the universe.

Marie Aspling  29:26
Exactly. Stopping and passing. I think we live either in the past dwelling on something that happened, or we worry about the future. Very few times do we live here now? Wow.

Matt McKee  29:46
Just thinking the interview process. I'm listening to your answer. At the same time I'm formulating a question in my head for the future. dwelling on the past at the same time, which is why

Marie Aspling  29:59
so much mindfulness to me it becoming aware. So meditation can be very painful. Because you have to look at truths that you may not want to look at. You may feel things that are painful, and we, by nature want to avoid pain. This is the biggest issue I see is that we want to escape. What is part of our human experience? We have created this construct that we should just be happy. That is the biggest ownership of all times. So joy and happiness are different, right? Yeah, we should definitely be happy at times that we should feel pain, we need to feel the pain, the deeper the love. And I'm sure you can relate to this, the more you love someone, the more painful that losses. Yeah, so you have to allow yourself to feel both sides. And when we escape pain, we escape a part of life that is necessary for our growth for our fulfillment. It's not about feeling great all the time. But understanding what is the pain, whether it's mental, physical, emotional, instead of popping the pill? Can we sit with a pain because your body signals pain as a messenger? So instead of saying, Oh, something is wrong, I better just feel better? Well, maybe we shouldn't strive to feel better before we understand where the pain is coming from. So are we rushing to just have this dopamine release? Same with mental, if we feel can't get out of bed? We are struggling with anxiety, depression, asking, Where's this coming from? What's going on? And when you start asking those more questions from a place of curiosity, instead of saying something is wrong with me, then we can open up to a different way of approaching life. I think most people resist meditation, because they have this idea of what it means. So when they don't live up to that idea of being the monk who sits there and just happy, happy, happy, then they get to be like that. Well, that doesn't work. Yeah, in meditation is an access to your inner self. It's a gateway to understand your mind, your body, and how we are connected to the world.

Matt McKee  32:25
What do you wish you knew when you started? What do I wish you knew when you started?

Marie Aspling  32:31
Started my life or?

Matt McKee  32:34
When I started? I'm gonna leave that an open question. Oh.

Marie Aspling  32:40
Well, I think it ties back to I wish I knew that. I missed life. I missed those moments. And I missed to live with a greater purpose. Because I was so self focused, self centered, even if it came from experience past trauma, I was stuck as a victim of that, right? Focusing on me, me, instead of saying, Hey, we're all connected, and how can I rise from that and turn that into not a place of being a victim of life happening to me? No life is happening for me. And all that has fueled me to become who I am today.

Matt McKee  33:28
What would you like your legacy to be? Hmm,

Marie Aspling  33:32
that's something I've been spending a lot of time lately that I'm still defining. I want to be remembered how I have inspired others to be the best selves, how they can find the empowerment within them to live the life they want, and feel the best they can. It's so gratifying to see someone going from suffering to enjoying life. It brings me to tears.

Matt McKee  34:03
My last question for you. At the end of the day, I have left balance and you're hanging out at home. What is your comfort food at the end of the day?

Marie Aspling  34:11
Comfort food? Also, this is such a great question. Again, I've had multiple conversations around that. So my comfort food really is the food that fuels my body the most. I love cooking, so I go to farmers markets. So I think again, it's this societal and cultural belief that comfort needs to be say unhealthy or like a treat. People call it cheat meals. Yeah. Which I'm like, I don't like how we talk about it because that means we're doing something bad. We have this construct that good food and bad food. But instead of asking, Why am I eating this intention? So for me it's food is intention. And for me when I combine taste with the power of them Medicine the food brings into our body. I am so happy.

Matt McKee  35:04
So what would be an example of that?

Marie Aspling  35:07
So I cook all my meals so I do mostly plant based. And I put together different salads and sauces and dressings and Kinross and rice and pumpkin seeds. And I just create I find it so beautiful because it's an art. So it's colors. Yeah, different shapes, and then the explosion of flavors, because if you balance all the different flavors, it creates this unbelievable combination. And then I feel the fueling of my body. I don't get the sluggishness, I just feel radiant. But I like my cocktail.

Matt McKee  35:46
I was gonna say, Yeah, you were talking about I do cocktail.

Marie Aspling  35:49
Maybe it's contradictory, because it doesn't make me feel good. But I also know that it's not good, right? So drinking, and I've done this, we can drink from a place of suppressing pain. I've done it. Yeah. So we're trying to feel better because we are unable to bear the pain. Same with food. Once you have tapped into awareness, and you bring consciousness into your daily life, your life transforms, you're no longer able to be self destructive in the same way. Because you stop yourself. And to me, it's like it's impossible to live 100% clean life. Impossible, because there are just stresses inevitable. But I do think it comes back to being aware of your choices and bounce it balance right? Then I can argue that someone who's having a cocktail and having a slice of pizza, from a place of not having the fear may be healthier. And I'm not defending to eat junk and drinking. Because I think it comes down to how do we want to treat our body but it has to come back to we want to treat our body to celebrate life.

Matt McKee  37:07
Really appreciate you listening to this episode of cherry bomb the podcast that companion piece to sweet blast, which can be found at the art of Matt McKee calm. Today's guest was Marie Esplin, founder of balance in Boston. You can check out her links and all the show notes at the art of Matt mckee.com and you could subscribe to my newsletter for updates on the site. You can also browse the sweep blast collection, my tool series and my Promethean dream series of fine art prints. This episode of Cherry Bomb podcast could not have been done without the help of Suzanne Schultz in Canvas fine arts.com the specialists and coaching for creatives and editing by the always sublime, those Chambly and breadboard sound. Thanks for listening. And let's start the conversation.