290 | If Nobody Was Watching, Who Would You Become? Healing and Renewal with Antoinette Berrafato

A warm welcome to Thriving in Christ Show on YouTube and podcast. I'm Dr. Ioanna Poppa, and I want to welcome you to Renewal Conversations. I'm interviewing an amazing woman who recovered from brain injury, who served in the Army, and have a lot to say about her recovery journey with tips for you to regenerate, especially as we pick our environment, learning about how environment can impact us and specific steps that you can take to really allow for God's given creation to impact you in a positive way. It's gonna be what we unpack today. And my guest for today is Antoinette Baruffato. She has an MBA degree and she's an 11-year US Army veteran, outdoor industry influencer, columnist at Cultures Magazine, motivational speaker, resilience life coach, and host of the up-and-coming New Normal Big Life Live Strong, Explore her Boldly Be Ready podcast. From walking with a walker, relying on a service dog, and having a full-time caregiver after traumatic brain injury, spine injury, and PTSD, Antoinette rebuilt an extraordinary life and now shows others how to do the same. She guides people to define their own new normal and step boldly into the biggest life they can dream of. One of her greatest passions is revealing how outdoor recreation sits at a powerful intersection of health, wellness, stewardship, and adventure. When she's not speaking or writing, you'll find her in the northern woods with her family stewarding their forest and river homestead while living a full-throttle adventure sports life. And if you're a regular, I wanna welcome you back. And if you don't know me, as mentioned, I'm Dr. Ioanna Poppa from Team for the Soul, and I wanna welcome you to Thriving in Christ Show for Christian women professional and servant leaders. And this is for you if you feel at times stressed, depleted, on a busy treadmill with Sunday night blues, Even though you love what you do, if you sense blocks in reaching your highest potential for the Kingdom in spite of already carrying significant responsibility and impact, if you wrestle to fully replenish yourself and access that peace that surpasses all understanding no matter how many programs you've tried, am I worried that self-care and deep renewal will only add more to your long to-do list, then if this is for you, welcome! You're not lacking discipline, you're not lacking faith. More often, what's missing is sustainable renewal principles. Because many solutions available today might act like a Band-Aid, especially as many of us have a burdened foundation shaped by chronic stress, past events, striving, cultural conditions, and misconceptions what it really means to have a sustainable life in Christ. In this show, we take a different approach through the integration of science, psychology, Christian faith. This show helps you return to a place of inner renewal, accessing the Living Waters of Christ, aligning body, mind, heart, and soul to reduce inner fragmentation and restore your grounded inner life, simplifying your daily habits from inside out, and access clarity, peace, joy, presence, and purpose, especially in high responsibility and high-stake moments, so you can expand your capacity and keep leading and serving in Christ. This is not about doing more. It's about learning how to return again and again to God within, where your strength can be renewed and your leadership flows from your soul. And if you want to find out more about Team for the Soul Institute, you can find us on the web, teamforsoul.com. And if you appreciate this episode, I encourage you to share with another Christian woman because we don't know who might need this. Also in the show notes, there is a link to sign up for Thriving in Christ resources, and if you are ready for me to support you in spiritual care, life and leadership coaching, or executive coaching, you can sign up for a complimentary consultation to see if we're a good match. And if you're ready to grow towards your highest potential from a grounded, renewed foundation with Christ at the helm, let's dive in. A warm welcome, Antoinette. I'm so delighted that you're here. Thank you so much for coming. I was so looking forward to our conversation. Oh, thank you so much for having me, Dr. Ioana. I'm so excited for this conversation to talk about something that's so central to my health and recovery from a very tragic accident. Thank you so much for being here. And this show is for Christian women professional and servant leaders, so I would love to hear about your vocation in Christ and how did that unfold in your life. But let's start with what you're doing right now so the listener can, can learn a bit about you. Sure. Well, I mentioned that I had an accident. I was in the Army and I had a rappelling accident when I was going to give aid to someone on a mountain in Korea. And I had a traumatic brain injury. I broke my back. Of course, there was a recovery and I thought I was doing well. And then suddenly I started losing words. I couldn't remember how to do simple things like drive a car or the rules of the road. I was a C-suite tech executive. I had made it, you know, after my time in the military. And then I found myself very quickly using a walker, a service dog, and a full-time caregiver. And at one point I thought I was not going to live another day, but I promised God that if I did live, I was going to figure out why I'm so sick and exhausted and so debilitated despite having the best of medical care, and then I'm going to turn around and help others. And so since I did survive, What I do now is I am a columnist for— health and wellness columnist for an international magazine. So 1.5 million readers in 200 countries. And then I'm also a host of New Normal Big Life Podcast. It's a health and wellness podcast where I use my expertise in the medical dental world and other expert guests to talk about your biggest health challenges. Mm-hmm. And so I'm using my voice and my writing abilities to support the mission that I promised God I would do. Oh, so beautiful. I love that, that you had a conversation with God and said, God, if I survive, here are my promises. I love that. What a witness to God. What was your journey in medical field? Do you mind sharing a bit? Oh my gosh. So, I love to read and I, I read any and everything. And I also love school. I started reading when I was 5 or actually 4. My brother taught me how to read the day after my 4th birthday. He was already in college and I never had, uh, children's books. I always had his old college books and high school books. And so I read the Bible from COVID to cover by 5 and decided that I was going to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. My brother, of course, helped me understand the concepts and my parents. And became baptized and I always wanted to do something to help people, but I wasn't sure what. So I bounced around. I studied pharmacology, anatomy, physiology, infection control, disease prevention, general dentistry, plastic surgery, maxillofacial plastic surgery. And then of course the combat air assault combat medic, which is a fancy way of saying I rappelled out of helicopters and off buildings and down mountains to give people first aid. Mm. Oh, so beautiful. So a lot of reading, a lot of studying, and a lot of practice on the field. That's what I'm hearing. Yes, absolutely. What was that experience? You wanna share a bit about your journey in the Army? Well, the thing that I'd like to say about that is even with my medical background and the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, all of the services, we have some of the best and brightest doctors in the world, really, you know, because Americans, we come from all over the world, right? And some of us join the military. But despite having access to all that, we also live under very difficult conditions. We are chronically sleep deprived, chronically dehydrated. Uh, we don't have good nutrition because it's not available to us. A lot of the foods that we get is dead foods. Um, we're exposed to lots of toxins and parasites and infectious diseases all over the world. And despite joining the military, when we are our youngest and healthiest, we often leave and we're probably the sickest that we have ever been. And for many of us, that health decline becomes a downward spiral that we never get out of. And I was on that same trajectory despite having all this medical knowledge. So what I learned is that I had to go back to what our ancestors did. I had to go back to nature. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And why military? What drew you to that? Everyone thinks it's my father because I'm daddy's little girl, but my father and his twin brother and all of my mother's 5 uncles all served in the military. Okay. And when I was 5 years old, my parents were very patriotic and I decided that, you know, we live in a pretty great country and I want to do my part to be a good citizen. And when I. Grow up, I'm gonna join the Army. And I never changed from that decision since 5 years old. Oh, wow. So then you joined military around what age? How old are you? Oh, let's see. So I graduated early from high school. I graduated at 17 and went off to college, and that was a requirement from my parents. And then 2 years into college, I was like, Mom and Dad, you know, I could finish college in the military or after the military. I'd really like to go serve. So I was 19 when I joined active duty, and, uh, I spent 11 years in the Army until my injuries just became too much to, to finish a 20-year career. And what was it like to be a woman in the military? And you mentioned Korea, right? Yeah, it would— it was actually a lot of fun. Most people think that it would be like, you know, a very misogynistic environment, and times there were those kinds of incidents, but for the most part, the men would really support me and they saw that I loved to learn and that I was very strong and capable. I was even a powerlifter and competitive bodybuilder for the Army. So whenever someone was kind of like, you know, not nice to me, I would say, do you want to go outside and fight it out like a man? And sometimes they would call my bluff as they thought. And then I became known as the one-hit knockout. I had a 200-pound bench press, a 350 squat, and a 500-pound deadlift. Oh, wow. So when, when the guys got a little out of hand, I let them know that, you know what, we're gonna settle this the way men settle this. And that's usually what happened. Oh my goodness. Wow. So amazing. Amazing. So what I'm hearing is that Both your faith in Christ and your career in military started really young, inspired by your family, right? And also your brother, you know, just reading the Bible, but also your family and the military career. And what was that like? I mean, for many Christians, there comes— I mean, for some there's just a smooth kind of transition into adulthood. For some there's questioning around it. What was your journey for you and how did that inform your vocation? I love that. I did have a lot of questioning, and in fact, there was a time when I came, became very disheartened by the church, not by God's teachings, but just by the way that we, I guess, practice our faith. And I stopped going to church, but I never stopped reading my Bible. I never stopped praying. I never stopped believing in God's words and intention for my life, but yeah, I became disheartened and, and I think mostly it was because being a young woman in church, there were a lot of married men that would hit on me and I felt really unsupported when I went to other women. They somehow made it my fault. Oh, so yeah, so, you know, I, I just felt like this wasn't the place for me, but then I found my way back to, back to the church. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And did it, how did it inform what you're doing and your, your progression in, in your vocation, your faith in Christ? What I have come to realize is that all of the things that we need as human beings to not only survive but thrive we can find it in the Bible. And I'd really like to share a Bible verse that comes to mind. So it's Genesis 1:28, and it says, see, I've given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you, it shall be for food. And so we have become eaters of dead food, foods that are not real foods. They have toxic ingredients. They're created in a laboratory, not grown from the ground and brought to your store and you eat them or you grow them yourselves. We don't forage anymore. We don't create herbal medicines. We look for all the solutions in a pill and pills have saved my life. I mean, I'm not knocking allopathic or conventional medicine. It, it is life-saving medicine, but I don't think it's what human beings need to thrive on. I think what we need is our ancestral God-given medicinal herbs and plants and being outside in nature. And even just if you're a menopausal woman and you want to get rid of those hot flashes, go into a bo— a natural body of water, not a swimming pool, a lake or river or stream, and soak up some magnesium. Magnesium fuels over 300 bodily processes, and most Americans are deficient in magnesium. Hmm. And so it's just simple things like that about getting back to nature. So whenever a doctor says to me, you're deficient in something, and, and in my case it was magnesium, and I want to put you on a heart medicine to regulate your heart rhythm. And I said, no, I'm gonna use a triple form of magnesium and regulate my heart rhythm. I started the magnesium and problem went away. Mm. So appreciate that. So what he's saying is you're so inspired by God and your vocation, taking things from the Bible, right? Like that example from Genesis and looking at the ways God created the world and the food that we're eating, the water, all the nutrients that we need. And I know you've mentioned earlier when we, you and I were talking about that, that shifted somehow your healing from the brain injury, right? So do you mind sharing a bit about that? And we can think through that. That almost if you're listening, right, there's lots of stress, there's illnesses, obviously, like you said, you know, go to your doctors as a listener, do that. But there's something about also exploring other ways to support yourself close to what God created. So what was your journey of healing? I know this is an important piece in what you want to share. It really is. So when I woke up the next morning after the day I thought I would not make it, I was literally looking down on my body. My soul had left my body, in my opinion. And I was looking down on my body and my service dog, and she was saying goodbye to me. She refused to leave my side for 24 hours. No food, no water, no bathroom. She really looked as if I was going to leave and she wanted to be there to bear witness. Hmm. Woo. Sorry. Yeah. Thank you. And I woke up the next day and I could use my walker on my own. I didn't have to wait for a caregiver to help me get out of the bed. And I walk to the restroom. I got out my laptop and I decided today is the first day of my new normal. That's why my podcast is called New Normal Big Life, because my life went from being a swanky C-suite executive woman with all of the trappings, you know, I had all of the things that money could buy and I was so unhappy and so sick and so debilitated until I almost lost my life. And so I woke up that first day and envisioned what my new life would be like. And because I have an MBA, I put it in a spreadsheet. MBAs love spreadsheets. So I put it in a spreadsheet. How would I live my life? What would I do for work? Because technology was killing me, the long hours, the high stress. Hmm. Hmm. What kinds of people would I surround myself? What would I eat? How would I dress? Where would I live? I changed everything about what I was doing in life because here's what I realized. I was living the life I was supposed to live by man's standards or human standards. Mm-hmm. I wasn't living the life I was supposed to live by God's standards. Not that I was out drinking or doing bad things. It, it wasn't really that. It was just that I was being inauthentic to who I am. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And when I started living my authentic life, It brought me to a cabin in the woods. It brought me to camping and kayaking, whitewater kayaking with friends. And I met my future husband down by the river camping and kayaking with a group of 50 friends. And out of all the women that he could have gotten to know or did get to know, he chose me. I chose him. And we have just been on the same path throughout our healing. He's actually a double traumatic brain injury survivor. He survived two IED explosions. Explosions in Iraq, and we both took back our health and incorporated nature and this holistic outdoor lifestyle as part of our healing process. Thank you so much for sharing. Wow. And as a listener, I hear this, might wonder, how does one know the authentic life versus inauthentic life? Because I hear you, right? There was nothing major, but it felt like it was imposed by culture or other human beings, right? How did you know and were able to discern what is truly authentic life? I would imagine it's not necessarily overnight, right? Things unfolded, or maybe it was overnight. So I'm just curious. Yeah. So, you know, I always had a good sense of who I am. My father used to praise me for it because he would tell my siblings— I'm the youngest of 5— he would say, you should be like your little sister. Because if you don't know who you are, the world will tell you who you are, and you will be forced to conform to it. I took that to heart. But I also later let the world force me to conform to wanting a high-pressure, high-powered, high-income job when that really— those things really are not important to me, obviously, because now I'm a writer. And you don't make a lot of money as a writer. But wealth was not important to me. Being around lots of people was really not my comfort zone. I was forcing myself to be this person to fit into what people said I should do with my level of, I don't know, knowledge, experience, education, and opportunity. But it was like wearing someone else's shoes. You kind of just know. So what I would ask people is, And this is what I did. I sat down and asked myself if nobody was watching, if nobody cared who I was and how I showed up in the world, who would I be? What would I do? Those same questions. What would I do for work? Who would I surround myself with? And not like, how would he look? What job would he have? For the kind of man you want in your life. That's not what I thought about. I thought about what characteristics would I want from the man in my life? How would I want him to be? I, I'd like him to be someone who's maybe more introverted like me. I'm an ambivert. I'm naturally introverted and naturally extroverted, but more introverted. I don't wanna be around an extrovert because that requires just way too much energy from me and I don't have it, you know? Mm-hmm. So I wanted someone who's naturally introverted, who's kind, who's thoughtful, who loves nature. And who knows himself. Those were really the characteristics. And of course, the relationship with God, but those were the characteristics that I was looking for. And that's exactly the person I attracted into my life. Mm-hmm. Right. So what I'm hearing, there's a sense of who can I be? What would I do if no one is watching? That was the compass. Is that right? Yes. And that guided your choosing your husband. And how about your lifestyle? How did that— what did you discover? Right? So I'm putting myself in the listener's shoes and wondering, well, how can I apply this in my life? So what were your first steps at the beginning, uncovering who are you when no one is watching? I love this as a discernment tool. I realized that I was not living in a place that was conducive to my good health. So for example, I was living in a brand new condo with all of the amenities. I mean, it was beautiful. It's where every techie wanted to live. And then I realized the building materials were making me sick. The carpet, the paint, the cleaning products I was using in my home, the products that I was using in my daily routines, the kinds of foods that I were eating, although they were high quality food, I didn't realize I was eating dead foods. I was eating foods that had been radiated, so all of their nutritional value had been stripped out. I was eating foods that were not vine ripened. So again, it didn't get its full nutritional value on the vine. And when you start thinking about where does my food come from, what goes into it, you start realizing, oh, maybe I don't have an allergy to this food. I have an allergy to the poor quality version of this food. This food. For example, gluten. I'm not allergic to wheat. I thought I was. Today I buy my own wheat berries. I grind them in my home. I make my own bread. I know the whole source of that loaf of bread, right? And it doesn't upset my stomach. My husband was diagnosed with celiac disease. I make bread for us all the time. But when you know the source of what you're putting into your body, it wasn't the wheat that I was allergic to in my case, or that he had celiac's. It wasn't that, it was the glyphosate. It was the genetically modified seed. It was all of those things that for some people never bothers them. For me, it made me terribly sick. So part of your journey was to realize that you want to change your environment and not be— you live in a more secluded area, right? And bring back your food. And so it was more of a changing lifestyle in terms of the, how would I say it? More nature-based. Nature-based. Yes. And that has been your journey. Trying things and kind of seeing, and your health, and you've recovered your health, I would imagine. I mean, it sounds like, right? Yeah. My health is, I would say, maybe 90% recovered because I do still have instances where, like, for example, this winter, I was walking down the stairs and my legs just gave out from under me. Um, sometimes my brain sends my body wrong signals and it causes me to have dangerously low blood sugar. So I have symptoms, issues that I have to manage, but they're all managed. And get this, I went from 20 medications to zero medications. Oh, wow. Amazing. And here's the other kicker. I, in 2 years, I will be 60 years old and I'm not on any medication. Most 60-year-olds in America are on a list of medications. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That is wonderful. Congratulations and glory to God. Thank you. Yes. So with all this, what would you say in terms of, from your journey, that are some rituals or habits that help you? Because I'm on a quest of helping Christian women, professional and servant leaders, to stay healthy and regenerate on a daily basis and not just wait for that elusive future. Uh, and I'm hearing that that's your decision. I want to be healthy. I want to regenerate. I want to move towards your best version of yourself. So what are some nuggets from your experience that you might want to share with the audience? Well, when you think of regeneration, it starts with your living space and creating living space that supports your good health. So if you can watch us, you'll see something in my home. You'll see unvarnished wood. So there's— I didn't— we took the natural wood and left it as it is. We didn't add any chemical to it that would off-gas and leach into our bodies. You'll see in the left corner of my home, there are some branches that I foraged from our forest, and then I attached— I bolted them to the wall and created an air plant holder. That simple practice of bringing wild materials in, foraging for them in a forest, bringing them into your home is called biophilic design. And what, simply put, it's just bringing the outdoors inside or bringing nature inside and being very intentional about surrounding yourself with 3 things: light, order, and life. So using mirrors opposite windows to brighten dark corners, putting electric candles in dark corners, not burning candles that are made from materials with toxic ingredients because your candle, if it smells like vanilla and it doesn't say made with real vanilla beans or vanilla oil, then it's a toxic ingredient that was created in a lab to smell like vanilla. And now you're bringing those toxic ingredients into your home to breathe them in. So it's simple changes like that. So instead of using air freshener, we use essential oil in diffusers. And some essential oils also have antimicrobial principles. So when you're worried about the hantavirus or COVID or the cold and flu, you could use essential oils to freshen your air and clean your air. And I I talk about all of these things on my podcast. So I love spreading these just small principles that you don't realize, but light, order, and life are the 3 things that you want to just look around your home. And before you go out and buy anything, just ask your questions. How can I add light, order, and more life into my home? And so light could be opening windows, e-candles, or quality natural-made candles. Order is getting rid of the clutter. And so I never had a messy home because I'm kind of a neat freak and I like to clean because I have an infection control and disease prevention background. So, you know, I'm a very traditional wife. I, I don't do all of the cooking. Matt does a majority of the cooking. I do all of the baking and I do all of the cleaning, but he helps me maintain the house on a regular basis. So every night before we go to bed, because this signals to your brain that you're— it's time to wake up. You've regenerated and rejuvenated overnight, and you're in a safe place where you can start your day by removing the clutter. So as we end our day, we take an extra 5 minutes before bed and we just pick up the day from the day and everything's put where it belongs. And when we wake up in the morning, it's like you wake up and you're in an Airbnb. And the reason is because it signals to your body that this is a fresh start. And when you're putting those things away at night, it signals to your body that you dimmed your lights. As the darkness starts to fall, we, we turn on e-candles instead of bright lights right before bed. We put on some magnesium cream to help us fall asleep naturally. So all of these little practices, and we clean up our space, and that signals to your body, now is time for rest and rejuvenation. And then when we open the curtains and the light comes in, now it's time to go to work and start your day. And this is the way that our ancestors lived. 2,500 years of human recorded history tells us this. And to back it up, the Center for Disease Control, the PubMed, the National Institutes of Health all say the same things, but it gets buried in your 7 to 15 minute doctor appointment. Yes. Yes. Oh, I love what you said. And if you're listening, let's, uh, you might want to come back to this. I love what you said, light, right? There's a cycle of light, obviously throughout the day, bring light more into your room. And I love the idea of mirrors, right? Open the windows, e-lights and also, or candles and also dimming them at night, right? Preparing for bed. And I love the idea of the order, the cluttering. I mean, we live in a society that's filled with so many— it's so easy for us to get so many things and how to keep a clutter-free environment. I think that's wonderful. And you mentioned life, and I did have a question about the air plant holder, bringing light, and I see it in your, in the background. So you have the branches and how do you use it as a holder? You hold it. Yeah. So tell me, are you just— Candles. Where are the candles? Oh, I was showing under my arm. You can see the candles. Oh, yes. I can see the candles. Yes. So where are the— what do you have on the branches? Do you put plants in that or the air plants? Yes. So on the branches, I bought off Amazon for like $20. It came with maybe 6 holders and I bolted the holders into the branch, bolted the branch into the wall, and then you just drop a little air plant in it, and I spritz it with fertilizer and water once a week, and it scrubs the air. It gives— plants give off oxygen. Oh yeah. It cleans our air. If you have any kind of fern, they take ferns in the space shuttle to clean the air. There are so many different ways that you can incorporate nature into your life. And, you know, natural light, it regulates your sleep, it boosts your mood, it boosts your energy. Yes. And it's your body's internal clock. That's wonderful. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And were there any other habits or ritual they're using throughout the day that are helpful to share, or does this feel complete? Oh my gosh, there are so many that I have a whole section of my website that I make it free for anyone. It's at newnormalbiglifepodcast.com. There's an ebook books and guides section. So if you want to download a guide to help you implement biophilic home design in your home or any other of these, you know, learning about the essential oils because different essences will help you with different things, like lavender will make you go to sleep, orange will help you wake up. So, eucalyptus will clean your air. There are so many things you I just download all of the information and the key takeaways from my guests. But we will put the links in the episode. So if you're as a listener, you can have access to that. Very good. There are a couple of other principles that I wanted to remind people of because it's not something you hear from your doctor. So for example, I have a daily water routine that is a morning routine and a nighttime routine. It's 8 ounces of water, squeeze half a lemon into 8 ounces of water, add a pinch of sea salt, like 3 little turns of your grinder. And then I add creatine monohydrate because it, it helps to repair your brain overnight while you're sleeping. 5 grams in the morning, 5 grams at night. And then I drop in and you've, if you've ever seen RFK drop some blue drops into his water, it's called methylene blue. Well, I thought, what is that blue thing that looks like a dye? And then I tried it and 15 minutes later my brain was working. It felt like it healed my brain. And here's the thing. If you binge listen to my podcast, even my video editor told me this. He said two things. I can pinpoint the day you started using creatine monohydrate because I could hear your word recall speed up. And then I can pinpoint the day when you started using methylene. Well, the opposite. I started methylene blue first and the creatine monohydrate. And he said, methylene blue sped up your word recall. Creatine monohydrate put it on steroids. And he can hear it as I'm speaking. I spoke a lot slower. It was harder for me to remember the words. And he can hear the difference. So For my husband says it all the time, your brain, it feel, sounds like it's healed. And his brain is healing because he's doing the same thing. And how did I learn this? I interviewed guests on my show and, and it actually came as a listener question. What can I do to heal my traumatic brain injury? It was a listener question and I said, oh, this is great. I have a traumatic brain injury too. So I love taking listener questions and then finding experts that can go do a deep dive on their biggest health challenge. And by the way, I'm implementing everything I'm learning. And there are photos in my website. I promise you, even my husband, he was the first to say it. You look younger today than you did 7 years ago. And so, yeah, you can see my face age in reverse. Age in reverse. Can you believe it? Because I don't. But when I put the photos side by side, I can see that I'm aging in reverse. And so if you can see that on the outside, imagine how it's reverse aging my organs. Mm-hmm. So at my last physical in November of 2025, my doctor and I are the same age, and he said, I don't know what you're doing, but whatever it is, your lab work looks like an 18-year-old. This is someone who was diagnosed with kidney disease, told it was irreversible, and that I might have kidney cancer in my future. I have reversed kidney disease with my daily lemon water detox. That's the only thing I did. Wow. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing and glory to God for the health that you experience and a sense of youth and a sense of creativity and energy. So thank you for witnessing to that. Thank you. Thank you. And before we wrap up, is there anything else that you'd like to share with the listeners? Um, before we, uh, I'm going to ask you about your favorite Bible verse, and I'm sure this is going to be hard, but was it anything else, or do you want to jump in into the Bible verse? That was the thing that I wanted to share, but I also want to say, if you control or reduce your inflammation, get deep restorative sleep, drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily, and move your body. And one more thing, get together face to face, heartbeat to heartbeat with other humans. Yeah. On a regular basis. Those are the things that age my body in reverse and help me to put multiple health conditions that I was told were irreversible in reverse. Mm-hmm. My husband was diagnosed with diabetes and we use herbal and herbal teas. To fix it. So no medication. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Wonderful. Thank you. And how about a Bible verse that kind of encapsulates your, your life journey? I know it's a hard question because I'm sure you love many, many Bible verses. I do, but this verse was the verse that kept me going after I made my new normal big life strategy and I was working my plan and creating this new life. I would get, you know, kind of like, I don't know, God, maybe I'm, I want too much. Maybe this is too big of an ask. Maybe I can't do these things because, you know, I'm still using a walker by this time. But 2 Corinthians 5:17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That verse is so powerful because it reminds me that your faith gives you access to start over new through God. You know, I, it was my pillar in recovery and I think it's significant to my health recovery and, and reversing the decline. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. That was just so beautiful. Yeah, we are indeed in Christ a new creation. So And thank you for that inspiration. And as a listener, let's continue to have faith and already thank God for answering our prayers because God is amazing and he does answer our prayers, especially when we believe that they're already answered. So thank you for that. Yeah. How about if we wrap up with a prayer? Please. Yeah. Would you like to start and then I'll follow or we can swap? Oh, thank you for that. Okay. Heavenly Father. I ask that you allow these words to sink into the ears of the listeners. May they hold it in their heart. May they have the courage and strength to act on them. Lord God, may you help them lead back to the earth, back to what you have provided for us, all the gifts that surround us. May they come to know their true selves and may you support them in their walk in new health. Amen. Thank you so much for today, God. Thank you for Antoinette. May you bless her abundantly and her husband and everything she's doing and the way she's spreading your light and life into the world and bring that encouragement. And we also lift up our listener. May you bless her abundantly, give her strength and courage and a sense of hope in you and confidence. That you are there to help them thrive, that you are there to help her move through life in her work, in her family, in her church and neighborhood community, and whatever she is envisioning, that you're right there. And may you answer all our prayers, known and unknown, spoken and spoken, that would bring us closer to you and bring the kingdom into the present moment. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you so much again, Antoinette. It is such a delight to get to know you, and may God bless you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Antoinette, for everything you do, for witnessing in Christ, and for amazing transformation. And thank you as a listener. You know I don't take your attention for granted. May you be blessed. And you can find Antoinette on her website. We make sure to put the links in the show notes. And if you want to find out more about Team For The Soul Institute, you can go on the web, teamforsoul.com, and you can find out the different programs. And when you're ready to work with me to help you to move from burnout to joy, from grief to hope, and achieve your highest potential in Christ and increase your capacity in your profession and leadership, for a free consultation, you can sign up for Thriving in Christ resources. And make sure you get our email right in your inbox on a weekly basis. And if you appreciate this episode, like us on YouTube and spread the word about this episode, as we don't know who might need it. And with that, thank you for all you do. I say goodbye for now, and, and we'll connect next time.