The Mind Switch – Interview with Functional Medical practitioner Muskan Taurani

The Mind Switch

Transforming her life, Muskan Taurani, Founder of That Wonderful Feeling left behind a corporate career in favour of a new path in health coaching as a certified functional medicine health coach

WORDS: SARAH JOSEPH What do the first 30 minutes of your day look like, your morning routine? I like to wake up slightly before the house stirs which for me is between 5:30 to 5:45 am. I relish the silence it brings; with the start of newness and the promise it holds. I begin each morning with a prayer of thanks for the evening that passed in peace and the day ahead. I start my day with a glass of turmeric water followed by a black co ee. A er which I head to a quiet corner for a 15 to 20 minutes visualization meditation. By this time, it’s time to wake up my kids and I look forward to the organised chaos of getting ready for school. What was the catalyst to change your life path and how did you decide upon functional medicine? It’s funny you ask this, because in life, sadly it is sometimes only when something unexpected “happens” we get a reality check of what is important. There were two moments like this for me that really shook me up and made me take stock of what was happening in my life and how much I needed to change my lifestyle. These “signs” are your body’s way of speaking to you and forcing you to seek help before things hit rock bottom. Six months after having my third child, I was on the treadmill and fell o in the middle of running, as I had a blackout. Nothing serious at the time however, once I regained consciousness my body was frozen and I wasn’t able to move for a few minutes. When I did get my stability back, I felt like something was not right as I started moving. It took me several visits to the doctors to be diagnosed with spondylitis, where even my six-month-old baby’s weight was too much for me to carry. A few months after that, I fell gravely ill with immense gut and other chronic health issues. Once again, they couldn’t figure out the cause or e ect. It was the diagnosis by functional doctors which really made me reassess everything. The quality of time, guidance and knowledge that I gained from some of the functional doctors got me interested in this new way of living and learning from it for myself and my family. I was curious to know; how is it by treating the root cause of one issue, that we can also heal so many other elements in our physical and emotional body. I started learning and looking at various healing modalities, and functional medicine ways of living where the root cause is constantly addressed. What started o as a personal wellness journey led to helping others, men, women, young adults. That’s how ‘That Wonderful Feeling’ was born. I feel as human beings we strive for that wonderful feeling in our daily life. Even a small element of it can take us through the entire day and sometimes weeks. I was passionate about clean eating, quality nutrition and movement promoting health. Simple changes and improvements in one’s lifestyle with exercise, diet, nutrition and ways to add positivity and vitality can simply reverse chronic complex diseases. Burnouts have become a common occurrence in corporate life. What practices are best to avoid this? Easier said than done for most of us, is limiting screen time. I feel it to be the bane of all existence. Yes, itʼs hard, but do consciously try and cut it o an hour or two before bedtime. As well as excessive consumption of ca einated beverages and processed food which can cause havoc with digestion. So much healing takes place, on a cellular level, from a good nightʼs sleep. It leads to the reset we are looking for to start the day over. In the age of anxiety and burnouts, self-care is essential, as it helps to restore or refuel our own overall energy. My favourite example is we can eat all the organic food, kale salad and do yoga but if within us there is sadness and a feeling of lack and feeling of extreme exhaustion then whatever you are eating and doing won’t show at all. Self-care is a regular, intentional process. We have to cultivate time and devote ourselves selfishly to protecting and sustaining mental health. Instead of ca einating ourselves, how about allowing our body to sleep instead because at the end of the day that’s what we really are craving, quality rest. Each healing is bespoke to the individual client – can you expand on the approach to this? I am a firm believer that there can never be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to anything in life. There can be similarities, but it needs to be customised based on your lifestyle, your needs,

IMAGE: GETTY likes, dislikes, upbringing, home environment, social environment, finances and work commitments. Everything comes into play when creating a custom-made diet, lifestyle and wellness programme and we continuously modify and tweak it because you as a person, keep growing and changing. At the end of the day, we all know what we should be eating, and not doing, there is ample information out there, but my role as a health coach is to hold your hand every step of the way guiding you to make those sustainable, long-term lifestyle changes so that each day is one of contentment and fulfillment with an element of excitement. What are the most common areas that need work for clients you treat? This also depends, but generally, clients come in with a desire to shi their weight and educate themselves on nutrition but as they progress, they start changing and thriving in other areas because it is all linked together. When you start becoming more fit, your confidence improves, your ability to try di erent things gets perked up and that feeds into how you are at home and around your colleagues. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, pieces start coming together and we work on each part of you till it all fits well. It’s a holistic approach. The whole person is considered and not fragments of life, career or health. The road to self-improvement is a gradual process, what is the most challenging aspect of this? The challenging part is staying on the my story; or a struggle I am going through, as something very similar has happened to them and hearing me speak about it has helped them. I recently expressed my emotions about dropping my daughter o at boarding school. It stirred many emotions, and I was so grateful to people sharing their emotions and experiences. This really opens up the avenue for new dialogue. What was your most fulfilling professional moment to date? The two instances which really stand out are; when I helped a client lose some “stuck” weight, improve her endurance and connect with herself on a spiritual level. I got a handwritten note in the age of WhatsApp, where at the end of our nine weeks together she wrote “Thank you for giving me my health back.” I felt so grateful for accompanying her on this journey. Secondly, I spoke at a corporate event on mental, emotional health and gut connection. Towards the end of the workshop, I had some of the clients crying because they could connect the dots of their personal journey and how they had brushed their problems under the carpet. Do you think the pandemic has been a catalyst to take a di erent approach to wellness in terms of not only body but also mind? Most definitely this is something good that has come out of the pandemic. Thanks to COVID, self-care, looking a er your overall wellness have really come to the forefront because it is a form of mental health. It is a reset that everyone deserves and needs. One of the challenges of 2021 will be to continue making wellness and wellbeing a priority, setting boundaries and finding purpose, once the pandemic has passed. What piece of advice would you give to your younger self? I would say, trust your instincts. Don’t think too much about the pros, cons, and the logic behind it. Do what you believe would make you happy. There is a reason it’s called gut instinct. Our gut is our second brain, and it knows and feels things before we know it. Secondly, don’t try too hard with people where you try to constantly fit in only to become uncomfortable and lose yourself road. Life happens to all of us and we can shi in the process. It’s tiresome, toxic and unor change the direction we are going on every healthy on many levels. Just be yourself, be as now and then and that’s absolutely ok. But open as you can be. The people who are comstaying on the road, and remembering that patible or attracted to you will find their way it is a journey, a gradual process. Like peel- to you. The conversations will flow, and it will ing the layers of an onion. Each layer unravels be so natural. Be yourself and do your thing something new and rewarding. Being kind to knowing that the universe has your back. yourself is so important. We are all judgmental This is ‘The Renegade Issue’ – who according and critical of how we look and see ourselves; to you is going against the grain in their field but there is only one you, which is unique. and achieving something great? Drake has Self-respect, self-worth, self-improvement, really been at the forefront recently with his self-care, there is a reason it all starts with the clean eating, fitness and especially mental word Self. Only we can give it to ourselves and health awareness. He has also been promotstaying on the road is a form of self-respect. ing his new venture Matcha bar. Beyonce You share your own personal stories on social has been encouraging her audiences since media. How has this helped you connect with the first Coachella to show some kindness clients? Yes, definitely. We all have some- to the planet by encouraging plant-based what similar struggles in life and there is a eating. Both of these celebrities are strong mirroring e ect that takes place with other advocates of clean eating and looking a er clients. I will get messages where a client or a the “whole-holistic you” and share their follower has expressed thank you for sharing struggles challenges and achievements.