Feeling the most alive...
A conversation with Kristyn Emmer Whitaker about how to gently cultivate a healthier, more purposeful life.
Soil health, personal connection, purposefulness— the secret sauces to a healthful life!
Happy Saturday, friends! Kristyn and I met seven years ago, when we had both recently moved to Scotland. We became fast friends in that way that expats sometimes do, thrown into a country where even things like going to the grocery store take you by surprise. I think of our friendship as a series of long walks— through cold wintery forests, breezy seaside summers, through the slog of my PhD, the joy of the birth of Kristyn’s first baby, the never never land of those long British lockdowns. We’ve lived through many Scottish seasons together— not to mention some of the most exciting and changing seasons of our own lives!
Amusingly, I realised I don’t have many pictures of us together, but I do have pictures of us together on walks through the yellow fields in May 2020!
A friend of Kristyn is lucky because in her they have not only a warm, energetic, and delightful friend, they benefit from her wisdom in many areas—including her career coaching, her functional medicine training, and life-coaching. Our conversations throughout the years inspired and centred me—and I always learn something! Some years ago we recorded a podcast together, which remains one of my most downloaded episodes of all time. You can listen to it here.
And as we round the corner to August, and begin turning toward the end of summer, I wanted to pick Kristyn’s brain on how to think about crafting a holistic and energising life— something she has always helped me do. What I love about how Kristyn thinks is that it is not overwhelming or guilt producing— she always brings an energy and practicality and possibility. If you enjoy this conversation, do check out Kristyn’s website and coaching services and her Instagram page.
What led you to be so passionate about the issues you explore: soil health, holistic health coaching, and career coaching? How did all of these things come together in your own life?
I didn’t realize it until I was well into my twenties but growing up in a small farming community in Wisconsin embedded an interest in food systems and soil and farming long before I was willing to accept that this was the case. I always had an interest in local food movements, farmers markets, and anything farm-to-table. Fast forward a few years, I went off to college and loved my experience there, which is actually where I got really interested in helping others figure out what they wanted to do with their lives.
After a health crisis and then a move overseas, I found myself once again in a small agricultural community, this time in Scotland. Combining the influence of my surroundings with being trained as a functional medicine health coach, I started asking questions about how these things are all connected. My training was in “root cause approaches” which basically means I ask more questions than you might expect me to when we work together, but I started getting really curious about the root cause of health.
The story went something like this -- In order to have a healthy person, you need to have healthy cells. Healthy cells come from having enough and the right vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. All these nutrients come from plants and animals. Plants come from the soil…and I couldn’t go any further than that, so I started my years long exploration of where soil health and human health coalesse.
In the background of all of this happening, I was building my “day time career” as a career advisor to college students mostly. I loved this work because I really love possibility, and there’s nothing more baked with possibility than an eager college student ready to launch.
Then about two years ago, I heard a doctor talk about purpose and it was so incredibly profound to me. He said something along the lines of “we cannot know our purpose until every single one of our cells knows their purpose.” And how our cells get to know their individual purpose is through things like nutrition, sleep, hydration, movement, love, joy, beauty, creativity. From that moment, I couldn’t unsee how much our health, our desires, our possibilities, and ultimately what we choose to do with all of that is intricately connected.
Sometime ago, I was having some minor health issues that boiled down to the effects of longterm stress. I remember feeling overwhelmed when I was searching the internet trying to figure out what I should do to take care of myself. And I think many people feel that way. There’s the Web MD effect where you think you have some terrible disease, but there’s also the information overload of which supplements you should take, what you should eat or not eat. It’s a lot! What advice would you give to someone who wants to gently make some changes in the direction of health?
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