Embracing Change: Shruti Sethi's Journey from Cancer to Holistic Healing Copy

Brad Minus: And welcome back to another episode of Life-Changing Challengers. I am super excited because I have Shruti Seti, with us today. She's an author, she's a holistic nutritionist, she's a cancer coach, and she has a really, really interesting story that's going to completely motivate and inspire you. So Shruti, how are you today?

Shruti Sethi: Hey Brad. Thank you for having me, or I'm doing excellent. How are you? 

Brad Minus: I am doing great now that I have you with us on the show. I appreciate it. She also has a book out called The Healing Power within. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that later. But just so you know, if all of you are listening and you happen to be near her phone and you wanna look it up, and she has this beautiful picture of her on the front, so you can see what she looks like.

So Shruti, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? You know, like where you grew up, what was the compliment of your family and what was it like to be Shruti as a kid? 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah, I love that question. So me as a child, I was grown up in India and I was in a joint family as.

You know, surrounded by people and kids my age, my cousins running around. We had a huge, huge house just like a farmhouse. And we had beautiful trees, like ancient trees and a well in our, compound. We were outdoors running around and, with school very close by. I had a pretty happy childhood as per se, but you know, there was a lot of things going on.

When I started to grow up as keeping, I was always someone who was. As a captain of my house, I was, I was into sports, I was into extracurricular activities, art, dancing, everything. I was very outgoing, but with, when it came to my emotions, I never used to express a lot. I. I thought, I still am dealing with certain things, but you know, back then I couldn't understand.

So as a child, I was on if, if somebody, you know, got to know me and they were very surprised that I had dealt with certain things when I grew up because I was outgoing. I was like really aggressive when it came to winning in my spheres and. It was all out there. I was quite social. I had good friends and it was pretty happy.

So as a child, I would describe myself as a happy go lucky child, but with very, very introspective. I used to shut myself in a room. And really introspect about what I want to do in life, what I want to achieve in life. And I was certainly not very happy with my situation.

Coming from a very small city. I had dreams. I wanted to go out and be independent and not depend on my parents. We led a very protective life. So if you have to go out, you have to take a car and drive and. You can't do things by yourself. I was the first girl who went out by herself from the entire nine kids, out of the city and pursued my dream.

So, you know, that was something, and I was always, I thought, I am sure I was a rebel in my childhood 'cause I wanted to do things differently and my way. 

Brad Minus: So it sounds like you had like a overwhelming amount of family around. Did you? What part of that family was brothers and sisters?

Shruti Sethi: So I had around, seven sisters and two brothers. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Shruti Sethi: And 

Brad Minus: I thought eight was enough. Ha. 

Shruti Sethi: So. It was quite overwhelming. Plus you have other relatives who are coming in and you know, they're your aunt's kids and all. So we had a overwhelming children and somehow I felt that. I'm not expressing myself enough because I thought I'm a little different.

I had different goals. I was not someone who was into, you know, doing, a lot of chatting and yapping of, for other people or just going and just discussing about other people. I was more content with what I wanted to do and have my own space. So. I thought I'm a little different and I, I consider myself as a black sheep of the family.

Brad Minus: Yeah. 

Shruti Sethi: I have very different opinions and thoughts. 

Brad Minus: So, question. As your family life goes, and I ask this a lot and people wonder why I do it, but there's a reason for it. So I'm not positive of the culture in India, but mealtime, like you had 10. Siblings and two parents, that's 12 people was mealtime, whether it be dinner or maybe a different meal.

Did you have one meal a day where you all sat at a table together? 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah, absolutely. So siblings, my two real siblings and seven, eight cousins, we were all together. We had different sections, but when it came to mealtime, we all used to sit together and have meals together. Especially after school and in the evening.

So that was a very nice culture. We had TV on, so we did not speak as much. We had fun before and after, always before dinner. We always used to gather and play. And, our meal timings was around seven o'clock, eight, seven to eight o'clock. And we used to finish together in batches because there was not enough space, but it was together for sure.

Like the children used to eat first and then the elders. 

Brad Minus: Is it high school in India or is it secondary school? 

Shruti Sethi: It's a high school, secondary school. Primary school, and then college. So we were in different sects,

I was in Mumbai. I was alone, like we were alone. Then I moved into a small city where all of these cousins and we lived together till high school and then, college again was there and then I moved out of. The small city to pursue my passion career in a big city called Mumbai. 

Brad Minus: Right?

Shruti Sethi: Decades of living in different cities. 

Brad Minus: Did you play, organized sports during, high school? 

Shruti Sethi: Yes, I was in basketball team then I was, you know, there's a national game called Coco, I dunno whether you know about it, but it is a very interesting game. And we were into cricket and like cricket

different, different sports, badminton. I was really good at badminton as well. So there are different sports which we used to play and enjoy. I don't remember sitting at home in the evenings. We were going out and pushing ourselves to either cycle or just do anything related to sports.

Brad Minus: Oh, so very active childhood and very active high school. I like that. Yes. So then you went for fashion design in Mumbai? 

Shruti Sethi: Yes. 

Brad Minus: So is that well known in the culture to, like, we have Milan, we always think of Milan, we think of New York, Los Angeles as the fashion capitals here.

For you, is that in India's Mumbai considered like a big fashion India? 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah. Delhi and Mumbai are both two cities, which I consider fashion capitals. Actually, I was born in a family, which we had textile mills, like textile factory. Yeah, and we used to supply at Macy's and all back then, so I grew up in a very creative background where we used to go to the factories and learn about embroideries and.

Colors and fabrics. So, I was more inclined towards it. And then, back in Mumbai when I pursued it, I worked with a lot of fashion designers and then I, had my own brand. I had my own store, my own label, and I enjoyed it. It was such a fulfilling job of designing dresses and gowns and, wedding outfits for women.

So it was nice. It was fulfilling. 

Brad Minus: What, what, was there an end to that for some reason? 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah, so, you know, I was, in Mumbai. I got married and, you know, the usual dream which you want to pursue, get married, have a business of your own and stuff, but somehow down the line, things got weird and, I decided to, we decided to just call up the marriage and.

During that time, I think it was one of the most difficult time because my business was going low. I just couldn't work, I couldn't function and my health was down. I was never into, you know, I was always fit as a person, so I understood that I'm fit, going to the gym, working hard, but I never took care of the nutrition part.

Mm-hmm. That time when everything was going downhill, health, wealth, relationships, career, everything. I decided to just take a break and shut my store. I was still working from home, but I couldn't handle the stress of the rentals it's a huge responsibility running and functioning your own brand and boutique right? So I just couldn't handle it and I decided to work small, like have a small clientele of my own. But I was not happy during that time because of my health reasons, I was not able to concentrate.

That was the reason I started to slow down. Because I wanted to concentrate on my health and, you know, I got the diagnosis of cancer while I was with 

Brad Minus: Okay. You can't glance over that tru tea. You can't just say, oh, I got the diagnosis of cancer. Come on. But talk to me about, talk to me a little bit about, alright, so you said you started feel unhealthy.

What were the circumstances leading up to it? 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Where you felt like, okay, I have to do something about this. 

Shruti Sethi: So, there were so many things going. I was fatigued, like really fatigued. I was pushing myself to go and play that badminton. I purposely joined certain things to just keep myself busy because I was depressed, relationship going very so, and, you know, going to the courts and fighting with each other.

Oh my God, it was a nightmare. I was not sleeping well. I was fatigued all the time. I was just in this, you know, you just want to just keep yourself busy with things where you just don't want to actually get into that main issue. So I was pretending that I'm okay and I'm happy and I'm trying to live my life and just come over it.

But I was just having this facade of. Things that, oh, she's got everything into control. But internally, I lost control. I just couldn't handle, I was overeating, I was eating sweets all the time. I had put on a lot of weight. I was bloating. I was nauseous. I had acidity issues. I had a lot of acne on my face.

From childhood, actually from the teens. When I started, I had a lot of acne, but I never could understand what was the reason behind it. But this time it was like too much. And I was just bloating and I didn't have any enthusiasm left. I was just trying to go. Whatever it comes, I used to like, okay, today what am I going to do?

I'm gonna go in a cafes, eat cakes, and I go to badminton clay, so that I burn off that. Then I come back, I work, I will go with out with my friends and I'll just cry and then I sleep. That was my routine that time. Mm. So it was, it was a tough journey until I realized that I need help 

Brad Minus: Okay. Yeah, no, that's, you know, a lot of people go through that, you know, not realizing that there's actually a physiological reason behind it.

And it's good that you realize that. So, as someone that doesn't usually go to doctors or hospitals, how did you finally decide that, okay, I just need to get myself checked out. 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah, I got a lump on my right hand, right side. And I thought, it is because of a badminton shot, right?

Because I must have made a wrong move or I must have slipped something. So, it was not going. And then I spoke to one of my doctor friends and he told me, just go and get an x-ray done. I said, okay, fine. Because it was uncomfortable. I couldn't sleep this side and it was hurting.

So I finally went to an X-ray and he told me, oh, it looks some sort of a bacteria. It looks something weird. Maybe tb, tuberculosis. You might wanna go to a doctor and get it checked. So I got. Went to the doctor, he did run all the labs, and then, he decided it was not tuberculosis. We might do a small insertion, FNAC.

It's e small in insertion done by a needle before the biopsy. Okay? So it was so painful. I told my sister to come and just be with me, and she fainted because I shouted my, it was very painful. I got it done. And, then when, it was, when I opened the reports after a week, I was, I clearly remember I was in, rickshaw, an auto rickshaw,

an auto. I saw the reports and it said, probably Hodgkin's lymphoma, and I didn't know what the heck is Hodgkin's lymphoma. I, of course, googled it and it said cancer. I must have visited around 10 to 15 websites to confirm that it is cancer. And, then I called my parents who were in New York that time

so I called them up and I said, this is the report. I'm sending you a picture. Everybody was so shocked they didn't know what to talk to me, or I didn't know what to tell him. I used to go to acupuncture because I didn't know about what is the reason of my fatigue.

And I went to that acupuncturist and I said, you know, he was the first person to, actually showed him and he said, you know, don't worry. It's okay. Like, we'll figure it out. And I don't know, like, it's like I was blank I. Remember tears coming out from my eyes and was so salty and all I was doing is crying and it was like, is it a bad dream?

Is it something where I'm gonna pinch myself and wake up to Everything will be normal. And, but it, I had to face it. I had to face that reality of me getting diagnosed at the age of 34. 33, 34, I remember. I just didn't know what to do. I, I clearly, if I'm going back and I'm getting this goosebumps on, on that day.

Mm, I can imagine. I just didn't know how, what to react and what to do. I just went home and just prayed and slept. That's it.

Brad Minus: You know, the worst part is, is that you just said, I didn't know what to do. And of course my next question is, what did you do? 

Shruti Sethi: Well then usually you have to go to the doctors. Right? Right. You understand what happened? Why did you get the diagnosis? Why was I not informed before? You know, like a lot of labs were correlating and my vitamin D were at very low levels and.

I just, wanted to understand and wanted to know why did I get the cancer where there was no family history of cancer, of Hodgkin's lymphoma. It's immune system cancer. So, you know, immunity, the word immunity was very new to me because back then in 2016 and 17, we didn't know about it.

Of course, after COVID, everybody knows about the immune system, but, yeah, it was like, okay, now what? And all I could hear was from the doctors was, okay, now you have this chemo. You'll have to go with chemo. You will, you will have to be, slow at your work. You know, this is, nobody made me understand why it happened, but all they were telling me about, okay, now you have this.

You have to go through a biopsy. You have to do a, you have to, might do a radiation, you have to do chemo. That's it. Like I must have gone to two, three doctors and nobody made me understand what was the reason behind it. So it was up to me to understand. 'cause I was, it was shocking to me as a 34-year-old, never had any diseases per se.

How did I get cancer? What is the reason behind cancer? So it was all up to me, right? To take that responsibility that if I have to live a heavy, and I, all of these questions, you know, when you get diagnosis, oh, I have not lived a, I've not lived a fulfilled life.

What am I going to leave behind? How will people remember me? All of these questions do come to anybody who gets cancer diagnosis. So all of these questions were coming and I said, no, I want to live a life. I wanna live a longer life. I want to live a good quality life, and I'll do whatever it takes.

That was my first conditioning, that just take responsibility and understand about your own body and about you. Like give yourself time. Give yourself that break 

Brad Minus: and right. 

Shruti Sethi: This is more important. 

Brad Minus: All right. That sounds like it was a complete shift. It was in, what you were doing before, it definitely sounds like it moved you in a direction that you wanted to go.

Yes. That you should have been going in this in the first place. But that's good. So how long did you end up in treatment? 

Shruti Sethi: What I did was, actually it was very funny that I did not go to the doctors. I decided that, I am going to. I was not conditioned to just go and take chemotherapy.

I was not ready. I wanted to prepare my body and my mom, who was more into this holistic things and she told me that, you know, cleanse your body, change your diet. And I said, okay, I'm gonna give myself six months and started ozone therapy. I started lot of. Small, small shifts in my mindset.

So small, small, small shifts in my routines. And, I was getting better, no doubt for sure. Like the pain was getting less and my, my labs were improving. But the one thing which I did not let go of, I did not focus on his forgiveness, his forgiving others, and forgiving. I was just putting the blame. On my ex-husband, or I was putting the blame on my parents and not taking that fully responsibility of my karma and my doings.

I was very angry. I was holding onto that fear. And did not know that it was burning me inside. It takes a lot of time. You can go to get the wonderful treatments, but what about this part? The brain is very hard.

Your mind is the most difficult thing to control and change. It took some time for me and, my labs were getting better. Then all of a sudden, I started, getting more nauseous and more pains I went to the doctors again, and then the cancer actually was more aggressive.

It moved from stage two to stage three, and then I was like, okay, you know what? I'm going to surrender. We follow one of our gurus and he told me, just surrender. Come and do whatever it takes. Go to the doctors and you do your things, but go to the doctors and get you treatment done.

So for me it was like, okay, I have tried this. Now I need to surrender and work on other aspects. So the chemo started, it was very painful. The first two chemos were extremely painful. I thought I'm not going to make it. I told my parents, it was so, painful and I was nauseous and moody, but at the same time.

You know, when you surrender, when you really let go of things and you are living the moment you meet more doors open to you. So I met someone who, a nutritionist, a guidance, actually two three of them, who really guided me. And, there was this homeopath doctor I went to to manage my symptoms. And all he did was before even getting into the treatment plan, he sat me down.

And there was a camera in front of me and all he asked was some questions. I remember for two hours I was just crying and crying and crying and crying, and I was feeling lighter and lighter and lighter. And then he told me that, you know what? Now your healing starts.

Because I let go of those emotional traumas and that suppressed emotions inside me. And then I also turned into a whole plant-based eater, where I used no oil, and it was a complete whole plant-based diet, more organic and rich fruits and vegetables in my diet. No daily products. And in like couple of days I started feeling so better.

The nausea was gone. I was feeling more energetic. I was also in the same time I moved to, doing more meditation and yoga and focused on mindfulness and meditation practices. And within those four to five, say one month time. I can't tell you what shift it was sudden,

I started, being more happier living in the moment. You know, there was a shift in energy. So even the nurses said, oh my God, you're so happy and you're so like, what happened to you? Everybody, was like really shocked as to how I changed as my behavior and everything. Even my grandma said, you are a different person now.

I feel it's because of that. You know, when you do yoga and mindfulness and you eat what you should be eating, your body feels light and you feel more energetic. It all transforms you and I could see the difference. And one day when I was sitting in meditation, some very deep intuition I thought I got and maybe a.

Some download or something that you are healed, your body is completely healed. And I went to the doctor and told that, you know, I wanna get my PET scans done. Usually the PET scans are done after six weeks, but I got it done four weeks or 4, 4, 4 and a half weeks. And actually the cancer stopped and the doctors were shocked and I was shocked as to wow, like, can you believe that?

They asked me, what else are you doing? I was a little discreet in telling them, but because all, when I asked them, they said, no, you can't do this. You can't do this. But, then I got more confident. I said, okay, this, this thing works, so let me just be more into it.

And I was happy throughout that journey of. You have to finish the protocol. And when I went to the doctor, of course, again, after the third PET scan, there was no cancer. But my doctors were like, you know, you have to finish the protocol. You also have to do radiation because you were third stage.

They were actually forcing me to do it. But somewhere down the line, I got so much of confidence and I was like, you know, I'm not going to rip apart my body anymore. There is so much to do. There's so much to heal from. Let me just give a break. I actually changed the city.

I told my parents that I wanna move. I couldn't come to us with, along with them, but, I moved to a smaller city and worked very hard for two years on myself. Not only my physical self, but my mental self. And the result is that I'm still living a cancer-free life from since eight years.

So I do believe that there is some power in within you. And that's why I said the healing power within you. You have to trust yourself. You have to trust your journey, and you have to trust your intuition. And, you know, there were difficulties. There were the times when I wanted to give up.

But, you know, you have to keep that goal in front of you and why you want to do what you want to do in mind. And I remember very clearly having this conversation with God that, oh God, if I get well, and if all of these things work, i'm really going to share my journey.

I'm going to be very proactive and helping people and, slowly the windows, opportunities started coming in. When I started telling people about my journey and they called me for speaking and they called me for, you know, they were inspired. And I was like, okay, you know, if somebody gets inspired to do things, why not?

And slowly and gradually, this is how I came into health and wellness realm.

Brad Minus: Excellent. I love that. That is, that's fantastic. So did you, did you end up with a, did you have to go to school in order to be a holistic nutritionist and 'cause you're also consider yourself a energy psychologist. Yes. And of course you got your yoga, you got your yoga certifications as well.

What did you end up doing to, what were the schools that you went to, just to kind of give people an idea of your credits and all that good stuff. 

Shruti Sethi: I went to Cornell and got my plan-based certification. 

Brad Minus: Wait, wait, wait. You went to Cornell?

Shruti Sethi: Cornell University. Yes. Beautiful. 

Brad Minus: Went to Ivy League school to get your plant-based certificate. 

Shruti Sethi: Yes. And then, I did the IIN health coaching course as well during COVID, so that I become a certified coach. Then of course, my yoga, Ayurveda Nutrition, all those courses were, done by a very good institute in India.

Energy psychologist, I felt that, when I worked with cancer patients, I needed to assess their energy. I needed to assess what's going on their mind because 90%, I feel the healing starts from your mind. And, any patient that I see with regards to weight loss or with regards to hormones or with regards to, heart diseases.

Everybody has gone through stress levels in their life. And when you go to the doctors, they don't correlate everything. And I wanted to bring all of these holistic realms. So I started working on energies and chakras and energy Psychology is nothing but assessing what you really need to. Do to change the energy of your mind and body and spirit, everything together to get to where you want.

So it could be a shift in your mindset. It could be a shift in your diet. It could be a shift in what you're consuming as content. Or maybe you are in a toxic relationship you don't want. So I try and. Put all the pieces together and tell the people that, you know, maybe you need to do in this, this is why there are some blockages which you are facing and you're not able to do that.

Mm-hmm. And I found it very interesting because I did the same thing in my life and I was. Severely blocked with so many things going on. And so I feel that, you know, our health and wellness is not only about living as I was, had this notion in mind should look good. That's it and that's health. But what is going inside your body, mind, and spirit.

You know, how are you inclined spiritually? How are you with people? How happy you are? What is your happiness that all combining makes a proper, diagnosis of your health? So I wanted to do everything like, and so I went all out. I'm still learning. I still love to indulge myself once a year into a course.

I also did functional nutrition course. So I keep learning. I think learning is never ending. 

Brad Minus: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I, you know, never stop always finding something new. Yeah, I get spurred. I, you know, I'm not a real huge fan of social media or. Political and news and dancing and all that stuff.

But I get ideas, you know, I, I look at other, YouTubers and ex talkers and, and the guys, and I look at other runners and other phys, physical fitness, coaches and, and, and personal trainers and stuff. And I just get ideas. You know, it's like, whoa, why does that work? And then the research goes from there and then go on to solidified researches and studies and stuff.

And so I'm constantly learning that way. And it's, made a huge difference in my practice. So I will say that I am excited at what you said about emotional wellbeing. Actually impacting your life. You said the happier you were, the more that you were able to let go.

Obviously the cancer got better. What a huge case study that is. 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah, it is. 

Brad Minus: But it was funny that you said that and how things were getting better, and then I realized that of my own athletic achievements and my client's athletic achievements, I realize. When my athletes and myself, when we were in better spirits, when our lives were better, that we were happy, we achieved more.

Shruti Sethi: Oh, wow. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, because I think about it where I was in my life at the times that I felt better, I was in better shape the whole bit. I was also in a good place in my life. 

Shruti Sethi: Right. 

Brad Minus: And I was happy. And the times when I found that I didn't do as well. Had a misstep here and there, life was okay, but there was something else going on.

Right. And it's interesting that you kind of brought that, to my attention as we were talking about that and thinking about it. Yeah. When you're in a good place, everything could get better, but it's getting to that place. 

Shruti Sethi: I think what, you know, what made me also realize that you can, as you said, you're right, that you know you're at a good place.

You definitely feel better, but you can be at this good place, any moment of your life. It is in your hands. Your happiness is in your hands. And the tools are meditation and breath work yoga really changed my life because I was a person who was never, still, I just couldn't sit still.

I had hundreds and thousands of mind, thoughts coming in my mind. And I was all over the place, all over the place and, and I was quite aggressive in my thinking, but. When you start, you know, the most difficult time moment of yoga is like, I'll start. I've worked with a lot of my gurus and my teachers and, they started to work with me one-on-one, and I, they, they, they, I realized that I was not breathing properly.

And my mom told me once that you breathe very shallow. And, you know, when, and, and it all made sense because one of the reasons why oxygen or, oxygen is not reaching to your, proper cellular level also, correlates to, or cancer is like, you know, with, with oxygen going low and cancer cells actually thrive in that low oxygen environment and.

And an acidic environment. So I was not breathing well. I was very shallow breather. When you deep breathe and you take the oxygen, it runs through your brains and you do the nasal breathing it made a huge difference

everything changed with the right nutrition, the right diet, the right mindset, you can be at your happy place at any moment, even if you are in the shittiest place, you can choose to be happy. That actually changed everything for me.

Even now when things go wrong, of course you are, you are sad for one, one day, two day, that's normal. But then you pick up yourself and I said, okay, you know what? I choose to be happy. This is what choice I wanna make. This is what I am. Now I choose things and I take the best of things, and I know this is.

Even if this moment is coming to teach me something, let me get the lessons and move on. 

Brad Minus: Yes, yes. I have adopted, I keep thinking about the things that are external to me. So a lot of people I kind of, associate the Serenity prayer with, you know, with, addicts. But if you really, if you really look at it, you know.

Grant me the serenity to, to accept the things I cannot change, the strength to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Absolutely. If you really think about that, it's so powerful because the things we get angry at are things we can't control. Why do we bother? Why are we like spending all this energy and time into things that are never changed with anything that we do?

You know, that's one of the things that I get concerned with people on social media because they sit there and they're like going crazy about things that don't affect them at all and things that cannot change. You can sit there and tout politics and government to things all you want on social media.

Nothing you personally can do is gonna change that unless you decide that you're gonna run for office. The people, that are sitting there and getting into arguments are not gonna make those changes. There's nothing you can do until the ballot box comes around.

So why, why bother? Why put yourself through that negative energy? Absolutely. So that's one of the reasons why I stopped being on social media. But it's that other thing is that I found that, I took things personal. But there's nothing I can do to change it. I'm not gonna change somebody's mind, and I am not going to, and nothing I do is gonna change what's going on in the world right there, right now.

I can do small things. I can recycle, I can, you know, I can give to charities, I can do all that stuff. I can make the small little implements, but those are choices I make upon myself. Nothing I do is gonna make those changes. So don't put yourself through that negative energy and you'll find yourself happier, in my opinion.

True. 

Shruti Sethi: Nice. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, that Serenity prayers saved my life more than, more than a lot. Just to think about it, you know what I mean? I sat in the, I sat in an Iron Man and I'm in the, I'm in, I'm in, I'm bars and I'm, you know, 112 mile journey. And rain and wind is coming down and, and I gotta go up hills and go down hills.

Can't change your weather. Can't change the terrain. 

Shruti Sethi: Right. 

Brad Minus: But made yourself stronger to accept the terrain. Okay. Just accept it. Accept the fact that you've got the wind in your face, that you've got, the fresh air.

You are outside and you're doing things that. Some people just cannot do. 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Doing something that most people will not do. 

Shruti Sethi: Absolutely. 

Brad Minus: So enjoy it while you have that, while you've got the chance. 

Shruti Sethi: No, that's, a wonderful thought.

Brad Minus: Yeah. So are you still playing badminton? 

Shruti Sethi: Yeah, in New, I'm in New York right now. I'm not playing any sports unfortunately because just trying to settle in and, I work one-on-one with people here but I wish to. Okay. Definitely. 

Brad Minus: We have the new fad going on out here called Pickleball.

Yeah. It's badminton on steroids. It's kind of a cross between badminton and, tennis. Yeah. And ping pong. It looks really fun. I haven't tried it yet. I'm gonna try it. 

Shruti Sethi: I haven't tried it yet, but yeah, it looks fun.

Brad Minus: So when did you get here? 

Shruti Sethi: I moved to New York almost three years back. Okay. My green card. So I then, you know that, again, that transition was so tough, right? Because I was in a very small city called Goa. It's like a fun city in bba, in India. It's like a beach city, like Florida, and you live with such a laid back life.

And during COVID, anybody, you know, you just, you were in this slow slumber sort of a thing. But when I came to New York, it was so overwhelming because I had to, I thought I'm. I'm just leaving. I don't know these things. I don't know about these. It was very tough for me

Brad Minus: oh, I can imagine. 

Shruti Sethi: To follow up with so many things going around, but now I'm kind of loving it because I've lived in Mumbai, which is more like New York. It took me some time to, get into the same rhythm when it comes to being so proactive in New York.

But it's fine. It's like a part and parcel of life. 

Brad Minus: Rat race, you probably meant the same rat race. Yeah, that's an American saying. 

Shruti Sethi: That even in that rat race, I can think you can choose what to. Yeah. What to raise for, right? So, yeah, so I'm like trying to find my balance plus, enjoy.

I, and I'm enjoying working here. As you know, it's so much of, people need so much of health with regards to their health. They're fed up of going to doctors, and they are so, I mean, not, not only in India, but even here, people are depressed. So anxious and I feel that you are, I am sent here because maybe I can help people here as well.

So it's all good. 

Brad Minus: Well, I know you can, mm-hmm. Just by, you know, 'cause you've experienced it. You know, we have a lot of doctors that, go to med school, they get the knowledge and then they start to experience it with other people. But you yourself have experienced it and I know that's a huge difference.

Another example is that I was in the military for almost 10 years and I had officers that had come to college, had gotten their commission, and I had officers that were enlisted first, so they were enlisted. They, were privates and they got Sergeant stripes and then they went and became an officer.

And those officers were so much better. They were educated more. They were able to, lead better 'cause they knew what we were going through as enlisted. So kind of the same thing. A lot of doctors out there that have been through, similar cases like yourself, they're just better.

And they know how to not only heal, but they know how to talk to their patients. So i'm purposely grateful to have someone like you helping out people as much as they possibly can. And this is why you are on the show. 'cause this is what we do. We talk to people that have gone through major, major problems, with health and relationships and stuff.

And then they turn around and unconventionally. Start something new to help other people is what you did. I mean, you're a trained fashion designer in one of the, fashion capitals of the world. You could do anything, but you chose to help people. So I definitely, commend you on that.

So you have a website, I understand that it's. Currently being redone, but her old website or the website that's up right now is beautiful as well. So I can't wait to see the new one. But she's calls it Awana Health, A-W-A-A-N-A health.com, which will be in the show notes and her book, the Healing Power Within.

Transforming cancer to wellness. And that, I'm assuming, is that on, they get that, can anybody get that on Amazon? 

Shruti Sethi: Yes. 

Brad Minus: Great. We'll have a direct link to the Amazon to Amazon right. In the show notes for you. And of course that, and are you on any social 

Shruti Sethi: I am on Instagram.

So my Instagram is ti sat. I'm on Facebook. I'm on YouTube, but I'm not very active there. But you know, all of the other socials, yes, I am quite active. 

Brad Minus: Excellent. I like to hear that. And we will make sure that all of those are also. In the show notes, which is great. So grab the book, go to IWAN Health.

If you're looking at either cancer recovery or you're looking at mindfulness and a new approach to health and wellness. Get on the site. She's got a, free guide, to a medication free life that you can sign up for. She's got blogs in a store and different programs, cancer, nutrition program, post-cancer, other chronic diseases.

She's got a ton of stuff going on. If you've ever heard that she's speaking, check out that, and you're gonna love it. So anyway, Shruti, wow, the stories are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing them and sharing how you got through it. I can't thank you enough for being on the show and, guiding us to a way to help ourselves and then, having ability to talk to you and then have you help us.

So I appreciate it. Thank 

Shruti Sethi: Thank you Brad, so much and it was a pleasure. I really liked the show and you were so amazing. This gave me so much space to talk and share my story. So grateful to you. Thank you. 

Brad Minus: So if you are watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that, subscribe that like, and hit that notification bell so you always know when we drop another episode, if you're listening on Apple or

spotify, go ahead and leave us a review. And you know what I always say, I don't even care if it's a bad review. 'cause any feedback whatsoever is always gonna help me to evolve the show and help more people. So I would appreciate that. So for Shruti and myself, thank you so much for listening and we'll see you in the next one.

Shruti Sethi: Awesome.