The Isabelle Bridges Show

You know something is off. You're tired in a way sleep doesn't fix, your digestion has changed, words slip away mid-sentence. And then the doctor looks at your labs and says everything looks normal.
 
In this episode, Isabelle sits down with Dyna Vink, an Integrative Health Practitioner who came to this work through her own perimenopause story: 30 to 40 hot flashes a day while her results kept coming back "fine." Together they unpack why traditional testing is designed to find disease rather than understand a biological transition, why fewer than 20 percent of doctors have any real education in perimenopause, and what your body's earliest whispers are trying to tell you before they become screams.
Dyna decodes the phrase so many women are living inside, tired but wired, and walks through what functional medicine testing actually measures: cortisol patterns, the full thyroid picture, and the gut's surprising role in clearing hormones. If you have ever been sent home with "your labs are fine" while your body insisted otherwise, this conversation is for you. You matter. This matters. And there is a path through.
 
In this episode:
Dyna's story: 30 to 40 hot flashes a day, "normal" labs, and the search for real answers
Why most medical testing is built to find disease, while perimenopause is a transition
Fewer than 20 percent of doctors have any education in perimenopause
The cortisol reversal behind "tired but wired," and why it's measurable and fixable
Why a normal thyroid result can still leave room for better: T3, T4, reverse T3, and antibodies
The gut and estrogen connection, and how imbalance sets off a chain reaction
The earliest whispers: 3 PM fatigue that doesn't bounce back, digestion changes, brain fog, joint stiffness
What working with Dyna looks like: deep intake, a 3-week liver-opening detox, testing, and simple protocols
Isabelle's word to every listener holding a lot right now: you matter
 
Dyna Vink is a certified Integrative Health Practitioner and founder of Holistic Nutrition Lifestyle. Inspired by her own perimenopause journey, she helps women uncover the root causes of symptoms often dismissed as "normal aging" using an evidence-based approach that combines functional medicine testing with personalized nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset strategies. Dyna's mission is to replace confusion with clarity, empowering women to regain their energy, confidence, and quality of life while ensuring they feel heard, supported, and equipped to make informed decisions about their health.
 
You can learn more about her here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/perirelief
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dynavink/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PerimenopauseRelief
Website: https://holisticnutritionlifestyle.com/
 
Resources and links:
Dyna's free guide, 7 Hidden Perimenopause Triggers Your Doctor Isn't Testing: https://offers.holisticnutritionlifestyle.com/optin-568651
The Pressure Relief Kit (free): https://isabellebridges.com/freebies/
The Sistering, a home base for women doing big things: https://isabellebridges.com/the-sistering/
 

There is something you want that you have not said out loud in a while. Not the polished version you'd offer at a dinner party. The other one. The one folded up in your pocket.
 
In this episode:
Why the woman carrying something she cannot get out of her body is not flawed, and what the myth says the pressure actually is
The two-part move Gaia makes, and the half of it most women skip
What the word decide actually means, and why every real decision feels like grief
The beautiful house that produced nothing, and how to tell when structure and desire are living apart in your life
The golden net, being seen wanting something, and why shame shows up right at the edge of an evolution
Harmonia, and what only arrives on the far side
A place to start: if you want a quiet way into your own version of this, the Vision Keeper Workbook is free, and it is built for exactly this. It is a page for the thing you have been carrying.

You've done the therapy. You've read the books. You can name your pattern in one sentence. And there is still a part of you you've been managing instead of meeting.
 
My guest today is Lillian Eve Moore, a trauma expert and teacher with more than twenty years of experience blending somatics, nervous system work, energy medicine, and mindset tools. She has worked with veterans, with severe mental health conditions, with the things that happen in people's homes that we don't need to name out loud. Her optimism comes out of that, not around it.
 
We went straight into self-love, and Lillian took it somewhere I wasn't expecting. She started with a question: do you know what love feels like in your body? Because that feeling moves through your own body to get anywhere else. That's the biochemistry of it. Hold that sensation and hold awareness of yourself at the same time, and you're already there.
 
Then she took us down. Into the underworld, into the containment practice, into the list most of us have been carrying since childhood without ever writing it down.
 
JOIN US in the decent!
 
In this episode:
What self-love feels like in the body, and why self-loyalty, self-respect, and self-trust all belong to the same practice
Lillian's containment practice for being with something hard without going under, including the line I keep coming back to: you leave the therapeutic process the moment you leave well-being
Why trauma is unintegrated information rather than damage, and what "treasure hunting" actually looks like
Why receiving love is your responsibility, and what shifts in your relationships when you take that on
How the identities we build out of "what I'm not" and "what I should be" become the whole basis of insecurity
Why affirmations often miss, and what to practice instead
 
Your practice this week (Lillian's invitation):
Write the list of what you think you're not. Then write the list of what you think you should be. Go line by line and forgive yourself for each one.
I don't think I'm smart. I forgive myself for not thinking I'm smart.
I think I'm supposed to be smart. I forgive myself for thinking I'm supposed to be smart.
Feel the forgiveness as you go, as best you can. Then tell Lillian what you found.
 
Find Lillian:
Her book, Treasure Hunting in the Underworld, on her website or Amazon
Her website: https://www.lillianevemoore.com/
Her community section, where the audio, her app, and her free courses live
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asklillianevemoore/
 
A gentle note before you listen: this episode goes into trauma, and Lillian teaches a practice for being with hard material. She's clear that you move the thing further away the moment you leave your own well-being. Listen at whatever distance is right for you today, and get an adult in the room if you need one.
 
Come home to yourself.
If this episode landed, Come Home to Yourself: Your Personal Nourishment Menu is a soft place to start. It's free: https://isabellebridges.com/freebies/
 
And if you're ready to be witnessed rather than fixed, The Sistering is where that happens: https://isabellebridges.com/the-sistering/

What if the most powerful thing you could do for your child's health started at the dinner table, with a conversation?
Today's guest is Prescott Ellison — Chicago native, Grammy Award-winning drummer, composer, bestselling author, inventor, entrepreneur, and educator. Prescott is the creator of Superfood Friends, a nutrition and fitness curriculum he developed after returning to a childhood memory: his mother gathering her three kids at the kitchen table and teaching them why they were eating what they were eating — before they took a single bite.
That one habit sparked a movement. Prescott's work has been recognized by the White House, earned him the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, the Childhood Obesity Prevention Award, and a $250,000 grant to expand his program into schools across Las Vegas. His K–5 curriculum has reached classrooms, medical schools, and city halls and now, a Superfood Friends television series is in development.
In this episode, we talk about what it looks like to build a family food culture from the ground up, how to start conversations with your kids about what they're eating, and why the dinner table might be the most underestimated classroom you already have.
 
You'll hear:
The kitchen table ritual Prescott's mother used that wired her kids for nutritional literacy and lifelong self-awareness
How Prescott's childhood drawings became a universe of 100 fruit and vegetable characters
The Michelle Obama moment that changed everything
A simple, pressure-free framework for starting food conversations with your own kids tonight
Why what we eat is always connected to how we feel and how to use that as an entry point with children of any age
 
Connect with Prescott: 
Instagram & Facebook: @PrescottEllison Website: www.superfoodfriends.com
Free resource for you: → The Pressure Relief Kit — isabellebridges.com/freebies

In the final episode of the Levels of Vision Planning series, Isabelle brings the vision all the way down to its closest, most immediate level: the week and the day. She covers the difference between a to-do list and an actual weekly plan, the importance of protected white space, and shares the ancient origins of the names of the days of the week, from Babylonian astronomy through Roman and Norse mythology, and how each day's original meaning can inform a theme for how you move through it.
 
In this episode:
Why a to-do list is not a plan
The difference between a Moonthly plan and a weekly plan
Where the names of the days of the week actually come from (Sun, Moon, Mars/Tyr, Mercury/Odin, Jupiter/Thor, Venus/Frigg, Saturn)
How to give each day of your week its own theme
Recap of the full four-level arc: life, season, month, week
 
Resources mentioned:
The Sistering: https://isabellebridges.com/the-sistering/
The Alchemy of Becoming retreat, September 19th in Santa Barbara: https://isabellebridges.thrivecart.com/alchemy-of-becoming/
 
Catch up: Episode 1 (life & 3-year future self planning), Episode 2 (seasonal planning), Episode 3 (Moonthly planning)

In part two of the Levels of Vision Planning series, Isabelle comes down one level from the three-year future self vision into seasonal planning: her framework for building a ninety-day plan around the actual turning points of the year, the equinoxes and solstices, rather than an arbitrary calendar quarter.
 
You'll learn the four elements of a seasonal plan, why planning this way protects your energy and your calendar, and how this level of planning lets you prepare for a future season while you're still living in the current one.
 
In this episode:
Why the equinoxes and solstices, not January-March-June-September
The four elements of a seasonal plan: have-tos, important dates, want-tos, and your becoming statement
Why this is the level where real recalibration happens
How seasonal planning protects your time before life fills it for you
 
Resources mentioned:
The Sistering: https://isabellebridges.com/the-sistering/
The Alchemy of Becoming retreat, September 19th in Santa Barbara (complimentary invitation for Sistering members closes September 10th): https://isabellebridges.thrivecart.com/alchemy-of-becoming/
 
Catch up: Episode 1, Your Vision Is Priceless (life & 3-year future self planning)

In this episode, Isabelle talks about the quiet pattern that leads so many women toward burnout, and why the answer was never to push harder.
 
She unpacks how energy tends to build in whatever direction it's already moving, why our culture rewards constant outward energy while leaving almost nothing for rest, and what it actually looks like to build a sanctuary in your home before you need one. She also shares the ancient story of the goddess Inanna's descent into the underworld, and what it teaches us about the messier, quieter side of real healing.
 
You'll walk away with a clearer sense of why you feel depleted even when nothing is technically wrong, and a few real, doable ways to start coming back to center.
In this episode:
Why energy out of balance tends to keep tipping further out of balance
The gap between how much energy we give out and how much comes back in, and why that gap is where burnout starts
How to create a healing sanctuary in your home before a hard season hits
Why a good decluttering pass is really an act of choosing your future self
What self massage actually does for your nervous system
The myth of Inanna's descent, and what it teaches us about the unglamorous side of healing
How small imbalances build into something bigger if they go unheard, and how to start listening sooner
 
This month in The Sistering, we're going deep on everything from this episode, building a real healing space at home together, layer by layer. If you've been curious whether it's the right container for you, you can try it for 10 days and see how it feels.
 
Try The Sistering for 10 days → isabellebridges.com/the-sistering
 
Join before September 10th and you'll also receive an invitation to our yearly retreat here in Santa Barbara, The Alchemy of Becoming.
 
Loved this episode? Take a screenshot, share it to your stories, and tag @isabellebridgesboesch. I love seeing what lands with you.

This episode kicks off a four-part series called Levels of Vision Planning. Isabelle introduces the four layers we'll walk through over the coming weeks (life, seasonal, moonthly, weekly) and takes a deep dive into layer of your three-year future self.
 
You'll learn the difference between feminine desire and masculine structure, why your vision doesn't need to be practical yet, and how to start meeting the woman you're becoming three years from now, before you ever touch a to-do list.
 
In this episode:
What feminine desire actually means, and why floaty isn't a flaw
What masculine structure means, and why your vision needs it
The difference between goal-setting and future self planning
How to start meeting your three-year future self
Why identity has to come before milestones
 
Resources mentioned:
The Vision Keeper (free): isabellebridges.com/vision-keeper
The Sistering (10-day trial): https://isabellebridges.com/the-sistering/
The Alchemy of Becoming retreat, September 19th in Santa Barbara: https://isabellebridges.thrivecart.com/alchemy-of-becoming/
 
Next episode: Seasonal planning, built on the equinoxes and solstices. Airs September 1st.

You can think your way to total clarity about what you want, and still not be able to live your way there. In this episode, we talk about why almost everything you've been taught about calling in your vision was taught from the wrong organ, and what actually has to happen in your body before a new vision can take root.
What you'll learn:
Why the heart's electromagnetic field matters to your vision work as much as your mindset does (yes, there's real research behind this)
What negativity bias is, and why your body can mistake something good and new for a threat
Why "high vibes only" actively works against you, and what emotional suppression research says about the cost of pushing feelings down
A story about two deer, a nervous system, and the discharge-and-return cycle most of us never learned
Why you have to practice feeling what you want before it arrives, or you won't recognize it when it does
Resources mentioned:
The Vision Keeper — free at isabellebridges.com/vision-keeper
The Sistering - IsabelleBridges.com/The-Sistering
The Alchemy of Becoming retreat -
P.S. If you haven't listened to Episode 1 yet, start there. This episode builds directly on it.
CTA: Join The Sistering before September 10th and you'll also be invited to our in-person retreat, The Alchemy of Becoming, September 19th in Santa Barbara. isabellebridges.com/the-sistering/

If you've ever set a beautiful vision for your life, gotten lit up about it, and then quietly let it die a few weeks later — and called that a discipline problem — this episode is for you. We're talking about why the way you move (or don't move) toward what you want has almost nothing to do with willpower, and everything to do with your relationship to your father, the masculine, and the culture you were raised inside of.
 
What you'll learn:
Why asking "but HOW would I ever do that" before you've taken a single step is actually a fixed mindset — and what a growth mindset asks instead
What the father wound really is, and why almost everyone raised in this culture carries some version of it
A personal story about early motherhood, misplaced anger at her husband, and the moment Isabelle realized mom guilt was hiding underneath it
How patriarchy lives inside us, not just around us — and what that has to do with your right to want things
The real definition of alchemy, and how it applies to transmuting your own history into your becoming
 
Resources mentioned:
The Vision Keeper — free at isabellebridges.com/vision-keeper
The Sistering - Isabellebridges.com/the-sistering
The Alchemy of Becoming retreat - https://isabellebridges.thrivecart.com/alchemy-of-becoming/
 
P.S. — If you haven't grabbed The Vision Keeper yet, it's a wonderful place to start getting honest with yourself about what you actually want. Grab it free at isabellebridges.com/vision-keeper.
LASTLY: Join The Sistering before September 10th and you'll also be invited to our in-person retreat, The Alchemy of Becoming, September 19th in Santa Barbara. Isabellebridges.com/the-sistering