97. Simple Self-Care to Manage Stress: Interview with Rita Garnto

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If you have a family to look after or a job to attend to or a body to take care of, you may feel stress at any given day for many different reasons. Yes, in fact, I imply everybody on this planet is susceptible to get stressed! That’s why this episode on stress management and good self-care practices is useful for everyone.

My guest for this week’s podcast is Rita Garnto. Rita is an author and educator. She had a 20-year career in western healthcare as a Registered Respiratory Therapist and worked in Canada (where she was born), Saudi Arabia and in the United States. In 2004 she began her massage therapy private practice and after 16 years running, she is now educating and speaking on the dangers of stress and providing simple self-care solutions to combat the negative effects of stress. Learn more from her book “Simple Self-Care Saved Me” here.

In her career, she had cared for patients ranging in age from premature babies to the elderly and everyone in between. In her lengthy career, she had been part of the trauma flight team at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. and she was caring for critically ill patients during transport flights on helicopters and aeroplanes. Rita has vast experience in caring and supporting patients in all kind of stressful situations. Over time, her mission has evolved into focusing on improving the health and life of busy women and their families, simply and without overwhelm.

Interview Highlights

• Self-care is about self-preservation and not self-indulgence
• Rita learned about stress from working in a life or death environment as being part of a trauma flight team for many years, also her personal experience with her family as well as being a massage therapist who saw many clients that came through because of stress-related issues.
• We often under estimate the level of control we have in life, so the key question is, “What changes are you going to make?” If you want to break from your current situation.
• Using her trauma flight team days to develop her stress management lectures and presentations to educate people how to manage stress on a daily basis.
• Connecting the Eastern philosophy and Western medical training to reduce stress.
• Time out to stress less – Rita’s short Facebook Live to give short tips and advice for us to practise self-care, to connect with others, and to be authentic.
• When we feel stress, our brain triggers the fight or flight response in our body. It is an essential response if we need to run away from actual danger, but when that is not the case, it puts pressure on our mental and physical health, especially when it happens frequently.
• Other negative effects of stress include stress eating or loss of appetite, insomnia, may be withdrawn or trigger anxiety, mild depression, etc.
• Women tend to take care of everybody else before we take care of ourselves or need to get permission to do self-care.
• The difference between self-care and simple self-care: easy actions and habits that can build on themselves.

If you would like to connect with Rita, please visit her website or FaceBook page:

simpleselfcare.net

https://simpleselfcare.net/book

https://www.facebook.com/rkgarnto

Video

Transcript

Sze Wing:	hi everybody, I’m really happy to introduce you to my guest for the week. Today we have Rita Garnto. So little short introduction, she is an amazing woman and she had a 20-year career in Western Healthcare, as a respiratory therapist and she worked in Canada where she was from, Saudi Arabia and the United States, which is really diverse places to work at. And then in 2004, she began her massage therapy private practice and after16 years she is now educating and speaking on the dangers of stress and providing simple solutions to combat the negative effects of stress. And let’s be honest, stress is around us so much these days, even by the time this episode comes out, it will still be in the time of Pandemic, I’m pretty sure, so stress is really the topic that everybody should really talk about and how to deal with it in a better way.
Sze Wing:	So back to Rita. In her career, she has cared for patients ranging from premature babies to the elderly and everyone in between, so she had a really long period of time looking after different people. And in her career, she was also part of the trauma flight team in Carolina’s Medical Centre in Charlotte, Northern Carolina. So she’d been caring for very critically ill people as well as premature babies. So I have so many questions to ask you, based on your own life experience already. So I’m really excited to talk to her. And now she’s really focused and her mission has evolved into focusing on improving the health and life of busy women in the family, simply who are overwhelmed and looking after themselves. And in her own words, she said, “Simply stated, self-care is about self-preservation and not self-indulgence.” So a really important topic. So I’m really, really happy to have Rita here with us today to talk about self-care. Especially how to help women improving their health and their busy lives. So welcome to my show.
Rita:	Thank you, Sze. Thank you so much. I’m really excited to be here, so.
Sze Wing:	So first of all, I have to mention– look at your background you have — “You are now entering a stress-free zone.” I think it is actually really important how we place that environment. Words carry weight to start with, energetically, and the environment we put around us is super important, and you constantly being reminded, I think is a really, really, smart thing to do.
Rita:	Well, thank you. I actually found that sign by accident in the storeroom. I was like, “Oh, my gosh, that’s perfect.” So yeah, I decided to put it on my little wall behind me. yeah.
Sze Wing:	You did? And it’s perfect for videos because it’s almost like this backdrop.
Sze Wing:	You can’t miss it, it’s like, “Okay.”
Rita:	You can’t miss it, we’re talking about stress relate here. So first and for most, I have so many questions to ask you, but I want you to tell us a little bit more about your story. How did your career unfold from a respiratory therapist to having your private massage practice, to now educating others? So in a short way, tell us about your story.
Rita:	Wow, in a short way. I don’t know if I can do that. So being a respiratory therapist working alongside the doctors and nurses, you were always in a lot of life and death situations, and also being on the trauma flight team, I really got to know stress. So when I was approaching 40 I was getting burnt out of these 12-hour shifts, where sometimes 13 hours, 14 hours, and I had a good friend at the time who was a massage therapist and doing well with her practice. So I’m like, “Well, I’m going to become a massage therapist.” So I went to school as I was working and became a massage therapist and I met my husband in massage therapy preschool. He just took a few classes. And so then I was able to finally leave the respiratory therapy. And I opened up my own practice. And so I did that for a long time and a lot of one on one, really loved helping people. And the reason I wanted to get into massage therapy, I wanted to help people before they got really sick, before they were in the hospital. So I wanted to try to get them before. It was more about prevention and self-care. After 16 years, I gave a lot of energy to my clients and a lot of very stressful things that happened in that time frame. And I had to deal not only with helping people with stress but also having a very stressful life and– my husband and I adopted two toddlers after six years of trying to have kids. I went through miscarriages. And then a year and a half after we adopted these two beautiful girls. Then my mom died. And then I was caring for my dad 3,000 miles away. So life was really heavy. And I got to a point where I had a near nervous breakdown. And my doctor asked me a question like, “What changes are you going to make?” And that was sort of the beginning of, “Oh, my gosh. You mean I have control?” So I’ve had to figure it out because life is very stressful and it just– it was my journey. I really feel like it’s my purpose to serve now. And I’ve decided I’m taking all these lemons I was given and I’ve made this lemonade and I want to share it. And I’m not afraid to share and talk about tough subjects, so.
Sze Wing:	I love your story. We didn’t have the talk before. Sometimes we do before this podcast. So I didn’t know the details about the source of all your stress especially after you left the respiratory therapist work. But what I really love and found interesting– your story is so interesting because it’s like every life stress comes from very different angles whether it’s personal relationships or caring for loved ones or at work. I mean, everybody has all these areas, right? And at some point in their life, certain things will take or at last demand a lot of your attention. And sometimes we don’t even know how much stress we put on ourselves or place ourselves into and I think– and everything evolves in a very logical way. In a way, it’s like everything you have done in a way has a reason, and that’s why it was on your path. Now when you’re educating people you’ve actually got something to say because you had walked through a path of certain stressful situations where a lot of people can relate whether it’s the children, whether it’s caring for loved ones. So I love how the story evolves and how we can all relate to it. And nothing you have done before is sort of wasted because it put really into a very useful ground for everyone that comes into contact with you. So I really find it really amazing especially when you were having an almost unusual background in this. But you were also working in something quite rare in this industry. Not many people work with critically ill people that they’re carrying in helicopters. So they talk about stress. I mean, that’s a situation that every minute counts. I could imagine you’re just all constantly in an action movie.
Rita:	Yeah. It wasn’t quite that glamourous. But when we were scheduled to be on the helicopter, you sat around until your pager went off and you’d practice …
Sze Wing:	But then as every minute count.
Rita:	Every minute counted and then on our way to the accident, usually an accident that we went to where the patients are really critically injured, and so I would be telling myself, I’d be doing ABC, ABC, because I had to calm myself down too. So I was doing deep breaths and reminding myself of the order that we– the protocols we had. So yeah, and what’s really interesting, I think, is because it was back in the late ’90’s that I was on the trauma flight team, but 1997 I developed a stress management lecture which was the basis of the stress management lectures/presentations I do now. So it’s like wow, God really is amazing because here, what is that 23 years ago, I was already working on what I’m doing now. So I just find that really interesting, so.
Sze Wing:	And you come in a fairly different perspective as well from other people who look at stress– because a lot of people talk about stresses day in, day out, work environment, but you first hand witness stress trauma, very critical moment both from you look at the critically injured people, as well as you on the other side trying to help them. It’s very stressful for you as well.
Rita:	Right and then learning how to make sure on your days off or between calls that you were doing your self-care, doing your stretches, getting exercise, eating properly. There were so many pieces to it. I’m really grateful for my journey so far and the different things that I’ve done, and also the fact, having that medical background, that Western medicine, and then with massage therapy, having that Eastern part with aromatherapy, and the chakras, and energy work, and things like that. So seeing that there’s these two sides which is really interesting and I can connect to God. Yeah, so.
Sze Wing:	It’s amazing, yes. I think that’s the thing about I found it so miraculous in the power of the universe is the joining the dots because a lot of people may not be able to see and join it but obviously you did. And I find it incredible you talk to me about stress, or help my family about stress. I mean you were the person for me to call because as you said you have the Western medicine background and the Eastern philosophy and how it operate on the body so there’s more body and mind connection and all that stuff together. So you have a very all round 360 view and I’m sure also the way you deliver it to people are well practiced, and you walk your talk, so it will be the person to go to, honestly.
Rita:	I appreciate that.
Sze Wing:	And because it’s so relevant in today’s life because we are living in a time, not just a pandemic, earlier in this year in Australia we had the bushfire which destroyed a lot of home. And then the whole about what are we doing with the environment, what are we doing in the next 20, 30, 50 years? So that’s a lot of existential issues happening as well. And then the pandemic and the economy, and then now we have the Black Lives Matter as well, and there’s a lot of very big issues around us. And even though you may not care about one thing over another but when everything came together you got a lot of people are deeply affected. So really appreciate what you do.
Rita:	Thank you.
Sze Wing:	And so one other thing I wanted to ask you and actually it’s when we were having a little chat before you talk about now you’re doing a lot of Facebook work to share with people about some simple tips, and I think its really useful because sometimes you don’t want to start going to big lecture or weekend seminar but it’s a little day in, day out, little bits of nuggets here and there. And it starts to really help us and is very relevant. So tell us a little bit about how are you coping and what you are doing these days sharing the message.
Rita:	Yeah. So I’ve been doing Facebook Live now since probably end of March, so from Monday through Friday Eastern Standard Time which is 14 hours which I find this is so cool because I’m talking to you in the future. You’re in the future. I’m in the past.
Sze Wing:	Time is relative.
Rita:	Yeah. Exactly. So really these Facebook Lives are maybe sometimes two minutes. I think the longest one I’ve done is maybe eight minutes. And so I call them the time out to stress less and even though I’m live and they’re posted on my Facebook page. But they’re just moments, reminders that 2 o’clock is a good time in the afternoon or whenever you feel stressed. And I encourage people just to step away. So the topics, I don’t plan them all out. It’s like, “Okay. How am I feeling today?” So it’s very real and authentic. Today I talked about– so I just got some bad news about my brother. He’s very sick and he’s now at in-home hospice. And I was getting these headaches that I didn’t realize my shoulders were– this muscle tension, right, that happens with the stress response. So I reminded myself this morning. It’s like, “Let’s just– I really need to do some shoulder rolls and really focus on getting my shoulders down,” because I was giving myself almost a migraine with all of the tension. So that’s what I talked about today. And other days I’ll bounce on the trampoline with one of my daughters. I have two teenage daughters or I’ll ride an electric scooter and I’ll almost fall off or– sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s sad. But it’s all very real and it’s all very authentic. And what’s so important to me is for women to understand that they’re not alone. I think so often we feel like, “Oh, I’m the only one going through this.” And it’s so not true. I mean, I have struggled– I have struggled with that in years past. And it’s a horrible feeling feeling alone. So I just want women to know and men that there’s so many of us that feel the same way and are experiencing similar things.
Sze Wing:	Yeah. And that really perfectly led into my next question because clearly you’re an expert about stress and how it impacts our lives and especially in our health. Can you tell us a little bit about say we all know stress is bad but [laughter] because you have the western and eastern background tell us how would you describe really actually how the stress affects our health?
Rita:	Well, so if you go back to– let’s see. So we have a stress response when our brains think that we’re in danger. So typically for an immediate crisis, our adrenaline and cortisol are released. And it triggers a whole what I call cascade of effects in your body. Now, this stress response has been with us since the beginning of time. And so when we way, way, way, way back, we needed this stress response because if we were walking along gathering food in the forest and there was a wild animal we had to be able to have the resources and the energy to fight or flight, right, fight or run. And so as we’ve evolved to where we are now, that hasn’t changed. So our brain doesn’t always know that we’re not in an immediate crisis. So if we start worrying about yelling at the kids or you’re getting mad at the kids, your brain doesn’t know you’re not being attacked. All it knows is that there’s kind of a danger. So it triggers this response. So we have an increased heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate. Then sugar is dumped into our blood to fuel our muscles. If you think a stress response is all about maybe fighting or running to save our lives. So you all of a sudden have all this sugar circulating in your blood. Your digestive tract is a non-essential body function. It gets shut off. Just like your immune system, it gets shut off because right now your brain is thinking, “Right now I have to save myself.” Muscle tension increases. And so all these things are happening. Now, if you think that you’re stressing about some– like right now, the pandemic, “Where’s my next paycheck going to come from? Can I go back to work? Can I send the kids to work? Oh, my gosh. The kids are going to be online schooling.” You have all these stressors. Your body is in this constant state of stress and constantly adrenaline and cortisol are being released. And so your blood pressure stays up. And you can end up with diabetes because now you’re asking your pancreas to keep secreting this insulin for all this extra sugar that’s floating around. So there’s a lot of– a lot of things that are– your digestive tract’s not getting the proper blood flow. So then you end up either constipated or diarrhoea. You’re not using your nutrients. You’re actually malnourished even though you’re eating. And so it really– there’s a lot of things that are going on, so. And then comes the mental piece to it, the mental health piece. So anxiety goes up. Depression goes up. Your thought patterns change. You start withdrawing. You get more irritable. There’s just so many factors to stress and it’s silent. It’s sneaky. We don’t know when it– when we’re really feeling stressed unless we’re aware of what to look for.
Rita:	Well, I know because I would have my hand in a cookie jar. I don’t know whether it’s sort of the pain that– people talk about the stress eating as well, right? You just kind of want something to bring you comfort as if that’s going to solve your problem.
Rita:	Right. Yeah. I eat chocolate. I love dark chocolate. So with cortisol, with the increased levels of cortisol, it does change your appetite. So you may be someone who stops eating and you’re going to lose weight or you eat all the time or want to eat all the time. And then you don’t end up sleeping well, right, insomnia. And then because you’re not sleeping well then that changes your appetite and then more weight gain and it– yeah.
Sze Wing:	Sometimes I don’t know whether it’s because I just had a baby. So there’s a lot of lifting and nursing. So my body’s tense but– or because there’s stress because there’s a lot of things going on with my life at the moment juggling a few things. And my body’s so tense. But it’s actually almost like a joke. Every time I went to a massage therapist. She’s like, “What’s this? This is so hard.” My neck and shoulders, my body’s so tense. I found myself with a low appetite. It’s really strange that either I really want to eat or I don’t want to eat at all. Everything is just upside down and not in balance and I sometimes blame the fact that I just had a baby. So things are weird. But I think it could be because I’m stressed because that sounds like– everything you said seems like the symptoms I’m experiencing.
Rita:	Yeah so it really– being a combination of both of them for you. So you’ve got a double whammy. You’ve just had a baby. And then you’re dealing with all of the stress on top of that. So yeah, it really– it’s amazing how it can change your body. I deal with anxiety and mild depression. And I can tell that when I start to get stressed I start to withdraw. I want to be by myself more and away from my husband and my kids or I don’t want to talk to my friends. So now I know that’s a red flag. And it’s like, “Okay. I need to pay attention to this because I might be getting into a little bit of trouble here that I’m getting– I’m more depressed than I think or I’m withdrawing so it’s not good or I’m more stressed, that I need to do more walking or more self-care or something.”
Sze Wing:	Yeah. And I like what you said early on that you kind of– that’s why you’re doing what you do now to educate people because you want to start waving some sort of flag before it really gets into really bad impacts like as you said, diabetes or insomnia or even something worse because if you can do something early in advance by telling people, “Look to see the symptoms. So be aware of it. And start doing simple self-care.” That will really stop something worse happening, so. And that will probably go alongside what you said about self-care, about self-preservation, not self-indulgence. And why do you think it is that so many of us think self-care equals going to the spa and therefore, it’s an indulgence thing? Why do think it is? Because I’m sure you’ve worked with and you witnessed a lot of scenarios. So why people don’t necessarily see it as self-preservation? Is it because we don’t know or is there just a stigma about self-care as a word?
Rita:	I think typically it’s us, women, that we think that– there’s something inside. We’re nurturers for the most part and that we feel that we need to take care of everybody else before we take care of ourselves. And so what I– when I talk to– work with my women it’s a lot of guilt. Even one of my workshops, I actually have a permission slip that you read out. You put your name in there and you read it and you sign it. And you have your partner next to you sign it as well giving yourself permission to do self-care. So but when you really think about it, how can you– so Sze, how can you give all that you want to give to your husband and your children if you don’t take care of you? If you don’t fill up this– your gas tank or your emotional bank account, how do you have anything for anyone else? And I think we know that logically. But for some reason, we still think, “Well, that’s selfish.” So I don’t know if our society’s taught that. I don’t know if that’s the messages we got from our moms. I don’t know where that’s come from but that’s really– the guilt is really prevalent. So I’ve hit a wall before. I’ve had adrenal fatigue. I ruptured a disc in my neck because of all this stress.
Sze Wing:	Wow. Talk about red flag, yeah?
Rita:	Yeah. So I have a titanium plate and three fused vertebrae. And the disc rupture came during a very stressful time when my mom had passed away. And my mom died of a massive heart attack. And I really believe that was from all the stress that was happening in our family. There was so much going on. So yeah, I’m very passionate about it because I don’t think we need to suffer. I think we could take better care of ourselves and look forward to a better quality of health.
Sze Wing:	Yeah. I definitely agree with you. And even I often talk about self-care as well but to– not sell the concept to people but to really walk the talk and make sure we don’t slide back into this, “Oh, yeah. I can do one more thing. And I can put myself in the last of the priority list. And I don’t need to fill my cup. Over drafting is okay.” There’s some little, sneaky thing happening because we’re so used to trying to do it all or nurturing everybody else and we forget about us. But now I need to be more careful because not only as a mom ,modelling for my daughter and my son, but I mean, if I’m too tired I cannot produce milk. So I cannot nurse. So that’s another thing. It is so strange. But if you don’t sleep, you don’t eat. You don’t have milk and then the baby cries. So it’s like, “Oh, no. No. No. I’ve got to look after myself.” That becomes imperative for me as well, so. But one thing I want to ask you is that– you have a book called Simple Self-care Saved Me. And in that, you talked about the difference between self-care and simple self-care. Can you share a little bit more about that because that may really open the eyes of people?
Rita:	Absolutely. And I’m going to do a shameless plug. So this is the book–
Sze Wing:	Oh, no. I love it. I love it
Rita:	Yeah. So I’ve actually created the phrase, simple self-care. And I have a federal copyright that I’m waiting to go through. So self-care is any intentional action you do to take care of your emotional, spiritual, physical, or mental health. So that can be yoga classes, hiking, massages, chiropractor. There are so many things that we could talk about, going to the gym. But those all take a lot of time. And so when we women get busy what’s the first thing we drop? Oh, I don’t have time to go to the gym today. Oh, I might have to reschedule my massage. So what I have created is what I call simple self-care. And simple self-care is any intentional self-care action you do that is not rocket science, not complex, and can slide into your day. So a perfect example would be even the shoulder roll say you’re changing your baby’s nappies, right, and you’re feeling the tension. Well, you can do a few quick shoulder rolls while you’re– while you’re at the diaper table, right?
Sze Wing:	Or podcasting right now.
Rita:	Or podcasting. Right. Yeah. So you can just even stretch, reach up and do some twists. It doesn’t take a lot of time. And what you’re doing is you’re moving. You’re moving. You’re circulating. You’re helping the muscles get nutrients, oxygen, and fresh food. And we’re sitting like this all the time. We’re going to get stuck like this like a rusty gate. So encourage your shoulders to be back where they’re supposed to be. And so it’s those simple things. And I offer lots and lots of suggestions. Yeah, those are just– those are just a few examples. And then I’ve broken the simple self-care down into three different categories because we’re all different, right? So there’s things that you can do what I call in the moment, there’s things– there’s movement like we just did. And then there’s mind-unfullness where we can brain dump. And so depending on– I’m a mover. So I walk and I listen to my favorite music. And that is almost like my meditation. It’s a moving meditation so there’s– you have to find what works for you though. That’s another big piece is that you do–
Sze Wing:	So tell us the three categories you said. So you have the in the moment and then– yeah.
Rita:	In the moment. So in the moment would be things like when you– if you have a cup of coffee or cup of tea in the morning where you intentionally just take– close your eyes. Take a couple deep breaths. And when you sip your beverage, whatever that is, it’s like, “Oh, what flavors do I pick up on?” So it’s becoming very in the moment. You’re leaving everything else out here and just giving yourself a pause.
Sze Wing:	Right, in the present enjoy, be there.
Rita:	Be there. Be there. So and with dark chocolate I have– I partnered with a chocolate company that’s on the west coast. And she’s combined meditation and dark chocolate. And it’s these little pieces of chocolate. And so you put them in your mouth and let them melt. And there’s 11 different flavors. And so it’s like, “Oh, okay. Do you know what? What do I taste there?” And so again, you’re focusing on one of your senses so that–
Sze Wing:	Love it.
Rita:	Yeah. Yeah. I love my dark chocolate. And then movement, so movement can be anything from shoulder scrunches or even getting up and doing 10 squats or 10 knee-ups or– because my philosophy is anything is better than nothing. So if I take an extra 100 steps every day, in a year I’ve gone 18 more miles. But what’s 100 steps in a day? Not very much. So it’s the little things that build on themselves.
Sze Wing:	Love it. And you just reminded me. I think your book sounds amazing because sometimes it’s those little pieces, bits and pieces that we kind of need to get reminded and then start implementing in our life. I do believe that sometimes you just have to take five steps first before you decide that, “Oh, I’m going to go to the gym every Tuesday.” You have to start small. And a funny thing I wanted to share is that so my husband can sit on the same desk doing work from 9:00 to 5:00 or later without moving. He may go to the toilet once or twice, not even eating, not even drinking, nothing. He’s just on the desk. But sometimes I’m like, “How could you do that all day like nothing?” So I put up a little Post-It note by the job on his desk saying that, “Remember. You’re not working in the ER. You’re not a doctor. You’re not helping a patient in the emergency room. You can go to the toilet and you’re getting lunch, for five minutes, I mean, [gosh?]. It’s hilarious and I start to do this little Post-It note. saying all these things that– you are not a soldier, not a doctor, just get up from your desk. When you talk about the little chocolate moment reminds me because we kind of need– that little piece of chocolate sounds like a reminder. I mean, I don’t know what I even have, mindfulness saying on the back, I imagine it could be. But just little step, little things that remind us that we don’t have to be the way you are. We can implement small change, that could turns out– you know how they say that even flying if you alter the angle slightly you at a completely different destination. And I found this is the same, when you implement, as you said, show the row every now and then and may actually turns out something that you’ve become much more aware of later on.
Rita:	And your posture is better and you don’t have as much back pain. And now with our technology we’ve got our echoes and we’ve got all that– you set a reminder every hour, right? And then it’s like, “Oh, its going off, okay, I do my five shoulder rolls, I stretch, I twist. Okay, now back to work.” And it’s made such big difference in my life, and that. And all these things are tested by yours truly. Even now my dad’s 3000 miles away, he’s almost 91 and I worry about his health, and he’s on the decline, and my brother’s sick, and I’ve got two teenage girls that are hormonal, and I’m post-menopausal. Life is stressful, and then you throw in the pandemic, and then throw in online school, and then you throw all the protests and, yeah, so, you know what stress is not going away. That’s just it, so it’s almost like we need to find our tools and our tricks to build up our stress armor, so that when more stress comes at us we’re more resilient.
Sze Wing:	Absolutely.
Rita:	And then we know, “Well, I really need to step my game up and I need to add, this, this, and this, to really step up my game while I have all this stress coming at me. And that’s what I’m doing right now, is I’m journaling every day and I’m walking.
Sze Wing:	I love it. I love what you share and I love what you do. And I know you have a stress quiz to help us to know how stressful we are, and you have different programs. So tell us a little bit about what you do that you can share and help others.
Rita:	So, yeah, it’s a free online stress quiz. So there’s three parts to what I teach and one is awareness and you don’t know what you don’t know. So if you aren’t aware what a red flag looks like for stress, how are you going to know you’re stressed?
	You weigh in until you get the diabetes test too late.
	Yeah, or the doctor says, “Well, you have to go on that blood pressure medicine now.” So I have an online– it’s 25 questions and then you get a score. You’ll get your score and then follow-up emails, and I’ll also be doing– you’ll get a personal voice email from me, checking to see how things are going. I offer suggestions, and I offer some different solutions just to find your one thing. That’s all you need to start with, is pick one thing and start doing that every day. So that’s a program I offer. And I’ll be launching a membership community very soon. And again it’s all about support. It’s providing you a safe and non-judgmental place that you can get information and talk to other women around the world that are experiencing the same things, and getting ideas, and getting support that way. So I also teach workshops. I do virtual right now, of course, during the pandemic. I do mastermind classes, I’ll be launching one– I usually have them about four times a year, small groups that we really deep dive into stress and really, what is your stress goal? What stresses you out? What can we do about it? And give you lots and lots of solutions, so.
Sze Wing:	I love it.
Rita:	It’s all about helping you go from feeling crappy to happy is one of my taglines, so.
Sze Wing:	Great tag line. So on that note tell us how can people connect with you? Find out more about what you do, or maybe joining our program or take the quiz? What’s the best way to find you?
Rita:	So my website is simpleselfcare.net, all one word, and there is a tab there if you are interested in ordering my book, you can get it through Amazon. So that links right to there. I also have a contact form you can fill out with any questions. If you’d like to email me, my email address is rita, R-I-T-A @simpleselfcare.net. And I love to hear from people and I answer back and I love to help you stress less. It’s all about us living a happier, healthier life.
Sze Wing:	Fantastic. And I will put the link at the bottom of the blog post as well, so people won’t miss out. And it’s all good and simple. So well, thank you
Rita:	I’ll send you my Facebook page, and I’m on Instagram as well and LinkedIn and all that good stuff.
Sze Wing:	Yes, yeah. We put all the social handle at the bottom as well the website and email address, so.
Rita:	Awesome, awesome.
Sze Wing:	Thank you so much for today, joining us and I cannot wait to go downstairs and make up my tea and have a chocolate melting in my mouth.
Rita:	Awesome, yay.
Sze Wing:	Thank you.
Rita:	Thank you, Sze, thank you.