Marie Helene Roussell, a lifelong biohacker, and I discuss the importance of reconnecting with nature, dolphin therapy and reframing aging as a time of wisdom and fulfillment.
Marie Helene is a true innovator in the wellness space. We discuss Marie Helene’s early years working in dolphin rebirthing therapy. Part of the healing comes from the environment of being in the water, which is like being in the womb. There are so many lessons communicated through nature that are not available in most normal modern environments. Wild environments truly bring wild experiences!
Dolphins aren’t always immediately available, of course, and we discuss an immediately accessible technique for reconnecting with nature called the sit spot. Reconnecting with nature is essential to reconnect with our essence. This is the path to aging with grace and part of Helene Marie’s mission to re-educate people about aging. Instead of experiencing aging as approaching the end of life, it’s the time when we can experience the most beautiful aspects of life and expand into who we’ve always wanted to be.
Marie shares a powerful practice for redefining your purpose and bringing your real motivations to the surface so they can be celebrated or worked on. Attitude is everything when it comes to aging, and I hope this episode inspires you to lean into your age, whatever that may be!
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Marie Helene Roussell 00:00
It's sad to say but when even when you see even the not only the older people, but also even maybe more, the younger people who know everything about their iPad and their wherever I fall, but they won't know anything above nature. That's a separation that we cannot afford for much longer I would say, without going into where if we don't respect nature and if we don't work into reconnecting with nature because it's really our essence it's reconnecting with our essence
Dana Frost 00:46
Welcome to Vitaliy You®, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana Frost, a wellness expert life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality and solo episodes along the way for me where I do deep dives into the topics of ageing, heart intelligence, energy, medicine and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 01:32
Hi, everyone. I'm Dana Frost your host and welcome to the Vitally You® podcast. You are in for a treat. today. I have a special guest Marie Helene Roussell and I consider her to be an OG of biohacking. She was called plunging before it was a wellness trend. And my hope is that you will be inspired by Marie Helene's story of wellness. Now we are each one on our own unique journeys. But by sharing our stories, we encourage one another and I hope that you feel possibilities and hope as you hear Marie Helene's wisdom and insights. She was born and raised in France and she has been passionate about health and wellness, personal development and spirituality since the age of 24. I'm going to let her tell you about her entrance into her wellness journey.
Dana Frost 02:23
But she does have an interesting history as a rebirthing therapist, get this get this get this this is so interesting. I learned this when I was getting to know her. Well. I had already known her for a couple years but I had lunch at her home with she and her husband in January of 2021. And I learned that she was known as the dolphin whisperer. While running a dolphin stress relief and educational tours with wild dolphins for 12 years. We're talking about wild dolphins, not where you show up as a tourist and they've got a couple dolphins and a contained area, no wild dolphins. She's also lived in four countries. She's certified as a functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioner and a bio energetics and Emotional Freedom Technique practitioner. Currently her passion is to fold empowering people 50 years and older to reach optimal health and redefine ageing and life waves light therapy technology.
Dana Frost 03:29
Why? Because it literally saved her husband's quality of life. Now, I've talked to you about life waves light therapy patches before but they're the only light therapy technology that uses the body as the energy source. The patches reflect light back into the body which signals and spark biological changes. Benefits include improved sports performance and recovery, improved skin remodelling and wound healing, improved cognition, improved moods, increased energy, stamina and vitality, just to name a few. So without further ado, let's welcome Marie Helene to the podcast. Marie Helene, welcome to the podcast. Thank you,
Marie Helene Roussell 04:13
Dana, I'm thrilled to be with you along with love having a conversation with you.
Dana Frost 04:19
Yeah, well, the sentiment is mutual Marie Helene, and I'm really excited to talk to you because you have decades of experience in holistic healing and you've done so many interesting things in your life. So I would love us to start with your origin story of why you became interested in holistic modalities for healing. So can you take us all the way back to Marie Helene and France? In your 20s?
Marie Helene Roussell 04:52
Yes, it's really it's a long time ago. I don't even remember if I was 2424 April 26, doesn't matter. And I really had the blessing of having appetite. It's because I was a young woman rebellious and wanting to do whatever my parents didn't want me to do. Not the sex drugs and rock and roll but close to it, and really tried to stop me in my disruptive pattern in those days, and I'm thrilled that the doctors that I consulted told me, there's nothing we can do for you. And it was great, actually. Because if not, maybe I would have gone through the paths of taking a drug or something like that. So I said, Okay, great.
Marie Helene Roussell 05:44
And then a few years later, my dear friends were diagnosed with HIV positive when it was the time in England that it was, you know, like all these scenes on television where the grave falling with AIDS, it was really, you have HIV, you have AIDS, you're going to die. And I saw so what was happening with the drug company, which the doctors using is a tee and what it did to my friends, that was like the last drop, for me to decide, okay, there must be another way. And I actually started experimenting on myself with all sorts of various things, even wanting to help them. So that was my beginning in this alternative health journey. And I've never stopped since.
Dana Frost 06:43
Yeah, that's very true. So one of the surprising things I learned about you a couple of years ago is that you lived in the Caribbean, and you are known as the dolphin whisperer. And say, Sorry, I had to bring it up. But I think it's really interesting, because it's another holistic healing modality. I don't know when in the trajectory of your life. How did you get to that point?
Marie Helene Roussell 07:10
Well, you know, we always say like, healing is a question of body mind, spirit. And it feels like I really, I started with mind, spirit, and always including the body as well. And my first thing was to train as a therapist, and part of this being a therapist and rebirth. And being even a spiritual midwife. We had to create a workshop. And that's when I introduced myself to the dolphins and it was the love at first sight. And I realise what impact they could have on people. And on the level not only for the physical health, but also with the emotional health and mental health, and seen some amazing things even with children with disabilities.
Marie Helene Roussell 08:08
And yeah, it was a love at first sight, you know, this amazing connection with them. And I started creating some retreats, on boards or on lands in going on the board and experiencing the world dolphins. I started with dolphins in Summit captivity and very shortly didn't agree with what I saw was happening. So yes, I was called the dolphin whisperer, one of my main names or nicknames, and it was really a passion for me. And you know, I always used to say, I'm not the therapist, they are, you know, I'm not doing anything I'm just bringing you, to them and to nature. Also,
Dana Frost 08:53
it reminds me of when I was doing my master life coach training where he Helene, and part of our training was to work with horses, and we worked with a horse whisperer, co L. Simpson. And, wow, that was really powerful. Because it was the first time that it became very apparent to me that the energy that I was emitting had a direct impact on this animal. And if I could moderate my breathing pattern and bring my energy together, then the horse was going to be mirroring and the horse would not be afraid the horse would like, harmonise with me, but it wouldn't harmonise with me if I was out of sync. In essence, it's the best way I can describe it. Is that similar to dolphin medicine? Well,
Marie Helene Roussell 09:48
first of all, you described it beautifully dinner. And horses were my first love, actually. So I totally understand that totally resonate with what you're saying, there with my first love. And I heard even this love story with a horse where she knew, before we were arriving when I was a kid, I was 13, or in my teens, and having this connection and telepathic connection, and she was really my best friend. And so it's later on when I was introduced to the dolphins, yes, it's the same kind of connection. And at the same time, it's also the, it's an environment. And I know, I'm going to go into an area that I haven't visited for a long time.
Marie Helene Roussell 10:42
But when we are in the water, it's very similar also, like being in the womb. And like even the first time that I went diving, it was really an experience that was so strong, that it was also a rebirth. And being in the environment with this beings that actually really can read you, not in the way that reading, you know, like, you read a book of Wisdom. It's not the intellect, it's the reading of the heart, it's the reading of the emotion, it's reading even what's going on in your body. There had been a lot of times when those things could detect that somebody was sick, and even pointed out to the area where the person needed attention. You know, it's like, we've had like, millions of stories like that. So it's the, yes, the connection, like with the horses, but with this extra dimension of being in an environment that we don't muster, that they do muster, you know, and with that similarity of recreating, also what we experienced during gestation in the womb, etc. So it's yeah.
Dana Frost 12:11
Wow, that is fascinating. I loved what you said being an environment that we don't have control of, because so your work is reframing the idea of ageing, and our modern world, we now are shielded, in essence, from the natural elements we have mastered, if you will, the environment, so that we feel protected. I think it's a false sense of security. So when we place ourselves in the wild, what with a wild animal in a wild environment, all sorts of interesting things happen. For us for our healing. Absolutely,
Marie Helene Roussell 13:01
absolutely. And it's very false sense of controlling the environment. Control. Yeah,
Dana Frost 13:10
you can say that because you live through the hurricane. Yes, yeah, last year on the coast of Florida,
Marie Helene Roussell 13:17
and also deny even, you know, in order to meet the dolphins in their environment, to be on the ball, it's not the image, you know, like the nice when they sell the boats, that nice image of the people in their little swimsuit and having a good time. It's like, you have to also like deal with the environment, you have to deal with the storms, you have to deal with all the other creatures that are in their environment. So it's really like a therapy where you have to meet your fears.
Dana Frost 13:54
Okay, that's really beautiful. I'm glad that we went there. And I'm trying to think well, where do we take people with a story like that, and someplace, it's accessible to people. And this is what's coming to mind. One of the practices I learned in my coach practices called the sit spot. So you commit to be out in nature somewhere, it could be your backyard, a park, the beach, just where you commit every day, at a similar time to go be out in nature without any support system, in essence, you just go and you open up your senses, you open up all of your senses, and ask nature to speak to you.
Dana Frost 14:35
And it's an accessible, easy way to start connecting to the natural elements and to open ourselves up because right not all of us can go train with the horses, although I will say you can go back to a podcast that I did, and I'll put the link in the show notes that I did with a woman who has she does therapy equine therapy. Just stop About equine therapy outside of Chicago. So I could reference that and anyone who lives in the area could definitely, you know, have that access. But not many of us are going to go on a boat somewhere and work with the wild dolphins. However, we do want to access nature, and have that communion and to be open to what nature has to teach us.
Dana Frost 15:22
So I think that since five is accessible, I think taking a walk on the beach, taking a walk without me listening to music or a podcast, go on a walk in the forest, go walk in the rain, get yourself exposed to the natural rhythms of nature, I think this is one of the reasons why waking up to the sun, and the sunrise and giving yourself that exposure to the sunrise is a really important practice as well. Yes,
Marie Helene Roussell 15:53
absolutely. Even dinner, which said that even in a very simple way, I know that for me, whenever I connect with an animal, I get into that zone that was very similar than even being at sea or in the sea. And like even recently, where we are close to this woman offspring, they also family of ducks, and we've seen them from the very little. And whenever the mommy doll can all the ducklings who are like nearly her size now. And just the fact of connecting wisdom, I go into that peaceful mode of connecting with nature. And just like with everything else, just disappear.
Dana Frost 16:43
That's really beautiful Marie Helene and that really leads me to what your area of focus is in terms of changing the conversation about the way that we age. And I would imagine connecting to nature plays a role in that.
Marie Helene Roussell 17:02
Absolutely, I would say that it's vital to reconnect and even to go into educating people about it. It's sad to say, but when even when you see even the not only the older people, but also even maybe more, the younger people who know everything about their iPad and their wherever I fall. But they won't know anything about nature. That's a separation that we cannot afford for much longer, I would say, without going into where if we don't respect nature, and if we don't work into reconnecting with nature, because it's really our essence, it's reconnecting with our essence. I love that Marie Hallein well, and even, you know, like I was reading the other day about an ancient now the, in the Native American tradition, and saying that they were really respecting, elderly woman.
Marie Helene Roussell 18:06
And when you see that, in the the people who were really connected with nature, even though they were respecting the old age, and even making them that the wise one, the one that you will listen to, instead of now looking at the way that is that ageing is being depicted in all the magazines and things like that, in my book, it has nothing to do with the way that we need to reframe, and recondition ourselves towards ageing, where it's the time when we can experience the most beautiful life, instead of being or this is it, this is the end. It's the wisdom, the time when people can become what they didn't have the chance of becoming well, they were growing up taking care of their children or taking care of their parents. So all the things that life brings to us. But that it can be the time when you can really expand to really who you always wanted to be and to what you always could become. I'm not very eloquent because I'm just in just coming at the same time. No,
Dana Frost 19:29
I think that that's really beautiful. Yeah, so really looking at as the chronological years past by taking that opportunity to explore what were the unfulfilled dreams and desires and how can I was speaking to somebody earlier today about her book, and it was just so clearly evident that it was really the culmination of everything she had experienced in her life. Hmm. And so I think that as we mature in decades, we each decade we have an we stack another layer of wisdom and insight from our experiences. And so how can we use the decade's worth of material to then catapulted into really using it for unfulfilled desires using it to serve and be of service to people using it to share wisdom with other people,
Marie Helene Roussell 20:32
that brings me also I was thinking in a work, can I possibly give an offer to your listeners, and there is a link here, where, yes, there is the nutrition, the lifestyle, all the tools that you have, that I have, and that I keep, like looking for new tools, because we need more now than ever, to be really fully healthy and fully alive, you know, but what I've noticed, and especially when you go into the people, my age and above, getting very close to the 70.
Marie Helene Roussell 21:13
And I have like people who are in the 80s, including my husband, who will be 85, at the end of this year. And at the same time, also looking at my friends who are in their 40s, the one thing to be able to really do the work and when they say do the work, it's to expand to this life, we need to always redefine, and we've defined our purpose. And when you talk to people that like have lost the wherever you will suggest to them, you can feel like there is no that anymore, that purpose that will like carry them through whatever they have to go through in life, we will always send us a lot of things as we will all go through the ups and the downs and the peaks and the valleys and everything else in between.
Marie Helene Roussell 22:12
And so to have a purpose, and that purpose will change along the years. But when there is a time that you feel like you've lost your purpose, I would say that that's the first thing to recover, before you can recover anything else. I
Dana Frost 22:32
like that do you have any suggestions or any frameworks that you use for yourself or for your clients?
Marie Helene Roussell 22:39
Well, I like actually, and that's coming from a different way. It was like for work and for to learn even about marketing, interestingly enough. But it's the power of asking the why five times. And I know you know, you know this very well. But I find that if you it can be better to do it with somebody else. Possibly, maybe I mean, if your friend can really help you to dig a lot deeper, or find someone who will really hold the space.
Marie Helene Roussell 23:18
And ask the why five times where you ask, you know, why do you want to stay healthy? Why do you want to recover from cancer? And even if it's the first answer is because I want to see my grandchildren grow up? Why do you want you to see your grandchildren grow up? And to ask five times until you reach the real purpose? The real why?
Dana Frost 23:47
And I don't know if you'll be able to do this. But could you give us you know, when you get down to that fifth, why? What are some of the things what are some of the whys at that really deep level? Yeah,
Marie Helene Roussell 24:00
it can become very existential. But I would say that for somebody like me, who sometimes feel like not hearing completely the answers, it will be also with what you experience physically in your body where you feel in expansion. You may not hear exactly the answer. But if you feel that your heart is bursting open, that's where you're really reaching your why. And, you know, even if you don't have the exact phrasing of your why, because it can be really something like even reconnecting with God or make being at peace with God, though. We go
Dana Frost 24:42
down different pathways in a conversation and I think it's just really interesting. At the bottom of some of the wise, you know, I'm thinking I haven't yet fulfilled my purpose in life. I have more to do. I want to spread more love in the world. Absolutely. Sometime It can be, I'm actually afraid to die.
Dana Frost 25:02
And then that's like your why that oh, that at least brings to the surface. A truth like I'm afraid to die energetically is something that's depleting, right? And so if you can bring, even if the y's are depleting, you want to bring those to the surface, so that then you can work on it, and then invite not being afraid to die, which would release a tremendous amount of energy that your body would be holding. Absolutely. You
Marie Helene Roussell 25:31
know, like you bringing me back in the circle, at the beginning of my first training, search usable, because part of the reversing training also we do breathing in cold water called the ice water. And with that form of breath, we would always experience the fear of death, you know, like it was going deeper, deeper, deeper layer. And so absolutely, you know, I think that it's not something that you can do whenever you feel like you're a little bit of guilt and not having the, you know, where you want to get up in the morning with a smile on your face.
Marie Helene Roussell 26:16
Because you know that you have something to fall shield. And yes, whatever that is, you know, even if it's to look better than you've ever looked, I mean, you must not judge your wife.
Dana Frost 26:31
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sure.
Marie Helene Roussell 26:34
Something that you can do every time that you feel like, Oh, why am I not really following? What I wanted to, to achieve? Why am I off killed? And you can always ask yourself, What's going on? And why? Why, why? Why?
Dana Frost 26:57
Yeah, you do the exploration. I really love that Marie Helene, we could literally talk forever. And I recognise that and yet our time is coming to an end. It goes so quickly on these 30 minute podcasts. So Marie Helene, can you share? What is feeling younger, while growing older? What does that mean to you feeling younger, while growing older?
Marie Helene Roussell 27:23
That's a good question. What does it mean to me right now, it means really, this renewed sense of aliveness, and feeling like, there's still so much to discover. I've signed up for a new course and where I'm learning some exciting things and gets me so excited. And to see that, like, this young kid at Christmas excitement, and instead of the getting older with attitude of, you know, the even the body language, when like, wow, there's still so much more to life than I can discover. I think it's that would be the feeling and the attitude. I had a good teacher, my father was like, exceptional for that without knowing what he was doing.
Marie Helene Roussell 28:20
Because he was a little bit. I mean, I wouldn't use his or I wouldn't want to really be completely like him, because he would look at people who were 20 years younger than him. And looking at them and saying, look at them. I mean, they, they look so old, and they're acting old. And he never acted old until the end at 99. And four months, you know. So it was like, there's a big question of attitude heard you look at life and this thing of ageing that shouldn't be treated the way that it is, in most conditions with most people.
Dana Frost 29:08
Yeah, yeah. So I love that. I love the eternal student. Yes. The turn. I'm an eternal student. I love that. That's really beautiful. Marie Helene, do you have any parting words for our community? I
Marie Helene Roussell 29:24
know it's not going to be very deep and very profound. But the other day when I went to my dentist, and she's young, she's a young, young dentist, but very good. And when she came to check on me, I asked her how she was doing and said, Oh, Amanda hanging in and I'm having fun. And again, it was like the whole attitude. It really boosted me in a sense that to meet someone who instead of, you know being because at any age you have People Yeah, I'm hanging in, you know life. And she was so full of life.
Marie Helene Roussell 30:06
And I would say that it's really always, even if at times you have to fake it, but the attitude and the howl of aliveness is very important. So hanging, then have life and have fun in life, and feel alive, make yourself feel alive, whatever, in a healthy way, you know, whatever it means to you if it's to play with your grandchildren, or I know that when I want to feel like a silly kid, I play with my cat.
Dana Frost 30:41
I love it. That's a wonderful one Marie Helene, thank you so much for being a guest this week. It's been a pleasure to have you.
Marie Helene Roussell 30:48
Thank you so much, Dana.
Dana Frost 30:51
Thank you for joining us for the Vitally You® podcast this week. I would like to thank this listener for their podcast review. GabyUSA10. Enjoying your podcast five stars. Thank you, Dana. I'm a fellow co teacher and I don't even remember how I came across your podcast. But I really enjoy the subject you bring forward and your perspective. You have interesting guests and align with the topics you discuss. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us. Well, thank you Gabi, USA 10. If you haven't left a review yet, please help me reach 100 reviews in honour of my 100th episode. And if you're new to the show and you liked this episode, hit subscribe and download for the latest episodes. If you want my very best vitality tips, you are going to want to snag my ebook and there is a link in the show notes for you to receive my freely daily vitality ebook. Until next episode, as always, I am streaming love from my heart to yours