EP 065: Voltage & Anxiety: Why Light Is Key To Mental Health
“We are electric beings,” says Dr. Kelli Ritter, and she’s not just speaking metaphorically. Returning to The Quantum Biology Collective Podcast to discuss the link between light and anxiety, Dr. Kelli explains that the infrared light that our mitochondria make inside of us is the ultimate healer, and that light is informed by the natural light we take in. “I don’t think there’s anything more important to health.” The structured water in our body is like a battery that is charged by natural light. When it comes to stress and anxiety, running on a consistently low voltage—as so many of us do—means that the signals and input that the brain and body pass back and forth become weak and glitchy. This lack of clear signal leads to chronic low-grade anxiety, which eventually becomes system burnout in the form of panic attack or depression. That same low voltage means that the body is too fatigued to fight and that all the other health and healing elements which we incorporate into our practice–nutrition, exercise–don’t work as well as they should. It’s all lost energy. Dr. Kelli, who herself has experienced the same stress and anxiety that so many of us do, tried many of those healing strategies herself and with her patients. She always knew there was something missing, but not until she limited her blue light and became more in tune with her natural environment and her circadian rhythm did she begin to see major changes. She describes a transformation that was not just mental—clarity, groundedness, resilience– but spiritual, coming into total alignment with herself, an undeniable feeling of coming home. Now that we know that the roadmap to our mental health lay within each of us, we can begin to make these changes, too. She describes the ideal lifestyle to support being sufficiently charged, even if it means starting small. Light informs life. Light shapes life. We are light inside and out. Quotes: “When you’re trying all these different things to heal and you’re working on your nutrition and you’re doing all the things that people tell you to do. That’s great, I think that’s helpful, but it’s never going to fix your voltage. Some of it might, by accident, do some helping of your mitochondria. But what I’m talking about is supporting the mitochondria so that we make the water and the energy, but particularly that water that becomes the battery and that is your body. And if it is depleted, then you are going to have symptoms. That’s what your body is going to say to you, ‘Hey, I don’t have the inputs that I need. You’re spending more than we’re making. And so that’s what I mean by low voltage. (3:34 | Dr. Kelli Ritter) “Some of the [treatments] are even wasting more energy or taking as opposed to actually putting more in. So you do these extreme things and you’re trying to do the exercising and the cold plunging and all the cool things that all the cool kids are doing, and it’s actually putting more stress, which could be good if you were actually to a place where you’ve nourished your nervous system, your mitochondria, your hormones are optimized and now you’re using those as tools to help you.” (7:42 | Dr. Kelli Ritter) “The light inside of us is influenced by the light outside of us.” (9:46 | Dr. Kelli Ritter) “Once you start healing, and your nervous system starts to feel safer and you have more safety signaling going on, then old stuff will come up. Grief, stuff. Also what comes up is good. Realizing how much more connected you are to your natural environment. For me, it feels like I am more connected and aligned to my soul than ever before.” (25:39 | Dr. Kelli Ritter) Links Connect with Kelli Ritter: Dr Kelli's Quantum Stress Management: 21 Reset: https://www.nourished-soul.com/quantum-stress-management-course Consult With Dr Kelli: https://www.nourished-soul.com/consults Nourished Soul Podcast Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/kbritter/featured To receive a FREE infographic of the Ideal Circadi