Episode 18: Why I Stepped Away

In this raw and honest episode, Dr. Kacey shares what it looks like to step away—not because you’re giving up, but because you’re finally listening.

Listening to your body.
 Your mind.
 Your capacity.

She opens up about her recent pause, what led to it, how hard it was to make that decision, and what she’s learned in the process.

Because sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for your health…
 is to stop, reassess, and breathe.

If you’ve been feeling:

•  Overwhelmed by everything on your plate 
•  Like your body is asking for something different 
•  Tired of pushing through when it’s clearly not working 

This episode is your permission slip to slow down—and start paying attention to what your body has been trying to tell you.

🧠 Your Next Step (Start Gently)

👉 The Weight, Energy & Stress Reset Guide ($9.99)
A simple, supportive place to begin if you’re feeling overwhelmed—designed to help you stabilize your energy and reconnect with your body without pressure. Click Here to grab yours today.

🔬 When You’re Ready for More Clarity

👉 Adrenal Optimization Test (AOT)
If you feel wired, exhausted, or stuck in stress mode, this gives you insight into your cortisol rhythm and how your body is actually responding. Click Here to order yours.

👉 Mineral Analysis (HTMA)
A deeper look at how long-term stress is impacting your energy, resilience, and overall balance. Click Here to order yours.

🌿 Deeper Support

👉 Memory Momentum Method
Support your brain, clarity, and long-term cognitive health with a structured, root-cause approach. Click Here to learn more.

👉 The Anchored Journey (1:1 Care)
A personalized, lab-driven path to help you restore your metabolism, hormones, and brain—with guidance every step of the way. Click Here to learn more.

🛍️ Support Your Body

👉 Get Healthy Store (Practitioner-Grade Supplements)
Gentle, targeted support for your nervous system, energy, and overall health. Shop Here

📩 Stay Connected

👉 Dr. Kacey’s Corner (Weekly Newsletter)
Weekly insights, tools, and real talk to help you feel more grounded, clear, and supported. Click Here for your weekly dose.

You don’t have to push harder to feel better.
 Sometimes the shift begins when you finally pause.

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 Disclaimer: The content provided in The Anchored to Wellness Show is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, wellness warriors. Welcome to the Anchor to Wellness Show, your compass in the sea of holistic health. I'm Casey Wallace, and I'm your passionate advocate for vibrant well-being. And after witnessing countless patients caught in the cycle of sick care model, I became really disenchanted with the conventional healthcare system. It's a system where people aren't truly getting better, they're just simply managing symptoms. But I refuse to accept this as the norm, and I'm determined to shift the paradigm from sick care to well care. I have embarked on a journey into the realms of functional medicine and holistic health, and in each of these episodes, we will dive deep into the latest research, debunking myths, and unlocking the secrets to optimal wellness. From brain health to hormone balance, we'll cover it all with a blend of science, soul, and a dash of controversy. Together, we're making waves to reclaim control of our health destiny and anchor ourselves to wellness. So whether you're seeking clarity on brain fog or ready to reclaim your vitality, you're in the right place. So let's make waves and set sail towards a life anchored in wellness. Hey friends, I just wanted to come on here and do some real talk from the heart. I really recently had to step away. I know it's been a minute. I think my last episode was probably, you know, two or three months ago. And if I'm honest, that really wasn't planned. I do love doing the podcast, and I do love being on here and sharing all about my story and how I can help you more. But at the same time, I had to step away. I want to be really transparent and real with you today. I just want to open up about what my life's looked like lately. This episode is not going to be super polished or packed with a lot of research. It's just me sharing my life and also maybe giving you some permission to do the same thing I did, which was I had to step away for a little bit. I love this podcast. I love what I get to share on here, but sometimes life has other plans. And I just want to reinforce that this is part of my work and I want to live what I teach. So that is why I stepped away. This is why I do what I do though. I want people to understand how we can really reduce our risk of cognitive decline. For those of us that know we have risk, right? Like our family history is there. We know we have some genetic tendencies. Like for me, for instance, I know I have one copy of the ApoE4 gene. I have some suboptimal inflammatory genetics. That's all done through some DNA testing that I do, but I don't believe that that is my destiny. I believe that ultimately I can change the expression of my genes. There's so much research surrounding this, and that's what I'm working towards. So I want that for you too. We just have to put those things in place that can really start to shift our epigenetics. Now, I did not say that you can change your DNA. I said you can change the expression of that DNA. So that's where we need to back up and go, okay, what are the things that we can do? And for me, the last few months has been to just take a step back, let a few balls drop, take care of myself, take care of my family, and then kind of come back and re-evaluate, reevaluate my mission and keep going forward. So where am I at right now? I am kind of deep in the sandwich generation. I have my kids, I'm trying to support them. There's a lot going on in their lives, they're growing, growing adults, and they're doing great work, but they're they're busy. And then I'm also married and trying to keep everything going great with my marriage, which it is, it's thriving, but that takes work. And then there's running the business and trying to put the word out there of what we can do with cognitive decline. And now there's a lot happening with my mom, and so that's just been a lot to take in, considering that I have a lot of pressures from a lot of different areas. My mom does have cognitive decline, it is in our family. This is why I do my work that I do, this is why I'm passionate about it. She has been struggling quite a bit, and we've really been focusing on her care and trying to figure out how to best help her. So it's been kind of hard, and there's been a lot to navigate, there's been a lot to think about, there's been some extra stress associated with that. It does bring up a lot of grief and frustration, a lot of empathy and compassion and guilt. It just brings it all up about even what to do. So I want to just touch on this emotional toll a little bit because there have been a lot of moments of exhaustion, a lot of moments of feeling stretched thin, and just be to be really honest, trying to kind of work through this whole process of what do you do for the next steps. And it's really tough. I know a lot of us that have struggled with our loved ones that have declined. We're greeting someone that's still alive. My mom has been a huge driver of my passion. She has done my program, she has done the work in the past. Um, there are a lot of pieces to put in the puzzle, and we've tried to help her through that. But sometimes it just is too much, and sometimes it's too much for one person to have to try to implement. It is a lot to implement on a day in and day out basis, and she just got to the point that she just didn't really want to implement the program anymore. And we respected her wishes, we backed away, and and now we are where we are. So I just want to mention this. This is such a common practice, and it is feels almost like an invisible burden. So many people are feeling this burden, so many people are in this same situation. This is why I do the work that I do because we can prevent cognitive decline. There's so much research that shows this, and we have to start to shift the narrative of this. There's so many people out there doing the research of this, and so many of those like me that are implementing these practices to help modify these risk factors. And if I have one advice right now, start now. Wherever you're at, start now. We can reverse this, we can prevent it. It does get much harder the deeper you get into your cognitive decline and dementia. So we have to start shifting what is happening in the brain in our 30s and our 40s and for sure in our 50s. I want you to understand if we are implementing things to prevent cancer and prevent heart disease, then the same thing can be for the brain. We have to start to believe that there this narrative has to be shifted. That is one of my biggest journey goals is to show people that we can shift this. We don't have to stay stuck in this mindset that, oh, it's inevitable, it's just aging, it's just my genetics. That is not what the research shows, and that is why I'm so compassionate about this. I don't want to focus on what I don't want to be like. I hear that all the time. I don't want to be like this. I say that all the time. I don't want to be like that. I want to be able to enjoy my kids, my grandkids. I want to be able to go on hikes and be present emotionally, mentally, physically, all those things that we all say. We want to be independent throughout our life. I I want to live my life and then just one day fall asleep and not wake up. I don't want to end my life 20 to 30 years of just being sick and stuck in the healthcare system. But I want to hear what do you want your life to be like? I want my life to be vital to my mission. I want my life to be able to be compassionate for others. I want to be present for my family. I want to be able to walk and hike and be present for my grandkids. All those things that we think about that we do want. I want my brain to be sharp and alive and active. I want to be independent. I want to empower others to be the same way. So let's focus on what we want to be like: sharp, active, independent, our entire lives, not just sick the last 20 or 30 years. I want to be that badass grandma that can hike and swim and go anywhere my kids and grandkids want me to go. So let's talk about what happens when we do need to let some balls drop. A lot of us are carrying around a lot of balls, especially in my age range, our 40s and 50s, because a lot of us are in that sandwich generation. We've had to let some of the balls drop. I've had to do that. It was intentional. I don't want to have cognitive decline. So to keep pushing forward and keep just grinding every single day and not listening to my mind, body, and spirit, I had to step back. I that those things are huge when it comes to risk factors for our brain health. If we can feel our brain being foggy, we have to put some things into place right away to keep from losing that brain capacity and that brain reserve that we can keep moving forward. So things like recording our podcasts, uh, I had to, I just wasn't super consistent on social media and putting more messages out there and even like getting on my email, those all things had to, those are all things that had to wait. They're not things that are just necessary. I needed to be very intentional to preserve my nervous system. I was in a sympathetic overdrive. I knew I had to shift that. When hormones and cortisol are going crazy and out of control and all those things, that's very detrimental to the brain. So we had to implement some strategies to keep my nervous system balanced. I had to reframe this for me that this was not a failure. Letting a ball drop was not a failure. A lot of us that are super type A or OCD about things will see a ball drop and we think that's a failure, but it's not, right? It's not a failure. Me stepping back and taking care of my nervous system, that is success. That is where we want to be. Okay. So it's not because I don't care. I care more than probably I should. That's taken lightly, right? Sometimes we can care too much because we're not caring enough about ourselves. We have to be optimal in taking care of our own health and thinking through what do we want our life to look like. We don't want just longevity. I don't want to just live forever and be sick. I want to be vital. So, what is your longevity going to look like for you? So, I really want you to think about this is modeling healthy behavior. This is not dropping the ball. That's letting go isn't giving up. It's creating space to keep going. Not everything is urgent. I would consider your health to be one of the most urgent things you can work on. It is the most valuable asset that you have, is your brain health and your overall physical health of your mind, body, and spirit. You've got to normalize. It's okay to not be all things to all people all the time. We live in a society that is preaching that. And it is okay to not be all things to all people all the time. We don't have to answer every message when it comes in. We don't have to answer every email when it comes in. Turn off your notifications. Honestly, best thing I've ever done, turn off all my notifications on my phone. I answer my emails and messages on my own time when I'm ready to, instead of constantly having all those dings, dings, ding, ding, ding. That's a dopamine hit every time. We cannot afford to let those dings create deficiencies in our dopamine system. That's why we're all looking for quick fixes, whether it's you know, nicotine or alcohol or food or whatever, that's why we're looking for that. It's because all these dings are taking that away from us. So put a focus on your phone, allow certain messages to come through if you want, you know, from your kids or your, you know, your spouse or whatever. That's how I have mine, but nobody else's is coming through. Okay. I answer it when I answer it. And many times in situations like this, we can focus on one thing that will make the biggest impact to help us. What is one thing? You know, if you're not sleeping, let's figure out how to get you sleeping better. Let's figure out how to get more restorative movement in. Let's get out and get some sunshine. Whatever that looks like for you, it doesn't always have to be done perfectly, right? In fact, the more perfect we try to do things, the more we dysregulate our nervous system, which leads to further brain decline. Okay? So it's probably better to not try to be so perfect all the time. Figure out what it is for you. One thing that you can do, what is the one area with your nutrition or your activity or your stress or your sleep that you can put into place to help you don't have to do a hundred things perfectly. You can just pick one or two things to try to make yourself feel better. It literally could be ending your shower with 30 seconds of cool water so that you can start to replenish some of your parasympathetic system, increase some vagal tone. Okay. That makes a profound difference in some people. They can make huge strides in how they feel just by ending their shower. 30 seconds of cooler water. Crazy, right? Or something as simple as not drinking coffee first thing in the morning. Okay, I don't have a problem with coffee unless it's sugary and you know has 4,000 grams of carbs that we don't need, right? That's an exaggeration, but not really. But if you start your morning with coffee without food, you're setting off a whole spiral of events throughout the whole day. So another just really easy thing. Drink your coffee with your breakfast. Okay, that's a whole nother podcast. So I want you to think about setting some brain health boundaries. I want you to think about walking the walk that you're talking. That's what I'm trying to do. And I I talk about brain health and cognitive decline all the time, but I'm not immune to it, right? I have those inflammatory genetics. I've done my labs, I know what my DNA shows, I know what I'm up against if I don't regulate my stress. I have to have that awareness of my dementia risk. I'm not super fearful of it because I know things I can put into place to help prevent my cognitive decline. Again, so much research about this. We don't have to have cognitive decline. There's so much research about this. Okay. So I've been walking my talk, I've been working on my nervous system regulation, I've been setting boundaries, I've just been slowing down in general. So nervous system regulation for me is a non-negotiable. I am pretty type A for those of you that know me, and I will just keep going and keep grinding away. But I've used things like my heart rate variability, things like that to really show me days I need more rest. I need to really focus on my sleep. I need to say no to things that I don't really need to do. Okay. So things that I do to care for myself. I make sure every morning I get in my meditation time. If you're not meditating, please develop a practice to start meditating. Okay. We have to start some good deep breathing exercises. We need to learn to quiet our minds. Um, red light therapy is so effective for this. Um, even journaling, writing down three things you're grateful for. That sounds crazy, right? Oh, that can't possibly help because we've been trained to think we have to have a medication for something, but no, we can literally boost dopamine by writing down three things you're grateful for every day. Literally, research to show this, okay? So you can skip obligations, you can say no to people, okay? You don't have to say yes to everyone. You don't have to say yes to every message, every text, every email, every person that needs you. You don't have to, okay? What is the real work you should be doing? It's not always a supplement, it's not always a fancy protocol. Sometimes brain health is listening to your body, taking that nap, skipping that event, not a replying to that message, going out walking in the grass, you know, staring at the trees, watching the birds, whatever that looks like for you. It it literally does not have to be a whole protocol to do all the things, okay? So give yourself permission to say no. If you're pushing through every day, trying to do it all, treat try to give yourself permission to say no. It's okay. What can you say no to right now? Where can you give yourself permission to rest? Who can you ask for help? I know a lot of us in this in that in this age range, 40 to 50s, we're super independent, don't want anybody to help us. You can ask for help. You're not failing if you need to rest. You are preserving the very part of you that people need, your brain, your clarity, your peace. Okay. In order you for you to serve deeper in your mission and your purpose, you have to be okay. You can't just keep going. I see this every day, especially in women in their 40s and 50s. I see it in their labs. And when I go through labs with people and I show them how exhausted their system is, it's almost validating for them. And they feel a sense of relief and hope that they can make this better for themselves. If you're feeling overwhelmed, this is for you. What can you say no to that you've just been clinging to out of obligation? And where are you trying to keep everything going while your nervous system is waving that white flag? Okay, it might be a red flag. It's super big red flag for your brain health in general. So if you're in the sandwich generation, it's a hard season. Because here's what also is happening in this same period of time, whether you're a male or a female, we're experiencing significant hormone fluctuations. Everything from our testosterone to our estrogen to our progesterone, our cortisol, our insulin, all because of our what is happening in our hormones, we're really struggling on a lot of levels to be able to even take care of ourselves on a deeper level. So menopause, and that's also called andropause, but menopause, perimenopause, this is when this is also happening as well. So our resiliency really starts to drop. That is why people say in their 40s and 50s that their health went started to really go downhill. That's when the majority of people get put on medications. Guess what? You can do things to keep yourself from getting on these medications. I'm not completely anti-med, I need to say that. I do believe in medications as well, but there are things you can put into place to keep yourself from getting put on medications. I want to just say that taking your care of yourself is not selfish. It is almost more of a selfless act. I know that sounds very backwards to what we've been taught, but this is a level of self-preservation that most people aren't doing. Therefore, then you cannot serve in your role in life. You can't serve in your purpose if you are not taking care of yourself. So set those boundaries. Even if others don't understand and get mad at you. Set your boundaries. Okay. So why all why does all this matter? All this is connected to brain health and long-term cognition. I bel strongly believe that a lot of our nervous systems are going completely haywire, and we have to make sure that we are taking care of ourselves and our nervous system. Chronic stress and this martyrdom that we all are trying to live in is contributing to neuroinflammation and brain decline. So I'm not immune and I'm here doing this work too. Everything I do here is rooted in helping people preserve their cognition and stay sharp and independent as we age. You have to start now. I know it sounds like, oh my gosh, it's one more thing I have to do, but maybe you put something else on the back burner and start to take better care of yourself because it does matter how you respond to your day-to-day activities and your stress, all of those things. How we care for ourselves when life feels heavy is paramount. We have to take care of ourselves. So this season reminded me that living the mission is more important than just constantly talking about it. So I stepped back on that and put some powerful things in place for my own protocol. And my message is still the same. It just is out there in a little bit quieter voice, and I'm ready to keep going with this because I know how impactful this can be. I want to thank you for being here and showing up for my podcast and listening and subscribing. Share this with someone you think needs to hear it. Reach out, have them check our websites. We have lots of programs coming up in place. If you have any questions, just send us an email or you know, whatever. Just respond in some way. We will be back with more episodes and teaching and tools and research and strategies. But for today, I really want you to step back. I hope we gave you some peace and hope. And I just pray that you go forward and just keep going. Keep serving your mission, keep taking care of yourself so you can serve in your mission. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Anchor to Wellness Show. Together, let's anchor ourselves to a life of vibrant well being. Until next time, take care, stay curious, and embrace the journey to holistic vitality.