Rewriting Your Story: Heather Ann Ferri on Healing & Personal Evolution

Hey, one more thing before you go. Some journeys are planned. Some are accidental, some of the kind that change you forever.The American kitchen used to be a place of warmth, a place where stories simmered, where families gathered, where culture lived in the hands that cooked for us. But somewhere along the way, the kitchen changed, the food changed, the soil changed, and so did we.Today we're living in a world where the things we consume feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually are shaping us in ways that we don't always see until our bodies remember what our minds have forgotten. This is a story about trauma, culture, healing, and the quiet collapse happening inside the American home and the people brave enough to rebuild it.I'm going to have with one of those individuals today, so stay tuned. I'm your host, Michael Hurst. Welcome to one more thing before you go.Today I'm joined by someone whose work sits at the intersection of culture, trauma, storytelling, and spiritual healing. A place where personal history meets the modern American crisis.Heather Ann Ferri is a storyteller, a healer, a cultural critic, and a woman who has lived through and risen from the brain damage to generational trauma, childhood abuse, and the collapse of her own body.She blends science, spirituality, movement, breath work, and narrative to help people reconnect to themselves in a world that's become increasingly disconnected.Her work explores everything from the destruction of the American kitchen to the hidden cost of contamination, to the inheritance we carry in our bloodlines. And I'm really happy to say, Heather, welcome to the show.

Such a blessing to be here, Michael. Thanks for having me. And that's a wonderful introduction into this conversation.

Well, you. That's a lifetime of earning that. You earned it. Your journey's amazing, actually.

Thank you.

Well, you know, I think that your work kind of lives at the intersection of trauma and healing. We both know trauma and healing. I mentioned you earlier.I grew up in a very dysfunctional childhood myself, and that's why I became a cop when I was a cop. And then, of course, during my career as a cop, I saw a lot of trauma and I also saw a lot of healing. Where did that journey begin for you?

Well, you know, I was in my twenties in New York City, and I was trying to make that dream come true of being famous and being on stage. And through the activation of going on stage with tap legend Jimmy Slide in a jazz club, something, I think deeper awakened in me.It was like a soul activation.And spending some time with this, like, sort of divinely man just really set the imprint that I wouldn't know till, like, 30 years later, as you know, the journey. And really what it was is that it went back to that childhood story. You know, my parents were high school sweethearts. They married young.They both came from incredible amounts of ancestral traumas, I would say, you know, behind closed doors, they were battling a lot with themselves and then each other. And then as the child, as this pure hearted soul, very confused about those battles. You know, things took a real big turn in my kitchen.And the kitchen really represented a war zone for me. It was not a safe place.That's where I would see my mom sitting, eating chocolate cake after trying to pretty much attack me, choke me almost to death, screaming horrific things that I can't even imagine saying to anybody, even my worst enemy. And, you know, my father coming home depressed after being fired from the family business.The kitchen really held a lot of secrets and a lot of denial, a lot of shame and a lot of masks.And so it's interesting when I went into show business, you know, and the career I had, and then moving back to Pittsburgh in my 30s and saying, okay, I'm going to face why I ran away in the first place. And then that started to take me down that, you know, I call it the Yellow Brick Road.Dorothy and the wizard of Oz, because that was my first tap solo on stage at age 5, 5 or 6 years old. And tap shoes were my way out of Pittsburgh. It was my only voice.I wasn't allowed to talk in my household really at all, which would surprise me because on the outside, we. We looked like the all American perfect family, which I'm sure you can relate to in your business. And on the inside, that was not the case.And as a little girl, I was bullied so much by my mom and scared. And so I put on shows. You know, it was the only thing I could do. And luckily I had skill sets and that allowed me to get jobs in my twenties.But as I was getting job after job, I was getting deeply depressed. You know, this isn't uncommon. We hear about it today. It's the Epstein files. Everything that's coming out about Hollywood and the music industry.And for me, I'm really proud of the choices I made because they were my choices that were not taught to me by my parents or my environment. There was something deeper in. When I started meditating in my late 20s, there was something sacred, the divine mother inside of me.And I kept making choices that were outside the box, that didn't fit into certain tribes.But it's led me down this different path of healing ancestral Bloodline lineage traumas and coming full circle to actually have the confidence to speak and also write my music and sing today. Michael. So this gives you little bits of Cliff Notes.

Cliff Notes are great, especially when it comes to that type of an atmosphere. And I think that.Do you think that was the moment that kind of changed everything that shifted for you at that point where it changed the new direction of your life? I think those of us that grew up in any kind of a trauma, especially that kind of environment, very well familiar with it with regard to most.My parents were alcoholics.And, you know, watch them trying to basically kill each other, you know, or trying to kill each other, and that's something that resonates with us for the rest of our lives. When you grow up with a child, I think it affects internally as well as externally.And sometimes we don't always recognize it, and I know that sometimes it comes from intergenerational trauma, which we'll talk about here in a little bit, but. Yeah. Was that the moment that changed? Take us to the moment that changed everything. How did you kind of evolve from that? Recognize it?

I don't think I recognized it till I was losing my ability to walk. So I think it was when my late 30s when I started to do energy healing work on myself, and I was already doing a lot of meditation.I was a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher. And it was really those beginning tools of meditating, breath work, energy work, that started to wake up the frozenness.I was pretty frozen, you know, I was pretty much like, what that person that, you know, you thought I was the happiest person in the world on stage and off stage, but no one really knew me. I didn't let anybody really know me.When my body started to fall apart and I started to lose, literally my ability to use my legs, well, that forces you to have to go within that forces. You have to face reality. And the reality was, is that my family wasn't what I had made up in my head, the fantasy.And I had to deal with the consequences of all the psychological abuse, let alone the physical abuse. So I would say that was the pivotal moment for me.

That was a pivotal moment, and I can relate to that. I understand that. You know, I think that what you.A lot of entertainers, there are secrets behind the smile, secrets behind the laughter, secrets behind everything that. That they portray because they've grown up in environments that. That weren't like the perfect, you know, the.The Brady Bunch or the Part Family or the, you know, Father Knows Best type of an atmosphere. And I think that the reality of that, it takes a long time, 30, 40 years for that to catch up to me.It took me, I'm going to give away, in part of my age, 50 years, 40 years, 45, 45, 50 years before I finally kind of started recognizing that a lot of what I was experiencing as well was intergenerational trauma. And that a lot of this stuff that I was pushing down that I shouldn't have, that I should have had an outlet for, a different outlet for than. Than.So, yeah, that's. That's. We'll get more into that here in just a little bit.I think I would like to touch on a couple things and reading your bios and the stuff that I've learned about you, you live through brain damage. And please help me with this. What is cptsd?

Yeah, ptsd, which is really common with war veterans. You know, post traumatic disorder. CPTSD is just that it's chronic because I didn't go to work and leave it.I was living in a house for 18 years, both from age 8, when my mom switched to 16. So eight years of living with a psychopath energy.

Got it.

So it's chronic buildup.And when I worked in the trauma field, my private coaching, that's a big marker if you have one incident easier to heal when you're living it chronically. It takes time to heal. And then obviously, brain damage is how I define it for myself. I can say I had ocd. I can say I had adhd.And of course, I had not only childhood trauma, but I would then learn once my father passes in February 2022, really, the generational trauma. And, you know, that means, you know, when I was. Gosh, how do. I mean, I'm 38 years old and I can barely write a paragraph.I can barely read a paragraph. I mean, that's what brain damage is. I'm thinking I'm dumb.I'm thinking I'm not academically smart, Even though I was really creative and very skillful in dance and music. And I started writing shows at the end of my career before I moved back to Pittsburgh. But as I started to.As I say, God came in and started to give me tools. And as I started to get clients in trauma, which I never planned on being a trauma healer coach, never in my mind would. I thought that would be it.But that was partly my journey of being the enlightened scientist, the creative scientist that could not have the ego involved but say, okay, this is working. This isn't Working. Okay, I have to move here. I got to put this in. It's like making a really good soup, you know, and you're in.And it's a meditative dance. Well, I had to take all of these ancient sciences, start to unravel, pull out the trauma. And so specifically, I think you'll find this interesting.The brain protocols that I work with do have PubMed research, but they're not being used much in the United States.And so I hope being on this channel today and being a voice, now that I've been in a practice for so long, I can teach organizations or employees or get it out there to leaders, because there is benefits to the brain work that's different than just tapping or even things like EFT or emdr.Not that those aren't amazing techniques, but there's something more advanced, a human intelligence that I would like to see more of, specifically in. In the health care and the mental health care of the United States.Not only can we become smarter, but we have a computer chip here that has so many possibilities. And I would like to see us invest more in that advancement, not just the advancement of technology.And when we talk about the roots of the kitchen and losing the kitchen, losing what it meant, our food and our water, our soil, all these played a part in my healing process. So it's interesting journey, Michael, because, you know, I go through 18 years of severe, you know, childhood abuse.I go into show business for a good 12 to 13 years. I move back home, and then I go into the healing arts for a good, you know, 18 years. And now I'm 53 years old.And now I'm putting the whole pot together. I'm getting back on stages. I'm used writing music and putting it all together, but I'm putting it together through experience,.

Which is, I think, a positive thing, because sometimes, you know, you can learn things in a book, but you can learn things more in depth and more recognizable when you do it in person and when you experience it. I think the better way to learn it anyway. And I honestly, the health industry in this country is, you know, it is. That's a whole other show, Heather.

I know that's a whole other show. You can't even find a word for it. You know, it's an interesting game. I feel like there's a game going on, and it's not for the people.

No. And perpetually, the health industry is perpetually building upon itself. And as, again, it's a whole different show.So we won't delve too far into that, because that'd be a rabbit hole we may not get. Come out for about three hours.

Yeah, yeah, I'll come back.

But, yeah, you know, it perpetuates itself and. And, you know, it complicates itself. It did the same thing with me.I was told by five doctors I'd be in a wheelchair for most of my life and just sit there and take these nine different medications and sit down and do this and keep coming back and seeing me. And, you know, I chose to make a difference within that, and I chose that. And, you know, they were astounded, going, well, you can't do that.Well, I did.So just like you, you took an opportunity to recognize the environmental as well as the emotional impacts in the psychological and the mental health impacts throughout your experiences in your life were perpetuated by outside influence as well as internal influences. But you understood how to separate those, but fix them in such a way that you understood how to connect them and manage them, which is a good thing.I think it's a good thing.

Yeah.I mean, something you bring up, I don't mention often, but I was over medicated, obviously, from sinus and throat infections, ear infections from age 9 to 16. Didn't talk to the doctors. You know, but when I look at those pictures, some of them are on my website.You know, I'm like, how did they not see that there was something wrong? You know, you don't want to blame, but you're kindly kind of the nut. And so it's interesting because in my early 20s, my blood work was horrific.I had a genetic red blood cell disorder. And all I kept getting was, there's nothing we can do. There's nothing we can do. Which is a mantra in itself.So it's really awesome at this moment because I've reversed that. And it's just so funny because there are family members in denial of that. They still don't understand. And it's like, well, I've healed from.From not just my blood, my bones, you know, my bone structure has changed from shaking out involuntarily. These traumas, these fears, these attacks, you know, because ancestrally, there's a lot more to it than just this life.But, yeah, and also, I give myself a lot of credit now. I mean, it's the road less traveled. You know, people can say, oh, she looks healthy and happy, and I am, but, you know, at what cost? I had to.I had to leave a lot of people. I. I had to be alone. I had to cry in a corner and I had to write and journal and nobody was coming to save the day but me.I had to decide my worth no matter what. And that does come from my ancestral lineage. I come from some warriors that you would know and respect at least.I feel like they're in my bloodline, you know, and these are warriors that had to leave their bloodline and step outside the box and go outside the psychology of slavery. And I'm not going to stand for this, you know, and that's for me, you know, I was written off of. This is, you know, it's so.It's just a strange thing for me right now because I am feel like I'm such a good person. But the truth is, is so many people in my family, like just sort of disregarded like and supported the, the, the psychopath.But we see that on stages left and right rally in America. So there's a programming of what? Why are we supporting the, the loudest voice? Why don't we support the most honest, authentic, sincere voice?

I agree with that. That's, that's profound. Actually. When you go back to that, you were talking about your body and your bones feel it in the, the warrior inside you.So you said symptoms aren't just symptoms, they're stories. Like what, what stories? What stories that your body tells you. But sometimes we don't know how to listen to those stories.Did you learn how to listen to those stories and that's kind of give you your first step into healing?

Yeah, that's a great, great segue. So when I was working with clients, you know, I'm teaching them meditation.They're crying, they're getting on a better water, they're doing certain stretches and movement where they start to involuntary shake. They start to have dreams. They're coming back saying, you know, I have this dream, reoccurring dream of a holocaust or a reoccurring dream of a war.And I don't know if it's me in a past life or I don't know if it's my ancestors. And the truth is, is either way, it's inside of you and it's program running that we want to heal.And when I started to see this over and over again, like it was through the brain work, it was just natural. It fascinated me.It's almost like, you know, in the theater arts when you're playing a character, but you're like, this is a character from another life. Is this your grandma? Your great grandmother? Is this your past life?You know, and for me, I never wanted to define that for somebody else, I want them to be independent thinkers. So I was never that type of teacher. That's like, I am going to tell you what you were and this and that. No, I'm going to give you the toolkit.I'm going to guide you. I'm going to fall. I'm going to validate you. I have a lot of psychic abilities that I wasn't really aware of.But for me, when my father passed away in 2022, I had what America would say is a nervous breakdown. But I would say as a spiritual awakening. That's when just everything crumbled from my family to my identity. And it was like I could hear him.I could hear side electricity was going on and off. It was like, I'm going to wake you up. I'm going to make sure, you know, I'm here. Even though, you know, we have issues to work out.Me and my father had a lot of issues to work out because I felt like he abandoned me throughout my life and supported what I would call the psychopath and taught the family system in some ways. And so through that journey, that's really why I wrote this, this new book, Transcending Victim to Goddess, with my father on the other side.It's the first part of a series. I really wanted to write part two. And he was like, no, you got to go back to the beginning.We got to rewrite this as a tool so that when people see all the advancement you have of past lives and how your ancestors are coming up and who you are as a psychic medium, they know it didn't happen in a day. You know, there's. There's roots to this. And so we wrote this first book together. But when I started shaking out more trauma, I was getting rashes.I was getting visuals of my ancestors. I was kind of shocked and kind of not, you know, when I was in the tap dancing career, a lot of people compared me to black men.Like, and it was just such a compliment because the best tap dancers, you know, Jimmy Slide, Gregory Hines, they were all black men. They were. That's. They were phenomenal, and they were great human beings.But it was confusing to me, you know, in my late 20s, my identity, because I wasn't a black man, but I was in a past life, you know. And then I did. I finally realized my. My grandmother, we didn't know her mother and father. She was raised by her sister. She had darker skin.And then I started, you know, having these memories. I had these, you know, things of Harriet Tubman coming Through and then my dad as John Horse coming through.And, you know, at first I was really insecure about, like, people are going to think I'm crazy. But I have to say, in the last couple months, I think because it's just so strong, like, it's almost like I don't need anybody's validation.I know what I know. And because I've healed so many things that are so painful that, I mean, when we talk about brain damage, I have to drink a better water.That's, you know, it's not like selling something because my head's swelling. I'm trying to release all of this slavery. Feeling the chains in my throat, my wrists. I mean, this was real.And I started to experience what these women were going through in the. In the cotton and sugar plantations. And then the whole sugar thing. My mom was a sugar addict. I'm a sugar addict. The kitchen.The kitchen stories of all these women, it all ancestral. Started to come down into all the toolkits. And, you know, some people don't want to go there, and that's fine.But for me, as much as it was, and I know you can relate to this because afraid of the pain. If we can get through it. I was just a warrior getting through so much pain.But now on the other side, the wisdom, the integrity, the who I am, even my creative projects are so authentic that even if someone wants to steal something, because everybody's always wanting to, in my past, steal things, they can never steal the whole blueprint. They'll never get there as much as they want. They can keep trying over and over again, and it's sad that they would want to do that.I've always been a collaborator like. Like the tap dancing group, like those black men, they were collaborators. They were actual real heart tribe. They weren't fake.They didn't backstab each other. They were always for each other. They were like a family. And when you were invited into that family, they treated you as one.Not because of your skin color, but because your energy. And honestly, all these years later, I've grown out of different tribes with narcissists and male. No offense, but male egos and this and that.I appreciate now so much more. That tribe in my 20s, you know, and I. They're on the other side now. And all I can say every day is, thank you, Jimmy Slide. Thank you, Gregory Hines.They come through my work because they imprinted something in me that when you meet genuine, authentic people, for your best interest, this is what we have to get back to you Know in America why we do what we do for the best interest of not just I make money, but that we're doing something that helps serve our community.

Which is a great thing. Which is a great thing. And I tell you what, some of my favorite all time heroes are. Gene Kelly, Gregory Hines, Mikal Baryshnikov, all tap dancing.Donald o', Connor, the list goes on. Are my favorite movies, my favorite thing. Two black brothers. I can't remember the name off top of my head.

Nicholson brothers.

Yes. That were like absolutely phenomenal. And each movement going up the stairs, back down the stairs was like on mark. It's just amazing. So.

Yes, yes. Oh, yeah.

You carry that within you and you brought it forward from you and you found that within yourself. You know, that in itself is like profound. It's amazing because again, that that form of entertainment I think speaks to us.If you really pay attention. Yeah, you gotta really pay attention. Which is. Yeah, that, that. We'll save that for a different conversation.Yeah, you can come back and we'll talk about that show business.

I would love that.

What surprised you about. About yourself when you began to reclaim your body and your work and understanding? I, I was introduced. My brain's going 100 miles a minute.I was introduced to intergenerational trauma a number of years ago and I had never been familiar with that before. And I started understanding what it was.And then the more I got involved with understanding intergenerational trauma and how it carries forward and how it's a perpetual loop until you decide to break that loop, you have to put a stop to it.Not you directly, but you, as we're speaking as an individual, you individually have to recognize it and then have to understand that you have the power to change that from continuing down the line kind of situation. So that's a long way of getting around.What surprised you about yourself and as you began to reclaim your body and understanding your voice based out of that intergenerational trauma?

I think so, yeah. Well, I. What I want to share with that is when my father passed away and he was like, you have to go deeper into this toolkit.We've got to throw away a few tools. We got to add a few tools. Like, he was literally directing me.He would literally turn on the computer, Michael, and he would put up something and he's like, you have to go to her. So I would go to this practitioner in a building that nobody really was in, but it was the building that my mother went to elementary school in.No joke. I mean, it Was that so many connections is I had so much fear in my body and so much fear in my soul database from all these women.And my father really knew that and I needed to get it out. I had a very deep connection to Mother Mary. I had a very deep connection to the Divine Mother.I would ask them questions before I would navigate in doing something in my business. And I want to share this because a lot of this is not spoken online about.So this is going to be something that's probably different for the audience, but I think is important because it's. My truth is I was led into some war zones. I was, it was, it was a contract, it was a sole agreement that I made before I came here.So I was led into some tribes that were the slave owners from past lives. And I was seeing repeated psychology and behavioral patterns.And the only thing I can say is when we have a failed mental health system, which we do, and we had a system up until recently that really supported predators for a long time in the psychology world, then we're going to have them sort of be able to still mask it up. But now the masks are coming off. They're really being stripped away right now and people are really being required to go within.Why would my father or the Divine Mother set me up to go into these challenging places where I am this pure hearted soul and eventually being taken advantage of and being psychically attacked? It was to learn a skill set and I had to learn it. It was not easy and it was not fun.And so instead of me saying, oh, I attracted that in or oh, you know, I'm repeating a pattern. No, I actually wasn't because I had meditated before going into this sort of job, you know, tribe or this sort of position.And at first when I would come across the narcissisms and all that, I'd be like upset with the Divine Mother, like, why are you doing this? And then I was like, you're being trained. And I think, actually I've never voiced this until now. I think the, this is going to make sense.You being in your background as a cop.I had to be trained so that when I get to the next level in my career that I know I can feel it and I'm not afraid of it, but I can walk away quickly and go, no. Does that make sense?

Absolutely makes sense. It's a. Basically it's a, it's a.Your mind, your body and your soul automatically react the way you want it to and it automatically takes the step it needs to take in Order to protect you. So, yes, I think that. Absolutely understand it from that point.

So before that, before rewiring the trauma out, like some of this shaking and that then your instincts can be questionable. They didn't want it to be questionable moving forward and they wanted me to clear it out so that I can change the legacy of me moving forward.

That makes sense. Yeah. Don't hesitate. I mean, the cops do that. They do that now.That's why you will see cops when you, you could know it's a cop when you watch him walking, him or her walk into a restaurant. They go to the back of the restaurant, they go to their back to the wall, and then they start watching everybody that comes in.Because you play a game all the time. What if, what if, what if, what if, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? So that you're constantly ready.And that's kind of, I think they gave you the what if this happens? What am I going to do? So that it's already in your brain. You don't have to question it. It's an automatic reaction which I think is like, yeah.

And so that's so wonderful. Like, so all that bullying, I had to clear it out. I had to clear out all that to really.And so I want to share that because sometimes I think for victims, they may blame themselves a lot. Don't blame yourself. Learn. Get the toolkit to clear out whatever you need to clear out to get to the next stage.Because if you look online, we've got a lot of narcissists and psychopaths like, sort of like crumbling. So it's not your fault. You know what I mean?It's just we're in a new time period where we're trying to clean out all this darkness so we can get more light on the stages, more authenticness on the stages.

So yeah, yeah, it works. It works, it works. It's a method. It's a method. Your storytelling blends pop culture and personal history and spiritual insight.From a performing arts background. How did that shape your healing path?Because I mentioned you earlier before we started that, you know, when I went back to university, I got really involved in the use of creative arts and healing. And I have a really deep understanding with regard to how music and dance and drama and art can actually help us to heal.

Yeah. You know, it's so funny. When I left show business and came back to Pittsburgh, I was asked to do a one woman show at Civic Light Opera.And then I was doing shows around the city for Schools. But I wanted nothing to do with show business. I wanted nothing to do with stage. I was like, I'm done. I'm done.And I think it was because the masks were on. And then I went through this whole journey, the Dorothy, you know, this whole journey.You know, I talk about the Scarecrow being, you know, getting my mind back, empowering myself.I talk about the Tin man finding my heart, healing my heart, the lion finding my protective skill sets, the martial arts in me, you know, and now I think that's what my father wanted, too. He wanted me to go back into the fun, into the creativity, and say, okay, you've learned all this stuff about trauma. You know it inside and out.How can we use music? And so I started writing songs. I started downloading them, just like I would tap rhythms. And it became easy. I mean, it takes practice.But so I'm going to be producing songs this year, and they're about my ancestors and. And, you know, it's time. It's time to use that channel. I'm excited to write another one woman show, you know, and.And step back on stage with some humor as well as some stories that are challenging and stuff like that. So now it's funny because now I'm ready for the stage again.

And I think you'll be able to tell those stories more authentically, I think, with the understanding that you have now.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I think that works. You often critique modern American culture from sugar addiction. Glycos.

Let me try Glyphosate.

English.

Glyphosate.

Let's try that in English. Yes. To emotional numbness. What do you think we're missing about the connection between what we consume and who we become?Because I think I have a deep understanding with this because I changed my diet dramatically to heal my autoimmune disease. Manage it. I haven't quite healed. It doesn't ever go away. Go away. But I do manage it with my diet and what I eat and the stuff that I put.Put in my body and, you know, you would never know I was 90, right.

I love it. You look fabulous for 90.

We're fabulous. Billy Crystal. I can't say it like Billy Crystal, but, yeah, from that perspective, let's talk about.

So, yeah, I mean, food was sort of used as a tool to numb for me for so long.And I'm writing some stuff on the kitchen in my sugar addiction and just sort of trying to help people interrelate to the roles we play in the kitchen, you know, and what's going on in the kitchen. But over the years, it was like in the last, probably 10 years of starting to learn.You know, I hate to say these words, detox, fasting, but they give you the terminology. We've got sugar in so many products at the grocery store, cane sugar.And a lot of people think it's a gluten free issue when it's really the glyphosate issue, which is now coming full front with forever chemicals in our water. And forever chemicals isn't one chemical. That label's looped into 12,000 chemicals.So doing the trauma coaching, I got people on a clean water and then a medical grade water is this Japanese medical device that's been used in their hospitals for over 63 years. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm sitting across from doctors, scientists, chemists, and they know nothing about this.They know nothing about 2.7 electrolytes, reduced water kills aids, E. Coli, SARS within 7 minutes. So I started to use waters to heal infections that come up to clear out and then started doing water fastings.The issue that I have with people is, you know, do you really know what's in your water right now? Do you know what's in your tea? Do you know what's, how you're cleaning your food?And it seems like the more stuff we have in America, the more distractions. It's like we almost have to go back to the basics.And that's really hard because somebody's making a lot of money off of plastic things, plastic bottles, plastic everything.And so for me, when you start to detox anything like sugar or carbs, and you get on certain protocols and sometimes you do need a coach for that, you're gonna experience emotions like sugar. Getting off of sugar was like getting off of cocaine. For me. It was like shaking fevers. It was hardcore. And I can say now I don't crave it at all.Like, I don't feel like, oh, I'm deprived because I actually really enjoy feeling so healthy and younger. And my body's actually more flexible than it was when I was a dancer. I'm not in pain. So I know that my formulas are working, but it took time.You know, you tweak them, you go, okay, this doesn't work. So I think for, I don't know what's going to take. For America, wake up. Because there's a, a laziness that can happen.It's like sometimes you actually have to hit rock bottom or you have to have a disaster happen. And that's what pushes you to Go. No way, man. Like, with the last, you know, tribe that I was sort of attacking me, I was like, no way.I'm done with this. And that's when you step into some more power. You step into more of who you are, and you're working with something higher. So, you know. But. Yeah.So I don't know if I went off track there a little.

Absolutely. I mean, there's an epidemic in America, and I've talked about it on this podcast before on this program.You know, there's an epidemic of sugar in this world, basically, but primarily in the United States. I'm going through chef training at the moment, and most of it is Italian and French. In Spanish from Spain. These are the lessons.And the Italian chefs, and they are French chefs, and there's chefs from Spain. The interesting thing about them is this. When you go through one of the classes, they talk about a pinch of sugar like this. See?A little bit of sugar. This right here. Put this in here.And then you take that to an American class that I took in regard to making something as simple as healthy vegan burgers. Okay.

Okay.

And he dumps the salt and the sugar in there. By the. By the almost cupful. It is. The comparison is a pinch to a quarter or a half a cup. And you understand that really disparity in all of that.I was grateful to grow up in an environment a little off track, but it's along the same lines. My parents, especially my mother, so my mother's from Mississippi. Her parents were from Mississippi, West Virginia.You know, that arena from my mother's side.And the food, for example, and my grandmother on my grandmother's side, my aunts, my uncles, and everybody from that side of the family, okay, would eat Southern cooking, and it would be pork chops, fried, and lard and mashed potato. It's. It's. Yeah, you see, you can see my face going. You know, they put mashed potatoes, and then they put gravy and butter on top of that.

Yeah.

You know, kind of a thing. You know, the other thing they're missing is the cigarette hanging out with the ash.

Right. I totally get it.

But, yeah, it's interesting because When I was 11 years old, my sister married a guy from Rome. And I'm talking about true Roman, and he spoke hardly any English. She had friends over, and there was. We all lived in the same apartment complex.There were four buildings. We filled the buildings. He filled the buildings. And I grew up, and I embraced that Mediterranean Italian culture and how they eat.And I walked away from my mother's. Upset my mother. But you know, I would be eating my sisters in Giovanni's house and Susan Russo's house and you know, you name it, it was there.My first job was in a two guys from Italy pizzeria. They actually were two guys from Italy, you know, kind of a thing. So. And then we'd all eat afterwards.I learned the value of good food and the value of cooking and how you put love and care into to it. You can't see my hands moving as I'm preparing our make believe dinner here.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And the necessity to not over salt over sugar. You know, minute you don't drown pasta in sauce if you want to Margot sauce.It's nice and it's light and it, you know, a little bit and you blend all these flavors together. And I started, I grew up from 11 years old on and I've never stopped. And I don't, I hate, I hate anything that's over over sweet.I don't do over sweet. I don't do over salted. I don't do over seasoned. On and on and on. And you. The health difference and the benefits of that are immense.But you don't see it in the United States.

I think that my dad set up this today because he grew up. We grew up with an Italian restaurant in the family. There was a lot of wars on that side of the family family. But I totally.And they were originally from Italy. And I totally get what you're saying. I think it's the loss of the land.I mean one thing that goes into a little bit of the different direction but ancestrally is. So I was born in the state of Pa, Pennsylvania. And so I always say there's a mourn, even if you don't know it.And throughout learning about water and learning about like the corruption of water. Water. Why do we have all these filtration systems and none of them are certified to take out forever chemicals? How can we let that happen?Why are we, why is, why is this not being tested locally? Well, I started to learn and I'm working on a TED talk for this. So I'm putting it out there.People, anybody in a state that wants to hire me, do a TED Talk. It's going to be one of a kind, but it's on. The state of Pa had healing waters. They had healing waters in the 1700s.And really they're called Frankfurt mineral springs, which is an interesting word because it's like the Germans came over, killed the native Americans, stole The water. And I'm literally showing you, you can't find this. It's not very common. But I'm not making this up. It's actually documented. So I have documents.And I'm like a little bit of the mod. Aaron. Barack, obviously.You know, I went into the local police station office in the park and said, hey, is there any literature here about this land? That's, you know, and they're like, oh, actually, I think we have something in the back.So I had to go in the back room to grab this documentation right here. So I started to investigate because, you know, this is healing your inside ancestral roots. You know, why. Why am I in this city? Where's the.What's this connection to America? And my interpretation, nobody has to agree with it, but nobody's talking about it either, is that not only did.Well, they stole the water, they built a huge resort where everybody around the world who was elite and rich would come to stay at and dance and jazz music and they would drink the healing water out of glass containers. All documented. And this began the medical journaling in government.And to me, when I go through some of these names historically, because this is connecting into the Civil War, you know, this is connecting into the different characters I know from my family. This is the beginning of how they commercialized water, which is now In America alone, 50, 50 billion plastic water bottles sold a year.We know plastic's now going into our bloodstream. We know it's affecting the soil, that we should be nurturing our soil to have nutrients for the fruits and the vegetables and making our food.And so I just did a post on this recently, Michael, just a couple days ago in the Pittsburgh paper, they've noted 5 million people having forever chemicals from Pittsburgh to Ohio to West Virginia. And guess what they want to do? They just want to do some research at the university. They're going to give a $5 million grant.And my thing is, I've been 10 years. I've been lecturing for water for years. I've been using two different companies.And my thing is, why not use that 5 million and buy some of these water systems that I work with and heal people and then like, duplicate that? Can we duplicate healing? And can we get out what we know already are products that have forever chemicals?Why are you having them in your universities to begin with? You're so smart. Like, it's just so. It's so in our face now.But because I've done so much research, it's not just like, oh, I drink this water I'm going to sell you a water system. It's not just that it's like we shouldn't be, we shouldn't have to do this to begin with, but we have to. It's the reality of it.It's just like you said with America. I can't go to the grocery store and purchase a lot of stuff there. It's toxic, it's in plastic container. It's dead.

Yeah, don't come to. If you ever come to Arizona, don't drink the water, don't. I gotta stay here. Because if you. Well, you wouldn't be because you understand it, but.But astounded by what's in that water and the limits that are allowing in the water that are just above the federal level allowed, they're just above that. I mean like within a very, very minimal percentile. And it's like, don't.And you should see the rate of cancer down here, the rate of brain tumors down here, the rate of stomach cancers, colon cancers. It is just. It blows me away. And so, yeah, I can agree with that.

I have a large. That's the mothers in America right now. And I don't think they're getting paid enough, to be honest with you.I don't think they're doing the underground zoom talks because you know, you can only say certain things online. Politically, they're taking down this, they're taking down that.But it's like these mothers are the ones that are really educating on proper filtration. The one company I want to sound salesy, but the one company I work for is in Vegas. It's multi pure.They're cost effective, but they have all their certifications. They're not online every five minutes though, because they're not backed by big corporations. Nobody knows them and nobody knows how to shop for them.And then the Japanese medical device, that's a whole other system that is sad to me that our medical system, especially even in wound care, because I know your profession, even in wound care, what you can do with some of these waters. It's just mind blowing. And so it's hard to take the system seriously when you know all this stuff. You know what I mean? But it's really the mothers.And so I send that message out there today. If there's anybody listening interested in the water systems, contact me. Michael has the information.I give out a 5% discount code for the clean filter company. And that sort of allows you. That company does free every month.Every month you can jump on with a water specialist and learn about what's happening in America? Oh, this is what I wanted to say.What I wanted to say was these mothers, when they're working with kids or clients that have sick kids, sometimes, you know, money is tight, you know, because they're trying to get the supplements, they're trying to get other things they will spend. Because you have to actually spend 800 to $1,000 to test your water properly, to get everything that's in your water. You don't get it from the main.And you would be shocked at the illegal counts of arsenic.

Oh, I wouldn't be shocked. I told you. Phoenix, Arizona, arsenic is like 2 millimeters above what it's supposed to be.I mean, when I say millimeters, it's not in millimeters, but you know what I'm saying? It's like that close to being just at that level. If somebody would cough, it would drop right down below the danger.And it's like, well, this close is just as dangerous as being underneath that line. So, yeah. And look, I'm grateful we grew up in a place in Colorado. Kids grew up in this place before we moved here. I told you, we lived up at 8,500ft.The water in Colorado was so much better, especially coming from up in the mountains like that. It's filtered better. It was. It tastes better, is more healthy for you. You can taste the difference. We go back home, we have water from back home.You come back down here, you would. Well, I would spit it out anyway.But, you know, you take that water, you take that water, you take a sip down here, and you kind of go, what the heck That I just put in my mouth. So. Yes. Yeah, I definitely understand that. Absolutely.

Yeah. So that's one of, like, one of many missions I have, is water education.Trying to get plumbers on board, too, as teams, because they're educated in the other aspect of it. How do you. Kitchen. How do you gather? You know?

Yep, yep, I agree with that. Speaking of things like that, you created a medical meditation program that is very different from the mainstream practices.What makes your approach kind of unique and help us understand what it is?

So the medical meditations, there are different programs for these labels. Adhd, childhood trauma. I cannot say I completely created them on my own.There was a psychiatrist who did a lot of the clinical research in California, and I'm sort of taking that to the next level of these medical meditations. I think what makes them different is that you're like. You're doing different finger placements, kind of like learning the piano.You're Doing different breath patterns. You're doing different sounds at times, kind of like singing. So you are the instrument in rewiring, releasing and knowing thyself.Not just all the sort of trial this life, but maybe ancestrally. So I just find them to be honestly magical. I've had clients all over the world who have done pretty much everything under the sun.I tend to be that type of person that has gotten clients in the past that have hit that rock bottom, you know, in different circumstances. But what I love about it is it's like you are the. You're the tool.It's not like I'm just putting my hands on you and doing energy work, which I can do. But then you go home and if you haven't built a skill set for yourself, what are you going to do if another narcissist comes at your door?Or how are you going to make choices for yourself? But when you sit and you're learning these meditations, it's teaching you skill sets.So people advance in creativity, intuition, and just like you, they're learning new stuff. They change careers, they develop their relationships, become more intimate.I love doing some of the breathwork couples so that they can build more intimacy together, build more happiness together. So it's things like that, it's the interaction, interconnection. They're not.It's not transcendental, where you're just sitting and you're trying to clear the mind. This is actual sort of computery rewiring advancement to then eventually get to transcendental, where you're very clear and blissful and at peace.So I hope that makes a little bit of sense.

It does make a lot of sense, actually. I think that we all have to kind of. I mean, I call it redefining our purpose, redefining our direction in life.You know, sometimes we have to readjust whole aspects of our lives when we take a different path and it's like we learn something.

Actually, one thing, not to interrupt you, but on my YouTube channel, Heather and Fairy, there's two free playlists. They're absolutely free. They're like a college course. One is Breathwork for leadership, mastering your nervous system. It's nine videos.And it's not just learning breath work, like one nostril breathing and fire breath. I talk about the psychology you want to pay attention to.So you're going to get a little notebook and pretend like it's a class, like it's a course college. And then the second breath work series is Breathwork. It's for trauma, stress, Emotional pain.And that's to prepare you if you're interested in doing the more advanced brain work with me.And I wanted to give that out so people could start to understand what this feels like and start to become the student and understand that what's interesting about brain minutes a day sort of reboots you into the present moment, helps you release. Okay, I'm thinking about this too much. I need to let it go.

Well, I think that we sometimes don't understand.There are those of us that do, obviously, but in general, we don't understand that breath and simple things like breathing, simple things like water, simple things like hydration, proper hydration with the proper water, how all of the sugar sold, other things that we put into our bodies have a negative effect, have a positive effect, have a negative effect. And sometimes when the negative outweighs the positive, you have to make adjustments.And that includes the way you breathe, the way you sleep, the way you eat, how you think in your approach to different things. So I think that. That I think gives us an opportunity to explore those playlists in order to kind of have a better understanding together.

Yeah, beautifully said.

You said that creativity is an essential catalyst for rediscovering our inner child's voice. Why is creativity so central to healing like that? As you probably can tell, I love creativity.

Well, it's the first thing that I find that's blocked with people when they start to release traumas, you know, because there was something inside that little child, boy or girl, that felt shamed or fear or bullied or shut down. And so once they start to release and they start to show it, you know, I channel Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers neighborhood.So he came in after my father died too, and he helped me through a lot, a lot of deep childhood stuff, because I was bullied a lot. I was bullied a lot in a lot of different circumstances because I was so pure hearted. And a lot of people don't realize Mr. Rogers kind of protect.He believed in the creative geniuses of children. Of course, that's in adults, but then adults sometimes mask it up. They become programmed in a certain way. They become bitter.And so it's really beautiful to watch people unravel. And creativity, like you said, it can be in the kitchen, it can be sewing, it can be painting. It can even be, like, different.I grew up in construction too, just approaching it differently from a more holistic point of view. So that's what.It's exciting when I start to see people tap into it and sometimes they use music or singing to just help them get into, oh, I want to use my voice differently with my partnership, or I want to use my voice differently as a leader at work. So I've had CEOs do chanting and. And then that sort of chanting then helps them speak differently to their teams at work.And it's really kind of fun to see how you can use these creatives in different scenarios that you wouldn't say are traditional.

Yeah, I think that sometimes we just have to take a pause for a moment to recognize just that in specific. I mean, sometimes life is chaotic these days, and everybody wants instantaneous gratification. They want it instantaneously.But sometimes we have to take a breath and really take a moment to kind of recognize what's in front of us, take our time getting to it. Don't rush everything. And I mean, everything we just talked about. You can't get an instant fix. It takes time to heal.It took me time to learn to walk again. Took you time to learn to walk again. It. It is same thing with our breathing, same thing with our body, same thing with connecting and reconnecting.And I think it just takes a little time, one step at a time, and we can achieve what we need to achieve. And I wish we had more. If I can touch on this just a little bit real quick.Your work touches deeply on ancestry and on the stories that we inherit and on those wounds passed down through different generations. The energetic intergenerational trauma that we've spoken about.This show was kind of born from part of that idea that we could wish we could always say something that we didn't get to say to someone we've lost and things like that. How do you think that helps us to heal intergenerational trauma?And having that understanding that maybe we can go back and talk to our ancestors and. And kind of forgive them or say, I don't want this anymore, or, you know, how would that kind of play into that?

Oh, that's such a beautiful, beautiful question.And because I think that's some of where my spiritual counseling is coming in now with people, is helping them tap into the other ancestor or giving them a meditation to. Then they have a dream state. A dream happens where an ancestor comes through.For me personally, having the experience with my father opened up the door for me to be able to start to hear and connect to the other side. I did have relatives on the other side come in and ask for forgiveness for not recognizing that they did not protect me as a child.And these were three specific relatives that were very close to my heart. So it really meant something to me within my ancestors, too.Me healing generationally, me being authentically happy, me being able to move forward the way I'm moving forward in my life, it affects them. They're watching, they're feeling it.I wish more people in America specifically would connect with their ancestors more to understand that they're there, the higher conscious ones, and that we're not just here for a blip of a time. You know, as far as, like, the regrets or I wish I could have said this, or wish I could have said that.That's like, those things are deep for people, you know, I had a scientist as a client who didn't believe in much of anything, but we were doing brain work, and she had some issues with her mother's death. And I started to just use this healing chant in the session, and I had her close her eyes.And as I was chanting this healing chant, she heard a dialogue with her mother on the other side, and she started to cry. And after that, she believed I was a healer, which she didn't believe, which was fine. But she also believed in the gift of connecting.So part of my gift is my energy when I'm with a client, awakens the possibility of them connecting to their ancestral lineage. Does that make sense? And that's the spiritual counseling that I do more now than the trauma work. One on one is it's just energy.And because I'm an open channel, they get to experience that, and then the channel opens for them, or it could happen the next day or a week from there, and they start to experience things, and they start to go, oh, I can't question this, you know, because I'm not questioning this, you know, the magic of it. You know, even with my. My father, there was things that he was directing me to clean up for myself so I could have a better life.And so he was doing that on the other side. And I was able to. He come from a lineage of a lot of healers, ancient healers in my lineage, too.Even though there was a lot of slavery, they were slaving them because they were jealous or they wanted to take their light. Just like this, sort of when we hurt children, children all the time, we're trying to take their light.So, you know, I want to say this message too, because some people might not have a good relationship with a parent or a person, and they have to heal and they have to move on. But it doesn't mean that at some point in your healing journey that that soul will come in on the other side and try to make it right.And I can honestly say, and I'm almost, I'm going to tear up but I have healed my wounds with my father on the other side which is.

That's great. That's brilliant. Actually.I'm happy you were able to do that because sometimes when we hold on to that too long it has a negative effect on us and it really does is like something sitting inside just kind of aching to get out and. And so I'm happy that you were able to do that.Before we wrap up, I want to give you a moment to share your work with our listeners and our viewers so that they can find you and your programs and your storytelling and your playlist and your healing and everything else we talked about. So tell us how we can get ahold of you.

Well, the best way to reach out to me if you go on heatheranferry.com I have an email umatter108mail.com I'm doing something a little different with my book recently. For those of you who do have an interest in buying it on Amazon, you see it on the screen transcending victim to goddess.If you email me your order number once you've purchased it, I will send you a 26 minute private video of me teaching the meditations in that book. The reason why I wanted to gift for those who support my work is I wanted you to be a part of my community and my mailing list.Not so I can send out emails every week because I won't do that. But it's just an activation. The way I met Jimmy Slide in the Tap Club. It lets you be on my mailing list.If you're interested in water system education or zoom workshops or retreats or even my one woman show or my music on Spotify. The only thing about Amazon is I don't get to see the people that purchased the book.And so I wanted to sort of make a relationship, an intimate connection with that. So I wanted to offer that to you out there. My social media stuff is YouTube, it's Facebook, it's LinkedIn.Heather Annferry is how you reach out to me. But there is a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes.So I would also get on the email list and tell me who you are, tell me what you're about, what you're interested in. And that activation, it's connecting the dots. So thank you so much Michael for allowing me to share some of my story today and really using my voice.We talked about some intimate stuff before we got on. And I really cherish you and your work. I think you're an incredible human being and this was a healing for me today. So thank you.

Yeah, I'm happy that it was the healing for you today. It was for me as well, profound.Your journey in itself, I think is a wonderful opportunity for us to understand that there's always hope and that we can always step forward. And so thank you for coming on board. Thank you for reaching out to me. That must have been your father that put the. Hey, check this out.

Definitely.

Well, this is one more thing before you go. And I always close with words of wisdom.What would you like to leave for those walking a similar path or those that need healing or searching, trying to rebuild our lives from the inside out and things like that? What words of wisdom?

I would say that, you know, the first time I invested in myself and went to an energy healer, I was scared to death and I had so much baggage over spending money on myself. You know, it was a foreign subject matter from a blue collar family. So if you're listening to this today, you matter. That's like my email.You matter 108. But umatter108mail.com you matter. And no matter what anybody else says, you're worth it.So one step at a time, do what you need to do, but continue to love yourself. And hopefully if something in this, you know, conversation with me, Michael, resonates, you'll become a part of our communities.And that's how we grow. We grow by working and sharing what we can with each other.

Profound words of wisdom. Heather, thank you very much for your courage, your honesty, your storytelling, and your willingness to bring your whole self to this conversation.I greatly appreciate it.

Thank you, Michael.

Listening to Heather, you're reminded that the body is not just a vessel, it's a storyteller. It remembers the things we try to forget. It carries the wounds we inherited. It holds the stories we were never taught to speak.But it also remembers how to heal, how to reconnect, how to rebuild the parts of us that were never meant to be broken. Maybe that's the real lesson here. Healing isn't about becoming someone new.It's about returning to who we were before the world taught us to forget ourselves. So that's a wrap for today's episode. I hope you found inspiration, motivation, and a few new perspectives to take with you.If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to, like, subscribe and follow us and stay connected. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform and you can hover to YouTube and catch the full video version.I'm Michael Hurst. Have a great day, have a great week and thank you for being part of this.

Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing.Before you go, check out our website@beforeyougopodcast.com you can find us as well as subscribe to the program and rate us on your favorite podcast listening platform.