What is the Savoia Self-Care Method?
Welcome my beautiful, strong and sexy Self-Care Goddess to my blog post. In this post I will be introducing the Savoia Self-Care (SSC) Method. I will be explaining what it is, why it’s important, and how it can help you achieve optimal emotional, mental and physical health, vitality and longevity.
From Pain to Purpose: My Story
I will begin by telling you my story on how I went from pain to purpose. In my previous post, you can read about how I reversed my PCOS with a holistic approach to self-healing. However, in this post I’m going to give you some additional background.
In the last 7 years I have taken a real interest in Nutrition and the incredible powerful results of holistic lifestyle changes that encourage a well balanced approach- via our heart, mind, body and soul.
I’ve always been very active playing sports as a child and still am today and in the last 5 years have also developed a keen interest in yoga, mindfulness meditation and breathwork. I have developed an effective morning routine that includes all these to kickstart your morning on the right foot.
Check out my Savoia Self-Care morning routine here.
Let me begin in Dubai
Dubai is a very ‘eating out’ culture, and having lived there for 10 years, I developed strong food intolerances that made me feel tired, bloated, brain fog and had painful puffy eyes. When the symptoms increased and began to affect my quality of life, I decided to work with a Functional Medicine (FM) doctor who introduced me to a root cause approach versus a traditional pharmacology approach to improving my health.
My FM doctor shared with me extremely interesting information of holistic ways of healing yourself via nutrition, supplements, and lifestyle changes, accompanied by thorough testing and analysis. I will always be forever grateful to this amazing woman for the rest of my life.
Interestingly, when I addressed the food intolerance issue I also addressed my PCOS issue. Because the body is a whole system, and fixing one element allowed it to function properly as a whole, and therefore addressed the other elements.
Today my intolerances are under control, my PCOS has been reversed. I’m feeling much more energetic, alert and with increased mental clarity.
I’m feeling better now that I have ever felt in the last 20 years. Physically, I’m not as bloated, the soreness and puffiness under my eyes has completely subsided.
Mammina Cinzella
You would think that my own personal healing journey, would have inspired my next actions. But my interest in functional medicine and nutrition really peaked about 6 years ago when I noticed major changes with my ultra-positive, upbeat, incredibly vivacious mother who was 70 years old at the time. I visited her in Toronto from Dubai quite frequently, at least 3 times per year, and we would speak everyday over video or telephone. So I was aware of the decline in her personality.
I approached my siblings and they replied, “Oh Rita it’s just old age, you’re not around every day to see the decline but it’s a normal part of aging”. Well I didn’t believe that, and I didn’t believe the answer was that simple nor did I accept it.
I took matters into my own hands, spent hundred of hours doing my own research, reaching out to professionals, reading relevant medical journals and books, watched interviews and documentaries, and listened to numerous podcasts. This research allowed me to compile a wealth of knowledge, which helped me work out a plan to seek out the right professional help for my mom.
So, because I was spending most of my spare time learning and devouring this knowledge, and with great pleasure I might add. I came to the realization that I needed to pursue a career change in this field. So I left Dubai’s lifestyle of the rich and famous, and moved back to Canada to be closer to my mom.
I enrolled in Canada’s leading Holistic Nutrition school, The Institute of Holistic Nutrition, and a year later became a Certified Nutritional Practitioner. I accompanied my mom to numerous appointment with several functional medicine doctors, naturopaths and conventional medicine specialists. Together with a root cause approach from functional medicine, holistic approach of integrative treatments, and my nutritional advice, my mother is doing so much better and everyday getting stronger and becoming more life her old self.
So, my true motivation for embarking on my career change was to ensure that I was equipped with the information and latest research to be able to help my mother and many others like her – in consulting, advising, guiding, educating women on the power of proper diagnosis of symptoms, nutrition and holistic lifestyle changes that can help improve their condition and live happier lives.
My motivation might have been selfish because it began with a personal quest to help my mother. But now I’m on a mission to help many more women for the rest of my life.
It’s always about the food
Growing up in an Italian family, food was always the center of attention. Good, quality food I might add. One of my fondest childhood memories is our Sunday lunches at 2pm, we ate, we laughed, watched the afternoon football (soccer) match and then around 7pm, we would eat the leftovers.
I grew up eating a Mediterranean diet, which consists of the consumption of a variety of seasonal vegetables, straight from our garden in the summer season. As well as, good quality meats and fish as part of main dish, or the pasta or rice dish with either vegetables or legumes or in a plain tomato sauce. Good quality olive oil was always handy for an extra drizzle of it in our dishes.
My parents have always stressed the fact of sourcing good quality food products and always avoid the ‘cheap stuff.
Of course during my “clubbing & partying” years, I was eating primarily a Mediterranean diet, but I would definitely stray and have fast food primarily pizza, street meat, and burgers. Not to mention late nights partying, little sleep and lots of alcohol.
That’s why I would not want to relive my 20s, knowing what I know now! In my mid-30s, I become very health conscious and came to respect the concept that our body is our temple.
We are truly what we eat and also what we think. So when I decided to go into Holistic Nutrition, it was not a massive transformation for me because I was already transformed into the health nut that I am today.
What is Holistic Wellness?
Holistic wellness focuses on the interconnectedness of body, mind, emotions, social factors, and the environment. Anyone practising holistic wellness, whether it’s a naturopathic doctor, herbalist, nutritionist, functional medicine doctor, they view the patient or client as a complex, interrelated system – a whole person and focus on promoting health through natural, non-toxic therapies such as nutrition, lifestyle changes, herbal remedies, detoxification, psychological therapies, and many others.
Holistic wellness is shifting an old paradigm that viewed the body as a machine with separate parts that is best fixed with drugs and surgery. Holistic wellness considers these measures secondary to natural, non-toxic, non-invasive techniques that promote health and support the body’s innate healing process.
The importance of this paradigm shift, is that it puts the power back into your hands, allowing your body’s innate intelligence guide you to a path of self-healing.
This is actually not something new, on the contrary, this natural healing system can be traced back thousands of years. Indeed, you can find the philosophical roots of this system, in the healing wisdom of many cultures, like India’s Ayurveda, China’s Taoism, and Greece’s Hippocratic school of medicine.
More recently, during the 18th and 19th century it was pervasive in Europe and the US. Think of natural springs or spas, nutritional and herbal therapies, spinal manipulation, exercise therapy, hydrotherapy, stress reduction techniques, and many other natural therapies.
Why is it important?
There a couple of reasons why adopting a more holistic approach to wellness makes more sense for optimal health, vitality, and longevity. In an earlier post, I wrote about how we have wrongfully abdicated our primary responsibility for our own health to the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry.
But what’s also worthy of mention, is that many medical doctors are not educated in the value of nutrition and other natural, non-toxic remedies.
Last I checked they get 1 course on nutrition, throughout their entire medical education. Many doctors are also specialists in their own body system, and thus are rarely aware of what and how a drug might affect the other systems and body as whole. Speaking of drugs, they are taught to prescribe a pharmaceutical drug for each symptom, illness or disease that the patient complains about. I find this disturbing, because you are not getting a the root cause of the problem, the drug literally acts as a band-aid solution.
Ok, I can literally go on for hours and debate this, so I’m going to stop here. But I have to stress this fact, I’m not suggesting in any way shape or form to replace conventional medicine, because if I break my arm I’m not going to seek out a nutritionist, I’m going to go straight to emergency and get it looked after. So there is obviously a need for allopathic medicine. What I am suggesting is that we can work together in tandem and use either approach when appropriate. As well as, matching the appropriate approach to the stage that the client/patient is in to support the body’s self-heal capabilities.
I’m going to conclude this section by saying that the current system of health care is definitely not working, the more scientific and technological advances we have the sicker we are getting, so something is not working.
It reminds me of Einstein definition of insanity, we cannot keep doing what we are doing and expect different results.
Do you agree?
So that’s why I’m suggesting that we need to adopt a hybrid model of both natural and allopathic medicine in order to see results that reflect a healthier and happier population. Ok, I’m done, for now!
The Savoia Self-Care Method
Now that you have been introduced to my principle about holistic wellness, I can further explain how the creation of The Savoia Self-Care (SSC) Method emerged. The SSC Method, is simple, easy to adopt and most importantly evidence-based. The method is based on similar principles of natural medicine. But adapted to align with my own personal values and so the method is centred around these beliefs.
Th 6 key Fundamental Beliefs of the SSC Method:
- Power of Self-Healing
- Identifying the Root Cause
- Considering the Whole Person & Beyond
- Prevention is Key
- Taking Personal Responsibility
- Educating & Empowering
These 6 Beliefs were the driving force behind the SSC Method, and after further fine-tuning of the method I narrowed down the focus. In other words, once the 6 Beliefs are presented to the Client and I obtain their buy-in, actionable steps are needed to assist the transformation in their self-healing journey.
These actionable steps are rooted in the SSC Method’s 3 Dimensions of Wellness – Heart, Mind and Body. These actionable steps support a disciplined approach to healthy habitual habits that nurture and harmonize these 3 Dimensions.
How to nurture Heart, Mind, and Body?
The SSC Method allows the Client to take back control of their health. Although the Method can be applied to both men and women, my passion is to focus on women’s health and wellness. I feel like too many women are suffering in silence and alone. I’m on a mission to change this perspective by educating and empowering women to take charge of their own health and become their own health hero.
The SSC Method is based on a holistic integration of the heart, mind, and body, that bridge the gap between our emotions, thoughts, and physical body.
Heart: Tap into your heart’s intuitive intelligence to support you in balancing your emotional states, through conscious breathwork and meditation.
Mind: Understand the power of your thoughts and how that drives habitual behaviour, improves your ability to manage stress and develop resilience.
Body: Take an integrative approach vs. a traditional pharmacology approach to deepen your awareness of the power of nutrition, detoxing, menstrual cycle synching and joyful movement to improve your health.
The scientific evidence indicates that our emotional and mental responses are linked to our physical symptoms and ailments. For this reason, I have created in the SSC Method as a system that cultivates the heart, mind and body in order to be able to optimize nutrition, restore balance, detoxify & rejuvenate for creating optimal health and wellness.
6 Pillars of Self-Care
Taking into account the Savoia Self-Care Method’s 6 fundamental beliefs and 3 dimensions lead me to believe that there are 6 vital pillars of Self-Care that encompass everything that I talk about above. In order to establish a sustainable Self-Care practice these 6 pillars must be honored and considered for optimal health, wellbeing and vitality.
- Mindset Mastery – because mindset matters!
- Conscious Breathwork – because breathing matters!
- Authentic Connection – because connection matters!
- Metabolic Flexibility- because flexibility matters!
- Sacred Sleep – because sleep matters!
- Joyful Movement – because movement matters!
They are all equally important and interconnected, and that’s way taking a holistic approach to your wellness will allow you to thrive as you age vs. merely surviving.
If you have any questions or want to dive deeper into your health, simply schedule your FREE Introduction Call. I’m here to help you embrace self-care and feel like your happier and sexier self again.
References:
Kaur, S. D. (2005). Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Women’s Health. Robert Rose, Inc.
Murray, M. T., & Pizzorno, J. (2012). The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine Third Edition (3rd ed.). Atria Books.