I am James Swannick, the co-founder of Swannick's Sleep and the helper of people in reducing and quitting alcohol and we're speaking to the lovely Chantalin. Did I pronounce it correctly? Give me have another go. Chantalin. Chantalin. Chantalin. So elegant. Chantalin. Beautiful. So lovely to have you here. Chantalin is a holistic wellness and lifestyle influencer. She's a very busy mompreneur. She's the president of the Santa Monica chapter of the holistic chamber of commerce. Yes. And Chantalin believes that how you do anything is how you do everything. And it's so great to have you here on Swannick Life. How you doing? I'm doing fantastic. I was so excited. Thank you so much for having me because I'm a big fan of the Swannis. Thank you very much. I can't believe I butchered the pronunciation of your name. I even practiced before we went live and then I still got it wrong. Think of Shanti like in yoga. Shanti peace. Yeah. Chantalin. Beautiful. I love it. If you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, go ahead and just type in right now where you are watching from. And if you have questions or rather I should say when you have questions as we go along we would love to answer them for you. And yeah. So just go ahead and post a little comment down below. Let us know that you're here on Facebook and or YouTube. So we're talking today about integrating health and wellness into your life, into your business plan. Just tell us a little bit about you and how you see health holistically. Well, I feel number one, everything works together. So if you are successful in business and you're miserable in your personal life, that's not going to do very well. And if you say or you are successful financially and your health is declining, that's not going to be great either. So it works together. It's important to have health and wellness in everything that you do so you can enjoy life more and you can be even more productive if that's what you want to do. And so I think more and more so even back in the days, I work with corporate corporations and I remember maybe 20, 25 years ago, even like I work with corporate from American Express and they would send their executives to understand what self care is all about. And I love that because so it's all always about self love, self care and health and wellness because it's what you put in your body, what you put on your body, what you put around you and body, mind, spirit, connection because that's what we are. We can't do just one area and let go of the other. So you want to be successful in business, make sure that also your health is good, your family, your relationships so that you can enjoy your success. Yeah, I love that. And hello, Cheryl Jones watching on YouTube. Hello from California. Melania says, or I've heard the term holistic but never knew what it meant. Do you want to just clarify? I know you kind of gave us a nice little introduction there, but why don't you clarify what holistic actually means in terms of health? Yeah, I like holistic for me personally also mean whole as in W-H-O-L-E, you know, looking at the whole picture and doing all things that are naturally good for you that what nature intended is what I think of holistic. Nature intended us to be happy, nature intended us to be thriving and healthy and well. And for me, when I run my Santa Monica Holistic Chamber of Commerce, I think of holistic also is heart centered. So for the business folks, you know, we all want to be of service. And so either you invent a product or you have a service, it's all about being of service. And so it's a heart centered piece to me. That's also part of being holistic. Give us an idea of how you live your life in terms of what do you do first thing in the morning? What do you do throughout the day? What do you do at nighttime as a bedtime ritual? How are you sleeping? Give us an idea of what a holistic life looks like for you. Well, I love having, you know, a ritual because it's sort of like I used to years ago knowing things that are good for me. So I would create things that I have to do like regimens that I have to follow.  And I felt kind of, you know, just just obligations versus joy and happiness.  So I just learned from all these different doctors and health professionals and gurus. And I developed a morning ritual because I felt that it was a place for me to lean into and to relax into. So that's my barometers for everything. So creating ritual for me would be something that's nourishing that makes me happy or makes my body happy. And especially I have a strong morning spiritual, spiritual practice. I wake up first thing when I'm still kind of groggy. I start my meditation like that to me at this stage in the game is a non-negotiable. I ideal for me would be a 20 minutes. And I remember I had a teacher before who said to me when I used to say, Oh my God, I'm so busy that I'm trying to squeeze it in. I'm trying to, you know, make it happen. It was so much of that masculine, you know, energy of like, I got to get it done. It's almost like angst, you know, and I didn't like that. And he's like, you need to chill out and you need to go meditate for an hour. I just told you, I don't have time. He goes, then do it for two hours because you obviously needed it. And I thought he was joking, you know, but then later on I realized, yes, we do need to balance out our busy life with time to self. So my morning ritual will be 20 minutes of meditation. It calms me down. My day may not change, but my perspective changed and I'm more equipped. I have a 14 and a half year old son and, you know, sometimes parenting is very difficult and challenging and I yell at him and I realized, Oh my God, what if I didn't meditate? So it becomes like something I need and I love. And then I start with a morning hot liquid drink that I felt I need to fuel my body after a long night's sleep. And I do, I give out my recipes all the time.  And then I put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar first thing in the morning in my body. What that feels to me is warm. That warm feels very soothing. So it suits me, you know, from my, from just touching my mouth, my lips all the way down. I feel kind of warm and fuzzy. And that's how I want to start my day, warm and fuzzy. And then, you know, because I get grounded by doing all these rituals, then I, you know, start to plan my meal out in the morning. And next thing I do is I make a green smoothie for my son and I, he's a teenager. I fed him really healthy thing his whole life. But then one day he's, he's out there in the world eating pizza, whatever every day if he could. But I give him this green smoothie and I felt kind of like, you know, I'm giving him something nourishing that line his stomach with. And again, it's about feeling nourished. It's about feeling and I make it so yummy. He loves it. He asks me for it. And I feel like, ah, I won, you know, as a parent that to me is a win. So having these ritual and it's also feels nourishing to him that I pay attention to him before my day starts. So that's my ideal like quick morning. And if I had more time, of course, there's stretching, there's yoga, there's tennis games that I like to play. I like to play tennis. My ideal week would be three times a week. I get to play tennis and maybe do yoga five, five days a week. That would be the ideal thing. But you know, all these self care takes a lot of time because I plan about two hours in the morning for myself whenever I could. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Like some days I don't get that. But my meditation, I get in and my hot water. Those two things are like my must go to because it makes me feel like I spend some time just to do that. Oh yeah. And I also try to do oil pulling three times to five times a week. What do you try to do? Sorry. It's an Ayurvedic practice. So let's say after my meditation, I immediately put a tablespoon of organic coconut oil. This is for the night for the mornings. I actually have the time and I swish it around my mouth. I put the timer on for 20 minutes while I get my clothes and make my smoothie and do all these things. I believe that it's supposed to pull all the toxins out of your body. But for me, what I noticed right away is my dental visits changed. Like I get plaque. Some people just do for their teeth. And for me, doing this oil pulling makes my plaque a lot easier for my dentist to deal with. Like I would sit there and he's not scraping the plaque off of me. I'm obsessed about getting my teeth done. I used to go for cleaning every three months. And he goes, that's too much. You're abusive to the enamel. So I said, okay, he's a six months please. I said, okay. But I noticed at six months, sometime he had to scrape the plaque a little bit. I mean, that's just too much information maybe. But I noticed that that was one of the benefits of the oil pulling. And he makes your teeth whiter, cleaner, fresher breath. And so I incorporate all these rituals as part of lifestyle. So that is not something I think about. And it's kind of nice. I'm just like get up and I just do these things. And you know, I feel a million bucks before I leave the house. Yeah, wonderful. I love that morning routine. I got a few points I want to make on that are all just questions. But I want to make sure that I acknowledge the people who are leaving comments on Facebook and YouTube. So we've got, let's see, Mia Bianca says, what do you think about supplement capsules for those who have no time to make a smoothie? Supplements are good. You have to research the companies. And what I love doing is I curate a collection of things that I use. And I have a company that I use to make the green smoothie. It's when I have time, I put all those extra frozen bananas and yummy fruits to make it palatable for my son. Otherwise, I actually put this powder in a shaker bottle and I'm out the door shaking that bottle and sipping it. Supplements are great. I think, you know, you have to also monitor how your body feels. Now for someone healthy, I would say it's really hard to tell if a product is working. I usually give it a good six months, you know, when I research a product. I don't always feel the difference. But knowing that I'm doing something nourishing and my body is functioning as it should, that's my barometer. That's, I'm like, okay, I'll continue to do that because we're not getting enough nutrients in our food anymore. Yeah, I don't think that taking a supplement is going to make up for poor diet, lack of exercise and poor sleep. You can take all the best supplements in the world that promise the world. But I think that they are probably more, I mean, just think of the word supplement, right? It's supplement something else, it's not replacing something it's like, it's adding to. So I think if you're going to take supplements, you want to be practicing good health routines anyway, as a standing start. Would you agree with that? Completely, I completely agree with that. I think you try to get it from your food and, you know, unprocess things as much as possible. Supplement just helps you, you know, here and there. It's okay to do that. You know, but I wouldn't just, like you said, it's not a replacement of a complete well balanced diet or nutrition. We have another question here from Micah Ann Rivera. What is the best eye bag remover for a night shifter? Well, I would say if you have eye, you know, bags under your eye or dark circles, you definitely need to take a look at your nutrition, because that's really where it comes from. But there are products like, you know, cool cucumbers, aloe vera, that's, and then just ice pack sometime for the gentle area of the eyes. But again, I've learned that dark eye circles are usually a nutritional imbalance. Yeah. And when you really break it down, I believe that you can cure almost any physical ailment through good nutrition and lots of water. I mean, I guess lots of water is part of good nutrition, but my partner and I, we go to an organic farmers markets every Sunday morning here in Brisbane. And it's funny because my mother, I think, still scoffs at us going and paying premium prices for organic, as opposed to getting it from the chain of supermarkets here in Australia in colds or Woolworths because we're paying a premium price. However, whether it's a placebo effect or not, just the idea that I'm putting in vibrationally alive foods that are only, have only traveled less than a couple of hours from the place that they were pulled from the ground or taken or they fell from the tree. And then they're eating within 72 hours of this purchasing that food and not frozen makes me feel healthier. And I think that's reflected in my overall sense of calm. Most of the time, I'm still have little meltdowns here and there. But I think if you can eat nutritionally dense, beautiful food, but that's obviously going to, here's the thing I always say when it comes to the price, because a lot of people object to the price and they say they can't afford it or et cetera. You're going to pay for it eventually. Like you either pay for healthy food now or you'll pay for it with medical costs later. What are your thoughts on that? Completely agree. Food is medicine. Her properties have said and I totally believe in that. And I am so blessed that I live two blocks from the farmer's market. It's like world famous for farmer's market, the Santa Monica farmer's market here is where all the chefs in LA come to. And I get to learn about the farmers and know about them. I actually have a vast knowledge about soil health. I believe in regenerative agriculture, which means we're going beyond organic. We're talking about doing things that are good for the earth because your soil is a living organism and the more biodiversity in that soil, which means there will be nutrient dense foods for you later. And I totally view, I'm not a farmer. Like I'm funny. I'm like a hippie from the city. Like I'm not a farming girl. I'm not any of those things, but I will use my dollar to support the farmers who are good stewards of the earth because you're right. You either pay now or pay later.  Well, who would want to feel like crap? I don't care if I had all the money in the world. I want to feel like a million bucks every time I get up in the morning. I want to bounce out of bed. I want to be vibrant and enjoy all my activities because all that money is not going to help you travel the world if you can't have the health to support your lifestyle. So that's what I want. I want to continue to have fun in life. So yes, I'd rather pay now a little bit now. That's my insurance. We rarely see the doctors other than getting out physical exams. And I'd like to keep it that way. Yeah. Well, another way just to make it more cost effective is that if you're willing to invest in a flower pot and buy some soil, maybe fertilizer or organic compost, and actually buy some seedlings and plant some of your own vegetables, that actually can work out to be very cost efficient. We now have four or five rows of flower trays, et cetera, where we've planted kale, bok choy, spinach, tomatoes. We have dandelion, as I understand it, is very good for helping control or reduce cholesterol, which I've been guilty of having high levels of cholesterol. So I eat that. And we kind of want to get it to the point where we actually don't need to go out to go grocery shopping for any vegetables, quite frankly. We might go after some other things, but for vegetables, we'd like to just grow it on our own. And it does require an initial investment because you do have to buy some trays or pots or containers. Then if you really want to make sure that the soil is rich as you were talking about there, Chantelaine, like with some worms and organic and it's rich and all that kind of stuff, then you do have to invest in that. But once you've got it up and running, what it really just takes is sunlight, water and patience. Yes. I might add some love and care in there as well. Love, care, water, sunshine and patience. All of that. We all need it. Even humans love that. Us humans would thrive too if we have enough love and sunshine and water and food. Where can our viewers find more about you just as we move along here? Where is your site and where can we learn more about you? Well, I'm working on my website, but it's chantelaine.com and because I, you know, my career have kept changing a lot over the years because of all my, I'm like squirrel. I get excited about things and I go, oh, I want to do that. Oh, I want to do that. And I thought, oh my gosh, I'm so ADD on my career choices. But now what I realize that, you know what, I am a curator of all things great. I love anything that's life affirming. So for me, you know, I do transformational coaching, helping people A, to be in acceptance of exactly where they're at and embrace that and learn to look for the magic and joy that's already there and not try to be somewhere else. But that doesn't mean that you can't make the plan because we can all improve. We can all expand and we cannot evolve.  You know, like that's just our process. So how can we have fun with it and incorporate it? So I now understand that everything I'm interested in is all under the umbrella of, you know, holistic wellness and lifestyle. So my website is going to have all the different things. I also, I worked since high school as a celebrity nail stylist. So I'm very much into beauty. And you know, you can tell a person's healthy by looking at their skin, if their skin is glowing and you know, they're hydrated if you're looking at their skin. And so I come from that Hollywood, I'm part of the glam squad, you know, so I love, I use all that experience to make holistic lifestyle sexy and glamorous because it is sexy and glamorous when you're healthy and vibrant and happy. And so that's under the shantlin.com.  Any company that I align myself with, I love that, you know, I enjoy caring for the planet and the earth. And I love, you know, we have a new wave of, we call it capital, conscious capitalism. So, you know, we have companies who cares about people and planet just the same as the profit. And I love that. And so I love to support that just like I support farmers who are doing good things, you know, we posted a link to that website in the YouTube comments and the Facebook comments down below. So if you'd like to learn more, you can go to shantlin.com, C-H-A-N-T-A-L-Y NN. Someone on Facebook says, thank you. I'm a proud son of farmers, both mother and father. Oh, wonderful. God bless you. There's not enough farmers in the world right now. I think in this country we have like 10% of the population of farmers. I mean, that's why I love my farmers. We've got Antonello is watching from Manila in the Philippines. Big shout out to you, Antonello. Thank you for watching. We've got Vinch, Alessia Chamerro. Hello, hey. And yeah, now you've mentioned, you've mentioned water a few times there. I am of the belief, but it's funny because I can have a belief but still not take an appropriate action. But I am of the belief that if we just simply drank so much more pure, healthy water, particularly spring water, maybe water that doesn't have fluoride or chemicals in it, we could also probably reduce the number of our physical ailments and sickness and things like that.  The more water you drink, the less stress and anxiety you feel. The more water you drink, the better your skin looks. And so the more confident you feel, the more confident you feel, the healthier you strive to be, the healthier you strive to be, the better you feel and so forth. What are your thoughts? I know we've talked about nutrition and it almost seems just too simple advice like, oh, I'm going to come on a show, listen to see how I can fix my health. And the answer is eat good food and rip lots of water. But how important is drinking lots and lots of water? It is so important. I am actually, I've been accused of not drinking enough.  Water nourishes all of my cells. And for those people who are trying to work on their diets or whatever, I suggest, you know, if you drink warm liquids, it actually helped to calm the cravings and the hunger down a lot.  And the water is so good for your lymphatic system to remove all the toxins in your blood. It helps your circulation. It helps to cleanse your blood. So that's how important water is. And I now know that I constantly have to have water near me. I have to have a bottle to remind me to drink because sometimes I forget, you know, I forget. And if you, and I drink a ton of water because I'm very athletic and I go out and I play tennis and I'm drinking and I want to get big jars of water so I can remember to keep drinking and replenish because as I sweat, I'm losing a lot of electrolytes and things like that. And one of the tricks is to add a little salt to my diet.  So you can get more salt into your diet so that you can retain the water because a lot of time that's what happened when you're dehydrated. You're not able to hold onto it and you're not having enough. So having more salt makes you drink more water. Yeah. I use Celtic or Celtic. I never quite figure out the pronunciation. Which one is it? Me neither. I call it Celtic because I like the sound of it. Yeah. We do have a lot of Celtic salts. People just think salt in general is okay and good for you but there's a quality of salt there. And if you get Himalayan, pink Himalayan sea salt or Celtic salt, it has lots of trace minerals in it as I understand it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I put the sprinkle that on all of my food and it makes me drink more water but not out of like, I'm thirsty. It's more like, oh, I just want to keep feeling good. Yeah. Yeah. And I think with the COVID pandemic right now, I've added a new thing to my ritual. Also, I forgot to mention because I've only been doing it for four months but after my oil pulling, oh, it is very important. If you do oil pulling, you need to spit that oil, the coconut oil in the trash and not in your plumbing because it will clog your plumbing. And then afterwards, I would actually gargle with hot water and Himalayan salt. And I would gargle in my throat and making sure everything is clear and then I brush my teeth. And, you know, it's important the salt, the quality of salt is actually really important. I don't use, actually, I don't even have regular table salt in my house anymore. I love all the good trace minerals. So I would buy Celtic salt, Himalayan sea salt at the very least, you know, sea salt, you know, is what I cook with. We have someone watching us live on YouTube right now, Les Elliott says lemon and honey will hydrate you on a cellular level. Do you know who Les Elliott is? I think that's my sister. Anyway, yes, lemon and honey is so good for you. I think your sister sounds very smart. I like it. She's super smart, actually. A viewer on Facebook, Vani Sharkey says, Shanta Lynn, I read about you when I saw you were the next Swan East guest. How did you get involved with Cancer Schmancer? So Cancer Schmancer is started by my dear big sister, Fran Drescher. And I met her in 1996 as her manicurist. Her regular manicurist was on maternity leave. And I was working at the Witts Calton here in Marina Del Rey. And one day they called me, they asked me, hey, do you mind coming to Ms. Drescher's room and give her a manicure? So I showed up and I gave her a manicure. And ever since then, I guess her other manicures never came back. She couldn't get. So I became her next manicurist. And to this day, I still see her and give her manicures, but we became really close. And I got to watch her because I was seeing her every week. It sort of feels like every time anything big happened in her life, I was there to witness it.  And it was a crushing blow. And but what I love about her and inspired by her is that she takes lemons and make lemonade out of it. And she used her pain into purpose. She just transformed it into purpose and helped so many people. So she started Cancer Schmancer. That's the name of her book when she, you know, share about her journey from cancer to health because she's now 20 year well. And I'm so thrilled about that. And so we talked about having a lifestyle where you don't get cancer in the first place. And so I'm very passionate about that because I've always been into holistic lifestyle. And then, you know, the other part of that is we help women once they get the diagnosis to take control of their body with the mantra of Cancer Schmancer, where we tell you to please do your research. I know it's a personal choice, whether you decided a chemo or not. If you want to do alternative medicine, it's a personal individual choice, but please do your homework and don't just take your doctor's word for it.  She had to go to eight doctors. Something was wrong and no one knew. And she kept going. And I don't know, that scared me also when I first heard about it, because I'm thinking, you know, here's someone rich and famous. She could go to any doctor she wants. She had all the resources on fingertips and they couldn't find out what's wrong with her.  I might have just trust that. I don't know. But I'm glad that we're telling people, like, listen to your body, get it in touch. If something is wrong, let's get to the bottom of it.   Just listen to your body. You know, so I'm very passionate about it. And of course, I love her. She's my girl. She's such a humanitarian. And so, you know, I really look up to her and emulate myself because that's how I want to live. She is such a bright light and a very enlightened being. And I only hope to be more like that. Oh, wonderful. Thank you for sharing that story. Yeah. Tell us about your sleep routine. What do you do to ensure that you get a great night's sleep? Because talking about nutrition, we talked about water. One thing that's often overlooked, maybe less so these days is the quality of our sleep and its impact on our overall health. So what do you do to ensure that you have a great night's sleep? I have to say, I don't have a, I have a ritual, obviously, but I'm blessed in that I could sleep anytime, anywhere. Like, if you say, hey, Shanti, I'm going to be with you in a few minutes, just, you know, take a seat. I could just sit down in a chair and fall asleep. I mean, it's God's gift to me. I can eat anytime, anywhere, and I can sleep anytime, anywhere. But my goal is, my ideal, I always looking for something that I could aspire to do is to have eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. So my thing is to try to eat dinner early. So my routine will start like having dinner 5.30, 6 o'clock, as much as I can.  I'm saying that's my goal. That's my ideal. That's my sweet spot. But life happens. So, you know, but it's either 70, 30, or 80, 20 of the time you can do your routine. That's what you stick to. You do the best you can. So my idea would be 5.30, 6 o'clock dinner. Then, you know, you have a couple hours to relax, clean up, hang out with my son, have a good evening, maybe even watch a show or read a book or, you know, whatever activities you have. And then I would like to turn off all electronics two hours before bedtime so that it doesn't mess around with my bio rhythm. Not that I, like I said, I'm not that affected at all. I can lie down and go to sleep. My son, not so much. He's a high functioning teenager.  So it's actually more important that I stick to the routine for him.  So you can go freshly right off of the computer or TV or whatever and go to bed and just expect to be out. So we also do meditation at night. And for my son, whenever I'm home and I'm, you know, I try to be home every evening at bedtime if possible. I do a little meditation and a body scan kind of raking healing for him just to help him calm. And also just as I help him, I'm falling asleep. And I'm sure a lot of parents who are watching, they know, like you put your baby to sleep and the baby is not sleeping, but you're already falling asleep. That happens all the time since infancy.  Having rituals, again, not to be militant, but to help us relax because we know what's to expect, what is to come. So as soon as we finish dinner, if we can get our showers in, put our PJs on, we're already kind of like getting into that mode.  So as soon as you put the PJ on, you're like, I'm yawning already.  As much as I could, I turn off all electronics because it's just not natural for our buyer rhythm.  That's normal. But, you know, we live in modern world and which I also love the fact that we can communicate you in Australia, me and US, you know, it's amazing. It's awesome, the technology that we have to make sure that we honor our body systems because that's also part of health and wellness and productivity.  Yeah, I've, I used to use the alarm in my iPhone to wake me up each morning. And then I changed it to buying a little $7 portable alarm clock, battery operated it. I use that just to ensure I don't sleep past it. And I put my phone now on airplane mode and leave it in a different room. Because what was happening was that I was, the alarm was going off on my phone.  And then of course, because your hands on the phone, you're tempted to start going into it. And then your reactionary mode almost right away. So since I've shifted that, it's enabled me to be more present in the mornings. I write down 20 things that I'm grateful for in my journal here, my gratitude journal each morning. And I got pages and pages of things that I'm grateful for. At the moment I'm doing, I'm up to 11 minutes of meditation. I've done a 10 day silent meditation called Vipassana previously. But I must admit that I have a, I wouldn't say it's a love-hate relationship with meditation, but I have an on again, off again relationship with meditation. When I'm doing it, I love it, but then it's very easy, frighteningly easy. In fact, for me to just skip it and to go weeks and often months without doing it until I remind myself to go back and do it again.  Well, I feel you because I actually, I was like that too. I never could stick to one kind of meditation. So what I would suggest is, you know, make what works for you, what makes you, you have to start feeling into what makes me feel relaxed, what makes me kind of drop the day, whatever that may be. And it could be just simply a breath. You know, I do these, I love breath work. So breathing exercises is one of my favorite things. We could just, you know, take in a breath, hold it while I hold the breath, I relaxed the body. It's all about relaxing, tapping in. And, and I love there's a, there's a beautiful monk who talk about meditation.  This is what we're doing. And, you know, I also love those deep Chobra 21 days meditations. If anybody ever done those, it's so cool because it's very short. And he has a fun story to tell you about whatever concept it is. And then you have maybe five minutes of meditation, listening to those were also really helpful. And actually I'm in the process of doing a 21 day abundance. That's a protocol given to me by the Chopra center in my Facebook group. So I actually have a group right now and it's kind of fun because you get the, you're not doing everything by yourself. And it's nice to have accountability partners and responsibility partner. And again, for me, everything is not about being militant. It's about how do I ease into it, make it work. So if I can't do a 20 minute meditation, I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  And you know what sleep is the kind of meditation, you know, whatever that is that lets your body relax and let you not think so much ran just texted me. Oh, she's watching. Thank you, Franny. Nice to meet you virtually. Louis Jean says, is asking, do the swanies mask come in any other colors answer? Yeah, so it's a question about our swanies sleep mask and I don't have one with me at the moment. But the answer is yes, we have the colors that come in the color black and blue.   But if you're doing this, if you're lying the same way on silk, it actually is retaining the skin's moisture. So just a little tip there. Yeah, Antonello asks, my mother-in-law's got a problem staying asleep. She typically complains of waking up at about 1 or 2 a.m. and then she just can't get it back. Is there any holistic approach to helping her get her sleep back? I'm just worried about her health. Well, first of all, I don't know how long this has been happening for her or is that something that just recently happened because a lot of people's sleeps are being disturbed by the whole COVID and everything that's going on in the world, which is understandable. Again, there are actually homeopathic remedies that you can take that is natural. You can try it. I think one of my girlfriend who's watching, she had taken some stuff that she said actually works for her. I never had to, so I can't speak from experience. I just know that if anything happens for me, I go to the homeopathic pharmacy first. That's the first place I go. And also, again, all of these things we're doing in life, the most important thing is self-awareness. You have to ask yourself, how am I feeling? How can I get more relaxing? And even when I do the body scan, I think I'm lying on my bed. I think I'm relaxing, but then I tell myself, okay, relax the top of your head, relax your forehead, relax your skull to pay attention to it. And even to the point where when it's my heart or my internal organs, I'm telling my internal organs to relax, I put my hand on there. And the same thing, what I ask myself all through the day is, what am I feeling and where am I feeling it in my body? And you put love and attention there. So it depends. Is she worried about something? Is something bothering her? Is her diet? What does she eat before she goes to sleep?  It has too much caffeine. She's drinking green tea, which is healthy for you. But you have to understand your body system and everybody feels different. Yeah. I think I want to just concur with what you're sharing there. Okay. The gold standard of sleep, as I understand it and have researched it, and it involves, in my opinion, in my research, exposing yourself to as much natural light as early as you can in the morning, and then blocking as much artificial light, for example, in the evening, as well as ensuring that you don't eat in the last three hours before you want to retire for the night and sleep, ensuring that you're not drinking coffee within eight hours of bedtime, ensuring you're not drinking alcohol within three hours of drinking, of nighttime, I should say, or bedtime. So herbal teas and all those kind of things are fantastic because they're relaxing, they're very good for you. It prepares you for sleep. However, if you're drinking a herbal tea while staring into a screen, watching Netflix, or scrolling through your phone late at night on YouTube video, lying in bed, then you are compromising your ability to be able to sleep the way that nature always intended you to sleep. Also, the lights in our homes, quite frankly, are filled with artificial blue light, which triggers our pituitary and pineal glands, which stimulates them, which suppresses our body's ability to create melatonin. Our company, Swannick, has just come out with these better nights light bulb, which have almost no blue lights in them. In fact, they're yellow in nature, and when you put them in and you replace them around your home, it's a beautiful, calming light with no artificial light. And if you use those in conjunction with obviously wearing a pair of orange blue light blocking glasses, which blocks out the blue light. So if I do this right here, you can see it's blocking the artificial blue light. Then you will find that you'll fall asleep quicker, you'll sleep deeper, and you'll wake up feeling a lot more refreshed. So everything that Jonathan Lynn was talking about there is absolutely true. And in addition, first thing in the morning, try to expose yourself to as much natural light as possible, because our skin has receptors in it. And when the sunlight hits our skin, it tells our internal body clock, which is named our circadian rhythm. This is wake-up time. So now it's going to flood with the daytime hormones. And then it knows that about 12, 14 hours later, it's time to start flooding the body with nighttime hormones, such as melatonin. And again, all of that is a holistic approach, right, Shanta Lynn? None of that involves going to the doctor and get a prescription for Xanax or Ambien. It's just taking a holistic approach of eating well, getting sunlight, blocking artificial light at night, doing some breath work, drinking some herbal tea, making sure you're not eating or drinking alcohol in the last few hours before you go to sleep. As you know, I help people quit alcohol. Just don't drink alcohol. Just stop doing that. But if you are going to do it, don't do it in the last three hours before you go to sleep. Yeah, I think that's great advice. I'm not a huge drinker, but I am a big foodie. And I love to have a nice glass of wine sometime with my dinners, and I totally agree with you. And especially for me, I'm very much of a lightweight. It's kind of like I can't have too much. It's poison in my system. I turn pink. A lot of Asian people turn pink. We don't have the enzyme to break down the alcohol. So we're being poisoned, blood poisoning, until it leaves our system. And so it is something that I, again, I'm very conscious about, and I try to drink a ton of water to flush anything out of my system. But yeah, I love to get a good night's sleep, and it's important. Shantalan, you mentioned your son a few times. I'd love to ask you about him. But first, you actually came to America as a Vietnamese refugee back in 1977, as I understand it. And you were one of the thousands of quote, unquote, both people. And so I wanted to ask you about that. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about why that experience has made you so passionate about everything today. Well, you know, I was nine, almost turning 10. We live about two and a half years under the Communist regime in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 75. So this was November of 77. And my mom and I escaped out of Vietnam. It's a harrowing journey. And when I got to Malaysia, when we saw land, our boat kind of broke apart. And half of the people actually did die. You know, not everybody knew how to swim. And my mom and I got separated. So I was struggling, flailing. And I, at one point I told myself that no one was coming, that this was it. And I was surrendering. And I have to say, my mom was very prophetic. She, before the trip, she said to me, put on a red t-shirt, a long sleeve red t-shirt. So in case we get lost in the crowd, I can spot you. And I think to this day, that was the reason why I was safe, because my mom and I got separated. And I was for sure dying. I told myself, no one's coming. This Malaysian village fisherman came out and saved me. So I must have just surrendered and floated to the top, bobbing up and down, who saved my life. And from that moment on, for me, this is the promised land. And this is why we're here. So that there is a future for myself and my son. And I used to tell that story. And I said, I wasn't supposed to be here. I was meant to be here. And he would correct me. And he said, no, don't ever say that you are totally meant to be here because you're here. And if you're here, that means I get to be here. And I said, okay, you're right. And that's in fact, because the whole COVID and me pivoting all my work around, I am actually writing a memoir.  And to talk about my journey coming to America. And that's why to me, everything in life is icing on the cake. I've been worse. I didn't think I was going to have a life. So here I'm saying to myself, here's freedom. What can I do with it? What am I going to do with my life? How can I lead a legacy? How can I be observers? And all the things that I've been through, how can I use that information to help everyone else around me? So that's why I'm passionate about everything. Because I can, I can be. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, John Thulin. Beautiful.  He's a mini-me, for sure. He is a total mini-me with better qualities, too. He's super smart. He's a very sweet, sensitive, 14-and-a-half-year-old boy. He's an empath. So he feels very deeply. But I also love that he's just your normal, hot-blooded American boy. He's excited about life, too. And all he wants to do is get his ways. And he gets very creative in getting his ways. And I love that he's into sports. He loved to play basketball. He loved to skateboard. And we live here in Los Angeles. And now he's told me he's into surfing. So I'm going to try to find him a great surfing instructor, because that, to me, is like living here near the ocean and be a surfer is like a dream. I'm not a great swimmer. I did learn how to swim after that whole accident or incident back when I was nine. I actually talked myself into learning how to swim. But I have to tell you, I'm not comfortable in the water like he is. He's a fish. And I love that about him. And he's an entrepreneurial mind. He loves to make money. He sees I'm working. He's always asking me how he could make money. He started out babysitting. And then he said, well, that takes a lot of my time. I want to make more money. He's always constantly thinking about how to make money. And I said, what kind of life would you have? He's always very present, but he's always thinking about how he can do better and get better in life. And I love that, because I just want him to be happy. One of my favorite poets or a philosopher is Khalil Gibran. And he talks about how children are not in possessions. So my prayer every day is that I can be a good enough mom to support him on his journey of whoever he needs to be, whoever he's meant to be in this life and how to be a service. That's the one thing I keep talking to him about. How can we be a service? And then everything else will fall into place. But also the balance of learning about business. He loves business. And so, you know, it's a great combination. He's my greatest teacher because I want to teach by example. So therefore, I behave myself way better than when I wasn't a mom. You know, I'm more conscious and more aware. And I have to remember everything is an impact. What impact am I leaving for him? And, you know, I do that again. I'm not perfect, not the perfect mom by any stretch of the imagination. But I do my best and I put my heart into it. And he deserves it. And he deserves a happy mom too. So that's also the other side of, again, balance, you know, you need to be the best parent you can. But part of that is you also have to be the best human being. That means you have to be happy too. You got to pursue your own happiness. Can't help anybody from a place of lack. And I did come from that culture where you self-sacrifice. And now that I'm here, I'm like, wait, there's a balance. I can sacrifice, but knowing what I'm giving or what I'm offering and make sure that I didn't cut myself short. You've mentioned a couple of times, Chantalin, a body scan and breathwork. So I just wanted to bring our viewers' attention to the fact that you could ask Chantalin about her guided body scan, about her breathwork. We've actually put Chantalin's Instagram details there in the comments. If you're on YouTube, watching on YouTube, you can go to, it's chantalin.la. Is that right? Your Instagram page? My Instagram is chantalin.la. And I'm also on Facebook. And I'm also on LinkedIn. Those are my three. And I do Twitter, but it's more of like, I linked it to my other accounts, but I'm very active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. LinkedIn, it's more professional for me. Facebook feels a little more intimate and casual because I can do all my groups that I do. Like, for instance, right now, I'm doing this 21-day abundance group, you know, and I can guide people through.  I try to share that. Yeah. Yeah. And yes, I would offer all of your viewers if they're interested. You know, I can do a body scan, you know, virtually or over the phone to help you. It's a very relaxing thing. I would also offer, you know, something like a ho'oponopono, which is a Hawaiian practice of forgiveness because I believe forgiveness is not about forgiving the other person so much, but it's also letting go of the anger you're holding or the resentment that you're holding. It's not healthy for you because you're the one hurting. So I love those kind of practices too. So people can hit me up. So there are details on how to reach Chantalin in the comments down below, especially if you're watching on the replay. We have a lot of people who watch the replay later on who can't join us live. So there'll be details in the comments down below, whether you are watching this now on Facebook or YouTube. Go in there and you can learn more about how to get in contact with Chantalin and maybe do one of her guided body scans, maybe do some breath work with her and talk to her more about her holistic approach to life. Chantalin, thank you so much for giving us your time and your guidance here on Swannick Live. We so appreciate you. And thank you for inspiring me to go and live a little bit of a healthier life, more holistic and take more of a holistic approach. Well, thank you so much, James. I'm a big fan. I love your products. I love what you're doing to help people because I think sleep is really, really, really important. I feel much younger and prettier when I have eight hours of sleep and I'm a different person. And I love your products and what you're doing. So thank you and thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much and you're welcome.


Four things that drive narcissists insane. Narcissists are very controlling. They need to have influence and authority over you. They need to direct the course of events. They are self-absorbed and they lack empathy. They're very exploitative. They have to treat you unfairly in order to gain an advantage or benefit. They have to manipulate you. And when you're around them, you will feel like your mere existence is driving them insane. You will feel like you're bringing out the worst in them. You're causing them to show their worst qualities. They always find something to complain about. There's always something that makes them mad. When you're around a narcissist, you will feel like you can never be good enough. You will feel like you can never do anything right. There may be many things you do that drive the narcissist insane, but here are four of them which I believe to be the most important. One, disturbance. Narcissists are very controlling. They need to direct the course of events. They have a fixed way in which things are supposed to pan out. So they cannot tolerate any disturbance or problems that interrupt their event activity or process. Everything has to be about them. They have to get their pleasure and gratification. Everything has to go along with their agenda. They cannot accept any difference of opinion. They cannot let you do your own thing. If they need you at a specific time, you have to be there. You have to be ready whenever they need you. You have to agree with everything they say. If you don't, they're not going to take the time to understand your feelings or needs. They're just going to see it as an inconvenience. They're just going to see it as a disturbance or problem. If you think differently to the narcissist, they don't see it as though you're just a separate person with your own ideas and opinions. They see it as an inconvenience because they expect you to think just like them. They don't want you to have your own separate thoughts that are outside of their control because that gets in the way of them getting what they want. And all they care about is getting their needs met. Regardless of any inconvenience that it may cause to you, you can be an inconvenience to them, but they don't see it as though they could be an inconvenience to you. In their minds, you're just there subordinate. You're beneath them, so you just have to put up with it. 2. Complexity. Narcissists do not like anything that is too complicated or detailed. They need everything to be straight to the point. They cannot deal with any complicated processes or situations. They cannot deal with complicated people. They expect everything to be simple because it's easier for them to understand. If you are a complex person who has a different way of thinking or a different way of life, this will drive the narcissist insane because they lack empathy. They cannot share your experience. They cannot put themselves in your shoes. They cannot harmonize or coordinate with you because they don't even have an interest in anything complex about you. They're self-absorbed. They're only concerned about their own complexities and they expect you to make that your priority as well. They cannot deal with any problems, issues or crisis that happen to normal people living normal lives. They just look at it like that's your problem and you have to deal with it in your own time. But if they have a similar problem, it's a completely different story. They expect you to cater to them. They expect you to provide them with help and support. They are very hypocritical. They engage in the same behaviors and activities for which they criticize other people for. They claim to have moral standards or beliefs to which their own behavior does not conform. They fail to follow their own expressed moral rules and principles. They have black and white thinking where everything is either good or bad, right or wrong. They want everything to be simple. They want everything to fit their mold for how they see the world and when something complex naturally comes up they just see it as an inconvenience. They see it as though they have to adjust. They feel like they have to compromise. They cannot deal with anything that is uncertain or unclear, free, inclusion and diversity. Narcissists cannot deal with anyone who thinks differently than they do. They cannot deal with anyone who lives life in a way that is different to how they live life. They cannot include or involve people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds. They cannot be involved in a range of different things or people. They cannot include people who have different religious beliefs or lifestyle practices. It is natural in life to come across people who have a different way of life and sometimes you have to include people who have different experiences. It's good to accommodate people who have different ideas and opinions. People who have different lifestyle preferences but narcissists do not want to include or accommodate anyone. It bothers them. It makes them feel like they are losing control. They only want to deal with people who they think are like them. People who are in their club. Anyone who is different to them makes them feel uncomfortable because they always have to be right. They always have to be in control. They have to be the one who makes all of the decisions.  That threatens their authority. Narcissists are very insecure so they cannot tolerate differences in other people. For freedom. At some point you show the narcissist that you were to make choices for yourself and they do not like the idea of that. They have to be the authority. They have to be in control.  They expect you to just do as you're told. If you don't they see it as though you're being rebellious. You're not going along with that agenda. When maybe you just want to make your own choices. You just want to be your own separate person. But narcissists have this need to be in charge. They need to have influence and authority over you so that they are able to control you. So that they are able to direct the course of events. And then everything can pan out in the way that they would like. They don't care that you have different ideas or preferences. Sometimes they don't even notice. Because they're too preoccupied with their own interests and needs. Which is why they cannot tolerate any differences. Anything that threatens their control will drive them insane. Thank you for watching. I hope this video resonates with you. Please like, comment, share and subscribe. If you would like to donate, my PayPal link is in the video description. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.


ly familiar with the workings of the project they took a different approach and it was really community and school based we were literally the last resort and by that I mean they went out and went to each of the supervisor unions in that area and essentially we correct me if I get off track here but we recruited funding from those schools to hire an individual to oversee essentially the truancy issues in all of those communities and so they laid out a process where after a certain number of days, five days they will be alerted to the fact that somebody is missing they don't get involved until a later stage maybe ten days truancy and then at twenty days they will get really involved I'll just give you some quick numbers because you know time is tight but the numbers that they put together in this project are pretty amazing they started out this is 2018 2019 school year notification of the student being truancy that's five to ten days absent involved twenty students was the beginning number they take their first, there's a total of 4300 students in the three supervisor unions so 320 referrals to this program and the intervals are five days absent a documented attempt to make contact with the parent or guardian by the school at ten days absent there's again documented absence, support services offered by the school again, letter from the school, letter copied to this organization the Memorial Valley truancy program and the determination by that program at that stage and the school what needs to happen at that point if the truancy gets up to 15 days absent then the Memorial Valley project really gets involved in it the letter goes to the family notifying them of the Memorial Valley intervention they hold a meeting with the student, the parents, the guardian, the school they develop a plan to figure out what this family needs the superintendent seeks cooperation regarding the student's physical or mental fitness to attend school and then finally when it gets to 20 days absent the program works with the principal, the superintendent and DCF is involved at that point try to come up with a plan and if not it's referred to the state's attorney so our 4300 people, 320 started in that year by 15 days absent that number of 320 have been reduced to 85 children, the 20 days absent the number had been reduced to 29 students and by the time the court petition was filed 17 students from 11 families, 5% but much like any of these specialty projects or courts review it, it takes the community to support these, that's why we're struggling in some Senator Sears knows in some truth of court talk, they struggle not because somebody doesn't think it's a good idea the court is encouraging the community has to be behind these projects I think this is fabulous and I'm giving the fact that we seem to have someone I can just chime in with a little bit more sort of what I think, and in front of Marshall Paul deputy defender general and chief junior defender perhaps more relevant in this case former member of the Waterville school board and I would just add I think the real magic of this program and the reason that this program has been so successful and so incredibly successful really is the Loyal truancy project employs a dedicated social worker full-time who does nothing but truancy issues and really what was sort of missing from Judge Grierson's procedural explanation here is that when you start to approach 10 days absent you have a social worker knocking on your door and that's really what is making the difference the meetings are really important, the structure is really important the fact that it's consistent across the county but what it really is is that starting really early in the process rather than it being something like happens in other counties where letters go home, letters go home, letters go home petition gets filed and they wind up in court very early there's an intervention where a social worker is knocking on your door and a social worker is a not just sort of a consultative role but is actually a sort of boots on the ground if they show up at your house at 8 in the morning and you're not out of bed they're going to be standing there saying get out of bed, let's get in the car, we'll get you to the school we're going to move this along and if you are refusing that's going to change the course that the case takes and because it's so there's so much active involvement it's very easy to tell early on the case whether this is a case that needs to go in one direction or go in another direction and the project not just the social worker but the other people at the little restorative center who sort of supervise this project and I'd say mostly we're talking Heather and Becky Penbury are not just involved at the level of the family and knocking on the door but also finding out what the problems are and resolving them with the schools so they are prior to because it's a lot of the same work that gets done in court it's just being done long before the case goes to court when we have truancy cases that go to court it's a lot of work of essentially identifying why is this kid not going to school most of the time frankly in the really tricky sticky cases it's not simple it's not just a problem where the kid won't go to school there's problems at the school that need to be resolved in order to accommodate the kid it takes really the involvement and investment of everybody and so there will be meetings with the schools there will be negotiations people will try to identify what could we be doing at the school to make it so that this kid will go to the school while at the same time working at the home saying what can we change at the home to make this kid go to the school it's a really great program and it's been incredibly successful I was a attorney taking juvenile cases as a contract attorney as that program ramped up and as it really became effective and it was really just a sea change in how truancy was treated by the court system because it used to be the court system in a loyal county it was sort of like everybody was not really well equipped to deal with truancy issues because that's not what courts are designed for the tools that courts have are essentially take a kid into custody or don't take a kid into custody and a judge can sit on the bench and lie his finger in a kid that's about all the tools they have and this provided so much more to the point where we go for years where there would be truancy petitions were so incredibly rare because this project was essentially solving these problems before they came into the court system so it's a tremendous and it really was one of the things that was amazing about it I was at the same time as it was a contract attorney I was a school board member and it really was a grassroots thing they showed up at our school board meeting and they said we want you to budget X amount of money that was the question using the past tense who pays for it while the projects in lamoille county go out of the lamoille north district and there was a shared position between lairway and lamoille north and tom would not leave five days tom was there after two days to show up at the house but so it's no longer a thing it was taken over by the restorative justice it started as a school project it started as a school project it started as a school and it moved to the restorative justice as recently as four years ago which is when it was the last time the school board school boards were still kicking in money to it whether we were funding the whole thing or not and I'm not sure I think Martin is absolutely right that it is that the lamoille community restorative justice system deserves a great amount of credit because what they did is figure out how to blend money so the Orange program through DCF, the bannister restorative justice program is what we give money to lamoille to have a range of programs including addressing truancy and that happens actually throughout the state but what lamoille did very effectively and it sounds like there was some history works with the local schools so they also kicked in some money to enable lamoille to have this robust program it started before as a part time position funded through the school district and lamoille north and it was a shared position and then that moved as a shared position and Laraway had a presence in it and I can't remember exactly how much money they kicked in but Tom would go and it wasn't five days it was more like two days Tom was at their door going are you up I know you're in there and what I am struck by I guess I wanted to say is we even started there's trouble and we've gone to court and we have to fix the court process or we have to do that and what has been discussed or shared right now in terms of what is working on the truancy project is you know okay that's the court maybe but really what we're talking about is the community and then it's not just the school it's not just the family it's not just DCF it is in fact the community coming together and figuring out there's a proxy there's something's not right and the proxy in this example is the kids not going to school so the community in a sense is rallying around by where they're putting their money and owning meat the problem they're not waiting for the public defender or the judge or for that matter coming into custody to get help and just to be clear that really is so effective in the large part because truancy in particular like separate from the rest of child welfare issues it's really the judicial system public defender's judges prosecutors lack the tools it's not a very effective process if you give us a truancy case we're going to have a truancy case it's about the least effective way to handle truancy honestly one of the things that cracks me up in truancy cases is how often we have to go and pull kids out of school to take them to court we do that a lot I really like it when you're suspended because we didn't go to school and the way it's currently structured because they have to have the linkage as representative pew said you have to have a linkage with the school and then with the community in order to make it I would think to make it highly effective cost effective so how do we spread this I'm thinking we write bills we spread things by writing bills and we direct the appropriations process so DCF might take a little piece of their money that goes to the community it's tired of it but you know so seriously how do you give up some of your court money because I heard you scheduling your next meetings but you should talk to hennarovar they know more about this than we know they're the people who've done this program from the ground up and they know how to build it and they know how to get people invested in it and then we give it to the judicial system we give it to the defender's office and let you do it and I'm going to show my age but when I was a social worker in the field there was a truancy work whatever it takes and we would do whatever time of the day or night you went to the family's house to do stuff and whether it was to get the kid up whether it was to put the kid to bed I think what's significant throughout the state we have small programs and the idea was specific things and we don't have an inventory really of what would be right particularly with school issues whether it be truancy, suspension, expulsion fights in school whatever it is it's much better to delve within a restorative justice manner and many of the community justice centers are now more involved in function than they ever were before and that's keeping a lot of kids out of custody, a lot of kids out of trouble so it's actually money well spent after school drop by program kids are coming there, watch TV, eat popcorn I think in this case the reason it got started so well is because the school, the largest school district I think that you'll find that these community justice centers and school districts it was like pulling teeth, Senator Campion I introduced a bill on school expulsion and suspension and I'm telling you, you couldn't believe the education establishment, if you think DCF and others have problems when you try to do something in education you watch those folks they didn't want to do any human services work and yet I think you're at your full point which was we have a lot of programs that seem to be working addressing issues that get children and families children at risk and families that we can identify no, I don't think you are I am also saying, and I don't know if Chittenden County is an outlier or Howard Center is an outlier, Howard Center has school social workers in every single except one under Bill I.D. has a social worker in every single solitary school, I don't know that to mean they're not focused primarily on truancy I don't know how they get involved with that but this is not this is different from a person who is being a clinician and working, shall I say, individual therapy but more of what we are talking about so that's it may be that because of the size and breadth of that community mental health center that they're able to do some things which in your district and others it is the restorative justice. If you want, I can get the school district and I can get Heather or Becky come to talk about it. I am aware that we're going to begin to lose people and I didn't know if folks here got what they wanted and needed in terms of input and update around truancy and around GALs and CASA CASAS I just wanted to say it you said to do it before we can you add something I just want to be clear that truancy is a significant part of our bar to CASA so in effect DCF is putting a lot of resources into truancy and to insist with everything Judge Beerson and Marshall and you all have said clearly courts are and should be a very last resort I understand that we have children who have to be focused on reason is they didn't go to school so the answer I hope it is still no but it is a provision in the law that allows it which is how there can be changed proceeding because I think it's part deep subsection B that allows that but none of us including clearly the commission of DCF does not want a child coming into state custody because of truancy. All of these other approaches are a benefit to the youth. We want kids to be very successful I bet you are going to say oh but I have heard from parents and that is why they are there. Actually what I was going to say is the beauty of what was just described is that there is beauty for the parent too because you try being a parent who is under DOC supervision and you have a three o'clock mandatory meeting but DCS says you've got to be at the bus stop to pick up your child at three o'clock and corrections doesn't recognize DCF and DCF doesn't recognize corrections and if you've got that kind of a community meeting then the parents can bring those issues to the table and solutions can come up and all likelihood corrections needs to change the time of the meeting but you try to go to corrections and tell them to help. I want to say that the communication between departments within the agency of human services and outside has been something that is challenging, hell it's challenging to get us in the same room at the same time. It's been identified, it's been something that I think people are trying to work on. It's certainly not helped by a technology that is older than I am. This helps, this kind of approach really does because those issues that we're on today... Oh stop! Stop! So what I was going to say, I'm just talking to Judge Gerson that the Justice for Children Task Force recognized the issue of truancy and frankly that the numbers had started to go off in terms of court and though recently they went down a little bit which is certainly good news but there's a subcommittee of that Justice for Children Task Force that is going to be making recommendations. I do think they're going to focus on replicating the Lamoille program which again I think is a really good thing. And what I would ask if you are going to have continued discussions, and I think Senator Westman indicated, let's include the schools or AOE because they are a really critical part of this conversation. Again Lamoille is an outlier in a complementary way in stepping up and being involved. I'm not sure that that is consistently true around the state. Thank you very much. Is there a special name for the program? That's real. That's it. Thank you.


Jan asks, do you think there is a problem with Bitcoin to be used as a currency or store of value? Since it can be easily destroyed by losing the private keys. Could it be a good idea to make a rule that Bitcoin that hasn't moved in 50 or 100 years is redistributed to miners again? Okay, it's a two-part question, so let's look at the first part. Do I think that it is a problem for Bitcoin to be used either as a medium of exchange, currency, or as a store of value? If Bitcoin keys can be lost, then therefore the Bitcoin can be lost as well. No, I don't think it's a problem. The reason I don't think it's a problem is because the loss of keys and the loss of Bitcoin from circulation simply acts to reduce the inflation rate of the currency by removing currency from circulation at the same time that currency is being added through mining. So it reduces the inflation rate. At some point, of course, the inflation rate goes to zero, and thereby any keys that are lost will cause deflation. But Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency is already deflationary, so it becomes a bit more deflationary through the loss of keys, which increases the value of all of the cryptocurrency held by everyone else. When someone loses their keys, let's say I lose the keys to 100 Bitcoin. Let's hope not. That's a lot of money. But let's say I lose the keys to 100 Bitcoin. What happens to the Bitcoin economy as a whole? Effectively, there's 100 Bitcoin less, which means that the economic activity of the entire Bitcoin economy is now divided into a smaller amount of Bitcoins, and therefore that smaller amount of Bitcoin has more value. That's it. Effectively, in pure economic terms, I have given a gift of 100 Bitcoin to everyone. The value of my 100 Bitcoin has been redistributed by increasing the value of everybody's Bitcoin by the same proportion. Essentially, every time someone loses keys, it's like they're gifting that Bitcoin to everybody who still has their keys by increasing its value. Also, there's an interesting effect that happens there, because as the value of the Bitcoin increases because of losses, that creates the right incentives for people to be more careful with their keys, as what they hold has more value. But the bottom line is it doesn't matter. Think of Bitcoin as a unit of measurement. If I measure your height in inches versus your height in centimeters, I'll get two different numbers. Has your height changed? No. The unit of measurement changed, so I got a different number. The same thing applies to currency, meaning that if I take the size of the economy and divide it by 21 million Bitcoin, or I divide it by 1 million Bitcoin, I'll get two different results. Has the size of the economy changed? No. What will change is the value of each Bitcoin, because I'm putting more economy into a smaller amount of Bitcoin. The value of Bitcoin will increase, but it's just a unit of measurement. The value isn't in the Bitcoin, the value is in the economy. Bitcoin as a currency is a unit that measures the value of the economy. If you think of it as a unit of measurement, it makes sense. If you change the unit of measurement, it doesn't change what you're measuring. We can lose all of the Bitcoin. In fact, you could go down to having one Bitcoin being the only one left, and the entire world's economy in one Bitcoin. What you would need at that point is smaller units than Satoshi's. You'd have to go and subdivide a Satoshi into smaller and smaller units, in order to have enough granularity in your measurement. But other than that, nothing changes. Of course, we can make changes to the protocol to introduce smaller units, like milli-Satoshi's. In fact, we already see milli-Satoshi being implemented in the Lightning Network. It isn't a problem if we lose keys. The second part of your question is also interesting. Would it be a good idea to make a rule that Bitcoin hasn't moved in 50 to 100 years, is redistributed to miners again? Well, that might be a good rule. I would guess that no one would agree to that rule. As a Bitcoin owner, I would not agree to that rule. The reason I wouldn't agree to that rule is for two reasons. One, setting any arbitrary deadline, 50 years to redistribute to my funds if I haven't moved them, means that I have to then think about that in terms of inheritance planning or long-term cold storage. 50 years is within the lifetime of a person. If you make it 100 years, what you're doing is applying an economic impact. First of all, you will bring back into circulation Bitcoin hasn't been moved. This may have a significant impact on the economy in the future. Imagine if suddenly a lot of Bitcoin hasn't been moved for the same period of time comes back into the economy. That will have an inflationary effect. Not only that, but who do you redistribute it to? If you redistribute it to the miners, you are giving them incentives to break the rules, as well as essentially doing economic redistribution to a narrow group of people who are participants in the economy. Why not give it to everyone? Then all of these political and economic questions come up. The simple answer is that we don't need to do any of that. One of the things that we have to realize is that the cryptographic keys and algorithms used in Bitcoin do not last forever. Meaning that at some point, elliptic curve digital signature and perhaps even the SHA-256 algorithm will be obsolete. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 20 years, certainly less than 50 years, these cryptographic algorithms will no longer be strong enough to protect the ownership of coins that haven't been switched over to a stronger cryptographic algorithm. Meaning that all Bitcoin needs to be recycled from time to time into better cryptographic algorithms, perhaps due to the development of quantum computing, perhaps due to the development of mathematics in the area of the discrete logarithm problem, or some other development that we don't know about yet. So all cryptographic systems have an end-life, they have an expiry date. We don't know what that expiry date is, but we know they don't last forever. And whether we like it or not, at some point, if keys haven't been handled by their owners and the cryptographic algorithm that covers them becomes weak, people will be able to break those keys and retrieve those coins. Interestingly enough, that's a better policy than giving it to the miners. Because what it does is it gives an economic incentive to have systems that break keys and test the security of the system in such a way that the people who get the money are the people who put the effort into breaking the keys with their brand-new quantum computers. So it creates a bounty, essentially, for testing the security of the system and it rewards the people who exercise that bounty. So, essentially, that's already going to happen. Next question comes from Jen. Many assume that some coins are lost forever, nobody knows, and the keys could still exist. If Satoshi holds more than 2% of the maximum supply, what are the dangers of centralization of power in unknown hands? The same dangers that exist in any monetary or economic system due to the concentration of economic power in a few hands. The concentration in Bitcoin, if Satoshi still has the keys and can use them and is still alive and still wants to use them, is quite extreme. It's more than you see in other economies. Of course, politically, I would consider that a very different scenario in many economies where wealth has been acquired through various forms of exploitation, dictatorship, war, etc., versus the wealth that Satoshi potentially accumulated by both inventing and investing in a early stage, very risky technology that nobody believed in. It's probably a different situation politically. But again, I can understand why people might be concerned about that. We have no way of knowing, and the markets would incorporate that information fairly quickly. The way we would know is if some of those coins started moving, we would probably see a response by the market. There are all kinds of conspiracy theories and discussions about who has those coins, whether they still exist, etc., or whether the keys still exist. I am not that interested in exploring those conspiracy theories. We will let the market find out for itself. James asked, has there ever been a deflationary currency experiment before, and do we need inflation? I mean, why would you buy anything if by holding you increased your purchasing power? We need inflation. How do we create that with Bitcoin? There have been deflationary economies, but you have to realize, James, that most of the deflationary economies... that are being studied by economists, are ones that are facing deflation in the face of unlimited ability by the government to print money. Meaning that the deflation is not caused by a restriction in supply, but instead by a collapse in demand in the economy. So, deflation is a symptom. The question is, is it a symptom of what? If the only economies you have studied that have deflationary characteristics are economies in fiat, then that deflation is always the result, the symptom, of a collapse in demand. Because the supply is infinite. There is no way to stop the supply. If you have a deflating economy, what you do is you print money. We have seen this example in Japan. We are even seeing it in the United States now. When you have deflationary tendencies like that, the government starts printing more money. So, the only way it is still deflationary, even when you are printing a limited amount of money, is because there has been a collapse in demand. Of course, a collapse in demand is a bad thing, but it is not the deflation that is a bad thing, it is the collapse in demand that is a bad thing. So, in traditional economics, deflation is seen as an always bad thing, because monetary deflation is always a result of a collapse in demand, because supply is not limited in any way. Deflation in Bitcoin is a very different thing. Deflation in Bitcoin is caused by a reduction in supply, not a collapse in demand. It is caused by very robust demand, meeting limited supply, and technological advancement. That form of deflation is qualitatively very different from the deflation you see in a collapse in demand. Without a collapse in demand, deflation isn't a bad thing. Allow me to demonstrate. I currently have in front of me a computer that I purchased for about $1500 that contains more processing power than the supercomputers of the 1980s. Many orders of magnitude more processing power. Over that time, the cost of this technology of laptops, phones, video devices, all of these technologies that we use around us has collapsed. In a deflationary collapse that is not driven by a drop in demand, but is driven by a very robust demand in an environment where technology is offering better and better and better products, where more is law applies, and where supply is restricted, but demand is very robust. That is a deflationary environment caused by a healthy market, not a deflationary environment caused by a recessionary or depression environment. In that environment, why would I buy a laptop if my money goes much further and if I wait three years, I can buy a much better laptop for the same amount of money? And then, presumably, I would never buy a laptop, I would just keep the same one forever. The same thing applies to every technology out there. Why would I buy a better device when I can just keep the current one and wait two years and get an even better device? We see that in technology. People don't postpone purchases like that. Instead, what they do is use the advantage of the deflationary system. What happens is they spend their money now, but save some for the future. The money they save for the future, as it maintains more value vis-à-vis the laptop or mobile they are buying, becomes a better purchase in the future. So, saving isn't necessarily the same as hoarding. My experience with Bitcoin is, yes, I've become a better saver and I save more since I started using Bitcoin, but I haven't stopped spending. I still spend Bitcoin on a regular basis, in fact, in order to use it as a currency, because I work with it as a currency every day. I also earn it as a currency every day, so my hoarding instinct isn't that acute because I earn it, because I'm in the economy of cryptocurrencies in general. I'm not just buying it as an investment and burying it in cold storage. I'm earning and spending it for my business every single week. My attitude is very different, I think. I don't find that I'm restricted in my spending by the idea that, in the future, it's going to have greater value. Deflationary economies are bad, because inflationary economies and currencies that have infinite supply can only happen when you have a catastrophic collapse in demand. That is not the case with cryptocurrencies, or especially Bitcoin, which has limited supply. It's a very different thing.