Rooted in Wellness with Mona Sharma - Mona Sharma

Latest Episodes:

126. The Self-Improvement Trap: Why More Healing Work Is Not Always the Answer with Panache Desai Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from spending years trying to heal yourself and still feeling like you have not arrived. You go to therapy, journal, regulate your nervous system, learn your patterns, and keep looking for the next thing that will finally help you feel peaceful. Then an old emotion returns or you find yourself in a familiar pattern, and it can feel like proof that there is still something wrong with you.

The part we rarely question is what all that effort may be teaching us. When every difficult emotion, symptom, or setback becomes another problem to solve, healing can begin to reinforce the feeling that we are still incomplete. So what changes when we stop approaching ourselves as a project that always needs work? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Panache Desai to talk about why “doing the work” can become its own source of pressure, what acceptance actually asks of us, and why being human was never something we needed to overcome.

Panache is a bestselling author, transformational speaker, and former guest on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday who has spent over three decades helping people move beyond endless self-correction and reconnect with the peace and wholeness already within them.

What’s Discussed:

05:52 Why accepting your humanity can change the way you relate to yourself.

11:58 The emotion many people suppress because they believe it makes them less healed.

14:12 Why doing more healing work can leave you feeling even further from peace.

19:49 What happens when self-improvement begins from the belief that you are incomplete.

21:26 How healing can become an identity that keeps you searching for the next thing to fix.

37:05 Why changing your circumstances does not always create the safety you are looking for.

59:14 Why simple practices repeated consistently may matter more than another healing method.

Listen to this episode if you are tired of turning every emotion, setback, or symptom into another reason to work harder on yourself.

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips
Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation.
Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Panache Desai:

Website: panachedesai.com/call-to-calm-meditations/

125. Peptides Are Not a Shortcut: Here’s What Your Body Needs First with Nathalie Niddam Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Peptides are everywhere right now, and the promise is hard to ignore. When you are dealing with slow recovery, inflammation, low energy, gut issues, or the feeling that your body is no longer responding the way it used to, hearing that one compound could help, can make it feel like the answer you have been waiting for.

The excitement around peptides is real, but so is the confusion. With so many compounds, protocols, and promises circulating online, it can be difficult to know what your body may actually need, what is worth paying attention to, and where to begin. In this episode, I sat down with Nathalie Niddam to cut through the noise and talk about what you need to know before following a recommendation, building a stack, or adding a peptide to your routine.

Nathalie Niddam is a holistic nutritionist and longevity educator, and host of Longevity with Nathalie Niddam. After years of studying peptides, bioregulators, and regenerative health, along with managing a peptide community of approximately 36,000 people, she brings a grounded perspective to both the potential of these tools and the mistakes people make when using them without enough context.

What’s Discussed:

(16:47) The biggest mistake people make when starting peptides and why someone else’s protocol may not be right for your body.

(22:22) What peptides and bioregulators are, how they work, and the difference between supporting the body and forcing an outcome.

(27:13) What the current evidence around BPC-157 can and cannot tell us, and how to think about emerging science without ignoring real-world experience.

(34:29) How to tell thoughtful peptide guidance from influencer hype and what to look for before trusting a recommendation.

(40:01) Why larger peptide and supplement stacks can create new blind spots, and why intentional use may help you understand what is actually working.

(49:30) Why food, movement, sleep, stress support, hormones, baseline testing, and body awareness still matter before adding advanced longevity tools.

Listen to this episode if peptides have caught your attention, but you want a more grounded way to understand where they may fit into your health

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips

Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation.

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Nathalie Niddam:

Website: natniddam.com

Instagram: @longevitywithnat

124. The Attachment Wound Behind Your Relationship Patterns with Thais Gibson Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Why do we sometimes pull away from the people we love most? Why can closeness feel comforting one moment and overwhelming the next? And why do certain patterns keep repeating even when we know we want something different?

In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Thais Gibson to look at the patterns underneath how we love, cope, shut down, chase, self-soothe, and respond when our nervous system does not feel fully safe. We talk about attachment styles, core wounds, subconscious beliefs, emotional triggers, and why the way we learned to protect ourselves can quietly shape our relationships, stress, habits, and healing.

Thais Gibson is a bestselling author, PhD, and founder of Integrated Attachment Theory™, a neuroscience-backed framework designed to help people understand and rewire attachment patterns. With over a decade in private practice and more than 30,000 students across 115 countries, she brings a clear, compassionate, and deeply practical lens to why these patterns form and how they can begin to change.

What’s Discussed:

(19:43) Why old habits and instant fixes may point to something deeper beneath the surface.

(24:07) Rapid-fire truths on attachment styles, trauma responses, therapy, conflict, and relationship healing.

(31:00) What attachment style really means and why it matters beyond romantic relationships.

(50:01) The deeper needs that can drive chasing, withdrawing, shutting down, or searching outside yourself.

(56:48) How self-soothing patterns can show up through cravings, numbing, and comfort-seeking habits.

(1:00:15) Why early beliefs can quietly shape the way we love, react, and protect ourselves as adults.

(1:20:07) How attachment wounds can connect to burnout, anxiety, emotional eating, and the body’s stress response.

Listen to this episode if you have ever wondered why you keep repeating a pattern you thought you had already outgrown. This conversation will help you see attachment through a more compassionate lens and understand why healing begins with what your nervous system learned long before you had words for it. 🎧

Thank You to Our Sponsors:
CAROL Bike: Visit carolbike.com/mona and use code MONA for a special discount.

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Thais Gibson:

Instagram: @thepersonaldevelopmentschool

Podcast: Breakthrough with Thais Gibson Podcast

123: What “Normal” Labs Are Not Telling You About Your Thyroid with Dr. Amie Hornaman Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Some seasons of health feel confusing because nothing looks dramatic on paper, but daily life tells a different story. You are exhausted in a way coffee cannot cover. Your weight is shifting even though your habits have not changed that much. Your hair feels thinner. Your brain feels foggy. And when you finally ask for help, the labs come back “normal,” and suddenly the conversation ends before anyone really explains why you still do not feel like yourself.

That is where so many women get stuck. The symptoms are real, but the testing is often too narrow. The answer gets reduced to aging, menopause, stress, or needing to try harder, when the thyroid may be part of the picture that has not been properly seen yet. And for women over 40, that missing thyroid conversation can change how they understand their energy, metabolism, hormones, and body signals.

Dr. Amie Hornaman joins me to talk about the thyroid patterns that are often overlooked, including thyropause, incomplete lab testing, reverse T3, Hashimoto’s, and why TSH alone does not tell the full story. Dr. Amie is a hormone optimization specialist, founder of the Advanced Thyroid and Hormone Clinic, and a leading voice in thyroid health whose work is rooted in both clinical expertise and her own experience of being dismissed by six doctors before finally getting answers.

What’s Discussed:

(08:23) The symptoms women are told to accept with age that may point back to the thyroid.

(10:28) Why a small gland can affect energy, weight, hair, digestion, mood, and heart rhythm.

(12:19) What thyropause means and why it may be missing from the menopause conversation.

(20:09) The top signs Dr. Amie looks for when women feel like they are doing everything right.

(25:59) Why TSH is only one signal and what a fuller thyroid panel can reveal.

(38:13) Why weight loss medications may not work the same way when thyroid function is not optimized.

(54:04) When biohacking becomes one more stressor instead of true support.

Listen to this episode if you have been trying to understand why your body feels different, but the answers you have been given do not match what you feel every day.

Thank You to Our Sponsor:

Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Dr. Amie Hornaman

Website: dramie.com

Instagram: @dramiehornaman

Tiktok: @dramiehornaman

122: The Cellular Reason Your Body Feels Different After 30 with Jennifer Scheinman Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

There is a frustrating moment that can happen in your thirties or forties when your body starts to feel different, but you cannot quite explain why. Your energy dips in a way that coffee does not really fix. Your recovery takes longer. Your focus feels hazier. Your body feels less responsive, even when you are eating well, moving, taking supplements, and trying to do the things that are supposed to help.

And the hardest part is how easy it is to dismiss all of it. You start wondering if this is just aging, if your hormones are the whole problem, or if you need to try harder with another protocol. But what if the shift you are feeling is happening somewhere where most conversations about energy, hormones, and longevity do not look deeply enough? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Jennifer Scheinman to talk about why energy, recovery, focus, hormones, and body composition can start shifting in your thirties and forties, and what mitochondrial health, mitophagy, and Urolithin A may reveal about what is happening beneath the surface.

Jennifer Scheinman is a registered dietitian with nearly three decades of experience and the Director of Scientific Communications at Timeline. Her work sits at the intersection of nutrition, cellular biology, longevity, mitochondrial health, and Urolithin A, which makes her the right person to explain why energy, recovery, focus, and resilience may have more to do with your cells than most people realize.

What’s Discussed:

(08:51) Why energy, focus, and recovery can start feeling different in your thirties and forties.

(23:36) What chronic stress may be doing beneath the surface.

(26:09) Why Urolithin A is becoming part of the cellular health conversation.

(34:45) What Mona realized after seeing her own toxic burden results.

(42:08) Why healthspan has to include how you actually feel in your body.

(45:06) The subtle signs that something may be starting to work.

(55:10) How ancient practices connect with modern mitochondrial research.

Thank You to Our Sponsor:

Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA

MitoQ: Go to mitoq.com/mona and use code MONA for 10% off

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Jennifer Scheinman (Timeline):

Website: www.timeline.com/

Instagram : jenscheinman_nutrition

121. The Health Problem Hiding in Your Zip Code with Tony Cho Jul 03, 2026

Show notes

A lot of wellness advice assumes the problem lives inside the individual. Your stress. Your habits. Your discipline. Your food choices. Your ability to regulate. But what happens when you are already doing the things that are supposed to help and your life still feels strangely disconnected? You eat well, meditate, try to regulate your nervous system, maybe even spend money on wellness, but the second you return to your commute, your neighborhood, your apartment, or another day without real connection, something in your body still feels unsettled.

That is the health problem hiding in your zip code. In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Tony Cho, a purpose-driven entrepreneur and regenerative placemaking visionary, to talk about why loneliness is not always a personal failure, why modern cities can dysregulate the nervous system, and why the future of wellness has to include the places, communities, and systems we live inside. And until you start looking at the spaces around you, you may keep trying to fix symptoms that were never meant to be carried alone.

Tony Cho is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and visionary community builder helping cities evolve into living ecosystems that support human connection, creativity, and regeneration. His work bridges personal well-being, community design, and the future of the built environment in balance with nature and culture.

What’s Discussed:

(06:07) Smart cities vs. wise cities, and what modern development is getting wrong.

(10:02) How ashram life shaped Tony’s view of community, ritual, death, and belonging.

(21:13) Why regenerative placemaking starts with listening to the land, people, and culture.

(38:09) Why loneliness may be a design flaw, not a personal failure.

(1:07:16) What wellness spaces miss when they focus on biohacking instead of place and people.

(1:12:13) Why third places matter for connection, community, and everyday belonging.

(1:22:30) How ritual can bring people back to existence without dogma or rigid rules.

Thank You to Our Sponsor:

Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Tony Cho:

Website: ony-cho.com/generation-regeneration

Substack: tonycho1111.substack.com/

Instagram: @tonycho

Gaia TV Series: gaia.com/series/road-to-utopia

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chotimelive/

YouTube: @RegenerativeLivingwithTonyCho

Press: tony-cho.com/press

The Ayurvedic Way to Lose Weight Without Hunger, Shame, or Punishment Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

Weight loss can feel exhausting when every plan gives you another reason to push harder. Eat less. Cut more. Fast longer. Ignore hunger. Be more disciplined. But for so many people, that only leads to the same cycle: trying harder, feeling stuck, blaming yourself, and wondering why your body still feels bloated, inflamed, tired, or out of rhythm.

In this solo episode of Rooted in Wellness, I’m looking at weight loss through an Ayurvedic lens, where the conversation is not only about calories, restriction, or willpower. It is also about the state your body is in while you are trying to change it.

Because if your digestion feels off, your cravings feel louder, your stress feels constant, or your body feels like it is holding on no matter what you do, the answer may not be another extreme reset. It may be learning how to support your body in a way that feels more grounded, nourishing, and sustainable.

What’s Discussed:

(02:47) Why the usual “eat less, move more” weight loss advice may not be the full story.

(05:53) How Ayurveda looks at digestion, Agni, and the body’s ability to process what it takes in.

(08:37) Why pushing through hunger can become part of the same cycle people are trying to escape.

(13:41) The role daily rhythm plays in cravings, energy, digestion, and feeling regulated.

(22:00) Why meal timing matters, especially when dinner becomes the biggest meal of the day.

(27:49) How warm meals, cooked foods, and digestive spices can change the way your body receives nourishment.

(42:43) Why stress, inflammation, and feeling overloaded can make the body feel stuck.

Listen to this episode if weight loss has started to feel like a fight with your body, and you want a more compassionate way to understand what your body may be asking for. 🎧

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips
Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation.
Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Thank You to Our Sponsor:
Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA

120. What Most People Get Wrong About Cardio with Ulrich Dempfle Jun 24, 2026

Show notes

There is a frustrating point a lot of people hit with cardio. You know it matters. You know heart health, stamina, and energy are important, especially as you think about aging well. But the version of cardio most of us were taught feels hard to keep up with: long workouts, more sweat, more time, and another thing on your schedule that can leave you feeling drained before the day has even started.

That is also why the “I do not have time” problem is not always as simple as it sounds. For many people, cardio feels like something that only counts if it takes a big chunk of time or proves itself through exhaustion. But what if the body does not need another hour-long workout to start adapting? What if the real question is whether the workout is giving your body the right signal in the first place?

In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Ulrich Dempfle to talk about why the way we think about cardio, VO2 max, and longevity may need a serious update. Ulrich is the CEO and co-founder of CAROL, and he used his background in mechanical engineering to help develop the world’s only Reduced Exertion HIIT, or REHIT, bike alongside leading exercise researchers. He breaks down why short, precise effort can create a powerful cardiovascular response, and why improving your fitness may not require overhauling your entire life.

Shop at http://carolbike.com/mona for a special discount!

What’s Discussed:

(06:37) Why sweating is not the only sign that a workout counted.

(08:29) The outdated “no pain, no gain” advice that keeps people chasing longer, harder workouts.

(14:40) Why the minimum effective dose may matter more than spending an hour on cardio.

(19:32) How breathwork helps your body recover after short, intense effort.

(37:04) Why more sprints or longer intervals do not always create better results.

(45:08) Why VO2 max matters for longevity, oxygen delivery, mitochondria, and energy for life.

(58:15) How Ulrich builds short cardio, strength training, and joyful movement into his own routine.

Listen to this episode if cardio has always felt like something you need to make more time for, push harder through, or recover from afterward. This conversation will help you understand why improving cardiovascular fitness may have less to do with doing more, and more to do with giving your body a signal it can actually use. 🎧

Thank You to Our Sponsor:

BIOptimizers: Visit bioptimizers.com/mona and use MONA at checkout to get the best deal on Masszymes and all BIOptimizers products.

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Ulrich Dempfle and CAROL Bike:

Ulrich Dempfle: carolbike.com/global/community/ulrich-dempfle-rider-story/

CAROL Bike: http://carolbike.com/mona

114: Why Nothing You’ve Tried for Anxiety and Stress Is Actually Working with Dr. Dave Rabin Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

You can be sleeping, exercising, taking supplements, trying to meditate, cutting back on caffeine, doing all the “right” things, and still feel like your body is bracing for something you cannot name. That is the part so many stress conversations miss, because anxiety is not always something you can mindset your way out of when your nervous system has learned that safety is not the default.

We dive deeper into this in Rooted in Wellness with Dr. Dave Rabin, and this conversation will change the way you understand stress, anxiety, trauma, and why everything you have tried has only ever scratched the surface of what actually needs to heal.

Dr. Dave Rabin is a board certified psychiatrist and neuroscientist with over 12 years of post-college medical training specializing in chronic stress, trauma, and treatment resistant mental illness, one of the few psychiatrists in the United States trained in both ketamine and MDMA assisted therapy, and the co-founder of Apollo Neuroscience. With decades spent working with the most treatment resistant patients in psychiatry, the people who had tried everything and still could not find relief, he has dedicated his entire career to finding what actually works when nothing else does.

What's Discussed:

(5:04) The four pillars of self trust and why restoring a sense of agency is the foundation of all healing.

(13:53) Why looking at your phone first thing in the morning is one of the most dysregulating things you can do to your nervous system.

(17:35) Why anxiety is not a disorder but a signal and what happens when we treat it like one.

(22:11) How chronic stress diverts up to 80% of your blood flow away from every system in your body responsible for healing.

(34:03) Why perfectionism is a biological trap and what it is actually doing to your nervous system.

(39:20) How trauma changes your gene expression and what epigenetics tells us about the possibility of healing.

(1:03:59) Why the source of all healing comes from within and how psychedelic assisted therapy is proving it.

(1:23:54) Why optimizing from a place of fear is actually shortening your life and what to do instead.

Listen to this episode of Rooted in Wellness and walk away with a completely different understanding of your body, your nervous system, and why feeling safe is not a luxury but the foundation of every single thing your body needs to heal.

Thank you to our Sponsors:

AX3 Life: Use code MONA for 20% off first order at AX3.Life

MitoQ - Go to mitoq.com/mona and use code MONA for 10% off

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Dr. Dave Rabin:

Instagram: @drdavidrabin

Book - A Simple Guide to Being Alive pre-order link: A-Simple-Guide-To-Being-Alive

Website: www.drdave.io/

Podcast: The-Psychedelic-Report/

118: The Detox Mistake That Keeps Your Body Feeling Off with Dr. Josh Levitt Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

There is a specific kind of frustration that happens when you are trying to take care of your body, but something still feels off. You are eating better, taking supplements, trying to manage stress, maybe even getting your labs checked, but your energy still feels low, your brain feels foggy, your digestion feels sluggish, or your hormones feel harder to understand than they used to.

But what if the answer is not another extreme cleanse, another supplement, or another reason to blame yourself? What if your body has been sending quieter signals through the organ most people only think about when they hear the word “detox,” and understanding that organ could change the way you look at your energy, mood, hormones, digestion, and daily health? In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Dr. Josh Levitt to talk about why the liver is so much more than a filter, why detox trends often miss the point, and how to support your body’s built-in detox process in a way that feels practical and sustainable.

Dr. Joshua Levitt, ND, is a naturopathic physician, author, educator, and Co-Founder and Medical Director at UpWellness, with over 20 years of hands-on clinical experience helping people understand their bodies through a grounded, integrative lens.

What’s Discussed:

(04:19) Why Mona’s healing journey inspired Rooted in Wellness and the bridge between Eastern and Western medicine.

(10:28) Why balance is not about staying perfectly steady, but learning how to manage the moments that pull you off center.

(20:30) The subtle signs your liver may need support before anything obvious shows up on labs.

(21:26) Why the liver is not just a filter, and how that misunderstanding can keep people from connecting their symptoms.

(23:58) What standard liver labs can tell you, and why “normal” results may not always explain why you still feel off.

(42:06) What people should know before trying detox teas, juice cleanses, liver flushes, or viral detox trends.

(57:09) Why liver health belongs in the conversation around hormones, HRT, perimenopause, stress, and how your body processes what it carries.

Listen to this episode to understand why supporting your liver may not be about doing a harder detox, and why feeling sluggish, foggy, hormonally off, or disconnected from your body may have more to do with daily support than another extreme reset. 🎧

Thank You to Our Sponsor:

MitoQ: Go to mitoq.com/mona and use code MONA for 10% off

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide - 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started now at monasharma.com/12tips
Visit Mona's website: monasharma.com – Unlock powerful tools and wisdom rooted in wellness to elevate your health, energy, and clarity. Mona blends ancient healing practices with modern science to help you achieve lasting transformation.
Follow Mona on Instagram: Stay connected with Mona for daily inspiration, holistic health tips, and personal growth. Join the conversation on Instagram at @monasharma

Learn more about Dr. Josh Levitt & UpWellness:

Website: upwellness.com

UpWellness LTV: drinkLTV.com

Instagram: @drjoshlevitt

TikTok: @drjoshlevitt