 Did you know that there are over 2,200 known religions in the world? We are all born into one belief, religion, or faith, which influences how we see the world and everything and everyone in it, including ourselves. Do our beliefs divide and separate us, or do they bring us together in greater harmony? When you look up with awe on a star-filled night, do you ask who or what created all of this? Have you ever had a profound or deeply challenging experience in your life that changed your beliefs at the core of your being? Enlightened Pathways takes us on a journey of discovery to understand just how spiritual transformational experiences impact our lives and the world around us. Join us now as we deeply explore all that nourishes, heals, and inspires us. Welcome to Enlightened Pathways. Hello and welcome. My name is Robert Kabeca. Welcome to Enlightened Pathways. And welcome to another journey into spiritual transformation. My special guest today is Dr. Anna Kabeca. I met Dr. Anna Kabeca at a convention. Oh, no, wait. She's my sister, and I've known her my whole life. I've known her her whole life. There we go. Before you start questioning why I would invite my sister on a spiritual talk show, let me tell you that this incredible woman has risen from the ashes more than once. I'll let her tell you about that in a minute. My sister, I mean Dr. Anna Kabeca here, is the renowned girlfriend doctor, all right? And she earned that reputation through all of her work helping innumerable women make transformations in their own life. Dr. Anna is a triple board certified OB-GYN integrative medicine and anti-aging and regenerative medicine physician. She's a three-time bestselling author. She's developer of the Mighty Maka Plus supplement, which I love taking for many years. I didn't like taking when I first started taking it, but I really love it and I take it all the time. It's part of my regular routine. But anyhow, she's inventive, she's ingenious, she is brilliant, and she has a spiritual depth to her that I truly admire knowing many of the challenges that she's faced in her life. So without further ado, I would like to introduce and welcome my sister, Dr. Anna Kabeca. Welcome. Oh my gosh, it is really an honor to be here with you, Robbie. I thank you so much for having me on your show and especially for the topic of discussion. And I really love the breadth and depth of it. And thank you. It's been a journey, hasn't it? So why don't we start by letting me ask you where you grew up, I mean where we grew up and what kind of religious environment that we grew up in, as you remember? Yeah. And I always think there's always different perspectives, right, even within the same household. But for me, growing up in suburban Pennsylvania. So we were a suburb of Philadelphia in Happero, I think I was there till I was 11 years old. Robbie, so you must have been 13, or maybe I was 13 and you were 15. Yeah, I was 13, 15, yeah. We moved up to Doylestown, more of the country, a little farther away, which was just beautiful. And I grew up, I just remember my mom praying and teaching us the to pray. And you know how that became such an important part of my life. And then, of course, attended Catholic school for a brief amount of time. And that was my fault. Yeah. I think. But now I have my youngest daughter attending attending Catholic school, but it was certainly on our journey, right, where we were able to see we are first generation American. And I think because of bomb's accent and her ethnicity, there was some prejudice that we faced early on. And I know my mom, for our mother, faith was an inherent part of her being in a very beautiful way. Yeah, yes, it was. And there were a lot of spiritual traditions that, you know, we grew up with. I think that the Catholic school that we had gone to was a challenging one. But nonetheless, you know, mom, Claire had the best intentions for us because she went to school, you know, in a Catholic school in Haifa, Israel, in Mount Carmel, you know, in Palestine. The place where the La Carmelite, the Carmelines. Absolutely. You know, so she, you know, had a very strict, regimented education and which really influenced her life, which allowed that to influence our lives, you know. And of course, with our brother, John. But when along the path, I know that, you know, mom was, I remember being brought up with lots of superstitions, but there were a lot of amazing spiritual miracles that we had stories told to us of things that happened in our family in Palestine in the Middle East. And that contributed to a deeper conviction with mom into her religious and spiritual belief and with much of the family in Palestine as well in Israel. Yeah, I'm trying to think, like, can you name a couple of those instances? The one I think of is, like she had said, there was a curse place on her. And I remember that from her first husband, his family actually, you know, my mom left them very, very quickly, right after the wedding, because he was abusive and she got out of there, which was unheard of way back when. And so that there was this shroud that she had talked about. Yeah, there was that, you know, because I think that was a black mark that was considered like a black mark, you know, against her as a person because you don't leave your husband in that tradition, in the Arab tradition. You don't just don't do that. So yes, it was unheard of. But I think that some of the things that I'm thinking of are like the picture of the Blessed Mary that used to smoke and burn incense when there was a significant healing that had happened in the family. And once they had painted over that, that picture stopped, you know, burning this mystical incense, you know, when there was no incense anywhere to be found, other things like that. But I just remember lots of stories like that that made me question. It's like, well, wow, what is the spiritual thing? Is this like a genie? Or is this like, you know, what does this mean to me as a child growing up? But what I'm curious about is where did you discover that you started to really maybe integrate or question the integration of your perception of the religion that grew up in in your life? Yeah, I think probably the first time I really started questioning was as a young woman as going to college and wanting to learn more about the world and traveling and I learned digging into other spiritual beliefs and influences. And that had my curiosity, because mom would always say, you know, your education is something no one can ever take away from you and travel is one of your best forms of education. So I loved traveling and exploring these different cultures because growing up Catholic, I mean, we grew up Catholic very well ingrained in us, right? For 500 years, our family goes back in in Catholicism in the Middle East. So there's a long history, a long tradition there. And and the beauty of like what I hold on to that base spirituality was the trying God, but only we and the blessed Mother Mary, like I'm total, you know, in love with this image that that of the of the Virgin Mary and in so many ways in my life to the point that when I thought I was going to lose my daughter that I was told I would never going to be able to have and I was bleeding. I went to a Lord's, the city of St. Bernadette, where, you know, she had the miraculous finding of the healing water that did so many miracles mean to that belief. And I think it the the journey, you know, it was up and down, right, was a tug and war in my faith. And it really caught my entire strong belief that got me into college, into med school, into a full ride scholarship to med school. I mean, all of these were graces that I completely thank God for. And when I when we lost our son, Garrett, our only son, Garrett in a tragic accident that never should have happened. Then it was a complete loss of faith, complete loss of faith. And like, how can this happen? I mean, you know, certainly it took me deeper into my journey, but yet in those times of depth of really deep despair, in the the depth of my mourning, in what I call, you know, visiting the pits of my hell, I heard the voice of God. I heard a very holy, beautiful voice of God and not once, but more than once, one time, like the sound of thunder and, you know, on a verge when I didn't want to live anymore. You know, and then it. You know, it's still still that that journey and taking religion out of my faith has been part of the process. And also, I think, Rob, because we've had good and bad experiences with the religious, whatever faith and whatever denomination that we have to take that and really experience our own spiritual connection, our truth, our faith, what resonates with us, take what resonates, leave what doesn't but use use the mind and heart together, not one without the other. And that's a great distinction. And thank you for being vulnerable to share that. What I paid attention to was how you separated your faith from religion. And I've had to do that as well. You know, growing up in the Catholic religion, I had a lot of abuse in the Catholic school. I know that's not everybody's experience, but that was one of the main reasons that I was taken out. But also, you know, I recognized as an adult male, you know, recognizing my sexual identity that I was no longer welcome in the faith that I was brought up in. And, you know, the way that I was taught in the school from the nuns, again, just my own experience, it was not a loving, wholesome experience for me that made me feel like, you know, the God that was supposed to love me actually loved me. And God was taught to me to be this external being, something external to myself and not congruent, not internal, as you just described, right? So identifying what this deep, internal faith is, like you mentioned when you heard God, it was like thunder. And I identify with that own experience in my own life at the depths of my own despair in my life, you know? And I recognized what that was for me, and it did not align with a specific religion, but it seemed to cross many religions and many faiths. And so like your journey, as you just described, took you on to identify what was really important to you. You know, I found myself doing the same. So I really resonate with that so much. And I really thank you for your clarity and how you describe that. Wow, that was really powerful for me. Thank you. You are welcome. Thank you. And I think it's like, there's so much to talk about when it comes to this. And like now I will go to a Catholic church. I will go to a non-denominational church. I wanna hear the message from the Bible. I wanna hear like the, I wanna hear the good news, right? I wanna hear the message. And also through my own journey, when I was full blown PTSD, you know, traumatic sleeping three hours a night for years and that, you know, flashbacks and again, anxiety, depression, everything that comes with PTSD. One of the things that like I've learned, and this is what I actually teach in my online programs, is that, you know, when we have trouble with clarity, we need to fast and pray and there's a healthy way to do that. And that's number one because we need to have our voice heard, heard by someone. And we have talked the deep secrets of our soul and bring them up sometimes to our awareness as, you know, the first person, but just bringing them to a benevolent figure, so to speak. But also fast and pray and meditate for clarity. When we're in that fasted state, we can get so much more clarity once we, you know, are into the state of ketosis and we lift that brain fog. I mean, that's a piece of it. And the other big piece in my spiritual journey is the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, a, you know, whose story is very interesting, but he has the daily examine. And from that, I distilled it down to three daily questions that I asked myself on a daily basis. That's just part of my practice in the here and now. And it was certainly understanding the, you know, spiritual exercise, understanding the gifts of the spirit, understanding how that relates to our physiology. That was the big thing for me. Are we in an oxytocin state, the gifts of the spirit? Are we in a cortisol, high stress burnout state? And that is the spirit of desolation. Like, because there's a physiology to achieving harmony and peace and joy and love. And there's that piece of it too, which has been part of my journey. I'm curious, what are those three questions you asked yourself before I even open my eyes in the morning? It's, it's where did I see love yesterday? You know, where did I see love? Where did I feel love? Where was I loving, you know, giving and receiving? The second thing is, is what am I grateful for? You know, all the gifts in my life that I am grateful for before, again, before I even open my eyes and, you know, a pillow to sleep on a blanket, my children, now my granddaughter. And the third question is where, where could, you know, where did I experience joy or laughter? Where could I have laughed more? Cause I am known for taking myself too seriously. So where could I have laughed more? Where could it have been? Like, where could I've seen the humor in that situation? And that's those three questions, that's it. And they all increase the hormone oxytocin, which will lower cortisol. And you're starting your day off. And if you can journal that even better. But I do that every morning before I wake up, before I get out of bed. Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you for that. I identify with the gratitude aspect. And at one point in my own life, it was really difficult, if not impossible, for me to find gratitude for anything at all. And I remember in 1997, very clearly, when I literally started to say, well, I guess I'm grateful that I woke up today. You know, even though I wasn't sure what that was, you know, but I was grateful that I woke up that day. And then I was grateful that I actually had food. And I was grateful that I had a place to take a bath and take a shower and I had a job to go to. And, you know, I had, I started to find more and more things to be grateful for. And I think that what's interesting for me is that when I found myself in those times of desperation, that I thought that in order to feel good, I had to have a lot to feel good about. And what's interesting about gratitude is that it only takes a couple of things, you know? It doesn't take a lot at all. And I find that to be very powerful because, you know, there are times in my life still where it's like I feel immense gratitude for an immense number of things. And then my perception might change on a day or two where I'm like, I'm only grateful for a couple of things. But then I'm like, wow, those are really important things to be grateful for. And then again, my perception will shift. Gratitude, I think, is the foundation of allowing more into my life. Because when I allow a little bit of gratitude into my life, all of a sudden it seems like there's room for more. Yeah, yeah. It's that opening that receptive, that magnetism that that practice creates. And I don't know if you remember this, Robbie, but you flashed me back to 2007. We were on our healing journey and we were in Australia. And you wrote me to, because I was so, I was struggling. I was struggling, this was after Garrett passed away. And you wrote me and you said, you know, like focus on what you're grateful for. You go and use, I understand that sometimes you're gonna feel like you're just making things up. And that's okay too. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that reminder. And, you know. It meant a lot to me. That was like, okay, when we just, yeah, that meant a lot to me. So I really want our audience to hear that. Cause sometimes you can be so depressed and you don't even know, like there's, you know, I feel like I have nothing to be grateful for. And then you can just start making things up, play with it, see where that takes you. Yeah. And that I think is the brilliance of the power of imagination, which I associate directly to God, you know, because when I feed imagination, you know, it can manifest, you know? I mean, I really don't see as much anymore a delineation between true imagination, imaginative inspiration, and my perception of my God in my life. Because I think that allowing myself to, like you said, play with the idea of like, well, if I were going to be grateful for something, what would that be? And then all of a sudden, I'm allowing myself to feel gratitude. And again, once you allow yourself to feel gratitude, even if it's made up, gives you the opportunity to experience more gratitude in a more substantive way. So true. Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask you, so you have found a real deep connection and a spiritual practice that works for you on a daily basis. How do you express that in your life? You've got four amazing daughters, and they are amazing, and an amazing grandbaby too. How do you express that, you know, do you find it easy to share your present knowledge of your experience with them? Do you find it being received? Well, we might not want them to watch this part of the video. I know, right? I think like instilling my faith, it's always, you know, by example, right? The acts I do by example, because it's more so, you know, I will say grace before a meal, most of the time, right? Hold hands, say a blessing over the meal and for the hands that have prepared it, right? And for each other. So that's one piece. And then just in my life, knowing, look, I'm fasting and praying. I'm fasting and prayer. I'm fasting for my health and for prayer, for my spiritual growth and education. I'm having a difficult time in this situation, and I need clarity. So I'm doing it by example, more so than directly, you know, telling them what to believe or not believe. And I want to kind of take that just a little bit further and ask when you're working, when you've been working with your clients, where do you detect the most resistance to change? In working with like clients and customers that I have, it's often under, like, I think the biggest issue that I've seen in my client population, which is before, during and after menopause, is in understanding your work. You're inherently precious and so valuable and so worthy, worthy of all the gifts of love, of kindness, of charity, of health, of good health, and you have so much potential that we're not done living to where done living. So that sense of inherent worth. And when we can sit and understand the benevolence like of our, the gift that this, you know, this human experience can give us, right? The human experience can give us. And I say that with this very important quote that I often have to go back to, especially when good things happen, bad things happen to good people and when bad things are happening, it's that all things work for good for those who love him. And that practice of that demonstration of love of God, of, you know, the Holy Spirit of life. I mean, like for, to equate that God is love and that reflection back on yourself as you would look at your child, wholly and lovingly is that how we are looked on and to receive that, to receive that from others, from, you know, our benevolence from ourselves. I think that's where I like to focus because once I can support an individual in that understanding, realization, acceptance, then transfer, that's real transformation. That's the bridge to real transformation. That's perfect. Thank you. That's absolutely perfect. Wow. We unfortunately only have just a few minutes left. So I'd like you to talk about briefly your practice, how Men You Pause, your new book, is having such a positive impact with so many people. Yeah, thank you. So my latest book is called Men You Pause. So you guys just laugh at the name. It's pretty fun. So it is the five eating plans that each pause something to help us break through a plateau, whether you're before, during or after menopause. But definitely this is a design to help the most metabolically challenged and both Rob, Rebecca here and myself, I wanted to say Robby, if you guys have heard me say that. So we have diabetes on both sides of the family and heart disease on both sides of the family from an early age. So the design is to really help reverse those changes and the changes that happen as we get older, but to improve our body in simple six-day menu plans that can work in and of itself or together, but it really shares the principles and part of my life work and why I do what I do. So that is my most recent book, Men You Pause, and my Magnus Opus really is my book, The Hormone Fix. And that is to really understand your hormones and what interferes with them and give you tangible solutions and action steps. So that's another. And I'm available. I'm at the girlfriend doctor on Instagram and at dranna.com on my website. So you can find me easily. That's excellent. And you've done so much good for so many people. It's a honor to be your brother. I always feel special and you're to me. Yeah. And I appreciate you making time. And glad we had Andy on for a few moments. Everybody was able to see her. I have to say, like when you meet someone who is so at home in themselves that the chaos in the external world doesn't rattle them. And I witnessed that in you very clearly today. When we have technical difficulties and everything set us back for an hour and you were so patient, so kind, it extended such gratitude to your team. I mean, that is the peace that surpasses all understanding in my book. And that is the gift of the Holy Spirit. So I see you living it, Robbie. And I think today I've known, I've seen this transformation in you. But today, you know, I see it loud and clear. I say a better man than I would have been in the same situation. I have more work to go. I'm gonna read. That's funny. Because I pulled up in this quick devotional and it was Romans 12-6 and said, well then, we have gifts that differ in accordance with the grace that has been given to us and we must use them appropriately. We absolutely are. Well, thank you. Thank you very, very much. And I appreciate you making time and thank you for your patience as well. And thank you everybody for joining us. I'll put the link up for Dr. Anna's website in the credits. So stick around for that. And thank you, Dr. Anna Cabeca, for joining us. Thank you to the audience for joining us. And until next time, play, have fun and be happy. And just a few closing remarks and a shout out to today's executive producer and sponsor, Bridge to Heaven Healing and Lipin Lizards, which is the premier source for healing crystals and readings with four locations, including 120 Center Street, Auburn, Maine. You can visit www.lipinlizards.biz for more information. Also, a big thanks to our co-executive producer, Dr. Anna Cabeca, the creator of Mighty Maka Plus, the daily nourishing supplement that improves metabolism and reinvigorates the body. Visit Dr.AnnaCabeca.com for more information. Also, if you would like to get more information about this show to reach out to us or to sponsor us, please visit www.deepbeing.org. We would love to hear from you. And a quick shout out to the crew, director of acting with Carton, audio and sound, Kate Dalton and cameras, Travis Nadeau, as well as to the Portland Media Center and their team, Tom, Dino and Warren. We wouldn't be here without them. Thank you for watching Enlightened Pathways and spending your valuable time with us today. Until next time, play, have fun, be happy.