Interview: Dr. Christiane Northrup & Kate Northrup | The New Conversation

Dr. Christiane Northrup & Kate Northrup

Interview by Kristen Noel
Yarmouth, Maine July 7th 2015

Kristen:

Epic monologue alert!
Indulge me in this introduction. All I can say is that after reading these 2 books, Goddesses Never Age (by Christiane Northrup) and Money: A Love Story (by Kate Northrup), there is some serious goddess energy life force and sass running through your genes! Dr. Northrup, you are a board-certified OB/GYN, former surgeon, NY Times best-selling author, pioneer and visionary on the forefront of all things women’s health, AND pleasure seeker. Considered a renegade at one time, thankfully your lifelong work connecting all aspects of our health – body-mind-spirit – is more accepted today. Thank you for initiating this…and more importantly, for not giving up on it.

Christiane:

Thank you.

Kristen:

Kate Northrup, you are a creative entrepreneur, business mentor, speaker, writer and self-proclaimed personal growth junkie with a wonderful philosophy:

“If you free yourself financially you can be fully present to your purpose on the planet.”

To begin with, I think you two owe me some highlighters! I want to note two remarkable things I recognized before I even started digging into either of your books. Christiane, I absolutely loved that the first person you noted in the acknowledgements of your book was yourself. In acknowledging the trajectory of writing a book (referring to an earlier one you had written) you said, “I felt as though I were hiking up a mountain overgrown with brush and strewn with treacherous rocks. And there were no trails. But I was compelled. And I succeeded. Karmic debt paid.”

Kate, you had me at title. I love that you included a Forward that was written by your mother recounting the moment shortly after your birth in which your parents “responsibly” sat with their investment advisor to map out their financial future. You mother wrote, “Western culture has long operated under the notion that frugality is a function of morality.” What may have sounded like solid financial planning to some, translated to the following for her — “right now restrict every pleasurable aspect of your life that costs money. Scrimp and save. For the next 30 years. Then-and only then-will you be able to live well once you retire. Put your life on hold now. Live later.”

That sets the stage for us today. Thank you for sitting down with Best Self Magazine to celebrate our very special anniversary issue. We have decided to build this issue around the 2 of you (or should I say the 2 ½ of you) [pointing to Kate’s pregnant belly] and to the theme of a new conversation, the birth of a new way, the dawn of a new approach and of course new life.

Kate:

The baby is kicking right now!

Kristen:

Of course, he or she wants to get their Northrup 2 cents in! Both of your books stand as testament to a true full circle healing. Kate, this is probably a good place to start. Very shortly you and your husband will be sitting in the offices of your financial advisor and I venture to say, it will be quite a different discussion than the one your mother had when you were born.

Kate:

We just had a meeting with our lawyer to discuss what do you do with a new baby. What I realized is that when you get those logistical things set up and the structure in place around your life, whether it’s the legal or financial – those are the tenets for the good foundation of a house. Then, you have the emotional spaciousness to talk about the things you really want to talk about, which is probably not wills. I think having those conversations is critical, and often in the spiritual, personal growth world, it’s like — I don’t have to worry about money. I’ll just pray and it will come. You actually do have to meet with a financial advisor, but you don’t have to listen to everything they say — and run it through your own inner guidance system.

Kristen:

In an effort to streamline this interview I’m going to guide you through my ad-hoc version of jeopardy. I’ve culled delectable quotes from both of your books and placed them in certain categories. Category #1: re-scripting a new conversation. Skipping between your 2 books, you both emphasize the role we play in linking the of aspects our lives — our aging, our health, our vitality, our bank accounts and how we must make empowering choices. Christiane, you are notably rewriting how we experience the aging process, calling people out for saying things like, “it’s just a part of aging or I’m having a senior moment.” You said, “that rounded belly isn’t due to age, but to sugar consumption and inflammation catching up with you. It’s a sign that you need to give birth to a new you.”

Christiane:

I don’t even use the term aging because aging begins the moment we are born. As Mario Martinez says,

“Growing older is inevitable; aging (which I equate with deterioration, decay and decline) is optional.”

Every year my eyesight gets a little better and my optometrist can’t understand it. Built into the medical profession is this absolute, rock-solid belief that at a certain “age,” chronologic age, things start to fall apart. But in science, if you look at the graphs — let’s use bone density — there’s always some outlying 80-year old with a bone density of a 23-year old. I’ve always been interested in the outlayers because if there’s one, it means it’s possible for everyone.

Kristen:

To that point, if you believe your eyes are going to decline at 40 years old, you are essentially self-prescribing.

Old age is the only disease you can catch by imitating its symptoms.
~Mario E. Martinez, PSY.D.

Christiane:

And in fact, beliefs are more powerful than our genes. Beliefs set up the environment through which our genes are expressed and thus we have these cultural beliefs. Another one is “fixed income.”

Kristen:

I hate that term.

Christiane:

At a certain age I’m on a “fixed income.” Like Louise Hay says…

Kristen:

[Interrupting] You mean Louise PLAY? She has renamed herself. Nancy [Levin] just told me she’s now Lulu Play.

Kristen / Christiane / Kate:

[high five] Go Louise!

Christiane:

She’s been an inspiration to me forever. Every year she says, my income increases…and guess what? It does. Remember, this is a high school dropout, who was sexually abused, gave up a baby for adoption, survived cervical cancer…

Kristen:

And started Hay House Publishing when she was 60 years old.

Christiane:

So if there is anyone who should really be on a “fixed” income and deteriorating, it would be Lulu Play — but she isn’t.

In terms of physicality, I am taller than I was 20 years ago.

Kristen:

So take that, non-believers! It’s all that Pilates.

Christiane:

It’s the Pilates and the resistance flexibility with Bob Cooley. It’s the fascia. The fascia is where the belief system is housed in our body. Do you remember the 2nd Superman movie with Christopher Reeves? They found the history of the world in the crystals in this special cave. I actually think that’s the truth. The crystal is the fascia in the body and the bones and the teeth. It’s all in there. AND you can change it!

Kristen:

Kate, you created some of the best terms I’ve heard in a long time — really refreshing (especially when you are talking about money): financial energy leaks, stinkin’ thinkin,’ thought virus, martyrdom is so 1250 — I could go on forever. It resonated when you said, “I no longer see living within my means as limiting and deprived; I see it as loving myself.” I think that is one of the most powerful things you said in that book.

Kate:

In my early 20’s I had gotten myself into a lot of debt, every month living beyond my means — living the American Dream (on credit cards)!

When I first heard someone tell me to “spend within my means,” it felt so constrained and limiting.

When I realized that when we continue to do anything that is not aligned with our highest good, it is in actually in a subtle way self-hatred or a way of denigrating ourselves. I realized that if I could make financial well-being a priority in the same way I enjoy getting a manicure or having lunch with a girlfriend, put it in that category in my head – then maybe I would actually do it. That subtle shift changed everything. The more fun and the more play that we can bring to our finances, the more we will interact with them.

Kristen:

Simply shifting the semantic of that is incredibly powerful. I loved how you advise creating a “money for me account.”

Category #2: The power of our thoughts and words. Christiane, you said, “your thoughts and beliefs are the single most important indicator of your state of health. Get rid of the idea of health as the absence of illness.” This is such a powerful reminder that our thoughts are the first place we need to look when anything goes wrong in our body.

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln

Christiane:

Health is our natural state. Today everything in obstetrics is set up for potential disaster — that is the belief and beauty of watching my daughter go through pregnancy. When Kate went to see the midwife, she told her you haven’t asked me the one question that everyone has asked.

Kate:

I was wondering, what is the one question? We are going to do a home birth — and apparently most people want to know about the contingency plan – what are the safety precautions, what kind of equipment we bring in, etc., in case you need to be transferred. I thought, Oh my gosh — it literally never occurred to me because my assumption is that my body knows how to do it.

Christiane:

That belief is so ingrained because she grew up in an environment where birth was just normal.

Kristen:

You continued to point out how we are taught that anything pleasurable is suspect. These ideas roll off our tongues when we recount things like, It’s a guilty pleasure, It’s sinfully delicious, We’re having too much fun, etc.

Christiane:

What we are saying subliminally to ourselves is that there needs to be a ceiling on ecstasy. And if you get close to it, you do one of 3 things, which Gay Hendricks says: You either get sick, you have an accident or you pick a fight to bring you back down to the level you have been taught, the bandwidth that is acceptable. You cannot get too happy or too sad. We grew up in a culture that if we are too sad, we are told to “buck up,” “you’re ok” or “no one needs to see you cry.” So the truth is that illness becomes the only acceptable way that someone can get care. But if you just learn to raise the ceiling on joy and pleasure – you are flooding your body with nitric oxide, which is the UBER neuro-transmitter and it balances all of your serotonin and you don’t need Prozac.

But when you do that, be prepared that the tribe that you created at that other bandwidth, is going to try to bring you down.

Kristen:

That’s your “crabs in the bucket syndrome.”

Kate, you highlight the cultural legacy of feeling guilty for our good fortune and conversely how we beat ourselves up about past financial choices and debt. Thank you for connecting the dots to the necessity to address the emotional component, that there is no separation of church and piggy bank! And that there is plenty of wealth and health for everyone.

Kate:

We make decisions from the emotional part of our brain, then we back it up with logic. People tell us to separate our emotions — for example, we are regularly told – don’t bring your emotions into the boardroom. It’s all emotional. If you purposefully bring them in and are conscious about how you feel about money and how you feel about past finances – you can clear that stuff out it won’t come hit you in the ass later. It is really important to know that everyone is emotional about money. Some people are just pretending that they are not. If we stop pretending, then we can get into a cool partnership with our money and have it work for us rather than us working for it.

Kristen:

I especially like the tactical exercises you, have in the book where, for example, you take a credit card bill and go through it line by line — literally asking yourself how various charges make you feel. Did this purchase empower me or does it make me cringe? I also appreciated tacking a copy of a credit card bill with a balance that has been whited out to zero and pasting it to a vision board to affirm zero balance credit cards. Denying that there is emotion around our money is short sighted.

Kate:

And denying causes illness. I learned that from her [pointing to mom].

Kristen:

Category #3: Generosity of spirit. Both of these books are powerhouse go-to books packed with tactical strategies wrapped in personal anecdotes and sharing, full of resources, other people’s sites, programs and quotes. Kate, your book is not only full of exercises to help redesign a new relationship to our finances and financial consciousness — I love how you start your book with A Money Quiz. Further to that, I appreciated your candidness in admitting that in the past you often skipped through doing exercises in other books – believing that reading through them was enough. Thanks for calling out the true merit of getting down with your notebook and pen.

Kate:

When you show up — you get a very different experience than when you breeze over something.

Kristen:

Christiane, your 14-Day Ageless Goddess program is simply divine. It’s dynamic, purposeful, empowering, humorous and made me want to tango. All I can say is that your online course for the Ageless Goddess must be fabulous.

Christiane:

It is amazing — 8 weeks.

Kristen:

I wanted more when I read it, so everybody has to check that out.

Christiane:

I really wanted to create a global movement so that the people who were at the height of their power, the height of their value and confidence — would not catch the disease of ageism. Right when they have the most to offer, they suddenly start to make excuses for themselves. It’s just the worst misuse of resources ever! And this needs to begin early on. When Kate was living in New York City, I met many of her friends and they were terrified when they were turning 30.

Kristen:

That’s NYC!

Christiane:

NYC is the media capital of the world, so we need to be conscious that stuff comes out of there that affects people. I just found out that the only demographic that counts for a Nielsen rating for TV is 18-49.

Kristen:

Category #4: Power of the healer within. Christiane, thank you for highlighting our body’s remarkable capacity for self-repair. “Genes are a blue print, not a destiny.” This one really hit home for me. You also said, “Diseases don’t just appear out of nowhere. They are, quite literally, an imbalance in the system that is usually the result of years and years of neglecting to engage in the causes of health, which include pleasure, exalted emotions, and righteous anger — most of which our culture has never taught us.”

Christiane:

Right. When I had Kate, I had to leave my regular practice because I knew it was killing me. This stuff is in our energy field before it hits the body. I have lived my whole life knowing if this continues, I know what will happen. I have dodged a heart attack, I have dodged breast cancer — I was heading down those pathways. In our culture we believe that you go to the doctor and get a clean bill of health, you are good to go — which is ridiculous.

Kristen:

It’s almost as if we say, I did my check-up so I’m good for another year and I can go do what I want to do.

Christiane:

At least functional medicine is finally changing the trajectory. Traditional western medicine only measures pathology.

Blood tests don’t get bad until there is true pathology. You can lose 80% of your kidney function before it shows up on a test. Your body is so self-healing. The body is trying so hard to keep you well.

Kristen:

You also noted in the book that each of us makes cancer cells every day, but we never know it because our bodies heal themselves.

Christiane:

We now have this whole industry of “early detection.” Gilbert Welsh, a professor at Dartmouth wrote a book, Should I Be Tested For Cancer: Maybe Not, and is a world expert on early detection. He said that the tumors that are really going to kill you are the ones that come up very rapidly and move very fast. They are typically not picked up on screening tests.

If you look at mammograms — we now have these high-resolution mammograms and a lot of leading edge studies that say they do more harm than good. Women believe that it is mammograms that save them. Once you find something you are obligated to do something about it. The number of women having prophylactic bilateral mastectomies has doubled in the last 10 years.

Kristen:

It was shocking to read that 70,000 women were over-diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 alone.

Christiane:

Correct.

Kristen:

I also so appreciated your advising us to stop looking at our breasts as if we were on a search-and-destroy mission.

Christiane:

[lifting and looking at her hands] Yes, “mine sweepers.” That’s probably not a good way to approach your breasts. Given that the hands are an extension of the heart, you can be far more healing with a central breast massage. [as she demonstrates a loving self breast exam] Hello girls, you are safe with me. In this manner you can increase circulation and improve your immunity. How about that?

How about guys — do you think they would go after their testicles like that? No, they are taught to value those family jewels. We are taught not to value our breasts. Even worse they have become the new symbol of the modern day martyr — the gorgeous celebrity person who sacrificed her female organs for the good of her family. That’s the new martyr.

Kristen:

You also said, “Here’s the truth: your thoughts and beliefs have a far bigger impact on your health than your medical test scores do.”

Christiane:

Now I know this because I’ve been in this biz long enough to have seen absolute miracles, not just one. Medical literature is full of documented cases of so-called “spontaneous remission” from every known disease. But it’s never spontaneous. There is always something that person did that is usually connected with divine love, the part of them that is God, their higher self.

Kristen:

Kate you said in your book, “Most people who admit to having money problems think that the way to start the whole process of fixing them is by learning the right actions to take around their money. But from what I’ve found, these folks are approaching it from entirely the wrong direction. The most important place to start is also the one that’s most often overlooked: ourselves.”

Kate:

It’s the same thing as with our health. We have this thinking that if I go get this, that or the other test and my numbers are good then I’m going to be OK. But really the causes of health are who we hang around with, what food we put in our body, how happy we are in our careers…and those are not the things we think about when we deal with our money. It’s more like — I need the right financial advisor. I just need the correct budget etc. I have made a budget one time and I have never followed it.

Kristen:

People always feel comfortable with a budget.

Kate:

Because it’s an illusion of control and money, just like our health is an energetic thing. When we create the spreadsheet and only do the numbers, then we don’t keep up with the actions that cause abundance. It’s the same with our health — if we just do the “Dr.” thing, then we don’t actually form the sustainable habits that cause health. We’re not going inside to figure things out — Why is it that I spend more money than I make every single month? Or Why am I eating a hot fudge sundae at midnight each night? What’s going on there? That’s the place we have to go — it’s not about the right medical test or financial spreadsheet.

Kristen:

Final Category #5: Everything leads home – to the house of self-love. Christiane, you pointed out that the message of illness and pain could be translated to: “It’s time to bring healing love into your energy field. You’ve been in emotional pain long enough. Let me turn up the volume by creating physical pain so you’ll pay attention and take care of your heart. “To get something off your chest” means to free up your heart, lungs and shoulders from burdens of feeling unloving and unloved.

Christiane:

Yes, the heart is the biggest endocrine organ in the body — the part of us that sets the tone for everything.

I’ve always said the mind thinks it’s in control, but the heart always wins.

So if you are constantly stuffing down heartache or feeling bad about yourself – the heart will win and I know from wherest I speak. I abandoned myself to heal my mother when I was only 5. What we are saying doesn’t make logical, linear sense. I believe we choose our parents, we choose the circumstances of our birth and it’s the only way to play the game — everything else will make you feel like a complete victim.

Kristen:

Kate — you said, “the root of all problems is lack of self-love, but it never occurred to me that my money challenges had anything to do with that and that taking care of myself in this was has nothing to do with deprivation or limitation but everything to do with Self-LOVE.”

Kate:

We can take the same action drinking a glass of water or paying our taxes. Do these same actions from a place of “I have to do this to be a good citizen or I have to do this because my doctor told me to be healthier” or we can do it from a place of “I am hydrating my cells,” or operate from a place of love saying things like, “I bless this money — may it go towards education or repairing the environment.” That’s what I do when I pay my taxes because if I get into the whole thing about what the government is doing – that’s a wormhole. I bless my money for where it’s going. It’s how we do the actions that matters most.

Kristen:

That’s the whole conversation — how we do all of this, emanating from that place of that little girl (or boy) deep inside and that self-love. Whether it is your piggy bank or your health, vitality or interactions with other people — it’s all from that place of self-nurturing.

Kate:

It’s all the same thing.

Kristen:

Christiane, was this vision to consider the whole picture always a part of your mission or was there a moment along your medical path that something shifted for you? You were studying traditional medicine and then you opened this Pandora’s Box for all of us — where you aware of it?

Christiane:

I was aware of all of it because I grew up in a family where my parents ate organic food and had a compost heap. I learned firsthand in childhood the limitations of modern medicine that I experienced up close and personal through real tragedy in my family and watching people dying in my oncology rotation. I come from a family of doctors, my father was a dentist. I always knew there was something more.

Lightening struck my family and I realized that I didn’t have any tools from my medical degree, but I did have tools from my own life.

I knew I had something to say that needed to be stated. I’ve been through lawsuits. It has been a very difficult path. I was certain every time I went to the mailbox in the doctor’s lounge that an eviction notice would be awaiting me. I always knew I was on borrowed time. You see, I was stepping beyond the pale of the tribe. We’ll protect you as long as you prescribe these drugs, do these kinds of surgeries and do what we are doing. But the minute you step out of the tribe you are rewarded with betrayal, abandonment or shame. So I walked a very fine line.

Kristen:

What gave you the chutzpah to keep on going? Some people may have said, look — I know what I know, but I’ve had enough. I’m out.

Christiane:

If you look at my astrological chart, which, by the way, I believe is the blueprint for the soul’s journey — it’s all there. I was compelled to do it. I knew that I had to do it. And, my family of origin supported me and that was extraordinarily important.

Kristen:

Kate, growing up in the house of Northrup you had some big shoes to follow in — did you perceive it that way? And I want to mention, that it is immensely powerful to divulge your personal journey, feelings of being a fraud, and perhaps not entitled to your own feelings. We learn so much through the authentic sharing of other’s stories. Someone would look at you and question, “She felt like a fraud?”

Kate:

It is immensely important to tell the truth, which is incredibly healing for ourselves and others. It takes far less energy. You can use the energy that you would be expending on the performance of who you are and transform it into creativity. Suddenly it frees up a lot of space. It requires a lot of energy to hide and stuff untruths down — it’s exhausting.

Kristen:

Tidying up your energetic house, clears out all the sludge.

This question is really for both of you. In light of impending birth and new life, Christiane – as an initiator of a new conversation and Kate — as such a contributor to another conversation, where do you want to see this conversation evolve? Christiane, when you think of this new life and this new generation — where would you like to see the evolution?

Christiane:

I would like way more people to have the freedom to be home with their families. Kate has that because she looked at me and her dad and said, “that sucked.”

Kate:

[laughing] Well just because you worked all the time. I feel grateful for everything my mother has done to create, not only for the awakening of all women, but specifically in my life. There are some different choices I made only because I saw the contrast. She has been so supportive of a different way. [looking to Christiane] You laid those tracks for a different way and I feel I get to live that. There was a lot of permission there.

I was given a lot of access and tools, the resources and support. It’s not a given that we receive that support when we go out and do things differently than our family.

Kristen:

But I also want to point out, Kate, that you designed that.

Kate:

Look, I read Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life when I was 14 years old and was introduced to the work of Abraham Hicks by my Grannie. This idea that you create your own reality got implanted in me early enough that I didn’t question it. That’s what’s so great about working with young people. I learned that and I just assumed it was true. I studied cash flow, residual income and started a business when I was 18. I knew in high school that I wanted to stay home with my family and to have a husband who I could create with.

Kristen:

You were very fortunate to have grown up with those kinds of conversations. Imagine those that your baby will be having.

Christiane:

It works both ways. Kate and her husband Mike have created a successful Internet marketing business and have taught me so much about social media, building platforms, email lists etc. — which is so important. I was introduced to all of that and I am so grateful because I see how powerful that is.

Kristen:

It’s a beautiful notion of reciprocity. It is really important to learn from our children because they are our teachers. We have to be open to hearing what our children have to say. They come in with a pure conversation.

Christiane:

That is really, really true. [Motioning to Kate] I trust her ability to give birth completely without a single bit of input from me. Her work is a part of the legacy. Gynecology is the study of the pathology of the 2nd chakra, which is all about the energies of money, sex and power. Money issues will hit you in your 2nd chakra. Kate has really taken on that part of the legacy.

Kristen:

Both of these books are timeless and need to be in the hands of young women, actually women of all ages. Just last night I was with 2 dynamic young women about to set out in the world and I told them they had to read both of these books. Don’t wait until you’ve shamed yourself financially, or you feel really crappy about your body or you get a wake-up call. That’s the most powerful message — let’s rescript it, and get these new messages into the hands of our babies.

Christiane:

That’s right and then live like an ageless soul. Make 21 the last “number” birthday you celebrate. Celebrate your birthdays (God knows we love ours), but do not put a number on it.

Kristen:

I agree. There’s too much expectation placed up on the numbers.

Kate:

And in terms of finances, people often punish themselves by saying things like, “I thought I would have been further along at such and such an age.”

Cut out the age and just be where you are. You can grow from there and move forward as opposed to wasting time making yourself wrong.

Kristen:

And one other thing — these books are not simply for women. We need to get these into the hands of men. These are conversations that empowered men need to be having. Men need to allow their emotions to come to the forefront. Too often they were told to “suck it up.” We need to foster this in our men.

Christiane:

But men follow the lead of women. So when women rise up, they can uplift the men. It’s going to come from the “feminine” whether that’s in men or women.

Kristen:

Undoubtedly, you two are leading an incredible conversation and I want to thank you for sitting down with us today and for all the powerful work you are putting out into the world. Here’s to a new conversation and new life [pointing to Kate]… and you’ll have to keep us posted.

*Editor’s Note:
Baby Northrup-Watts made a debut a few weeks prior to our release. Welcome to the world!

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Inspired by this dialog — I’d like to borrow a sheet from Dr. Northrup’s prescription pad and create a parting script:

• A daily dose of delight and pleasure
• Follow up with a spoonful of forgiveness (for self & others)
• A sizable dollop of laughter
• Insert dance time
• Remove Stinkin’ Thinkin’
• Add a minimum of ½ hour to become more selfish
• Spend time creating a “Money For Me” account
• Affirm zero balances on credit cards
• Become Your Own Prince Charming
• And Love, Love, Love yourself up

~ Kristen Noel

Learn more at drnorthrup.com and katenorthrup.com