Shownotes
We treat wellness like something to buy or achieve in 30 days. Host Ria talks with building biology consultant Risa Suzuki about why your home environment might be working against your health, even when everything on paper looks fine.
Risa shares how she uncovered her own hidden home health triggers, why you don't need to overhaul your entire house, and a simple way to start with just one or two obvious changes.
About the Guest:
Risa Suzuki is a certified Building Biology Environmental Consultant and author of What the EMF? She spent 25+ years at Microsoft before her own health journey led her to this work.
Key Takeaways:
- Wellness includes your home environment, not just diet and exercise.
- If symptoms feel like a mystery and tests come back normal, check your environment.
- Start with the room you spend the most time in, not a full overhaul.
- You don't need meters and measurements to make meaningful progress.
- One small change, like unplugging a device, can meaningfully affect sleep and energy.
- Suggest one or two changes to family, not a total home renovation.
Connect with Risa Suzuki:
Website: risasuzuki.com | Free resource: risasuzuki.com/toxinfreehome
Episode Chapters:
[00:00] Opening: what if we've been asking the wrong questions about wellness? (approx.)
[03:00] The biggest misconception about what wellness actually means (approx.)
[08:00] How Risa discovered her own home was undermining her health (approx.)
[15:00] Why "mystery symptoms" and normal test results often point to environment (approx.)
[22:00] A client story: one overlooked device and months of poor sleep (approx.)
[28:00] Where to start without overhauling your entire home (approx.)
[34:00] One simple takeaway for anyone ready to begin (approx.)
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Transcripts
Zoho episodes
00:00:08 Ria: We talk about wellness like it's something we can buy or achieve in thirty days. We scroll through routines that promise transformation. Select practices like trophies, and wonder why we still feel like something's missing. What if the problem isn't our discipline or our lack of commitment? What if we've been asking the wrong questions about what wellness actually means?
00:00:32 Ria: Welcome to Wellness Reimagined. I am Rhea, and this is where we explore health and wholeness. Without the hype, the hustle, or the heavy lifting of perfection. We're here to think differently, to ask better questions, and to remember that wellness is less about doing everything right and more about coming home to ourselves. Today I'm joined by Risa Suzuki, and we're exploring what it really means to redefine wellness beyond the trends, the noise, and the constant pressure to optimize. Hi. Thank you so much for being on the show today. How are you?
00:01:08 Risa Suzuki: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.
00:01:13 Ria: Well, we're glad to have you on the show. And before we begin, why don't you share a little bit about yourself with our listeners?
00:01:20 Risa Suzuki: Absolutely. So thanks so much for asking. And, uh, to be totally honest, I could give you my long bio, but, uh, that's probably just going to get. Used to not getting good sleep over, you know, a long period of time. Um, maybe some of your listeners, you know, maybe some of you have minor symptoms or mystery symptoms that, you know, you can't seem to figure out or, uh, get rid of most importantly and don't know why or, you know, maybe there's been a mold exposure in the past, but the most common denominator with all of these things is that, um, a lot of folks don't realize that there's things in your home that actually might be affecting you. And, you know, I have to say that one of the things that I love to see more than anything in the world is women who've come through a really tough, you know, challenging health journey and come out the other side. And that's inspired them to just be really proactive, protect their health, you know, so they can stay ahead of things. And then on the flip side, one of the things that I really, really hate to see more than anything is, you know, a woman who's, who's had a past, a past health issue, but for some reason, you know, is doing all these things but still isn't quite feeling one hundred percent like, uh, you know, gosh, why am I just not feeling like I'm just back to myself? Uh, and the challenge with this is that, you know, everything looks fine on the outside, but. Right. And so, you know, you start talking about, uh, start talking about some of these things. And, uh, you might get a look like. MM. Are you, are you sure it's not your, your job? Are you sure it's not stress or, you know, maybe you're thinking too much. And and I've been on both sides of this. So I've gone through this and, and know what it's like. And because of that, that's why I'm on a mission to, you know, help these amazing people realize that, hey, it's not all in your heads and help them discover, you know, a really simple three step approach that can help them break free.
00:03:42 Ria: Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing that. That was really comforting to hear. And I think I think this is going to be a beautiful conversation. I'm really excited to be having it with you. Um, so Theresa, when people think about wellness today, what do you think is the biggest misconception you see them carrying about what wellness means and what is it to you?
00:04:05 Risa Suzuki: Um, you know, I look at wellness like it's everything. Meaning it's not, it's not one dimensional. It's not just, you know, right. It's not just about exercising. It's not just about eating well and looking at the things going into your body. And then, of course, you know, there's, there's the emotional, spiritual and mental side. And so I think wellness really, it is all of those put together, right? Because and I put our homes in, in the physical side. But the challenge, of course, is that a lot of people don't necessarily think about their homes. But I feel like I feel like every little piece contributes to our wellness. And then when that balance gets off, you know, that can just kind of, you know, blow up and, and really, um, you know, set us onto a different path that we may not really want to take.
00:05:01 Ria: Absolutely. I do think that people often confuse wellness with being related to just the physical body when it's really so much more than that, right? Wellness is more holistic term. I think it's a harmony between your mind, your body, um, your spirit and all of it. And I think it's a beautiful experience. So. Absolutely. Um, so, so when you look beneath the struggle of why people, when you look beneath, why, why people struggle so much with awareness, what are the deeper patterns or maybe the root causes that most people don't see? Why has wellness become so hard to kind of incorporate? Why do people struggle with it so much?
00:05:40 Risa Suzuki: You know, I honestly think that a lot of people don't realize all the different options that there are. And, you know, and when I talk about options, I mean, you know, what are the different kinds of, uh, practitioners? What are the, what are the different things that we can do to support our wellness? Right? So it could be a different kind of practitioner. It could be a different kind of treatment. It could be, you know, for me, it's, it's all about it's all about the houses, right? Because I can do everything to support my health. And that's actually, that's kind of actually how I got started on this journey is I was doing all the, you know, quote unquote, the right things. You know, I wasn't I hadn't had any major changes. Um, I exercised quite a bit. I got out, you know, hiking or skiing, all that stuff. And all of a sudden I started getting mystery symptoms and I didn't know why. And it wasn't, it wasn't until my health started to really get really bad that I started to look at my house. And that's where that's where it clicked that, oh my gosh, you know, like you, you can do all of the healthiest things.
00:06:48 Ria: Absolutely. I think that's a really interesting idea because I haven't heard it. I haven't seen it being discussed a lot. Uh, I think you, you, you speaking about your immediate surroundings in your home as being this important influence on how wellness is incorporated into your life. Can you elaborate on this idea just a little bit more and tell us what exactly it is about your home that may be holding you back, and what is it that needs your attention?
00:07:15 Risa Suzuki: Oh, sure. Absolutely. That's, uh, that's a really great question and thanks so much for asking. Um, you know, a lot of people that, you know, they're at home, maybe they're feeling, you know, symptoms, maybe not, or maybe they're, uh, it's like, gosh, I just feel tired. Why am I tired all of a sudden? You know, a lot. Um, and I have to admit, so sometimes they'll start looking at everything, right? Once. Once you know that something in my house could be contributing to how I'm feeling, or it's just not supporting me as well as as it could be. And then you start looking at you start looking around at everything and going, oh my gosh, uh, you know, everything could possibly be hurting me and, you know, feeling. And I've actually had a couple clients say that they feel like their house is out to get them because then, you know, because then all of a sudden you think you start questioning everything that's there. And, and I'll say that there's, there's, there's some people that, you know, they've, they've even gone out, they've bought meters so that they can go and walk around and measure everything, evaluate everything, get data. And that is a recipe for disaster because, um, then you just see all of these, all these numbers, the readings on the instrument and the instruments all make noises. So you have this thing that is making all these noises, numbers that you don't understand. And, um, the challenge is that some of the things in your house, uh, they don't affect you. They really don't affect you even, even though, um, the readings might be high, it may not be that big of a deal. And then of course, there's things that do just because you're spending a lot of time in that area. And so what I recommend is to well, actually, let let me tell you a story. I'll give you an example. Um, so Alana. So, uh, when she came to me, she, uh, she had had some health issues come up, but they were, they were, uh, like mystery symptoms. So she had started, you know, just very, very subtle, um, like dizziness. I think a lot of us, uh, because I went through the same thing. And I think a lot of your listeners, it'll, it'll click for them also. Um, so Alana so when she came to me, She was feeling just hopeless because her health had deteriorated, even though she was doing, you know, everything. So she had been diagnosed with Ms. about about twelve years before and was thriving. You know, she was a New York Times best selling author. She had her own business, ran a foundation with her husband. And mystery symptoms started showing up for her and for her. Those were things like, you know, just feeling more tired, feeling a little bit unsteady or, you know, dizzy on her feet. Um, and then just a lot of brain fog, which it doesn't sound like it's that big of a deal because they're, they're very minor. But what happened was they had just continued to get worse and more. Kinds of tests and treatments. Everything came back normal. Right. Because a lot of these tests are very superficial. And of course, you know, we all know when our body is telling us something and things are not normal. And she had actually had a practitioner tell her not too long before we started working together. He told her to go see a psychiatrist because he couldn't find anything. So by the time that she thought that her home might have something to do with it, you know, she was ready to just completely rip it down to the studs. You know, I don't want to say bulldoze, but she was ready to just overhaul everything. And of course, her husband was not super happy about that because they had just done a pretty big remodel. And so it was right about this time that she and I connected, and she was able to just take a step back and look, you know, look at the big picture and just look at everything and just really look for any kind of, you know, obvious culprits first. And when she did, it was really clear what the issue was and what it was, was because there were, you know, safety conscious. They had installed a security camera. It was a security system. And one of the cameras was a floor below their bedroom, and they had a big, huge window. And that was that was disrupting her sleep, which then caused all these ripple effects and, you know. Yeah. Right. Yeah. No. And she never, you know, like, she never would have thought of that because who would, who would think that a security camera could just cause so much havoc?
00:12:40 Ria: And I think it's also really fascinating how, uh, this, these things can miss your consciousness completely because you're not actively thinking about it, but it really affects so much of your life.
00:12:51 Risa Suzuki: Yes, exactly. And it was such an easy thing, right? All she did was, you know, she had she all she had to do was just unplug it and pop it out. And, and then the next morning, her brain fog had actually started to lift. So it's just kind of like, you know, feeling a little bit clear, but then, you know, her body because she, she just hadn't had sleep for so long. She said it's the weirdest feeling because her body was really tired because it finally was able to rest. But then her mind, you know, her brain fog, she said. I actually felt like, oh, my brain's awake when I woke up this morning. But I feel really tired. And and she continued, you know, to just gradually get better over time. She got her life back and she didn't have to spend, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars on expensive things. And for many people, it can be just as simple as that, right? So so maybe you don't have a security system. You know, with the camera, it could be something like a forgotten tablet that's in a nightstand or a drawer in the kitchen, which is just as simple. And then you also may not have to fix every single little thing. So, so before you go, you know, looking at everything in your house and, you know, panicking, which, you know, if you do, you're going to end up with with a really super long list. It could be really expensive. Um, start with the obvious things, right? Like just start with the obvious things. Look what's in the vicinity. Where do you spend your time? Has anything changed? Because this is, this is something that a lot of people completely overlook. And, you know, yes, you can, you can benefit from lots of solutions. But if you just focus on just one or two factors, then that you know, that's going to save you time, it's going to save you money. And, you know, talking about the the mental piece, the mental overload, it's it's going to simplify it for you because everybody else in your house, right? If you've got a spouse or family and you're suggesting changes, then you're only suggesting a few changes and not like the entire place.
00:15:11 Ria: Right. I love, I love that advice and I love how you simplified it for people who just want to begin, who just want to understand why they're unable to incorporate wellness into their lives without uprooting their entire lives. I love how you said that we can start small. We can start with the obvious things, and those already make a huge difference. Absolutely. Uh, so, Lisa, there's one thing that you like a listener to take away from this conversation tonight. It could be a message or an advice or a practice. You want to suggest anything? What would it be?
00:15:45 Risa Suzuki: Uh, I would say don't go crazy. Don't, you know, don't start looking at your. And this is so easy to do because I have done it. All of my colleagues who went through building biology training, we they all did it where you just go, oh my God. The things that are going to be really simple and easy to do and just focus on one or two things. Yes, you can make a big list, but just pick out one or two things. And, and by the way, you don't need to hire. It. Go to Risa Suzuki dot com forward slash toxin free home. And there you're going to have step by step instructions on what to look for around your home so that you can identify and get rid of some of these things that are, you know, easy and, and low effort. So that's what I would say. Start small.
00:16:51 Ria: Yeah, that's that's very comforting advice to not go crazy and to take it easy and understand that, um, even small changes, just the small changes can help help you in really impactful ways. Uh, there's a listener who feels particularly inspired by this conversation and wants to reach out to you or explore your work. Where can they find you?
00:17:15 Risa Suzuki: Uh, you can find me on Risa Suzuki dot com forward slash toxin-free home. And what I would just say is just, just remember, you don't have to hire me to get the outcomes that, you know, that I talked about earlier. Uh, because there you can have, there's a three step template and you can start working on identifying all these things, you know, the things in your home, um, how to pick out the top, uh, you know, kind of like the top things to focus on and then breaking it out into phases so that you don't get overwhelmed by, you know, Oh my gosh, I have this huge project now. So you don't need to. You don't need to hire me. Go there, get the template. And that will give you all the information, um, that you know that you need to do this. So if you do nothing more than that, then you'll be able to start reducing, you know, all the toxins in your home and, you know, do it for yourself with the right mindset.
00:18:14 Ria: Thank you so much for sharing that. And thank you so much for giving us your time today. It means a lot. And um, to everyone listening, what you need to carry from today isn't an entirely new routine or an upheaval from your normal life. It's the quiet permission to question what wellness means to you, and what in your environment is either holding you back or helping you flourish. Uh. Stop chasing someone else's version of health and start listening to your own. And that's where the reimagining begins. Thank you for being here. And until next time, take care of yourselves in the ways that actually matter. Thank you.
