76. The Lion Within: Rising Above Genetics to Reclaim Health Victory with Dr. India Senia

Imagine carrying the spirit of a lion within you, radiating the strength and endurance needed to overcome life's most challenging obstacles. This is the essence of Dr. India Senia who is not only my dear friend and guest but also a performance and mental health coach, musician, former school counselor, and founder of Strength to Endure Fitness. Dr. India’s journey is one that we explore in-depth in a conversation that's as raw as it is inspirational.

From overcoming weight struggles and prehypertension at a young age to harnessing the power of self-awareness and emotional support systems which shaped her fitness journey, Dr. India's narrative is a testament to the human spirit's perseverance and the ability to be victorious. 

Unearth wisdom and insight as we delve into the complexities of family dynamics, faith, forgiveness, and personal growth, culminating in the revelation that we all possess the potential to rise, evolve into better version of ourselves, and make a positive affect on the world.

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Episode 76's Affirmation:
I trust and believe that everything is always working out for my highest good.

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Transcript

Alethea Felton: 0:00

The doctor is in the house, y'all. Yes, indeed, the doctor is in the house, and that is none other than somebody who I can call a true sister friend, who has her doctoral degree Dr India, and you will learn more about her in this episode of the Power Transformation Podcast. She has such an incredible journey, an incredible story, so stay tuned as you hear about resilience, determination, endurance and so much more. Have you ever faced a challenge that seemed hopeless? Yet you think that you have the power to change your life for the better, no matter the obstacles you face. Well, if so, then you're in the right place. I'm your host, alethea Felton, and welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast, where we explore the incredible true stories of people who have overcome adversity and created meaningful lives. So prepare to be inspired, equipped and empowered, for the time is now to create your power, transformation, transformation.

Alethea Felton: 1:32

Hey, y'all, we are going to jump right into this, but I welcome you with open arms to the Power Transformation podcast. And if you are new to our podcast, hey, hey, hey, hey, I am Alethea. Many other people who know me personally call me Lili, but the point is you're here and I thank you. And if you have been a listener and a follower since the beginning, inception or early days of the podcast. I welcome you as well and I thank you.

Alethea Felton: 1:56

And I want to jump right into this interview today and if you're new, you will notice that I always begin with a positive affirmation, because I know the power in words and the more that you speak these affirmations, the more they are a part of your life. So I will say the affirmation once and you repeat it. I trust and believe that everything is always working out for my highest good. Oh, my goodness y'all, today I am so excited for our guest, because this is, yes, she's a guest, but she's not just any guest, she is also someone that I can honestly call friend, and we have been friends now for quite a long time almost a decade, almost 10 years and it is none other than Dr India Sunea. Hey India, so good to see you, girl.

Dr. India Senia: 3:01

Hey, everybody, Hi it's so good to be on your platform and being able to speak to you, as well as to your listeners.

Alethea Felton: 3:10

Thank you so much, girl. It is certainly a joy to have you in audience and listeners or anybody. You all will learn later how I know her, but I want to make this all about her because India has such a oh my gosh. She has a phenomenal story to share and the fact that who she is and how she helps other people definitely helps them transform their lives. But India, before we get into that, I always like to just ask a nice icebreaker question just to loosen us up and just to have the audience know you a little bit more. So this is just a random question, nothing uncomfortable, but this is the question. India, when you think about all of the different animals on earth and when I say animals I'm using it broadly, it could be reptiles, birds, mammals, anything right what is your favorite animal and why?

Dr. India Senia: 4:12

The lion. So I was probably spoken over my life about, maybe about a decade ago, that I had the heart of the lioness, and up until that point I hadn't seen myself in that light. But then, when it was spoken over my life, it was almost like a flashing of everything that I had been through and was like you know what, like it takes endurance, and so for me, I feel like a lion. You know, they hunt their prey, they are the king of the jungle, they are the most fearful, but they also are soft carrying and they have longevity. So, like there's just so much about them and their strength that I resonate with them and their strength that, um, I resonate with. And so, um, I'm not the biggest animal person, but I will tell you I'm not gonna lie, I think I probably got a few, uh of them tattooed on my body, so, but that would be, that would be the animal I most resonate I most resonate with that is actually suiting and that is such a wonderful answer.

Alethea Felton: 5:27

Especially with me knowing you personally, that description and depiction of who you are in a very positive way does suit that of the lion wholeheartedly. Okay. So, india, one thing that I know about you and again I did introduce you as Dr India Sania, but your title, quote unquote is a performance and mental health coach. Now we'll get into that. But, india, if you could describe yourself, who would you say is Dr India Sania?

Dr. India Senia: 6:12

I'm a chameleon, I am one who has adapted in many environments due to survival, due to survival. And it has taught me one to keep an open mind, because things are forever changing and sometimes I don't really care for change, but they are always changing. And then, two, that I had been blessed to be a people person and to have a spirit that people resonate with. I have not always honored that, I haven't always given credit to that, because I not that I wasn't aware, I just really never saw myself in that light, and so now that I'm in my, I guess my perspective has changed on my impact. I see that, you know, I have lived in many different areas of the United States and because of my spirit, I can attest that there isn't a place I can't return, and so that to me is India, and that to me is the beauty that I am beginning to embrace, love, cherish and acknowledge, which has taken me a long hell of a time.

Alethea Felton: 7:47

But hey, it's the fact that you are embracing it and you're acknowledging it, so that shows that the growth is there and that the transformation continues to happen. And that is the premise of this podcast is to have these stories of transformation, resilience, but also to show everyday people that we have, everybody has a story and that we all have something too. And so part of that story goes with this title of doctor. So I'm sure people are wondering, like I'm sure people are wondering like how in the world that did did this woman get a doctorate degree? What is the journey, india, on you becoming a performance and mental health coach? Tell us a little bit about that journey and why you chose to walk that path.

Dr. India Senia: 8:43

Ooh child, I wonder the same thing. I wonder, like, I'll tell you one thing I I I did not realize that every season you have different grace. Um, right, I've heard that terminology. I'm listening to y'all. Y'all listen on a podcast. I am a church kid at heart, so there's a lot of things that I've heard growing up, a lot of different colloquialisms and a lot of you know passages in the Bible, parables, and so I didn't understand when they said there's seasons grace. You know every season you're graced for it, right, and I wonder, like, what in the world was I thinking to even travel down the road that I did? Honestly, I'm an Aries. First of all, I believe in astrology and signs and things of that nature, and so I'm very non-conforming. I am a non-conforming Christian, so I believe in other aspects, right, and so one of the things I know about me is I'm very repulsive.

Dr. India Senia: 9:50

And so a lot of times my education or the degrees I went after was literally in that moment. I thought about it, I researched it, it resonated, I did. And then I got in the middle of it. I was like what the hell was I thinking?

Dr. India Senia: 10:03

I did, and then I got in the middle of it, like what the hell was I thinking? But because I also had that fight in me, I'm like I can't come to my face, like I can't give up. But I will say that there, you know, I honestly don't know how I got here and that there were individuals that were strategically placed in the path that literally met me where I needed them to get to the next level, because I am one of 38 grandchildren on my maternal side and I am one of 26 grandchildren on my paternal side. And so, to know a little bit about that, because I could never sit on a platform and not bring up my family, because I stand on their shoulders and you know even the things that I will reveal, I still stand on their shoulders, right, and so, being that I come from a large family on both sides, I still manage to be a generation curse breaker and I'm still on that path, and so, with that said, I'm the first to receive a bachelor's, master's and doctorate on my mom's side, and I'm the first to have a doctorate on my dad's side, and so, but I am a kid who went to high school on a fourth grade reading level, and so that in itself is impactful.

Dr. India Senia: 11:28

And I don't know how I got here, because I'm also the same kid who dealt with severe anxiety during high school, but no one diagnosed me, nor was I ever attended to due to the fact that my father was looking at. You know death. And then top it on top of that fourth grade reading level, in the ninth grade I'm also dyslexic. No one identified that learning disability. And so you pass all of that on and my father passed away at uh in 2002.

Dr. India Senia: 12:10

And I was a junior in high school and I really didn't know what the heck I was going to do. I just knew that. I told my father on October 14, 2002, approximately around seven o'clock that night, looking at a cold court for a, a, a, a, a, a body that was getting cold Cause he wasn't really cold at that part, right, he was slowly decaying. And I said to my dad and one of my aunts will always remind me that I said to him at 17, I don't know how, I don't know when, but I will go to college and I will do everything we said. And within that same year we were looking at foreclosing on the home.

Alethea Felton: 12:56

You know what I mean.

Dr. India Senia: 12:59

After he died everything was just up in the air. But anyway, you take all of that and I figure out some way somehow to go to college. God connects me with different individuals, specifically black women and I'm gonna just be honest black queens who saw what I didn't see. Wow, and then poured into it literally okay, and so that was the course, or that has been the course, of my life over the last 22 years. That is how I'm, dr India Suneer. So just a combination of everything Exactly.

Alethea Felton: 13:43

And so, in all of that which you share, there is a lot there, so many areas to uncover and you know layers of your journey and story, and that ain't even a half of it. And so this leads me to asking you this India. So, just for some context, I think now's a good place to just bring this up Y'all. I first met India when I was active in a gym in the Washington DC area. It was a gym in Maryland and I had a personal trainer at that gym. India also had a personal trainer at that gym. We had separate trainers, but we were there and so we met approximately, I want to say, about 2015 is 2016. So it's been almost 10 years, but I do remember that we met in about 2015.

Alethea Felton: 14:37

I was working out, she was working out. I can't pinpoint when we started our friendship or just sparked up a conversation, but I know that over time we really did strike up a conversation. But I know that over time we really did strike up a conversation, and so we had this commonality of just not our faith and our spiritual practices and beliefs, but also of working out and exercise. We also have a musical background Both of us are vocalists, things of that nature, but one thing that I always saw in India was just determination, grit, endurance, perseverance. All of the above and I'll share something else later in terms of something personally India has done for me.

Alethea Felton: 15:26

But, india, I bring up all of that to say for you now, if a person were to go to your platform and you'll give them all of that info, at the end they see that you are really, really big on getting people to maximize their fitness. However, sometimes people might see a trainer or someone having a platform thinking, oh, it's just about physical beauty and it's so much deeper than that. India, my question for you is what led you on this fitness journey and how has the physical transformations in your life also affected the emotional aspects of your life, or even the other way around?

Dr. India Senia: 16:16

OK, well, so I mentioned earlier that I'm a generational, a generational curse breaker, and so one of the generational plagues that has plagued my father's side of the family is heart disease. And so as young as seven years old for me, I witnessed my father having his first heart attack, which I'm a daddy's girl, okay, and I grew up in a traditional Black family, four family or six people in the home mom and dad, church elders in the church. We was in church Monday through Friday, monday through Sunday, ok, so traditional, went to Christian school, you name it. And so for my father to be in the hospital for a week for me I still remember that because I didn't know life without my dad, right? So that started a 10 year journey of his health declining, which is very, very significant because I am walking into year 39 and I am in the healthiest place of my life and I'll talk a little bit about that.

Dr. India Senia: 17:23

But my dad walked into year 39 in what was going to precede his last 10 years of his life, and so I was a child who watched that. I saw my father in and out of hospitals, I saw him have four heart attacks or, you know, witness the effects of him having four heart attacks and six strokes. I watched him in and out of surgery. I watched my dad be rolled into surgery while he was sinking. I'm a big singer. Because of my father he could not sing.

Dr. India Senia: 17:55

Let me just put that out there on record but he was the one that was adamant and really encouraged me to, you know, make a joyful noise all the time, so watching him. By the time my father died, my father and I was 17. Let me just make sure I say that this was 2002. I was 17 years old. So at 17, my father dying seemed old right, because he died a month, and let me just make sure we understand this for us millennials we are approaching these ages now. He died a month, and let me just make sure we understand this For us millennials, we are approaching these ages now. He died a month after his 50th birthday, at 17,. That was old, at 39, I'm like, holy shit, knock, knock knock, knock, knock, that's right, that is not far away.

Alethea Felton: 18:48

And for me, already being in my 40s, I'm like ooh, knock, knock, that's right, that is not far away. And for me, already being in my 40s, I'm like ooh, he was young, come on God, come on God.

Dr. India Senia: 18:56

When he died I said, oh damn he old. Now I'm like it seems like he was a little young, so was gosh.

Dr. India Senia: 19:03

So, seeing that, and let me just make sure you understand that when he did get to that age and you know, succumb to his passing he was on 26 pills a day, he had a pacemaker, he had an enlarged heart and he was on the donor's list. He had four failed attempts to receive a heart transplant. Wow, I had a very ill father. So this was years of seeing this. We didn't go through therapy. We went to church. I heard people prophesy. I don't know what that means. I don't understand interpretation. I'm six, I'm 12., I'm 13. I don't know what that means. I'm looking up in the sky like okay, is he going to live?

Dr. India Senia: 19:50

And my dad was amazing about it because he would make jokes. He tried to humanize his sickness as much as possible without scaring my brother and I, but the reality is he succumbed to his illness. And so I get back to your point of why this is such a passion for me is because at 23 years old, six years after my father passed, I went to the hospital or the doctor's office and they diagnosed me with prehypertension and being pre-diabetic. I was 250 pounds at my heaviest, five two, so that's very short.

Dr. India Senia: 20:31

I'm vertically blessed in the short way.

Alethea Felton: 20:36

Wait a minute. Hold on India, you're only 5-2?

Dr. India Senia: 20:41

I know I got big energy, I know.

Alethea Felton: 20:45

I got big energy Girl. All these years I've known you because I'm I'm almost five, nine and I feel like she can't anyway focus, stay focused, all right excuse me audience. Look, this is what I get for interviewing a sister friend. Like you're literally somebody I know as a, not just an acquaintance but a friend. But anyway, girl, go ahead. So you were 250 pounds at your max Okay.

Dr. India Senia: 21:16

At my heaviest at that particular time of my life. And I looked at the doctor and the doctor was like look, based on your family history, it's inevitable. And I looked at that doctor and I said you will not speak that history over my life. That's number one. And you won't ever see me here again, so I had you know I was on birth control.

Alethea Felton: 21:37

And how old were you approximately when that doctor told you that?

Dr. India Senia: 21:42

23.

Alethea Felton: 21:43

Okay.

Dr. India Senia: 21:48

Okay, yeah. So I looked at the doctor like this ain't happening. I had no idea of what I was saying, I just knew that I told myself I could not die like my father.

Dr. India Senia: 21:57

And here's the not not just the mere fact that I don't want to live, you know, uh, I don't want to live like that. But not only did my father die that way, his mother, eight years prior to him dying in 1994, had a massive heart attack and stroke took it right out. My father died in 2002. My grandfather died in 2005 of heart disease and then two brothers after that died of heart disease. One had cancer, but he also had heart disease. It is in the bloodline.

Alethea Felton: 22:30

However.

Dr. India Senia: 22:30

I looked at that doctor and said that is not my history, that was theirs but that's not mine. And so the last 21 years, or I would say 15 years, I have went on this serious quest because I just knew that couldn't be my plight like I. Just I can't. I saw it, I know it, I lived it. You know what I mean. And it took it for me it already took too much right and it was something that I had been hearing everybody said you can control. So when I began to, you know I tried. I failed. It was a 10 year. I'm not going to say this was overnight. It wasn't until about 33 that I was at a place where I could stand on my own in my transformation. But it took time, it took effort, it took me failing multiple different programs. I mean I did Weight Watchers many times. I did Jenny Craig, herbal Life, kivana different things.

Dr. India Senia: 23:31

I was always on a diet. My mom had me. My mom convinced Bally's back in I was like 12 years old at the time convinced Bally's that I was 16 to get me a membership, convinced Bally's that I was 16 to get me a membership, wow, okay. And so, like, I was always on a gym membership because my mom, like I love my mother dearly, but my mother, you know, was a skinny woman, right, and here she is looking at her husband who is eight years older than her decay. You know, my mom was 42 when my dad died. That's my age. Wow, wow, she's a young widow and I thought she was old, exactly, you know, I was like, well, you know, she'll be all right.

Dr. India Senia: 24:19

You know, now I'm like lord, like so, you know, and I at first I hated my mother. I'm gonna just be honest. We ever heard I have talked about this. I hated her for a long time because I just felt like she was always picking at me. My self-esteem came through her. You know, like she was a skinny woman. You know, always told everybody she was in a size four when she got married and you know, that was always a thing and it was just like. You know, she was like she's a very beautiful, well put together woman and my mom don't play that like she.

Dr. India Senia: 24:52

We didn't come out the house looking any kind of way, yeah, so I struggled because I was that heavy girl, I shaped like my father, you know, I looked like my dad, and so I always thought you know, now I can understand my mom like looking at like my husband is dying now my daughter's going down this road.

Dr. India Senia: 25:07

Her grandmother died like this. I can understand my mom like looking at like my husband's dying Now my daughter's going down this road. Her grandmother died like this. I can't even imagine what her thought process was. Now. I didn't think like that at 17. Of course.

Dr. India Senia: 25:17

Yeah, but you know, maturity has helped me and forgiveness Right, and so I was working through it, but I realized that, in order for me to live, I had to take control of what went in my mouth. And I had to be accountable. That's the number one thing, and I'm going to tell you the doctors that diagnosed me at 23, that revelation didn't come until 28.

Dr. India Senia: 25:47

OK that's when all hell felt like it was breaking loose at 28 for me. I was in the middle of my master's program. I had never had counseling from my father. I was dealing with my sexuality. I was at my heaviest weight. Still, I was still in the 250s. I was on blood pressure medicine. It was just crazy. I was suicidal. Okay, I wrote the greatest song and I still got other songs. I wrote the greatest song and it's out there on iTunes.

Dr. India Senia: 26:13

You can, you can, uh, you know it's a shameless plug, but you can go and listen to it called Don't Let Me Fall, and I wrote that song in the midst of being suicidal and I was so in a place and I was in a church. I was a praise and worship leader, but I was in such a bad place with my health, with my sexuality, I was in the closet. I was struggling. I was ashamed of who I was. I was grieving with my dad. It was like 10 years in and I felt like I had nowhere to go. I had nowhere to go but to the grave, okay, and it.

Dr. India Senia: 26:47

And it wasn't until I said you know what? I lost my job. I was working for a trio grant and the trio, we lost the contract. So I said you know what? Everything's out of control right now. Everything's out of control. Everything I said the only thing I can control is what goes in my mouth.

Alethea Felton: 27:07

And so let me ask you this, india when it comes to your health and your fitness journey and all of that as well, all of these things are happening over the course of several years and spans of your life, and life continues to proceed. Things continue to happen. So it's not that you know life stopped. It is just that you learn how to cope and manage and deal things. I'm not even certain if, at that point, it was even managing it, but you learn how to cope through a lot of different things. And something else with your fitness journey that I saw is that you actually got yourself to a point where you decided to be in a professional competition for bodybuilders things of that nature.

Alethea Felton: 28:12

India, the question here is, with all of these challenges and struggles that you just spoke about, that you had been dealing with over the course of some time, including being suicidal and things like that, I know that your faith played a huge part, yes, but, india, what was that catalyst? What was that turning point where you said I'm not going out this way. I'm determined to just not live, but thrive. I'm determined to just not live, but thrive. Where did that resilience and that bounce back come from to help form and shape, even who you are today at that point.

Dr. India Senia: 29:02

it was when I got to the place where I felt like there was no return other than the grave, and that's when the word came to me. It feels like I'm running with no surface under me.

Alethea Felton: 29:21

It feels like I'm running with no surface underneath.

Dr. India Senia: 29:29

It feels like I'm breathing with no lungs in my chest. It feels like this life is trying to take all of my faith. But with this one prayer, god, I ask, don't let me fall. Another part of that song says it feels like I'm loving but no love returning to me. It feels like I've given all the best that I have. It feels like this life is trying to take all my faith. And when I hung on to that now I never saw myself as a singer Never. My father spoke over my life when I was four. I come from a very musically and kind family. We should just be the freaking Jackson 5 on both sides of my family right.

Dr. India Senia: 30:17

Everybody was the same and so I was always. I always played the background, I always was the background singer. I I shied away from it for the most part um. But when those words resonated in my spirit and I realized like I couldn't go to the grave because it was more for me and I'm very spiritual and God reveals things to me in different ways um, vision, signs through the word um and I that's when I said you know what? I got to take control of what goes in my mouth, like I.

Dr. India Senia: 30:53

Everything else is falling apart. There's nothing else I can control. I can't control where I live right now. I couldn't control my job situation. I just didn't control anything else I can control. I can't control where I live right now. I can't control my job situation. I just can't control anything. But I can control whether or not I went to Wendy's every day, or whether I went to Taco Bell every day, or whether or not I had donuts every day, or whatever. I can control that. If this is what's making me miserable, this is what I can control.

Alethea Felton: 31:15

And when.

Dr. India Senia: 31:16

I had that understanding of my process. I then created an accountability system for myself, and that was in people. I went to people that I could trust and I said, listen, this is my goal. I'm suicidal right now.

Dr. India Senia: 31:34

And these were trusted individuals who were therapists who were individuals who were in the field and probably should have turned me over, but it was like no, we need you to get the help you need. We love you and it was safe for them, and so I told them this is where I'm at, this is what I need. One of them I was like you know what I need to lose weight too, so we're going to go to Weight Watchers together.

Dr. India Senia: 31:55

We literally pulled up to Weight Watchers meeting every week, twice a week together. Then we became accountability partners at the gym. We both fell in love with this spinning class, and so we were. We became that and so we. We held each other to that. Then I had an accountability partner who held we've held each other to actually logging in our food and making sure we were staying within our points. We were that meticulous. I was that meticulous with what I said I had to do and when I locked and that was 12 years ago when I locked in in 2012, the weight begins to come off physically. When the weight begins to come off physically, I was able to then deal with the weight emotionally.

Alethea Felton: 32:43

Interesting Because oftentimes it happens the other way around, where people will deal with the emotional baggage first and then the physical. So thank you for explaining that.

Dr. India Senia: 32:56

Wow, it was in the physical that I realized my strength, not just the physical strength, but the, the, the mental endurance to, to train. You got to understand time under pressure, right, because the muscles in order for it to grow it has to be under pressure for an amount of time.

Dr. India Senia: 33:18

That's right. That sounds very easy to say when you're going through shit, mm-hmm, but that is the pressure that will grow us right. And so when I begin to really sit into that and understand that for myself, it was in the physical, that Because, see, I had other traumas that I did not want to deal with, right, that were that literally, and I wouldn't even say that I didn't want to deal with that, I had compartmentalized and my brain literally shut them out because I had so much trauma. The brain is very powerful yeah.

Dr. India Senia: 33:59

I had so much trauma and eventually it will all be out there.

Dr. India Senia: 34:03

But I literally have trauma in every aspect, from from my, my faith, or from Christianity, to me in church, to education trauma, to the death of my father, to my sexuality and to being raped at the age of seven. Okay, like there is so much to unpack and every last one of those tie into each other, and so for me, the emotional piece was just too painful, because it it was happening simultaneously that my parents knew about, my parents knew I was molested, my parents knew I was gay, my parents knew I couldn't breathe, my parents knew all of this. So so, then, that means I have to continually deal with the fact that my five is dead right. So for me, I don't want to touch that right, because that is a wound or a band-aid or a wound that I had to pick for so long.

Dr. India Senia: 34:59

You don't get over death, you learn to live with it. Yeah, and even when you learn to live with it, you gotta pick that scab all the time, and so it never healed right, and so it surfaced, um, and so that's why the strength part, for me, was very vital in dealing with my emotional piece, which then is what really birthed Dr India Sunia, why I went and got my doctorate in sports and performance psychology. And so it just, you know, it all came together.

Alethea Felton: 35:33

It sure did. It sure did. And I'm glad you actually mentioned what your doctorate is in, because, although it's not the focus for this episode, listeners, I want to make it clear to you is that India can speak so clearly on this because of the fact she's an expert in this field, meaning she has experience in the practice of it. She understands psychology, she understands all of that. I didn't say that upfront for a reason I knew she would eventually bring it out, but my whole point is that sometimes people can hear this and say, ooh, they're talking about some really heavy stuff. I don't know if she's qualified to actually speak on this. Yes, she is. And when I tell you, india is very self-aware, extremely self-aware, and understands how far to go with certain things, the things she will share Offline, of course, she and I talk about a lot more, but in terms of for the purpose of this platform this is the whole point is that she has an awareness of who she is, but also she helps people understand that, hey, our bodies don't have to stay in a state of sickness and our bodies don't have to stay in a state of just not feeling well.

Alethea Felton: 37:04

This isn't to say that people don't go through health challenges. Okay, I know better than anybody. Yes, but sometimes people get so used to being in a certain state or frame of being that they may not see how to get out or how to escape. And so, even now, because we have about 15 minutes left even now, when I go on your social media platforms, I'm seeing you do these challenges that I have been candid about in the past in a joking way, but she does. You have done challenges that help people work on their physical body and their physical health. So, india, what led you to say, okay, I'm doing all of this health and fitness things for me, I'm doing all of this health and fitness things for me, but now it's time to pay it forward. I want to help others change their lives as well.

Dr. India Senia: 38:08

Tell us about that journey. I'll go back to my daddy. I don't want, now that I am. Let me back up, now that I am approaching that age right I am. Let me back up Now that I am approaching that age right where, although I'm not a mother, I have about five children. I'm going to say about because one is brewing, I believe in dogs. I have two beautiful nieces and a nephew. I'm like an auntie mom.

Dr. India Senia: 38:46

I'm very nurturing by you know just by my nature, my spirit, and so for me, I do not want my generation kids to be in my shoes. I don't want many of my friends because actually everybody that I'm around got kids and I look at their kids and I say what would happen if one of my friends leave right now one am I able to step in the police and be that avenue because no one was there for me? Let me make that clear. Okay, I had nobody to turn to this, to even understand, because I was the first person to lose our dad. Right, my mom was the first one who was in the family who lost her husband, so she had no one. She had friends, but not in her immediate circle that had lost anyone. She had to become that person to everyone. I became that person to everybody in my family and I'm going to be honest with you I don't have the capacity anymore. It's been 20 years. I love people, but don't call me.

Alethea Felton: 39:51

Call a therapist.

Dr. India Senia: 39:52

I'm done, I'm not, you're not, you're my client.

Alethea Felton: 39:57

It's called growth. That is called growth.

Dr. India Senia: 40:00

Yeah, yeah, if you're my client, that is different but. If you're a family member, you're gonna go talk about yes, that's right, I already tell me so I'm I'm safe in his arms but, exactly I, I.

Dr. India Senia: 40:15

So I got to the place where it was like, look, I, I need to help my generation, right, because we are at that age. We are, we are approaching hell. We there, I ain't even approaching. I'm using terminology that I don't, I don't want to accept. We are there, we are the new party, okay, and so what happened to my dad could very well happen to any one of my peer groups, right, and so my why is to help us, you know, and help their kids not be in my shoes. You know so that we are living, healthy, we are, um, eating, you know to live, and and you, you don't have to eat just a salad and a shake.

Dr. India Senia: 40:57

That's right, you can enjoy food and out there, contrary to popular belief, you can enjoy a damn drink too. Okay, all right, now you know like you can still enjoy life, and not everybody's going to tell you that. Because diet culture is meant for you to believe that you need saturated, you need, you need, you know, non-saturated fat, or you need a salad, you need. All of this culture is believing the diet culture is meant that way so that you can continue to be on this yo-yo effect and never get off of you know the the uh, or never get on the train uh of health, of of being healthy, and then it, then it goes into the healthcare. That's why the healthcare system sucks, cause it's not, it's a management system. It's not a healthcare system, it's a management system. It's meant for you to manage. Okay, and that's my personal belief and I'm gonna stay right there because that's my trauma with my dad, because I feel, like every pill just got him worse, worse, worse.

Dr. India Senia: 42:07

To me, I didn't see an increase. I didn't see an improvement. So my lens is like if I can control how much medicine that is going in my body, you, I'm going to as much as I can now, I know that there's some things that you can't. I get that you know some of us are born with diseases. That that is out of our control so I'm not talking about that, but the but some of these like our, our, our diseases that are controlled by our diet, type Type 2 diabetes or certain heart disease.

Alethea Felton: 42:39

Yes, I understand totally and I get that. And I like how you explain that, because, even with me, I never want to give people the impression that I'm anti X, y, z because, hey, I have to get infusions every month for Crohn's, but you know, that's just something I don't like to do. But it's gotten me to a point where I don't have active inflammation and I don't have polyps now. But I still do my part. Like I've ran three and a half miles today. It was rough but I did it and I got it done. So I get it, I understand that and so you're paying it forward with trying to prevent people from having to go down that road.

Dr. India Senia: 43:23

You are doing your part in that yeah, because I, you know, as a former school counselor, I can't tell you how many times you know, consoling a kid that lost their parent broke my heart you know, like I can't tell you, the many days, you know weeks, months, of that band-aid that just kept being ripped by me and, and guess what, I had to put that to the side yeah and but to hold a child that lost a parent is a different feel than it was.

Dr. India Senia: 43:55

as me, being the child, you know Exactly, I'm there in their shoes. And so if I can help one parent turn that tide to give them their life back, then I'm paying it forward with my dad.

Alethea Felton: 44:09

India is girl, because we could talk forever and ever and ever. But let me ask you this, particularly In thinking about all of these years, these nearly 22 years now since your father's passing, and all of the highs and the lows that you've gone through in your life and just really being in such an amazing space now and I've known you for about 10 years and seen your growth and your transformation, india, what do you think, if you could summarize briefly what is the greatest thing that you've learned about yourself and what is the best thing that you appreciate and value about yourself?

Dr. India Senia: 45:04

ah, the greatest thing that and honestly I'm gonna be the revelation came this week for me because I had been dealing with some things mentally um no, no coach, no specialist, no therapist, no rever, no specialist, no therapist, no reverend, no spiritual guru no, anybody. Even Jesus said hey, take this cup from me, I don't want it. I don't want it. Okay, so for me it was. I had a revelation.

Dr. India Senia: 45:35

I singing um william murphy, um, it is my season of grace and favor and it is my season to read what I have sung. And then he said I've got a seed in the ground. Or he said I got seed in the ground and that hit me and briefly listen to this.

Dr. India Senia: 46:04

He's a gospel artist, pastor, things like that all right, yeah, yeah, he's a bishop in the black church. Um, so he said I got seed in the ground and it hit me. And I said I got seed in the ground. I'm not the seed in the ground, because suicide has been hovering over me, and so much so that there has been a cardinal stalking me over the last six months.