Discover The Mindset of Miracles with JJ Virgin

Welcome to the Healing Pain Podcast with JJ Virgin: Discover The Mindset of Miracles!  

Today’s guest is JJ Virgin, four-time New York times bestselling author and celebrity nutrition and fitness expert. She has a new movie that is just about to be released called You Are Stronger Than You Think.

In this episode, JJ Virgin talks about the event that changed her life just when she thought everything was perfect. She goes through that life altering event and how she and her family got through it through the mindset of miracles. She provides a few tips that you can do easily and fast to start shifting your mindset.

She also talks about her movie, You Are Stronger Than You Thinkand the awesome things you will also get when you sign up to watch it.

About JJ Virgin

HPP 024 | Mindset of Miracles

Writing four New York Times bestsellers helped me get my message about conquering food intolerances and crushing sugar cravings out to a wider audience. I feel so blessed that I’ve gotten to watch that audience grow, tackling their own challenges and becoming their best selves – and watching them inspire their own families. But my ultimate message is truly built around self-empowerment. As powerful as these things are, this isn’t about losing 10 pounds or even reversing diabetes. My ultimate goal is empowering YOU to reach your healthiest, happiest life.

 

Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS

Discover The Mindset of Miracles, with JJ Virgin

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Facebook Live. I am Dr. Joe Tatta, author of Heal Your Pain Now, one of the best-selling books in the chronic pain category on Amazon right now. I want to first thank everyone in my tribe for helping with the book launch. As you know, I’m so dedicated to helping everyone heal from their chronic pain. Let me tell you, the most important way you can heal from chronic pain starts with your mindset. I wanted to support all of you with free information. I’m going to keep doing this throughout the month with the book launch.

Tonight, I have my friend and someone who’s actually helped me through the process of my book launch. Her name is JJ Virgin.  Let me give you a quick introduction. She’s a celebrity nutrition and fitness expert who teaches clients how to lose weight and more importantly master their mindset, so that they can live bigger and better lives. She’s the author of four New York Times best-selling books including, The Virgin Diet and The Sugar Impact Diet. Her new memoir called Miracle Mindset: A Mother, Her Son, and Life’s Hardest Lessons explores the powerful lessons in strength and positivity that she learned after her son, Grant, was the victim of a brutal hit-and-run accident.

She hosts the popular JJ Virgin Lifestyle Show Podcast and regularly writes for the Huffington Post, Rodale Wellness and other major blogs and magazines. She’s also a frequent guest on television, radio and speaks in major events. In addition to her work as a nutrition and fitness expert, she’s a business coach and founded the premier health entrepreneur event called Mindshare Summit. JJ, welcome to Facebook Live. It’s great to have you here.

Good to be here. I’m just got to say, “Hey,” to Susan Como for waiting patiently. Thank you. This has been like a tech crazy day.

Yes, thank you. I posted it in a couple of different Facebook groups. Susan is actually a member of my program. I want to thank, Susan for being here as well. JJ, I know you’ve helped thousands of people with weight loss and their health. I know with the movie, you can tell us all about the movie that you’re about to launch tonight. Obviously, you’re stepping into a really big space here in a way to help people in a different way in addition to weight loss. What was your inspiration for the movie?

It’s been an interesting journey because as you know, four and a half years ago, my son was the victim of a hit-and-run. He was sixteen at that time. It was right before my book was coming out. The reason that’s relevant is I’m the financial support for my family and I’d invested everything in this book. It really had to go. Then my son was hit by a car and left for dead in the street. That is the single most important thing in my life. I always said I can handle everything or anything as long as my kids were okay.

I had to be there for my son, help him through this, along with being there and making sure the book went the same time so that I could pay for all the medical bills. It just was an indescribable time. Four and a half months in the hospital with him as they brought him through. He had a torn aorta, multiple brain bleeds. It was a frightening time.

HPP 024 | Mindset of Miracles
You Are Stronger Than You Think; Discover the Mindset Of Miracles

My son was a victim of a hit-and-run. He literally was hit by a car. The woman got out of the car, looked, got back in the car, drove off and left him. He was airlifted to our local hospital. He had multiple brain bleeds, torn aorta, fractures, thirteen fractures, bones sticking through his skin. When we got there the doctors told us we needed to let him go. He was too far gone. We found out that he needed a very specialized surgery which would require another airlift. The doctor was like, “He’ll never survive another airlift. Even if he were to survive another airlift, he’s not going to survive the surgery. Even if he were to survive those, he’s going to be so brain damaged, it wouldn’t be worth it.”

My other son was fifteen and standing with me at that time. This little kid says, “Like a .25% chance?” The doctor says, “That’s about right.” My son says, “We’ll take those odds.” That was it. That’s when we just screed into action. We airlifted him. He survived the airlift. He survived the surgery. Then the orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, all went to work. The neurosurgeons told us they didn’t think he’d ever wake up. The orthopedic surgeons told me they didn’t think he’d ever walk. It just was this horrific experience, but we made a decision early on in that hospital that we were going to fight for him. We were not only going to fight for him to make sure he survived. We wanted to fight for him so that his life was even better than before the accident, that he would be an 110%.

That was a key pivotal moment because you get what you expect. If we just like, “Gosh, we just got to get him to survive,” the outcome may have been very different than when you say no to the orthopedic surgeons who say, “Oh, we’re just trying to get him to be able to walk.” I’m like, “No. No, I want you to treat him like he’s Kobe Bryant. That’s what we need to do here.” It started to change the perception around the hospital. It changed how we were being treated in what we were doing for him.

I got home from the hospital, about four and a half months he was in the hospital. We looked at this and people kept going, “JJ, how did you do this?” Because I had to launch a book in the hospital with my son. At first, I thought it was because we’d both been so healthy going into this. I put my health as the top priority in the hospital so I can really show up for my son and be in the ICU with him. I can’t be there sick. As I started to really look at it, especially over the last four and a half years, it would have been so challenging for someone with a brain injury.

I realized it wasn’t bad at all. The reality is, what has helped me come through all of this and helped my son come through it and my other son, is the same thing that when you look at anyone out there, and there have been so many people I’ve talked to over the last four years, trying to really dig into, what makes some people able to handle things, be more resilient, not be a victim. What is that? Because you see it in people.

Some people it’s like life happens to them and, “Poor me.” You see those people that are just thrown, they just seem to be so resilient. The bottom line is, and this is why I wrote the book and why I did the movie that we’re giving away free to everyone today, is I realized that my son is here. I’ve made it through this. My family has made it through this because of the mindset that we had going into this. Because I start to query other friends and I went, “Wow, this is something that we all share.” We all share this mindset and key attributes that we’ve developed like a muscle, and other people can too. When you do, all that stuff that life’s going to throw at us, because one thing is for sure, life’s going to throw us stuff. We’re going to get, “Ha ha ha.”

HPP 024 | Mindset of Miracles
I really keyed in to what are these attributes of this mindset and how do you assess these, how do you develop them in a simple fast way.

In fact, Joe, the day before this happened with Grant, I literally was walking through an airport thinking my life is perfect, and it’s like, whoosh. Life is going to throw you these things. It’s how you show up that makes the difference. How you show up comes down to your mindset. The big challenge I had was, I was like, “I’m used to being very left-brain.” I want to be able to measure it, assess it, test it, train it. I’m like, “How do I do that with this?” I really keyed into what are these attributes of this mindset and how do you assess these? How do you develop them in a simple fast way? I always like shortcuts. We’re all busy. Those little things you can do, just like getting Grant to 110% was little 1%s. What can we do that will allow us just to get unstuck in our lives to show up bigger in our lives to be able to handle this stuff?

Awesome. We’re talking to JJ Virgin. We’re talking about her brand-new movie that’s just about to be released called You Are Stronger Than You Think. We’re talking about mindset. JJ, what I really want to know is, is mindset something that we’re going to watch your movie, we’re going to read your book and we’re going to learn a lot about mindset. Is it going to change instantly or do we have to work on this on a regular basis?

I have totally gotten into this metaphor now. Maybe it’s because I come from the fitness background. What is interesting is getting this whole metaphor of muscle. This was crazy. I queried my community last year. I said, “If you’re not where you are with your health, why not?” I figured they’d say, “I’m addicted to sugar.” It had to be gluten, dairy or sugar. Thousands of people, Joe, they said, “I don’t feel good enough. I don’t feel worthy.” It just made me realized that you cannot outgrow your mindset. You can build it. But if you take that metaphor that it’s a muscle, then you’re going to need to exercise it on a regular basis. You can build it and when you build it, everything in your life will change. It just needs to become habitual.

I actually have been testing this out. In the movie, what you’ll see is my story, that’s very specific, but this lessons that are universal that apply to all of us. As you start to apply each of these areas, like forgiveness and courage and thinking abundantly, you can actually do these exercises and they can shift you in that moment and start to make changes.

In fact, I started to see just by putting simple things in place, like a gratitude practice, that people’s lives shifted in a week, a week. This isn’t something where all of a sudden you’re having to go do a meditation for an hour a day. I’m talking a minute a day. This is the busy person’s best thing ever.

I love that you brought up forgiveness because I would imagine, throughout this process obviously, someone hit your son, leaves him for dead. You’re in the process of launching your book. You’re in the process of helping your kid to make sure he gets the proper care throughout his entire process, both in acute care, through rehab later on and of course, now four years later. How do you and what do you suggest based on your movie and your book, how do you maybe at times be present with an emotion that may be negative, but learned to work through it and learned to actually change it into positive?

This is why I love your work. Your approach to pain is the most brilliant thing ever. This book you have. This is like a mindset book too. It’s so fantastic. The thing is, we’re going to feel these emotions. The idea that you’re not going to feel fear or you’re not going to be angry, of course we’re going to feel these things. Feel it, but then don’t sit in it and dwell in it.

In the movie, you’re going to hear me talk through what happened when this woman hit my son. This woman hit my son, got out of the car, looked at him, gasped, got in the car. He’s there, and drives away. When I was in the hospital, people kept saying, “Wow, we need to go after that woman.” We literally had a group from the desert who said, “We’re putting together a fund. We’re going to go after her.” I go, “Why are we doing that?” I’m over here and I’ve got to focus on my son. If you’re going to put this energy anywhere and all of that, put it towards my son because this doesn’t matter.

HPP 024 | Mindset of Miracles
In the movie, you’re going to hear me talk through what happened when this woman hit my son.

The reality was, Joe, I figured that it wasn’t an issue for me because I wasn’t giving it any energy. One of the things that were really amazing to me was discovering that forgiveness is actually a process. It’s very active. If you’re feeling resentment or angry or maybe just you’re not even feeling joy, it may be that you’ve got some unresolved feelings out there and you need to forgive.

This has nothing to do with calling someone and saying, “I forgive you. “ It’s got nothing to do with the other person. It is a process within yourself where you need to process those emotions and then really get empathetic to that person, and actively forgive them and find the gifts in the situation. When you do, it’s the most freeing thing ever. Incredible. I never looked at that woman and, because I wasn’t resentful there wasn’t a problem. But I did need to forgive her and I needed to forgive my son for crossing the street in front of the car. I need to forgive myself for somehow allowing that to happen.

The ultimate forgiveness, in general, ends up being for yourself. But that was a key process. Again, when you watch the movie, you’re going to see these seven lessons. Some of them you might feel like, “I totally got that one.” Like, “I think abundantly.” Some you might go, “Oh, I need to be more present.” That’s great because I always like to strengthen strengths but there’s opportunity in those places where you’re not as strong yet.

Awesome. JJ, what’s your favorite mindset hack that you either use on yourself each day, you recommend to your weight loss clients? What can someone do tomorrow when they start their day? They watched us on Facebook Live. They’re saying, this guy is healing pain and she’s helping people with weight loss, and major trauma that happens in life. What can we do tomorrow to work on our mindset?

You know what’s great? This will apply whether you’re dealing with pain, you’re in a relationship that you want to improve and you’ve got financial stuff going on. What’s incredible is, your mindset is going to impact every area of your life, positively or negatively. Let’s choose positive here. Again, I have been building this in to all of my programs, but I wasn’t aware I was even doing it. Because I’ve been studying personal development since my 20’s. I always start my programs with purpose and mindfulness. This is where I want to get really concrete. I’m going to give you one mindset hack that is so simple to do and it’s a way to frame your day.

Every morning, and I did this in the hospital every single morning. Get up, pull out my journal. Write down three things or three people I’m grateful for. It takes a minute. It’s so simple. I would wake up every morning, I’d wake up in a little crappy hotel. That first time when you’re waking up and you think everything is okay, then you look around and realize you’re in a little crappy hotel and your son is in a coma. It’s like waves of fear. You write down gratitude, and it’s the fastest way to shove fear to the side. That’s one that I’ve done for decades that makes a massive difference. The other one is every night I look at what went well today. We so often go, “What sucked today? What was bad today?” You’re like, “Oh my gosh!”

Have a glass of wine to forget about it.

HPP 024 | Mindset of Miracles
Simple little things. It just frames your day. You start out positive. You end positive.

I grew up in a household where my mother is always the “What went bad? What went wrong?” I had to really work around this to fix it. Everyday it’s like, “What were the things that were good today?” “What were the little wins?” It doesn’t have to be this massive thing, just what little things happened today that were great. Simple little things. Every night, three of those. It just frames your day. You start out positive. You end positive. There are some other things that you’ll see in the movie that you can add in throughout the day to help with stage shifts, but that’s a good way to get started. . It’s a challenge I throw out to you, everyone watching, to do. For a week, you’ll be amazed what shifts.

Great advice. JJ, I know we don’t have a lot of time, but I want to ask you one other question. How do you think this movie is going to change the work that you’ve been doing? Obviously, you’ve helped thousands of people with weight loss. Going forward, how is it going to change the people who follow you, the people who followed your work and even maybe the work in yourself?

There are so many amazing things that have happened here. It blows my mind. First one, I’m writing this book and I’m doing the movie. Everyone is like, “Gosh, this must be so healing.” I’m like, “It’s not. It’s not healing at all.” I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh. What was I thinking? This is just reliving it, every minute.”

All the wounds coming up.

But here’s a big takeaway. Then I started helping other people with the exercises and boom, I’m feeling so much better. Often, if you’re depressed, scared, anxious, reach out and help someone else. It’s amazing how that will shift you. That’s been incredible. In some ways, it seems I’ve gone off on sideways, little slant over there talking about mindset. The reality is that when you look at health, there’s nutrition, there’s fitness, there’s mindset. They all have to be there. While I was weaving it in before, I was never mindfully weaving it in.

I like what’s happening now with the shift. It’s the way you do your whole pain program. It’s has to start here. In reality, whatever someone is doing, if they can’t start with the purpose, why are they doing this? What’s their big why behind it that will move them through the hell and help them show up with courage? They’re not going to stay in it long enough to build that resilience.

I love what you said also. Obviously, your health is dialed in 100% complete. We all have our own health journey. You’re constantly tweaking things. I’m constantly tweaking things. But once you’re able to help other people, you’re able to deliver a bigger message. You just want to continue to help and change the message and make the message sharper to help more and more and more people, whether it’s someone with pain, whether it’s someone with weight loss, whether it’s someone’s IV. In fact, after a while, it will all just blend in together. JJ, let us know what else you have planned? What else is going on in addition to the movie?

When you sign up to see the movie, I have got so much cool stuff that we’ve been doing around it. One of them, I’ve got an interview with my son that would just blow everyone’s mind. I’m just going to leave with this because there’s a lot more that we’ve done that’s fun. I’m doing a live training, teaching people how to build this for themselves.

HPP 024 | Mindset of Miracles
“Let’s go back four and a half years from today. You can cross the street or not. What would you do?” He said, “Mom, I would cross the street.”

I interviewed my son a couple of weeks ago. He’s twenty. I said, “Let’s go back four and a half years from today. You’re standing at the side of the road, and you can cross the street or not. What would you do?” He said, “Mom, I would cross the street.” I know. I was, Joe, not expecting that. I was like, “What?” “I am better because of it.” I got to tell you, that probably wouldn’t have been the statement a couple of months earlier. It has taken this long. 1% by 1% by 1%. Just staying with it. Having the faith. Seeing it. Having that belief.

The big takeaway in life is those things that are worth fighting for, they take time. You have to stick with it. You have to have that resilience. You have to show up every day. Just hold on to that belief. He’s in a coma. I’m going, “He’s going to be 110%.” The doctor said, “He’s not waking up.” You’ve got to keep that belief and that hope. Watch the movie. It’s really all woven in there. It will apply to wherever you are in your life.

I want to thank JJ Virgin for being with me on Facebook Live. I want to thank everyone for watching. I want to thank JJ Virgin one more time for being with me. We’ll see you all next time on Facebook Live.

Thank you. Bye.

Take care.


Want to learn natural strategies for resolving pain for you or your patients? Purchase my brand new book!

Heal Your Pain Now; The Revolutionary Program to Reset Your Brain and Body for a Pain-Free Life.

healpainnow-google-dimenson-OT2

Don’t miss the next episode of the Healing Pain Podcast!

Sign up for the latest episode at www.drjoetatta.com/podcasts.

The Healing Pain Podcast features expert interviews and serves as:

A community for both practitioners and seekers of health.
A free resource describing the least invasive, non-pharmacologic methods to heal pain.
A resource for safe alternatives to long-term opioid use and addiction.
A catalyst to broaden the conversation around pain emphasizing biopsychosocial treatments.
A platform to discuss pain treatment, research and advocacy.

If you would like to appear in an episode of The Healing Pain Podcast or know someone with an incredible story of overcoming pain contact Dr. Joe Tatta at [email protected]. Experts from the fields of medicine, physical therapy, chiropractic, nutrition, psychology, spirituality, personal development and more are welcome.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today:

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May, 2018

Your privacy is very important to us. We want to make your experience on the Internet as enjoyable and rewarding as possible, and we want you to use the Internet’s vast array of information, tools, and opportunities with complete confidence.

The following Privacy Policy governs the online information collection practices of Joe Tatta, LLC d/b/a joetatta.co and www.backpainbreakthrough.com ( collectively the “Sites”). Specifically, it outlines the types of information that we gather about you while you are using theSites, and the ways in which we use this information. This Privacy Policy, including our children’s privacy statement, does not apply to any information you may provide to us or that we may collect offline and/or through other means (for example, at a live event, via telephone, or through the mail).

Sign Up for the Integrative Pain Science Institute’s Weekly Newsletter

Enter your email and get the latest in pain science, podcast episodes,
CEU opportunities, and special offers.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

We only send you awesome stuff!