Exploring the Intersection of Spirituality and Psychology for Self Development | EP 7

Are you seeking guidance and insights to transform your life and be a better version of yourself?

In this captivating episode of Health Pod,  hosts Hélène Alexi Ioannides and Dr. Stephanos Ioannou open up about their mission to merge science and spirituality.  Together, they aim to create a sanctuary where listeners can find refuge from societal programming, dive into personal growth, and uplift their lives. 

With their expertise in neuroscience, mental health, and empowerment and embodiment coaching, Hélène and Dr. Stephanos are determined to guide listeners on a profound journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and personal growth.

Press play and get ready for a transformative experience as they invite you to join them on this soulful exploration. 

____
EPISODE RESOURCES:

Receive Exclusive Tips, Strategies, & Early Access to Events Directly to Your Inbox
Sign up for the Empowered New You Newsletter

Empowered New You Events:
https://drstephanos.com/events/

Ready for a change?

Tackle stress, depression, insomnia, and relationship hurdles head-on
Talk with Dr. Stephano Ioannou in a dedicated  1:1 therapy session
Book your session today: https://tr.ee/5WT89sosUn

Designed for women like you, eager to awaken their fullest potential
Join Hélène for a 1:1 empowerment session
Schedule your call with her today: https://tr.ee/cq-rYVY1NZ

Contact us with questions, ideas, or feedback:
Health Pod Podcast

Follow our socials:
@iamhelenealexiioannides
@drstephanos_neuroscientist
@wearehealthpod

Support the Show:
Share this episode with a friend
Give us a review in your listening app of choice

Transcript

Welcome to Health Pod, your self development hub.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:00:03]:

On mental health, psychology, and spirituality.

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:06]:

Every night we would sit and talk and, like, these just creative bubbles of inspired thoughts. Downloads would come to us in a time frame of a year and a half. There has been such a huge transition within us.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:00:22]:

This is basically what we're trying to create. We're trying to merge.

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:26]:

We're not trying. We are creating.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:00:27]:

We are creating reality.

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:29]:

We're doing it together.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:00:30]:

We're merging these two worlds. And one of the biggest, I think, lessons that I've received, that I'm now applying in my life is that.

Hélène Ioannides [00:00:42]:

We need to share this with the world. Welcome to the very, very, very first episode on Health Pod, Health Pod Rebranded. I'm Helene. I'm an empowerment and embodiment coach, and we are going to be talking about why we started Health Pod, what we have learned along the way, sharing our own personal experiences, and being able to bring our most authentic, powerful, rebranded Selves to you here today with my partner in crime.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:01:24]:

TADA. It's me, guys. Your favorite guy, your favorite psychologist that has been around for now over two years in Cyprus. I'm Dr. Stephanos Ioannou. For those of you that don't know me, I'm a psychophysiologist and a mental health practitioner. I specialize on mood disorders and couples therapy. So for those of you that are watching today's episode, do not forget to subscribe and send us your comments on the upcoming episodes. We have many guests that are speaking about mental health, psychology, and spirituality. So if you reach out to us, we will reach out to you. So do not forget to send us your comments. Thank you for watching. You look very nice today.

Hélène Ioannides [00:02:06]:

Thank you. So do. Why don't we start Health Pod?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:02:09]:

Well, we started Health Pod because we wanted Health Pod to be a sanctuary for people to find a refuge from their thoughts and from the programming of society. So in a way, Health Pod stands for you, stands for health stands for spirituality, mental health, psychology. Inspiring stories from people and things that you can gain so that you can uplift your life. For me, Health Pod is a hub where, if I was my younger self, I would go to and watch these videos to become a better person, in a way, by understanding myself at a deeper level.

Hélène Ioannides [00:03:02]:

Yeah, to be able to connect to yourself and feel empowered uplifted. To be further educated, inspired, and yeah, to just be able to experience other people's experiences through their stories and to gain more context on mental health, psychology, and spirituality, which are the main three topics that we will be covering for Health Pod. Let's go back to when we started. Why did we begin? Do you remember?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:03:46]:

Why did we begin?

Hélène Ioannides [00:03:47]:

I remember. Meet. Meet. Me. Me.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:03:50]:

Go for it.

Hélène Ioannides [00:03:51]:

Okay. Every night we would sit and talk and, like, these just creative bubbles of inspired thoughts and downloads would come to us as we were just chilling and talking, we thought, man, this is, like, really good stuff. We need to share this with the world. And maybe we can try and create this as a live version of it, a recorded version where we can replicate and feel through these inspirational talks. Yeah. So that's how we initially started.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:04:30]:

What would you like to see on this show? Let's say if we put a vision up right now together and keep each other accountable of where this podcast is going to go, who would you like to see on this show at some point in time? Why?

Hélène Ioannides [00:04:50]:

Okay.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:04:51]:

And what are the topics that we're going to touch upon?

Hélène Ioannides [00:04:54]:

Are you saying, like, the vision plan of this?

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:04:58]:

Yes.

Hélène Ioannides [00:04:58]:

Okay. Goals. Yeah, I like that.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:03]:

Let's not base this on reality, even.

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:06]:

This is my reality. This will get there someday. I would say I would love to have people like Aubrey Marcus on the show. Villana, Diary of a CEO.

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:22]:

I like him. Stephen Bartlett.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:23]:

Mindvalley.

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:25]:

Oh, yes. Vishen. I would love to have Vishen. He seems like a right firecracker. Inspiring.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:33]:

These are the people that we look up to in regards to their podcasts. Now, for me for me oh

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:41]:

I know who you're going to say.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:42]:

Definitely Huberman.

Hélène Ioannides [00:05:43]:

Yeah, I knew that was going to be first.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:05:45]:

Definitely Jordan Peterson. Yes. For those of you that are watching podcasts or listening to them, as you can understand, what I would draw my inspiration from many of the times would be Huberman Lab, Huberman Podcast, or Jordan Peterson, possibly because of my studies or because we have a similar scientific path, whereas you would go more for the podcasts that have a spirituality. This is basically what we're trying to create. We're trying to merge.

Hélène Ioannides [00:06:21]:

We're not trying. We are creating. We are creating this reality. We're doing it together.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:06:25]:

We're merging these two worlds. And the product of this is a fusion and a bridge from science to spirituality and from spirituality to science. And I think this is what makes Health Pod unique, because you don't see only one side of the story. We're here also to explain the whys. Let's start from taking something that might be prevalent and familiar to everyone, like The Secret, The Law of Attraction. And then you have Carl Jung, which has been one of the greatest psychologists that has ever lived. And he speaks about synchronicities and how the Secret and the Law of Attraction with Carl Jung's. Synchronicities all, in a way, come together, and we're trying to tie that content up and deliver it to our audience.

Hélène Ioannides [00:07:21]:

Yeah. And I mean, you're a neuroscientist, a neurophysiologist mental health expert, and I'm an empowerment and embodiment coach. So even the way that we choose to see certain things like you are a lot more factual and you need to see the answers a lot of the time. For me, I feel them. I know what I see and what I feel and use my intuition and receiving answers from the universe, from God source, whatever you want to call it. For me, it's all of that. And bringing our powers together is something that is very prevalent for this podcast and bringing our thoughts, our beliefs, the way we see the world, the way that we implement most of the things that we do within our lives, within our workshops, within our retreats, within the one on one coaching that we do. So that is a beautiful fusion of empowered new you. Health Pod.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:08:29]:

Yeah.

Hélène Ioannides [00:08:30]:

Your brand. My brand? 

Today's episode is sponsored by Empowered New You, where we hold women's circles, ice bath and breathwork events and retreats across the world. You can find more information on www.drstephanos.com and in the description below. You'll be able to book your events with us, as well as subscribe to our email newsletter where you'll be able to find more upcoming events. We hope to see you there. 

What you mentioned earlier took me back to where we started, which is, I feel like the first base as to most people and for us was working on our mental health. And for me personally doing that, I would do that through exercise.

I would work on my body to feel better, I would have therapy to be able to allow my mind, my thoughts, my negative self sabotaging ways, disintegrate and find a more empowered state through the pain that I've been through to turn that into purpose. And most people start off with doing so much work on their body and perhaps touching upon their mental health, but within that context, you realize that there's still a part missing. 

And that's where body, mind and spirit actually need to come together. And precisely why, when we started Health Pod, we felt like we were very much into mental health, into physical fitness, and really working on those aspects of ourselves. Right? But in a time frame of a year and a half, there has been such a huge transition within us that we've realized that spirituality, although we were maybe doing a little bit of meditation and practicing our journaling, the deeper we went into it, we realized that that was so essential to us and to our workshops. That that's where we saw a huge shift in people around us, in our clients. Therefore, it only felt right to bring more of that into the podcast and hence rebrand.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:11:11]:

Absolutely.

Hélène Ioannides [00:11:13]:

Embracing mental health, psychology and spirituality where body, mind and spirit all meet.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:11:20]:

Yeah, all align. And it's like you've read my mind saying that because (I did, darling.) You do most of the time, yes. So for me as a scientist, that I have always been very pragmatic and logical. Knowing the ABCs of science that would alleviate depression, anxiety from a person was good enough up to a specific point in my life where I felt that maybe I don't have all the answers. And maybe spirituality, sound, healing, meditation, men's circles, ice baths, breath work, could be martial arts, could be something additional in regards to my mental health. And that is where I really appreciated the meaning of spirituality in my life. And one of the biggest, I think, lessons that I've received that I'm now applying in my life is that we need to understand ourself to such a deeper level, whether that's through psychology. I would start first with psychology, with trauma. Understand yourself, know who you are.

Hélène Ioannides [00:12:56]:

Yes.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:12:56]:

Understand the whys of having your own trauma, your own upbringing. And that's when spirituality comes along and the Akashi records that tell you you have signed a contract to be in that family. So then you are expanding your awareness into the conscious collective. We're trying to make it a conscious collective rather than an unconscious collective of you realizing what is your life mission and how your life and how your transition, how you by you better understanding yourself, can shift also the lives of those around you and also can shift the world. Science is maybe the starting point, but definitely is not the finish line. Spirituality is. And that is what Health Pod is here to do. We might be starting with psychology. We might be starting with better understanding ourself. But the finish line is spirituality. To understand how your life connects with a person next to you, with your neighbor, with your partner, with your kids.

Hélène Ioannides [00:14:23]:

I would add to that that it's not just about understanding, but seeing and feeling how everything is so interconnected and that there are lessons in everything that we do and in every person that we interact with. And nothing is a coincidence. In fact, we make so many stories about our lives or our situations that it's almost comical. It's comical because when you actually stand back and look at the whole big picture, you realize universe, god, I see you. I see you. I can see how this is teaching me this. The lessons to be able to stand back and observe it all, be part of it. Yes. Feel it, explore it, sense it, get angry, feel the scope of emotions. And to really embody all that we are and all that we've come here to do. Not run away from our emotions or not run away from the things that we feel pain from.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:15:43]:

I love that so much because in a way, the first thing for me that comes into my mind right now by hearing you speak is that we also have a very big responsibility towards our audience. We're not people that know everything.

Hélène Ioannides [00:16:03]:

No.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:16:03]:

And it doesn't necessarily mean that just because I have the titles that I know everything as well. And people need to know that that science. Every five years, what we know today, there's a new article that comes up that destroys everything that we have built on. So science might give you the physical substance right now at this moment of society. But the collective, the awareness of being an observer, of learning the lessons, is an archetype knowledge that has been passed from generation to generation, which we kind of forgot because we no longer live in communities, we no longer have these sacred circles or where people exchange opinions and ideas and they're just being heard.

Hélène Ioannides [00:17:01]:

And there are specific gifts or aspects of the world that aren't praised enough.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:17:09]:

Whether that's, like they've been put on the side.

Hélène Ioannides [00:17:13]:

Yeah, they have.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:17:14]:

But we're here to make people remember the core of what it means to be a human. And something that I'm wearing today, I don't know if it shows on the camera, like hearing you speak saying that it's like we are an observer of what goes on around us and also inside of us. And we're trying to also bring our observations to the audience and we would like also our audience, through their comments, to bring their observations to us and bring us their lessons, their life lessons.

Hélène Ioannides [00:17:55]:

Because it is all about community about sharing and interacting and our listeners, our viewers to hopefully there is no hopefully to be able to grow from this podcast and learn and expand. And at the same time for us, in the process of doing it through our guests, through our interaction with the audience, to learn, grow and expand, which is yeah, it's just a beautiful connection and fusion and an inter exchange of thoughts. And that's the magnificence of it. I mean, even when we started this podcast, we had no idea what we were doing.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:18:39]:

That's true.

Hélène Ioannides [00:18:39]:

So the learning process of it has been absolutely beautiful and we are still learning, which is the most exciting part about it. And I'm really excited for all the guests that we are going to have on the show. I'm really excited to share our own experiences of what we have been through and how our life story and how our experiences can be of value to people. Because through our pain we have learned a lot. And there are many people who are going through the same things as I watch other people who are going through things and I don't understand at this point, but I know that somewhere along the line I perhaps will go through it.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:19:31]:

Hey guys, thank you for watching. If you're enjoying this video, do not forget to hit the subscribe button. It would mean a lot to us.

Hélène Ioannides [00:19:39]:

And you know what I'm talking about. If you've been through this kind of thing, you watch someone and you think, oh, what are they talking about? And then it makes sense a couple of years later. So this is us talking to a younger version of ourselves and an audience that perhaps is going through certain parts of their own development, their awareness, personal development, their own self development, their own awareness. And yeah, in that context, TADA.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:20:13]:

I think this is going to be a beautiful journey for all the people that are going to subscribe to our channel, because we will be speaking at a very deep level on our psychology, our trauma, what makes us, the people that we are today, why we behave the way that we behave, how certain illnesses arise to torture our physical existence, but in extent also our soul. And how our suffering and pain brings so many valuable lessons to become our higher self, to gain this awareness that life might just be a simulation, might just be a matrix or a programming in which it becomes a little bit more bearable by gaining awareness around it, by understanding, why am I going through this suffering? What is this lesson? How does my lesson becomes my legacy and my teaching to the people that are around me? And for me, Health Podf is not only our voice, it's the voice of our guests. It's the voice of the people that are watching us. And right now, I'm truly praying that we will stay loyal to our mission for this to be fully aligned with every person's voice that is watching us. That this podcast stands for honesty.

Hélène Ioannides [00:22:08]:

Truth.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:22:09]:

Truth.

Hélène Ioannides [00:22:11]:

Vulnerability.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:22:12]:

Vulnerability. That's why I also chose you as my wife, because you also have all the answers most of the time.

Hélène Ioannides [00:22:20]:

Very funny.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:22:21]:

So do subscribe. Guys, we're very excited about this project. It's a project that is rooted in love. It's rooted in the love of humanity. And that's why we're doing this, because we love people. And in this process, we're also loving ourselves, honoring our truth, speaking our truth. And this truth might just be a collection of other people's words, of books. It doesn't mean that we were born with this knowledge. So we're acknowledging also that our voice, it's part of the conscious collective.

Hélène Ioannides [00:23:09]:

Yeah. And that's really beautiful because through this process of when we initially started Health Pod, we both, if I may speak for both of us, we both felt like we were different people.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:23:26]:

Yeah. Completely different people.

Hélène Ioannides [00:23:28]:

Completely different. And we have seen such a shift and a change in us over this time that it only felt right to represent ourselves and find a new voice, a new look for what we envision and where we envision Health Pod to be.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:23:54]:

Yeah. Do you think that at the age of after ten years, we will still be doing the same thing?

Hélène Ioannides [00:24:01]:

I probably think not, because I like to change so many things and I like to start so many different projects and work on many things, but we.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:24:11]:

Might be in a different country with a different audience. I mean, the audience always is the same, but the guests might just change.

Hélène Ioannides [00:24:17]:

I think that just being able to acknowledge how much I am personally enjoying this project and investing my own time and resources into this because it is a passion project. It really is. It's something that represents who I am, my most authentic self, my voice, and how I want to show up in the world. Yeah. It's something that is very creative but also very loving. So I'm happy that I'm doing it with you.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:24:55]:

Same here.

Hélène Ioannides [00:24:57]:

And I love you very much and I cannot wait to begin.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:25:01]:

Yes, this new chapter of your life and also our life.

Hélène Ioannides [00:25:09]:

Thank you so much for watching this episode. It's been an absolute pleasure filming it for you guys. If you like the work that we are putting out into the world, please make sure you like this video and you subscribe to our channel. It really helps the work that we do.

Dr. Stephanos Ioannou [00:25:22]:

And if you would like to follow our journey on our IG accounts as well as learn more about our services, we provide everything for you in the description below. Thanks for watching.