Speranza And The Weight Of Hope

SPEAKER_02 0:04

This word in Italian, sperenza, it means hope. Not the fragile one, but the wishful kind. The kind that holds you up when nothing else will. And today we are going through that space, that conversation about what it really looks like to rebuild yourself through faith and through the food you eat or through the quiet or through the stubborn act of not giving up. Welcome back to another episode of Ferry May Hathi Life. I'm your host Cyan and this is the show where we have real honest conversations about what it takes to feel well. Not just on the surface level, uh, but all the way through. My guest today is Ashley Ondrick, an integrative nutrition health coach, private chef, and cooking instructor based in St. Petersburg, Florida, who has built her life around the belief that food, faith, and perseverance can carry you towards whole lizard ways that you might not expect. So we are today talking about Sperenza and what it means to come back to yourself when life has knocked you down. So, Ashley, yeah, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Likewise, Ashley.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Hey dear listeners. Before we begin, a quick note from Heldiman Beyavek. This episode is created for educational and informational purposes only. The views shared by our guests are their own and may not reflect those of the host or network. Nothing in this conversation should be taken as medical, legal, financial, or professional advice. Please consult a qualified professional before making important decisions. We encourage you to listen with curiosity, think independently, and use this content as a starting point for reflection, not a substitute for professional guidance.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Now, settle in and enjoy the conversation. With that being said, Ashley, I want to start with, you know, before we jump onto the deep end of I would say the spiritual side of things, I would love to start with something a little personal. The word sperenza, uh, it's a beautiful word, I think, which means hope. It's not just for topic uh for you, is it? I mean, what does that really actually mean in your own life?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

You know, it it is a really personal word for me. It's actually something I got tattooed on my wrist many years ago. I was really just trying to make it from one day to the next day. And I just found that, you know, holding on to something, like hope is the belief that something good is coming. Holding on to that belief is what got me through, you know, really difficult days. And so now to have a book coming out with that title, it's just, you know, it's it's incredible. And it really speaks to the power of hope.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Wow, and I think I just got my next, I mean, tattoo idea. And that's that's I mean, so true, right? We all should have that little uh, you know, glimmer of hope that keeps us, you know, grounded through whatever it is that we're going through, and we just carry it forward to the next day.

Hope As A Daily Practice

SPEAKER_02 3:16

So I think there's this version of hope that really gets thrown around a lot on social media in wellness content as well, and I think it can start to feel a little hollow, you know, almost like a poster on the wall. So, you know, I'm I'm curious as to when you say hope in the context of healing, what are you actually talking about? You know, what's what's the difference between hope as a concept and hope as something that you actually live and put it in practice in day-to-day life?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah, that's an interesting question. And I think what it comes down to is that I really believe that we are meant to live abundant lives, not just exist. And for a really long time, I was content with kind of just doing the bare minimum to get through each day. And I was kind of afraid of taking some big steps that I really thought were gonna give me my vitality back. And so for me, hope was something that meant that like big things are waiting on the other side of taking leaps of faith and on the other side of perseverance and you know, belief that like a abundant life was available.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

And I mean it's it's quite interesting that you know, if if you think about hope as you know, a if you see it like if you break it down to a task that you hold on to every day, and then you know, as you go through your, you know, routine life or whatever is that you're used to, and when you look back from that point onwards, you know, back to let's say five or ten years back, you would see a lot of things have changed. But in that time, you know, as we're going through that phase layer by layer, it it might not seem a lot is changing, but it's interesting as how the concept of hope really, I mean, from a metaphorical viewpoint, really changes everything in the long run. So I think you bring fake faith apologies into this conversation alongside food and perseverance. And I find that pairing really interesting, I would say, because a lot of people separate those things, you know, faith in one lane, physical well-being or perseverance in another. So I just want to ask you because I'm curious, because it it sounds like for you they're they or they're actually deeply connected. So where does that connection even come from, if you could share?

Faith, Worth, And Chronic Pain

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, I they are absolutely connected for me. And I'll back up because a lot of my story comes from the fact that I spent most of my life thinking that I was a mistake. I was told at a young age that I had been an accident, which I took to mean unwanted and you know, unworthy of love, unworthy of being on this planet. And so I carry that with me into my whole life after that, that feeling that I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not inherently worthy of love. And and then I had a lot of physical symptoms that were happening to me. I had chronic pain starting when I was 18 years old. I went through a series of sub spine surgeries, and and as my physical health kept getting worse and worse, I actually came to the point where I realized how intricately our belief about our ourselves and our our purpose on this earth, how intricately that is linked to our physical health. And so, you know, for me, it was when I actually came to the belief that I was not an accident, that I was created by God with a purpose for my life, with a plan, that it it changed everything for me after that. And and then it changed the way that I viewed my health because I really then was able to see a purpose amidst my suffering and amidst my pain. And, you know, rather than it just being pointless. And so then I bring that into my work as a chef too, because I think, you know, we live in this beautiful world. We have food that is so vibrant that has so many amazing different taste protocols, and you know, we get to enjoy all of that abundance that I think God gave us on this earth to enjoy. And so, you know, just in the way that I I came to look at my life as having deep purpose, I think we we can bring purpose into our work, we can bring purpose into our challenges, and it really changed how I looked at that.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Oh, I love it. And you know, it's so important that you have something that really anchors you when the ground shifts, you know, when you're going through hard times and specific. And uh what I what I really love about what you're saying is that it is, you know, it's not prescriptive, it's not you have to believe this specific thing, right? And I think that universally, I mean, it feels human to me. So I I want to touch base upon the other particle uh that you bring into the conversation about food, because uh, like I said, those interconnected, I mean, that is interconnected to this whole concept of hope for you. So I'm curious to know where do you see this coming in? So, how does food actually become part of healing in your experience, if you would share?

Food As Love And Heritage

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I think one of the reasons that I became a chef is because I come from a really big family, and food was always the center of us coming together. So, from a really young age, all my favorite memories are all my cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents coming, you know, coming to my parents' house for a holiday, and everyone would crowd into the kitchen and all the women would cook. And food was the way that we loved each other. It was the way that we celebrated, it was the way that we connected. You know, we have like recipes that were passed down that we have at every holiday. And I actually got to include a collection of my family's holiday recipes in my book just as a way to honor all the women in my family who, you know, had really they had families, they had really busy lives, but they took the time to come together through food. And so from a young age, food was to me the way that we could show love. It was the way that we were, you know, together as a family. And now getting to extend that to clients, seeing the way that, you know, I'm able to cook for them, which frees them up to be part of the gathering. And, you know, they're not having to be behind the stove and they actually get to enjoy their guests, and you know, food brings people together like that. And so that's really why I was drawn to it. And I was studying in Italy when I first really fell in love with cooking and Italian food. And I was doing a semester there as a business student, and I had never experienced a culture that was so passionate about little details of the food and so, you know, proud of their ingredients and what comes from the land. And I I was really blown away by that. And it it really changed the way that I viewed food also. You know, I think it's really easy to take food for granted. But I saw, yeah, I saw balsamic vinegar that was decades old, that was that was girls' dowries and you know, these ancient food practices that had been preserved and passed down. And yeah, there there's a really incredible heritage, especially with Italian food.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Indeed, I mean that's something that I I don't think most of us think about on a daily basis. I think yeah, we take food for granted, at least most of us. But what you're really describing here is that being, you know, this catalyst of bringing joy or, you know, making connections, right, in in a more human way. I think that is something that is relatable for me and for the listeners who are listening to this as well. I think the it it now makes sense, you know, why are we or why did we include this vertical of food and what it can I mean do to the mental well-being of an individual as well. So I think that really ties up very well to the concept of perseverance or the hope that we are talking about. But I think perseverance from you know a different lens is in the title of what you are sharing here today.

Perseverance With Small Controllable Steps

SPEAKER_02 12:45

And if I want to sit with that for a moment, I think because perseverance can sound almost you know, gritted teeth, you know, push through it. And but what you're describing right now is kind of the opposite of what that word really needs. But just curious to know, you know, what does healthy perseverance look like, especially when you're in the middle of healing and the progress feels invisible?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Yeah, I love that question. You know, the the first time I really came to see the healing power of food was when I was having some challenges with my health, and some doctors suggested that I make changes to my diet, and I didn't really think there was anything to that. And then my dad suffered a heart attack that almost killed him, and he was put on a whole bunch of medications, and he didn't want to be on them, and he decided that he was going to drastically change his diet. And he he was Polish and he was eating kiobasa and potato salad and all these really high fat foods, and he cut out fat completely. He went completely vegan and in a year had reduced had reversed his his heart disease and he was off all of his medications. And that was such a wake-up call to me to the actual healing power of food. And so then I started making diet changes in my own life and started seeing the way that my body responded to what I was eating. And so I think then it was one of the first times that I felt like I could take agency of my own health, that I had had a lot of challenges that seemed like they were happening to me, you know, injuries and diagnoses and all of this seemed like it was happening to me and I had lost control in the equation. But, you know, we love control as humans. And so actually seeing that when I changed my diet, when I looked at food as medicine, that gave me some agency, it then helped me persevere and say, okay, there are things that I can do to take charge of what seems like is an uncontrollable situation. And so I made lists of just really small steps of things that I had the power to change. A lot of it came down to food and you know, simple things like getting more sunlight and you know, going for a walk after dinner. And so I think that's really how for me food ties in with perseverance because it's a choice that we get to make. We, for the most part, get to choose what we put in our body.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Absolutely. I think I totally agree to that. And you know, it it comes off, it kind of comes in beautifully, and I did not expect or I did not think about it from that direction. But you know, I'll I'll only want to leave our listeners today with this, right? So hope is something that okay, I'll I'll rephrase that. Alright, so hope is not the absence of struggle, I think, right? It's something that is there even right now, when things disturbing or it feels unsettling. I think hope is the fact that healing is still happening. That's what I would like all the listeners to sit with and ponder about you know that direction as we wrap this

Book, Where To Find Ashley

SPEAKER_02 16:24

off. But uh before we wrap this off, Ashley would quickly love to ask if our listeners who have been listening to this today and wants to connect with you, wants to go deeper and find out more about the book that's coming out, uh, where can they find you and the book?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, I absolutely love what you just said that about hope. You totally nailed it. And that really is the it's the whole gist of my book is that you know, hope is happening even when we don't see the manifestations of it and you know, to not give up. So my book, the full title is Speranza, How Pain Became the Path to Hope. You can find the link on my website, mostlyhealthysh.com. You can find me on Instagram at a mostly healthychef. at a mostly healthy chef. And the book is available April 7th on all the major booksellers. And I'm also on Substack at Ashley Andric.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Perfect, perfect. And I love the title there as well. So I would make sure the details are there in the show notes for you all guys, so that you could easily reach out to Ashley and discover her book as well. That's coming on next month. And with that, we wrap off this conversation, unfortunately. And I just Ashley, I just want to thank you uh for you know bringing in this clarity into this conversation because I think this conversation is one of those that you don't quite leave when the episode ends, right? You think about it and you think about those quiet moments where you you know reflect with whatever's happening in your life lately. And I think you know the conversations, the words that we shared would stay with the listeners who listen to this right now. And with that, to everyone listening to this, thanks for being here on Healthy Mind and the Life as it's part of the Healthy Mind Biowic Network, a space built on the belief that your mental, emotional, and physical well-being are not separate things, they are one story. Until next time, guys, this has been Cyan. And I just want to remind you that be gentle with yourself and healing is not a race. And until then, I'll see you in the next one.