#76: Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz
"Health is when my body feels like a finely-tuned instrument for channeling creativity rather than a prison for my consciousness."
Welcome back to Health Gossip. Each Sunday, we feature the questionnaire responses of a new guest — from writers and artists to yogis and acupuncturists. Paid readers can access the full archive here.
Today, we’re hearing from Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz, the founder + CEO of Holisticism (a platform “bridging the gap between the mystic & the realistic”), host of the Twelth House podcast, and a PhD candidate at UCLA’s School of Information Studies.
Michelle is a multi-hyphenate in the truest sense of the word (just take a look at her website), but what seems to unite her work is a bridging of mysticism and entrepreneurship — an approach that I expect we’ll be seeing more of in years to come.
Below, you’ll hear more about her projects-based approach to living, the trigger point that first got her into alternative healing at the age of 17, and the perfect Halloumi salad… Enjoy!
Health Gossip #76: Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz
Pisces/Scorpio/Cancer
Los Angeles, California
What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?
Health is when my body feels like a finely-tuned instrument for channeling creativity, rather than a prison for my consciousness.
I measure my wellbeing by regularly addressing my Spiritual Operating System and asking myself if I'm acting in alignment or...not.
How would you describe your current lifestyle?
One part somatic researcher studying trance states, one part tech girlboss running Holisticism, one part craft artist (never met a fiber art I didn't like), one part future hag. Many hats? I wear them.
How do you start and end your days?
I usually start with a wake-up from my toddler — on spacious mornings, roll out of bed onto the floor and do a Feldenkrais lesson. On less spacious mornings I grab my son, we make tea / coffee / green juice together, we take our vitamins, we sit on the couch and cuddle, then we go for a walk outside before anything else can distract us.
I tend to end my days making things. I rarely use my computer for work after office hours (4:30/5pm) so sometimes I'm knitting, sometimes I'm sewing, sometimes I'm at the pottery studio, sometimes I'm painting. Lately my husband and I have been catching up on Severance so I'm like, 3/4 of the way through a sweater I'm knitting because I can multitask!
Whatʼs your relationship to self-healing?
I'm constantly collecting ways to heal myself (I have too many certifications at this point) but I still believe in the miracle of Western medicine. My husband and I wouldn't be here without intensive medical interventions (he lives with a grade 3 Anaplastic Astrocytoma brain tumor). We've also had to learn how to self-advocate, and how to stay vigilant with our own research and developing our own knowledge around his condition. It's an interesting balance in relating to trust, as we have to trust our doctors while still fighting for what's best for my husband.
I also feel that all of our systems are connected, and that things like therapy and meditation and mindset and spiritual ancestry can be hugely informative to the healing process alongside more mainstream treatments like prescriptions.
Was there a specific moment that made you more conscious of your health?
When your brain decides to remix consciousness via epilepsy, you either lean all the way into studying altered states or you don't. I started having grand and petit mal seizures when I was 17, and that was definitely a wake up call. It sort of changed everything for me — that's what got me into alternative healing methods, self-work, Carl Jung, energy medicine, and just generally relating to my body as an ally instead of as a nemesis.
