Living Well on Purpose | Emma Magnolia

What if living a longer, healthier life isn't about finding the next supplement or wellness trend, but about making better choices every day?

Holistic health educator Emma Magnolia shares her approach to intentional living, exploring how strength training, hydration, sleep, simple daily routines and consistency can help support healthy aging.

Rather than chasing quick fixes, this conversation focuses on practical habits that almost anyone can adopt to build a healthier future.

Emma Magnolia is the founder of emmawellness.com 

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Transcript

Emma Magnolia: All the health habits that I do, I believe are helping me so that when I'm 70 or 80 or 90, that I will be living in optimum health because I make a very conscious effort to exercise, to stay strong.

Peter Bowes: Hello and welcome to the Live Long podcast, I'm Peter Bowes. This is where we explore the art and science of living long and well. Now, good health isn't always about adding something new, a supplement, the latest gadget, or a fashionable diet. Sometimes it's about returning to the simple habits that people have relied on for generations hydration, nourishing food and daily routines, positive daily habits, as I like to call them. Emma Magnolia is a holistic health educator and the founder of Emma Wellness. She's spent more than 30 years, exploring the conditions and ways of living that help the body to do what it was designed to do to help support health and well-being. So what can we learn from her work? Emma, welcome to the Live Long podcast.

Emma Magnolia: G'day, Pete. Thank you very much for having me on your Live Long podcast. ...looking forward to spending a few minutes together.

Peter Bowes: Yes. It's good to talk to you. And I get the accent straight away. Your roots are in Australia, but you're now in the United States.

Emma Magnolia: Yes. I grew up and lived in Australia till I was 21. And then I married a Minnesotan and we moved here to Minnesota/Wisconsin. And this is where we've been, oh, for the last almost 28 years. And yeah, I love it over here. Of course, my my home shall always be in my heart, shall always be in Australia. But yeah, I've learned to love America.

Peter Bowes: And I describe you as a holistic health educator. What does holistic health actually mean to you?

Emma Magnolia: Holistic to me means like the entire body, not just not just a little bit here, a little bit there, not just a passing fad. Going to do it this week, won't do it next week. It's part of making. Making holistic living and an intentional way of life your whole life. And so it's kind of, you can almost like calling it setting a, a course or a path for your life or a journey for your life with steps and specific habit. What's the word specific daily life habits that have the end goal of being as healthy as you can be. And so, and within that aspect comes how you eat, what you drink, how you eat, how you drink, how you sleep, The things that you wash your clothes and the things that you drink, the things that you that you clean your house with just, basically your whole life trying to be as close to as God intended our bodies to be as natural as you can be all in one.

Peter Bowes: So I really like the idea of habits. And maybe just to give an example of what I think you're talking about, one of my probably my favorite daily habit is quite simply going for a long hike with my dogs first thing in the morning, maybe two miles, three miles, four miles on a good day. I see that as a habit because I don't really think about it. I just do it automatically. It is part of my every day, and the long term impact of that habit hopefully is very beneficial for my my health and well-being.

Emma Magnolia: Yes. And so yes. So when I say so, yes, it's you, you worded that beautifully when you said a habit is something that you do that you don't even think about, that you just naturally do. So yeah. So it's, it's, it's a holistic living is making a list of habits that you want to make natural every day without having to think about it.

Peter Bowes: So where did you. You've described your, your roots as being and indeed your heart being in Australia. How did you learn this and what got you interested? What initially piqued your interest in this area?

Emma Magnolia: Well, I would have to say my mother, who is a world renowned health lecturer, speaker on natural remedies and that her name is Barbara O'Neill. A lot of people recognize her name. And so I would say, you know, I was brought up holistically living. We lived in the country. We pretty much grew everything we ate. We we lived a very holistic life. And then when I was 17, no, when I was 16, I went and spent six months working at a small cafe near Melbourne. And then when I was 17, I left home and went and worked for four years, almost five years at Living Springs Retreat in Kinkin, Queensland, where I was a massage therapist and where people came in and basically got healthy for ten days and then went home. There wasn't kind of like a starting point. Well, now I'm interested in health. It was I was brought up that way and it just it's always just been a way, a way of life, a part of life.

Peter Bowes: And as you say, I think your mother's name is familiar to a lot of people. And I just want to before we dive into our conversation, just give you an opportunity to address this, because your mother's work has been subject to some controversy over recent years and been widely criticized to the point that which she's been banned from providing certain services in Australia. What is your view and thought on that? In particular.

Emma Magnolia: My mother was very much pinpointed because of. It's a very touchy subject, but vaccinations. So in Australia I'm kind of going to sum up a whole bunch in a little bit. You can read it in the book The Assassination of Barbara O'Neil, which is kind of the assassination of my mum's life work in Australia. And so basically, my mum spoke out against vaccinations. And then you could almost say because of that. And then also my stepdad, Michael, he has a political party called I Heart, and he tries to push the that we have the ability to make our own health and bodily autonomy over health decisions where we have control over us, not the government. And we do believe that was compounded upon mums ban was because they wanted to take out dad, so they took out mum.

Peter Bowes: I don't want to spend this conversation talking about your mum and her work and that controversy, but I felt it was probably important since you mentioned your mother and clearly you've been influenced a lot by bringing up your your life in terms of being brought up in Australia and your mother's work. So I think it was only fair to give you an opportunity just to explain that. Just the final point on that, do you share your mother's views or are you following your own path in terms of your ideas and the way in which you educate people?

Emma Magnolia: I would say I would say both. I share her vision in the aspect of helping people become aware of their surroundings and aware of their path and their journey, and helping people to make small changes that exponentially widen and more brightened their their healing journey to optimum health. And so I would say that we're on the same journey and I share her journey, but also I am expounding and, and making a bigger journey. You would say.

Peter Bowes: Yes, absolutely. So let's talk about your work. I'm just curious. Here we are, 2026. What do you think the biggest issue is that someone in your area of work is having to address these days. What is the question that you get most from people that you can offer some suggestions in terms of way of life?

Emma Magnolia: I think one of the biggest aspects that people the biggest burden, the biggest obstacle that a lot of people have today is being busy. Being so, so busy and so pushed for time. And there's deadlines and there's children deadlines, there's school deadlines, there's work deadlines. People were getting up early, they're going to bed late. And so often a lot of people make they're not necessarily bad choices, but they make choices because they're in a hurry. But, but I in one of my biggest things is encouraging people to take stock or take time on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning when you're not going to work is. Stop and take time and see what you can do in your busy life. Because the problem is with having a very, very busy life is people often then what you could call cheat. Well, if I cheat here and I cheat there and I and I shave off this coin and I shave off that corner. But the bottom line, the person that ends up suffering is you. Your health ends up suffering, and the the journey that you want to be on ends up suffering because you have to cut so many corners. So it's, it's learning to include steps and aspects and habits that you, that you can do the things that you, that you can include. Because a lot of people say, well, there's no way I can do that. I can't do that. I can't possibly fit that into my life. But it's often not ours. It's moments and it's minutes, but it's, it's stepping back and looking at the big picture and what can you do not that's too big. I can't eat that or that to to bite off chunks. I can't do that whole elephant. But I can eat an elephant by bites, you know what I'm saying? And so that's one of my biggest things.

Peter Bowes: Are people, do you think trying to simply do too much? Because I think there are some aspects of our lives these days that it is easier to do too much the way that we're all electronically connected and the way in which we're consuming information, and many people contributing to that information that it's actually easier to to do certain things. You might have a day job, you might have a, a side hustle, you might have a family to look after. And are people overwhelming themselves with just too much to do? Do you think?

Emma Magnolia: I think that there, there is an aspect to that, that people and that is where you need to sit down and look at your life of where do you want to go and what habits do you want to include? And because you can't just keep adding, you can't keep adding, you are going to have to take away something. What is not, what is not necessary that you can trim away.

Peter Bowes: And what do you think is the aspect of our lives that many of us could actually trim away? What are we indulging in? Do you think that we we really don't necessarily need to. And it could potentially be be harming us in terms of our well-being because we're getting overly absorbed in certain aspects of our lives.

Emma Magnolia: I think there's quite a few things that people spend more time on that they think it is. And, the number one I think is entertainment. Like a lot of people say to me, oh, have you seen this latest movie? Or you watch this television show and it's like, uh, no, I haven't. Why not? I don't have time to watch television. I don't have time. And so a lot of people think they've got to be entertained. So, so a lot of people watch a lot of television and a lot of a lot of entertainment. And then also into that aspect comes phones. The very large elephant in the room of telephones, and into that comes the apps, you know, games and social media, you know, it's very, very easy. And I have also fallen into the same trap myself. Unless you set limits on yourself, it is very, very easy to sit on the lounge or in your car or in a chair and or in your bed and scroll and looking at mindless things. And you can very I've done it myself. You've. Oh, I've been sitting here for 45 minutes and your brain just kind of got carried away as it is designed to do. And very easily 45 minutes gone, done. And so I'm not saying that that sports or games or social media is not wrong, but we have to it goes back to intentional living. It goes back to the journey in life that you want and where you want to be. And so, you know, go ahead and watch a movie, watch your sports, play a game, be on your phone, do Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, whatever it is. But set a timer, set a timer. I'm going to do this for 15 minutes and then I'm going to go for a walk. I'm gonna do this for 15 minutes and then I'm going to go and chop an onion and grab some carrots and and put that in the Instant Pot for the stew. So later on, when dinner needs to be served, I've already got it half done.

Peter Bowes: And especially so for children, because clearly people of our generation, we remember the time when we couldn't do the infinite scrolling because that technology didn't exist. But there's a generation now, and I think this is being acknowledged by governments around the world, by legal authorities as well, in terms of the negative effects on children. But it always strikes me that that today's children don't know any other way of life, and that that is potentially the huge problem.

Emma Magnolia: Yes. I actually don't have that problem because I don't allow my children on there. I don't allow my children to play games or to watch mindless television or to as in, I just, we just don't we just because I don't do it. The children don't do it. Now, I'm not saying that my children don't ever be on a phone. They'll go on a phone and FaceTime with an aunt or an uncle or or my mum, or they'll look at photos or, but they're we, we live a full life. And also we're busy with gardening, with animals, with going on walks and picnics and, and church activities. And my children are in full age. And so there's always activities and a lot of people going back to being busy, busy, busy, a lot of people with children, especially because children, it takes time to teach them how to do a job. And often when children are learning to do a job, such as chopping an onion or helping to make dinner, picking up toys or whatever it is, often it's quicker and easier as a parent to do it yourself than to do it with the child or make the child do it. And a lot of people, it's easier to entertain the child than to bring the child into everyday life. And that's been a really intentional thing that I've done since day one with all my children is we limit, we limit television, we limit media. And for my teenager that I have, I do have a 15 year old right now and we got him a Bark phone. A Bark phone is fantastic. He can call his friends, he can text his friends, but there's no games and there's no internet. And there's so much more to life. And I love family life and including your children in life. Yes, it does take more time to do jobs in the yard or in the kitchen, or in the garage or whatever with children. But if you train them for a little from when they're little to enjoy life and do things with you and enjoy doing things with you and, you know, not getting angry with them, not getting, not going crook at them just to, to take, to take joy in learning and to take joy also in mistakes because children stuff up and make mistakes all the time. But that's we're human. That's what we do. But if you teach them from when they're little to enjoy life, then they'll enjoy life with you when they're older. And so that's what we do.

Peter Bowes: This is the Live Long podcast. Our guest is Emma Magnolia, a holistic health educator and the founder of emmawellness.com. In my introduction, I mentioned that often people tend to be inclined to to add things to their life, especially as they're pursuing health and wellness. So new gadgets, new supplements, a new exercise regimes and that kind of thing. I guess you tell me from your perspective, there is some good and there is some potentially not so beneficial in terms of these extra technology based things that we can do as part of our lives. And when I'm heavily into monitoring my daily health. So you've got the watches and the straps and the rings and that kind of thing. Where do you stand there and where do you come down in terms of the beneficial use of technology?

Emma Magnolia: I myself with social media, the business, my home. We do have seven children. Our children range in age from 7 through 27. And then I've also got two little grandchildren. And so we do have a busy life. But yes, it's all about intention. And everything in your life is to be used as a tool. So I classify social media and entertainment and my phone as tools. And so then it's that tool needs to work for me. Not me. Not that tool using me like, like having my phone and mindlessly scrolling on whatever, who knows what for 45 minutes. I classify that as a machine using me, but me going on social media and you know, there's a couple of different people that I love to listen to on social media. I love to listen to, the bloke Walker on sleep, Doctor Rhonda Patrick on longevity and saunas. There's all sorts of different people that I'd love to listen to, so I will often intentionally go something or go find them or, you know, right now I'm battling with a foot that I push myself too hard at the gym a month ago, and now I'm dealing with a bruised heel. So it's I've been using social media to listen to different influencers of different exercises to strengthen my foot so I can then gain better, better health myself. So it's, it's going back to the going back to your base, back to looking forward and using every everything in your life as a tool.

Peter Bowes: So what you're talking about is appropriate balance a balance.

Emma Magnolia: Yeah.

Peter Bowes: Balance a balance between what is potentially negative from new technology and what is potentially useful. And I guess the challenge for most people, and maybe this is what you do in terms of working with people, is help people understand that challenge and determine the right balance for themselves.

Emma Magnolia: Yes. And so balance is a really is a really big thing. And that's what I love about, the way God created our minds. There are actually laws in our mind that God put there in order for us to be able to use them. And one of them is the law of cause and effect. If I do this, this is going to happen. If I do that, that's going to happen. And that is why I love to keep a diary. And every now and then, I like to go back to my diary and look at the habits. I said I was going to do this. I said I was going to do that. I said I was not okay. Yep. No, I didn't do that. It's about it's very, very important when you are trying to live holistically, is to assess yourself every now and then and look at what's working and what's not working, because either it's working or it's not working, working for your good or working for your harm. And it's yet balance. What, what is balance and what is balance for you and what is balance for you might not be balanced for me, and what might be balanced for me is not for you. And that is what I love about our minds is we can make choices.

Peter Bowes: So I mentioned my favorite daily habit and that is going for the long walk in the morning. What are your habits that you a tried and tested and you might have made notes and gone back to it and said, yeah, this is a really good habit for me? Maybe something you do now that you didn't do 20 or 30 years ago.

Emma Magnolia: I would say a couple a, if I can say three big things, a really good habit that I have made for myself that I am endeavoring to instill into all my children, and that is drinking water. Drinking water. When I first wake up in the morning, I make it easy for myself, but when I go to bed in the evening, I put my glass of water with my liquid ocean minerals beside my bed. So when I wake up in the morning, I wake up. I roll out of bed and there's my glass of water. Number two is endeavoring to try very hard to get eight hours of sleep at night, especially going to bed early and then getting up early. And so, because when you get up, when when the sun gets up, it's a beautiful thing and you can get so much more done in a day. And the next biggest thing that I think is very, very important in today's day and age of a lot of people aren't as, active as, as they want to be or wish to be. And it, you know, I have pretty much always, for the most part, walked every day and done, you know, most mornings I get, I used to get up and I would do a, a 15, 20 minute high intensity up and down my driveway up and down the road. Now here in Wisconsin. Yes. When it's -20 degrees, we still did it. Or I would jump on my mini tramp in the lounge room or we do skip rope. but a really big a sheik came to me was last August, September with my two year old granddaughter. I was down on the floor and I tried to get up and I actually couldn't get up off the floor with her. And I was like, oh dear, I've got to do something different. Because if you do something the same but expect different results, then it's insanity because it's not going to happen. So. And I realize and listening to a lot of people like, you know, you've got to strength train, you've got to strength train, you've got to push yourself. I thought, you know, what? These, these running walks I do is not enough. So last October, one of my 15 year old and I started going to the gym two days a week. And we do CrossFit. And I can really tell a big difference just going twice a week. A lot of people say, well, you should be going 3 or 4 times a week. I can do two days a week. Maybe in the future I'll do more, but I've committed to two days a week. That's all just just a little bit. But the other day I carried a 50 pound bag of flour up the stairs over my shoulder with no effort. The other day I stepped up. I had to step up three feet onto a tractor running board, and I stepped up without any effort. And I thought to myself, I couldn't do that last summer. And so that's. So there are three big things that I think are... Assess where you're at. Look at what you can change. And there there's some simple things that can be done.

Peter Bowes: I think resistance training, which is what you've just described, is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of physical health. I've talked to lots of experts about this and just the importance of building muscle. And you don't want to give the impression that you're encouraging people to be weightlifters and to be physically bulky, as weightlifters are. This is every day strength that will ultimately help prevent frailty. And that's the the area of this that really resonates with with me because I think we've all heard the stories about people getting older and becoming frail and having a fall, and that essentially being the beginning of the end of when things when their health really begins to deteriorate quite significantly. Let me go back to sleep as well, because you mentioned sleep. And the thought came into my mind, do you struggle with sleep like so many people do these days. I think we all understand the importance of getting enough sleep. And I again, spoken to many, many experts in the field who will actually acknowledge themselves that they find getting enough sleep difficult, even though they understand the science and the importance of, of getting those, whether it's six, seven, eight hours, whatever is, is best for you. It's just, again, it's a lifestyle thing, isn't it, that it is so difficult seemingly for us to get a good night's sleep?

Emma Magnolia: Yes it is. I think the biggest thing people I know myself, I, I mean, I'll tell you right now, I do struggle with getting getting in bed by 9:00 and sometimes it's 930 and sometimes it's ten, sometimes it's 1030. But I do endeavor to get my eight hours of sleep a night. And, and another aspect is that a lot of people with struggling with sleep is they, they have trouble with turning their mind off. And I will tell you right now that that is a wonderful thing about God. Jesus says, come unto me, all that you are heavy burden, and I will give you rest. So every night when I go to bed, I can turn my brain off because I say a short prayer and I give all my issues and all my problems to God. God, you got him. You can handle him. And tomorrow is another day. And I do not have. I don't bring tomorrow's worry on today. I let it go and I lie down. And like even last night, my husband called me on his way to work. He's like, I was talking to you last night, but you're already gone. I was like, he's like, not even 30s later I said, well, I worked hard, I exercised, I, I ran a home, I worked hard and I gave my burdens to the Lord. And I lay down and I went to sleep and I woke up eight hours later.

Peter Bowes: This is a podcast about longevity. And I talk to people about the years ahead and hopefully the decades ahead for many of us, and I'm curious what your attitude is towards your own personal longevity, and to what extent do your habits of today, do you have your longevity in mind and maybe even an age in mind? I don't mean very specifically, but some people do focus on, I really want to get to 80, 90 or even beyond that. Is this something that you think about?

Emma Magnolia: Yes, it is, because I've got a really big milestone happening next month. I turn 50 next month. And so you can say that, you know, next month I'll be halfway to 100. And so a lot of the things that I, the two things that I do kind of kind of think about or, you know, I'm not going to say worry about it because I don't worry about it. But, but I think about it. And so the one thing is the one aspect of like I have a, I have a close dear friend. And a few years ago she fell and she broke her hip. Now she recovered. But there are so many women that don't recover. So that aspect of strength training, as I told you, I started that journey last October and I am very, very happy with that journey. And so longevity, if you want to, if you want to get out of a chair when you're 75 or 80 or 85, you need to strength train. And I remember when I was taking care of my mother in law and my father in law when they were both on hospice seven years ago, they couldn't get out of the chair like they had to have assistance to get out of the chair. So yeah, so strength training. So I do believe I'm doing pretty good at that. And then another aspect that is very, very healthy for longevity and that is saunas. So we have an outdoor wood fired Finnish sauna. I know that's a bit of a mouthful. Typically we sauna 1 to 3, sometimes four times a week. And we love it. You get in there and you sweat and you detox and then you go in the cold dunk tank. We have a 150 gallon stock tank that we fill up from the well, that is typically 48 to 50 degrees. And we do that. I love it, the children love it. And I do believe saunas are a fantastic way to clean your body.

Peter Bowes: Let me ask you about Healthspan. A lot of people talk about lifespan quite literally how long we live, how long our heart is beating and our brain is working. Healthspan being the number of years that we enjoy optimum health without those chronic diseases that will probably and sadly come along and affect most of us in old age. But a lot of people now are focusing, and I prefer to think in terms of of healthspan when you can enjoy life to the full. Is this something that you've incorporated into your thinking?

Emma Magnolia: I would say that I don't think about it, but I would as in I don't worry about it. But in my, um, back before I said that to setting your journey and to setting your course is I look around me at girlfriends, parents, at my own two parents at my husband's parents, at family members, parents, all the health habits that I do, I believe are helping me so that when I'm 70 or 80 or 90, that I will be living in optimum health because I make a very conscious effort to to exercise, to stay strong, to eat. I'm very, very mindful. It was what I eat and how I eat and when I eat because we, we humans, we are what we eat. And that comes back to what I said before about being busy. And when you're busy, you don't have time, so you often cheat. And so I think what people eat, how people's digestions are actually functioning is absolutely critical. Because if you don't, if you feel like garbage, if you don't feel like you have energy, if you feel like rubbish, you are less inclined to look at where you're going to look at where your health habits are going because you don't have the energy and you don't have, you feel like you don't just feel like out of your skin and all, you know, just ready to conquer the world. So once again, it's looking at where you want to go to and how you're going to get there. And what are you going to do in little ways today that will get you there so that your health span is the same as your lifespan?

Peter Bowes: I think that's a really good way to think about it. And it's been a really interesting conversation. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much indeed.

Emma Magnolia: Yes, Peter, it's been a complete pleasure. You have a lovely summer.

Peter Bowes: The Live Long Podcast is a healthspan media production. I'm Peter Bowes. You can contact me through our website, livelongpodcast.com, where you'll also find show notes for this episode.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only. We do not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should first consult your doctor.