6:00

And then how did you hit the gas once that

6:02

happened to you? That's such

6:04

a great question. I realized

6:06

during my cancer treatment,

6:09

I was employing my own design techniques

6:11

anyway because for the first time I

6:14

was home and looking around my

6:16

home and you know what they say about the cobbler's

6:18

kids. It's the same thing. I

6:20

design other people's houses and take care

6:22

of their environments and suddenly I was

6:24

looking around my own environment. And

6:26

I thought, oh my gosh, I need

6:29

to work on this. But you know what's

6:31

so interesting? There is science

6:33

backing up everything that

6:35

I did on an intuitive level.

6:38

And what I did was ground into

6:40

my body. Now when you're going into

6:42

cancer treatment, you're in a trauma state,

6:45

which is right out of your sympathetic

6:47

state, your activated state. And

6:50

in order to get into your parasympathetic state,

6:53

I started designing rituals of reverence. I'll

6:55

give you an example. So

6:57

when I was going to chemo, I

6:59

couldn't eat my mom's favorite, like my favorite

7:01

dishes that my mom made. And

7:04

so I basically dressed up

7:06

whatever it was, whether that was a sliced

7:08

banana, I would put it

7:10

on my best dishes. I

7:13

brought out silverware. I kid

7:15

you not. I never used them until

7:18

after my divorce. They were my wedding china and

7:20

my wedding things. I finally brought them out. No,

7:22

we're tucked away. No, we're tucked away. So

7:24

that's why I call it Purgatory

7:27

to Paradise, my book, because I think we

7:29

all are living in a state of purgatory.

7:31

I certainly was. I certainly

7:33

was waiting to live. And

7:35

I was also in a toxic relationship,

7:38

which also affected my trauma

7:40

state. So I realized in order

7:42

to get back into my parasympathetic state, and of

7:44

course I wasn't wording it this way at the

7:46

time. I was just very intuitively

7:48

guiding myself through this. So I would

7:50

dress up my table with rose petals.

7:53

I would light a candle. I

7:55

would use my best cloth napkins. And I

7:57

would eat that sliced banana. you

8:00

know, decorated with violets from my

8:02

garden. So it was something

8:04

that I created this ritual and space

8:07

to imbibe what could heal me

8:10

instead of thinking about, oh my gosh,

8:13

what has happened? Because I certainly think

8:15

that in modern society,

8:17

there is a triangulation taking place,

8:19

a drama triangle, if you may,

8:22

between you as a

8:24

cancer patient, as the

8:26

victim, that whatever that illness is

8:28

as the villain and the doctor on the

8:30

white steed coming in to

8:33

rescue you. So that

8:35

drama triangle, I actually divested myself

8:37

of that because I was my own hero. I

8:39

was my own heroine and

8:41

basically took control and partnered

8:44

with my allopathic team. But

8:47

it's so important to state that

8:49

we have the agency at all

8:51

times. And wouldn't I know it,

8:53

as I was dancing the tango with Hades, which

8:55

I call dancing the tango with

8:57

death, that I realized that I had

9:00

that power within me all along to

9:02

create that beauty for myself.

9:05

Wow. That's so powerful. And

9:07

it's interesting because everybody's health

9:09

journey looks different. People take different paths

9:11

and they make different choices. And it

9:14

sounds like what you were doing was

9:16

an accompaniment or an accoutrement

9:19

to everything else

9:21

that was going on. But it

9:23

was a way, it sounds like,

9:25

to boost your morale, to

9:27

boost your surroundings. Because I would guess

9:30

if you're at home and you're going

9:32

through cancer treatments, home can either feel

9:34

like a prison or it can feel

9:36

like a palace, depending on what you

9:38

decide to do with it. And

9:41

you obviously took the palace route. And I

9:43

love that. And I'm with you. I truly

9:45

believe that our surroundings feed our soul or

9:47

they can destroy our soul depending on what

9:49

they're like. So as that

9:51

was kind of moving through your health journey, did

9:54

you then start writing your book or when did

9:56

all of that come to be? I

9:59

started writing my book. book about

10:01

a year later and I had

10:03

already been collecting, I write every

10:05

day. That's another part of my therapy.

10:07

So that was already in place but

10:09

the fire was lit in me when

10:11

I started doing workshops at the local

10:14

hospital with other cancer survivors using design

10:16

techniques to help them get through treatment.

10:18

And then when I had so many

10:20

people ask me over and over again

10:22

the same question and basically

10:24

the idea that we can create

10:26

that beauty today is very important

10:28

to emphasize because I deal with

10:31

the one percenters here in New

10:33

York City. Projects

10:35

take years at a time, sometimes

10:37

even a decade. They're long-winded projects

10:40

and when you have cancer you don't have that

10:42

kind of time and suddenly I was looking around

10:44

thinking, oh my gosh, what can I do today?

10:47

What can I help you find

10:49

today and implement today that will

10:52

create your paradise? Because paradise to

10:54

me, it's not waiting until I

10:56

get out of this rental and

10:58

buy that house or when I

11:00

get that promotion or when

11:03

I lose that 10 pounds and then I

11:05

can feel better about myself. It's about feeling

11:07

better now. It's actually

11:09

counterintuitive Dominique but a

11:12

lot of women I've noticed wait

11:14

to feel beautiful until they've

11:16

healed. I

11:19

think it's important to feel beautiful

11:21

now in order to heal. Yes,

11:24

I agree. I think it's a part

11:26

of the healing journey because to me

11:28

it sends a very strong message to

11:30

yourself that I matter in the moment

11:33

and this self-care matters in

11:35

the moment and I may not feel it

11:37

but if I do it and I look

11:39

at myself in the mirror I can create

11:41

that feeling by that action. So it sounds

11:43

to me that's your methodology here. Yeah,

11:46

yeah and you know most cancers

11:48

are epigenetic. That means over

11:51

two-thirds of them are the result

11:53

of your environment and your lifestyle

11:56

which is actually great news because

11:58

that means we. have

12:00

the ability to create that

12:02

environment and to redesign our bodies

12:04

from the inside out. I

12:08

think it's actually God having

12:10

a great sense of humor calling

12:12

me an interior designer because I

12:14

think we are all our own

12:16

interior designers, Dominique. That's

12:19

a good way to put it. You

12:21

know, when we think of interior, we

12:23

often most of the time think of

12:25

a house or the office, but we

12:27

forget about this interior right here and

12:29

that we get to design her from

12:31

scratch, which is a very powerful and

12:34

beautiful place to originate, isn't it? Yes,

12:36

yes, that's all from within. And now

12:38

I believe there's no dichotomy between

12:41

religion and science. I think they're

12:43

just different languages speaking the same

12:45

poetry. It's just in different

12:47

words in different ways. So

12:50

my goal here is

12:52

to really bring those aspects

12:54

together. I got my

12:56

certification in applied quantum

12:58

biology, which from a

13:00

circadian standpoint, I was interested in

13:04

literally how your environment designs your

13:06

body and how your body interacts

13:08

with your environment on

13:11

a very physical, spiritual,

13:13

quantum, energetic level. And

13:16

there is so much wonderful things

13:19

I'm discovering that I am lit

13:21

up to share with the world

13:24

because we are in a living

13:26

ecosystem. This is

13:28

our microcosm and your home is

13:30

your macrocosm. And we're in

13:32

this dance together in more

13:34

ways than we realize. And in

13:37

that way, we have truly the

13:39

ability to design ourselves on a

13:41

cellular level and on a

13:43

beauty level. Tell

13:45

me a little bit more about how you were

13:47

working with other women who were going through cancer.

13:50

You touched on that a little bit. Yes. So

13:53

again, it was so important for

13:55

me to share my own journey

13:58

with the women who are going