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EPISODE 2: THE UMA AYURVEDA PODCAST- UNLOCKING THE POWER OF FOOD THROUGH AYURVEDIC COOKING WITH DIVYA ALTER

Divya Alter is a prolific voice in the world of Ayurveda. She and her husband are the co-founders of the Ayurvedic culinary school, Bhagavat Life, Bhagavat Life, and Divya’s Kitchen, an Ayurvedic restaurant in Manhattan. Diyva also authored the book What to Eat for How You Feel: The New Ayurvedic Kitchen, an accessible guidebook for bringing the ancient science into your kitchen and daily life. Diyva has a grounding presence and a way of educating the world about Ayurveda that is both inspiring and accessible. She also brings food to the forefront, helping us see that Ayurvedic cooking is not limiting or convoluted, but rather a way to ignite and honor our health. It’s also a way of cooking for everyone, as Divya says, “you can adjust your local dishes to make them Ayurvedic.”

Links:

Divya’s Kitchen

Bhagvat Life Culinary School

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:40]  Hi! I am Shrankhla Holecek, the Founder & CEO of UMA, an Ayurvedic beauty and wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic healing, spiritual well-being and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you. That, as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today, as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:39] My guest today is Divya Alter. Divya and her husband, Prentiss, are the cofounders of Bhagavat Life, an Ayurvedic culinary school and Divya’s Kitchen, an Ayurvedic restaurant in Manhattan. Divya is also the author of What to Eat for How You Feel: The New Ayurvedic Kitchen. To use her words – For Divya, food is much more than a means of sustenance. It is a friend that has transformed and uplifted her on levels way beyond the physical. Divya’s cooking is based on the ancient principles of Shaka Vansiya (SV) Ayurveda, which teaches us how to link our physical and mental needs with the foods and seasonings that will balance us accordingly.I’m personally a huge fan of Divya’s Kitchen and all that Divya is doing in this space, and it is such a pleasure to be speaking with her today.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:44] Divya, it is such an absolute pleasure to be talking with you formally on the podcast. I am so excited to learn a little bit more about you, more than I have already in almost a stalkerish way, from both from Stacey as well as reading about you. I’d love to start out with what Ayurveda mean to you and what has it done for you?

Divya Alter: [00:02:15] Thank you, Shrankhla. I’m really happy and very honored to be on your podcast. I always felt you as a kindred spirit. And I’m very, very fascinated with your stories. Well, I’m a very big admirer of all the work you do. So thank you so much for having me.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:02:34] Gosh. Coming from a connoisseur as yourself, let me take a moment to acknowledge just how humbling that is.

Divya Alter: [00:02:42] Well, no, it’s just…

Divya Alter: [00:02:45] So what does Ayurveda mean to me? Ayurveda has been the agent of some of the major changes in my life. It’s truly.. It’s been truly life changing to me. In terms of, first of all, figuring out my diet and what’s good for me to favor and what to avoid in terms of food and then Ayurveda through the years it has helped me overcome some destructive habits and develop good healthy habits. And in general, good lifestyle practices that have helped me really evolve as a human being. And I cannot imagine my life without Ayurveda..

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:03:37] You know, it’s so funny you say that because I feel the same way. And perhaps we came at it from different places in our lives. Because I almost re embraced Ayurveda in some ways when I needed it most. But was there a precipitating moment for you? If you feel comfortable talking about it, that that you felt that you made the space for Ayurveda in your life.. Or was it a gradual journey?

Divya Alter: [00:04:11] Well, I would say both. So looking back at my life .. I’ve had some major health challenges and I needed help somehow or other, Ayurveda would come to me .. to the rescue in different ways, through different people, different parts of the world. I experienced it the most when. I lived in India for five years and I lived in injury, especially when I lived in Vrindavan, which is one of the holy places, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. And it was such a life changing experience. But at the climate in India has always been very difficult for my body. So I would get sick, especially with digestive problems or parasites or something like that. And the local doctor who was an amazing Ayurvedic doctor. And Dr. Pratap Gupta, I really do love him very much.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:05:08] And is he based in Vrindavan?

Divya Alter: [00:05:10] Yeah, he’s been. And he comes from a lineage of Ayurvedic doctors. So his father, his grandfather, they all had like a clinic. And I would go to him and he was the he was very familiar with the Western mentality. And he’s helped me tremendously adjust to… You know, you would chastise me lovingly. You would say, why do you try to do everything at once after us or whatever is so. Oh, he was the first Catalyst’s to kindling my interest, you know, over there and experiencing the tremendous benefits of not just taking remedies and herbs, but really adjusting my diet and experiencing some of the treatments. I took a couple of workshops with him and he taught me how to cook sweet rice like Kheer is called Kheer in India. I still remember his tips. It was it’s been so many years, like more than 20 years.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:06:12] Oh, by the way your Kheer is amongst the best I have had! So it definitely is delightful how ever your first experience with Kheer came to be!

Divya Alter: [00:06:26] Thank you. So. Yes. And then later on I, I’ve had a couple more like I was very sick. I had maybe confection. A few years later, I ended up at the back, give them the hospital in Mumbai and they have an Ayurvedic clinic and they treated me there. I stayed for a month and it really helped me tremendously so that the treatments helped me just gain energy and be able to stand at my feet because I was very weak. And then I moved to the United States and a few few years later, I feel so say I was feeling just so sick and like chronic fatigue, severe digestive problems, allergies. I don’t know how all this accumulated for me. But then I met through through that. I met Dr. Marian Teitelbaum and her teacher who became my teacher. Vijaya Ramekin Mishra. And they really turned everything around for me. Made Ayurveda so practical and so alive as a science that I decided to dedicate my life to helping people experience Ayurveda in their life, especially through food, because this is my passion.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:07:48] And how grateful we are for all your service in this adventure! And I’m very excited to talk about your breadth and depth of knowledge in Ayurvedic cooking and as you rightly said in Ayurveda.. Or maybe you didn’t say that, but implied it then… And to me, that is the fundamental tenet of where you start… The body’s balancing… The body’s healing of itself.. the body’s detoxification processes. And even though UMA is a product company that deals with more skincare and aroma therapeutic wellness, I always challenge people on thinking about what they are eating, even when they present with skincare issues, because that indeed is the root of everything in Ayurveda..  . But before we talk about your amazing Ayurvedic cooking process, I would love to start with Divya, the incredible entrepreneur who is forging new paths both with Bhagvat life, which is your culinary school and Divya’s kitchen, your Ayurvedic restaurant in Manhattan. Please tell us all… Because I know our listeners would be incredibly excited to hear about those.

Divya Alter: [00:09:14] Yeah, well, I have to give credit to my husband, Prentis, because he is the business mind behind all of these. I am more of the organizer and just creating all the programs and recipes and menus and all that. But really, he’s the business person behind it. So we are a team. We are very ambitious, probably too ambitious because we’re always so busy. It’s not the kind of business we do to just make money. We need to have some profit to sustain what we do for a long time. But our main drive and inspiration is just seeing how much people benefit from what we offer, how they feel inspired, and how they feel that they can apply something positive in their life to make even small changes. Even if it’s not a big change, small changes count and they’re so important. So we tried to make Ayurveda accessible through our cooking classes and other wellness events and through the restaurant, through food. And just to show that you don’t have to be a practitioner to create big life changes, you can just start with simple steps like [00:10:37] little things and you feel [00:10:38] that they help you. That’s a great that’s great.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:10:43] I think that has been the most meaningful personal lighthouse, for lack of a better word for me when it comes to Ayurveda, because even in my personal journey, there are times that I’m practicing 25 things from Ayurveda, whether it is Pranayama and being a good yogi and eating good ghee and [00:11:08] cattery to, [00:11:09] and sometimes it’s down to two when I am travelling maniacally. But I love that I have never felt like I needed to judge myself by how good or bad of an Ayurvedic I was being as long as it was part of my life. And that I’m glad you outline and underscore that you can start your Ayurvedic journey in bite size modular fashions and realize what might be right for you in that period of your life and still see tremendous benefit from that. So I like calling that out when we do these conversations because it is a beautiful aspect about Ayurveda that way.

Divya Alter: [00:11:54]  [00:11:54]And you made many of our listeners who are new to Ayurveda, [00:11:59] you may be practicing some Ayuvedic, you may be doing some Ayurvedic practices without even knowing, you know, if you’re scraping your tongue in the morning.. You can get a tongue scraper from health food store near you … if you if you if you’re showering in the morning, you’re practicing Ayurveda and self care. So there’s so many little things in our current Western American culture that actually come from Ayurveda.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:12:28] You’re totally right, it was funny, I was watching an old Curb Your Enthusiasm recently where Larry David is talking to his wife, Cheryl, as they’re divorcing about what she taught him in the whole marriage. And he brought up the idea of tongue scraping. And I’m like, that’s Ayurveda for you, Larry David. But anyhow, it’s crept into mainstream practices without many people even realizing its Ayurvedic! When I first learned about the Divya’s kitchen and your very authentic service of Ayurvedic cooking, I was overjoyed, but very curious because I wondered… How you’re managing the journey of building awareness around Ayurveda, but also changing taste profiles. Tell me a little bit about that.

Divya Alter: [00:13:23] Yes. So this is this is a very fascinating to me also because I read is a universe of science, doesn’t it? You don’t have to eat Indian food to be Ayurvedic. You can practice it anywhere in the world. And what you have to do is adjust. I call it Ayurvedized. That is like a jar. First of all, learned the main principles in this case. We’re talking about diet and food. Learn to make the main Ayurvedic principles for digestion and then adjust your you can adjust your local dishes to make them Ayurvedic. That’s why you will see it in our menu. We have Bosnia and Risotto. I love Italian flavors. I have a minestrone soup and all these other things. So but there what I do what I do is I take. First of all, sometimes it’s like, I wonder if I can make an Ayurvenic minestrone. So I would look at the traditional recipe and I would say, yeah, I could replace this with this. I could add a little bit of this to support digestion of this, I, instead of this oil. I use this oil instead of this cooking method. I’ll use this one just to make it easier to protect the panna in the food. So this is how I Ayurvedize recipes. And this is also what I think people appreciate. Appreciate the flexibility of applying Ayurvedic principles to local cuisines.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:14:59] That’s a great point and a very, very helpful tip. Sting a little bit on that and clarifying that, something that maybe I get bombarded with as a question, which is many in the West have come to associate Indian food with the muggle or tandoori cuisine, as it were. You know, the naans, the very rich curries and having grown up in Indian and in Ayurvedic household. I know that at home we eat much more simply with that food kind of reserve for celebrations or meals out. But a majority of friends here or even in the U.K. expect to all, quote unquote, Indian meals to have that rich, very spicy profile. Have you had to deal with that at the Diyva’s kitchen?

Divya Alter: [00:15:53] Yes. In fact, you know, in the beginning, we were listed on some platforms like Yelp and I think Open Table. And they listed this also as Indian because there is no Ayurvedic category yet. Yes. So and we experience this like sometimes you get like one star reviews from people who came and they really expected modern Indian cuisine, you know, with cooked with the heavy oils and really spicy and deep fried. And our menu is very consistent, very centric, very balancing dishes there without deep fried anything. We don’t put too much or nothing is greasy on our menu. And we use very only four types of healthy oils. So we just removed the Indian category from our description. And yes, we face this. So sometimes I like to come out in the dining room and meet our guests and speak with them. And when they see especially, like I can notice, traditional Indian family and I would ask them, I would explain to them that this is a centric Ayurvedic Cuisine. And if you like, not everything has chili. And if you like, very spicy, we have a hot sauce. So I like to explain. And, you know, very often, actually, especially like families that come with their grandparents or their parents, they would tell me that’s exactly how we like to cook at home. Very simple. Very healthy. Yeah, but they are people who expect like modern Indian cuisine. And they just come with the wrong expectations to our restaurant.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:17:48] And I am glad that you called out that that most Indians, specially those of us that were raised in India, eat much more sopped make Ayurvedic food as part of our daily lifestyle. And I’d love to hear in your words, and I’m sure our listeners would as well. What sopped make as food means.

Divya Alter: [00:18:15] So, Sattvic is, It’s a type of energy. It comes from the concept of Sattva, Rajas and Tamus. Sattva is the most balancing energy of illumination. Goodness. Enlightenment. This is where we feel very balance, where this type of energy, where we feel light and happy. And then Rajas is the energy of passion, of a lot of movement, of a lot of change. Rajas is more a lot going on. Very stimulating.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:18:56] Right.

Divya Alter: [00:18:57] And Tamas is the energy of inertia, of slowing down of. It’s also sometimes related to darkness. If you’re in too much in tamasik energy, you can you may feel depressed. It could lead to lethargy and laziness like that. So I like this example of imagining a room in your house and you have a very nice, clean room with lots of light and beautiful plants and really nice, like airy energy is just it just feel you entering. Like, oh my God. The energy here is so amazing. You feel immediately uplifted entering this room. And then the same room you invite a party. And you get 50 people in there doing loud things than maybe drinking or loud music and dancing and having a lot of fun. And then the next morning, the same room is just full of garbage. It needs some serious cleaning. So that’s it. It’s like how even us we can go through different stages and we perceive those energies through our consciousness so we can go through different stages of consciousness or eat different foods like one. The same food can be Sattvic, Rajasik and Tamasik. You you have a nice fresh peach. And it’s so juicy and fresh and sweet. Just picked from the tree. Beautiful. And then you you can this peach and it becomes more Rajastic because it’s it’s been sitting there for a long time. And then if you leave it, leave this open and the peach starts to get moldy. That would be a Tamasik energy. So just shifts of energy. I hope this makes sense.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:20:57] Most certainly does. And I think it’s worth calling out that Ayurveda has always emphasized the importance of balance in our lives and its balance within our bodies, within our Doshas, within the energies we live in and environments profoundly impact all of those things. And it wouldn’t denote that we may externally… Be exposed to a lot of Rajasik and Tamasik energies, which further underscores the importance of Sattvic eating in our lives. Because you’re right that I see less and less Sattvic energy in in going through my day to day, whether it is less contact with nature..  Or being closer to oceans .. or being able to observe that more meaningfully in my personal life. So that piece of the balance is definitely something that I seek out in whichever way I can to maintain that life of energetic and Doshic balance.

Divya Alter: [00:22:14] Yeah, that’s beautifully such a strength. And and just to echo on this, it always begins with self-awareness. And that’s another aspect of viability that they really love it. It helps us understand more about ourselves, our nature, not just our Dosha, our body type but who we are, what we’re meant to do in this life, but also to develop this self-awareness. And then through self-awareness, we make decisions of what we need right now to balance.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:22:45] You’re completely right. And if there’s one thing people should take away from in Ayurvedic exploration is the idea of strong intuition and truly listening to one’s body, because very often what my body is truly telling me is going to be different from what your body tells you. And listening to that inner voice, the true inner voice is how I think most of us can achieve the purpose that we’re on this earth for. Tell me a little bit about your voice and how you eat every day Divya.

Divya Alter: [00:23:31] Oh, well, I I love to eat very simple foods, so we I’m committed to preparing fresh meals every day. So it’s very easy actually. I’m realizing how much more I’m cooking now with home, because with the restaurant, I know that I am at work and I have freshly cooked food that I really love every day. So it’s not a problem. And I can focus on other things. And now I’ve been at home and it’s like, oh my God, I have to cook lunch and I have to cook dinner. Ohh..

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:24:01] This is a good call out to our audiences that Ayurveda does lay a pretty strong emphasis on cooking and eating freshly cooked food. And I’m glad you brought that up. But if you have you found good hacks around it, because I know some people in within our audience group will be wondering, how do you nourish yourself with these healthy, fresh cooked meals? And what advice might you have for our listeners?

Divya Alter: [00:24:41] Yes, for sure. I mean, I have to I always cook for also cook for my husband, who is a big eater, and he likes variety. So lately, I mean, my home cooking lately has been mostly testing recipes from my new cookbook. But, something that. And again, I would just explain what we like to eat. And of course, this might not be balancing for everybody. We’d like to have a simple breakfast. So I usually start with a pre breakfast, which is the cooked apple pre breakfast. I’m happy to describe the recipe in a couple of minutes. And this this is really helpful because it helps us eat something small and do our meditation and exercise it with whatever else we want to do in the morning and then have breakfast. And we prefer to have more savory, like salty kind of breakfast rather than sweet. We don’t really eat oatmeal so much, not not so much in the spring. It’s it feels too heavy for us. But I like to have to make like a light protein breakfast. So now in springtime, I really like making fresh mung sprouts. And I would just so tell them, because when they’re rather two aggravating for Vata, the airy energies. But I would just saute them sometimes I would add vegetables or I make this traditional Ayurvedic protein staple cope, . The recipe will be my new book. And it’s made from it’s something like vegan paneer. I don’t know how to explain it. I make it into cubes and then I toasted and cook it with two maybe leafy greens or Asparagus, Something like that. It’s it’s very quick cooking. So in the morning we do something that quix fast and sometimes we would just make a dowel like a lentil soup, maybe some vegetable in it because we need, we feel that we need more protein in the morning.

Divya Alter: [00:26:46] The easy to just type of protein and we are vegetarian so we don’t really eat meat, fish or eggs. And then for lunch we usually lunches the most time consuming cooking and menu and and still we keep it simple. Now they say, I’ve been doing a lot of one cooked meals just because I want to have more time to write my book. So I’ve been using a lot of the instant pot. The especially for making like a quick soup, especially with lentil soups. That has been very helpful. So make a Khichri or there are many other recipes for one pot meals that I would might make. And dinner is usually in the hands of my husband. Cause the 15 minute cook certainly would just make something super simple, let’s say vegetables with a little bit of Paneer cheese and rice or something like that. Another hack I would recommend is you can split the the prep time and the cooking time so you could prep your vegetables the night before or in the mornings for cooking them later or so, you know, make your spice blends on Sunday or whenever you’re preparing for the week, you can kind of split the prep time and then cooking time. This really saves most of you because cooking time takes doesn’t take much time for quick meals. But if you if you do a lot of the prep work the day before or even a few days you can prep for a few days is not ideal, but it’s better than eating out. So that, I find this very helpful, too.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:28:32] And that is, Divya, You’ve been so kind and have shared some recipes with us in the past. So we’ll be sure to link those at the bottom of the podcast to tell us about how we can get more of this amazing wisdom. I know you’ve mentioned a book and an upcoming book. I would love to hear more about how we can get more from your restaurant or your culinary school. Please tell us about that.

Divya Alter: [00:29:03] Yes, of course. My cookbook is called What to Eat For How You Feel the new Ayurvedic kitchen. It came out three years ago, and this month we actually celebrating the sixth edition.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:29:14] Congratulations

Divya Alter: [00:29:17] Yes. And it just came out in German language as well. It was published in Germany and distributed in the German speaking countries, which is very exciting. The book will give you a really nice overview of Ayurvedic cooking, according to the Shaka Vansya Ayurveda tradition. Which I practice and trained in. And the book teaches you how to cook seasonal ingredients and adjust them according to your type of digestion. So I explained the four types of digestion, and it’s a really practical way to figure out. What to eat? Depending on how what your digestion this is today, I put a lot of love in it and been getting a lot of positive reviews. And also, if you follow our Instagram account for Divya’s kitchen, Divya’s Kitchen NYC. We post once a week. We post video recipes that are very easy, like seasonal video recipes, and we post a lot of announcements and other things. And of course, my personal Instagram Divya Alter, we’re pretty active on Instagram. And then for our school Bhagavat life, the website is Bvt Life dot com. We are currently developing an online curriculum and we’ll be offering online cooking classes. And we’ve also started the Ayurvedic Nutrition and culinary training. The acronym for this is an act. And we’ve we’ve we’ve thought it for the past four years very successful. It’s like an Ayurvedic chefs training, which goes for nine months. It has two or three levels. And currently we’re preparing the first level, which is the knowledge part to be available online as well, because we’ve had people from all over the world who’ve asked us to take this training because there is not a training like that.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:31:15] It’s a everything I have read about, it sounds incredibly fascinating. And if I was in New York and I didn’t have a startup to run full time, I’d be the first sign up for the for the training, of course. You’ve had hundreds, but I would definitely be in line.Are there resources that you have found helpful along your Ayurvedic evolution and journey that you’d be willing to share with the audience?

Divya Alter: [00:31:48] Yes, definitely. I, my teacher by the mission, unfortunately, he passed away three years ago with his Web site and especially his blog. And you can even go through the archives. It’s such a such a treasure house of knowledge. The Web site is called S.V.. Ayurveda dot com. S V as in victor Ayurveda dot com. And if you click on blog and you go through some of the articles that he wrote years ago, and you can even search for keywords and come up with a bunch of articles. What I really love about his articles is that he would always bring the Sanskrit quotes from Chataka and Hita and other traditional Ayurvedic texts. And then he would bring in modern science and connect the two and make it very practical for us to apply in our daily life today. So that’s a great resource. I always go there. Another great resource is Dr. John Douillard website. Dr. John Douillard is a very accomplished, very, really amazing person also, Ayurvedic doctor and his passion is to really bring the modern science into the Ayurvedic concepts. And he like if you’re looking for approves of modern science about the healing benefits of fenugreek seeds. You will find it on his Web site. So his Web site is Life Spa dot com and yeah, these are two great resources. I mean, your blog is so practical. I really love your articles because it just makes it. It’s like when I read your blog, it’s like, oh, I can do this.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:33:43] Why did you have to. I oh, the credit goes to the amazing people who such as yourself, who have volunteered great wisdom and valuable time to help disseminate deep dense but at the same time, bite sized wisdom on Ayurveda, which is what keeps the blog going. So thank you for saying that. But more importantly, thank you for being a contributor and such a generous sharer of your wisdom with people.

Divya Alter: [00:34:20] It is an honor, Shrankhla, just one more resource came to mind. That’s a book that came out last year. It’s called Healing the Thyroid with Ayurveda by Dr. Marianne Teitelbaum. Also very well researched book. And I really like this book because it outlines it’s not just about the Thyroid, it’s about many other things. It outlines a Shaka Ayurveda really well. And it has a lot of like over 40 pages. Thing with scientific research references. So that’s also a great resource.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:34:56] You know, that’s one I’m unfamiliar with. But I will be grabbing it today.I, absolutely love Ayurvedic literature that actually spans modern wisdom, provable science and things like that. So it sounds like an illuminating book on that. And I will definitely be grabbing it. A few questions Divya, to impose on your generosity. I love hearing this from everyone. What dosha are are you and what was your journey of discovering it?

Divya Alter: [00:35:32] Well, I may I believe my dosha is Vata-Pitta because it’s so funny, because I’ve had over the years, I’ve had different Ayurvedic Doctor reading my pulse and somebody is they tell me that my doshas Pitta-Vata, I think. But I know that I know I read my body and I can read my pulse, too. But I feel definitely. I definitely feel that my dosha is Vata-Pitta and I think my Vata and my Pitta are very close, like, very closely. It’s almost the same, but I’m more Vata, a little bit more Vata.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:36:06] It’s a question we get a lot and one that I always provide one answer to followed with. But see, a practitioner, which I know sometimes seems unsatisfactory, but it is of somewhat nebulous journey of discovery because your body may present different constitutions based on what it might be going through at that moment in time.

Divya Alter: [00:36:34] Exactly. Sometimes we identify our imbalance without predominant dosha.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:36:40] Exactly. So I’m glad you touched on how it is not always so straightforward and something that you learn immediately. But it is a journey of discovery, much like Ayurveda is. And I suppose my final question on this topic would be the balancing of Ayurvedic principles with sometimes the demands of modern life. It definitely sounds like you are doing an amazing and inspirational job with that. You know, cooking fresh meals and so on.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:37:23] But any personal advice or thoughts you might share with our listeners on how to remain balanced given the environments we live in?

Divya Alter: [00:37:37] Oh, shrink. Well, I’m definitely a work in progress in terms of applying many different Ayurvedic principles. I can be doing a lot better.

Divya Alter: [00:37:48] But, you know, like one thing is we always like and this is something that I did as a beginner in Ayurveda few years ago. It’s very important to start small and just done because sometimes we get so overwhelmed by all those so-called rules in Ayurveda. I don’t take them as rules. I take them as guidelines. There is no black and white. You’re not a bad person if you’re not able to follow them. It’s a question of it’s a personal development. It’s a path of evolution. So if you started with simple things that you can apply for yourself today without any stress. That’s a good start. If you feel stress over following all the Ayurvedic principles, that’s not healthy. So I would say building it has been very helpful for me to build again. Getting rid of bad habits that would was distracted from my health and replacing them with good habits. Avoiding the foods that I really liked, but they were not good for my health. And replacing them with healthier is still very satisfying foods. I think that’s a very important principle and also the principle of not just giving up and going cold turkey, you know, it’s to try to replace something that’s not supporting your health and your progress with, with something else. Find a better replacement first and then go for the change.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:39:28] That is up so eloquently put. And I think such a wise and sage set of guidelines to follow in getting started or even maintaining this journey get this has been incredible. I know I’m walking away with such a new set of things that I would like to explore. So I can’t even imagine how helpful this has been for our audiences. Are there any things that you would like to add or anything I might have missed during this chat?

Divya Alter: [00:40:03] Maybe just in conclusion, we can touch on the main aspect of main concept of Ayurveda is that it supports the native ability of the body to heal itself. It’s it’s a practice of self healing. And Ayurveda is also a participatory practice. It’s not like taking the earth or taking the pill and then continuing with your bad habits. No, it’s a participatory. You will get better a few if you do better. But it’s a concept of self care and self healing and really nurturing ourselves and developing this attitude of selfless self care. Yes, I need to take care of myself, to be strong, to do my entitlement, to do my duty, to help others, to to be of service to others. I feel that’s really important, even especially today, when some so many of us are really looking very closely into how can I take care of myself better and Ayurveda, I haven’t found any other science, any other medicine, any other holistic practice that gives us the most detailed, most personalized guidelines in self care.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:41:30] I think that is such a beautiful call to action for those of us who are already on the journey, as well as those who are just discovering Ayurveda and I cannot thank you enough for sharing your time, sharing your wisdom and sharing your practice with us. We will be putting all the notes and details of everything that you so kindly shared with us during the podcast, in the podcast notes. And I encourage all our listeners to follow you on Instagram because that has been an amazing source of inspiration and wisdom to me, as well as check out your restaurant in in New York. There is truly nothing like it.Thank you, Divya.

Divya Alter: [00:42:19] Thank you, Shrankhla, Thank you for your very thoughtful question. So I really enjoyed this. Very meaningful to me. Thank you so much.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:42:50] Thank you so much for listening. If you like more information on our guest and the additional references during our conversation, please visit us at UMAOils.com. See you next time!

• Podcasts Self Love
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EPISODE 3: THE UMA AYURVEDA PODCAST- HOW TO CONNECT WITH OURSELVES WITH TARA SOWLATY LEHRER

Lifestyle writer, creative, nutritionist, and chef, Tara Sowlaty Lehrer is a beacon in the world of wellness and self-care. As co-founder of the lifestyle site How You Glow, Tara provides a resource for anything seeking holistic living tips, wellness-focused inspiration, and honest ways to honor our health and how we connect with ourselves. Since a young age, Tara has been a student of various modalities, including how to use food as medicine. At fourteen, she went to Bali—and this opened a new world of yoga, Vedic meditation, alternative healing, and so much more. In her conversation with Shrankhla, Tara unveils the worldly wisdom she’s garnered from her travels and studies and the ways in which she learned to become her own healer. “When you get access to these tools, you really realize that you, yourself, have so much power.”

Tara’s website: http://www.tarasowlaty.com/

How You Glow: https://www.howyouglow.com/

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:39] Hi! I am Shrankhla Holecek, the Founder & CEO of UMA, an Ayurvedic beauty and wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic healing, spiritual well-being, and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you. That, as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today, as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:31] Lifestyle writer, creative, nutritionist, and chef, Tara Sowlaty Lehrer is a beacon in the world of wellness and self-care. As co-founder of the lifestyle site How You Glow, Tara provides a resource for anything seeking holistic living tips, wellness-focused inspiration, and honest ways to honor our health and how we connect with ourselves. Since a young age, Tara has been a student of various modalities, including how to use food as medicine. At fourteen, she went to Bali—and this opened a new world of yoga, Vedic meditation, alternative healing, and so much more. In her conversation with Shrankhla, Tara unveils the worldly wisdom she’s garnered from her travels and studies and the ways in which she learned to become her own healer. “When you get access to these tools, you really realize that you, yourself, have so much power.”

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:35] Tara. Hi. It’s such a great pleasure to be talking to you, all bit in these crazy circumstances. And I am so excited to follow up, to talk a little bit more about healing, self-care, and all the things that you said. Such a beautiful example of..being the best one can be in mind-body health. So welcome.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:02:02] Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. And I’m just so grateful to be able to connect during such a weird and uncertain time in our..world. But luckily, we have technology to connect us. And I think that’s a beautiful side of technology.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:02:19] It indeed is. And I would be remiss if I also didn’t mention sorry, I sound like such a fan gold. Better of the people that I have seen used technology for such good. Both on…

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:02:36] Thank you

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:02:36] Your social media channels, as well as other ways that you touch lives digitally and you’ve been such a force for good in this arena. So I felt like it’s worth calling out since the topic of technology came up.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:02:52] Thank you. Thank a really, truly, truly appreciate that. The biggest smile on my face. I just feel like especially those of us who have expertises and we’ve studied and I think having a platform, it’s almost your duty to share and offer up your wisdom to the world and make that a positive experience so that you know what I’m what I’ve learned. I’m able to parlay that into someone else’s lives and affect their life. Hopefully, they take that in and they add it to their lives and make themselves better. So it just kind of like a chain reaction in a way.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:03:32] And I’m glad you touched on that virtuous circle as well as very grateful for you, for you and all the wisdom that you have to share because of Ayurveda in particular for a very long time, was just an oral tradition. For thousands of years. It was just or we communicated so much of the wisdom that remains today and touches so many lives very positively, certainly, mine, came from a similar mindset and goodwill as yours of people taking the initiative with their wisdom and passing it along. So thank you to you and thank you for the thousands of sages who did that for Ayurveda. Many, many thousands of years ago and I feel like this is a good Segway into getting insight into your world, which Tara is such a comprehensive and thoughtful journey and approach of taking care of yourself. It’s also stunning and beautiful to follow an example. But you put out with the understanding if there were some precipitating factors or it was intuitive or what, what brought about this way of life for you.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:04:55] Yeah. Thank you for asking that. So for me, my journey really began when I was in my early teens. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at the age of 14 and. It was something that I knew had to do with my gut. And, you know, and the guy is related to food and the stomach and all of that. So I got very curious as to how food could affect my body. And I learned about different eating modalities like veganism and vegetarianism, even Ayurveda. I was introduced to an AyAyurvedicuvedic healer around age 15 and really learned about the power of food and how it could push forward healing. And from there, after I went to school, I went to college. I studied business, but all throughout then I was kind of trying to learn and teach myself how to cook healthy food. And I was always obsessed with food as well as when I was younger. So I fell across this natural food cooking school one summer when I was living in New York City. I told myself when I graduate college, I have to go to this school. So I went to this amazing school called the Natural Institute. And that was truly where I think I’ve learned the most in my whole life. They not only taught us about natural foods used and the best ingredients used. It was a much more holistic approach to food as medicine about your daily practices.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:06:37] And it is very practical knowledge that should honestly be like a God God-given right to every person. But some time through history, I think especially in this country, a lot of that knowledge has really dissipated. So I was so grateful to learn that knowledge. And from that school, I was introduced to a holistic nutrition program through which I decided to join and I became certified. And then I was a health-providing natural food chef for a family for a while. So that was kind of how I got into this journey. And from there, I decided to kind of take my knowledge and put it on like an online lifestyle site through which I created how, you know, with my business partner. And it’s been an incredible journey of sharing knowledge and learning from other healers and seekers and just creating a very approachable avenue for wellness. Not that it’s one way to live. It’s not one way to eat. It’s not one way to work out. It’s just an easy, approachable way. And just a wealth of knowledge that you can pick and choose the things that make sense for your life.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:07:58] And I love how well-curated, genuine and in many ways moderate the wisdom on how you glow is and other works that you’ve written. It is very approachable and I love that about..your work. Tara, as I’m sure many are struggling with either diagnosed or undiagnosed, got chronic disorders and are maybe just starting on their journeys. I’d like to hear if you found things that challenged you as you discovered this path and how you navigated some of those challenges.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:08:42] One of the biggest challenges for me personally was kind of admitting to myself that I have the power just because especially if you’re diagnosed with something at a younger age, you’re constantly told what to do and how to deal with, with your symptoms and your illness. And I think that when you learn..that you have the power to take on what you have been given. That’s when you can really create change and we can all be our own healers. And that’s absolutely it’s not just, you know, a quote. It’s absolutely the truth. And that’s why I try to promote a moderate approach because there’s absolutely no one right answer. Everybody has their own prescription. Everybody has their own specific tool kit that they should be able to create for themselves to help them figure out whatever they need to figure out.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:09:47] And I want to stay maybe a couple more seconds on the powerful turn of phrase around having the power because it felt so intuitive when you said it. And yet I was reminded of how often I forget that about my day, about my month, about the influence I can wield on my body, my mind, the world at large. So I think it’s a good mantra for all of us, for all things big and small, to remind ourselves of that. Speaking of powerful things, I think there is some wisdom to unpack here, and I want to hear about it all and time permitting. And I suppose your yoga and meditation practice might be a good place to start up. Was it your teacher training in Bali that started to inspire at all? How did you get to incorporate a big yoga and meditation practice within your regimen?

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:10:53] I definitely started meditating before I went to Bali. I was first introduced.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:10:58] Making it sound dramatic and beautiful..

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:11:04] Well, you know, I actually..Let’s make it lovely and dramatic. I went to Bali when I was—I believe—I was fourteen with my family and it was the most transformative, magical experience that I have ever experienced on any trip. And I got there and I told my family, this is my place. This is where I’m getting married. This is where I’m moving to..I just had some visceral experience with Bali. And it was before, like anyone I knew had ever been there as anyone before anyone had ever talked about it. Like I was 14 and no one really ever talked about Bali. I truly connected to their.. sympathetica with the divine—like the way they lived their lives is just so intertwined with spirituality and ancestors and the righteousness of family. And I think that was a very transformative experience for me. And I knew that I would in Bollywood be a very big part of my life. Since that time, I had have gone to Bali three other times in very long spurts. Being in that place, just kind of being exposed to that connection of self. I think. Really resonated with me, and I brought that back home with me and I got deep into yoga and learned about different kinds of meditation. I got trained in Vedic meditation. And then I came across this incredible program in Bali and where I was going to be trained in Abshanga based in version yoga and Vedic meditation chanting. So it was a very, very special experience. Very challenging and really transformative experience. And I think the deeper you get into meditation, the more you kind of bring it back to what you’re talking about before, just shows you that you truly can be your own healer when you get access to these tools, you really realize that you yourself have so much power.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:13:31] There’s so much in there, starting with the fact that going to Bali at 14, it definitely sounds fortuitous seasons. You know, it’s especially in North America. I don’t see that many families, especially young families, holidaying in Bali. The fact that you felt an instant connection, the fact that up in such a meaningful way, it definitely sounds like it was all in the cards or, you know, the universe conspiring to make it all happen. It’s also amazing to see how your practice and journey has evolved. Tara, could you share some of the tools that have helped to evolve in that practice? Because suddenly with meditation, I know a lot of people struggle.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:14:26] Absolutely. I have a lot to say on this. Because I’ve been the type of person that has meditated for twenty-five minutes, twice a day. And I’ve been the person where I have meditated for three months. So I think that I’ve come to a place where I truly believe and want to promote a very not dogmatic approach to meditation. So that means for me that my meditation practice looks very varied so that sometimes it means that I meditate 20 minutes in the morning. Sometimes that means I meditate on a walk. Sometimes that means I’ll do. Drawing meditation where I get my watercolors and that’s my meditation for the day. I think that we can truly make so many different practices, a form of meditation and teaching people that that’s okay, because I think a lot of people tell themselves, oh, I have to sit down against a comfy pillow with my eyes closed and my hands are open and receiving to be, quote-unquote, meditating. I just don’t believe that’s true. And I think that’s absolutely the opposite of what meditation is, is and should promote it. It’s whatever you are able to do in your life to accomplish that form of connection to self. That is your former meditation and being kind to yourself. Being easy on yourself. Being flexible with yourself. Sometimes we get into routines where that 20 minutes, twice a day works and that’s wonderful. But then sometimes we don’t. And that doesn’t mean that you should get upset at yourself or because I said that’s just a bad process because you feel bad about it. And think about that. You feel bad about not meditating. That’s the absolute. Opposite thing, that meditation is the point. So I think we all need to be kinder to ourselves and more flexible and show that we can meditate. In so many ways, you can meditate while you’re driving. You can meditate on a walk. You can meditate. You know, snuggling with your dog. It’s just— there’s so many ways to connect to the self. And I think that’s very important and something that I’m really trying to promote.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:16:49] And that is a beautiful framing of the topic and the practice as a whole in that even broader than meditation. I think sometimes wellness can feel like a chore to people and they start to have a visceral reaction to it, which..is something that needs to get nipped in the bud immediately. And sometimes it can feel like a privilege to have the time to be able to do those things. And those are the times you sort of take advantage of that time and other times you don’t. But I love the framing of self-love and meditation coming in different forms. So you’re not beating yourself up for not practicing it in a traditional sense, as it were..And balance..harmony comes from a variety of things, such as yoga and meditation, arguably, most fundamentally, within Ayurveda, they do come from food. And that’s something that I am dying to hear your philosophy on. Especially since you’ve studied so many different styles of modalities around using food as medicine.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:18:10] Yeah. Food and I think so. I absolutely love and cherish my meals and my food and. It just brings me so much joy and I and I create such a fun ritual around it and every day looks different for me. So I really tune into my body. I’m more of an intuitive either and..when I wake up, if I’m hungry, I’ll have a bigger meal. I’ll have like a frittata or some sort of healthy big good that I made the night before and I’ll warm it up or some delicious gluten-free toast with ghee on top. Some days I’m not that hungry. So, I’ll just have berries and a tonic or so that it’s just about being very intuitive. I’m not dogmatic in the sense of, oh, I wake up, I have to eat eggs and this and that. I just..I think our bodies are much more sensitive than that. And I think it’s very important to listen to our bodies. And I’m a chef, so every day really looks different. I’m inspired by what I have in my fridge, what I pick up at the farmer’s market every week in just getting creative with, you know, delicious cozy foods. I love foods that are like caramelized and cooked and lots of fresh herbs. And I love like a lemony vinegar salad and I love sweets. And I won’t deny myself of that. I’ve done that in the past and it just doesn’t serve me and sweet like a delicious date with nuts or healthy chocolate. And I just feel like food is so not only nourishing to my body but is truly nourishing to my soul and I really honor that.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:20:06] And there is something so natural about intuitive eating that is underscored in Ayurveda, both in terms of food and hydration, that it’s nice to see you honor that. Further, if there was a mindset or a philosophy that you could impart on our listeners to make eating more delightful and more and more celebratory and intuitive every day, would there be something that we can take right away and add to our eating habits?

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:20:50] Well, I think that, First off thing, distinguishing the food that bring you joy. So that means tapping into your eating habits and I think all of us can name, you know. The foods that bring us the most joy and really honoring that and allowing yourself to eat those things. And let’s say your favorite food is sweet potatoes and that, you know, I mean, like making room for that and finding delicious ways to honor that and..or if your favorite food is chocolate..like figuring out how to make that fit into your routine. And in a way that doesn’t upset you or make you stressed out or..just getting in tune with yourself and really listening to what your body wants..there is sound there. You listen like we can mask those sounds by just eating and not thinking. And I don’t think that’s a very fulfilling way to go about, you know, a food philosophy.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:21:59] You’re totally right. That definitely is true, both in terms of the sounds as well as at least speaking for myself, sounds that I may have concealed consciously or subconsciously that definitely needs giving more credence to. So that’s it for me right away. Tara, you’re also a healer. Tell me about that.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:22:31] Yes. So as a health coach, I’ve been. You know, working with clients and helping them heal their food journeys. But on top of that, I have some really deep into the power of crystals. And on my tour in training in Bali, I became obsessed with the power of Mandala and Crystal Grid and all that. So I really, really dug deep into that technology and had facilitated workshops and classes and one on one sessions with people to help them harness their creativity. And any wisdom to kind of bring forth what they’re looking for in their lives?

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:23:21] Can you share a profound healing experience? You might have had with somebody you feel comfortable?

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:23:29] There was one girl who was really, truly stuck in her job. Second, her relationship. And she got broken up with and, you know, we worked together and I kind of advised her to. She honestly had never traveled before. And I advised her to figure out how to upend her life and go somewhere new. And she did just that. She figured out how to transfer her job to London. She fully upended her life. And it was the best decision she’s ever made. And I think sometimes we just need someone to give us that little push in life..and confidence to really follow something new. And it seems very scary sometimes. But when you have someone to lean on and get that information from, I think you can create really transformative experiences in your life.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:24:34] I appreciate your sharing that, because sometimes even when we hear words of wisdom, it’s hard to connect it with ourselves and in some shape or form. All life experiences speak to certain parts of us, whether we’re feeling stuck or are in an unhealthy relationship or feeling professionally unmotivated that success stories always help give us that personal enthusiasm and reaching out for help when we need. So, thank you for sharing that.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:25:08] Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:25:10] Tara, I also know that you are you work with crystals in a big way. Tell me a little bit about that.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:25:19] Yeah, so as I was saying, I really got inspired to delve deeper into crystals during my experience in Bali. I always had been very, very fascinated with them from a young age when I was in Girl Scouts, actually. I was like seven or eight. We stumbled upon this crystal show, one of our Girl Scout trips, and I just was collecting the little rocks and all these little baby crystals. And since I was young and I just have a very, very strong affinity to them, as many, many people do. But when I went to Bali, I was so fascinated by the daily Mandala offerings that they create. If you’ve been to Bali, you know that..you know, every entrance and every doorway and every pathway, there’s these beautiful offerings..and I wanted to bring that back home with me. And in a way that I could offer that to other people. So. I really, really dug deep into crystal technology and, you know, there’s different patterns in the universe. There’s a Fibonacci sequence. There’s different geometrical shapes, a spiral. And these things make up our DNA. You know, the structures of plants. And so utilizing crystals with this structural technology of the earth can really, really amplify intentions. So as I was doing with my healing sessions, I kind of teach people how to utilize the power of crystals to amplify in tension. So you can be very specific with crystals in that way, or you can not. You don’t need crystals can go both ways. So you can just get a crystal put in your home. If you resonate with that crystal, bring it to you..and you can just let it be or you can use them as specific tools to amplify what you’re looking for in your life. So it’s really dynamic. Crystals are very dynamic..and they can bring you as much as you’d like them to or, you know, you can just let them be and work their magic on them on their own. And on top of that, they’re just such beautiful gems that come from Mother Earth and..it’s just a beautiful reminder of Earth energy that I think is so lovely to have around.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:27:59] It really is. And it makes me wonder what your philosophy on getting started with crystals is. Do you feel that it is best to do it via a consult, or do you think it’s okay to get started on one’s own and see an expert practitioner at a little later time? Because I could see it both ways.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:28:28] Yeah, I agree. I think absolutely both ways. I think kind of going back with my approach to life in general, I’m just not a very dogmatic person. So I think if you feel called to wanting to get specific with an expert and get a console, that’s what you should be doing. But or if you’re that person that says, no, I want to learn on my own, I want to just feel it out, then that’s what you should do. So I think that’s what’s so beautiful about crystals, is that there’s no one way to interact with them. There’s no one way to use them and they serve different purposes for different people. So if you and I think the first step with any crystal is you should be drawn to it. It shouldn’t be something that this person said, oh, that’s a good crystal. You should get it. It has to be an intimate relationship with that crystal, with that specific shape of that crystal, how that crystal feels in your hand, the energy you feel when you hold it. So it’s a very, very unique and prescriptive experience. And I don’t..always necessarily agree with somebody picking out or crystal for you. I think that crystal healers should guide people towards a crystal, not, you know, be very dogmatic in how they tell other people to use it.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:29:55] Is there a resource or a book that you like to advise to someone who might be just starting to understand crystals or is curious about it, obviously, you got me very curious about a consultation with you. Do you make that available to other people? And what’s the best way for some of our audiences..I know you’re based in Los Angeles..to go about that.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:30:25] Absolutely. So first, your first question. The Book of Stones is the Bible. I would say so. I can give you a link to that if you want to share that with them. The listeners.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:30:36] Will do.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:30:37] it’s an incredible resource. And secondly, yeah, I can share my email with you and I can sleep. I set up when I’m on consults and, you know, if you’re in L.A., I can take you to one of my sources and we can, you know, do a session and pick out some crystals together. And that, you know, just through email, we can do that. So it’s a really, really lovely experience.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:31:06] And it’s one that I get a lot of questions around because of crystals and metals have re-reviewed place in Ayurveda, not just in balancing one’s own energy with the Earth. It also goes back to how other planets and Vedic astrology has an impact on your life, your health, your mental balance, your emotional well-being, your relationships, and the crystals and metals show up often in ways to manage that within maybe with you. So it’s definitely one arena that we get a lot of questions around. It’s inspiring that you have such a rich tradition of wellness integrated into your life, but also that you do many delightful things, like a lot of travel and you have a full plate professionally. Sometimes those things can feel orthogonal to each other in terms of being able to balance them. Any tips on how you do that, well?

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:32:24] yeah, I think that..I have made wellness practices such an ingrained part of my daily routine that..I don’t really stress about staying well when I travel. Like, for example, I always have a ton of water with me on the airplane. I drink a lot of warm water with lemon. I. You know, incorporate veggies and greens into my meals, but I never really stress about, you know, having to work out or eating a specific way, like when I’m traveling. I fully embrace and indulge in whatever experience that I’m going to. So that to me is wellness, that to me is being present and being mindful of the fact of where I am in the world and really embracing it for what it is like that is being well and You know, not going actually overboard, but really honoring where you are in the world and making that the norm instead of being so stuck to one rigid way of being well, that hasn’t served me in the past. And I feel like once you really embrace being in a different culture and living a different life like that shows you how resilient you are. And that shows you how dynamic you are that you can be in a different place in the world and adapt and learn that culture and be that way and still be well, you know. So I think it’s a practice of..being mindful and being very present with where you are.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:34:12] That is indeed very sage. And having met you, I can see that you embody that in..such a practical and real payback is there is an energy around you that seems very much at ease and connected to one’s funding.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:34:34] So there is that much more reason for us to be taking this seriously and trying our best to be present and make wellness enjoyable because that’s pretty much the only way something sticks is when..it’s intuitive, it’s pleasurable, it’s moderate and which is something that we have very much been trying to do with, with the dissemination of Ayurvedic principles because they are at bottom all of those things and wherever you are in your wellness journey is OK. So those fitting words seem like a great place to leave our listeners with and to think about everything wonderful that you’ve shared with us during this conversation. Tara, any words or any parting thoughts that we may have not covered but that help you stay inspired every day?

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:35:36] Well, thank you so much for your kind kind words. And I would just love to leave everyone with kind of just hammer home the sense of moderation. And in some ways, at least one my favorite quote it. Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. Learn yourself inside and out. And allow yourself to stray from that as well and indulge in the things that you love and bring you joy and..allowing you like that like variance in your life. That’s what makes you so vibrant and happy. And I want to share with people that that’s okay to have that dynamic so

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:36:20] That is a great call to action. I certainly I’m inspired to do a little bit more of that than I already have been trying to do. Tara, thanks again for being here. I know there will probably be a ton of questions that I will be funneling your way once this goes live and I look forward to exploring so much more with you because you are such a clear beacon of wisdom and knowledge in this space so,.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:36:52] Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And so lucky to be speaking with you.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:36:57] You are very welcome. And I’m sure we’ll be talking soon.

Tara Sowlaty Lehrer: [00:37:01] Yes. Be well!

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:37:26] Thank you so much for listening. If you like more information on our guest and the additional references during our conversation, Please visit us at UMAOils.com.

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• Ayurveda Podcasts
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EPISODE 4: UNDERSTANDING THE AYURVEDIC DOSHAS AND FINDING BALANCE WITH MICHELLE MAGID

Michelle Magid, CAS, PKS, has a deep history with Ayurveda, to which she was first introduced when she was nineteen. Over the years, the ancient practice has informed her life and career. Today she is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner and herbalist. As founder of the Vibrance Ayurveda, her healing practice in Portland, Oregon, she offers Ayurvedic treatments and holistic wellness support for her clients. Michelle has a thoughtful and considerate approach to explaining Ayurveda, unveiling the ways it can help to heal and support everyone’s personal nuances. Here she talks with Shrankhla on the fascinating and often confusing topic of the three doshas, unpacking the elements of each and how they express in our modern personal and environmental worlds. “What we are really experiencing now is the request of Mother Nature to slow down and really be more in that Kapha-esque place.”

Michelle’s Website: https://vibranceayurveda.com/practitioners/

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:49] Hi! I am Shrankhla Holecek, the Founder & CEO of UMA, an Ayurvedic beauty and wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic healing, spiritual well-being and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you. That, as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today, as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:30] Michelle Magid, CAS, PKS, has a deep history with Ayurveda, to which she was first introduced when she was nineteen. Over the years, the ancient practice has informed her life and career. Today she is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner and herbalist. As founder of the Vibrance Ayurveda, her healing practice in Portland, Oregon, she offers Ayurvedic treatments and holistic wellness support for her clients. Michelle has a thoughtful and considerate approach to explaining Ayurveda, unveiling the ways it can help to heal and support everyone’s personal nuances. Here she talks with me on the fascinating and often confusing topic of the three doshas, unpacking the elements of each and how they express in our modern personal and environmental worlds. “What we are really experiencing now is the request of Mother Nature to slow down and really be more in that Kapha-esque place.”

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:36] Michelle, it’s lovely to formally be talking to you on the UMA Elements podcast. I really appreciate your making the time. How are you?

Michelle Magid: [00:01:45] I’m doing very well today and thank you so much for this invitation to speak with you and your audience today. It’s a real honor.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:55] Thank you. I know we worked together in the past on an insightful elements post about the doshas. And I’ve been dying to bring you on to get more color around that and so many other things that we’re going to talk about in the podcast. So welcome.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:02:16] I understand that you were first introduced to Ayurveda through meditation after that introduction. What made you pursue a deeper study.

Michelle Magid: [00:02:25] Yes. So..it is a deep story and it actually quite a long story. So I learned to meditate when I was 19. And as you mentioned, I learned about Ayurveda at that point. And it was in the 80’s and so I didn’t have a lot of exposure to a lot of things that of Ayurveda. It was very new. Coming here to the west. And so I really read as many books as I could on the subject.

Michelle Magid: [00:03:00] I..the first one was Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra and followed then by Maya Tiwari’s a life of balance. And I just read and incorporated as much as I could. And I was always in search of an Ayurvedic practitioner. And about 12 years after my first exposure, I actually found a practitioner. It took that long actually to find a practitioner and I was in the Bay Area. So as a place that it was more accessible to finding someone doing that work.

Michelle Magid: [00:03:36] And when I received the consultation and I also had body therapies, I was just blown away by all of the encompassing aspect of Ayurveda and that it really didn’t just look at my physical body, which it did, but also mental and emotional and spiritual even.

Michelle Magid: [00:04:02] And then, of course, incorporating these amazing body therapies. And through that process of..my life, I had known I wanted to be a healer, but I was in the corporate world. And so I started studying many things that interested me and that included body therapy, herbs. I became an herbalist..nutrition..I became a nutritional counselor on the side of doing my other work in corporate learned about essential oils and energy work and then knowing that I wanted to again go into the healing field. I was exploring how to put all of those things together and was reminded about Ayurveda and that it put all of that together. And so then I knew I was ready to study more formally, and the original practitioner that I had seen had gone to a college in California and was part of the original graduating class. And so decided to pursue my studies further there.

Michelle Magid: [00:05:16] And so that was really the journey that led me to formally studying Ayurveda.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:05:24] What a fascinating and riveting story and what spoke to me was a few things within that, especially I would say all of it spoke to me.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:05:38] But a, how everyone’s starting point in their journey to Ayurveda can be so different. You could be born into it and not realize what Ayurvedic principles are up. As I was or start..exploring it on one’s own, as you did, or dive in headlong with the scholarship right away by going to an Ashram or an educational institute and I hear about stories from all walks of life, culminating in, nearly always the same conclusion around the beauty of Ayurveda and all that it has offered us through wherever our starting point might be, which, which is so fascinating to me. And I appreciate your sharing that. It’s also interesting to me that you mentioned it took you twelve years to come upon that first practitioner that you truly fell in love with or decided to trust your body and work with. And I also want to recognize that that is okay. A lot of us think about Ayurveda and want to bring it into our life..and start in many different places. But it might be a while before we meet our first practitioner. But whatever we do in inner room is also highly sacred, highly helpful. And I want to call out that we should celebrate whatever we are doing, big or small, until we get a chance to take those step leaps into a deeper journey, as it were.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:07:34] Oh, but knowing that you know so much about Ayurveda. And have had such a deep and interesting journey into Ayurveda, Michelle. How would you define Ayurveda?

Michelle Magid: [00:07:50] Well, that is a beautiful question. Thank you for asking that. And to me, Ayurveda is a deeply sacred and is, well, very practical knowledge that teaches us how to live in the rhythm with ourselves, in the rhythm, with nature, and to really understand how those rhythms of our own individual self and the rhythms of nature can support one another. Also, at its core, it’s really about honoring and respecting ourselves and each other and nature as a whole. So it’s really about this discovery of who am I and where do I live and how do I interact with this life that I’m living?

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:08:45] I love that definition makes it both profound and all-encompassing, yet deeply personal and encouraging us to use the resources that all of us have at our disposal, which is understanding oneself.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:09:07] I, I know that sometimes that can seem like lip service because it’s harder for some of us to go deeper than..others. But there’s comfort in the knowledge that to practice Ayurveda the first step might be so well within reach, which is get a deeper sense of self. Listen to your body. Listen to what it is telling you and honor that.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:09:35] So it’s..so practical, yet so sacred like you so beautifully said and staying on that. What are some of the myths that you have encountered around Ayurveda either something that you had heard when you first started on your journey or things you might hear from the many clients you see?

Michelle Magid: [00:10:01] Yes, fascinating question. Thank you. So when I think of myth, I actually think of it in two ways. I think the way that you’re actually asking the question is what might be like a false held belief of Ayurveda. But there’s also the aspect of a myth in that what does it teach us? What’s..like a traditional story about it? So I’d like to address both of those, if I may. And the first aspect of what might be falsely held belief, a myth of Ayurveda. And that it’s in it, that it’s because that it’s ancient, that it’s old, that it’s crusty, that it doesn’t have any application in our current life. And that could be farther from the truth.

Michelle Magid: [00:10:56] And my experience with Ayurveda. It’s truly a living science and that it continues to evolve and grow. Based on what we recognize and find out about ourselves as we’re growing and evolving as human beings. So that’s the biggest myth that I feel that I encounter is that world because it’s so old, how can it be applied to me? And Ayurveda, really is just a way of looking at the world. It’s not something, again, that’s stock or that is one belief that’s held is the only belief. It’s that it’s applied uniquely to each individual. So, again, it’s always evolving, always changing.

Michelle Magid: [00:11:50] And in relation to kind of a story around traditional story, myths of Ayurveda is that it really helps us in my study around it really kind of the origins of who we are. You know that we are these human beings having a spiritual experience. And that has been such a gift that Ayurveda has brought to my life and that, yes, I can look at my physicality, my physical body, my mind and emotions, but what else is present? And that is our spirit. And how is that playing a role in our life, in our health?

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:12:33] Oh, as you were speaking, something that popped into my mind..was the idea of balance between innovation. You knew what is the hottest, best thing? With time tested principles. And I love that Ayurveda has always provided that cuticle backstop of time tested rip, heatedly enduring wisdom, which can be so balancing in a world that sometimes is always looking for the bigger, better, faster, newer style situation and is a reminder of honoring that. And at the helm of a beauty and wellness company, I get asked that often. So what is up? What’s absolutely new? What is something that might be life-changing? And I find myself responding that it’s life-changing, but it isn’t new. It is actually centuries old and we’re tapping into that. And when you were talking, it was just reminded of remembering to honor that time tested wisdom and apply it with a sense of balance and moderation in our daily lives and how profoundly grounding that can be digging further. I know that the concept of doshas within Ayurveda can be confusing to many and I couldn’t think of a better person than you to request a walk-through of the doshas for our audiences.

Michelle Magid: [00:14:29] Great. So, yeah, the doshas, oftentimes when we’re thinking of them and as I’m explaining them to my clients, there’s this dichotomy that happens in that we think of the doshas..as only individual, like, am I Vata, am I Pitta, am I Kapha. And actually all the doshas are within us. And they interplay together. And so when we’re thinking about who am I and what doshas am I consisting of remembering that all the doshas are within us. And that, yes, there may be certain doshas, certain qualities, certain elements that are more prominent right now in your life in a current state and or more prominent in your natural constitution, what you were born with. But recognizing that they’re always at play together. And so we can look at them in their series state or in their isolated state of what is Vata and Vata is made up of space and air elements. And what are the qualities of Vata? the qualities are that it’s cold. They’re dry. They’re mobile or air is mobile. It’s a sort of they’re subtle elements. So all of those qualities make up a Vata. But they but Vata isn’t, again, only going to interact with itself. And so recognizing that piece of it. And then the fundamental principle, I think, of Vata to each dosha has like its shining moment or what it kind of really tells us that it does and for Vata, that is that which moves. So anything that is moving has that element of Vata in it. And what really moves so much in our bodies is our mind. Right. And we’re living very much a mobile world. Well, maybe not so much in the current aspect or actually being asked to kind of settle in, which makes so much sense because we had gotten so far out of balance with the Vata dosha, with all this mobility of actual physically moving our body, but also mentally moving our mind and being in the electronics. And so we know that there is this fundamental principle of nature and that like likes like and opposite balance. And what we’re really experiencing now is the request of Mother Nature to slow down and really be more in that Kapha’s place. We’re also in springtime, which is Kapha time of year. And so this time of year is about the elements of Kapha are earth and water, and the qualities of them are stable and there is flow to it. But there’s also this, this heaviness, this dullness, this moving more slowly, really taking our time and building ourselves either with structure or routine or whatever that is, that’s going to create a stable balance. And that’s so much of what Kapha brings in.

Michelle Magid: [00:18:14] It’s kind of claim to fame, per say, is that which creates that stability and creates that fluidity in our life by going with the flow and not just being a go, go, go with..really no connection into grounding, into being in our body. And then we’ve got the Pitta dosha, which is really its claim to fame is that which transforms and it’s made up of fire with a little bit of water. And fire is really it from one place to the next place. And Pitta is very much about. Like I said, transformation. And what do we bring in and digest in our body and that can be food. That can be experiences. That can be, you know, things that we want to learn and increase our intellect and knowledge. So, you know, again, all these, these doshas, we can look at them individually, but really encouraging my clients more to look at them in play with one another and really determining what’s up for me today? And is this something that I want to cultivate and..move with, or am I being asked to balance this? Am I being asked to bring myself back into a place where I’m not just increasing and moving so much? And again, that’s really what this time frame is asking us to do, is to kind of come back to our selves.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:20:03] Just to press in a little bit further.Michelle, I’d love your advice on how our audiences can better understand their doshas.

Michelle Magid: [00:20:16] Great question. So as many have probably experienced or if they have not, there’s lots of quizzes out there in the world that you can take to answer certain questions that will help you to pinpoint what qualities are more present in you and therefore elements and doshas. And I think that’s is a great starting point. It kind of starts to we, us to gain information about really looking at what is present in ourselves and when we’re asked those questions to contemplate them. But I find that really for me, it has been observation of myself over time because, again, we have..our natural constitution, what we were born with. But we also are constantly changing and we have a current state which may be not in quite alignment with our natural constitution.

Michelle Magid: [00:21:25] And so really looking at what is up for you today, if I’ve been really moving a lot. Am I busy? Am I commuting? Am I at my commuting? Even air travel? What am I doing that really kind of brings me into that more movement state and so really looking at how you can then bring an opposite in knowing that those opposite qualities balance you.

Michelle Magid: [00:21:58] So it is really observation of yourself over time. And that’s what I’ve really found for myself and you know continually reading. I have found in my studies that I can never do Ayurveda 101 enough. All right.

Michelle Magid: [00:22:18] And every different book is going to explain the doshas in a way that is going to expand that knowledge for me or every quiz that I take, will give me a little bit deeper understanding. But what I’ve also found for a lot of my clients, they’ve really appreciated my observation of them. So really receiving a trained, experienced practitioners observation of you can help that as well as any education that you might do on your own through quizzes or observation of your life or reading.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:23:01] I think that is a very helpful road map for many. It encourages the process, both of research, as well as personal discovery as one who fully gears up for a consultation..with the right Ayurvedic physician when we get the opportunity. Speaking of physicians, Michelle, you’ve had the privilege of studying with some of the most respected Ayurvedic doctors. Can you tell me about what that has been like?

Michelle Magid: [00:23:40] Well, it has been such an honor and I have been in such appreciation and gratitude to all of my teachers because they know each person holds this knowledge and science in their own sacred way and teaches from their perspective and knowledge base. And it has been a great..gift to have such a breadth of teachers in my life. And I find that, you know, each one again brings this, this flowering of different information into being into me. And so it’s been great. Again, respect and honor to study with them. And I find that each time I am, I gain a little bit more and a little bit more.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:24:48] Michelle, it’s obvious that this journey has been so very fulfilling for you. Are there certain favorite parts or moments that stick out?

Michelle Magid: [00:25:01] Oh, there are so many that have been really lovely on this journey for me. But in reflecting about what..the best part has been is really establishing my service of this work to others and becoming a practitioner. I learn so much from my clients. And it’s been such an honor to really see them receive the information and knowledge and then apply it really. That’s the key, is when it’s applied in your life. And to see them shift and change and sometimes those shifts and changes happen with just something very minor. Sometimes it takes longer and more needs to be done. But I’ve seen so many people shift sometimes pretty quickly with just a minor adjustment. And that really has been the best part of this journey for me, is really sharing this science and knowledge with others.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:26:16] That sounds incredibly rewarding. And might I add of the Portland community is so fortunate to have you as such a valuable resource on Ayurveda in the midst of have there been any challenges? And how did you navigate them?

Michelle Magid: [00:26:37] Absolutely challenges, right? Life is full of challenges. I don’t think we can get away from challenges. And how I really view challenges is that they are opportunities for growth and change and to really explore more about yourself. So I always welcome challenges, actually, and that I’ve just found in my life.

Michelle Magid: [00:27:06] So much has been gained by really. Accepting those challenges and saying, OK, what are you here to teach me? What are you here to show me that I need to shift and change in myself? And so challenges, I believe, are again always going to occur. And it’s really how we look at them and then learn from them. That really is the key to having a healthy and happy life.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:27:41] Makes a ton of sense. Michelle, you’ve seen thousands of clients, as an Ayurvedic practitioner. Now, what are some of the most common issues you hear about when people seek your favorite treatments?

Michelle Magid: [00:27:58] So there’s basically two categories that I’ve really found that most everyone that I see has some form of, and that is digestive disturbances and then stress-related symptoms. And those stress-related symptoms can be different for each person, but some can have more worry insomnia, have more irritability or get depressed. But those are the two areas that I really find so many people commonly have issues with. And so I’m always working with those as a beginning place for most people in that. How can we really help you to be digesting and assimilating and eliminating your food? Well, and so that you feel good, because if we aren’t doing a good job of receiving our nutrients and digesting, we’re not really feeling at our tip-top shape. Nor if we don’t have tools of how to manage stress, then we’re just going to continue in that stress loop. And it’s going to get harder and harder to do many daily things. And of course, stress also affects digestion. So they very much flow into one another. And when one is worked on, the other can start to unwind and delayer as well as the others. So they really go hand in hand a lot.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:29:42] And I think it’s a fair time to call out..the key distinction between treating of symptoms and eliminating/balancing root causes, which is something I find myself constantly addressing when talking about Ayurveda. Because in my life, I like to think I balance all my Ayurvedic knowledge..with the stressors of modern life. Some of it might mean that I take an Advil when I’m having a particularly rough headache or a Tums when my digestion is out of whack. But I think for me..the stopping point is that two days in a row or five days in a row, if I am needing Tums and taking a step back and really evaluating what might be going on in my body, that these symptoms are repeatedly surfacing. And I think for a lot of people that live their lives with the stressors that we do, many of us evaluate the need for deeper treatments or the needing for balancing these root causes in a more profound way when they repeatedly show up as disruptors to our modern life, such as insomnia. One day is different from insomnia, felt over a week, a month, several months at. And that’s something that my husband contented contended with. When we first met and he still has doubts of it but Ayurveda has helped him manage that insomnia..in a big way. And I think..that’s often a prelude into deeper Ayurvedic consultations or a general re-evaluation of one’s life that repeated symptoms can indeed cause many of us. So speaking of symptoms and helping us navigate those, can you share some of the best success stories you might have had? I know what that might be aspirational for many of us that might be on the fence about going out and seeking that next level of treatment in our lives.

Michelle Magid: [00:32:19] Yeah. So success stories that I’ve seen with my clients has really been when they have often been experiencing symptoms for a while and nothing seems to be really resolving them.

Michelle Magid: [00:32:38] And so they are seeking. Something that is really going to be a deeper healing process than just dealing with the symptoms. And it’s when those people..really become committed to this journey of recreating themselves. Like taking the deeper dive into. Okay. I’m really wanting to not just take this Tums anymore or not just take this Advil anymore. Yes. On occasion, if it’s needed. Fine. But that this deeper use of them and that I’m really not getting better. So where I’ve seen great success is when people have said, OK, I’m really ready and willing to look at all my habits. And, you know, step by step. And I think that’s really that can maybe seem a little bit overwhelming. But that’s what a practitioner is there to really support someone to go through the process. And that I, as a practitioner can say, OK, this is step number one. And this is step number two. And that recognizing each step is going to take them closer and closer to their balance state and deeper health. But it also, again, requires that commitment to one’s self. Like, I’m really ready to be healthy.

Michelle Magid: [00:34:17] I’m really ready to understand these underlying causes. And it takes time to really peel back those layers and unwind what has been built up over time. So, again, the biggest and best success stories that I’ve had with clients is this commitment to themselves, commitment to understanding really what was the deepest cause and being ready to take those steps and that it’s not about a quick fix either. Those that have been most successful and in the practice that I’ve had and in working with them is that this is a journey and it’s not a destination. You’re not looking to solve this and then you’re better, but that this is a process of evolution and unwinding. And then once that..feel like you’re in a balanced state, what I love about Ayurveda too, is that it’s really about how to stay well and be well ones that you’re in that state. And so that has been where I found the most success is really people committed to their journey of deep healing..and being willing to look at all aspects of what could be the cause.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:35:49] And couple of my personal observations to tack onto that is when you get started on the journey and I completely agree that it is a journey, it’s by no means a quick fix, however, it is encouraging to see some of the early results that you do see even but fixing and changing some of the habits that may not be serving us well. And it is very encouraging to get deeper into that journey. When you make those shifts and changes and second, I have found that any journey that you want to be on. Likely should be fun or something that is gratifying, something that is fulfilling you on a daily basis, and Ayurveda can very much be that in that it stops being a chore. You’re so in tune with your body and with your intuition that it starts to present very, very naturally in that you’re still in your cup, you’re honoring natural intention. You’re honoring natural thirsts and hungers and eating for what your body naturally needs satiated that. That it’s such a fun, fulfilling journey that you want to get deeper with it. So. So once you are more in tune and truly listening to your intuition and what your body is telling you, it doesn’t feel like. Like unnecessary workouts that you have to do, it just..feels like I said intuitive and natural. And going with the flow, which is a very, very fun.

Michelle Magid: [00:37:46] Agreed, I couldn’t agree more. And that is where we want to get to. Absolutely. And once that, you know, we can clear out the symptoms that are persistent, then you can become more in tune with yourself and that you’re not just being driven by what is ailing you, but being driven by what is inspiring you. It’s truly..it helps to be in that space of true connection with what it is you need on every level, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:38:28] I know that scene in your basic practitioner can be such a gift. But in this current environment and even normally, sometimes it can be hard to have access to one that you can trust and get valuable counsel from. What would be some of the recommendations you might have for us to integrate into our daily lives just to live a life of greater balance and start on our Ayurvedic journeys?

Michelle Magid: [00:39:02] Great question. So I really encourage a lot of my clients to really become aware of what is going on for them, and that can be, you know, as you’d mentioned earlier, you know..how am I digesting? Well,..how my feeding what is my body really cravings or asking for rather to feel satiated.

Michelle Magid: [00:39:37] So, some of the most easy things to start to incorporate is how am I feeding myself well. And what are the foods that I’m choosing, am I choosing fresh foods as I am I being able to cook them and cook them with love and good spices. And do I feel really satisfied after I have eaten that meal? And then also choosing what we expose our-self in the world as well. And am I. Am I surrounding myself with people that uplift me, that bring me joy? What are my surroundings like? What I’m being aware of self and that and my holding a positive attitude, or am I holding a negative one and it’s a negative one? How can I shift and change that if I so choose?

Michelle Magid: [00:40:36] And really looking at so what am I bringing into myself with my relationships with the media, with things that I choose to, to bring in other than just food, but rather than life experiences. And so I really encourage people to become aware. I think it’s the first place and it’s a pretty easy place to just start observing yourself. And what is it that I wish to feed myself and how to feed myself? Well.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:41:13] Are there resources that you have been turning to in your evolving journey with Ayurveda that you might be able to share with audience?

Michelle Magid: [00:41:24] Well, so I’m always inspired. And turning to written books, they’re pretty easy to get. There’s so many of them now available and I find that with whatever is inspiring, like go look at the cover or I’ll read a couple pages in and I’ll think this can really provide..some valuable resource. So I’m a great believer and encourager..of getting books and reading up on what it is that you’re looking for, especially in Ayurveda. But I also find that some of the things that have worked best for me have been the conversations with other people. And for me specifically, like my mentor. And so I know that when I get to talk to somebody about what’s going on for me or I have questions, I get so much more insight often..than just reading a book. Although the book can provide so much great resources and information, I find the two of those together really have provided me with the most inspirational resource.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:42:49] Are there any books in particular that you love and recommend?

Michelle Magid: [00:42:53] It’s an older book, but it’s one of..the first books that I got in. And truly, one of my favorites in that is by Maya Tewari, A Life of Balance. I think it’s a beautiful book. It’s very well. It’s got some illustrations in it, not pictures, but illustrations. There’s some great recipes in there as well. So that is one of..my all time favorites.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:43:22] Thank you for sharing that. That one does come up a lot. Oh, Michelle, have you found any aspects of Ayurveda, hard to Practice.

Michelle Magid: [00:43:33] I find that..I have a really busy life and a family and a business. So what I have found that it’s not always easy is to cook a fresh meal every day. So I will do my best to eat..the freshest food, but it may not be something that I get to cook for myself. So one of the things that Ayurveda really recommends is to not to have leftovers. And I found that for myself to not to be pretty difficult because, again, of my busy lifestyle, I will cook something and use it for often a couple of meals. So that’s what I found to be the most difficult, is to cook the freshest meals daily. But I do really strive to eat, not eat anything over are older than twenty-four hours. So if I made it for lunch the day before that, I eat it. By lunch the next day.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:44:49] And thank you for calling that out and sharing that because I. Because it is helpful to keep in mind that even the best of us with the most deep Ayurvedic knowledge, can sometimes have to navigate the guidance of Ayurveda within the context of the modern world. And the reason why I call that out is..my belief is that it is at bottom of Science of moderation. So the principles that you can bring in and work with your life beautifully and naturally are are things that we should focus on.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:45:38] And there might be a few things that may not work quite so seamlessly, but it is best not to stress out about them because Ayurveda going back to its basic principles is about moderation and balance. It is not it’s not binding as a prescription, as it were. So it shouldn’t feel like a chore or that you are making errors in your journey. If there are some principles that may not fit into your lifestyle, quite there. And then, Michelle, are there any additional things you’d like to share with our listeners and audiences? Before I let you go?

Michelle Magid: [00:46:30] Yes, I would say that if Ayurveda interests you, then take a first step and recognize that each step will lead you to the next step, into the next step, and that this isn’t about shifting yourself overnight and or quickly, but that each little thing that we do to bring ourselves closer to health and wellness and balance is going to be worthwhile effort. And that little by little, slowly, slowly, then we will unwind what is been going on for us and to really recognize..that we can do this step by step in and really making sure not to get overwhelmed. And like you’ve said, it is a science of moderation. And I say that all the time..you know, everything is in moderation, including moderation. You know, sometimes we need to celebrate, but it’s those that over celebration are those things that we do on a consistent basis can either bring us hell or bring us and lead us into imbalanced or just eases so little by little. Just take the first step and recognize that each time you add something new is bringing you closer to that state of balanced health and wellness on every level.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:48:08] Wise words. Michelle, thank you so much for spending time with us. Unpacking so many beautiful and sometimes dense things about Ayurveda. I look forward to staying in touch and hopefully bringing more of your wisdom to our audiences. I know they’re going to eat it up.

Michelle Magid: [00:48:30] Thank you so much for this opportunity. And I really appreciated speaking with you and to your audience. Many blessings.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:48:37] Thank you so much. Michelle.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:49:03] Thank you so much for listening. If you like more information on our guest and the additional references during our conversation, Please visit us at UMAOils.com.

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EPISODE 5: UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF AYURVEDA WITH ALI CRAMER

Ayurveda “is a gentle and loving approach to becoming more yourself, understanding what you need to feel healthy and to feel whole,” says Ali Cramer. The ancient practice is about “having a way of looking at the world with more compassion.” Cramer, who is a yoga and Ayurveda specialist and author of the book Modern Ayurveda, has talent for unlocking the fun in Ayurveda, and for making it utterly accessible for all. That’s the key to her book, which she talks about with guest host, Stacey Lindsay. The two go deep about how Ayurveda is flexible, freeing, and a way to get to know yourself.

Ali Cramer’s Website: https://www.alicramer.com/

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:44] Hi! I am Shrankhla Holecek, the Founder & CEO of UMA, an Ayurvedic beauty and wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic healing, spiritual well-being and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you. That, as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today, as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:47] This week, Stacey Lindsay takes over as host of UMA Ayurveda podcast. Ali Cramer is the director of the Ayurveda program at Laughing Lotus and a senior teacher in their 200-hour teacher training program. She leads retreats, workshops, and master classes both nationally and internationally. Ali is honored to have led the first yoga teacher training program in Sudan and to be a guest teacher on the faculty of Columbia University’s psychology and spirituality program. Ali has been practicing and teaching Yoga for nearly 20 years and also practices an Ayurvedic lifestyle. She is the author of Modern Ayurveda: Rituals, Recipes, and Remedies for Balance. We’re so thrilled to have Ali on the UMA Elements Podcast today.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:01:41] Ali Cramer, I am so excited to be with you and to share the space with you today. Thank you so much.

Ali Cramer: [00:01:47] Thank you so much for having me on. This is exactly in alignment with everything that I love. So I appreciate it very much.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:01:55] I want to ask you..how are you holding up? How is your heart?

Ali Cramer: [00:02:00] What a beautiful question.

Ali Cramer: [00:02:04] My heart has good days and bad days. My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering. And I am trying to stay in action. That is part of my Vata-Pitta nature to stay in action and to just try to do my part to bring a little bit more positivity into people’s lives. If I at all can.

Ali Cramer: [00:02:34] So..what I focus on in any time of challenge is how do I take action and into action and action. And service is always what saved my life.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:02:48] Thank you for sharing that, Ali. And I’d like to unpack that a little bit more, because I know..as you just said, action in service is a huge part of your life through your yoga practice, which I know you’ve been practicing since 2003, and you’re also deeply devoted to Ayurveda. So if you would, would you take me back to the start? When were you first introduced to yoga and Ayurveda? How do they play such a strong role in your life today?

Ali Cramer: [00:03:14] So let’s see. I was a professional dancer and moved to New York when I was 16 for my dance career. And I have had a few injuries. And at some point or another, somebody said like, oh, you should try yoga. It would probably help your back. And this was in the ’90s. And there was a place right near me where I lived on the Upper West Side of New York City called Integral Yoga. And I started going there and there was a purple carpet on the floor. And we all did yoga on our towels. I think, you know, I think about the difference. Where are yoga? Forget it for better and worse. And so we all did yoga on our towels and it was integral. Yoga was very traditional hot yoga. And you did breastwork in mantra and some poses. And I started there and. Then..I continued with my yoga practice. I moved to California at some point at the end of the 1990s and there was already a very vibrant Vinyasa scene there at the time. So I started doing that and then came back to New York, discovered diva moxie, fell in love, was there every day, all day. And then from there discovered Laughing Lotus walked into Laughing Lotus and said, You know, I thought I’d do my teacher training a million years from now, but I think I’m doing it now. And it’s been my home ever since. And so I started practicing somewhere around ninety-five or ninety-four maybe. And did my TUT in two thousand and three with Lotus. And there was a one-day introduction to Ayurveda and I just was like, there’s something to this.

Ali Cramer: [00:05:13] Like if I actually. Look at the world through this particular lens. There is a lot more that makes sense.

Ali Cramer: [00:05:23] And..so I went into the little boutique that Lotus had and found this book called The Path of Practice by Maya Tiwari. And I read this book and it’s a beautiful, beautiful Ayurveda book and just I became obsessed with this book and I gave copies of it to everyone that I knew and just, you know, followed her. And then I heard that she was doing a six-month training in New York City. I signed up for it right after school ended and not started my Ayurveda practice, and I will say this. I always agreed with the theories. I always agreed with the perspective of life. And it’s taken me.

Ali Cramer: [00:06:13] You know, since 2003, too slowly but surely incorporate the practices. It made a difference in my life right away in terms of changing my thinking and in terms of changing my behavior.

Ali Cramer: [00:06:29] Behavior is difficult..and so it did. You know, I always say, like, hey, if I did everything that I’m telling everyone else to do.

Ali Cramer: [00:06:40] If I did everything perfectly. My God, I would feel amazing all the time and..that’s not the truth. What I do know is that small daily actions have changed my life. And, you know, I still mess up on a regular basis. And it just..it’s a gentle and evolving practice. And for somebody who struggles with. Like, the more is better and impatience in my life. It’s been a beautiful journey. It’s been a really beautiful journey.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:07:22] You and I have talked about this before, but that’s so much of what has drawn me to your work. Is that how you’ve unveiled that accessibility and particularly your book is entitled Modern Ayurveda and how you really teach people that, Of course, this is an ancient practice, but it’s relevant today, perhaps even more relevant now than it ever was. It’s even more needed. But it’s those small ships that’s that really has resonated with me and that resonates with the conversations that I have with people, too, as you say. And you’ve helped me with that. It’s a daily experience. Walk. Walk me through that a little bit more, if you would.

Ali Cramer: [00:08:00] Absolutely. So Ayurveda. It has different practices that you can do on a daily basis. It also has different practices that you can do on a yearly basis. And then it also says adjust to really who you are and what you need on a daily basis. So it’s a process of self-discovery and experimentation, you know, and..that’s another thing that I..feel is very important is never to speak in absolutes because it’s not one size fits all. What what I know for myself is. I wake up early. I scrape my tongue. I brush my teeth. I splash cold water over my eyes. I put a little oil in my ears. Sometimes I do a neti pot. I put a little oil in my nostrils. I bathe. I oil my body. I use essential oils. I mean, it’s. Somebody..at one point said, like, my God, like you must do a million things for you later all day long. And I was like, No, I don’t. And then I thought about it and I was like, yeah, I kind of do. But like I said, it’s been a gentle unfolding, right? It has not. And it’s so second nature to me now. And I also realize that it doesn’t have to take a long time. I have morning practices that when I do have an hour and a half to do them, then I can do that. And if I have five minutes, there are still little actions that I can take that I find to be very empowering, meaning like, OK, here I am and I’m taking care of myself and I’m doing things to Acknowledge my commitment to daily wellness.

Ali Cramer: [00:09:53] So my practice changes a lot throughout the year. You know, my three basic rules of Ayurveda, are it’s not a quick fix. It’s not one size fits all and like increases like opposite balances. So..for instance, for today, it’s in New York City. It’s hot out. It’s actually hot. And the sun is shining and the sun is strong. So I know for somebody like myself who does have a lot of fire already in my constitution, going outside and lying in the sun and coming in and eating spicy food is not going to make me feel good. So I’m leaning more towards cooling practices today, as opposed to diving into like, hey, it’s sunny out, so let’s go. You know, like Central Park for the next three hours. I know that if I do that, it might feel good in the moment. Eventually, though, it’s not going to feel great. And another thing that I that I tried to incorporate is the idea and I and I got this from a book and I like to quote the author and I can’t remember and I have to look that up, but she was talking about preferences versus priorities. And that was something that that really resonated with me. In other words, like, oh, I would like to stay up late and watch some trash TV. And tomorrow morning, I’m teaching a yoga class. And my priority is to be awake and present and feel responsible about my dedication to what I need to do in the morning. And so the priority outweighs the preference in the moment. And very often that keeps me sticking to my practice.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:11:48] That’s beautiful. I can relate to that, too. He’s going back to what you said about things becoming second nature and maybe there are many things that you’re doing in the morning, but they feel right and they become like second nature. And..it’s the positive effects. I agree. That’s what keeps me going. Even the simple thing that takes less than a minute to scrape your tongue in the morning, how they have such a profound impact and just how my oral health feels, but how I taste my food that keeps me doing it consistently when I just see that positive effect from it. That’s been so amazing for me. And I can see that’s just such a motivator.

Ali Cramer: [00:12:26] And it’s such a simple thing. And what I find with all these practices is that, as you said, it feels so good. Like you feel you feel the effects instantly that you’re like, how did I not do this before? You know, like I always say, that’s one of the first things that I say with all of my clients that I do consultation’s for. I’m like, dude, scrape your tongue. And they’re like, now. And I’m like, get a tongue scraper. And then they come back to me like three weeks later and they’re like, How did I ever not use a tongue scraper? So I do think that it’s that it’s..little changes that become just a part of who we are and what we do in the same way that maybe we were taught to brush our teeth and wash our face and do our laundry and all those things, it’s just kind of amplifying that to the next level, especially for those of us that weren’t taught a lot of self-care.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:13:16] I certainly wasn’t that such a great point, because it’s not. It’s kind of a generalization. But saying it’s not a common thing in the Western culture to be taught, you know, take your mind, take care of your body if you’re not taught that primarily.

Ali Cramer: [00:13:29] Yeah. I mean,..I do think that there are some families that have that kind of tradition. That’s not what I came from, you know. So, yeah, I’ve had to kind of learn. And I and I left home quite early because I was a professional dancer. And all this to say, it’s really been learning to, in a sense, parent myself, you know, ..and understand and understand myself better. And, you know, my parents didn’t have access to the information either. You know, it wasn’t thankfully, there’s been an explosion of Ayurveda in the West End. And India has been so unbelievably generous about it. You know, I think about when I was a kid, I had eczema. I was covered in rashes, covered in rashes. And. And to the point that, you know, when I was a little kid, I didn’t want to wear short sleeve shirts because I was self-conscious and all of that kind of thing. And what was I eating and what was I drinking when I had this weird thing for grapefruit juice? And I would drink a lot of grapefruit juice. And I also had a thing for peanut butter and I would eat a lot of peanut butter. And so now, my Ayurveda education tells me, yeah, you can’t have that much sour food and you can’t have that much inflammatory food. And my eczema is gone. It’s like since I’ve been practicing Ayurveda I don’t struggle with it at all. And if I start to even see a little bit of a flare-up, I know exactly what to do that. And I know that it’s my fault.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:15:02] Yeah.

Ali Cramer: [00:15:03] That’s one thing that that’s so interesting about these practices, is that it gives you enough information so that you can take responsibility for your actions.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:15:12] nice. And just this incredible link linking of everything, as you’re saying, to know that if something starts to come up again, it is because maybe you were eating that certain food or you were, you know, doing a certain thing. It’s amazing.

Ali Cramer: [00:15:27] your working too hard. or Getting, you know, going out in the sun too much or, you know, generally it’s usually for me, it’s like..it’s the food day because really the know Ayurveda says, like, if your food is not right, then nothing that you do is really going to change that. Like, you can’t change it because we are made up of food..and even Yogas talks about the Annamaya Kosha as being the most basic level of who we are and..Anna means food. So the body that is made up of food. Now. Just to say out loud, and this is something that I really stress in my book. I do have a lot of clients who struggle with eating disorders, and it’s a part of my story as well. Not for many, many years. And it is a part of my history. So I do try to be sensitive to the fact that a quality, healthy food in this country is extremely expensive and it might not be economically feasible for everyone, for starters. Secondly, some people are very triggered by food talk. So I try not to speak in absolutes or, you know, if somebody I as I said, I work with clients who have eating disorders, who have body dysmorphia, who have all of these different kinds of things. And a lot of what my line of questioning becomes is, well.

Ali Cramer: [00:16:58] How would it feel safe to do this? What it feels safe to change this.

Ali Cramer: [00:17:05] And people will answer yes or no. And I’ll say, OK. And if the answer is no, then it might be OK. Well, then let’s look at your yoga practice instead. And that’s so beautiful about Ayurveda, because it says, oh, well, if this is a non-negotiable right now, then let’s look over here at something else that you can do.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:17:26] I’m so glad you brought that up, Ali, because I think when we approach something in a binary way, this or that, it can be really it can be debilitating. It can be really scary. And we can tend to shut down. And so we know, OK, actually, just as you said, OK, maybe we don’t have to focus on this right now. We can actually focus on something else or that generosity. Oh, my gosh. That’s just so much more. It’s just so much more enjoyable, too. And I don’t know. I can’t speak for everybody actually speak for myself. But it sets me up for success for sure, when I know I have a little bit more room to understand myself and to be generous.

Ali Cramer: [00:18:03] Health care feels loving as opposed to. I have to do this because it’s good for me. You know,

Stacey Lindsay: [00:18:09] Exactly.

Ali Cramer: [00:18:11] At some point another we’re going to rebel against.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:18:13] That.Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Ali Cramer: [00:18:14] Yeah. That’s human nature, isn’t it? You’ve done it, you know.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:18:21] Well, as a fellow Vata-Pitta, I’d love to talk about right now too, because I think it’s of course, we are in a time of great uncertainty. Change. It is unique for everybody, of course, but there is a lot of uncertainty out there in potentially a lot of anxiety for a lot of people, if not everyone, but of course,..a lot of excess Vata. What are some things right now, Ali, that you are perhaps telling yourself or telling..your students and your clients? For Extra, perhaps even extra or self-care specific to what we’re going through right now.

Ali Cramer: [00:18:56] Yeah. It is..a very uncertain time, as you said. What I have found to be comforting is any type of routine that can be possible is very good for the inconsistency of that thought to energy. So if it’s..that every morning you wake up and meditate for five minutes, try to do it at the same time, try to do it every day, because the consistency, that sort of staying with the practice when everything feels like it’s so up in the air. I think that can be very grounding.

Ali Cramer: [00:19:47] Other things that I think would be helpful at this time is treating yourself. And I and I say this in my book, like when Vatta is high. The advice that I try to give is think of yourself as you would a baby, meaning that you wouldn’t play music too loud in a baby’s room. You wouldn’t shine bright lights in a baby’s face, you wouldn’t feed a baby anything that could really upset their stomach. Meaning like food that’s too spicy or too much raw food or anything like that. You would feed a baby like warm, soupy things, you know. Are you gonna Khichdi is a great thing to eat right now..There’s recipes for it in my book. There’s also a ton of recipes online. It’s basically a rice and beans combination with digestive spices. It’s inexpensive. It’s easy to make it quick to make. It’s delicious. And you can eat that and still feel like you’re doing something like healthy and good for your body. And you might do that. You might eat that for lunch and dinner for three days. And that could be a consistent thing.

Ali Cramer: [00:21:01] And then just. Try to stay with practices that, you know, help because there is when there’s trauma, because this is collective trauma, when there’s trauma. It’s quite easy to abandon everything because..our world has been completely shaken. It’s not even something that we can say, oh, it’s just the US. It’s the world. Sometimes when things really ..go in a direction that we have no experience with. That feels so overwhelming. We can abandon things.

Ali Cramer: [00:21:40] And this is the time where we need to stay with the practices that help. So if you do mantra, stay with mantra. If you meditate, stay with your meditation. If you do physical Ausanna or Pranayama do that. This would be the time where I would not encourage people to be over-exercising to the point where they feel depleted. Nor would this be the time for people to just lie on the couch and completely, you know, try to sleep all day or something like that, which can also happen, you know. Is that depression. I think can creep in. Anxiety, depression. It manifests different ways for different people, some people get mad. Some people cry. There are so many different ways. What I do know is that for me this is the most helpful thing is community. That’s above and beyond everything else, because community holds me accountable. And community inspires me. And community makes me still feel connected. At a time where it’s very easy to feel very alone.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:22:48] I love the environment. Actually, when I pick up your book, because it actually makes me feel very scene and it makes me feel like I’m part of a community. And I wanted to ask you the way you. It is, again, going back to that world accessible. It is so accessible. It’s a resource, too. What was the thought process of..how you created how you put this book together? Because again, going back to that community, as I said, I pick it up sometimes and I’ll look at a recipe sometimes. I’ll just pick it up and I’ll read your intro again. Was that the intention to do? How did..you approach it when you started writing it?

Ali Cramer: [00:23:19] ..This book.So. I’ve been teaching Ayurveda, You know, I didn’t want to teach it for the first. Six or seven years or something like that, because I was trying to just incorporate it in my life and I was and I was teaching so much yoga at the time and I just there wasn’t even like room for it. So, I was incorporating the practices into my own life. And I was reading and studying and studying with amazing teachers. You know, I study with I study my primary teacher now, is doctor Vasant Lad who runs the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico. And he is just.

Ali Cramer: [00:24:05] Words fail me of his generosity and his incredible wisdom and his kindness. He’s the kindest man that I’ve ever known in my life.

Ali Cramer: [00:24:18] And so Dr. Lad and Scott Larson and Dr. Scott Larson was out of Colorado now. Dr. Claudia Welch , she’s out over months now, Dr. Robert Svoboda, who God only knows where he is. He can be anywhere. But I’ve had these really, really amazing, amazing teachers. And so I finally started to teach about six or seven years into practicing Ayurveda and I developed various programs for Laughing Lotus. Longer programs, shorter programs. I started doing workshops about it. So there was an approach that. Evolved. Over the years and refined over the years of the way that I wanted to teach it because I was started teaching it for yoga school, I started teaching and these workshops to start teaching in these programs, and I wanted to get people doing it right away. So that they can get justice turned on by it and inspired by it, as I was. So..there was a book that was in the back of my mind. I said, you know, one day I will write a book. Ayurveda Someday. Someday. And let’s see last not this past November, but the November before. So November of 2018. I got an email that’s Ohh and I. And I had been writing a column for a Website, a weekly column of two hundred and fifty words. Ayurveda tips or Ayurvedic You know, concepts explained in 250 to 500 words or something like that. So I was doing it weekly. So I had hundreds of these columns because I did it for like a couple of years.

Ali Cramer: [00:26:14] And I get this email and it says Hi, were a health and wellness publishing company. We’re looking for someone to write a book about a modern approach to Ayurveda, We think you’re the person. Are you interested? And I said, yes, I’m absolutely interested. And so, you know, there was a lot of back and forth and they said, well, we have specific requirements for what needs to be included in the book. So I had a lot of content in my head that I’d been teaching for 10 years or so, 12 years, whatever it is, you know, who knows where the time goes. So in January, they said, well,..let’s get you a contract. I signed my contract the first week of February and they said, great, you’ve got six weeks to get the first draft.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:27:09] Oh wow.

Ali Cramer: [00:27:09] yeah, you’ve got six weeks. That’s the first draft. And I had all this traveling and teaching planned. And I was oh my God, oh my God.

Ali Cramer: [00:27:22] And it turned out to be the best thing because what else can you do in airports and on airplane distractions? Right. So I was writing in airports and I was writing on airplanes. You know, there was one time where I called my editor and I was like, this is not Ayurvedic You know, just freaking out. She had to, like, talk me down and whatever.

Ali Cramer: [00:27:45] And I did it. You know, I did it. I got it..in six weeks. And then they took it for a couple weeks and had development editors looking at it and fact-checkers and everything else. And then they brought it back to me. And then I handed it back in and then they kept it for a few days and then handed it back to me. And I did one last check over that I had like maybe 48 hours to do. So, it was kind of like getting hit by a truck..in a really great way because I don’t know. You know, it’s very easy. I think that a lot of us have a book in us.

Ali Cramer: [00:28:25] And there is something about somebody saying to you, “No, you’re going to do this now.” Here is an assignment. And not only here’s an assignment, but the endless appeals to the Pitta and me. Here’s a challenge.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:28:37] A bright. But it also speaks to the fact that this book is bigger than you. This book is such a contribution, it needed to be born because I think it already in many ways that it was living inside you, as you said. So it actually it just was that push to prove when there’s a work like this, it needs to be out in the world as a download and as a download. I want to know what’s amazing. I want to read something that I love from the book in the intro. Say, Welcome to a lifelong path of shifting into harmony with the conditions of your life. Think of this book as a map to empower you with understanding and tools to take charge of your health and happiness.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:29:15] Let’s go. Go on with it. Harmony awakes. Harmony awaits.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:29:22] I’m actually at a loss of words, and I can’t be because we’re having a conversation. But, you know,..as we start to close. Ali, I want to speak to that harmony awaits for people out there who are maybe they’re interested in Ayurveda. Maybe they’re not. But they’re interested. They’re not sure yet. They’re nervous. You know, they’re reticent. Whatever it may be, we’re all on our own journeys. What do you say? What do you say to them?

Ali Cramer: [00:29:49] Ayurveda will help you to know yourself a bit better. Ayurveda will empower you with lifelong skills that create a life of more harmony and more happiness. And that is something that I think can be left out. Not always can be left out of what we’ve been taught is, “good for us”. And by that, I mean that it is a gentle and loving approach to becoming more yourself. Understanding what you need to feel healthy and to feel whole.

Ali Cramer: [00:30:43] And having a way of looking at the world with more compassion and with end by the world, I mean ourselves as well, because once we go through sort of the paradigm that Ayurveda gives us. Our own behavior and other people’s behavior can be explained in such a beautiful way. It has made my relationships so much easier.

Ali Cramer: [00:31:18] You know,..when my when I get triggered by something that my father says and we’re talking on the phone. And then I realized. And then I say to him, Dad, have you eaten the nieces? No. And I say, Will call me back after dinner. Because I know he’s hungry and I’m triggered by that, you know. And so there’s things like that. Or when my mother forgets this and forgets that and she’s like, oh, I don’t remember it. And I say.

Ali Cramer: [00:31:50] I don’t think to myself, well, that’s my mother. I think my mother’s Vata is really high. So let’s see if we can do something that’s going to help her to feel more grounded.

Ali Cramer: [00:32:05] And Ayurveda gives us the tools to adapt and adjust and constantly be finding our way back to balance, because balance is our birthright.

Ali Cramer: [00:32:21] It is our birthright. And there are little things that we can do. little gentle, loving things you can do to help ourselves get back there, it’s a dynamic state. It’s ever-changing. And it can become second nature. It does not have to be a big deal or some sort of like overhaul of our lives. It’s consistently evolving.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:32:52] Ali, thank you so very much, and again wisdom in your book, Modern Ayurveda Rituals, Recipes and Remedies for Balance. And we can learn more about you. Ali Cramer, dot com. Ali, thank you for holding space with me today. Thank you so much.

Ali Cramer: [00:33:07] Thank you so much for your beautiful questions and for letting me just talk on and on about my passion.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:33:13] More to come. Thank you, Ali.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:33:41] Thank you so much for listening. If you like more information on our guest and the additional references during our conversation, please visit us at UMAOils.com. See you next time!

• Podcasts Self Love
• Posted By

EPISODE 6: THE SECRETS OF SELF-ACCEPTANCE: LOVING YOURSELF, HONORING YOUR BEAUTY, AND LEANING INTO CONFIDENCE WITH CANDICE FORNESS

Vogue Magazine calls Candice Forness “the Ayurvedic Facialist With a Massage Technique So Good, You May Cry”. They continue “You come out looking fresher and feeling like you’ve had a full-body detox, even though she only works on your face and neck,”. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of being on Candice’s table and can fully endorse that Candice’s technique is like no other. Candice is trained in the Ayurvedic facelift massage and has a strong understanding of Ayurvedic skincare and aromatherapeutic botanicals – which gives her unparalleled insight into the world of Ayurvedic beauty.

Candice Forness’ Website: https://www.candiceforness.com/

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:39] Hi! I am Shrankhla Holecek, the Founder & CEO of UMA, an Ayurvedic beauty and wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic wellbeing and healing, spiritual well-being and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you. That, as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today, as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:31] Vogue Magazine calls Candice Forness “the Ayurvedic Facialist With a Massage Technique So Good, You May Cry”. They continue “You come out looking fresher and feeling like you’ve had a full-body holistic detox, even though she only works on your face and neck,”. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of being on Candice’s table and can fully endorse that Candice’s technique is like no other. Candice is trained in the Ayurvedic facelift massage and has a strong understanding of Ayurvedic skincare and aromatherapeutic botanicals – which gives her unparalleled insight into the world of Ayurvedic beauty.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:31] It’s so great chatting with you, Crazy circumstances, nothing. I know it’s been a while.

Candice Forness: [00:01:40] It has. It’s so nice to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you for calling me in. And what a pleasure.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:46] The pleasure is all ours. our work together, as well as having had the great privilege of being a client of yours and having experienced the incredible Ayurvedic face massage that give. It is truly very, very meaningful for me to be sharing all your wisdom, your insight, and your great powers with your hands, with our audience. I like asking everyone with this question, Candice, because it means different things to different people. But what does your Ayurveda mean for you and what has it done for you?

Candice Forness: [00:02:32] That is such a good question. For me, it means a holistic approach. And I think that being able to factor in a lot of different aspects makes it easier for us to come up with a plan or an idea or a solution. It’s a multi-dimensional way of thinking for a multifaceted life.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:03:02] And especially coming from you, that makes so much sense because in your work, you focus on ayurvedic skincare and aesthetics, but through such a vibrant and different lens, one that integrates energy, Marma Point Stimulation and so many ancillary ways of healing the skin as well as a mind and body. Before we go into the details of that, and I’m dying to, tell me a bit more about your beauty and skincare philosophy.

Candice Forness: [00:03:34] Honestly,..it’s very simple and it is to polish it up and love it. It really is just to highlight your favorite features. Bring up the level of quality of years of your skin and your body, and then honestly, just to love yourself. Completely fine. Yeah. Confidence is one of the most beautiful aspects of human.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:04:04] Couldn’t agree more. Oh, Candice, that is powerful. Yet something that we wrangle with every day and sometimes still have difficulty accepting, giving the great degree of schooling that you have had in traditional as well as Ayurvedic skincare. What was sort of the turning point that you started to realize that a holistic approach to skincare and beauty is what is needed?

Candice Forness: [00:04:38] My goodness. It was essentially taught to me by my clients..which is a huge learning base for me are my clients being a makeup artist on set with people who are professionally beautiful. They, of course, come gorgeous. Then it’s by genetics and by simply asking them about their allergies and..their preferences.

Candice Forness: [00:05:05] I created a level of care..that made them feel better taken care of. So they were more beautiful. And so I realized that it was really a multi-dimensional job, it wasn’t just about painting a beautiful face, even more beautiful, you know.

Candice Forness: [00:05:23] What are they allergic to? What do they prefer? And then gorgeous skincare. And once you’ve prepped that canvas and by cameras, I mean that human being,..they’re able to do their job with so much more pleasure and then everyone wins, right?

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:05:41] Indeed. Indeed.

Candice Forness: [00:05:43] Oh, yeah.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:05:44] Have you been practicing these skin-care techniques or this holistic way of caring for skin?

Candice Forness: [00:05:55] In life, I think that it was ingrained in me young. My mom is a nurse and..she’s also a healer. I’m a fourth-generation healer. So..it’s all inter interwoven. Right. Like, how did you see? What did you eat? Are you thirsty? Are you tired? Are you hungry and

Candice Forness: [00:06:20] Coming from a professional dance background, you have to take care of the vehicle, right? Like, your body is the medium of that particular art. And so that knowledge spread. And to art school,..you have to prep the cameras before you paint on it.

Candice Forness: [00:06:35] And that knowledge transferred into painting the human canvas. So it’s ..been an evolution that just became more and more evident that it..was really important.Really important.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:06:50] That’s fierce.

Candice Forness: [00:06:50] But thank you.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:06:53] Along this journey. What have been your most surprising discoveries and experiences?

Candice Forness: [00:07:02] I think the dramatic change in my clients that’s been the most so surprising, asking them questions and letting them and holding space for them to come to the answers. Right. Just allowing them to have space and time to kill themselves. It’s like a more proactive form of therapy. You know, you ask simple questions and it’s always the same simple questions. And those simple questions can rabbit hole into deeper things. And sometimes people just need to hear themselves, say it out loud, and then they come up with the answer. So that’s been the most dramatic changes, is really just watching my clients evolve. It’s also really rewarding.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:07:57] I can imagine this sounds like skincare and therapy in one.

Candice Forness: [00:08:02] Well, it is, you know, our face is a first impression. We’re facing reality. We’re facing ourselves. We’re facing time or face timing each other. And so it’s you know, it’s and we’re judged by it. And it’s. It’s very important in this day and age to a lot of people. So to be able to hold space for that and to promote an inner radiance I think is exquisite.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:08:35] So sort of switching into the details of this approach. And I know this first, and I feel very fortunate to have this first hand from you, but what would you say for some of the listeners? Are the key benefits or key differences between the traditional approach and your approach of taking care of yourself through a facial?

Candice Forness: [00:09:05] Ok, so the key differences between a regular facial and the space that massage is, is that the space massage is essentially the cheek meat of the facial. It’s the most glorious part. It’s only the massage. It’s only the sculpting. And lymphatic drainage. So..it’s only the relaxation portion. And luckily, that portion increases oxygen. It releases dopamine and serotonin increases the immune system. So all of this is beneficial on an..energetic level, an emotional level, physical level, but also a biological level. There’s no extraction. There’s no pain. It’s incredibly gentle. So..it’s simpler and it’s easier for the body to assimilate. So it really does. It’s it’s healthy.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:10:03] How is it that the face feels so lifted, so well rested after just a one-hour treatment with you, I remember taking pictures with you and seeing that dramatic change in my skin in almost the firmness and the collagen and levels. What is it within your massage technique and within facial massage as a whole that is helping the body do that?

Candice Forness: [00:10:34] I think one of the most dramatic difference is that it starts with the Marma Points Stimulation, which introduces fresh oxygen straight into the brain. It’s like a gorgeous inversion in yoga and. It’s we as organisms release 70 percent of our toxins through our exhale. So we can introduce fresh oxygen into the system. And the client. Exhales Gorgeous exhale, 70 percent of the waste is gone. And just just just reference. Six percent of our waste is urine and 70 percent of our waste is the exhale. And that’s in the first few minutes of the face massages that gorgeous oxygenated rush. It’s like a beautiful inversion in yoga. So the treatment starts with a huge detox, huge detox, and that’s just on a biological level. And then after that, 70 percent water and not full phase can be manipulated. But honestly, it’s that huge release and the beginning of of of stale air. It’s huge detox.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:11:45] I understand that you also sometimes use Shirodhara in your sessions. I’m sure our listeners would love to hear more about the technique and what makes it so impactful.

Candice Forness: [00:11:57] Oh, my goodness. It is one of the most divine techniques I have ever learned. It recap the beginning sequence of it recalibrates the nervous system through the spinal cord. And this is a technique I learned also an energy class solid by grounding the client through the speech, which is huge. And then a 20 minute Neo gland drip and I can customize it with the hydrosol, a tea or an oil. And it’s 20 minutes of a very soft drip on the Neo gland, which is at gland located in between the hemispheres of the brain. And it drips slowly down into the air. And the practitioner stays with the client, so they’re never alone and it is the softest, most gentle feeling practices that I’ve that I encountered. It’s..so beautiful to perform.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:12:58] Oh, gosh. I can imagine millions wanting to do this right now. And if some of us wanted to come over and experience this Candice, what’s the best way of reaching you for booking a facial or a Shirodhara face massage with you?

Candice Forness: [00:13:19] Directly, All of the services are listed on my Web site. Candace Forness dot com. I can be emailed. I can be called and we can set up appointments. No, it’s in New York and I’m available for travel.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:13:35] That sounds amazing. What adults love to do is share some at home facial tips with our listeners. What are some of your favorite things that people can do at home?

Candice Forness: [00:13:48] Being on set, I realized I. I’m a makeup artist and a men’s groomer. I’m a holistic and beauty and wellness specialist. I have a variety of modalities. And one of the most mainstream is I’m a makeup artist and men’s groomer. And the male models, sometimes they come with scrubs and sometimes they have to shave. Well, depends on what the client wants. And watching them shave because I give them the option of shaving them or them shaving. And they exercise their face. They make..faces while they shave. And..I realized after all these years, oh, my goodness. It’s essentially face yoga and a little five-minute face yoga everyday is why a man’s jawline is so much more time than a woman’s, right. And makes sense.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:14:34] So my sense.

Candice Forness: [00:14:35] Right. It took seriously 20 years of being on set, watching male models shave. And I’m like, oh, wait. It’s those weird faces you’re making. So. And it’s just they shaved so quickly. It’s a little bit every day. So little tiny bit of a ritual, whether it’s a bit of a massaged. To move everything around, which is just stretch your face out a little bit every day, can make a huge difference. Huge difference.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:15:05] I’m a huge believer in that. And thank you for calling that out. It’s such an interesting insight that you offered, but it works. And the proof is in the pudding. So.

Candice Forness: [00:15:17] Absolutely.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:15:20] Do you use facial tools during your service?

Candice Forness: [00:15:24] The only tools I use during my service are my hands. What I’ve learned is that the hands are human tuning forks and I am able to feel and connect so deeply with my clients through my hands that it is the simplest and most organic tool for my self. I love the Guasha Stones and I love the rollers. I think they’re really firm. They’re really effective. And to implement stone. I love the rose quartz is really gorgeous. A beauty ritual I think is so important and selfcare is so important, especially in times where we don’t have a lot of solids, like we don’t really know what’s happening in the world right now. We don’t we don’t really have a lot of answers. We don’t know what the future is going to hold, but we do know that we love our Rose quarts Guasha and that we’ll feel better afterwards. So let’s do a little things that we can do once again everyday to promote.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:16:26] Candace, I was wondering if you might be able to offer any insight on how to select the best tools from within all the guashas and all the roller’s that one has at their disposal. Do you believe one is better than the others, or do you feel like they were a little bit all the same?

Candice Forness: [00:16:51] I feel like you just want to make sure that it’s authentic. You just want to make sure that the stones are actually stones, whether it’s jade or whether it’s sodalite or whether it’s rose quartz. You just want to make sure that their actual stones, because plastic is a manmade, manmade substance and it breaks. No,..it’s plastic. So you’re gonna want to make sure that it’s real. Other than that, I think it’s whatever, whatever speaks to whatever calls to guashas can also be done with metals. So there’s different materials that you can use. Just make sure that it’s real.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:17:29] And would you say it’s fairly easy for most to tell the difference between what might be real? I like to think that I can quickly distinguish between plastic and stone. But you might have seen some clever renditions of plastic. So any guidance their price and weight. And I would always read the reviews. There’s usually a ton of reviews, reputable, reputable lines. And also if it’s extremely cheap, it’s going to be extremely cheap. So and also look at the weight. Like, if you look at a ling roller, check the weight and you can use that as a guide.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:18:14] And speaking of knowledge and resources, what are some of the things that you have found helpful in your journey?

Candice Forness: [00:18:26] I think we exploration. Is the exploration the inspiration of my clients..it’s been.One of the resources I find most useful, expansive thinking, you know, we hold space for people..and everyone’s different and every situation is different. So I really love the idea of thinking outside of the box, like, oh, or I should Google that. I don’t even know what that is. And then that rabbit holds you into..a whole different way of thinking, which is really great. So I think remaining open and continuing to learn and continue to be curious is a gorgeous resource.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:19:09] And I think that is a profoundly helpful because everyone takes a different path and I think there is no one right path. So speaking from your truth and your experience is vital to everyone listening because every journey is so sacred and so important that your journey might appeal to a third of the population. Another third might be academics who like twenty-five books to learn things.

Candice Forness: [00:19:44] Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it all works. And that’s the.. great thing about holistic living, is you create the ratio that’s right. For you. And it can be different for you every day. And it can be different for other people. And then it’s all on.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:20:05] And speaking of finding yourself up. Were there any myths or things that you discarded about holistic skincare or holistic beauty that were just not for you?

Candice Forness: [00:20:23] I don’t know that I discarded any of them. I think that there’s, there’s value. I just don’t always apply them to myself. I am aging a lot more naturally than most people are comfortable because I’m so grateful to be a grown woman. And I’m not afraid to let that show. So I’m a lot more relaxed about aging and about, you know, lines. And, guasha and a silver hair. I’m embracing all that because I’m like I said, it’s an honor and a privilege to grow older as a woman, as a female. So I’m embracing it. And plus, it’s exciting to see how I’m going to evolve. So that’s the only thing..I don’t really get crazy about aging.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:21:14] I do really like that perspective. And I was wondering about how do you balance taking care of yourself in such a whole fashion while also juggling demands of a job, the environment, the stressors that cripple us all to some extent. What are some of the practical ways that you take care of yourself? Despite the madness?

Candice Forness: [00:21:49] I would have to say. It is honestly unapologetic self-care. It is whatever you need for yourself and that day within, of course, reason. And doing that for yourself, saying no when you need to say yes, when you need to sleep early when you need to, drink more water. It’s, it’s important to be authentic. In your own reality I feel like…

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:22:24] Did that come naturally to you or was that process of evolution?

Candice Forness: [00:22:30] I think it comes naturally. I mean,..I’m a low maintenance beauty professional in, in a high fashion world and I. It’s been accepted and celebrated because we love variety. Right. So I think that it’s there’s room for everyone and there’s room for all different capital deals because they’re inspirational and they show you what you want or maybe what you don’t want..and..we love. We love variety. I think.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:23:06] And that’s what creates balance in the world and balance is at the very core of Ayurveda.

Candice Forness: [00:23:12] So absolutely, absolutely. It’s the homeostasis of existence. Right balance.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:23:20] It certainly is, and it’s a beautiful, eloquent pause to the things that we were just discussing. Candice, I so appreciate your spending the time and sharing your great wisdom with us, to end on anything that I might have missed or a piece of skincare, beauty, selfcare advice that you might have for our audiences that we haven’t already covered.

Candice Forness: [00:23:48] Thank you for having me. I would have to. I would really have to encourage self-care care beauty rituals, and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Whether it’s taking a really long baths with all of the things you feel like you need, whether it’s making sure that you are hydrated enough, whether it’s eating food with a lot of vital life force. Right now, I really want people to indulge in selfcared beauty rituals. I think we owe it to ourselves. And we really owe it to each other to roll up out of this reality with our needs cared for.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:24:38] A great call to action. If I heard one, I am so looking forward for all of this to be behind us. And for me to be coming back to New York and spending some quality time on your on your table. But.

Candice Forness: [00:24:55] I would love that I’m going to spoil you, lady.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:25:00] As you would do your clients. I know from everyone at the edge of spending time with you. But until then, my friend. Please take care of yourself. And I’m sure we’ll be talking soon.

Candice Forness: [00:25:16] Thanks. You too. Thank you so much for having me. I will see you soon.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:25:44] Thank you so much for listening. If you like more information on our guest and the additional references during our conversation, Please visit us at UMAOils.com.

• Ayurveda Podcasts
• Posted By

EPISODE 7: EXPLORING CONSCIOUSNESS AND SOUND MEDITATION WITH ELIZA AND JOSH PECK

This week, journalist Stacey Lindsay takes over as host of the UMA Ayurveda Podcast. Stacey speaks with Josh and Eliza Peck of the Dojo Upstate, a sound meditation retreat in upstate New York. Josh and Eliza create experiences—which many call sound baths—that take people on a journey of exploration and healing. Their conversation with Stacey covers how sound can unlock greater abilities to heal, as well as ways for us to better know ourselves. In leaning in and recognizing discomfort, there can be great growth. Josh and Eliza also talk about allowing ourselves the opportunity to listen, really deeply listen, and engage in the moments with whom we share. All of this has the power to help us, as humans, transform, heal, and evolve.

Eliza & Josh Peck’s website: https://www.thedojoupstate.com/

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:06] Hi. I’m Shrankhla Holecek, The founder and CEO of UMA, An Ayurvedic Beauty and Wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week, I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic healing, spiritual well-being, and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you that as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:47] This week, Stacey Lindsay takes over as host of the UMA Ayurveda podcast.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:53] Stacey talks with Eliza and Josh Peck. Eliza and Josh are the founders of the Dojo upstate, a sound meditation retreat in upstate New York. Together, they create experiences which many call sound baths that take people on a journey of exploration, self care and healing. Their work is profound, and being that meditation is a huge part of Ayurveda, we couldn’t wait to learn more from them. So here it is.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:20] Stacey’s conversation with Eliza and Josh Beck.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:01:30] Josh and Eliza thank you so much for give me your time. Josh Peck: [00:01:32] Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thanks for having us here.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:01:36] You’re in beautiful the Hudson Valley, correct? Yes. Well, let’s. I’d love to start at the beginning.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:01:44] I know the dojo upstate is a sound meditation retreat and the Amba Sonic Listening Room again in the Hudson Valley. It sounds so idyllic. It’s also a beautiful endeavor because you two are married and you’ve been creating these sound experiences and meditations together for more than six years. Take me back to the beginning. How did the love of sound and how did the dojo upstate come about for you too? Josh Peck: [00:02:06] Sure. It’s really had a life of its own. I my background is in music. I was classically trained as a child and played piano for years and found myself in a position as a composer for film and television in New York City for years that the property was a shared property with another music producer. We had looked to create a weekend escape or during the week, project based artist studio. And so it evolved as a space primarily for production and privacy and just getting out in nature to create. Eliza was in the picture in the early days when we bought the house and the property up here. But it evolved, my friend that I purchased the home with moved to the West Coast to pursue music, and Eliza gracefully stepped in and helped iterate what was already in the works to become what it is today.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:03:12] And we started doing sound meditation together about six years ago, and a lot of it was doing some meditations and converted yoga studios or various places that weren’t necessarily created for sound. So there were Chriqui floors or there would be sirens going by because we were mostly doing stuff in the city. So we really wanted to create a space that was made for sound where the intention of the space was really all about sound. And that’s kind of where the beginnings of the dojo started.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:03:45] Yeah. There’s another element, too, which was this desire to explore how to use technology to bring people closer and to create more of a shared experience that was visceral, that was more immersive. And so I. And I knew immediately that I wanted to. I needed a space to explore this. You couldn’t create spatial sound in headphones without the space or in just a stereo image without, again, the room. So the room itself was. Employed as an instrument. Early on, as another tool for all of these different versions of composition, whether it would be for film or for experience, all kind of thing.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:04:35] And another interesting thing about the room is it has 22 channels of audio. Yeah.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:04:40] So there’s there’s 22 speakers built within the walls. And so a lot of the tech is hidden in this beautiful aesthetic that’s still clean but not sterile, like a recording studio necessarily still has a sense of inspiration for players that are in the room or people who come in to have a listening experience.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:05:01] There’s so much there to unpack sound meditation, really in general. I’d love to, if you would, describe what sound meditation is for our listeners, because I feel like we’re hearing about it more and more. And it’s becoming part of people’s wellness routines in a sense or a destination for people. Take me through the experience and what it is exactly.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:05:21] Sure. There are so many beautiful ways that people access this world of meditation. And there are different names that people attribute to very similar overlapping modalities of sound versions of this. This is also commonly referred to as sound barths sound healing’s.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:05:42] The important difference that we like to promote in the way that we were taught is referring this, referring to this as a sound meditation, because it replaces this emphasis on the participant as an active, engaged, engaged role.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:06:01] And that is to say that it’s not a passive experience where you’re just awash in sounds. There’s an element that where the magic happens, we’re all this transformational engagement can take place is in the observation as a participant. And so there.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:06:22] And that means simply just noticing your feelings, noticing the change in moods that the different instruments can suggest or invite.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:06:32] So it’s not also healing in our practice as much as an opportunity to be healed or to activate that inner wisdom, that inner knowing, that inner healer.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:06:44] That’s incredible, because you would think maybe, OK, I’m going to go and I’m going to just passively listen to sound. But it is so much more so much more to that. And I wanted to ask you what somebody’s role is in the experience. And you started to talk about that a little bit. But can somebody be more engaged or in a sense, more active during the whole sound meditation experience?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:07:06] Something we talk to people about is how to be an active participant in the experience. And one thing that you can do as a listener is have an intention going into the experience to help with that. You can think of some things that you want to let go of or some things that you want to welcome in. But having an intention really helps drive the experience and helps engage the person in in some things that they may want to work on in themselves. It takes a lot of courage to go to these spaces of inquiry, of healing. And it’s really what the person puts into it is what they get out of it. We also talk about ethos and how these different instruments are of a different ethos, meaning that some instruments may trigger sadness or nostalgia for somebody, whereas other instruments may trigger joy or happiness. So engaging with those emotions as they come up and just observing the emotions without judgment and without engagement, but sitting with them, allowing them to happen. Allowing yourself to feel this and and go on that exploration.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:08:16] I love that you say without judgment. That is one thing at UMA that we talk about quite a bit, because, of course, we’re deeply rooted in Ayurveda. And two profound guiding principles of Ayurveda are, one, that the mind and body are linked and also the mind has the power to heal and to truly transform the body. And we feel our part in this is being generous with yourself, I think at allowing for that, too, to be part of your life. I wanted to ask you, what is your take on that and how do you feel that sound and sound Meditation can relate to that mind body connectivity.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:08:50] I think a lot of these practices are devices for or realigning with a deeper sense of awareness as a window into presence. And I think that’s where do you see this? This philosophy of mind, body connection is oneness. There’s there’s often a lot of immediate knowledge stored in the body. And so somatic therapy is and body knowledge that can unlock emotional issues that we store, whether we say that’s in the mind or elsewhere. But they are very interconnected in our work. And I think the the physical property of sound, the way that it requires a medium of air and transmission through the ear. Moving this physical world to the electrical world, to the knowing world, to levels of consciousness. Josh Peck: [00:09:44] You have this ability to shape and affect reality by providing opportunity. And that’s what Eliza was referring to. And she says some instruments can suggest nostalgia or joy. There’s an opportunity that sound presents to access both the mind body states.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:10:07] So how can this fit in? How does this fit into modern life? Of course, we’re going a million miles a minute. But if somebody were to say, gosh, you know, this sounds amazing, but I don’t know how to. How do I fit this into my life?

Stacey Lindsay: [00:10:20] Do you recommend once a week or just kind of exploring it here and there? How do you see it fitting in?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:10:27] I think so much about meditation and engaging in meditation is to really listen to your mind and your body while you’re doing these experiences. So for one individual, they may do a sound meditation and then want to come every single day or once a week. Whereas other people might want to engage once a month and we’ll more slowly turn it into a practice. I think what’s important is, is not getting to a point of frustration or pushing oneself, but just allowing yourself to gently engage in the process of meditation.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:11:03] So I imagine there’s this is incredible immersive experience where you’re exploring consciousness. But what about after after you leave the meditation? Is there a way to honor what you experienced and to essentially continue to get to reap the benefits of the experience?

Stacey Lindsay: [00:11:21] I think it’s a good way of connecting the earlier question as well, which is like how does this fit into modern life?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:11:27] You have an entry point, which I think is, again, just about awareness about being in the shower with your with the water coming down on your head and hearing that different sonic experience and having that be this opportunity again to drop you into a greater sense of presence. And similarly, on the way out. How do we integrate these experiences? That’s where in most med meditation practices or or journeys or arcs of transformation, you have arguably the most challenging period, which is making meaning, bringing back changing the patterns.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:12:10] And I think with sound a way to you create integrative practices is simply to court, creates quiet spaces, quiet spaces for yourself, quiet spaces with conversations such as simply being present with a friend or a family member without agenda, without queuing up your question while you’re listening. That’s something that I’ve learned in this is work is just a slowing down.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:12:44] Presence.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:12:44] While listening in, that can be incredibly hard. As you say, queuing up questions while you’re having a conversation with somebody. It’s like it is probably one of the hardest things, I think, for human beings today. Just as you said, to slow down. Are are there ways that you recommend people in their in their day to day?

Stacey Lindsay: [00:13:03] I’m so curious because I need that very much in my life to take a beat and to to try and be more present.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:13:11] I think so much about being present is is not living so much in the future. And we have this tendency to want to plan out our time or know what the next step is or know what we’re gonna be doing in 20 minutes or while we’re speaking to somebody like Josh spoke about having an agenda or sometimes just wanting to engage with somebody is queuing up the next question, but really allowing for the space of presence, for the space of listening and just relaxing into those spaces. Is is the easiest way to be present. And I think also having some sort of meditation practice that that one can dip into daily or weekly is very beneficial in in understanding presence.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:14:02] I think also that there’s an interesting. Thread to follow with the uncomfortable subject of death. And I think there are moments I’ve explored just just thinking more about death.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:14:20] There’s a beautiful app out there called We Croak. And it’s just randomly text to you throughout the day. I think it’s five times a day. Just a quote about death or light of inspiration. Or maybe it’s a funny joke. And the point to be made is that in contemplating sort of are arguably the greatest fear, the greatest unknown, we can bring a more. Josh Peck: [00:14:49] Forward sense of gratitude into each moment and understanding and appreciation. I do this with my dog. I do this with Eliza and I think it’s a nice way to cultivate presence is to contemplate death. Without sounding too morbid.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:15:06] No, that’s that’s really that’s really beautiful.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:15:09] And stemming off of that, too, I feel like there’s a lot of beauty in the discomfort, too. And there’s a lot of discovery and information there as well. So whether you’re contemplating death or you’re just leaning into again, it’s just mentioned before exploring your consciousness. That can be really, really scary for people. It is scary even if you’ve been doing it for a while. But it but also incredibly grounding. And there’s amazing information there. What would you say to somebody who who wanted to be brave, who wanted to do that work, say, and through some meditation or just even having starting a conversation with themselves? But they were scared. Any words of wisdom, of encouragement?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:15:55] I think I would start with. Just a question, which is. Can you think of any time that there has been meaningful growth without challenge, without pain at times and sometimes just this awareness bringing up the fact that there’s a strong correlation between the challenge, weight, difficulty and growth in obviously Buddhist traditions. This is suffering and. To say what?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:16:36] What’s the opportunity you want here? This is this is a chance for you to explore. And there’s no coercion. This is an invitation. And that’s how I got involved. I just wanted to explore a higher potential version of myself.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:16:53] And we’re continually learning. I think it’s important in these conversations to reiterate we’re not any more of an expert than anyone else out there. And we’re on our journey and we’re constantly human and fumbling through it at times, but that there is a grounding and access point in the specific flavor of sound work that I find universally understandable.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:17:21] And using these moments of challenge or these moments of suffering as an opportunity for growth, it’s there’s so much fear in the unknown. And we’re all kind of going through this. I know. Face together right now. And it takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot of bravery to dive into the unknown and to release yourself into it.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:17:43] Yeah, there’s a lot of trusting, a lot of surrendering allowance acceptance. It’s a lot of things that are easy to put into language. And we do it so frequently, particularly in the wellness world, that it tends to also soften the gravity of the meaning. But when you really sit with that, what is really surrendering to this experience? That’s what. That’s the call. That’s the invitation. And people that answer that are, well, reward rewarded in any modality.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:18:14] I imagine use that so many people see this beautiful work. Could you give me a story or to have some someone who is profoundly transformed or benefited? A story you’d be willing to share about somebody who’s shifted from these experiences with you?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:18:29] As we spoke about earlier, a lot of what we talk to people about before doing these appearances is having an intention and really setting aside time to prepare for the experience. So what people get out of it is what they put into it and the willingness to surrender, the willingness to explore themselves. We’ve had someone who was an alcoholic before. They experienced some meditation and their intention coming in was that they wanted to quit drinking alcohol and they came for the experience. And they haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since. We had somebody else who who had some childhood trauma that they wanted to explore. And going back to that space of childhood trauma recontextualize thing, what happened and being able to forgive herself and forgive the other people involved was a beautiful, transformational experience. And I’m I feel so proud of people who who go there and and just being able to hold space. What we’d like to do as facilitators is really get out of the way of the experience. We have so much love for each other and we want to create spaces of love and nurturing and safety for people. So our role as a facilitator is to create this nest of safety and allow that person to really go in and explore those parts of themselves that that can be challenging and scary. And seeing somebody have the will to go to those places and have those moments of healing is really beautiful.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:20:14] And I think it’s also hopeful to remember that it’s it’s really up to the participant in these spaces.

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:20:23] It’s all about permission. There’s no magic bullet or prescriptive instrument to play to unlock something or her magical frequency in our philosophy that they can do that. A lot of it is about. Providing a container for someone to give them self permission to recontextualize and do all these, again, transformational devices. And it’s not. It’s some people just find it relaxing moment to chill and unplug. It doesn’t always need to have such gravity or require that. And from one experience to the next for the same person tends to be dramatically different.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:21:06] Well, I have to say, it’s just relaxing, talking to both of you, too. I’m a lot more relaxed.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:21:14] Before we get on this call, so thank you so much. Where where can where can people find you? I can’t wait till I can make my way up to the dojo upstate in person. But in the meantime, where can we find your work online and learn more?

Josh / Eliza Peck: [00:21:29] So what we’ve been doing a lot lately is creating these Lifestream experiences with binaural audio. Maybe Josh can explain more about what by neural audio is. But it’s been a way for us to translate these sound meditations right into your own home. Josh Peck: [00:21:48] Yeah, we’re essentially using a lot of interesting technology that allows for the listener to feel as if they’re vividly in the room when they’re using headphones. And this is achieved by recording with a dummy head with two microphones in each of the years. And this this this method essentially creates this vivid 3-D landscape. So right now are as a way to visit us. You can visit us at the dojo upstate dot com to learn more about our work. And this is also where we’re hosting our weekly live streams. And Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. p.m. Eastern Time.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:22:28] Yeah, amazing. Well, Josh and Eliza, thank you so much. And thank you for putting this beautiful work out there. It’s shifting the world for sure.

Stacey Lindsay: [00:22:36] thank you. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:22:45] Thank you so much for listening. If you’d like more information on our guests and the additional references during our conversation, please visit us at UMAOils.com. Please subscribe to the UMA Ayurveda podcast, and share. See you next time!

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EPISODE 8: DISCOVERING AYURVEDA, VIBRANCE, AND A NEW LIFE PATH WITH DR. ZOHREH SADEGHI

Years ago, Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi had hit “rock bottom.” She was diagnosed with IBS, anxiety, depression, and many other ailments. “I had tried everything,” she tells Shrankhla, but nothing truly helped her—until she discovered Ayurveda.  To say the least, she dived right into the practice and moved to Kerala, India. “The decision to pursue Ayurveda was completely an overnight decision for me,” she says. “It was something that I can’t quite explain. It was a voice within me.” What ensued was a path of healing, learning, and liberation—and eventually, a new career. Since, Zohreh has founded Roha, an Ayurvedic healing center in San Francisco. She dives deep with Shrankhla to unpack all that Ayurveda has taught her.

Episode Transcript:

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:00:40] Hi! I am Shrankhla Holecek, the Founder & CEO of Uma An Ayurvedic beauty and wellness collection. This is the UMA Ayurveda podcast. Each week I’ll be having a conversation with someone I greatly admire on the topics of Ayurveda, holistic healing, spiritual well-being and alternative health. By sharing this wisdom, I hope to share a personal truth and revelation with you. That, as ancient as they are, Ayurveda and other healing modalities are as modern and relevant today, as ever.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:41] Years ago, Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi had hit “rock bottom.” She was diagnosed with IBS, anxiety, depression, and many other ailments. “I had tried everything,” she tells me, but nothing truly helped her—until she discovered Ayurveda. To say the least, she dived right into the practice and moved to Kerala, India. “The decision to pursue Ayurveda was completely an overnight decision for me,” she says. “It was something that I can’t quite explain. It was a voice within me.” What ensued was a path of healing, learning, and liberation—and eventually, a new career. Since, Zohreh has founded Roha, an Ayurvedic healing center in San Francisco. She dives deep with me to unpack all that Ayurveda has taught her.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:01:41] Thank you so much for speaking with me today. It’s such an absolute pleasure. I understand that you came to Ayurveda through a journey of exploration into your own health. And in fact, started with a full 40 day Panchakarma in Kerala in India, which I should call out, is that magnificent and huge in its own right. I’ve been born into Ayurveda. Yet, to do a Panchakarma. And you went down to Kerala from San Francisco all the way to do it. So I can’t think of a more prodigious start to an education in Ayurveda. And that’s where, I’d love to start, You know what you felt like diving right in how your days progressed, how you felt physically and emotionally.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:02:35] Tell us all about that.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:02:37] Thank you for having me Shrankhla, I’m really happy to be here speaking with you. Yes. So I sort of stumbled upon Ayurveda at a point in my life where I would say I have completely fallen apart. I have hit rock bottom. I was diagnosed with many different sort of ailments from IBS throughout my life because I had sensitive digestive system to, you know, severe depression, anxiety disorder and then PCOS close to stick a rare syndrome. And I sort of struggled with all of this for many years, not quite figuring out why it was all happening to me. And I tried I had tried everything from Western medicine. I tried therapy for many years. I tried acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, some of which actually helped, but nothing was quite able to figure out why I was struggling so much. So, what I decided to do and this completely came out of nowhere. One day I remembered that many years ago I had seen an Indian holistic doctor. I couldn’t remember what the name was, but I popped online and I just did a quick search for Indian holistic medicine. And in the name Ayurveda popped up and I was like, yeah, many years ago I saw this doctor and I remember the only thing she told me was like, you know, your body’s out of balance, there’s too much fire and we have to cool you down.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:04:04] And I had no idea what that meant at the time. So the decision to kind of pursue Ayurveda was completely an overnight decision for me. It was something that I can’t quite explain. There was a voice within me that I’d like to think of it as my higher self or my intuition that just kicked in and was like, this is it. This is your solution. And this is how you’re gonna bring yourself back into balance. This is how you’re gonna to heal yourself. So within couple of months, I packed my bags and moved to India, and it was a very quick decision. There was not a whole bunch of thinking, really logic that went into it. I just responded to this voice. And when I moved to Kerala, I started studying Ayurveda and at the same time I was doing my Panchakarma and I had no idea what to expect. Nothing whatsoever. And I remember having my first session with my diabetic doctor there, and she sat in front of me and I went through a list of symptoms, everything that had been happening to me ever since I was a kid, because I was not new to disease, an ailment and pain. I kind of had gone see it all my life. And I went through all the symptoms.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:05:15] I told her everything and she just looked at me and she was like, you know, all of that is great. It’s good for me to know your symptoms, but we don’t really treat the symptoms here.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:05:24] We really want to treat you as a whole. And this is now some 10 years ago, which I didn’t fully understand what that meant at the time. And I said, I’m ready. I said, I’m going to dive in. You tell me what needs to be done. And she put me on the whole Panchakarma process. And she suggested that I do know about 40 days to begin because that’s sort of what we recommend in Ayurveda when you first getting started anywhere from like 30 to 40 days. And I told her that I’m open to trying all the treatments, taking all the herbs. I was really, truly open because I was at the time, you know, 27, 28 years old. And I had tried everything and nothing had quite helped. So I dived right in and they put me on a program where I was getting treatments daily about, you know, sometimes two to three treatments a day. And I was taking herbs regularly. I was on a specific diet. There was a lot that happened during that whole process. There was a lot that happened not just on a physical level. Of course, I started sort of, you know, feeling better physically, but then on an emotional level, I went through a huge transformation during those 40 days. I remember, days that I just could not get out of bed. Because the emotions were so intense, they were weighing so heavily on me. I spend days crying.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:06:45] I spend days being angry, being resentful. I spend days being sad. There was so much that came up and I couldn’t really figure out why all of this was coming up. I still was really new to Ayurveda and then I was sort of studying it at the same time. So then I started learning about the concept of the Dosha, the concept of the energies within the body and what really was happening to me and tapping into the root cause of all the sort of emotional imbalances that was within me. And one thing became really clear when I did the Panchakarma, was that it wasn’t so much the physical body that I needed to heal, but it was really my emotional body, my spiritual body or my consciousness, a spirit, whatever you want to call it. I realized that that’s what needed healing, that I was, you know, wounded because of my experiences in life, because of sort of the traumas that I went through as a child. And it sort of brought all of that to the forefront of my awareness. And I dived right in. And I remember on day forty one, I met with my Ayurvedic doctor and I sat in front of her and I was like, I don’t know exactly what happened to me. I just know that I feel like I was born again. Like there has been a rebirth. And one of the main goals was to restore my menstrual cycle that I had lost for, you know, a few years prior to die due to PCOS.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:08:14] And I remember her telling me that you may not get your cycle back right away, that you have to give this time. I know it isn’t a quick fix and even do you did the 40 days. You may have to give yourself another month or so to really feel the effects and to restore your cycle and that part. Initially it was disappointing and I was like, OK, but I’m willing to stick with this. But the most sort of miraculous thing happened. And I woke up the next morning and I got my cycle for the first sign naturally in years. So that’s when I knew I was like, not only was I able to sort of restore my physical body and bring it back into balance, but I also was able to dig deep and figure out what was happening with me emotionally. And in that moment, I had this clear sort of voice is calling within me. I was like, this is your life’s work. This is what you’re going to do. You know, you were able to heal yourself with the help of this amazing medicine. And now you have to go out there and help everybody you crossed paths with become healthy, specially women, because as a woman, I struggled so much with my health. So women’s health became something that I became very passionate about,after doing my first Panchakarma.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:09:29] I would love to get into your formal education with Ayurveda and what that was like. But I want to start with your punch karma in as much as you can. Break it down for us what the day’s felt like, what you ate, how you spent your time, what you felt while going through it. You’ve touched on how it felt coming out of it. But anything that can demystify this complex, amazing bunch of karma ritual for us would be very helpful.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:10:05] Yeah, Absolutely. So the way I look at it, is the whole Panchakarma process is a cleanse. But while you’re going through Panchakarma, you can really look at it as a retreat because on any sort of given day, you start your day by sort of waking up with the sunrise. So you’re going you’re putting your body in line with the natural rhythm of nature throughout the day. So you wake up at the sun. You practice yoga, meditation, and depending on where you go for your Panchakarma, they could have sort of group meditation, they could have group yoga classes. They sort of urge you to do that on your own. So that’s kind of how you begin your day and then you’re given your meals, you’re given your three meals a day. You’re given breakfast, lunch and dinner. And all of that is usually fresh based on your body constitution, based on your prakriti. They prepare different meals for you. Like, for example, if you have diabetes or you’re if you’re in a weight loss diet, your food might look different than the person who’s therefore, I don’t know, schizophrenia or mental disorders. So then your food is given to you three meals a day and you get to see and speak to your Ayurvedic doctor on a daily basis. So the first day, the session is usually longer, an hour to two to really dive deeper. And then after that, you get to meet with your doctor everyday for like 20 to 30 minutes. And that becomes sort of the psychological or mental coaching. Components of the whole Panchakarma process, because it is a very deep process and it goes deep into your psyche. So a lot of stuff will come up. So it’s crucial that you get to talk to your practitioner, your doctor on a regular basis. So you have these sort of like healing sessions everyday with your practitioner, and then you get body treatments, you get physical treatments, which are actually, absolutely amazing. So, again, the treatments change. The way we break it up in Panchakarma is every sort of five to seven days. Your treatments will change. So we do any one particular Ayurvedic sort of therapy with treatments for like five sessions in a row or seven sessions in a row, depending on what the body needs. And typically, when you’re doing a classic Panchakarma, you get to do two treatments daily. They’re either done sort of in back to back or they’re broken up into like a morning treatment. And then you have lunch and then you go afternoon treatment. And then you have typically there’s like either meditation or chanting session in the evening as well. And then you get your dinner. And yeah, you do. You’ll have a lot of time on your own through this whole Panchakarma process. And they usually urge you to sit with yourself during that time to do a lot of meditation. A lot of reading, writing. And all of that will help you go deeper within because, you know, one of the main goal of Ayurveda is to strengthen this connection that you have with yourself, with your inner self, with your true essence. So by doing this a spiritual practices, while you’re going through your Panchakarma, you’ll be able to sort of tap deeper into your assessed essence and figure out what’s going on with you and how you can remove these like blockages.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:13:31] So on any given day, to answer your question as to what kind of how you’re feeling as you’re going through it, there’s a lot that you’re feeling. There’s a lot that comes up. There are days that you wake up feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, more hopeful. And then there are days that you wake up feeling quite literally like crap, like you wake up just not feeling great. There’s a heaviness. There’s a stagnation. There might be disappointment. There’s all kinds of stuff that sort of moves you. And there are days that, you know, you wake up in. The very first time I did it, there were days that I woke up thinking, I don’t want to do this anymore. Like, I don’t want to continue on this because this is hard work while you’re getting pampered with the treatments. And it’s nice to like, you know, talk to your practitioner every day. There is a level of difficulty that comes with doing a Panchakarma. And I always tell my clients it’s not for the faint of heart. You have to kind of be ready to know what you’re getting yourself into. The pampering and the treatments are great, but the only way to truly heal yourself from within is to face your own darkness and to face your own demons within and to face that is not an easy task.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:14:45] So you have to sort of be ready to push through the days that are not as easy, because once you do, the reward is waiting for you. And that’s sort of what I learned by doing my Panchakarmas every year. And I realize that every time that I do it, it gets a little bit easier. So the very first time was the most challenging for me was to you know, it’s a test every day that I woke up with a test to my strength, my stamina. It’s like sort of my emotional strengths to be like, hey, I’m gonna wake up and do this all over again. But, you know, the end goal and the results show me that it was all worth it. So you do. You do. You go through a number of emotions and not any two days look the same as you’re going through this process.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:15:36] It is interesting how Panchakarma is this beautiful guided, call to action to tap in deeper and only you can do the work. Yes, The Oleation therapies can prepare the body to get rid of all the Auma or the toxins through the massages and the amazing Abhyangas but you’re right in that the body of the work remains with the individual to release them into the universe, to release all the emotional and the physical toxins that one doesn’t need. I can imagine that can be an intense but very very profound introduction to Ayurveda. Indeed, Tell me a little bit about from that point on how you formally educated yourself in Ayurveda.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:16:33] Yeah. So when I was in Kerala, I did a three months sort of intensive diploma course in Ayurveda. That was my first introduction into Ayurveda and I took classes where Ayurvedic beauty care for pregnancy care, pregnancy care massage. I did sort of as many courses as I could possibly do.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:16:54] And the classes were intense and there were long because there’s a lot of material to cover. And in, you know, in just three months of time, that’s not enough to sort of dive into this vast ocean of knowledge. So I did that while I was there, along with some yoga therapy courses.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:17:12] And then while once I was finished with that course, I realized that I had just sort of started my education in Ayurveda that I was by no means ready or willing to go on practice it that I really wanted to dive deeper. So I started searching for schools in the states that offered sort of higher education in Ayurvedic medicine.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:17:37] And I stumbled upon one in Southern California, AUCM or American University of Complementary Medicine, and they offered a doctor and the Phd program in Ayurvedic medicine. And that immediately caught my attention because there are many other practitioner courses, masters courses out there. But I just deep down knew that I wanted to do the longest program that offered me the most number of hours and specialty clinical hours.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:18:05] So I moved down to Los Angeles and I studied I ever got there. And the best part of that whole program for me was the clinical hours that I had to do because I spent a thousand hours in the Ayurvedic clinic we had at the school practicing with my teacher back then, Dr. Joggle, Paul Parla, known as Dr. J. And I learned sort of everything that I needed to by being with the patients, with the clients on a regular basis, by learning the treatments, because there’s only so much that you can learn on a theoretical level. You can be self study and learn, but then actually doing things with your hands, doing Ayurvedic treatments with your hands, making the herbs, making the formulations. There’s just something so beautiful about doing that. So that was definitely my favorite part of the whole program. So I obtained my doctorate degree in Ayurvedic medicine.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:19:05] And how would you say, Zoreh, your practice has evolved over the years. What are some of the things that you’ve held on to and what are some of the things that you may have adjusted based on all the wonderful experience you’ve had with seeing patients after so many years?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:19:25] Yeah, there’s been quite a bit of adjustment for sure. I, I like to practice what I call sort of the authentic form of Ayurveda. But as we know, it’s a little bit more difficult.We don’t have as much access to all the beautiful herbal formulations that, you know, the Ayurvedic practitioners in India have access too. So some of that had to be modified. We use a lot of sort of single herbs and powdered herbs.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:19:57] Now, in the States and I’ve sort of started adopting those as well, some of the physical treatments that we’re not able to by law legally, We’re not allowed to practice at the clinic. I’ve sort of modified dose. I teach my clients how to do them for themselves at home.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:20:15] So that’s part of it. And another sort of big thing that I have to dive deeper into, I noticed that there’s a need for is the whole emotional aspect of healing in Ayurveda and the mental health aspect of Ayurveda because a lot of people come to us thinking, you know. They’re gonna heal their physical bodies or that Ayurveda is really just about the physical body. But what I’m realizing as I see more clients is that the emotional body is pretty much where it’s at, that most of these ailments and problems are psychosomatic. So I’m now spending a lot of time doing coaching with my clients. So my sort of initial consultations went from talking a lot about their physical bodies, educating them on their Doshas and their physical manifestations within their body to now really focusing on the mental and emotional aspect of it. And how are these Doshas or these energetic qualities, you know, presenting themselves or manifesting themselves on an emotional level. And, you know, Hardy being characterized in their bodies based on, you know, what’s what’s showing up. So that’s become a big, big focus in my practice. And that’s actually something that I’m so deeply passionate about, sort of educating people on this connection that exists within the physical body and the mental body. So I talk to my clients in depth about, you know, the herbs that I’m recommending for them and how these herbs will sort of affect their mental body and their spiritual body, as well as just the physical body that I’m not just helping them heal the symptoms, or their physical, you know, their physiology, but also helping them heal their mind as well. So that’s sort of like the the biggest shift that I would say that has happened in my practice.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:22:07] And it is fascinating to observe that because many aspects of your Ayurveda can feel cultural, especially when you’re starting out because.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:22:18] Yes, the system of medicine did originate in India and for many of us that were born and raised in India. It’s part and parcel of life in some ways, how you cook, how much you refrigerate or lack there of access to even things like fresh cows milk that can sometimes be taken a little bit for granted up until you move, as I did, to a different country and then start working backwards into integrating some of those practices in their rich, authentic way. But I think you touched on something that is very powerful. It is, again, an invitation to dig in deeper, to see what your intuition is telling you about your body, rather than relying on what is necessarily available or what your environment is able to do for you, and then practicing the art of moderation in practicing Ayurveda, because then you start to quickly find that relief is there to be found while making the adjustments that you might need for your surroundings. So I agree, that does exist for every one, in every sense of that. It may just differ in its rendition from culture to culture and geography to geography, but the beauty is that with a few tweaks and sensibilities, you can make it your own and still thrive with it. And that’s a that’s beautifully put by you in how the journey has evolved. I’d love to go back to the question of mental health and get into a few more specifics better before that of a question that I think a lot of people ask, specially as they get into the understanding of Ayurveda. And that is in many ways pivotal to understanding your true self. Once Dosha tell me what Dosha you are and how you truly discovered it.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:24:26] So I predominantly a Pitta dosha, which is the fire principle, and I have both water and Kapha in balance, so pretty much equal quantities of water and Kapha within myself. It wasn’t until I moved to India and did my studies in Ayurveda, and did that first Panchakarma that I truly realize what it meant to have sort of one energetic quality within you more than the other.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:25:01] For me, I realized that once I sort of discover that I’m predominantly dosha because my predominant dosha is Pitta, it was very life changing for me because one of the first things that my Ayurvedic practitioner in India told me all those years ago was that we need to cool you down. We need to cool you off. So what they did for the first two weeks everyday straight, they did

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:25:27] Shirodhara for me. But using buttermilk, they they pretty much poured milk on my forehead for two weeks straight, and when I was telling my friends back home about this, it was fascinating for them because they’re like how was milk poured on your forehead. It’s going to be like, what does that even mean? What does that even mean to do? The benefits were immense. Because I.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:25:51] I felt the difference immediately. So I realized within myself that most of my life I was running on a lot of heat.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:25:59] That I’ve always I you know, historically speaking, I used to be a very intense person. There was a lot of perfectionism within me. I wanted to always be in charge. I always wanted to be in control of my life, of every moment of my life and the people around me to the point that it led to self-destruction within myself. Some of that behavior of perfectionism needing to be in charge, thinking that I know the best for me and for everybody around me. And as a result, getting disappointed, disappointed when things didn’t go my way. I would often be easily irritated. Like patience. And that was sort of the running theme in my life. And there was a lot of anger associated with that. So once I realized that this fire exists within me, there is no way to deny that there’s no way to avoid that. But then what if I learned to tune in to the positive qualities of the fire? What if I learned to contain the fire and turn it into this beautiful light that exists within all of us? And the positive attributes that come from having fire within you is having is having courage, is being brave, is being compassionate, motivated, is having sort of the good intensity within you that gets the world going, that gets you out of bed every day. And Ayurveda taught me how to do exactly that is to sort of take the anger that I have within me, like and do something good with it.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:27:33] I stop judging myself. I stop criticizing myself because I used to do that, I used to beat myself up for years and years. If one thing wasn’t done right or my deficient definition of right, then I would completely just lose my temper. And then I realize, OK, what if I instead of losing my temper, what if I saw this anger that’s rising within me? Something good. What if I took this anger and turned it into complete heat on passion and compassion towards myself, to heal myself and to help heal the world around me. So really understanding my sort of constitution, my Dosha, but also not over identifying with it. So I don’t get too attached with it and recognizing that I still have the other energetic qualities within me as well, that on any given day I could wake up and be a Pitta-Kapha or be a Pita-Vata. And what does that mean and how is that manifesting on that given day. So that really helped me to study myself deeper and get to know myself and realize how to balance myself, you know, and that means the lifestyle that I’m leading, the foods that I’m eating. And a small example of that is I completely cut, you know, spicy food or anything that’s like pungent or too acidic out of my diet many years ago.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:28:56] And I find myself benefiting from that. And that’s really, truly what I everyday is.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:29:02] It’s a lifestyle change. It’s a diet change is not just herbal medicine. So now I have that knowledge to know what to do. And I know I know myself to be a very sensitive human being. So now I sort of know how to harness those emotions, how to contain those emotions as they come up. And instead of sort of judging myself for having too much fire within me. I’ve started appreciating the fire within me.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:29:28] I’ve started sort of worshiping and praising the fire within me and learning how to master my emotions is what sort of got me closer to accepting myself exactly as I am. And that with that acceptance comes the essence of surrender.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:29:44] You surrender to who you are, you surrender to your body constitution, to your prakriti and to the world around you. And that sort of leads to.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:29:54] Reaching content and bliss within oneself.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:29:57] Speaking of bliss, I’d love to tap in to some of the amazing work that you’ve done around understanding emotional health within Ayurveda, because I know that’s a big part of your practice and how one can find answers. You mentioned in your videos that you were diagnosed with severe depression at the time you sought out Ayurveda. Can you share a few things that some of us can do to start to manage that within ourselves as we seek out professional help, either with a therapist or an Ayurvedic practitioner to help manage those feelings a little bit better?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:30:42] The way I look at it and the way sort of Ayurveda looks at it. Depression is nothing but the loss of connection to your sense, to your essence or to a higher self. So when you lose that connection to your true self, to your higher self, that’s when sort of depression happens. And for a person who’s sensitive, who by nature is has more connection to their heart and soul, the loss of this connection is quite tragic. And this is what we don’t realize. And once this connection is lost and instead of it, this sort of fatigue and lethargy and heaviness gets settled within the mind and within the body. It leads into anxiety. So depression, anxiety very much go hand in hand because the mind feels like it’s lost control and once the loss of control is there leads to an anxious mind. So it’s pretty much the groundedness. The calmness of the mind is lost. And, you know, you feel exhausted, you feel depressed, you feel heavy. And that journey to healing yourself and pretty much combating anxiety and depression is and a painful one. It’s actually a beautiful journey of self discovery is a beautiful journey of going deep within to finding your truth and finding your true nature. Because the way we sort of describe this in Ayurveda is when the mind, the mind always wants to be in control. The mind always wants a narrative or a story.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:32:19] So the mind starts distracting us by bringing up these powerful emotions of anger, shame, guilt, jealousy. And the mind starts seducing us by drawing attention to the outside world, to the war world outside of ourselves, by distracting us with money, fame, sex, food, success, achievement. And when all of that fails, then the mind latches onto fear. It starts relying on fear. And this fear becomes something that we rely on and live our lives based on. And that’s when sort of the whole disconnect happen. And then in Ayurveda the seat of the mind is in the heart. So while the neurological functions of the mind is done in the brain is done through the brain, the emotional sort of functions of the mind are done through the heart. So to sort of heal yourself from depression to sort of get to your own essence is nothing but strengthening that connection and bringing that balance and synchronicity between your mind, your emotions and your body. So bringing this balance and harmony and what truly helps here is doing some of these spiritual practices. So what I find that help me with severe depression was not only therapy, of course, like doing sort of traditional talk therapy, as well as holistic coaching, but also doing meditation, doing pranayama the breathing practices, doing some of the yoga postures. All of that helped me, as well as diet and lifestyle.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:33:53] So eating a healthy diet, because the imbalance of the doshas don’t only show themselves physically in the body, but each dosha has a different emotional and mental characteristic within our body. So understanding doshas, how they play a role in our mental health is another thing that being helped. So if there’s anxiety on the mind, for example, anxiety is nothing but fast-moving, lightness, rigidity. It all comes from the Vata dosha so that tells us that the Vata dosha increase in the mind. How do we bring that back into balance, by eating a Vata pacifying diet. So there is a lot of factors and this is why Ayurveda is so great in helping with mental ailments like depression and anxiety, because we sort of educate people on how to heal themselves through doing some of these deeper spiritual practices, but also eating a diet that’s going to help them sort of combat anxiety and depression by leading a lifestyle that’s going to help them find balance within themselves again. And a small example of that is sort of living in accordance with each season. So, you know, every season eating the fruits and vegetables that are available to you because fresh vegetables and fruits on what comes from that season has a lot of Crono or Life force. And that’s what you need to help heal yourself from depression is to sort of bring your Prana, pranic sort of energy into balance within your body. And by eating seasonal fruits and vegetables, you’ll be able to do that because eating a Sattvic diet or like a pure and fresh diet will help you with that. So there’s a lot of sort of elements and components that go into it. I’m doing the deep. Work of removing the amount accumulated toxins on a physical level, but also on the emotional level is what helps bring you back into balance and what will eventually help you overcome depression and anxiety in the mind.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:35:56] What are some of the foods you’d recommend to someone that is struggling with anxiety?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:36:05] So if this is also another thing. So in Ayurveda, since it’s very individualized, it’s very personalized based on each person’s sort of Prakriti or Dosha. Some of the things that I might recommend to a person who is predominantly, for example, a Pitta constitution versus a Vata constitution would be different. But in general, if were speaking of anxiety, I would say for anxiety, we want to bring down the Vata dosha.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:36:33] So we want to do foods that are warm, nourishing, grounding, sort of easy to digest, mainly cooked to help bring that back good oils in the diet. Good oils really help with the nervous system. So we’re trying to bring the nervous system back into balance. So good fats play a big role in that, you know, good omega 3’s of Avocados, coconut oil, sesame oil, flax seed bringing seeds and nuts. Again, this will vary depending on your body type. Like, for example, a Kapha person struggling with anxiety who happens to maybe also be overweight. I wouldn’t recommend as much not some seeds, for example, versus a Vata person who happens to struggle with anxiety. But in general, remembering to eat seasonally in accordance to your body type, in accordance to your dosha. So eating foods that come from nature and come from the earth. Because with anxiety, we need more earth element. We need more Kapha. So root vegetables would be amazing. Eating food that’s more cooked would be really great because raw food has very similar characteristics to this Vata dosha or anxiety, raw food tends to be cold, dry, rough. So it’s a little bit harder to digest within the system. So eating things that are cooked. Eating whole grains. Having oatmeal. Any form like, you know, rice, brown, rice, kernel that are like cooked with warming spices, nourishing spices, all of that. We really help to ground and calm the mind.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:38:08] Any lifestyle practices that you might recommend to someone struggling with anxiety often that also translates to a racing mind in the evenings and sleeping poorly because that also sometimes drives out of an imbalance in the Vata dosha. What might you recommend?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:38:29] Yes. So one of the best things to do for anxiety is to put yourself and your body on a routine because anxiety and being anxious is nothing. But fearing the unknown is worrying about the future, is worrying about what’s to come. So when you have a routine, so when your body when your mind knows exactly what’s coming next, then it reduces some of that anxious feeling. By that, I mean trying to wake up and eat more or less around the same time daily. That will be a big, big help. So putting yourself on a regimen where, you know, when your breakfast, lunch and dinner is going to be more or less around the same time when you know, when you’re going to wake up or when you’re going to go to bed. You know, on any given day waking up and starting your day by drinking a cup of hot water, depending on your, you know, your dosha, if you’re more Kapha, I would recommend adding some lemon in there. If you’re more about Pitta then I would recommend adding fresh basil or mint leaves in your hot water and not grabbing your phone the moment you wake up is another big thing. So waking up, washing your face, drinking a cup of hot water and, you know, just doing a meditation practice. And this could be ten minutes. It could be 30 minutes.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:39:47] This could be an hour. So this all depends on sort of the amount of time that you have and how new you are to the whole meditation practice. So just kind of sitting with yourself, setting an intention for yourself. Just for that day, it does not need to be an intention that you’re setting for your week for the rest of your life just for that day. Telling yourself that I’m going to wake up today and this is what I’m hoping to accomplish or not. No, it could simply be I’m going to wake up today and just live and just see what the day brings me. So just kind of giving yourself that assurance that, you know, you’re in charge of your health, of your day. And there’s nothing out there that sort of can dictate that if anything happens out of the ordinary, then you’ll deal with it as it comes. So living in the moment, accepting the moment and living every moment with awareness is another thing that really helps with anxiety. And another. Really useful thing is oil massage. So doing your own self Abhyanga at home on an everyday basis. Or at least three times a week. Whenever you have the time. That could be really beneficial. So just warming some coconut oil or some sesame oil and giving yourself 10 minutes to sit with yourself quietly.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:41:02] I like to light a candle for myself, burning incense and dim the lights and just sit and, you know, make this self Abhyanga and meditation ritual for myself. And that’s very beneficial. I recommend doing it more in the evening time. You know, an hour or so after you’ve had your dinner, they do the oil massage and get yourself and your body ready for sleep. And instead of grabbing your phone before you go to bed, maybe you grab a book, maybe you read a poem, maybe you read a little you know, you write a little bit in your journal. Just do some practices that are going to help you. Keep your mind on your nervous system more grounded. I’m going to get early is another really good practice. So in Ayurveda, we recommend Bed Time to be by 10:00 p.m. the latest, because between the hours of 10 to two is when you’re able to get the deepest sleep. That’s when your whole digestive system is resetting. Your tissues are rebuilt. Building your cells are sort of regenerating. So if you are able to be in bed between 10 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and really, that’s it. That’s a deep sleep. If you’re able to get to bed by 10 p.m., then that’s highly recommended. That also helps to keep your mind sort of calm and grounded.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:42:20] My personal experience around the 10 p.m. window has very clearly been around us noticing a rise of Pitta in within myself. I tend to be a bit the dominant type, and it definitely is true in that if I get myself in a restive state by 10 and sort of start to channel the energy towards regeneration of the body, I definitely find myself falling off to sleep better then rather than when I channel into it a little bit and start to fuel the Pitta energy and then try to get to bed by midnight.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:43:00] It’s definitely a little bit more in full force than going until the 2-am time frame when Pitta actually transitions into the Vata energy.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:43:13] But yeah, the timeliness has definitely been an age to many, many that, that struggle with a predominant Vata dosha and getting that structure is a tremendously helpful switching tacks a little bit. I know that pregnancy care and Ayurveda for children is a specialty area for your clinic. Roha in San Francisco. And I know many of us would be interested in learning a little bit more around that. Well, of course, physicians advice must be closely followed at all times, given that every pregnancy is unique. But what are some of the Ayurvedic lifestyle choices and tips you share with people to follow in during these times that can make pregnancies even healthier, even more joyful?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:44:06] Yes. Pregnancy care in Ayurveda is a big topic. And it’s fascinating and definitely one of the areas that I’m very interested in and passionate about, in Ayurveda, we view, pregnancy as being a very spiritual and special time in a woman’s life. And during this time, the female intuition is particularly very, very strong. And you hear of the pregnancy glow. I mean, Ayurveda we sort of explained that this particular see, there’s this like three luminous, vibrant, golden aura about a pregnant woman. And that’s what we sort of look at as a pregnancy glow. But it’s also the inner intuition of the woman that’s so much stronger. So it’s shining very, very brightly. And this is a time to bond with the child within. So this is sort of what I coach my pregnant clients on, is to do a lot of self care during pregnancy, because whatever you’re eating, whatever you’re sensing, feeling, experiencing, touching, your child is experiencing all of that with you. So there is no time like pregnancy to take care of yourself.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:45:18] One of the many, many things, you know, we talk about during pregnancy is that the Vata dosha is bound to increase immediately the moment you get pregnant. So our goal is to keep Vata in balance for the nine months of pregnancy, and that means a Vata dosha dominates the nervous system. So we’re trying to bring about sort of like the groundedness to the entire nervous system.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:45:41] One of the biggest, biggest things we recommend is Oleation. A Sneha, the water sneha in Sanskrit, which means oil. It also means love. And that pretty much explains everything. So Oleation internally and externally, to make sure that the woman is gaining enough weight, but also to make sure that the baby’s brain is developing properly. So incorporating good oils, good fats in your diet. They eat daily like organic whole milk.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:46:09] If there’s no sort of lactose intolerance, coconut oil, olive oil, not some seeds are fantastic, like avocados. Again, cooking with geeky is really essential during pregnancy. So we highly recommend that. And then these are just for like internal and for pregnancy. I put my clients on couple of safe pregnancy formulations, Ayurvedic formulations to make sure that I’m strengthening their uterus to make sure they’re able to sort of keep the fetus within the body. And all of Ayurvedic herbs are fat soluble, which means the nutrients will sort of effectively be delivered to the cells and tissues if if it’s accompanied by healthy fat. So that’s another reason to sort of do good fats. And then that’s for internal. And then externally, I recommend my pregnant clients to always do oil Abhyanga, oil massages for themselves at home. Because this oil massage not only is nourishing the body and the mind, it’s relaxing the body. It helps. Sort of, you know, there’s a lot of sort of fear around stretchmarks and all of that like skin sort of losing its elasticity. There’s a pregnant belly itching.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:47:20] So, Oleation externally will help with all of that. And it brings about like a stability and warmth and it helps sort of evaporate. Stress, fatigue, tiredness within the system. So those are like some of the main things. And of course, one of the other important things I always emphasize is eating a fresh and pure Sattvic diet while you’re pregnant. So that becomes really, really important as well. So enjoying fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, organic dairy, all the foods that pack a lot of cosmic lifeforce Prana and life essence within them and that helps build vitality or immune system or what we call “ojas” within the system, both for the pregnant woman and for the baby. So these are sort of some of the things that I recommend that Ayurveda recommends during pregnancy. And the most important thing is to just be mindful and stay connected to your body, to the baby, to sort of all the emotions and sensations that are coming up and do as much self care and self-love as possible throughout the whole nine months.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:48:31] It goes without saying that things like Oleation and self Abhyanga should be consulted by via your physician in case there might be specific things within your physiology that might need addressing. But this sounds like an amazing blueprint to thrive during a pregnancy, one that integrates self-love and also almost good habit formations and and love for the body even within the child. While it is inside you. But speaking of children, how do you get children started on Ayurveda?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:49:12] Yes. So children’s is is a very interesting area because the way I sort of look at it is I educate the parents. So I teach the parents what it means to live an Ayurvedic lifestyle. Because I look at Ayurveda as a lifestyle medicine, it’s not just an herbal medicine. So I teach the parents on the basics of Ayurveda, what we focus on in Ayurveda, which is a well-balanced diet, is getting proper, adequate sleep. It’s life’s making lifestyle choices like clean personal hygiene, having enough of indoor outdoor activity and exercise for kids. All of these are pretty much what we recommend for adults, but then for kids as well, because these are essential for especially indoor outdoor activities is one thing I talk to parents about because it’s essential in kids’ brain function and learning ability. So I recommend that they maybe take in some yoga postures and do it as a family activity indoors and then take their kids outside. And I recommend they do it on an everyday basis to get some fresh air, to get some fresh Prana for the kids outside. Then it will balance clean diet. It’s a little bit harder to get kids to take a lot of the herbs and formulas, so I often try to help what’s going on by mainly doing diet and life style unless they come to me with something that’s been, you know, really chronic or does like an acute case of cold or flu or like seasonal allergies or mucus.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:50:48] Then I’m able to give small doses of some of Ayurvedic herbs and mix with honey when there’s a little bit of sweetness. It’s easier for children to take it on this. There’s some cases that need the herbs eye more often, sort of lean towards diet and lifestyle. I’m teaching your kids how to have proper personal hygiene because that’s very important for metabolic activities within the system. And just sort of teaching them how to eat properly, making sure that the kids are eating their meals, making sure that they’re getting enough sleep throughout the day. All of the pretty much the basic principles of Ayurveda that apply to anybody in adults. You know, apply to children as well, maybe on a more modified basis, because sometimes it’s harder to get kids to eat anything and everything. So if they bring their kids in, I usually talk to them about what they like to eat. And I try to sort of design a diet that fits, you know, their liking or their taste, because I don’t believe in forcing kids to eat things, because if you’re not truly enjoying the food you’re eating, you’re not going to benefit from it.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:51:55] So if they like pizza, our past store and French fries, then, you know, I help sort of design Ayurvedic recipes of those foods, but using wholegrain using whole wheat instead of white flour and things like that. And it becomes, you know, somewhat fun. It’s just about getting kids excited about and it’s about speaking their language and getting them excited about the things that they’re eating, the things that they’re doing, and treating them like adults, like they’re individuals that understand and they have a choice in what they’re eating. So that also helps me connect to kids.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:52:34] And one of the things I have found is that. Has a lot of credence with parents when it comes to young children is how meaningful Ayurveda can serve in way of a coping mechanism as one grows older in that a lot of us end up resorting to some self-destructive habits in times of extreme stress. And how meaningful Ayurveda can be as a replacement to those habits in means of coping with scenarios that may be causing us stress, even if it is the practice of self-Abhyanga or breathing meditation that becomes your go to because you’ve started at a young age with practices such as Yoga or or caring for yourself in times of stress that provide this beautiful blueprint of of coping with stress, as we all will through the course of our life, and starting out young and understanding some of these things and being able to turn inward to find the strength we need can be very, very beautiful as we go through life. And Ayurveda in particular, shines in its ability to do that. And I definitely find that some of the things I learned early on through my practice of Ayurveda and Yoga have really served me well through the course of my life. Oh, sorry. This has been very, very informative and so wonderful. Before I let you go, I want to ask, is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience about Ayurveda, about integrating it into the hustle and bustle of modern life into starting out with it? Anything that you feel like we may have not covered during the course of this conversation?

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:54:34] Yeah. The one thing that I would like to say first and foremost is that I truly believe Ayurveda is for everyone and anybody can benefit from Ayurveda. So that’s, that’s key to know. And another thing is that there is no one way to really do Ayurveda. There is no way to do it perfectly. So do as much as you can based on your schedule.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:54:59] And this is sort of another thing I talk to my clients in depth about. If you wake up and, you know, wake up and sleep more or less around the same time daily and eat your meals around the same time daily. That is Ayurveda. You’re already practicing Ayurveda. If you wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, scrape your tongue and drink a cup of hot water, you’ve already done Ayurveda. So the whole it could be overwhelming to sync up the whole day in a Cheerios or a daily regimen, the seasonal regimen, and wanting to incorporate all of it. And it brings about more sort of anxiety and it makes you more overwhelmed. That’s not the goal of,Ayurveda, the goal of Ayurveda is to teach you the basic tools you need to know in order to heal yourself and your body. It’s a system of self healing. And my Ayurveda might look different than yours and the person next to me. So everybody’s sort of version of it is different. You know, I do some of the practices that I know are more beneficial for me. And the only way to kind of find that out is to give it a chance to give it a try to see, you know, what works and talk to your practitioner about your level of comfort, with taking the herbs, with falling some of the dietary stuff. And there if there are things that are you absolutely cannot fit in your to your day, then talk to your practitioner about that, because we are able to modify some of the practices and help, you know, fit them into the lifestyle and daily schedules of our clients. So, yeah, given a chance. I mean, Ayurveda quite literally has saved my life and so many people that I know around me and I have so much respect and love for this science.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:56:46] Wonderful guidance and absolutely wonderful chatting with you, Zohreh.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:56:51] Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate all that you’ve said today and all that you do for Ayurveda and your patients every day. So thank you for being with us. And I’m sure we’ll talk soon.

Dr. Zohreh Sadeghi: [00:57:07] Thank you so much. It was my pleasure speaking with you.

Shrankhla Holecek: [00:57:33] Thank you so much for listening. If you like more information on our guest and the additional references during our conversation, Please visit us at UMAOils.com.