Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Tara Lee and welcome to Star Being, your cosmic journey to self discovery, higher consciousness and spiritual exploration. This podcast serves as a guiding light, illuminating the path to wisdom, healing, and conscious living. Let Star Being ignite your inner light as we transcend limitations and tap into the universal consciousness that unites and empowers all of us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Welcome to episode 21, everything is connected. The Union of Ayurveda and Yoga for a Balanced Life with Myra Lewin. Myra is an Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga therapist with over 30 years of experience. After healing herself from rheumatoid arthritis using Ayurveda and yoga, she dedicated her life to sharing these practices. She is the founder of Helle Puree, a school of Ayurveda and yoga, and the author of several inspiring books. When Myra recently visited Perth, Western Australia, I had the opportunity to attend one of her talks and it left such a lasting impression on me. Her honesty, as you'll hear in this episode, is refreshing, and her wisdom around Ayurveda feels both grounded and insightful and very deep. And we speak about not compartmentalizing Ayurveda like it has become now in this. In this modern world.
In this episode, we cover so much her journey from the corporate world, navigating identity, how embracing her intuition in this environment led to challenging others. She also reminds us that the simplest things in life hold the most power and that showing up fully is the key to aging with grace and purpose. I hope you have so many takeaways from this conversation. I absolutely loved speaking with Myra and as always, if you enjoy this episode, please share it. Please leave a rating and a review and thank you for listening.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Welcome, Myra. I am so excited to have you on Star Being. I recently had the opportunity to see. See you when you were in Perth and you were doing some lectures and it was interesting. The talk that I went to was an introduction to Ayurveda and before it began, my friend said, oh, this might be a little bit elementary for you because I have studied Ayurveda and what. I was actually blown away. I've never heard someone speak about AA the way that you did. And I was just magnetized and entranced as everyone was in that room to. Yeah, the way that you describe AA and your. Yeah, just your frame of it. So, yeah, I'm excited to have you here.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, that's. It's. It's a. A pleasure to talk about the science of living. I've done a little of it living. That is so. Yeah. And so it's just something that so easily goes right to our heart.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yes, yes, it's this when you were speaking. It's just that the heart recognizes it as truth.
I love that. And speaking of living, Myra, what really interests me about your story is you had this completely different, I guess you could say, life. You were heavily in the corporate world and I'd love to speak to you about that. This is what I am navigating at the moment. I have recently left my corporate career and that external pressure, that drive for success that taking that toll on our health. And I'd really love to ask you, from your perspective, how does that corporate environment shape how we view success and how we also view our self worth having that identity wrapped up in that corporate instruction. I would really love to know your experience and how you navigated that.
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Well, when I, when I went into the corporate world, I hadn't planned it. I never even thought about it actually. I had planned to go into medicine and I was very focused, had grown up around science and so forth. My father was a scientist and so when it came about, honestly it was because I, I, I really didn't know what else to do. And I said I can't go into the medical field because I have to, I don't think I can change it enough. And I, but I didn't really even know what I wanted to change it to or, you know, but I knew that there was something else and honestly I just wanted to make some money and because I'd been poor for a number of years, so I went into it with that and, and, and also one other piece honestly, which was that I wanted to show my, this was a time when women were trying to have rights that, that they didn't have. And so I wanted to show my father and my brother that I could make more money than them. And so I went into it and I found it challenging.
I think that, I think that the intensity of it was much less back then perhaps, but, but it was there and it was very specific. I mean, I had to wear a suit in the office, I had to wear a suit jacket. Couldn't take your jacket off. I had to wear particular color shirts and silly things like that.
But, and it was a difficult environment because women were very new in that environment. But I quickly changed my definition of success and I think that's an important thing for all of us to take a look at that. If I'm looking at it as just the money, then frequently we'll be disappointed. Either we don't make the money or we make a lot of money and we find out that it doesn't make you happy. And I experienced some of both of that.
But what I enjoyed about it was the challenge.
There was a challenge there. And as later on, when I had what most people would call some success, I was challenged, though, by. I was leading a lot of people and managing a company, a large company, with just three other people. There were just four of us.
And so I got to have my hands on things. And that was enjoyable. But there were many, many difficult things.
These men had never had a woman in their environment.
And I ignorantly at the time, I knew how to use my intuition, not consciously, it was just all I knew how to do.
And so.
And so the, the success came from that and. Which made them very curious and somewhat competitive and. And that those are the parts that I really didn't enjoy and I wanted to move away from.
And I went through those many years of that and realized that.
And I thought, okay, well, you know, I'm going to leave now. Right. And I thought, that's great. I'm going to move on to some other things. I really wasn't quite sure what, except that I was always interested in my health being better and things of that nature and things being natural.
And so I made that choice and found myself driving down the freeway one day shortly thereafter and had to pull off on the side of the freeway, which is against the law, because I couldn't drive anymore. Because I was having that moment of realizing that my entire identity was wrapped up in it, that it was wrapped up in the position that I had. And the worst part of it was that I didn't think that that was the case.
And so that's. That's the thing that I think people, when we're in those kinds of positions, is to recognize how much meaning am I giving to this.
So it's not just, oh, I have this goal to be able to make this much money or to do have this much impact, but it's even more so is to recognize that there's a lot more to me than that. Yeah. To each of us. Right. In other words, that I can be in the world, but once I become of the world, now I'm going to suffer.
Yeah. And so there was a little suffering to recognize that, oh, oh, then who I am, who am I without all those perks or whatever. Yeah. Or who am I without that salary or that title?
And.
And so those are the things I think that were the most profound for me and at that point I was already had come into the practices of yoga, including meditation and, and, and so I had something to turn to to try to understand what had happened today. I think people are, have more awareness but not necessarily recognizing that, you know, who I am in that process.
So that's, that's the, that was my experience and just to recognize that, that a culture, a culture of a company or a culture of any organization or a community that my, my presence and my awareness makes a difference in it.
It's in other words I, if I show up fully and I'm not just trying to impress you, you know, those kinds of things, then I can contribute.
But if I don't and I'm just sort of wrapped up in the illusion of, of this identity, you know, the contribution, it has a, it's a little skewed perhaps and then we. Causes us more difficulties.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Yes. And this is. I just want to go back to what you said about using your intuition even though not having that full awareness of it and that potentially being a threat in that environment and also how that influence can like that competition that you experience and that threat in that environment.
I find that very fascinating and not spoken about much. So I'm really glad that you brought that up. But I Do you think through your practices that you found through yoga and meditation that it was able to sustain you a little bit longer in that corporate rigid environment?
And I also would love to ask you did.
Yeah, like what I'm seeing now is I'm really looking for expanders in the business when world in this space that are really leading from what you said about your energy and about your heart and about making those decisions that are in alignment, are in integrity and that you don't necessarily have to go through what has been modeled to me in the corporate way. And yeah, I would love to know your thoughts on that.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: You know, it's an interesting thing. We're right now doing some, some of our longer term planning at Hale Puli and how we, how I look at it when I've, I've been in, in a, a few different businesses and they a lot of us I think think about it, you know, oh, the business is there to make money and that's, you know, that's the purpose and that. But many businesses and ours in in particular, we're very clear that we have to keep the motive there, you know, our motive and, and it's not just to sound good but that our actions have to follow that and that's actually what makes us feel good. In life. In other words, that my motive is to, is to provide services and education in Ayurveda and yoga, to empower people to take care of themselves. Right. And then to train people to do that, to, to provide that kind of a service to them. And so it's not just, oh, we want to train people to have a career. No, it's we want to train people to be able to do something that they'll then contribute to society and feel valuable for having done it. You know, to see, like recognize, oh, I'm a part of this and you can make money doing that. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's. I think we have some skewed ideas about business that understandably get influenced by people, some bad actors. But when we look at what is business, it's really, it's an exchange. Right. It's, it's, I'm going to provide a service so that you can have something that you want that hopefully will help you be in your world more and to be in your community and develop yourself and whatever it is that makes sense.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Yes. And I see that changing now in business. I've only just started seeing this, that this is being rewritten and we're starting to see the businesses. Well, I, in my experience are starting to see the businesses that are steeped in that deep intention are gaining that momentum now. And maybe it takes a bit longer, maybe not, but yeah, it just, yeah, it feels like that is changing. So I love that.
Hello, Pure. Can be part of that change here.
I would love to ask you more about your practices of yoga and how did this help you slow down. Is this your best tool for supplementing.
Yeah. Coming more into that slow living.
What are your main tools for, you know, if we're in that corporate environment or we're trying to.
Yeah. Balance our nervous system. Is Yoga what you turn to?
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Oh, yes. It's not even what I wouldn't even say I turn to it. I would call it a foundation. And that's how I think of Ayurveda and yoga. It's the foundation of my living. And so I have that and it serves me very well.
Then I can go out into the world and not be of it. In other words, I don't get swallowed up by it.
I don't have stress outs or any of that kind of thing because it helps me keep perspective on what I'm doing and what's happening and that to recognize too that it's all just about the movement of energy.
It's about if my energy is moving, then I can flow with solutions no matter what happens. Right. We'll find out. We figure it out and we keep going.
But if I'm, if I'm out of balance and I'm stressed, I get stressed out. That's. Then that's not going to be able to happen. You know, then it's going to get real bumpy. And you know, you can imagine for many people that around Covid and that kind of thing, and myself included, it got a little bumpy, you know, but, you know, all you can do is, is turn around and say, okay, what are we going to do about this?
And so are we using our intuition? Yeah. Well, I like to think of it more as am I accessing the flow of energy in life. Right. Life is flowing. I can die tomorrow and life is going to flow some more.
And when something goes away, everything adjusts. That's how nature is. And that, that's, that's what happens. So when, when I look at, when I look at my yogic practices, yes, they, I, I certainly wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing without them based on how I was before, because I would have burned myself up, I'm sure.
And so it's not a matter of. I, I wouldn't call it slow living. I would call it balanced living because sometimes I do things quickly, although, you know, probably not what most people would think are quick. But what I don't do is rush that, that. And some people don't think that, that, you know, I go quicker than they want to go. Yeah. And, and so that's the kind of thing though that it's. Everything is. Most everything is negotiable. Yeah. You talk about it, you find out what's happening and you go from there.
But, but you know, my living has a rhythm to it and the rhythm is very much associated with the flow, flow of nature. You know, I do ceremony. I do just a small fire ceremony at sunrise and sunset every day called Agnihotra.
And it's, it's extremely powerful. Practice takes less than 10 minutes and it sets the energy very nicely.
I do pranayama and meditation every morning and asana on most mornings, that kind of thing. So those things are all there too. The pranayama and meditation and the fire ceremony are the most important though.
Yeah. And finding some rhythm with nature, even if you're just sit for five minutes with the sunrise and sunset, makes a big difference.
So those are the kinds of things that I do that, that keep a nice Rhythm for things. And, you know, and when we have that rhythm, my experience is that you can do a whole lot more than when you're thinking too much and. And trying to figure it out and rushing around and that kind of thing. I. I learned this thing many years back about looking at life from a floodlight perspective and a spotlight perspective. And you have to be able to shift, you know, when. When the. The doshas that we speak of from Ayurveda, when they're out of balance, really hard to do that. But we need to be able to do that in life. Whether it's looking at a small project or looking at something really big, we still. We have to look at the whole picture. But then we have to come down and say, okay, what do we do next?
Because if I keep looking at the whole picture, then we freak out.
So that ability to make that shift and give that to ourselves, then our perspective is different and we can enjoy the process more.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Yes. I love that intentional mindfulness that you're talking about, because I noticed when I was in corporate, and you get. It's so easy to get caught up.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: Caught.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: Caught up in that momentum, caught up in that pace. And then the first thing to go is those practices that center us, that bring us back to ourself, and then you lose the perspective. Then you get caught up in the ego, and then you know that the thing to do is to come back to those practices. And it. Yes. Such an art. To be able to break out of that and come back. But as soon as you do, everything starts. Yeah. Gaining that. That flow and everything seems to work out a lot better.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: It does. Yes, it does. Less suffering.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Yes. Mara, I would love to know your thoughts on and your path that you've been on. You know, experiencing the rhythms that you have now in your life compared to what you had when you're in corporate and seeing that duality and, you know, experiencing, you know, that. That pace and, you know, experiencing a different type of pace. Now, what was your.
What was your path to your Dharma? And what do you think Dharma. And whatever your definition of dharma is, how do you. What. Yeah. How important do you think that is in our. In our health, in our daily living? Because I think there is a lot of pressure on that.
But seeing that as a way for us to connect to something bigger within ourselves, how much importance do you place on that?
[00:22:53] Speaker C: A great deal, actually.
I mean, I look at Dharma. A lot of people think about it as their career.
You know, your career might be part of your dharma. It might not you know, but I think of it as not only the purpose in life, but it's the. It has to do with the foundation of it and so needs to be something that assists you to answer the question, why am I here?
Yeah. And.
And it's not.
I. I wouldn't say that. It's something, you know, oh, I have to. I have to believe in God or I have to recognize the source or whatever.
But if we can.
If one can relax into the idea that there's. There's a larger force at work in the universe and that I'm part of it, that's. That's. Those are the things that, that we have to get beyond to be able to. It's like going on the river. You know, you can try to paddle upstream where you can go with the flow, and just. If one can just get. Be open in the. In the mind to that possibility, then, then the, The. The ability to. To discover our dharma is. Is not so difficult. And it's not something I have to go. I have to go looking around. I can go inside and say, okay, what do I really want?
Because so often we're doing things because of some programming we picked up along the way, because of what we think other people want us to do. Family and things like that especially.
And I, I found actually in the corporate environment to some degree, and then later on that, that, you know, a lot of times we're thinking, we know what other people are thinking, and we're wrong.
Yeah. And. And so what I learned is that communication is the most important piece of this.
Am I being honest with myself? And sometimes I have to talk about it to find out if I am or not, because. And I think I am, and I find out that maybe I'm not. So that that part of the process then of discovering my dharma is for me to learn how to be honest with myself and to be able to. And to be willing, courageous enough to express that even when we think other people won't like it, it's okay. We get to do that. And those are the kinds of things that come with self inquiry that come. And it doesn't have to be big formal technique, but it does need to be something that happens regularly.
I think when people are doing too much in life that, that it becomes a problem. Right. And we don't do it. And then we don't know ourselves. And then we end up making a lot of decisions that have us land in places we actually don't want to be.
Yeah. And. But, you know, there's another piece to this, I feel when I think about Dharma, if I look back at my life and the things that I've done, I can see how all of it has contributed to where I am now.
So it's. It's a.
But how many detours you have, we can minimize them if we have good foundation, as in Ayurveda and yoga or something that helps give you a sense of self with a capital S and also gives you some rhythm that contributes to a good rhythm in life.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Was there a particular unraveling? It didn't have to be an aha moment, but was there a moment that you remember going, oh, this is how the puzzle piece fits together. This is what feels in alignment to me. This is what comes in flow and naturally to me.
Was there a moment like that for you?
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Well, you know, there were a few things. They were small, but they were. They were big. I can remember I'd been practicing a few years practicing yoga and, I mean, all aspects of yoga and studying the philosophy and so forth. And about maybe about five, almost five years, and I decided to get divorced.
And it was the only time from the moment I started that I stepped away from my practices.
And I pretty much spent three months staring out the window trying to figure out what had happened in my life, realizing that I had never really planned on getting married, didn't particularly want to get married, but I did it, you see. And. And so there was all that I was kind of mucking around in.
Then when I finally came to the point where I came back, my teacher looked at me and she said.
She said, no, no, no. This is when you needed your practices. This is when you turn to your practices. And I have never forgotten it, and I've never turned away since then. That was a moment. And then another one was when I had been introduced by her to.
To Ayurveda. And I'd been. I'd been in the. The healthy. Healthy eating, healthy living for. Already, for 20 years.
And she tried to get me to get involved, you know, say, hey, you know, you need to learn more about this. Come and watch this information. And. And I kind of did. And I just said, oh, you know, it's a little too complicated, all that. And then it wasn't until later that I was in India and. And I was complaining about the stiffness in my body.
And my friend said to me, myra, you need to have the ghee.
And so finally, I took the ghee and I started using it. In a week, my life changed in terms of me being in my body.
And then I realized like, oh, how stubborn was I And how arrogant actually, you know, so when we, and we can do this with Ayurveda and Yoga too.
When we become attached to something, we create suffering for ourselves.
And so it doesn't mean that we throw it away. It just means that ah, this is something that I participate in and I experience whether it's Ayurveda or life. Yeah. And that, but it's not going to stay the same. It's going to change. And it does.
But what I love about Ayurveda and Yoga is that is, is that it's about energy. It's about the, the core of what we are.
And so as I experience and learn more about that. More so experience than learning. Right. Our learning really comes from our experience.
Then, then life starts to have meaning and to have an expansiveness. That's quite incredible.
Yeah, that's, that's how I experience it and how I, and how I see it now. It's, it's, you know, that my ability to change and be flexible and recognize that life is always trying to give us something really good and that, that maybe what I thought of hasn't been the, the very best thing that it could be better. And I have found that to be the, my experience that if I'll allow myself to just open up and expand then we, it's more than we imagine.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Yes. That open mindedness and that flexibility of the mind, I always come back to that flexible body, flexible mind and I always think of yoga in that way.
And yeah, strengthening the mind but also having that ability to open it I think is one of the most beautiful qualities that someone can have is that open mindedness to be absolutely free. You know, when you mention about moving away from your practice and I've experienced this as well. The times where I need the practices the most is when you drop it now that you've experienced that and you, you know that it becomes easier for you to come back. But is it, how. Is there any technique that you do to will yourself back or is it just this devotion and discipline that you have now that you've cultivated?
[00:32:13] Speaker C: I would say that the consistency is one thing. The consistency gives us the discipline. Right. That we develop that. And, and also it depends on how you see it, particularly the yogic practices.
If you see it as something, oh, it makes me feel good, well then you're probably going to do a dance with it. If you start to recognize though that it allows you to clear the clutter enough to actually be able to Seek the God of your heart or to seek that full experience of, of the source, of the, of Purusha or the, whatever you want to call it, that, that, you know, otherwise we really, we end up just talking about it and that some people feel like, oh, my devotion will get me there.
Maybe, maybe. But I, I found that devotion is one thing, but real devotion comes when, when, when there's, when there's that discipline that has me go to it when I really need it. Yeah. And so what makes us go, go back to it is that internal decision that I want to feel good.
Might say, oh, it's because I'm seeking God. But it, it's mo. Most of us have to start with. It's more important to feel good than to be distracted by what's on the outside. And that's where the practice of pranayama comes in meditation, obviously extremely important. But what actually allows us to go deeper in meditation is the pranayama.
Because I use, there's a saying in yoga, I use the breath to master the mind and I use the mind to master the senses, which has me not take those detours. Right. If I, if I can master those senses and recognize that those sense pleasures are not going to bring me what I, what I really want, then I can enjoy, I can certainly experience the senses in a very deep way and enjoy that. There's a lot there. It's just, you know, I'm not going to allow myself to get distracted and take a. To your detour or something like that. So, so you see how that structure sort of, it builds a pathway that, that keeps us on track. And with that comes that self inquiry.
What is, what is really important to me.
And for example, people, sometimes they'll say, oh, you know, I ended up, I did this and I did this and I did this. And at the end of the week I didn't feel very good because I went out every night. Right. And then I didn't even feel good to enjoy my weekend. And it's that ability to recognize that we don't have to participate in everything that comes flying by.
And that's the pranayama practices develop the mind in a way that we start to recognize that and we don't let ourselves get distracted by the things that are not that important. They're nice.
I always say to people, you know, let somebody else tell you about it and enjoy that you don't have to go do it. Yeah. Especially these days, we have so much available.
Yes, Yes.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: I would love to ask you about the, the Nervous system. You touched on this a little bit when I heard you speak in Perth about.
Well, what I'm saying is that in our modern world there's a lot of brain and nervous system disorders and that our modern science is really struggling to address what these, could you even call them modern day disorders of the, the mind and the body. And we're, we're seeing all these.
Yeah, we don't even know what they are. And I would love to know from what you're experiencing and also from that Ayurvedic lens with our lifestyle, with our food, our daily practices, how can we restore our balance? And I know you've, you've touched on yoga and Ayurveda to do that, but particularly what I'm seeing is always coming back to the nervous system. And you just mentioned distractions and this kind of relentless bombardment that we're being exposed to. I'd love to know what you're seeing with the nervous system and.
Yeah, just your thoughts.
[00:37:30] Speaker C: Well, the, the past 15 years, the 15 years ago and prior to I, every person that came to me did not have a Vata disorder, which. Right. When we have problems with the nerves, when we have problems with the mind like that, it's, it's. The vata is, is in excess.
Vata being air and space. So it creates the energy becoming scattered.
And many people do things that scatter their energy. Flying on airplanes for long periods of time, especially people being without homes and saying, oh, I'm traveling, you know, and, and that kind of thing. And it's, that sounds all exciting. But there is a consequence from that besides the food, food being too much of a light, airy nature and, and those kinds of things. So there are many factors that are contributing to this. Besides spending the majority of the time on electronics, which, you know, the, the images that we see are created by flickering lights. And those flickering lights are going to aggravate vata. And vata is totally responsible for the nerves.
And so the fact that the medical folks aren't able to, you know, do much about it except give drugs. And that is because they don't understand. It's, you know, they don't understand where the problem is coming from in terms of the body's response to the external environment so that they don't make that connection. So the idea that what they're offering is not that helpful is not surprising actually.
You know, the drugs can knock it down or hide it, but eventually it's going to show up somewhere else, somewhere even less pleasant.
So, you know, that's why I think Ayurveda has now experienced more interest.
I mean, I've waited a long time for this.
And with that we're getting a lot of dilution of it.
Ayurveda doesn't get diluted, but the presentation is getting diluted by going at it from a compartmentalized thinking as opposed to a holistic thinking. To recognize that everything affects everything else in the body. Our environment related to our body and our mind. It's not separate. Even the fact that we talk about it separately is a little bit strange.
So, you know, one of the things that says in the very beginning of the.
One of the primary Ayurveda texts is from Charaka is all disease begins in the mind.
And so back to what we were speaking about earlier, which is that if there's, if there is no self inquiry, if there's not, if a person doesn't know themselves well inside, they don't know how to be honest about things. Right. We're just kind of bouncing around doing what we think other people think or we're worried about how we look or.
And those kinds of things. And so with that, there's going to be disharmony in the flow of energy within that person and that's going to contribute to the vata imbalance and to disease.
And vata is very powerful within us.
It's interesting because it's a significant factor in the part that connects us to spirit.
And so the idea that it has become much more disturbed in us just perhaps suggests that we've moved away from spirit even more.
You know, we, we moved away from religions. I'm speaking kind of generally now in my lifetime and you know, perhaps for good reasons, but. But then maybe a little bit lost. Yeah. And so not that we have to have rigidness, but. But that greater understanding of self and what's possible, that's one of, I would say that's one of my goals is to have people recognize the amount of power they have to heal, the amount of power they have to create.
We're getting a good idea that we can destroy.
We can destroy our health, we can destroy our body, we can destroy other things on the outside too. But we're also creators.
It is a cycle.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: Such a powerful message. And that's one of the key messages that I took away when I saw you. You saying that everything is connected and that your choices are powerful. So what are you choosing? And I remember you said, I think you were taking some questions and you said, what are you doing to cause that? And it was such powerful. Because you know, on this spiritual path, it is about taking that radical responsibility. How am I inflicting that suffering, that pain? Because like you said, coming back to the mind, our beliefs about what, that, what happened and how that affected you or everything like that, even our lifestyle choices. But yeah, I've suddenly come back to that realization just how important and powerful the mind is in either creating or like you said, destroying and how we can use it to build. So I think that's such a beautiful reminder that. Of our power.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. And of cause and effect. Yeah, I know. There's an action and there's a result.
So.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: You mentioned pramayama, as you're helping with going deeper.
Is that what you would say is a number one practice for the nervous system, the brain?
[00:44:27] Speaker C: Yes, yes. As far as a formal practice, I mean, I would think the first things that need to come are consistency with eating and sleeping times consistently doing it, because that gives you, that gives your, you not being distracted by your body quite as much. Right. And then from there. Yes, the conscious breathing and then moving into pranayama practices. Pranayama practices being where there's a progression in it. People do a little of this and a little of that these days and you know, it might be helpful a little bit in the moment, but the practices as most are, are cumulative.
So as I, as I develop in it, you know, I, I, I become more accomplished in it, it gets easier and then it gets a little boring because it's too easy. And then, but, but with a good teacher, then you, it should be progressing. Then you make it a little more challenging and it expands and it becomes very much about in working with the breath in a way that calms the mind and it prepares you then for deeper meditation which will take you to a deeper sense of self. Yeah.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Yes. Always forgetting how important sleep is. And I think it's only recently that I have discovered for brain health how important that sleep and the quality of sleep that we're getting is.
[00:46:05] Speaker C: Yes, it is. Quality and quantity. Yeah, Big, big difference.
Oh, and one thing I see to do, I just want to say, and that is that to any parents out there, your children need more sleep than you're giving them. Most people are allowing them to operate on seven, six, seven, eight hours of sleep. Young children should be sleeping 10 hours, 11 hours like that, and it'll make a big, big difference in the nerves, as we were talking about, and their ability to focus all of that.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: I saw an article the other day that said I don't I don't know if this has any science backing, but it said having sleep a lot, you know, a longer amount of sleep when you're younger.
They did a study of like them being taller and I was like, oh, that's so fascinating because they're, you know, obviously rejuvenating. They're, you know, they're cultivating that energy to be able to.
[00:47:12] Speaker C: Yeah, grow.
Yeah, you're growing a body. It's the Kapha time of life. We look at it in Ayurveda. You're, it's, you're gonna grow them physical mass and if you don't have enough to work with, then you need the rejuvenation and you need proper food for that.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Speaking of digestion, I would love to ask you about our acne and also our digestive fire also going off. The thought that if our digestion is off, which there's a lot of people struggling with digestive upsets, digestive disorders as well have that linking to the brain. Like if we're, our digestion is off, then we're not digesting our food, but we're not digesting our life.
I'd love you to speak about agony in that way and how important it is in what you, what you teach as well.
[00:48:19] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. You know, when people learn about Ayurveda, they learn about the doshas and they learn about the elements hopefully. And, and that's great because that starts to help us understand the body a little more and our relationship with nature and that but on a cellular level. Then there's this thing called the agni, which is our digestive capacity. And so I can eat a very, a perfect, wonderful, organic, well prepared meal with lots of love. And if my agony is not working well, it doesn't matter. I'm not going to digest it well. I'm not going to make good body tissue and I, I, and I'm likely to create toxins in the body. That's why, you know, so many people have all these digestive problems these days and that, and they want to blame it on the food. Well, there's, there's poor quality food for sure, but most of it's not the food, most of it is our condition and that, you know, that those are simple, those consistent practices. For example, I was mentioning, you know, that three meals in the day, eat regularly at regular times. You know, those things are what allows agni, your digestive capacity to do its job well.
And, and then for us to understand, for example, I live in the tropics and it's summertime. And so it's, it's hot and humid and our agni is a little lower because it's trying to keep us cool.
But our capacity to digest is down a little bit. So we need to nurture it and take care of it. And it doesn't take a lot, but it just understanding those little things make a big difference.
Those are, those are the kinds of things, though, that affect our ability to think well, because if I'm not digesting, you know, my, my lunch very well, I'm going to feel sleepy in the afternoon. I'm gonna. I'm not gonna be able to be productive in the way I'd like to be.
And, and so.
But the other thing that happens is when I don't digest well. For example, if you eat late, you eat late at night, and then you wake up the next morning and it feels like it's still there, because that's. Because it is.
And what it's happening right then is that you're making toxins. Body can't digest it well. It's trying to figure out what to do with it. And eventually there's fermentation takes place and things of that nature.
And then the body goes on and is doing its job and it takes those toxins and puts them into your deeper tissues. Because what we eat, we start creating this body tissue.
And there's a very specific way we describe that in Ayurveda. It's quite beautiful. But if, but if that process isn't taking place. Well, you know, the, the, the transporter of those, the nourishment, which is vata doesn't know the difference between the nourishment and the toxins. Yeah. And so that's how we end up with disease.
So there's a, that, that's kind of the basics of that process.
And I think for people to understand that, you know, to recognize that we all have this going on inside of us or we could not have the toxin part going on. That's what makes a huge difference. You know, that's, that's where, that's where most disease comes from, which means I have control over it. I can do something about it.
So that's, I think one of the main messages for us to come to understand is to recognize that I can do something about this. I can prevent this kind of thing too. Especially, especially a younger person.
Many young people having diseases now that I never saw young people for that kind of thing before. Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: And I'm wondering if you see a correlation between this fast Food the way that we're no more dis. More disconnected from the process of cooking food, creating food, and it's seen more of as a chore or something that we outsource now. It's not something that we see as important.
And I wonder if that disconnection there is fueling a bit of that inability to digest in not having that connection, not smelling it like it would be on the stove or being around those aromas. I'd love to know your thoughts on the. The sacredness, because I have. Yeah. Seen some of your recipes, and so I know that that is an important foundation of your work, but I'd love you to speak about that. That sacredness of food and how we can maybe inspire more of that intentional cooking.
[00:53:36] Speaker C: Yes. Yes.
You know, it became. It became a difficult thing in the late. In the 70s, in the 19. Late 1970s, especially when women started going into the workplace because.
Well, because you're going to go to a job full time and then you're going to try to cook. And that's also when restaurants exploded. I grew up in the United States. That's when that was happening there. Before that, you know, the restaurants, they were in the big city some, but you didn't go all the time. But most of. Most of the country didn't have restaurants.
So those came about and all of that changed and that attitude changed and we lost something very important because it's meant to be a sacred connection with nature three times a day. Now, these days, everybody says, oh, I want to. I want to be in nature. I want to be connected to nature. Well, you have an opportunity every day and respecting something that's so important because it's what creates this body, that what I. What and how I eat becomes part of me one way or the other. It becomes. It either becomes toxins or it becomes part of my healthy body tissue.
So it. So to bring that back in whatever tiny way that someone is willing to. Will make a difference in how you feel. I remember in my.
I think it was in my early days in Ayurveda, there was a movie that was made.
I think it was somebody from Mexico or one of the South American countries. And.
And it was about a lady who was cooking, who started putting love into the food and she wanted to see what was going to happen was fabulous. And that was. And then I realized, oh, oh, it's about the energy. Yes. And that. And so, you know, and the thing about eating out is, boy, you don't know what you're getting.
And certainly you can, you know, bless it and try to clean it up as much as possible. But it makes a big difference. You know, I'm not a. I'm not a fancy cook at all. People like my cooking, though, because. Because of the purity of the energy that goes into it. And this was something I experienced in my early yoga days and I learned about it there, and it just made so much sense. My mother wasn't a good cook in the sense that, you know, most of it came out of a can, but there was a lot of love in it, I realized later on, because her main focus in life was, you know, to raise her kids or to. To provide for her kids in the very best way. So there's a number of different angles. Whatever we can do, though, to get ourselves to just open up because again, it's about that. It's that bringing the mind and heart together again, whatever little way you can do that. Maybe it's a little prayer. Maybe it's just a statement of appreciation for the hands that brought it to you, for the farmers and. And then the people you bought it from you. All of those people's energy are there and we want to be connected. Well, that's one way to connect.
So I. I've had people that just started saying. Saying some acknowledgement at the beginning of the meal and chew their food thoroughly and get rid of problems. You know, I mean, I've had people tell me they sleep better and all kinds of things. So the simplest things are. Really. Are the most powerful.
[00:57:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's. That's what I love about your. Your teaching and I took away is. It's just sometimes those tiny tweaks that don't cost anything that just require that mindfulness. But we're looking for those extraordinary.
Yeah. Protocols. And.
Yeah, it's. It's fascinating.
And you know, I took so much away about coming back to that simplicity from what you were speaking about and how, you know, it sounds so simple. It. It sounds so.
Yeah. You know, make sure you chew your food, make sure you're paying attention and just enjoying it. But that's how far we seem to have straight.
[00:58:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: But hopefully conversations like this where we're putting that spotlight on that mindfulness.
[00:58:26] Speaker C: That'S, you know, coming present in your life.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: You could say Ayurveda came into my life first of the Vedic sciences and then Jyotish, Vedic astrology and yoga has been sort of after that. But I would love to know, do you also incorporate Jyotish into your practices? Have you seen any.
Yeah. What's your experience with Jyotish, I'm just interested to know.
[00:58:59] Speaker C: Yes, we do. We actually. We plan our workshops in that according to what the planets and the transits are doing and everything that goes on. And, and with myself, it's a consideration sometimes on a daily basis, depending on what I'm. What I'm doing and recognizing. Yeah, I think Jyotish is a wonderful thing because it helps us to understand ourselves.
And so we have a few different people that we work with regularly and that when I learned about Jyotish, I remember I had a moment where I was sitting there and I said, this is enormous. I don't know if I have enough time in life to do this. And Ayurveda. And so I made a decision at that point, said, okay, don't try to do this too. Just let's rely on other people to give us what we need with it. And we do. And we do.
And it has helped me to understand myself, helps me to understand the folks that work with me and, and my clients. You know, often I'll. I'll refer my clients to. To get a reading, to get maybe to get some peace around something that's happening or how things are going sometimes to, you know, get some information about what. What direction would be best supported in that. But I think it's good to stay away from predictions and things like that. But it's very, very good for understanding yourself. I mean, I. I came to understand why. Why did I act like that as a kid and why did my family, you know, why did they not like me because I was too different, you know, those kinds of things. And so brought a lot of peace and. And it's nice to be able to have a chuckle at oneself too.
[01:00:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes. That is my experience as well, that, that peace and permission is very comforting once you see it in front of you and get to understand yourself on that deeper level.
I would lastly love to ask your philosophy around aging and especially in a culture that is so focused on the physical appearance and also.
Yeah. Having this negative view towards aging.
And I would love to know your philosophy on both aging and both beauty and. Yeah. How. Yeah. And your, Your approach.
[01:01:50] Speaker C: I think it's important to recognize that whatever I'm doing today, I am creating tomorrow.
And that's. Some people will say, pay attention and you'll see if I eat poorly today, I'm going to not feel as well tomorrow.
That's a very simple understanding that everything we do matters. Everything I expose myself to matters. It makes an impression on the mind which then affects my ability to make decisions and affects my. How I see the world and see myself. So, and we, in. In Ayurveda, we describe all those things and, and why they're so important in more depth. But, but just to recognize that we're holistic beings. It. Everything affects everything else. We have a. We have a very.
A very incorrect, I'd say view of what aging means and what health is. You know, health to many people seems like it's. It's the absence of a major disease. Some people even will say, though I'm healthy, even though I'm taking six medications and, and whatever. And whatever. Yeah, and those kinds of things.
Those are some views that have been perpetuated that would it be very good when we. More people start to see beyond that? And I see that happening. I see that happening in the clients that come to me that, you know, they, they're. And unfortunately, sometimes people are coming, you know, when they're 50 and 60. But I have had seen people make enormous changes that, in other words, they make small, simple changes like we've been talking about, and they have enormous change in their life as a result of it. So we can do things later. We have people come and do our acne therapy program in their 80s, and they get results where they feel better. So there, you know, there's. There's always the ability to heal.
But the, the thing that we'd like to do is to try to avoid.
Avoid the.
The discomfort of diseases and to have that aging be as comfortable as possible. One of the things I talk to people about, you know, what is your greatest fear? Most people will say it's a lack of mobility or I'll lose my mind or, you know, lose my capacity to think well and function well. Well, those are all things we understand very clearly how they happen. It's not just bad luck, you know, it's not just your jyotish chart.
And so, you know, one of my goals is to. Is to have younger folks understand that and say, yeah, you think this is fun right now, just understand that this, this and this happens. And so how do you want it to be? Yeah, because most people, if they really think about it, they want to lead a full life.
Most people are looking for that depths of experience these days. Not everybody, but many.
And so that's what I have to say about aging. And beauty only comes as a result of how you feel about yourself inside. And if I'm running around worried about what other people think of me or, you know, thinking that I have to look like everybody else. And this is something our education system has perpetuated in the media in. Yeah. And we can blame them, but we don't. It doesn't matter. We don't need to blame anybody. Except when I'm aware of it, am I willing to do something different? Which is that when I came to. When I came to Aida and I learned about balanced living and balanced eating, you know, and I grew up with three meals a day and I didn't snack because we didn't back then, and those kinds of things. So I had that. But I had drifted from it some, somewhat. And.
But. But when I realized that I really wanted to feel good, otherwise, life didn't make sense to me. And so that's the kind. Those are the kind of questions that we have to ask ourselves.
What do I want it to be? Because I'm creating it every day.
But. And so those are the kinds of things that actually perpetuate beauty in someone, whether it's a man or a woman.
We.
Beauty is what we exude. You know, it's. It's when someone comes around you and they feel. They. They feel this something that's. Something that's like nature, you know, that's like the flowers or like the trees or beautiful clouds. All of those things. Right. Whether it's a man or a woman, it's like that. It's that good feeling of life. Yeah. Of full living.
So when I came to Ayurveda, then I discovered this. A much more balanced way of living. Honestly, I've never had to think about my weight and I don't think about how I look, and.
And I've allowed the aging process to happen. And when I've had some times where I've gotten.
There were two times in particular when I.
When I wrote art trainings for counselor training. Not something I ever planned to do, but the challenge was presented to me and so I said, I'm going to do it. And I did it. I did it in 11 months. And that's what made my hair turn white. So.
And then I got more convinced even that, oh, yeah. So when the dosha gets a little out of balance, this pitta became quite prominent. And as I was thinking about it all the time, and. And so that happened. And then it's been this sort of gradual process. As you know, I look in the mirror and every now and then, not often, and I go, ah, okay. It's different now.
And. And I think that's important just to recognize it does change, and it's okay.
It doesn't mean that I'm less of a person. It just means that things have changed. And part of the human experience is, you know, there's the saying that we, we're dying the moment we're born.
First we grow the body and then eventually the body deteriorates. In Ayurveda, we like to have that deterioration take place gracefully and slowly.
Yeah. And it. Can I just say that when I was growing up, I was around a lot of old folks, you know, my, my parents, my grandparents, friends especially, and they were, there's a bunch of old farts that were 80s and 90s and over 100 and you know, some of them were smoking and, and that. But they, they lived wholesome kind of lives.
Yeah. And they were clear minded. Yeah, yeah. Because they. Participating in life.
[01:09:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:09:17] Speaker C: So I think that's an important thing for aging gracefully is that some people. I was talking to somebody about retirement yesterday and somebody was asking about it and, and her mother retired and didn't know what to do with herself. And, and it's, you know, then we can see, you know, maybe we've limited our lives just to our work or something, but now we can expand it and it's just a matter of stepping out there and seeing what would I want to do and how can I contribute.
[01:09:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that is so important, that sense of community in our overall mental health and physical health and just even, you know, this beautiful lecture that you gave, you know, taking your time to do that, but then it just the environment that you're in, everyone is there wanting to learn, wanting to better themselves. It gives you such a new like zest of life, being in that environment when people are inspired and wanting to do something as well. Since you're in the middle of this at the moment, what have you got planned coming in 2025? Where is your heart? And if there's anything that you would love to leave the listeners.
[01:10:48] Speaker C: I think it's more important than ever that we make sure that what we do and what we participate in is really important to us. I think it's important for all of us to stay focused and to make sure that you smile and laugh every day at least once in a day.
What we're planning is.
Well, we have, we have a few things, a few special online things that are coming up and we're going to be doing some in person, it looks like in the United States. I'll be in Japan in June, in March. Excuse me. Yeah. And in the UK in August, in India in September. And so. Right. And then either late October or early November back in Australia.
So that's kind of what it's looking like at this point. And those will be immersions for our clients and students and that too. And we'll be doing some workshops as well. So lots of fun things.
[01:12:00] Speaker A: Well, I look forward to that. And yeah, I can see myself going to one of those. It sounds like a fun year of travel and deep experiences for you.
[01:12:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Lots of opportunity to keep Bata calm.
[01:12:17] Speaker A: Yes. I was just going to say yes. I'm sure you've got your plane protocol down part now.
[01:12:25] Speaker C: I do.
[01:12:28] Speaker A: Thank you so much for your time. And I'm going to link all the show notes to your where they can find you.
[01:12:36] Speaker C: Okay, great. Okay, good. Well, it's been nice talking with you. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for. Thanks for having me.
[01:12:43] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to Star Being. May the wisdom shared resonate in your soul. Until next time, stay connected and keep reaching for the stars. This is Star Being signing off.
