19. Nidhi Pandya: Detrimental Effects of Modern High-Stress Lifestyles, Rising Issues of Infertility and PCOS, Daily Ayurvedic Rituals + More

How can I look at the things that you're already doing in your life and invite more warm and moist, Right?

Basically. And if you're too hot and humid, you just come back a notch. If you're drinking apple cider vinegar, you're drinking five cups of black coffee, and you have so much inflammation and your skin has flared up, you know, that's all hot and dry. Like, that's why coffee stimulates us, Right? So you already know. So you learn how to balance that. So you bullet your coffee, you have your wine with your cheese. I tell people, let me meet you wherever you're at. You don't have to give up any anything, but you want to learn how to balance it by knowing what to pair it with, what time of day to do it.

The following is an operation podcast production. Welcome to the podcast Nitipandia Ayurvedic. Doctor, I'm so thrilled to have you here. I think I have just the biggest girl fan crush on you. I have no idea how we started following each other, but I feel like when I come to your page, it's just a really refreshing place to be for I feel everything. Health and wellness. So, you know, before we dive in, this podcast is all about becoming more rooted, more rooted in your health and yourself and I think your inner wisdom to heal. But, you know, what are some of the things that make you feel uprooted in your life when you're disconnected from that?

Absolutely. So I would say anytime that you disconnect from wisdom and you lean into information, right? You disconnect from your insight and you trust something outside of you without filtering it, without bringing it inside and internalizing it through your own wisdom, whatever that is. Right. It could be something you eat. It could be something you watch. It could be a person that you're, you know, relating to because you're told you have to. Every time you disconnect from yourself, you. You're uprooted.

That is so good and so relevant for now because we're all looking for external sources of information outside of us, right? What supplements to take, what diet to follow, what's the latest on health and wellness that I can do, but it's outside of our own wisdom.

Oh, that's good. Exactly. And it's so subtle, Mona, that we don't even realize it. Right. Because it's. It's marketed so widely that we all just fall into it.

We normalize it.

Yeah, yeah, we normalize it.

So on the flip side, you're such a great expert to this field. What Are some of the things that make you feel more rooted then more grounded in your wisdom.

Right. So I think it's actively honing your wisdom. Right. And that only happens when you take time. What I say to stop doing and start being. So I think it's. It's. So of course, there's rituals and there's practices, and they could look very different for two people. I think it's extremely important to honor what works for you in terms of rituals and practices, but just start to create this mindset that I don't. You know, we've also given so much importance to just being productive all the time. As a result, we burn out. And according to Ayurveda, you know, it's like, how quickly do you burn out determines how quickly do you reach your decay and demise. So I think just shifting your mindset and telling yourself that every time I'm doing, am I balancing it with being every time I'm using my resources, am I coming back to refuel and repair? And you could have several tools and we can talk about the tools of repair. So I think for me, it's like I have tools through the day and I always utilize them. And I will tell you, Mona, I don't know the last time. No, actually do know the last time, because I did not repair that way. But for the last 10 years, I would say for most of those 10 years, I don't know the last time that I felt like so tired, besides this one period. And we can talk about that. But otherwise, by the end of the day, I still have energy, but I'm in a very sweet sleep state because of that constant repair.

That's so great. Because I feel like when you get to a certain age, especially with kids, another norm that we constantly hear is how exhausted you should be, how you should be done at the end of the day, you can't wait to crawl to bed. Which is true sometimes. Right. But it doesn't really be the case. Yes. Right.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

And I think also, I think we've become obsessed with raising our kids when we don't need to raise our kids. Kids have their own destinies, have their own path. And while we kind of create some law and order, some boundaries, but they're meant to just blossom on their own, you know, And I think just giving up that mindset that I have to raise my kids, I mean, we're no. 1. We have no business raising any other human being. But we create an environment where they can feel nurtured and grow.

Oh, my Gosh, we'll talk about that. Your kids are older than mine, but I feel like our kids are overstimulated. They're constantly doing, doing, doing. We're teaching those than this do culture, Right?

Absolutely.

That'll be another episode.

An important one. Very important to talk about that like I'm all about it.

As women we have to share this, right?

Absolutely.

So, you know, it fascinates me. One, you obviously have this love of Ayurveda. We'll get into your story. It is time tested wisdom that is spans that offers us. I think the greatest thing from my experience is the approach of bio individuality. So for the first time when my health was at its worst and I went back to the ashram and I went, I met with an Ayurvedic doctor for the first time at the ashram. Yeah. And it was the first person to help me acknowledge that what I should be doing should be completely different than everyone else out there. She was asking me so many details about my inner nature and then helping me, helping me pave a path to, you know, the specifics around like a daily schedule for me.

Exactly.

And this bio individual approach I think is like one of the greatest gifts from ancient wisdom that's practiced a bunch with different cultures also. And how we can bring that into modern day medicine instead of looking for this cookie cutter approach.

Absolutely. It's, you know, I think, I think the concept is called doshas. Of course, in my world, Mona, to make it more accessible to people, I've recoined the term from doshas to climate. And like once you. Because we all understand climate, I mean we're all global beings. Everybody has gone from a place which is really cold to really want to really humid to really dry. So you know, I basically say what is your inner climate? Is this is a concept, a term that I've coined. So I work a little bit more with that so people understand they don't have to be married to Kapha Pitavata. But it's once you know your climate, if you know that you're going to some place for a vacation and it's hot, you know how to pack, you don't need to be told and vice versa. So I've tried to make it intuitive for people by just calling it your inner climate and then I just take it from there.

So you clearly came to that discovery though by going through your own journey. Right. So when you did your formal training in holistic health, what guided you towards Ayurveda? How did you know that this was the path.

Right. So Mona, for me I grew up with Ayurveda. My grandfather was a healer. So I say I was immersed in Ayurveda since birth. It was the first language. I didn't know any other way to live. And you know, people often would ask me that. It must have been restricted for you when you grew up. But the truth was it was actually liberating because when you understand the principles of nature and the hacks of the universe, that experience to me, health was more the freedom that comes from being well. It was not the fear of disease. So when I moved to the west, maybe about you know, a few 20 plus years ago, and I looked around me and I realized that health was really the fear of disease here in the west. And I think that's. And I also did some marketing stint with a pharmaceutical company and I realized that fear was strategically being sold. That's when I went on a mission to teach Ayurveda the way that I had learned it. I also by now spent a lifetime thinking about what makes people sick and what makes people tick because I grew up in a large family and I was constantly observing patterns that how each one of us responds differently to the same stimulus. So I feel like that's what set me up even before my six year formal education and Ayurveda did.

So you had this insight. So obviously there was, there was things nudging you along that way. Would you say that that experience in pharmaceutical was at the pivotal moment for you?

Yeah. And it's the same time that in my life, like I always wanted to be a mother. So it was around the same time that if I'm going to bring my kids into this world and I'm going to be living here in the west and the world is changing so rapidly, I need to do something to change this ecosystem, at least the ecosystem around me. And I said, you know, I gotta be on this mission. And honestly, before I knew it, Mona, it was just contagious. And I always see a woman heals, the family heals, the family heals, communities heal, communities heal, the world heals. So before I knew it, it was just contagious. And never looked back for a second since then.

Such a powerful concept. Especially today, I think there's this awakening to, you know, finally understanding that a woman's has to look completely different for men. We're understanding that the studies all along were exclusively done on men and not on women. And now, you know, when we think about women maybe living at this mismatch with how we're going through life, working corporate jobs, juggling so many things. It's like, against our constitution, or at least if we're not finding the time to have flow. Right. Like, that's a big why. And I think that's probably why you're getting so much attention, too, because you're such a voice for a woman's health.

And you know the word that you use, flow, Right. Flow is very water. Flow is very lunar. Women are beings of water. We're beings of lunar. We're not supposed to dry out over productivity. Dries you out. And, you know, fertility has become such a big issue, Mona, in the last 15 years that I've been in this field, I cannot even tell you how, how I've seen this grow, like, lack, lack of fertility or infertility because we've dried out. If you think about all our reproductive juices, amniotic fluid, breast milk, we're so lunar. And that is flow and that is water and drying up, using up all our resources, all our fuel in the body. No wonder we're facing this crisis today.

Yeah. So couldn't you dive deeper on that from an Ayurvedic perspective then, looking at the state of women's health now with the infertility issues, the rise in pcos with women. Now let's start with girls going through puberty so much faster than ever before, going through menopause so much sooner than ever before. Is there an Ayurvedic lens to this? Yeah, absolutely.

And it's just the analogy that I use. Right. So adolescence looks like a lamp full of oil. So think about an oil lamp. And, you know, that's what a teenager is like. There's a flame and there is fuel. In fact, if you look at an adolescent's face, you can see all of that fire and fuel on their face. And then as we kind of go through our youth years, we end up using the fuel right now, where as we reach menopause, it's basically the time that the fuel dries out, the flame goes off, and then you kind of reach your drying years. That's what we call, you know, those are the drying years. And that's how we relate to that in Ayurveda. Now, how quickly are you going to use your fuel? How quickly are you going to let it burn out? And that's what mainly happens. All our lifestyles, in my language, I call it solar. Whether it is caffeine, whether it is alcohol, whether it is stress, whether it's working out too much, whether it's working too hard, hard, whether it's staying up too late. And I'm not saying that you can never do any of these things. You can do all of these. But when you learn to balance your solar with, with your lunar, you're doing with your being, when you can kind of create that life for you, you know, you actually stop in time. Like I feel like you can go on for years and you don't realize you don't experience aging the same way. And I can see this with my aunts and people in my family, such a large family, like eight women, no pcos, no pcod, everybody has had normal vaginal deliveries. And it's just, it's not that we did anything extra. We didn't even go into the whole doshas. We just lived by these principles. We understood that you always have to balance your solar. You're doing it, doing energies with your being. And that's not only in your foods and it's not only in your lifestyle, but it's both, you know, so it's not only the caffeine, it's also your productivity. So you, you have to balance them both. And we can talk a little bit about what, you know, what that lunar looks like later at some.

I want to take a quick break from this episode to thank our amazing sponsor, Timeline Nutrition, and to share one of their products that I believe to be a game changer, which is Mitopure. Why is Mitopure so important? To me, it all comes down to healthspan. Sure, living longer is great, but what's the point if you can't enjoy those extra years? I want to live to be 90 years old and still be active and living life to the fullest. And that's where Mitopure comes in. Mitopur is the first product to offer a precise dose of Urolithin A, a powerful postbiotic that nearly is impossible to get from diet alone. Urolithin A removes damaged mitochondria that make you feel old and tired and recycles them into new, healthy ones. It's like giving your cellular energy generators a much needed upgrade. After just a few months of taking two softgels daily, I noticed significant improvements in my energy levels. I feel stronger, more resilient and less inflamed. All crucial aspects of a healthier aging routine. Timeline is offering 10 off your first order of Mitopure. Head to timelinenutrition.com mona and use code mona to save. Remember, it's not just about adding years to your life, but life to your years again, that's timelinenutrition.com Mona and use code Mona to save. It's just so fascinating because despite what we know, even hearing this today, right? So longevity and all of these things to go against our body's system, to hack the system. Biohacking, right? Like I hate that word, biohacking. I don't want to hack my body. But here we are, here we are living in a world where, okay, we have this understanding, okay, lunar. We want to, you know, be able to maintain that idea of flow. But we have to go back to this hardcore lifestyle and still still live in this paradigm. So would you say that for people listening right now, is there something simple that they could just adopt to invite that? Like what could they do to experience more flow in one day? What's one thing that they can practice?

I of course would like to give three things, but let's talk. The first thing you want to do is, is live according to the cycle of the sun. So after 4pm, you know, you actually design your day so that you do the most productive work between 10 and 2, when the sun is at its peak. Because all your neurotransmitters, your hormones are designed for focus. And you do it at 4 o', clock, you start reserving the easiest tasks of the day. Actively slow down even just your body movements. That's fine just the way you speak and you can just change the tone of your voice and then you'll change the speed of your voice naturally, right? And then you kind of start to just like kind of get into that little bit of a transy state so that by the time you hit your bed, your body is already moved into repair. Hopefully you can sleep by 10 because you're working with the sun. So that's one thing. The second thing that I do is that even in the moment, right? If just like you and I are sitting here, every inhale puts your body in a doing mode, literally a sympathetic fight or flight mode. Because suddenly oxygen is going to your blood and to your organs and the body gets ready to do. Every exhale is kind of repair. It is the being mode. It is the parasympathetic mode. But when you're often in doing, doing, doing, what happens, Mona, is that your body has to force out a sigh. You're not exhaling enough. So not repairing, you can repair. Every moment can bring repair. So what I tell people is that every time you remember, in the middle of a conversation, in the middle of one meeting to the other, I do this all the time. You know that when I go from one meeting to the other, I take a few moments and I kind of just like exhale a little bit and through the nose works best. But you can do this even in the middle of a conversation. Like while I'm talking to you right now, I will just like notice that I'm exhaling instead of just holding my breath. And that is the biggest game changer. Right? And then I would say third thing is touch is very lunar. So unfortunately we live in isolated communities and we don't always bring that touch to us. You know, it's hard to get, but like even just a self massage, you know, using oil on your body, but when you're touching, when you're being touched, just take a moment to notice it, take a moment to feel it. And honestly Mona, these are fairly simple things. You could have a really busy day. But if you're taking moments in between to exhale to ground. And with that exhale, I also want to give one more tip because it's important. If you're, if you cannot understand the exhale and you can't relate to it, no worries, just hum. Because humming is exhaling. You know, if you hum, it's a nasal exhale. So if you don't understand how to, you know, breathe out through the mouth, through the nose, don't worry about it. Just hum and it instantly will reset your nervous system. So you know, people think when you're happy, you hum, but also humming will make you happy.

So good. Yeah. And this is another like wisdom around nervous system regulation that's like, you know, trending right now. There's simple free practices from home. We all know people, I'm one of them included. When there's stress or high intensity, it's like. But again, that doesn't sound relaxing or peaceful.

Yeah, because your body forces you. Right? Because the body's like, I don't think I can take you anymore. Like let's just, just get you to sigh. Right? But you know, you don't need to do that. If we are taking moments in between to like feel your feet and just like exhale. And your energy stays pretty consistent through the day when you do that. You don't need that caffeine.

We feel the difference though from like a really calming exhale, a slow exhale. Like you could just feel the difference in your physiology. Right? Yeah.

Instantly your body has to relax. It just, just, it just relaxes when you do that. And then start with humming. If exhale is not your thing, just start with humming your Body is already exhaling. So sometimes when I will, when I'm getting into a trigger vortex, I'll just start humming, you know. And like, before I knew it, I haven't drowned in that vortex. It's like brought me back to the surface.

It's an anchor for you.

Yeah.

Yeah, That's a powerful anchor.

Yeah.

And the concept of oil too, I think, you know, every single night I'll have a shower to wash the day off and I'll put oil on my skin. And I started doing that mostly during my pregnancy because is really nourishing that way. And I feel like it's so grounding.

It is very grounding. It is so grinding that just the touch, you know, oxytocin is released. Of course, scientific studies have been done that, you know, if you touch yourself for more than six seconds or you're being touched for more than six seconds consistently, your body will release oxytocin, which is also known as your cuddle hormone, which is also a hormone that makes you really happy naturally. So why would you not want to do it? And these are such easy, simple practices that anybody can adopt them. And I'll tell you in a day, when I say in a day, people can feel the difference.

As you're speaking, I honestly see these as like the ultimate acts of self love. We're not taught how to do any of these, but they're so simple now, you know, we waited for the science to back it all up and now it's been vilified by science. But there's simple things like acts of self love that we can do every day. So those are powerful.

Right? And you know, you know, Mona, can I just say something here? Like, you know, growing up, because I grew up in India and I grew up in a very spiritual family, but there was a lot of like, hey, you got to do this. Because this guru said this, or this person said this, and at some point she said, you know what? I'm, I'm going to question all of these people because. Because you want to. Because we're developing intellectual minds in this generation, but I think we're doing the same thing with science right now, where we like, oh, I want to do this because science are doing this. Oh, because I want to do this because. And we know how many times science has proven itself wrong. We also know how many times there are some gurus that have proven themselves wrong. So I think real wisdom is within you. It's rooted within you. And I think more and more, how do you hone that? What you already know.

Right.

You know, and. And we all have that power. Like babies are born nursing from their mother's breast without ever having to use them out before. So that's how much we know what. What we're supposed to do for ourselves.

Isn't ultimately this the foundation of Ayurveda to honor your constitution? Your constitution, not like somebody else's constitution, but your constitution and your wisdom, like all the cause.

So the word in Ayurveda is pradnya, pradh, which is the root cause of all disease, is loss of wisdom. Right. And then you know, even so now you know what also happens though, right, Mona? Because I'm in this Ayurveda world, people start chasing the definition of their constitution or knowing their constitution, and then that becomes a crazy journey as well.

It's another label.

It's. Yeah, it's another label. Right. So I personally am trying to move people away from obsessing too much with their constitution and think about their symptoms, think about their climate, and then come back to an optimum climate, like growing up. My grandfather, from whom I would say I've learned most of Ayurveda, even though I went to get a formal education, he never obsessed with our constitutions in that manner, but more, you know, he called them our tendencies. Or you have a tendency to be a little hotter, you have a tendency to be a little more sluggish, or you have the tendency to be a little drier and more depleted. So when you understand it as tendencies, it is so much easier. You already know what balance would look like. Rather than associating yourself with, like, systemically with the whole world, let's just dive.

Into it right now then. So everyone associates Ayurveda with dosha. You'll go online, you'll do a dosha quiz, you'll figure out what your dosha is. You'll get a list of the things that you shouldn't be doing, a list of the things that you should be doing. And all of a sudden you're. You're in this other protocol that's very complicated. And I'll say that one of the reasons I've always felt like Ayurveda needed to be modernized.

Yeah.

Because the time that it would take for me to put together my most perfect diet according to my doshas, would be impossible as a working mom.

Yeah.

So I really love this concept. Give us the lens that you speak to Doshas then, with your clients.

Right. So, you know, there is an optimum climate that your body can have. Right. And no matter where you are. And we can talk about the different climates, right? Where you are, you can come to this optimum climate and we'll talk about what that optimum climate is next. But let's, let's go back to the dosha for a minute and see what that climate looks like. So kapha dosha, which is on, you know, which is the building dosha, it allows for everything to be built in your body. And when, and then you need all three doshas, by the way, people have a misconception that you have to be one of the three. Without the three, you would be like, we would not be able to live. Right? Because all building elements, whether it's your cells, tissues, the cytoplasm lining, anything that's building, building, building is kapha dosha. Now people who are dominant in this, which means your body is building more than it needs to think about that as a really sluggish environment, like a sluggish climate, like a humid climate, a very like cold, dense, sluggish climate. That's what their body's climate is. When you think about a cold, dense, sluggish climate, you'd automatically know how to balance it then, right? People who are dominant in kapha dosha, they will be a little bit sluggish, they'll be a little bit overnourished because their body is building so much. So, you know, know conditions like obesity, you know, excess plug, high cholesterol, high diabetes, you know, just like holding emotions really deep because they're building, they're just building everything, right? And that's, that's people who are dominant in kapha Dosha. But of course, this. Let's go to the second one, right? We're metabolic beings and our body is always transforming and a digestion hormones are doing that function. Your nervous system. Heat led the mitochondria of your skeletal cell. So pitta, which is the second dosha, allows for heat led transformation to happen in your body. It is hot and humid. Nothing can transform in the world without being hot. You're right. So you want to charge your phone. Electricity is warm. Any reaction requires a warmth. But you want to transform at an appropriate rate. When you're overly pitta. When your body has overly those tendencies, everything will be hot. Your mind will be intense, you'll feel heat in your system. Inflammation, acidity, skin rash, sensitivity to the sun. Right? So hot and humid climate, and hot and humid climate can be quite uncomfortable. You know, things can, it can metabolize very quickly, things can burn out very quickly, right? So that's when you're dominant in pitta vata, which is representative of wind. And it's an essential function in our body, right. It does what the wind does. It allows things to move. Right. So blood can go to the brain. And also what it also allows, the wind dries everything out. Right. End of summer, the wind will dry everything and whatever, it kind of resets the cycle. It depletes, it dries, it eliminates so cells of our body that we're not using anymore kind of, they can dry up, shrivel and they can be flushed out of the system. Your bowel movements, you know, having a baby, all the push, the movement, that's all vata. But when you're overly vata, there's too much movement, your mind is racing all the time and you're too dry, maybe depleted, bloated. All of that sounds familiar. So you need all three. Okay. But if you have the climate of vata, you're cold and dry, desert. So, so let's just talk about all the three climates for a minute so it becomes clear to people who are listening in. If you're kapha, your climate may be like really sluggish. Nothing can really grow very well. Everything just kind of stays held on. So really sluggish, little dense climate. Humid, extremely humid. If you're pitta, it's hot and humid, inflammation led climate. And if you're vata, usually you're very dry, dry and a little cool, like a, just a little bit like a desert, like a cooler desert. And of course, you know, depends on the variations. These climates kind of merge with each other as well. So you could be hot and dry, which is like pitavata.

You know, that was my constitution.

Yeah. And I can relate to it with, you know, with your, with your story. So when you're hot and dry, then, then you feel things like, you know, even people who feel anxiety or you know, palpitations because it's so hot and dry, you know. So I tell people that you think about your symptom and you think about what climate they're bringing in your body. But there is an optimum climate, Mona and I think we should talk about that because then that's what you want to come back to. Doesn't matter where you are. Right. And for that optimum climate, our optimum body climate is warm and moist. Our breath is warm and moist. It's where everything in the world grow, grows Florida in March. Best flora and fauna. Our blood is warm and moist. Our reproductive fluids are warm and moist. The mother's Milk is warm and moist. A probiotic environment. Good bacteria, good bacteria is only in places where there is enough sun and there is enough, you know, moisture, so. But not too much sun. So warm and moist. It's the balance of the sun and the moon. The Earth has a perfect climate for life because we have the bat. No other. No other planet.

Right.

But it's because warm and moist happen on the planet. If it was only the sun, we would burn out. If it was only the moon, you'd just be sleeping all the time, you'd be sluggish. Lunar.

Yeah. It's the synergistic relationship between all of the elements to make it happen. Right.

So all I tell people, you want to come back to warm and moist also people. Right. Nobody. Even without ever being taught, we like, we like warm people, but we know what warm feels like because it's our safest place. All our comfort foods are warm, you know, so we relate so well to this warmth.

Right.

And we don't like hot tempered people. We don't like people. We don't like cold relationships. So warm and moist, like love, gratitude, compassion, these are warm and moist emotions. So I actively teach people, how do you bring warm and moist into your foods, into your mindset, into your exercise, into. Into everything that you do. And again, that also looks like the balance between doing, which is solar sun, and being, which is lunar mode. But there is a systematic way. So you think about your symptoms. You say, hey, this is inflammation. This feels like hot. I felt triggered. This felt hot and dry. I felt like I was in denial. It was so sluggish. This was very dense. And then how do you come back to that? Warm and moist. And you can actively and systematically do that. So I don't want people to get confused with doshas.

You've just debunked the idea of dosha.

Yeah.

Which is powerful because otherwise it does feel way too complicated. And I really like the steps that you went through. It's like, how can I look at the things that you're already doing in your life and invite more warm and moist. Right.

Basically. And if you're too hot and humid, you just come back a notch. If you're drinking apple cider vinegar, you're drinking five cups of black coffee and you have so much inflammation and your skin has flared up, you know, that's all hot and dry. Like, that's why coffee stimulates us. Right. So you already know. And so you learn how to balance that. So you bullet your coffee, you have your wine with your cheese you know, so I, I tell people, let me meet you where you're at. You don't have to give up up anything, but you want to learn how to balance it by knowing what to pair it with, what time of day to do it. And then I personally, like my family teases me, listen, you're doing this because you don't want to give up anything in your life.

And I was like, maybe, maybe, yeah, but what a beautiful concept. You shouldn't have to.

You shouldn't have to.

And I always reference, like in Ayurveda, when we address the different tastes that we're designed to, to taste, right. It's not about giving up sweets, it's not about giving up spice, it's not about giving up these tastes that we're meant to taste. But it's about finding balance, right?

Everything's about finding balance. Yeah.

And so can you put that through a lens then for people listening when we think about, okay, well, yeah, I want to, you know, bring more, more moistness to my body, but I also want to live a really long time and I'm so used to going hardcore. Have we put this Ayurvedic lens that you're giving us into the scope of longevity? What does bringing the body back into balance do? What is the impact?

Yeah, and you know, Mona, I just want like the example that I gave earlier of an oil lamp that's also warm and movie moist. A matchstick burns out very quickly because it's dry.

Absolutely.

But the same match can light a lamp and the lamp can last forever because it's an, if it's an oil lamp, you know, so it's basically, I just wanted to go back to this concept. So, you know, going to, we can take different areas. So why don't you ask me an area like if this is an area, what do you do to bring warm and moist? So for example, like if you talk about food, right, I talks about cooked foods, the minute you cook anything, it releases moisture, it becomes warm. Ayurveda, of course, pairs it up with good fat and spices, again, warm and moist. You know, you come from the same heritage that I do. And all our foods start with heating up a good fat, putting some spices blooming, some spices in there. You bring the warm and moss moist right there. So even in your foods, right? And then this whole thing of drinking very, you know, cold water, consuming cold foods, I just want people to bring their logic to it and think about the fact that when do we use cold, when we want to stop metabolism, when you want to stop breakdown? We keep foods in the refrigerator when we want to stop their breakdown. So when we're consuming cold foods and we have these warm gastric juices, again, a warm and moist environment, you're actually refrigerating your gut.

Wow.

And no wonder you don't feel hungry for some time. So people are like, I had my cold smoothie in the morning and I just didn't feel hungry. It was amazing. And I'm like, you think you're consuming less calories because. But what you're doing is you're affecting the environment of the gut. And everything subsequently is not going to be metabolized well, because you've now refrigerated your gut. So, you know, cooked, eating cooked foods, eating warm and moist foods. And of course, once in a while you can all make exceptions, but you just want to kind of hold this as. As a rule, I talk about, like, let's bring it to exercise, right? So exercising to the point that you can actually start feeling the dryness, right? So while you sweat at once, but then you feel depleted, you've gone too hot and dry, you've released all your juices. You know, consuming too much, like, caffeine fools us. I'm not saying don't do caffeine. I love my chai, right? And do it with milk. Do it at a time. If you're doing five cups, bring it out to two and a half. If you're doing two and a half, bring it down to half of that. And, you know, adjust your timing because it fools us in the later part of a day that we have more energy. So it's like a hotel. It's like a matchstick. You know, it's just so strong at first, and then there's like all the wind and it brings us down. And then you need another one, you need another, you know, you need to be ignited again. So things like that. You want to start looking at your life and see, what am I doing? Where am I overstimulating myself? And, you know, sometimes, whenever, and I work with people, I'll actually get them to look at their lives, like, sit and write down everything that they do. And what did it feel like? Solar, lunar. Solar lunar. And also like their mindset through the day that felt like solar lunar. Solar lunar. And then they start seeing and they're like, now I know why I have inflammation, why I feel so intense, why I'm so angry all the time. The lives start to make sense.

This is really important. I really want to own in on this, because what I know hap is happening, working with clients is when something is out of balance, we're looking for what to add or what to do instead of tuning in to where could the imbalance be coming from and how do we return to wholeness? Right. And we look at, like, what are some of the biggest things people are doing? They're waking up in the morning, they're having iced coffee or coffee before anything else. Right. They're looking at the news, which is also heat, inflammatory.

You know that now. Amazing. I love it.

They're going to the gym, which is also heat. They're having their ice smoothie, which is. I love the concept of refrigerating your colon. That sounds terrible.

Yeah.

We've always, you know, talked about putting up the, your, your digestive fire, but not refrigerating your colon.

Yeah.

It's a big difference.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

Rushing to get ready, rushing to get to work. Nutrient deficient. Right.

So, so solar.

And so for those people who are thinking, well, after work, I'm then gonna go for cryotherapy. I'm gonna go for a fast dinner, I'm gonna eat in the car on the way home, or I'm gonna go to bed too late. It's like this constant cycle of things that are throwing us out of balance. When I, I really feel that people are still hooked and addicted. Everyone's looking for the next quick fix, the diet or the protocol that's going to heal all of us. Instead of peeling back the layers and discovering what are the things that are causing you specifically to feel and function out of balance. Right. And this is that wisdom.

So true.

We don't know how to listen.

We don't know how to listen. And, you know, I run a 21 day program where I teach this systematically. And by the end of it, you know, people are like, oh, I didn't realize it was just this. And then they almost apologize, like, no, no, we don't mean to say. It's just. I'm like, no, it is just. It is, it is just so, you know, that's, you know, because I wanted to feel effortless. Because it starts to feel so effortless, Mona, when you're constantly repairing and you know how to do that so easily and we're just humming on your way to work. Just. That's all you need to do. You don't need to chase the next thing. If you look at people in the blue zones who lived up to, you know, to being centenarians.

Yeah.

They didn't do a Hundred things. They did 10 things. And they all felt very natural, very grounding. They did not have secrets, secret practices. They had no secret practices. And that's the reason why they would live with so much ease for so many years.

Well, the foundation was they felt nourished. Yeah, right. That was the foundation of all the practices.

We are, like, nutrient obsessed and nourishment. Afraid.

So I'm thinking about this concept of listening to your body. So what does it mean to listen to your body? And do you find that working with the people that you work with for women? And I can almost feel sometimes there's like, the sense of shame, like how, as a woman, have I lost that connection to my body? And I think that the greatest gift, you know, for me, it was I miscarried twins and I was able to get pregnant again. But, like, that forced me to tune in, to love my body so much. I was so scared that it was going to happen again. But I feel like it was the first time that I taught myself how to love myself and to listen to my body's cues is, well, I'm so.

Glad you did, but you're so right. Right. Like, the one thing that I see in my practice with women for so many years is that women are designed to show up for something outside of them and say shut up to themselves. Right. So you're always showing up for our partner, our parents, our work to make sure the trash is taken out, food is on the table. We just are those nurturing beings and we feel so responsible. But as a result of saying shut up to ourselves to show up. You know, we also say shut up to all the lack of ease that we're carrying just to wake up next day. And that lack of ease that we neglect, that dis ease becomes a disease. And very often women in their 30s, 40s, 50s will be like, oh, you know what? Now I can't show up the same way. And very often that's when. That's when they'll tune into it because it's something outside that they can't show up for. They're like, oh, my God, something is really going on inside. And that's when they kind of turn back. So we kind of lose the wisdom that we were supposed to be the carriers for, because we are trying so much now to get it all done, which earlier community supported us to do. But that does not mean that we can't do that. I am a single parent raising my two daughters in New York City. I can still do, like, I've realized And I had to do this again. It was my responsibility. And, you know, it was. It was exactly for that I was like, I have to raise these two girls, you know, and for that reason, I went back into. This is even deeper and much harder because if I'm not doing that, I'm their whole world. So basically, I think women lost that. And then you start, I tell people, you start living with the clock of the sun. Start tuning into warm and moist. Think about everything in your life that does not feel warm and moist. And you know, when you feel triggered, you don't feel warm and moist. And I'm not saying you eliminate it, but you see, can I work in that? You know, where is this coming from? And then you just keep it all warm and moist, Moist as much as you can. And that is going to direct you. Your intuition is also warm and moist. When you stay in that space, clouds begin to clear, clarity just emerges.

I'm just going through my day thinking, gosh, where can I invite more warm and moist? And it can be so simple. They can be simple rituals that you just adopt, right?

Absolutely.

Rituals that you love doing just to make them a priority, right?

Absolutely. Like, just like we said, oiling your body, right?

Yeah. So if someone right now wants to tune in to listen to their body, do you guide your patients through a way of listening?

You know, Mona, that's exactly what happens at the end of 20 minutes. People are like, I know my true north. I know now I can trust my decisions. And the funny part is I don't have to guide you because you have to guide yourself. I don't want to be the expert. I want you to be the expert. But I show you the way. I show you those three principles that once you start, start putting everything in your life through those lens things. You know, there's an inner climate principle. There's a principle of circadian rhythm. And I teach in great detail. And then you know how life is. Life happens and building, transformation, decline. And those three cycles, you start spotting them everywhere. And once you understand them, people can come to me for like, I don't love my job to I don't love my partner to I don't love my body to my digestion is messed up to I cannot conceive. Doesn't matter where you come. All you need is these three principles. And then you know your answers. I want you to have your answers. I want you to be the healer for yourself.

I'm getting so excited at this conversation because I think this concept for women especially to Shift away from doing. I think the belief maybe up until now is always. Is always, you know, I'll deal with it then let me get to this goal and then I'll take care of myself. Let me get this amount of money and I'll take care of myself. Let me, you know, get this house, this job, and then I'll take care of myself. Which means that we're living a life that's completely out of alignment with tuning into our joy, right?

So true.

And what's so special about having this conversation now is I think that there's this awakening of women finally understanding, like, I don't feel good doing all the time. And maybe the solution isn't to do anymore. Like, no more doing. Like, let me just be. What?

What?

Where's the magic in being?

Right, right, Absolutely. And the funny part is, Mona, you can get more done when you're not doing because your body is repairing so much that you're more efficient, you're more clear, you forget less things. So like I said, like, I'm raising two daughters in New York. I work full time. I can travel for work, I can meet my friends. But I know how to shut off. Every meeting is more deeper, it's much more meaningful because I'm making choices and I'm making. I'm choosing to meet people that keep me warm and moist, you know, so you actually get more done. And more than that, you don't feel exhausted. You can go on for many, many more years. I tell people, you want to start thinking about your life. Not tomorrow, but like, just think about 10 years from now. And if you continue to do everything that you're doing today, how do you think? Where do you think you are going to be in 10 years?

It's beautiful.

And I. That's how, that's how I live my life. Like, thinking, thinking ahead. My 50s and my 60s. How do I want to be then? How do I want to wake up then? How do I want to die when I die, what do I want to look back at in my life? Because the truth is, when you have fire, when you're young, yes, you can get it done all. But you don't want to spend 30, 40 years of your life living with a chronic condition. How you show up, right? You want to show up as close to a hundred percent. Most women I speak to, there's a question asked at what percentage are you showing up for life? Life, it's 30, 40, 50. And in that, in that doing mode, you may think you're doing a lot but if you're showing up at 40, like your battery is already at the 30%, your functioning is already down. Now if you Change that to 100% or 89,000, you know, closer to 80, 90%, then automatically whatever you do will hit harder.

Yeah. Because showing up for life isn't showing up for your to do list every day. And that's really powerful. You know, if we stop right now and just ask, what would my 60, 70, 80 year old self, what would they tell me to do more of now? It would probably, you know, stress less, have less anxiety, take more time for yourself, enjoy more life, eat more nourishing foods, do what makes you happy and joyful and have fun.

Yeah.

Seek more time in nature. Right. Spend more time with your loved ones, tell more people that you love them. It's like, these are all things that are, these are all things.

Right. And yet, Mona, I'll tell you, people don't know what stress less means. Right. Or like, be less anxious. They're like, it's not in my control. And I understand that. That's why I think tools become so important. You know, I personally tell everybody you need all sets of tools. You need preventative tools, you need tools when you're in the battlefield, when you're in the middle of something that, you know, gets you stressed. And then you need repair tools. And once you have your tools, you don't have to experience stress the same way.

And what a great concept too. What are you labeling yourself as? You know, I used to say that I was somebody who, I had the blueprint for anxiety. It's just my blueprint. It's the way that I am. And then I realized after my heart surgeries, I labeled myself as somebody who had a heart condition. I was like, no, I'm sick of living. That's not who I am.

Right.

It's like, oh, I don't have to live with these self imposed labels of myself.

Right.

And stress is a big one. Right?

Yeah.

I don't think we, if we ask, you know, a room of 200 people if they're stressed and most of the hands would definitely go up. But it's this, you know, tuning in. Okay, so more moist, more heat, more moist.

There's no room for stress there. Honestly, I, you know, there's very few life situations that genuinely can stress us out or should stress us out. But for the most part, I would say, like, we don't have to be stressed about 90 of the things that we feel stressed about, because we don't. We're not built that way. And our body cannot endure that. So finding our way back. And you know, also, Mona, just to your point, like some people carry the footprint from their generations and say, hey, this is, this is in my family, obesity. No, it's in the way your family has been living for generations. It's the food choices they've been making. It's the traumas that they're passing on. We pass on the way we eat, the way we live, as well as our traumas. And then we assume that this is in our DNA. But I tell women that this is the only time ever, you know, since, for the last thousands of years that women have had a chance to heal because we're having this conversation, you know, like living in smaller families. This is the one advantage that we have that we're having that conversation. Which means that from this point onwards, what you pass on to your future generations can look drastically different. So this is an opportunity and you want to take it because I, you know, we can relate. Right. Our mothers, our grandmothers, they did not have this opportunity. Yeah, we have this opportunity. So I am very careful. Like what I'm going to pass on to my daughters is going to, you know, we can. I can take what my family gave me and I can just entangle it further and then pass it on. Or I disentangle the trauma. I disentangle things that didn't work for me, and then I want to pass the healed version of this. So this is, you got to change your legacy here.

But again, it's acknowledging what you want to change. Right. That's the tuning in and listening. Yeah. Releasing emotional trauma, I think is something that's buzzword buzzworthy now. I think that people are understanding, like, how can my body heal if within me there's all this sadness or fear or resentment or even rage. Right. And what I'm thinking of now, my gosh, when we think about yoga also and with what's written about in Vedic texts, they tapped onto this, didn't they? It's like it's such an essential part. And I share this all the time. When I was at the ashram, I was moving my body every day, like seeking, literally moving emotions and moving parts of my body for freedom. And I always shared too, that people in a yoga teacher training, they'll get off the mat and go and have like a complete release or meltdown or cry or whatever it is to release these. These things.

Yeah.

So can you talk to us a little bit about the Vedic influence then? That's come from your father and is how it is with Ayurveda and your teachings.

Yeah. In terms of. Can you.

Yeah, I would say tell us, like, what is Vedic wisdom?

Yeah.

How does it influence Ayurveda?

Right.

And healing.

Right. So Ayurveda comes from the Vedic texts. Right. And. And the Vedas are these. This literature that was preserved because India did not have invaders for a long time, where Peninsula, rough choppy oceans, mountains on the top. So we've really been able to preserve that. But basically these are, you know, this we talk about knowing. So the Vedic literature, the Vedic science comes from, I call them sage scientists who really had this knowing. They were connected like the deer is connected to the forest, like the tiger knows that it's nocturnal. So they were connected to the secrets of the universe. Observe the patterns outside to know the patterns within in. So the Vedas have everything about how to live, how to achieve salvation, how to fight a war. Ayurveda and yoga are two sciences. Yoga is about how do I about your inner world. And Ayurveda integrates that inner world with also your body, using it as a vehicle. My work is in both is in the understanding of the psychology and the subtle world as well as, you know, the body, which is more of this being of matter and. And then the yogic sides. Right. You're talking about yoga having a release. You know, it is so scientifically designed. Right. Because whether it's. It's meditation, whether it is what tools who needs. And I think people are so confused even about meditation. I just want to say that because there's meditation that can be transcendental and they can be grounding and not every. Like you, you need to meet yourself where you're at. Sometimes people go and they go euphoric with meditation. They cannot ground themselves when it comes to yoga as well. You know, what they understand understood is that your body has centers which stores feelings, emotions and traumas. And when you even just do asana, right? When you just do asana and you hold a certain center and you don't even know that you're doing this, but your yoga teacher guides you. And then you use your breath, you're kind of moving energy from that space. And that's why by the end of a yoga class, because of how you're using your breath and you're holding, people feel like they're in a trance and that's why they're in flow. So the wisdom is extreme. I mean, I cannot even tell you how vast it is. Even using sound. Using sound Seven notes, seven chakras. Every, every, every note is associated with a stimulation of a certain neurotransmitter in your body. So it has given you, I think the Vedic wisdom has every single tool for every single problem.

I think that everything that's coming out today about healing is actually going back to Vedic knowledge.

Like, you know, it is. Absolutely. And you know, I grew up in a family, I grew up with all traditions. So I grew up with what we call Jain, which is a very monastic tradition as well. So that's what I grew up, I grew up with Buddhist tradition. My father, I, I did my first Vipassana, 10 day silent retreat when I was 15. So my father, he does 40 days. He, in, in a year, he goes for 40, 40 days in the jungle, he goes to meditate. And then my grandfather who practice Ayurveda was very much into the Vedic tradition and that really appealed to, to me the most.

Wow.

So I, I had exposure to all three and then I found my ground in the Vedic wisdom.

So you had this beautiful experience in growing up, witnessing these things in front of you, these beautiful practices. Your grandfather is also a renowned practitioner. How would you describe this imprinting? Now what were some of the things outside of, you know, he said that with your doshas, it's like you're influenced by, by certain things. But what are some other things that witness, that you witnessed that really inspired you to follow this path?

I think what I, you know, and I always like thank my grandfather for leaving footprints in the sand. He's no more. But he lived a life which was, he never imposed, but he only inspired. Living in a family of 14 people and to be so humble, like he did not even give out his name regularly. Like he would go to hospitals every day till in his 90s and to help patients. But he never even gave out his name and he lived with extreme simplicity. But one of the things that I'd like to talk about is that he used a word called yadashakti, which means according to one's ability. So he said always honor where you're at. He taught me, he taught us this back then, that meet yourself where you're at, which also meant that don't push yourself when you're not feeling ready, but at the same time do not, you do not make that an excuse to not do anything. So be real about where you're at. I would say that is a big one. You know, I, we slept in the same room as my grandfather. So I wake up, so I woke up to his Rituals in the morning. He's doing his abhyanga. He's doing him doing his neti. Boiling water with gold. I cannot even tell you, you know, and that's also taught me, Mona, that kids don't. I never paid attention in school. I'll be honest with you. I was like, okay, who can I talk to? Like, who am I gonna write my chit to and have this conversation? But at home is where I learned how to inspire, not to impose, do according to your ability to stay grounded and also to use your life as you progress, which my grandfather did a tremendous amount. To disentangle yourself, to enjoy the world, to do in the world and undo inside in the inner world, what wisdom.

To have in front of you.

Amazing. I'm so grateful, Mon. I can't even tell you.

I feel like it took me a lot longer to come back to that. That idea of disconnection because there's so much brainwashing to want to fit in and be like everybody else and to do what you think is right and to follow the footprints that you think are going to get you the. The accolades for all of those things. Ultimately to come back to the wisdom of all of those things. And this is powerful too, because I always say that the practices that I have now are imprinting on my children in the same way that my mom, my dad did for me and for you to have somebody like him come into your life. I always think that, like, you know, our parents are our parents as, as teachers, our grandparents are the same. And it's also something that we're losing now. Like, we don't live with our extended families anymore. Even children are leaving their houses so much earlier. Right.

And that gives us so much that. That puts the responsibility of healing so much more on us as parents.

Yeah.

Because we are the world like I learned. I. I don't say I have one mother, I have three mothers because I grew up with three aunts in the same household, you know, So I have three and, you know, probably two more. Another aunt who got, you know, my brother, my father's sister who got married and moved. And so I have so many mothers. I have such a large family. So it was you. You take what you want to pick from each one. But now since we don't have that, you don't have this a la carte menu, and you have just one course that better be really, really good, you know, so we have to heal so we can pass that on.

So here you are. Now you've taken on the wisdom that you, wisdom witnessed and experienced from your grandfather. You went through your own Ayurvedic training. You now have this insight of modern medicine. This is where you and I come together. We really want to merge these two worlds together. How do you decide what percentage leads you to Ayurveda? What percentage leads you to, you know, more conventional treatments?

Right.

And is there a time and a place where you're using one exclusively?

So I'd say that for everything, anything that requires critical care, right? That you have an immediate, you know, you, you want, you've broken a bone, you know, you need stitches somewhere. And, and that also, honestly, Ayurveda, like even in surgery, in surgical school here in the U.S. they called Sushrut, who was an Ayurvedic guru, the father of surgery, by the way. So I just want to let people know that that surgery was a part of Ayurveda, but the tools were different, and we don't do it anymore because it requires a certain type of training, you know, but anything, anytime you need critical care, go for it, you know? Absolutely. You have a chronic condition where the side effects, like if you have, let's say, high blood pressure or th, Thyroid, I'll say you start off on your, you know, allopathic medicine, and on the side, you change everything else. So automatically you'll see that dosage go down, right? But at the same time, for everything else, I, I lean towards Ayurveda. I mean, Mona, I, I with my daughters, and they live in New York City, they go to New York schools, they live normal lives. You know, my daughter's having a pizza party as you and I talk. But they have learned how to balance it. So we honestly, the only time I go to the doctors for the mandatory annual checkup, they've never been on antibiotics, right? And, and, and they get sick because they're like, they know, they, they know the drill now. And it's not passed on in an imposed manner, I hope. You know, it's just, it's a, it's a way of living. Also diagnostics, I would say I am, I love what science has brought into being able to diagnose. So diagnostics, critical care. And if you have a condition where you, you want to work on it, but, you know, if it was really, really high cholesterol, you've plaque accumulating in your arteries, it's going to take a while before you change the causes that's causing this, you know, so you start working on the causes and you get help from modern medicine, and then you Find your way.

I think the conversation needs to be, okay, let me go through this procedure, let me go through taking these medications, and how do we bring the con. The conversation back to healing the body at the same time? Right.

Absolutely, Absolutely.

Like, I wonder what your grandfather would have said, you know, having this awareness around healing the body through Ayurveda now in this world of ultimately having these incredible diagnostics where we can figure out so much about the body very, very quickly.

Yes.

Merging the two worlds together and what the impact could be on healing.

Absolutely. And I think my grandfather was such a practical man, Mona. He moved ahead with the times faster than anybody else. And I think that's what I learned from him, that you gotta change with the times. Like, he would never, you know, all of us would complain about where the world is going, and he'd be like, it's amazing. Look at technology. Look at the fact, you know, he was like, even the British came to India and they built railroad systems. Like, he always had that, you know, optimism without. It was not like fake optimism, but he just was in awe of the progress of the world.

And I think that's probably what inspired you to this concept of, your body knows.

Yeah, yeah. Your body always doesn't. It doesn't matter how the world is evolving, but your body knows and the principles remain the same. I. I will say, though, that antibiotics are almost over prescribed. That's the one thing that I do feel.

Yeah, thank you for pointing that out. I agree. It's almost like if doctors just took a minute to see how they could heal the body first. First so that it could heal itself prior to going on those antibiotics.

Yeah.

I'm like you. My kids have never been on antibiotics. If there was a time and a place where it was a necessity, then that would have happened for sure. But we just haven't gotten to that point.

Exactly. And that that's exactly how it's been with us. And in fact, like. Like there's a couple of times in my younger one, the doctor said, because I know who you are, I'm giving you 24 hours. But if this does not resolve in 24 hours, then we're doing this. And I said, you know, done.

I had the same lecture.

Yeah, exactly. And then in 24 hours is. They're back to where they need to be. So that's, you know, because there's so much power, as well as psychiatric medicine, medication, I feel like sometimes, you know, it just becomes an excuse and to not work on your mental health. And it only further perpetuates the problem because people start getting medicated at very young ages and you don't always have to do that. And Ayurveda especially has a, has great resources for mental health, like, even beyond like breathing practices. It's like herbs as medication, like Ayurvedic medication. You know, the way you eat, eat, there's so much that you can do. I feel like that is so untapped sometimes I almost feel like starting like just a mental health practice.

Oh my gosh.

And it's so important to tap into that first, I think before you get on medication.

And Ayurvedic healing isn't going online, checking out the herbs that are designed to support you with this issue. Like, there's really a complete holistic and synergistic approach that is taken to whole body healing and also mind, body, spirit. Like they're not separate from each other, they are each other. Right. And this is where, like meeting with people like you who have this gift of just taking this holistic approach, it's like, oh my gosh, of course this is going to induce the prevention of disease. Of course this is going to induce more balance to my body and peace of mind. And that exhale that you talked about before, it's like, of course this is going to be the reaction.

Absolutely. And you know what, to anybody who's listening, you don't really have to say, oh, I have to do all of this eat like this, this. All you have to do is get more, more music into your life, get more sunlight into your life, get more plants into your life, get more exeals into your life and just find moments to sit with yourself and enjoy whatever it is that you're doing. And even if you just start there, you're fine.

So beautiful. All right, tell me, how did this lead you then to the cosmic alignment method and what is it?

Yes. Thank you so, Mona, because I, I saw that the world of Ayurveda was extremely becoming, very academic and prescriptive. That's what I saw happening outside. And I said, you know, when I started practicing, I realized that people became very dependent on me. It's like I became the expert. And you found relief in your symptoms short term, but over the long term, it created a cycle of despair and dependency. And I didn't find that fulfilling. That's not. The Ayurveda that was passed on to me was empowering. And that's when I said, listen, there has to be a way up out. Now, working with people for a decade, I had identified These three principles that I call that govern everything. And I said, this is the cosmic law. Life on our planet exists because of the sun and moon and their cycle and this cycle of building, transformation, decline. And then I realized that you can start applying this to everything in your life. So I started plugging this in with my own clients. And I would say, I'm not going to give you earth herbs. I'm not going to take away your ethnic diet. I'm just going to create principles, you know, around them and we'll think about herbs in two months. And they would come back to me in two months and they're like, I'm already 70 better and I'm sleeping well and I'm, you know, less anxious and I'm happier and all of that. So I created a whole method out of it. I said, you know, this needs to be taught systematically. And I've been teaching it systematically for the last six months. I have a 21 day program. It's called, it's called the Radical Transformation Program. And Mona, I have to tell you that, that the results have far exceeded my expectation. People, people been, you know, people who come to us, they're doctors, they're ayurvedic doctors.

I was just going to ask, how many practitioners are you working with so Ayurvedic doctors?

A ton. But even like conventional medicine, right? Like, even MD is a great. Somehow we have all these NDs coming to us. People who've been on psychedelic journeys, people who've gone everywhere and they're like, this is more powerful than a psychedelic journey, you know, suddenly. So the amount of breakthroughs people have over those 21 days, because when they come, they're like, radical transformation in 21 days. Okay, but let' try because I like what you're saying. So I'm like, it's not a program, it's a reprogram if you do it right, right? So it's just going back into that cosmic consciousness and not in a vague manner. Nothing. Woo woo. There is nothing. That's a soft term that you cannot understand. Everything you can relate to at its deepest. And that's my, that's my curse and my blessing. Mona. If I cannot take everything to the core of the earth, if I cannot break down a concept of fully, like, I have annoyed my ayurvedic teachers. I'm like, no, no, but this, no, but this does not add up. You cannot just say because the book says it. No, like I need to break everything down. I'm not sleeping, I'll be Thinking about it in the shower, on the toilet, in my bed, I need to like get to the core of everything.

Well, thank God for that because otherwise it was always, well this is how it's written, this is the scriptures, this is how we were taught. And it's like, well no, that doesn't work for me. Yes, impossible for me to feel. I don't want to blow over this. Like the fact that you address this is cosmic law is such a big important topic because like what if we understood that it was just cosmic law for our bodies to be able to heal themselves? Like what if that was our belief system?

That's what my mom said. Every time that's going up that your body wants to heal itself. Like anytime something happened they're like, but the, but your body, like life wants you to heal, your body wants you to heal. Your body knows how to heal. And my mom said this all the time. So it's etched in my DNA. But you're right, like the COS. The Cosmos is designed 4.6 billion years, Mona, and we've only evolved from single single cell organisms to this like full blown. And now we are trying to get in the way of our own growth and there's a threat to our planet because we like I want to use my mind more than the cosmos.

So let's put a lens on this for people listening. So okay, yeah, we're saying your body can heal itself. There's a lot of studies and science out there. I know Deepak Chopra has done a lot of work. Yes, yes. You can call it quantum healing if you want to, but like we've seen people reverse disease within their bodies by taking on these modalities of healing. Right. Do you say, or would you, you know, would you say that what works against us is the marketing, the propaganda, the belief that, you know, when we leave the doctor's office with a title or prescription, we identify as somebody who is now going to be sick or who's going to get cancer or who's going to die. Because the fact of the matter is, is that diseases are on the rise despite all this awareness that we have around health and wellness and everything cancer is going up against amongst adults and children, cardiovascular disease, diabetes amongst adults and children. It's a mess out there, there. And again I just, I feel like we're constantly looking, well what else can we do for it? What else can we throw at it to fix it? And it's like, no, no more, no more of that. Right? Yeah, let's shut down some of the noise.

Yeah.

What is your take on that?

You know what? You're absolutely right. It kind of. I think it's the part of the problem. So instead of, like, despite of all of this, sometimes I'm like, because of all of this, like, the experiences, Mona. Like, I tell people, imagine going into a noisy male mall and there's thousands of vendors, and everybody's trying to sell you something that is such an overwhelming experience. And. And you don't know what to buy. And you might buy too many things, which half of which now you don't use. And now what you need to use, you don't know because you're in this kind of clutter. Instead, you go to the same mall, but now, you know, you say, I'm going exactly in this mall. I want to buy a white shirt of this size for this occasion. You can enter the same mall and be completely unbothered by all of those vendors trying to sell you because you know exactly what you want. That is the work I do that I bring you to you. And then that entire experience and it does not matter. Like, you know, one the. Towards the end of my program, Mona, I. We talk about trends, right? So I say, okay, this trend, throw the codes at it. And people are like, yeah. And so they will not give in to any trend because they will filter everything through. Through the three principles which not only they comprehend through their intellect, they've experienced through their body, because that is. That is what we take them through. And then you are. You're your bulletproof. Yeah, right. Like. Like, for example, there's a trend of consuming cold eggs. Like, they already know it's not warm and moist. You're not. For me, you know, it says, hey, you know, wake up in the middle of the night and practice yoga or, like, do this kind of crazy yoga. They're like. They're like, oh, nighttime. That's in my circadian. So everything, everything can be put through this lens. And then you are bulletproof.

So it's changing the lens in which you adopt whatever your healing modalities are, the way that you live your life even. So instead of looking at specifically from your dosha, you're looking at how I can. How can I add more warm and moist throughout my day, throughout my practices, throughout my routines, throughout my obligations, throughout everything. But I think the important part that you said is now taking ownership of the choices that you can make.

Absolutely. And you can always make choices and you know, your climate. So, you know, what. What you need to move towards.

And let's Face it. Okay, so like big food companies have created and marketed these food products for us that are really the culprit for a lot of our health issues. Right. Poor ingredients, inflammatory oils, fake food ingredients that we don't even know what they are. But, but you know, we live in a world where they can still be marketed as healthy. You know, paleo, good for you. Gluten free. Right. And I hope that listeners really wake up to the idea of like, oh, I get to decide whether I'm going to put money into the pockets of these companies who are going to make us sick, or I can shut that off, put on a different lens. And I'm going to seek out the companies, the rituals, the products, the, you know, whatever it is that's in the highest alignment with me. Coming back into balance.

Balance, absolutely. Because we already know. Our body knows and that's all that we need to remember.

We already know. Yeah, like this is such an important concept because again, it's like there's nowhere to try to get to. There's nothing to try to do. There's no more that you need to add to your plate. Your body already knows.

You just have to remember.

All right. What were some of the most powerful ayurvedic practices that you practice still with you until this day? Way that help you feel good.

All right. And I do want to warn the listeners that I don't want you to take everything because it sounds like a prescription. If you cannot understand it, you cannot internalize it. It's not your practice to take. I want to tell everybody. But yeah, so I, I let me talk through my day and I think that'll, that'll help me also to remember all the things that I did. Okay. So I like to wake up in the morning and I always like to use those morning hours where the nervous system is cleansed. The body has gone through a cycle of repair to meditate. That's the first thing that I do. I don't think everybody needs to meditate right away because you want to build up till you're ready to meditate eventually. Right? So I meditate, I get my body to move right after that. Then I do warm and moist breakfast for my daughters, porridge, you know, usually in cooked milk. And then the practices that I, after that I, I get to, if I have time, I'll do a little bit of pranayam, which is different from breath work, you know, which is moving your life force energy. I, Abhyanga is something that I never miss, which is massaging your body with oil in the morning. In the morning, yeah, before you, before you get into the shower even. So I like to do my oil massage. Nasia which is nose drops in the nose. Again, oil is just warm and moist by itself. So it kind of replenishes the microbiome, you know, which is, which thrives in a warm and moist environment. Also goes to the brain. The nasia goes to the brain and it's. The nose is the only place where the blood brain barrier does not exist. Exist and can. You can access parts of your brain which nothing else can. And now western science is to the same point. So I do nasia and I do oil pulling.

Okay, hold on that for a second. Nasia oil. Do you make your own?

No. And I'll tell everybody that you cannot actually make your own NASA oil because you know, you can infuse herbs and you can do. But it's a very specific process and if you don't do it right, you're going to do it wrong. So you want to get a good nasia oil from, you know, outside and it's anutila E N U you is that is the NASA you want to use. So crazy number of benefits and just doesn't even take a second. And then I will do oil pulling and I will do dunk scraping. So these are some rituals that I do. And twice a week I will get, you know, if I can recruit somebody to give me a hair head oil massage, that's something that I never missed. Like I've gone traveling and I've gone into salons and I've asked people to look at a video. Like I place a video and I'm like, can you do this for me?

No way.

Jamaica, Morocco, everywhere I've done this, right? So that's what I do. Twice a week I will get a head oil massage.

So I would say those ones gray hair on your head.

And I really think this works, right? Because I'll tell you, my, my two aunts who are not genetically, they're all different gene pools, right? Three brothers married, three wives. They all came into the same household and lived diabetically. So my 72 year old, 72 year old aunt has all dark hair. Like you'll have to like, look, my mom is almost 70, she's gonna be 17 in December. She has dark hair. My younger aunt who's in her 60s, she has dark hair. I'm sure they have, have a little bit of white here and there, but they're predominantly dark hair. You know, my grandfather, he died in his 90s with dark hair. So, yes, you could argue that it's. It's the genetics, but these three women have nothing to do with his genes.

I think a lot of people notice a surge in white hair after Covid. Increased amount of stress. The amount of zinc that we were taking, that was throwing copper out of balance completely in the body. The. There's so many things. But okay, so oil massages at least once a week.

Right. But it's the solar, so. So, so I don't think that's what keep us, you know, that's. That's helpful. Definitely. It's very warm and moist in your head, of course.

Yeah, yeah. Combination.

But at the same time, it's like if you have a very solar lifestyle. So if you're eating. Eating a lot of spicy foods, you're very hot in your head. Doesn't matter. You know, you can be soaking your head into a oil tub every day, but you will still gray because you will burn up out.

Don't treat it like a fix again. It's looking at the system holistically. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. So people, you know, cultures where they have a lot of tomatoes, a lot of spicy foods, they will either bald or gray much sooner than the others.

Incredible.

Yeah.

Okay. Oil pulling.

Yeah, oil pulling. And then I would say for the rest of my day, the only other thing that I would say is like, yes, I journal that may not be ayurvedic. But then I start slowing down at 4. Like I said, I'll start dimming the light. I'll change the music I play after four. Four. You know, I will not have caffeine after four. Even if I'm drinking caffeine in the day, it'll always be with milk. I will have. All my foods will be cooked and. And warm. And I like to cook fresh every day.

Do you cook yourself every day?

So I do have someone to help me cook right now, but for 20 years. No, I would say for 15 years, I cooked every day. And I love to cook. Like, I just love to cook.

I always talk about the concept of using fresh herbs. Herbs every single day. Right. And the one thing too, from the ashram is the energy behind food. So talk to us a little bit more about food and diet and stuff like that and how you prepare your foods and how we can uncomplicate ayurvedic meals for day to day.

Yes, completely. You can completely uncomplicate it. Like, I'm like. I'm like, I'll teach you how to do your three meals in 30 minutes. Like, that's my promise, right? And so if you, if you're spending an hour and a half at the gym, make that an hour and give 30 minutes to your kitchen, right? And then recruit your family to clean up if you're cooking. So, like, you cannot add the cleanup and the cooking. The same person shouldn't be able to do that. But I will say that, you know, our first relationship with food is at our mother's breast. It's very safe. It's very warm and moist, just like the milk and that entire feeling, right? And then we complicate it, and then it becomes so hot and dry, right? So I'm like, you want to just think about that. You want to first start thinking about that. So that's the first thing you want to do with your food. It's just, it has to be this romantic, romantic, loving, intimate experience. Respect. That's respect for your food, but also like enjoying. You want to ritualize your cooking. You know, like, we can't live on a farm, but you can make a farm to your home. Because if you start, like when you feel your vegetables, when you smell everything, I do, I do say, right, you don't have to follow every Ayurvedic recipe. You, in fact, don't have to follow any Ayurvedic recipe. What you have to do is make sure that you're cooking your foods, that you're using a good fat, you're adding spices. And you can do this with any cuisine. You know, they all ethnically have good, their own spices. So you make sure you're using your spices, you're not skimping on your fat, and you're, you're consuming foods like they were traditionally. I do tell people that by getting an instapot, right? By starting to do one pot meals. So we throw in our oatmeal in the crock pot at night. So in the morning, it's. You just turn it on. So we have fresh, fresh lunch every day. Evening is always a one bowl meal, right? Which always has green. It has veggies, it has herbs, it has all the 60s, which are salty lemon. So that if you put everything in the instapot and you cook it that way, it's really, really easy. So use the instapot. Use a salsa chopper, which allows you to cut everything. Like I think, yeah, that's a.

Make your life easier.

Yeah. So make your life easier. You know, make your life easier. And you don't. And like, if you come, you can't cook it's I, I think it's better instead of meal prep, to order from a food which has a very quick turnaround, you know, and that, so that, you know that they're cooking, their food's fresh. So get something low sodium. Sometimes the sodium is really high, you know, but otherwise get something low sodium freshly cooked, and that's fine, you know, so we'll, so we'll get hummus and we'll get a little cooked veggies with it. Right? And do it, keep it. It. The simpler it is, the more sustainable it is. And mostly the simpler it is, the better it is for you.

Nidhi. This is so refreshing because I think a lot of people, when they think of Ayurveda, it's complicated meal prep, long time spent in the kitchen cooking, you know, how am I going to do this every single day? This is so refreshing.

Like, a chili is as Ayurvedic as anything else. Right. You just have to eat at the right time. If beans are not your thing, eat your chili for lunch. Like, I'll have my beans, chopped sweet potatoes, chopped veggies. I'll just throw it all in. You know, I'll saute a little bit of spices first, put it, throw it in the instant pot. Like 15 minutes prep. And it's such a hearty, warm meal. So you pick your cuisine. I tell people, yeah, and I'll tell you how to make it warm and moist.

And it's like something like an instant pot too, when we don't have the time to cook it. Like, it does the job for us the way that our ancestors would have had times. Right.

Exactly. And, you know, people in the Ayurvedic world will argue, hey, it's not the healthiest, I'll agree, but it's healthier. But it's healthier than meal prepping. It's healthier than eating out. So I agree. So you. I'm such a big believer in meeting yourself where you are at in fighting the biggest battle. To me, cooking fresh, warm foods is a battle that I want to fight rather than standing by my stovetop for five hours because my life honestly cannot afford that.

And while you're cooking for your family, instead of like putting the love that you talked about, it's the, oh, my God, I have so much to do. You're thinking about the stressors that you have to, to do after dinner and staying up late and stuff like that. It's a completely different energy that you're bringing to the food that you're cooking altogether.

Yeah. And you know, you can meditate with every chore that you do, by the way, because the minute you become present, you're touching your veggies, you're playing music in the background, you're connected with your breath. And like, you want to do everything that if somebody looked at you, they would be like, I want to be that person. I want to have that experience so you can become so present. And if you just became present, right, that is doing and yet being.

I couldn't agree more. And I think that, like, when we think about the gifts that we get from nature, Ayurveda taught me that my spice cabinet is my medicine cabinet. Like, it was just incredible for me to think of it that way. So now I load up my spice cabinet as much as I can. And then to get my kids to eat their veggies, I'll show them time lapse video of how the veggies grow. They're still little fun. So for them it's like, oh, my God. Because otherwise we all have disconnection from our food. Food from how it's grown, from the time that it takes to grow, from how it gets from the soil to our table. And you watch these videos like, oh, my God, like, broccoli is a miracle, for crying out loud.

I love that. Oh, my God.

It gives you this appreciation idea for where our food comes from. Can you give us five, five spices that people can go out and that we should all have in our kitchens right now.

And I do want to tell everybody you want to use spices in your food not by themselves, because they combine really well, well with the fat, with the food, and you dilute the spices and yet they're effective. Right? So the five spices, I honestly, Mona, I want to say that whatever your ethnic spices are right. But if I have to talk about five Ayurvedic spices, I'll say you want to keep cumin in your cabinet because it's easy to use carom seeds. Definitely a great one to have turmeric, but not to take it as a supplement, but just to add it to your fat. Like, think about it. It's a something that just gives this fun color, this fun flavor. Just think about it like that. The other two that I would pick would be fennel seeds. Again, super easy. Great. You know, fennel seeds is something that you can just chew on even after your meals. It is kind of a stopper to your appetite and says, okay, I'm done eating. It kind of dries out your saliva as well as your digestive juices. And it kind of brings satiety at the same time. It gives you that sweetness that you want. If you chew on fennel enough, you will get that sweetness. So that's why fennel seeds is. Is. Is one thing. And then if I have to pick a fifth spice, I'd say cloves. Oh, my goodness. I have to talk about this one. And I'll tell you why. Because that is again, a spice that you can use by itself. Like, it is my go to. It's always on my bedside. And I'll tell you why. It's a miracle if anybody tries this. It is a miracle because every time you feel a sore throat or you see this thing, whole ent region drying up or feeling like I'm just too tired. If you sleep with a clove in your cheek pocket.

Yeah.

You wake up like a new human being and you won't choke on it. My daughters do it, you know, and.

It kind of goes soft too.

It becomes soft and the fumes are released and it soothes everything. So that's a fifth spice. But I'll say, go back to your grandparents. Go back to the town that you came from. See what. What were they using? You know, and also look at some things in the. In your local environment. Because when we. We seldom live in the place that we grew up, today people live in completely different places. So do a combination of both and then check in with your body with what feels right.

I love that. I often say to heal, look, just look at what your ancestors ate. Eat more like them, period.

So true. So, so true.

All right, before we wrap things up, I just want to do a couple of questions for you. Rapid fire questions. Ayurvedic's best remedy for inflammation is.

Is get some. Okay. Do you want just one?

Just one.

Okay. Soak coriander seeds at night in half a cup of water in the morning. Discard the seeds. Keep the water. Just drink it.

Okay, give me two.

I'll give you two. Get moonlight as much as you can.

Moonlight.

Yeah, as much as you can get moonlight. And all white foods. So all white natural foods, whether it's rice, almonds. Key. If milk agrees with your body. Milk, all of those are cooling foods that are going to settle inflammation.

So good best remedy for poor sleep.

Is cooler room and a heavier blanket and a foot massage. I'm going to give you two.

I like it. Just give me all of them. What's the best remedy for better digestion? This is a big one for Ayurveda.

And you know, this is like, you have to bit mist. Sorry, bust the myth. And because I'll tell you better. Digestion. Your digestion starts in your mouth, ends in your anus, and there could be a lot of things happening in between. So if something is good for your digestion, because your digestion is sluggish, it could be very bad for somebody who has fiery digestion. So I think the best thing for digestion is to understand your digestion and your climate. Is it too hot and that's how your inflammation and your mucus lining is kind of depleted, or is it too sluggish and there's, like, this whole humidity and sluggishness happening inside? So I'd say the best thing for a digestion is to understand your digestion.

Where does apple cider vinegar fit in with.

Okay, so why don't we talk about. What do you think the properties are? So if you had to put apple cider vinegar on a bruise that you had, what do you think it would do to the bruise?

It's, you know, astringent. It would.

Would it sting?

Would it heal if you put on a bruise or.

Yeah, like. Like a cut bruise. Anything that's raw and tender, it would sting. It would stink. So it's hot or it's cold? It's hot. It's hot. Do you think it's drying? Like, if you had grease on your plate, and if you use apple, it's drying. It's dry. Dry. It's hot and dry. How many times people come to me and they're like, I have all these ulcers, or I have this. My mukes lining is depleted. Apple cider vinegar is for you when you have a lot of gunk in your system.

Yeah.

And if you're not trained to understand, your climate is gunky, sluggish, and you're doing apple cider vinegar, you are just. You're just corroding your system. You're putting acid in your system. In fact, apple cider vinegar is one of my. My. Like, I. I ask people, I'm like, if you. You've been on apple cider vinegar for a very long time, we need to do a lot of work.

Yeah. But there's a time and a place. It's like, it's just another one of those things where it's a time and a place. It's not something that you should be doing every single day.

And yet I would say that even though it's a time and place, there's a lot of other alternatives. So I will not go to apple Cider vinegar, people use it to lose weight because of course it's burning out your system. It's burning out your tissues.

Yeah.

You, you don't know which ones it's burning. But you think that my body is shedding tissue. It's shedding soft tissue. That is essential.

I just think too, like, if you're gonna eat like you love yourself, you're not going to be drinking apple cider vinegar.

No. But you'll have lemon juice because that makes you salivate. Yeah. That brings out your enzymes.

Yeah.

But apple cider vinegar, which is also the same family of taste like the tartness, that's not going to make you salivate. You're going to be like, you know when you have apple cider vinegar.

So time and a place. Okay, so in closing, we wrap up every episode with rapid fire questions. What are the most common mistakes or misconceptions that you're seeing people make with their gut? Health.

I think people drinking cold beverages, cold smoothies, apple cider vinegar. Biggest mistakes.

Yeah. It's not warm and moist.

Yeah, absolutely.

What's one way that many people are making healing and health too complicated?

By constantly relying upon experts outside of you losing confidence in you itself. It's easier than you think. It is so good.

What is your favorite ancient healing remedy?

Sleep at night, not in the day.

Sleep.

I love it.

There's no concoction, just sleep. So beautiful. If you had to pick one thing about modern medicine that excites you, what would it be?

Diagnostics.

Diagnostics. I'm with you. What are the top three things that we can start doing right now to optimize our health?

Naturally is start rising with the sun, slowing down when the sun begins to set. And which also means you eat with the sun. So just follow the clock of the sun. That is number one. Number two is oil on your body. Ghee, olive oil and coconut oil in your body. And number three, make sure that everything that you put on in your mouth is cooked warm and moist.

Beautiful. If you could leave our listeners with just one takeaway that your mind most excited about right now, what would it be?

It is that, that it is simpler than you think and your body already knows.

Beautiful. What incredible wisdom. You, you have a book coming out, you're on a world tour. How can people find you and connect with you? Share a little bit about your course also when that launches.

So you can find me on Instagram. I share snippets quite regularly of my work. You can also find me on my website and I'm just going to. My Instagram is my life. My website is Nidhi. Nidhi me. So one of these two will work and then you'll find a way to find me from there.

Nidhi. I can't even describe just how refreshing this conversation has been.

No. Same here. Thank you.

I have so many beautiful guests that are here. But I think that why this is so relevant today is that the world right now needs more harmony. I think we're all very aware on every level of the world needs more harmony right now. And I think that the only way for us to make this a reality is to start with our own inner harmony.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

And part of the. The incredible work that you do, I think rooting in this ancient wisdom and just leaving us with that message of, like, your body knows.

Yes.

It knows how to heal itself. Like, that is the most powerful healing ritual that I've ever heard in my life.

So thank you so much.

Much, thank you so much. Please come back.

Okay. Yes, I will. You know I will. Okay, thank you.