Povilas Sabaliauskas x Mona Sharma | LIVE Podcast Recording & AMA

It's 7pm and is this your.

Your good time? Are you good at night?

I think it's quite good. You know, I had additional coffee. You know, everything's good. You know, more or less. I work in a, you know, similar hours, so it's not a problem.

Yeah, I get it. All right, we're live, we're recording. All right, good morning, everyone. Good evening, everyone.

Bear with me.

You need that on.

I'm gonna go here. We're now live to the world.

Okay, there we go. Good morning. I've been so looking forward to this conversation with you. You can see for people who are gonna be watching, I've got my PulseTTO device on and I was so excited to learn about your brand, to start following you, to start looking up all the information. So welcome to Rooted in Wellness. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

Yeah, we'll dive into absolutely everything around your story. So for everyone tuning in, Povilis is the CEO and co founder of a brand called pulsetto, which I was super excited to talk about because I'll share more about my journey with you. But I think that tuning into my vagal tone, my vagal, you know, just the health of my body and the connection through that was a big part of my healing journey. So before we dive in, just so you know, this podcast is all just rooting in our wellness. How we could merge ancient wisdom with our modern world, how we can merge ancient wisdom with modern day science. So to just kick things off, I'd love to know, what are things that help you feel really rooted in your health or grounded in your health?

It's a very good question. You know, I don't know, just. Just trying to interoceptively feel how I'm feeling. Usually, you know, if I'm out of myself, I usually try to give myself a training session which basically restarts my, I don't know, let's say parasympathetic nervous system. So in general, nothing fancy. I try to follow 80, 20 rule. Due to that, you know, having business, you usually do not have a lot of time to allocate for, you know, wellness. So in general, trying to find the best things which can give the most, let's say, impact currently. Yeah.

Yeah. I love asking this question mostly for our listeners so that they can understand that every single person who sits in that seat says something that has to do with getting them into their body so that they can feel just grounded again and able to go out and tackle all the things that we have going on in our busy life. So with your healing journey or with your journey and obviously with the foundation of building this company, do you actually know when things cause you to feel uprooted? So on the opposite spectrum, as you know we live in this world of biohacking and wellness seems very challenging and sometimes like we have a big checklist of all these things that we have to do. Do you notice when you feel uprooted?

Yeah, I notice it and I try to measure myself, I try to allocate some time when I'm checking my biomarkers. Usually I try to cross check, you know, how am I feeling, what the data shows and trying to understand if I'm overworked or have some tension. So I tried to create a system on which I let's say try to evolve during I don't know, seven years, like when I started to have additional tracking devices, you know, some, some. So let's say noticing some patterns. But in general, yeah, I, I, I know myself quite well and usually I know when I'm, I will get an injury, when I will be down. So you know, I know that. But still this is like a normal thing to even get injured or get down. And you know, this is a, let's say work in progress constantly.

Yeah, it's especially as we're aging, right. Like life doesn't seem to be getting easier and our world seems to be getting a lot more fast paced. So yeah, it's part of that excitement to dive into this because I think that when we look at the inspiration and you'll obviously share more about this but for century I feel like ancient traditions have really known about these modalities to really calm the mind, to heal the body, to come back into center. But today science or like the biomarkers that you're checking for, for example, it shows us really how much of that magic from those things has to do with our vagus nerve. It's almost like turning a switch onto our body to pull us into stret to feeling calm. So for listeners who are not seeing this device around my neck, this is called a pulsetto vagus nerve stimulator to literally biohack your parasympathetic nervous system. And as somebody who I had a big healing journey with ancient wisdom, this is the kind of tech that I really get behind because it falls in line with the wisdom that we've known for so long. So let's start off with the basics. For people who are listening vagal tone and understanding the vagus nerve is coming A little bit more online, but can you describe what exactly is the vagus nerve? Where is it and what role does it play in regulating our health?

So vagus nerve is longest cranial nerve. So the nerve which comes out from your, let's say brain to and it goes to all your internal organs. So gut, spleen, kidneys, lungs, heart, etc so vagus nerve, it has also Latin name wandering nerve which basically shows that it wanders throughout the body. So via that vagus nerve all the communication is happening between your brain and all your organs. And you know, if you are down, if something is wrong with your, let's say, I don't know, you have a lot of stress, your heartbeat is elevated. So that signal goes through vagus nerve to your brain. And your brain tries to adapt your body and try to make a decision what is needed to do? Is it illness, is it stress or is it other things? So in a bigger sense it's like a wire of or a highway of information and you know, there's a lot of communication and with full setup we are trying to tap into that communication and provide some, let's say or activate fibers which are responsible to push your body from fight to flight to rest and digest. So it's quite, let's say complex and in the same way quite easy, let's say mechanism of action, how it works.

Yeah, it's fascinating because like what I want to point out to everyone is on the pulsetto website too. I love that you make a lot of this data and the research really accessible. And I think when people think about the cranial nerve that you mentioned touching all of our major organs, like you said, that it really is maybe just about digest or helping us relax. But it's really cool to see that you have the studies to show how it impacts your recovery, your mood lowering inflammation to the body, which is such a big buzzword these days, right. But also our heart rate variability which is also coming online and how that allows us to go out into the world feeling a little bit more peace and calm. And your team sent over some notes and they call the vagus nerve the body's built in reset switch which when you understand it through that lens it's like oh my gosh, I just have to do that. And what is so refreshing about this where I get excited because it's not something that's hardcore, it's not a pill that you have to take, it's not something that you have to go and spend a lot of time. It literally is just a few minutes A day through this activation and this activation through ancient times. Like have you ever been to an ashram? Do you know what an ashram is?

No, I never been.

So you'll have to come with me one day. It's a spiritual center where you go and you practice lots of yoga and you live outside in nature and you practice chanting every single day and humming and all of these modalities. Breath work as well, which is vagal activation. Right. So instead of going away, this is a way that kind of anchors you in that exact same feeling. So I guess the next question is, when we think about this built in reset switch, why is the vagal nerve often called the reset button? Or why do you call it the healing highway? What does it actually mean? Like what how are we supposed to feel when we know that we've turned on this vagal tone activation versus not.

So you know how you should feel? It's a little bit different. Maybe a question due to that, you know, people feel different, different ways. But you know, one thing that let's say a majority of people have witnessed, basically when you have those butterflies in the stomach, this is basically overactivated when you are in love, when you have some, I don't know, major let's say event or etc. So this is overactivating vagus. So this is coming through vagus nerve. But in general, you know, as you mentioned, there are natural ways how to activate Vegas. You can hum, you can sing, you can do breath work, you can do contrast bath, cold, hot shower. You know, everything is working perfectly in my opinion. And you know, if you can maintain this kind of things, I would say keep, keep bad kind of, let's say habits. But majority of people cannot maintain land. And this is the biggest issue to let's say the building habits. And when we created this device, our logic was to create a device which does not have a lot of, let's say, strain on your mental capacity. When you put the device, you can let's stimulate the various, but you do not need to allocate additional time like doing meditation or prayer for it works perfectly. But you know, you need 10, 15, 20 or 40 minutes to do this kind of activities and reach those states, you know, on which you can say that okay, I'm calm, I am, let's say close to my inner self and et cetera. So our mission was basically to create the device which helps you to ground yourself quite easily and without any, let's say education. You do not need to go to retreat to learn how to properly Meditate or how to properly chant. But, you know, it's, it's, it's not a magic bullet. It's just a tool in a toolbox. And, you know, usually when I say, okay, if I ask nine, any person on the street how you should live your life, 99% would know how to live the life so that they would be healthy, they need to sleep well, have less stress, exercise, eat healthy, and have a community. But how many people can maintain this kind of lifestyle is just a fraction of a percent, in my opinion. So, you know, it's a, it's. Let's say we all know how to live, but nobody's living that life.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's frustrating because this isn't a product. This isn't something that's unique to one part of the world. You're in a different part of the world that I am. I work with clients all over the world and the feedback is the same. And I think that a lot of people, they don't really associate the symptoms that they're suffering with with vagus nerve dysfunction. And what I was excited to share with you. So I have a handful of clients who've been using the device for about a month. Two of them specifically have irritable bowel syndrome. And both women describe saying that, you know what, at first they didn't necessarily feel anything happening. It wasn't like the magic bullet, like you said, which I'm so happy you said, that this isn't a magic bullet. But when you use technology like this and it causes you to take a few breaths or at least come back into that memory of, oh, I'm supposed to breathe, I'm supposed to relax. Oh, yeah, I'm doing this because I want to feel a certain way that that's technology that's really working for you.

Right.

And can you imagine the impact? And maybe this is something that's on the radar for your company, but if you go into the corporate world, the impact of using tech like this for people who are at the office every day, in front of screens every day, inside every single day, maybe corporations aren't yet ready to build meditation rooms or breath work rooms or cold plunge rooms and all of those things, but tech like this would just be so impactful. What do you think?

I think it's a very good idea. And, you know, but this is like a blessing and disguise. You know, when you feel better, what you can do, work more. And this is like a closed loop system, in my opinion. Okay, I can give you a retreat and you will do more. I can give you some, some tool which will allow you to relax faster, let's say be productive, but still, you know, the output is what is needed. So it's a very good tool. But you know, the. I would say, you know, of course the employer needs to be aware of these kinds of things, but employee also needs to be aware of his own, let's say, well being due to that, you know, business is providing, let's say growth, let's say every quarter, every, every year. So you know, that I would say the employee needs to be more aware. So I would say it's good to use the tool to make a better decision. But in my opinion this would be better to use it at home when you need to relax, when you need to, let's say switch the states. Because if you are in the office, you still are working environment. When you come home, you need to relax, you need to forget some things and allocate the time for yourself. So I would say this is the more applicable way in my opinion. Of course, in our office everyone uses. But no, but I would say, you know, we're trying to even promote some other things, some, some challenges, a little bit on a team. But work is work.

Yeah, yeah, maybe in the future. But I agree with you, it has to be something that needs to be merged with all the other modalities. So it's just a reminder for people to take that cue to come back into peace. So some of the other exciting studies and maybe you want to share some of them that you've done with us. So the less obvious signs of vagus nerve dysfunction, beyond the usual things that we're talking about, the stress, the anxiety, the sleeplessness, what are some other symptoms that you say that people aren't linking together with vagus nerve dysfunction?

You know, it's also close, close system. So in general, if you have a lot of stress, usually you cannot, let's say, digest quite well. So this is also common problem. Some inflammation is happening in your body. Let's say if you have psoriasis, you can for sure check your, let's say your rash, a lot of things, eye fatigue, low energy. And you know, we have a lot of customers who said that, okay, accelerate my vagus network and I have a booster band energy. So you know, people are even not aware that we have not that stress or anxiety, we have a burnout basically just simulating weakness. Now push pushes you into, let's say like equilibrium, which you need to be. And it feels like energy, boost of energy but it is basically just pushing you into your normal state. So a lot of things are let's say LinkedIn to Vegas narcopy. I would say, you know, the biggest let's say solution, what we can provide is stress addiction of stress, anxiety and improvement of sleep. And if you have let's say quite good establishment on those kind of groundwork, you can even go further, let's say improve your digestion due to that, you know, if you have any condition and it breaks your sleeping patterns, that would be let's say the most efficient way how to check if you are getting better or not. Because you know one part of the day you are in bed and this is the core thing that you need to, to tackle in my opinion. So sleeping, you know, is maybe sometimes forgotten now it's getting a little bit more traction but you know, if you cannot go fast to bed, this is also a problem. So you know, we have let's say aura users who are using our device and we see that we can push people to fall asleep fast but just by four minutes. You know, it doesn't seem like a lot, but four minutes every day and let's say combine the affect those if you are using our device for one year. So quite adds up.

Yeah, definitely. That adds up to quite a lot actually.

Yeah. So you know, there are some small fixes that you can do but in general we see that we can improve your RM and deep sleep but we cannot prolong the duration in a bed, but we can reduce the awake time when you are moving in bed, etc. So you know, there are some good, very good data on this, let's say things and you know, we say okay, 10 minutes before going to bed, simulate for 10 minutes. We have a dedicated program for this in that window. And you know, people are getting very good results. And let's say the funniest thing is that if a person is moving less than that, usually they're, let's say close other is also getting better quality of sleep that they are not awakened during the movement. So you know, improving one person sleep quality usually has some, let's say, additional effects.

Yeah, and I would say like improving your sleep quality, that's life changing. Like it really is life changing that impacts absolutely everything. And I love that you brought that up too with your studies. It's this cumulative effect. I don't know what it's like in Lithuania where you are, but here when we look at this lens of longevity and aging really well, there's a lens of stress that comes with it. Like people are worried or scared about getting sick or scared about getting old, or scared about all these things. But I think that's important to point out. You have something or a practice like this where you have. Sorry, where you have cumulative effects that support your health, that's going to help you age well. It's going to help to lower inflammation. And I would say that there was one common feature to everything that you mentioned. So the studies that you've done on sleep, anxiety, stress, digestion or low energy, it's this stress to the body. It's stress that's happening within us. And we don't necessarily see it, we don't always feel it. We know that it's there. But can you describe then, just to really give people an understanding, like when we're thinking about vagus nerve dysfunction or maybe living chronically in that sympathetic state, what's physically happening to the vagus nerve? Like, is it overactive? Does it shut down? Is it communicating through different nerve endings to the body? What are the. What are the issues that are happening?

So basically, okay, vagus nerve is still working, but just a part of vagus nerve, which is usually linked to sympathetic nervous system. So in general, what is happening? Basically, you have two states, sympathetic and parasympathetic. So one is fight or flight, which is okay. Constantly looking for some, let's say, causes which are causing you stress. Due to that, your body is naturally adapted to reduce the stress and get out of danger. But this day and age, your body does not differentiate between real stress and artificial.