104: All About Ayurvedic TONGUE Analysis with John of Joyful Belly

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. I am beyond excited for today's episode and also to share with you some pieces of amazing news. My master class with Shaman Durek, awaken your Powers is now out. This is your masterclass. If you are ready to rise up as a leader in the new paradigm, you want to be heard. You know you have a message to share, but just something within you is just hesitating a little bit to just go all out and let the world know how amazing and wonderful and impactful you truly are. So this masterclass, we dive deep. We go into using social media as a tool to spread your message, how to book clients, how to get on stages, how to shift your energy to attract opportunities, how to deal with uncomfortable moments, how to earn your worth, how to be okay with creating a business around your healing expertise or whatever else that you may feel like. 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We are here to support you and we've also created a private Facebook group so you can connect with other tribe members, support each other, lift each other up, connect, network, create businesses together, create podcasts together, whatever it is that you are waiting to do. This is your tribe. We are also going to be doing an Instagram pod where you will be able to comment on each other, follow each other to build your social media following. So head over to my website or the link in this episode to join the awakening your powers masterclass. I also want to announce that my book Eat feel Fresh is now available for pre order on Amazon Barnes And Nobles, Target, Walmart books, a million indiebound, wherever books are sold. I am so excited. This book is my version of Ayurveda, my alkaline version. So I've taken away dairy products, ghee, excess rice, all the heavily oiled cooked foods. 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So head over to their website uveda.com, Y-O-U-V-E-D a.com and use the code Sahara S A H A R A and you'll receive 35% off. And they ship to so many countries worldwide. So I highly recommend just giving it a try and in just 30 days you're honestly going to notice the difference. Before we get into this episode with John of Joyful Belly, John has offered us kindly a thousand dollar off discount for any highest self podcast listener or friend that wants to join Drivel Belly School of Ayurvedic Digestion and Nutrition. This is by far the most comprehensive Ayurvedic program I have come across. I was just texting with John earlier, like pictures of my tongue, like he is such an amazing teacher and really the kind of person you want to learn Ayurveda from because he cares and he also is very modern in his, he went to Harvard. Guys, this is my second time interviewing him on the podcast. So if you haven't listened to the first episode, be sure to listen to that too. But what I love about Joyful Belly's programs is they train you to become a practitioner. So they have two programs. Their first program is their Masters of Ayurvedic Digestion, which really goes deep into the digestive system. So whether you are a total newbie, you've never taken a class in Ayurveda before, or you are a doctor and you just want to learn more about digestion, maybe you're a health coach, maybe you're a yoga teacher, maybe you're trying to get into corporate wellness, whatever it is you're looking to get into, I highly recommend Joyful Belly. They have also a two year program which is Fundamentals of Natural Healing which teaches you all about Ayurveda. So if you want to work with anything from pregnant woman to self care to starting your own retreat, space to whatever it is you're looking for. They cover it in that two year program so you graduate as an Ayurvedic practitioner. Either way, after the programs you can start your own practice, either an Ayurvedic digestion or an overall Ayurveda. I am also throwing in a free bonus webinar all about how to create a thriving business as an Ayurvedic practitioner. So I will be teaching you the ropes on how to brand yourself, how to market yourself, how to share Ayurveda with people who haven't known it before. How do you structure that one on one consultation? When is it the right time to shift into doing group coaching? What if you want to do an online program? I will be talking about all of that and answering your questions live on this webinar. And on top of that I will have a bonus Facebook group to support one another, the highest self podcast community that is in Joyful Belly to connect with one another and you guys can ask me questions on there and I'm so honored to help you. So to get those bonuses head over to my website, iamsaharrose.com, you'll see it says become an Ayurvedic practitioner and click on that. It has tons of information, facts, all about the programs, et cetera. Click over there. You'll receive his webinar. You can hear the other podcasts I did with him. He'll email you and if you want I can also put you in direct contact with John of Joyful Belly. Just send me an email at Sahara S A H A R AAT feel fresh.com shoot me an email, say hey, I have some questions about Joyful Belly. I'll get you in touch with John. I'll answer any questions that you have, myself too. If you have a question on what is it like to be an Ayurvedic practitioner, whatever it is, and when you sign up, just let me know that you signed up and I'll add you to my webinar and to the the private Facebook group and you'll receive your thousand dollar off scholarship. So congratulations for all of you guys who are thinking about joining. It is the most impactful and amazing thing I've ever done in my life. I did an episode, episode 99 why Ayurveda is the Next Big Thing. And I talk all about why Ayurveda is the next yoga. Not that it's going to replace yoga, but in terms of how popular it is. You know, yoga studios are on every corner. Everyone Practices yoga. Everyone knows what yoga is, but Ayurveda is because it's sister science and they were never meant to be taken apart. So I believe that in the future we're going to see Ayurvedic restaurants, clinics, retreat centers, companies, all of that on every corner we turn. And that's such a beautiful thing. And I want you guys to join me on, you know, the breaking grounds of this ancient health system reemerging into the modern world. So becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner is an incredible career shift to make because you will be really among the first in the US or in Europe or whatever country you live in. Unless you live in India, then you're definitely not the first to practice Ayurveda. And there's so many ways that you can do it. So listen to that episode, why Ayurveda is the next big thing. And I got a lot of Ayurveda episodes on here, so listen to any of them for more inspiration. But Joyful Belly is by far the place that I recommend most. There are live calls like, it is so hands on and it's online, so you can do it from anywhere, but you feel like you're in person. And the two year program also includes a clinic that you can do and they can place you with internships as well. So let's hop into what we're going to cover in this episode now. So in this episode we go deep into tongue analysis and the reason why John and I, we were like, what should we talk about? Well, we chose tongue because the tongue is one. It's like the crystal globe to your health. It tells you everything there is to know about your health. But also it's the topic that they cover in both Joyful Belly programs. In the one year Masters of Ayurvedic Digestion, in the two years Fundamentals of Natural Healing. So either program you do, you're gonna learn a lot about tongue. So in this episode, he gives us really a of lot, a workshop on the tongue. Like, this workshop is something that people would honestly pay a lot of money to be a part of. And he's so generously just gifted it to us and he tells us all about how you can begin tongue analysis. So by the end of this episode, you guys are going to be able to look at your tongue and know exactly what's going on, what dosha is out of balance, what dosha you were born with all of these things. You're going to look at your spouse's tongue, your friend's tongue, Your mom's tongue, everywhere you look, you're going to be like, hey, let me see your tongue. And, I mean, I make Ayurvedic jokes all the time, but, like, I remember was like the MTV Awards and, like, Miley Cyrus, like, stuck out her tongue. I was like, oh, my God, so much ama, so many toxins. She's so out of balance. Like, lol, Ayurveda jokes. But you're going to be doing that by the end of this episode, guaranteed. So we talk about the shape, the coating, the color, all of these things, and how it seriously tells us so much about our health. So if you're interested in Ayurveda, you're going to love this episode. Without further ado, let's invite John of Joyful Bally to the Highest Self Podcast. Welcome, John, to the Highest Self Podcast. It's so great to have you here again.

Oh, yeah, I'm glad to be back. Excited to talk with you again.

So I'll ask you this question again. What makes you your highest self?

Oh, well, definitely my answer to that would be my spiritual life, which I find so rich and so incredible, really. When I was in my 20s, I was kind of all over the place, right? And then after the birth of my first child, I really kind of catch an awakening, I guess, or a spiritual understanding in my life of who God was, of who Jesus was and how important that was to my family. And so always in my life, I've been interested in spiritual matters, and I just sort of. I just drunk it up. After that, I really started going deep into Western philosophy and Western spirituality. Reading some of the saints over the last 2000 years of Christian history has just really opened up my heart in ways that I could have never anticipated. Maybe such a nicer person to people and really fed my family. And so I would say that, you know, sometimes it's a cliche when people say, oh, you know, Jesus saved me. But I would say that that was really true for me and it was such a great complement to my Ayurvedic training and lifestyle because Ayurveda is so embodied and it's so nurturing as a practice. I felt it really dovetailed well with this sort of new religious family that I had. And it's just great to practice Ayurveda as a religious person. That's really. In fact, doing both of those together, I would say, makes me my highest self, because healing people, I mean, that's what Jesus did, right? He walked around and he healed people. And so it just Feels like a part of a great tradition to try, you know, my best to follow in those footsteps and help people, help other people be the best that they can be. Really?

I love that. That's so beautiful. And I think it's also great. I know some people in my Facebook group were like, I don't really know, can I still practice Christianity and do Ayurveda? Do they clash with each other? So that's so beautiful that you found a way for them to really go hand in hand. And so many parallels between the two.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really is. And it's, and it's a, it's a very interesting topic is can they be parallel? And there's sort of definitive answer to that, is an emphatic yes. Jesus himself, you know, he came in bodily form, right? So it's like God chose to be a person and that really elevates the divinity of the body. That really is really almost a divine statement that says, hey, the body is worth something, the body's really valuable. Let's take care of it. And Ayurveda operates from that spiritual perspective also. Let's take care of our bodies, let's take care of one another and take care of our communities. And so that really puts the two together.

I love that so much. Taking care of your body truly is the most spiritual practice you can do because it was what we were given to experience this life with.

Yes, yeah, absolutely.

Great. Well, you are the founder of Joyful Belly, which a lot of listeners have heard. Your first interview. They're really interested. Many listeners are aspiring Ayurvedic practitioners or they're new to Ayurveda and they want to learn more about it. And you are such a world renowned expert. Expert especially in diagnosis, digestion, nutrition. So I really want to dive deep into tongue analysis on this episode. So can you please share with us a little bit about how Ayurveda uses the tongue and what that says about our health?

Yeah, well, the tongue is so important as part of our daily self assessment, really. In Ayurveda, we're always looking for signs and almost a window into our body to see what's going on in there. We have our feelings, pain or comfort or discomfort. Right. We have a number of body experiences every day. But one of the most important windows into our body or the ways that we self assess in Ayurveda is with the tongue. And the tongue is a window into our whole body. But also it's a very special window into the digestive tract, which as we know is the foundation of our health. Right. And it's so important to have great digestion if you're trying to help your body in any way. So this all important window to the digestive tract makes us very interested in the tongue. And looking at the tongue, examining the tongue, There are a few other reasons why we should care about our tongue. The tongue is a gatekeeper to our body. The tongue says, hey, that doesn't taste good, you're out, all right, that tastes great, you're in. And so the tongue is almost like the gatekeeper that the sentinel that lets you in or tells us what to eat, what to nourish our body. There are a few other reasons why I love doing tongue assessment. It's one of the diagnostic tools that I pay the most attention to. Everyone always talks about the pulse. I love to talk about the tongue. One of the reasons why I love to talk about the tongue very simply is clients can send me a picture of their tongue. So if a client is meeting with a client over the phone and they can't come into my clinic, they can just send me a picture of their tongue. I can't take their pulse from remotely, but I can look at their tongue. That's really valuable. One of the other things I love about the tongue is that the tongue sort of tells you sub acutely. It's sort of like between acute and chronic, right? The pulse can change. If you're exhilarated by something or if you're hungry or if you had a cup of coffee, you're going to see radical differences in the pulse. The tongue's not going to change that much that quickly. Tongue changes, especially the tongue surface changes, maybe daily, maybe over three or four days, but not minute to minute. So sometimes I find it to be a reliable diagnostic tool for what's been happening the last few days. Now the tongue body shape tells you constitution, that's more long term. And the tongue color will tell you more chronic conditions. So you get a real smattering of different diagnostic aspects or diagnostic characteristics through looking at the tongue. It shows the health of the blood. Like all very red tissues of the body. When doctors check for anemia, they always like peel the lower eyelid of the eye and see, hey, what does the conjunctive of the eye look like? Is it very pink and is it very red and inflamed or is it pale? And the tongue shows that as well. Like I said, all red tissues of the body. And also your tongue coating, very important. And the saliva in your mouth, very important indicator about Blood plasma, the white part of the blood, whether that saliva is thick and frothy, whether there's a coating on the tongue, whether it's thick or thin, the color of the coating on the tongue, all of that is going to tell you whether the plasma is undernourished, whether there are toxins there, et cetera. So super important as a diagnostic tool.

I love that so much. And I think that's so accurate, how you can just take a picture and you can see and. And so true with the pulse analysis, if someone just ate, if someone drank alcohol, there's so many things. If you're just excited, that's gonna change your pulse and there are deeper levels to the pulse, but that's something that also for people, will really take years and years to master. Whereas with the tongue, just from looking at, like, do you have a crack? Do you have a red tip of your tongue? There are things that you can just look out for. So can you begin to share some of the things like. Like, can listeners just look in the mirror right now, look at your tongue, see what's going on? And, John, can you share with us some indicators we can look out for and what that means?

Yeah, yeah. So when I assess a client's tongue, and what you can assess when you're looking at your tongue is the following, right? Just. I'm just gonna give you the list. This is what I do when I'm meeting with a client. I start, I examine the tongue. And here we're just gonna talk about approach, right? We'll get into some more of the meaning later. But here's how I approach the tongue. I examine from the outside in. So I almost like, start with a big circle and then sort of narrow my circle inward, right? So first I'm paying attention to the breath, right? The first, when I'm the client, if the client's sitting there, then I smell their breath, I look at their breathing rate, and I think to myself, okay, what does that say about their body? And that's sort of in the atmosphere. Then I look at the skin around their mouth and I say, okay, what does that. What's going on in the skin there? Is there acne in the chin? What's the color of the skin? All that is going to give me a bunch of clues. Then I start to get a little bit closer, and I look at the lips. Are the lips cracked or not? Are the lips dry or moist? Are they full or empty and full and thick or empty and thin? What's the color? Are they pale or Blue or red. And then I look at the teeth of the client. I say, oh, what's going on with the teeth now? White tissues of the body are so awesome for looking at blood plasma. The whites of the eyes, the whites of your teeth, even your nail beds, to some extent, you could see any impurities in the blood, basically when you're looking at the teeth, because if there are any impurities, it's like if you have a white wall, you can see all the dust in the room. But if you have like a dark colored wall or a dark colored rug, you can't see any of it. Right? Well, the white tissues of the body give us that great window to any impurities in the body. So I look at the teeth next that I'm closing and I'm moving closer to the tongue, right? I haven't even gotten to the tongue yet, but this is what I'm looking at. Then I look at the back of the throat. Back of the throat is sometimes a little yellow. Then I know there's lots of bilirubin in the blood coming from the liver, which means a kind of leaky liver. And the liver may be a little weak there. And then I now finally I'm getting to the tongue. I look at the coating on the tongue. So what does that tell me about, I mentioned already, that's going to tell you about some toxins in the blood or what's going on in your blood plasma. Then I look at the tongue surface itself, a little deeper, the tongue surface. Is it cracked or not? Is the tongue swollen or not? Then I look at the tongue body shape. Is it a long or a short tongue, Is it a wide tongue, is it a thick tongue? Again, is the tongue swollen? And then finally I look at the tongue body color, is it pale red, bluish, tinge to it, et cetera? So all of those are the different parts of the tongue that I'm looking at. And you can see the wealth of information there. It's so tempting to say, oh, that's just the tongue, but from this brief discussion, we already know that there's just so many structures there, so many anatomical structures that are revealing things about our internal body. Hmm.

So good. And I love how you really like look at everything. You know, even tongue analysis is such a holistic thing. It's not just the tongue, it's the mouth, it's the acne, it's the lips. And even as you were doing that, people who know a little bit about Ayurveda, you were also assessing Prakriti and viktruti the whole time. So, like, the size of the lips is more prakriti, but the dryness or moistness is more vikrati. So you're doing both. So I'd love to know more like, specifics. So, for example, what does a vata tongue and mouth area look like?

Okay, well, in vata, we're going to expect that the skin would maybe have a little bit of loss of its luster. Right. Because vata tends to be a bit deficient. And so the skin may be a little bit on the pale side, reflecting that deficiency. And again, we're talking about pathology here. Vata in health is, you know, the skin is going to look normally beautiful, but as those imbalances creep in, that's what I'm talking about here. So we'll see maybe the skin being a little more pale, the skin being a little bit more fragile, thin. The skin is a little thinner. As we look at the lips, the lips will be a little more thin too. Sort of drained of fluids and reflecting perhaps chronic dehydration or chronic deficiency. As we look into the teeth, again, healthy vata, you have nice pearly whites. The teeth will be a little bit smaller perhaps than a kapha tooth would be. But if there's an imbalance, we may notice irregularity in the teeth itself in terms of like, just structurally, like, the teeth may be a little more crooked or bent or something along those lines. If we're looking at an elderly individual, the teeth may be a little gray or aggravated. The vata teeth tend to be a little bit more on the grayer side. Getting into the tongue, we may notice a thick coating on the tongue, which would be a sign of AMA in an a vata person, a sign of toxins on the tongue. But kapha people will also have a thick coating for a different reason. So we're really going to be looking at the color of that coating. If the color of the coating is more grayer rather than whiter, we're going to be thinking vata type coating. Then the tongue body itself is again going to be a little bit drained of fluids. So the tongue is going to be thinner, more cracked, and maybe a little bit more jittery moving around. As you're looking at it, it's hard to maybe hard to keep that tongue still. There are cases when the tongue of vodipuristin may be swollen and appear big. Those are some special cases, though.

Okay, so let's say you have, you know, the dryness and the cracking, but your Prakriti isn't like that. You don't have thin lips. You just have the vata imbalance. Because a lot of people are confused. Am I treating the Prakriti? Am I treating the vikrati? So how would you go about that?

Yeah, Well, a vata, if you have a kapha constitution, but you have a vata imbalance, usually you're not going to see that strongly reflected on the tongue, quite honestly, except in the area of assessing the nervous system through the tongue. So the tongue will appear jittery because their nervous system is a little haywire, but you're not going to see many other vata signs on the tongue itself. And the main reason for that is in a kava person, just by virtue of their constitution, they're not going to have that deficiency. And most of those vata signs on the tongue are related to deficiency. In general, when a kapha person has a vata imbalance, it's nearly always either secondary to the kapha itself, meaning the cause is kapha and vata's aggravated, almost like as a complication of it. Or if vata is properly aggravated in a kapha person, it's really just in their nervous system, and the cause is their routine. And so you just fix their routine, and that brings that vata quickly back under control.

Okay, beautiful. And can you share with us about, like, chronically dry lips? It's something I experienced, and I know a lot of listeners have also experienced the same thing. Is that always a vata imbalance?

Well, that's a curious question. A great question to ask. So when you're referring to dry lips, I'm assuming that you're not referring to the lips being thin, which is kind of that constitutional dryness over of, like, a vada person. I think you're talking more about the lips maybe just not having any moisture on them and feeling like they need chapstick all the time. Is that right?

Yes, exactly.

Okay. Okay, Great, great, great. So I have found that when the lips start to get scaly and a little dried out in a person who has more kapha, that usually some kind of tendency towards fungal infection is underfoot, that there may be some candida somewhere in the person's body, could even be just a toe fungus. But what happens is, and this is just through clinical experience, I don't know if I have the tightest explanation of it, but it's what I've noticed, that when a person has a chronic fungal infection, it tends to have a bit of a vasodilating Effect causing a Kapha person's fluids to move to the lower part of the body, kind of creating that pear shape that you see sometimes in folks. And the upper body tends to be a little dry, lower body tends to be a little bit more full. And so you'll see the arms will be thinner, but the legs will be hardier. And so I think of dry lips as sort of a part of that pattern of loss of fluids in the upper body with vasodilation secondary to a fungus infection. Now again, I would love to do the double blind control study on that clinically. I'm just really riffing off of my clinical experience with that.

I love that explanation. Yeah, it's very thorough. And of course, you have so many years of clinical experience. So what if, for example, a more Pitta person has the dry lips, would it also be related to a fungal infection?

Yeah, yeah. Because Pitta naturally doesn't have dryness. Pitta always has oiliness. And so what you should see in a Pitta is nice unctuous lips. Not as full and thick or as big as a Kapha person's lips, but not thin either. They should be moist, unctuous, and, you know, medium full bodiedness to the lip coloring.

So also if they have the dryness feeling like they need coconut oil or something, do you think that it would be related to Candida or something like that?

It seems that as you know, Candida itself is a Pitta imbalance. And so, I mean, it's a Pitta Kapha imbalance. It's maybe Kapha in cause, but Pitta in effect. And so if a Pitta person has that sour quality that Pitta has. Yeah, there may be some kind of underlying infection associated with that. But really, when you're looking at a person who has a Pitta prakruti or a Pitta constitution, they have really robust circulation and the fluids are very unlikely to drain from the upper body. In fact, in a Pitta person, heat usually causes the blood to move upward and their face looks flushed. And you may have more fluids in the upper body and the lower body may be drained. And so in a true Pitta prakruti without Kapha as secondary or without Kapha primary, you probably wouldn't see that dry lips. I have to think about what exactly would cause that pathology in a Pitta person.

Yeah, and sometimes it's just dehydration or especially if you're using something like Chopstick or, or blistex. Like it's just so addictive that sometimes we just create this perpetual dryness. And also, I think almost everyone in Western society these days has some element of a vata imbalance.

Oh, totally.

So can you tell us about what do the cracks mean in your tongue?

Okay, so cracks are really about the tongue surface. So let's talk a little bit about the tongue surface. Cracks in general mean that there's some injuries to the digestive organs. Remember, the tongue is a part of the lining of the digestive tract. So when I'm looking at cracks, I'm thinking that degree of the crack, meaning the number and the size of a crack correlate to the amount of injury to the digestive organs. Now, injury doesn't mean you can't fix it, but it could mean that there's degenerative changes that are irreversible. But definitely when we're looking at a tongue, it is a sign of cracks are also a sign of dryness. Right, that the tongue is cracking almost the way mud cracks after a rainfall in a desert. As those puddles dry up, the mud sort of cracks. Well, that's a good way of thinking about tongue cracks as associated with dryness. So injury and dryness are what I'm thinking of. The number of cracks, the depth of the cracks are going to indicate the degree and amount of injury. Now, also, location plays a factor here too. If the location of the tongue coating or a tongue crack or anything on the tongue has an indication as to what organs and stuff may be underneath, may be behind it. And that has a lot to do with how circulation works in the tongue. So that's a very interesting topic itself. But yeah, cracks, injury to the digestive organs or dryness in the body, acute dryness.

And when you say injury to the digestive organs, what could happen that look like or mean.

Okay, that could mean inflammation in the gut. The skin of your gut can get wounded just like the skin on your outside of your body. Like if you skin your knee, there's a sore there. Well, you can have a sore inside your gut, especially an ulcer is an example of that. But you can have inflammation, you can have a sore, you could have atrophy of the stomach. And that also is a degenerative change. Inflammation may not be present, but usually that's secondary to something like an H. Pylori infection or even an elderly person who has had poor digestion for a very long time. Some of those stomach acid producing cells can start to die. And that would be also an injury to the digestive organs.

Okay, so it could be something like that. And Then it could also just be related to excess vata in the system.

Yeah. If there's too much dryness, and this could be chronic or acute, you'll see more cracks. I have clients that wake up in the morning and they have cracks on their tongue, and then the next morning they wake up and they're gone. That's very interesting, but it's not abnormal. A number of my clients have reported that. So these cracks can come and go. I had a client that I worked with for about six, seven, or eight months, and just slowly, her organs healed so wonderfully that the cracks disappeared. The color of her tongue returned to a healthy pink. There was no more patches on the tongue, which is another issue that you see on tongues sometimes. It was really great and fantastic to see how her body was restored.

I love that. And is there a difference between having one big crack versus several smaller cracks?

Yeah, it can be. Sometimes one big, long crack down the center of the tongue has been. I've heard that talked about as thyroid issues or issues down the spine or that they are. Yeah, metabolic issues, issues down the spine. And I would prefer a client to have several very superficial cracks to one very deep crack. I think the depth of the crack really points strongly to severity number does, too. But really a really deep crack, I'm gonna be more concerned about their condition than several smaller ones.

Okay. And when you say location of the crack has to do with. With what the issue is, can you share with us some various locations and what it's related to?

Yeah. The tip of the tongue often talked about as being related to the heart. And I also relate that to vasodilation, that if your heart's pumping hard and you're getting blood circulating all around the body, that blood is really gonna show up at the tip of the tongue. And in general, people should have a slightly redder tip to their tongue. That's a sign of healthy, ugly, healthy fire, digestive fire on their body. So think of the tip of the tongue as more related to heart. I think of the middle of the tongue as related to small intestine and stomach. Your basic weird digestion is happening. And so if there's problems there, a crack there or coating there, I'm thinking what's going on in their stomach? What's going on in their small intestine in the back of the tongue. More related to colon problems. If I see a yellow, thick coating in the back of the tongue, I'm thinking inflammation and fermentation in the colon. And I'm going to think about Cleaning that person's colon and trying to reduce the inflammation there. So kidneys and lungs are more on the sides of the tongue. Kidneys in the back, lungs more in the front. Yeah. So that's. Those are some of the basic location of organs and as it relates to the tongue.

Fascinating. I'm sure everyone listening is just staring at their tongue right now, as I am. So can you tell us about the coating, what coating really means? AMA and different colors of coating. Diving into that.

Okay, yeah. So first thing you want to look at with coating, is it thick or thin? You actually want a thin, dime sized coating in the back of the tongue. Tongue. And that means that you're just a little overnourished. Now people say, well, why do you want to be overnourished? Because we don't want to like, we don't want our bodies to be like on the brink of deficiency. Right. We want to just have a little extra. Right. That little extra buffer just in case something goes wrong. What if you get sick and you're going to be undernourished and not eating very much during the time that you're sick for a few days, you want to have just a little extra other than just trying to be perfectly. No coding.

And that's on the back of your tongue.

That's in the back of the tongue. Yeah. You don't want the dime sized coating to be anywhere else. So just a little bit of coating on the tongue. Great. As that coating starts to expand over the tongue, as it starts to get thicker, we're looking at more AMA in the body. That means toxins. Now if the coating is a nice white color, which is the best color to have, you're looking at a more kapha imbalance. A person just has had too many sweets, too many. Any too much richness in the blood. And so what's happening is that because their blood is too sweet, tons of bacteria are growing on the surface of the tongue and it makes this sort of thick coating. Right. The coating itself is not really something produced by the body as much as it is by bacteria feeding off of the saliva. Now if the coating starts to turn colors now we're looking at other issues. So a grayish coating is a vata sign and that means that there's fermentation, probably gas and bloating in the stomach. If a client shows me their tongue and I see that the coating is really gray, I'm thinking they're constipated right away. Or I'm thinking that they have gas and bloating and so that's a great indicator of that. And if I see the tongue coating is yellow, then I know that there's bile components in the blood. Well, where does that bile come from? The liver. The liver is responsible for breaking down blood cells and converting them into bile. And that bile is yellowish, greenish color. And if it's leaking too much into the blood, then you're going to see yellowing around the body. And then right away, I'm going to be asking the client, do you have intense emotions? Do you get angry? Because that bile is irritating to the whole body and really heats the body up. I know that if I take their pulse, their skin is going to be warm if their tongue coating is yellow, because, well, bile makes you warm. It's called choleric heat in Greek medicine, when you have those bile components in the blood. So that basically summarizes coating briefly. We should also talk about saliva, because even though the saliva is clear, it is coating the tongue. You don't want the tongue to look too dry. That could be acute dehydration. But you don't want the saliva to be really frothy either. What does it mean when saliva is frothy on the tongue? It means that it's trapping air bones. Well, why would it trap air bubbles? Because it's too thick. If the saliva is too thick and slick, it means that the blood plasma is too thick and slick, and circulation is going to be sluggish. There's going to be higher blood pressure to pump that sluggish molasses blood around the body. What we're really looking at when we see a frothiness on the tongue is the root cause of kapha imbalances, which is thick blood. Thick over rich, over sweet blood. So that pretty much sums up what you're looking at, what you're going to be assessing when it comes to coding.

Okay. I'm, like, looking. So if you mean bubbly. So some people's saliva has just bubbles in it all the time?

Yeah, bubbles in it. Or it's really frothy. Like you. You see like a dog frothing at the mouth, like a rabid dog frozen at the mouth. You always see there's, like, bubbles around it, right? Well, sometimes people have. And it doesn't mean they're rabbit. It just means they have thick blood. They have just a little frothiness to the saliva. Saliva, and then there's degrees of that. So if it's like just some bigger bubbles, that's less of an indicator than really, like, froth like foamy almost. And then another sign of thick saliva is if you see a string attached from the roof of the mouth to the surface of the tongue. You open the mouth and you see there's a string attached. Then you know that the blood is really thick and viscous. And that viscous blood just totally bogs down a cough. A metabolite. It's the root cause of weight gain and a number of other kapha pathologies. You really want to thin that blood out. If you're seeing stringy saliva from the surface of the tongue to the roof of the mouth or frothiness on your tongue.

Fascinating. And what does it mean if, like, you can see the taste buds really on the tongue? Does that mean anything?

Well, okay, so that's normal to see. The taste buds on the tongue is normal. Sometimes people look at the back of their mouth and they're like, oh, my goodness, I have too much. Two big, huge bumps in either side in the back of my mouth. I must be sick or they must be inflamed or that looks gross. That's what they're thinking, right? At least most people have them. They're a normal sign. They're nothing to worry about. You may see some bigger taste buds in the back of your mouth, which may even be highlighted a bit by the coating. But if you see red dots, that's a problem. If you're looking at at and by red dots, I'm looking at those. Gosh. Would be a good thing. That's about that size. It's like they're not red points, but almost like little small discs. Geez, I wish I had a good something to compare the size to, but it's like smaller than the head of attack. But, you know, I don't know the best size description for them. I'll come up with it probably as soon as we end the call.

But yeah, like, I'm seeing them on the tip. It's like these little bumps and they almost have like, white on the very tip.

Okay, so why on the. Yeah, I would love to see a picture of that, because this would help nail it down. But if it's like a red disc, then that's a heat sign, almost like an inflammation in the gut. A person could be just getting over a cold or the flu. Also, it could be that inflammation could be somewhere else in their body, but it's definitely like a heat sort of flaring up. If it is just a point of red, that is more about ructa and the red part of the blood sort of like Real aggravated pitta in the blood. And if you're. Which is closely related to like a heat sign, but it's not the flu. That doesn't indicate the flu. That's just more like a pitta ambulance. Now if there's white on the tip of it, are you saying it's almost like a whitehead? Like a pimple or something? Sahara.

No, it's like the taste buds. I mean I'm looking at it on my iPhone camera so maybe it's not the best but like when I'm really going into the taste bud, feel like it's sort of like white on the tip.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll put a picture online. Everyone can help me diagnose what's going on.

Sounds good. I'll chime in there. Just send me a link when you have it posted and I will check it out and how.

So I know the tip of the tongue. You said a healthy red signifies good agni, but at what point is it a pitta imbalance?

Yeah. Well, so the tip of the tongue should be slightly redder. But if it's. Maybe that's just an experience type question. But if it's like, if it looks like like ruby red, there's a difference between it being just a little bit extra red and it being this almost like a really hot ruby red color. And that is where if your tongue is a deep red color instead of more of like a pinkish red, then you're also looking at a burning up of fluid or a strong heat imbalance. And this sometimes even happens in a cough in a vata tongue that a vata person can be so dry or so deficient that it causes almost like a flaring up of heat. It's called vata pushing pitta in Ayurveda. And so you see this deep red tongue in a pitta person or in a vata person who's really deficient, you can see that redness also. So you're just going to be looking for deeper shades of red or it's really bright red instead of just a little bit more red.

Yeah. Cause I definitely have the red tip. But not sure if it's the healthy. Everyone will help me again when I post up the picture of my tongue. So what level of white coating is normal? Because doesn't everyone have at least some white coating or is it just because we're so used to being out of balance?

Yeah. So a dime size coating in the back of the tongue that's nice and thin. Thin is a. Okay.

But anything besides that, like in just like the middle of your tongue is an imbalance. Okay.

Yeah. It's a sign of either too much kapha or toxins if it's bigger than that. So you want to, you know, you want to look at that a little bit. That doesn't mean that if you see that you should go into a harsh cleanse, because cleanse can weaken your body and cause an increase in coding. So you just want to. That's where you. If you're a practitioner, you know all the ins and outs of that. But if you're not a practitioner and you see that there's a thick coating on your tongue, then you're thinking, maybe I'll talk to a practitioner, schedule a consultation, get an interpretation on this so that we can optimize the body a bit.

Yes. And John does consultations, guys, so you can go to him online. So can you tell us a little bit about the tongue shapes and what that means?

Okay, yeah. A swollen tongue is one of the shapes that people overlook. They never think like, oh, my tongue is swollen. And they'll see the scallops on the sides of the tongue, tongue, which are an indication that the tongue is hitting the teeth. And they may look up in a book or whatever what that means, but the book usually doesn't tell you, oh, your tongue is swollen now. Okay. You could also get teeth marks on the tongue if your tongue is really tense and you're pushing it up against your teeth. But basically, if your tongue is intense, which many people do have tense tongues, but if your tongue is intense and you're seeing those teeth marks, it just means your tongue is a little bit too big for your mouth. And that probably means it's a bit sweet. That can happen if there's inflammation somewhere in the body. It also happens if there's low agni, a really low metabolic fire, which makes fluids generally a bit stagnant in the body, and that can lead to a swelling of fluid or a fluid accumulation in the tongue. Now, in severe cases, and this is another thing you see in textbooks, but I think it's really misleading, they'll say that a swollen tongue is a sign of malabsorption. That's because. Because if you are starving, like almost starving to death, or you're in a country that has a famine, We've all seen pictures of famines where people have swollen belly, swollen tongue, but those are really severe signs that are associated with things like famines or very advanced disease conditions. So that's not what the average person's going to be Looking at if they see swelling on their tongue, it usually just means that their agni is a little low and they should start to troubleshoot that.

And for people, how do they know if their tongue is swollen or that's just the regular size of their tongue?

Yeah. So the question is sort of the same as asking a person whether they have good muscle definition or not. Like, you look at someone's arm and if they flex their bicep, you can see whether the muscle has really good tone and definition or if it's like a little bit soft and not quite having such great tone. And so that's really what we're looking at here too, is what's the tone of the tongue? Now, some vata people will have a tense tongue, and so they. You'll see good tone on their tongue, but maybe even like too much good tone, it's too stiff. The tongue looks very stiff in a vata person, but in a kapha person, the tongue can look just a little flabby and atonal. And then when it's swollen, it starts to just look a little puffy and you're like, oh, yeah. Well, you have to see a few tongues in order to get that. And so just ask your friends, hey, can I see your tongue? If you. They'll probably say no and be very shy. But if you compare 10 or 15 tongues, you'll know what a swollen tongue looks like. It just looks a little puffy. We're also going to be considering the shape of the tongue, the length of the tongue. A really long tongue means the same thing as really long limbs. A person has really long arms, really long legs. You know, their blood's a little thin that they have that constitutional vata, so their heart easily circulates further out, and so the limbs grow a little longer. That's why you have long and lean. Right. And the opposite is short and stocky. Why is the stocky go as short? Well, a kapha imbalance creates thickness in the blood, and then the blood doesn't circulate as well, so the limbs don't grow as long. Same thing happens on the tongue. The tongue's not going to grow as long either. So you're going to see those shorter tongues in kapha, you're going to see those longer tongues in vata. And then if a person has trouble getting the tongue out of their mouth, that could be a sign of debility and weakness in the muscle itself. If we're looking at a deflation in the back of the tongue, a depressed root, then we're going to be looking at exhaustion of the person or adrenal burnout, sort of more debility, kinds of things.

Okay, so puffy tongue. What are other tongue shapes that people commonly have?

Well, they'll either have a thin tongue or a sort of thick, very muscular tongue or a puffy tongue. So that that kind of covers that they'll have that long tongue, which I already mentioned, what some of the causes of that are. It can also mean like a bit of a heat sign if the tongue is very long and short tongue, which means more weakness, debility or a kapha imbalance. And that's really it. You can see like basically you're looking at a muscle. So you can assess a person's muscle health by looking at the tongue shape to whether the sides of the tongue are curled up can give you an indication of stiffness of the tongue. And whether the tongue is tip is raised or not or into a point can also give you indications as the tongue tension. So yeah, tongue tension, muscle health, puffiness, that's all we're looking at when it comes to shape.

Hmm, okay, cool. So now with all of this information, let's say someone sees that they have have per se, like they need a cleanse. What would you recommend from an Ayurvedic perspective? Because most people would jump to do a juice cleanse or maybe they want to do a water fast. What would you recommend?

Yeah, well, first of all, cleansing is unique to the person. You can't just go on a site and be like, oh, first of all, people leap to the conclusion that they need a cleanse because they have toxins. That itself, itself is very often not true. Sometimes you have toxins because your body's too weak. Sometimes you have toxins because of congestion. You only want to cleanse congestion. You never want to cleanse weakness because cleansing creates more weakness. Yes, you could get rid of the toxins for 24 hours and then they come back and they come back with vengeance because you've weakened your body even more. The first question is not even so much what type of cleanse cleanse, but whether you even need a cleanse or whether you need a restoration and whether you need nurturing. So that's the first thing I'm looking at is does a person have a congestive kapha disorder or do they have a weakness More Vata type disorder. And then I tail the cleanse around that. Yes, we still need to get rid of the toxins, but in the case of weakness, I'm going to be nurturing 90% and cleansing maybe 10%. So that's going to look like nice, tasty, easy to digest foods with plenty of oils and stuff in it to really nourish them. Healthy, nutrient rich ingredients, all very easy to digest. And then I might cleanse them with some sour taste. I'm not going to use a lot of bitter taste to cleanse. I'm going to use more sour taste. Things like applesauce have a mild amount of sour taste in it that can cleanse the liver. I might give them a mild laxative, harikake. One of the ingredients in triphala just will soften that stool up just a bit so that they have some easy elimination. But it's not going to just purge or empty them in any way aggravating that deficiency. From looking at a congestive type disorder, I'm going to be a little more vigorous in cleansing the client in that place. So if I see fluid accumulation in the tongue, swollen tongue, in a kapha constitution with sort of puffy skin, that they have mucus congestion in the morning and the mucus is thick, not thin, I'm thinking congestive type disorders. And then like I said, I'm going to be a little more vigorous. I'm going to give them exercise, sweat therapy, stronger laxatives and a mild fast. I'm still not going to go into some kind of harsh fasting technique. I am just so not into those kinds of beat up your body type approaches. I really think that better gains are had when you go slow and steady, steady. So that's how I approach it. Of course you can do panchakarma. You can always see a professional when it comes to cleansing. I recommend it. If you think you really need to strongly cleanse in any way, shape or form, do it with a professional. Make sure you're asking that practitioner like, hey, are you vigorously going to cleanse? Is this going to be a gentle cleanse, et cetera, et cetera. Because some people, you, you know, they get really gung ho about over cleansing and some people are frankly, you know, too gentle too. So, you know, assess your practitioner and see what kind of cleanse they're going to give you.

I love that. And do you normally base yours around a kitchari cleanse or do you diversify?

Yeah, yeah, I base it around a kitchari cleanse, but I always diversify it a little bit also. I may give them kitchari and I may suggest that they put some sweet potatoes in it or make them kitchari and even some suggest a Little fish or chicken in it if they need a little bit. Something a little bit more umph into it. So I'm going to tailor those Kitchery recipes exactly to the needs of the client.

Love that. And one question that I get frequently is what if I feel sensitive to legumes? You know, even mung beans, they make me bloated, et cetera. Can they still do a kitchri cleanse? Is it because they. They're not properly soaking and preparing the legumes? And let's say they still are, they're just not used to it. What can they do to. Should they just not do it or.

Yeah, I think a chicken soup cleanse at that point. You know, the traditional way of handling a convalescing or a weakened patient in the United States and European culture is chicken soup. You know, you just have that nice chicken soup now. You may now. Okay. Kitchari, I think has some qualities that are awesome that aren't in chicken soup. Like those mung beans have a lot of fiber and that's helpful for cleansing the gut. So you may want to add something that's a little more fiber in your chicken soup. That could mean a few more carrots. Even carrots have some fiber in them. Doesn't have to be anything too fancy here, but I think a chicken soup is a great cleanse. Look at the celery. A great diaphoretic, a great vasodilator. That's going to cleanse the blood, open up the pores, really flush the system out. Black pepper is going to assist that. Rice and chicken are nourishing, but not too hard to digest, especially in soup form. And then those carrots are going to be also a little bit of sweet taste there and they're going to be providing some fiber. Maybe you want to add a little sourness to it to just get a gentle liver cleanse with that. So squirt some lime juice into the broth there just to increase that sourness of bit. Maybe you'll even throw some kale in there for some bitterness. That could also improve the cleansing qualities and add a little fiber so you can very easily replace those mung beans.

Okay. And I'd love to also know what is your opinion on fermented foods, because a lot of people are very into the fermented foods for gut health. Ayurveda traditionally is not. So I'd love to know your standpoint.

Yeah, well, fermented foods are you really. We have to look at what's going on in the client Again, you know, this is just that always that same answer on one sense with Ayurveda is like, who are we giving the ferments to? So Ayurveda is big on some ferments. Like yogurt is a big thing in Ayurveda and that's a ferment, no problem there. If it's fresh, 24 hour old yogurt that you're making at home, that's not going to. Ayurveda loves that. Ayurveda gets into sort of frowns a little bit upon older ferments that are a little bit more funky. In fact, I would say this, that Ayurveda's sort of rejection of ferments is really limited to funkiness. When those ferments have a funky nequality to them. Like kimchi. Yeah, kimchi. Totally funky. I mean it's not just spicy. There's something funky going on there and that. Thank you, Sarah for the example.

Yes, I've made kimchi before. It gets very funky.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. When you start to get that funkiness, it's going to spoil the blood. It's going to aggravate rupta, the red part of the blood, aggravate the pitta. But if it's something like kombucha, Kombucha, well, I'm not really into the caffeine of it. I find that overstimulating and I just generally stay away from caffeine. Don't like it. But a fermentation like kombucha, it's pretty thorough. The funk factor is pretty small. And sour taste, although it creates heat in the digestive tract and is a vasodilator throughout the body. It also gently cleanses the liver. It causes the liver to eject bile, which ejects toxins out of the liver and refreshes the liver a bit and that ultimately cools the blood. Now this is very interesting, right, because a lot of people who study Ayurveda know that Ayurveda says sour heats up the blood, heats up the body or aggravates pitta. But it really, it can cool the blood also. And because that sour taste will drain hot bile out of the liver. It really depends on the function factor. Wines and alcohols always heating, no matter what, no matter how funky they are. But something like kombucha can cool the blood a bit while heating up the gi. And it's okay if you're a pitta person, be cautious with kalombucha. If you want to have a little bit, fine. But temper it with something nice and sweet so that it's gentle and not stressing your liver too much.

So would you say that fermented foods like kimchi sauerkraut would be okay for vatas and kaphas, or would you not do them for any. Anyone?

Okay, they're pretty good for kapha. I would say that sauerkrauts do get a little funky. And so I would say no on the pittas. Cabbages can be a little gassy for vata. So in this specific example of sauerkraut, I might say to the vata person, hey, try it. If it gives you gas, then no more. Yeah, but yogurt is a ferment too, like I mentioned, and that's pretty good for vata. Yogurt's going to be a nice stool software for a vata person, and it's nice and nourishing, too. So I'm not strongly opposed to ferments in any way, shape or form. Just I'm looking out for that funk factor, like we mentioned earlier, and alcohols and stuff are a little harsh on the system.

And I find with kombucha, I have a lot of vata going on. So I get very, very bloated the moment I drink it. I love the taste, but it's like the air bubbles in it. And I always found that, you know, since it's a wild yeast, if you have any sort of candida in you, it can kind of like take hold of that. And it can. And it can lead to candida, though. A lot of kombuchas market themselves as being anti candida, so I'd love to, like. So what do you really think of kombucha and this whole craze going on?

Yeah, well, I think that it's all full of paradoxes. That's the thing. Every food has good qualities and bad qualities. It's like the same. The same debate about tomatoes. You know, should I eat them because they have lycopenes and reduce cancer, or are they a nightshade and stress the liver? Well, how strong's your liver? If you have a strong liver, then don't worry about the fact that it's a nightshade. But if you have a weak liver, then those negative aspects of the tomato come to the forefront. What's going on in your body? Is the candida in the kombucha going to bother you? When I first started studying ayurveda, my digestion was so weak, I couldn't take probiotics. I couldn't Take things like kombucha or even vinegar. There would just be tremendous bloating and gas whenever I did it because my system was so weak at that time. And then now at this point I can have a bit of that and I'm okay. But if I have too much, it aggravates sort of subacute inflammation. I tend to be a little bit prone to inflammation in my gut. And so, you know, vinegars and basically that's what kombucha is, is kind of, you know, a different vinegar. It's really not much different than a vinegar. And so, you know, I find vinegar is just a little too irritating for my sensitive pitta prone gut tissue. So I have little few sips of it every now and then, but I never swig it. And I know some people, you know, it's just like their replacement for, you know, their afternoon tea is they're swigging, they're guzzling kombuchas. I don't know if I would do that. I think of a tablespoon of kombucha a day as a medicinal dose and no more than that is needed.

Totally, yeah. I mean, when you even look at Russia where kombucha's from, they would have like a tablespoon or just a small amount. And we drink. I was drinking a few years ago, two bottles a day. It's. And I thought like, oh, it's a great appetite curver because you feel so full because it's just so, like bubbly. But it was just so much sugar and creating so much candida in my system.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I think it's obviously better than drinking alcohol or soda or something like that, but I would still put it in that special occasion category, not an everyday thing.

Yep, definitely.

Okay, amazing. So a lot of people listening are having their minds blown right now and they'd love to know about kind of the differences between your two programs. Your Digestive Intensive Masters of Digestion program, which is one year, and then your Fundamentals of Natural Healing, which is two years. I know we spoke about the tongue and the tongue is a huge part of both. So what are the differences? And you know, let's say someone's kind of interested in both. How can they decide which one is the right path for them?

Yeah. So if a person's, you know, really looking to, you know, if you're looking to know more about Ayurveda and you're curious and, you know, then, you know, people come to my site and sort of wonder like, okay, well I love Digestion. I love Ayurveda. What should I do? Mastering Ayurveda Digestion Nutrition course is for people who really want to focus on digestion. And the Fundamentals of Natural Healing course is really all the fundamentals of Ayurveda. So the first question to ask the student is sort of, what are you looking for? The fundamentals program is going to cover all the basics. You know, we'll cover skin care, we're going to cover lung conditions, asthma. We will go over every part of Ayurveda theory for the most part. They're just a really wealth and broad spectrum of information that we're going to be presenting in the fundamentals course. In the Mastering Ayurveda Digestion Nutrition course, we're not going to cover all of Ayurveda. We're going to give you just enough Ayurveda so that you can study digestion. And so if a person's like, I really want to know all of this, they're not going to start the digestion course, they're going to start with the fundamental course. If they're thinking like, I can't wait to start my practice in digestive health. I've always wanted to do this for years. Digestion is so important and I want to spend a whole year studying the digestive tract and I want to come out confident that I'm an expert. You know, the digestive course, our goal is to make you an expert. Our goal in the fundamentals course is to give you a great foundation, foundation on all of Ayurveda. And really both of those are so important. It's important to be an expert in digestion. It's important to know all about Ayurveda. Which do you start first? We'll let you start either one first, but it's really up to you. What do you want to accomplish, what you want to get started with? Some people, they want to start from a point of specialization. They're like, I know this, I know it well. Now I want to get the full scope. Other people are like, I want to get the full scope and then I'm going to apply, apply it to this specialty area. It's really, we leave it up to the student.

Okay, cool. So it's like you, I mean, you really can't start wrong anywhere. You could maybe even do both. But if someone is very interested in digestion, then do the Masters of Digestion. Whereas someone's more interested in Ayurveda itself than the two year Fundamentals of Natural Healing program.

Absolutely awesome.

And when do the programs begin?

The Fundamentals program, the two year program starts in late August. And the Mastering Ayurveda Digestion Nutrition that starts in October. Okay, early October.

And do you have payment plans available for people?

Yes, we do. Yes, you can sign up for a monthly payment plan. You can also, you know, they could pay the tuition in one lump sum. There's some incentives for that. So either way.

Okay, awesome. And we are also offering 1000 off discount for everyone listening. You can head over to my website, iamsaharose.com you'll see it says become an Ayurvedic practitioner. Just click over on that link or shoot me an email. I'll get you in touch with John. And John, you're open to answering people's questions and giving them more insight as well. Awesome.

Absolutely. Yep, yep. People, students contact me. They text my phone and then I call them back. As soon as I'm at a clinic or as soon as I have a free moment, we can talk over the phone. I'll answer any request questions. Email me if you like. I'm always very excited to talk to students. It's so much fun when a person, you know, just really wants to take that plunge and get involved in Ayurveda because Ayurveda is so insightful about the body. It's really fascinating. And so I really enjoy being a sort of academic person myself. I love talking with the prospective students of the program so they should feel comfortable reaching out.

Oh, awesome. And it speaks volumes of you, just how open you are and willing to hop on the phone with people and answer people's questions. And you are the exact type of teacher that someone should learn Ayurveda from. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us, giving us such great insight into our own personal body maps that tell us everything there is to know about ourselves. And just for really being an inspiration, we really acknowledge you.

Thank you, Sarah Rose. It's great to be on this call. It's great to reach out to your listeners and it's really great what you're doing in the community. I really appreciate that, Sarah.

Oh, well, thank you so much and we look forward to having you again soon.

Take care.

Oh my God, is your mind blown or what? I mean, the whole time I did that interview I was just staring at my tongue in my cell phone's like camera because oh my God, there's just so much to see. It's amazing. It's amazing that we weren't taught this earlier. It's amazing. Doctors don't do this, but we are now and that's what matters. So if you want to join Joyful Belly, if you're interested in becoming an Ayurvedic pract, head over to my website iamsaharrose.com click where it says become an Ayurveda practitioner. You'll receive the discounts, my bonus webinar, the Facebook group, everything there is for the Joyful Belly program. So if you have any questions, email me@saharaetfieldfresh.com and I would be so happy to answer you. Connect you with John. He's willing to text anyone who's interested, hop on the phone with you if you have any questions. Like that is how amazing of a teacher he is and it's something that you don't see too often these days. So I really encourage you to take advantage of having such an incredible Ayurvedic teacher like this and to if it's calling you like go all in. This is your time to shine and the next year is going to go by whether you sign up or not. So what about if you could finish this year becoming an Ayurvedic practitioner and beginning the business of your dreams instead of wondering what if? So again, they start in August and October. He also has a webinar that he's conducting really soon, so if you just click on the link, you're going to be added to his email email list and you'll get access to the webinar. Or you can email me and I can connect you with him. Whatever's easier for you. If you're interested, I highly recommend doing his webinar to get a little taste of what it's like to be a student at Joyful Belly. And if you loved this episode, I would love it if you could leave me a review in the iTunes store. And as a gift, I will send you the first half of my unreleased book Eat right for your mind Body type, which is different from Eat Feel Fresh which is going to be out of in October. All you gotta do is head over to the itunes store, write a nice little review, take a screenshot before you submit and email it over to me at Sahara S A H A R aattfeelfresh.com and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book, never to be released book, Eat Right for your Mind Body Type, which is now my Eat Right for your mind body type 12 week program. So if you're interested in Ayurveda and you don't want to become a practitioner you just want to learn about it. Join my Eat Right for your mind body type program. It tells you everything there is about ayurvedic nutrition specifically. So we talk a lot about grocery shopping, meal plans, digestion, all of these topics. So it's a really good educational program. And if you don't know what your dosha is guys, go to my website again. Iamsaharose.com I have the most amazing dosha quiz and I'm going to call it the most amazing one. Because unlike any other dosha quiz, I separate the results between the mind and the body because I notice a lot of people have imbalances and their mind is different from their body. And that's what kept me from Ayurveda for so long because I was like, oh my God. I relate to like vata more in the mind but I have some kapha body things so I don't know what's going on. So I break it down for you in percentages of each dosha. What percentage vata? What percentage pitta? What percentage kapha? And I tell you in the mind and in the body. So I recommend taking that quiz once as you are right now, so you'll be able to see what your vikruti is, your natural born constitution. And then once as you were as a child are your lifelong characteristics. And that is what your prakriti is, your natural born constitution. Constitution. And also if you really want to go down the Ayurveda rabbit hole, just get my book Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda. It is the bestselling Ayurveda book nationwide and it tells you everything there is about this ancient healing system from the doshas to the chakras to the koshas to the gunas and all these fancy Sanskrit words. But I teach you how to like really make sense of them and integrate them in your everyday life and how much easier it is than we think and how life changing it really is. So again, head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of Eat Feel Fresh while you're at it. And I'm so looking forward to hearing your guys feedback on this episode. If you take a picture of your tongue by the way, tag me in it because I want to see that for sure. I want to see what's going on in your tongue. I'll post a picture of my tongue over on my Instagram story. If you guys have any feedback, let a sister know. Namaste.