114: Finding Your Dharma with Deepak Chopra

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 so honored and humbled to be sharing with you my new book, Eat Feel, a contemporary Plant Based ayurvedic cookbook. As Dr. Deepak Chopra says in the foreword, Sahara Rose is a millennial thought leader who is taking the torch of Ayurveda and burning it brightly. This is the second book of hers I have had the pleasure to introduce an example of her dedication to modernizing Ayurveda so its wisdom can transcend time. Let it inspire you to make food choices that serve not only your body, but also your spirit. I am honored to be birthing this book out into the world. And as a token of my gratitude for all who pre order the book before October 2nd, I will send you 10 bonus recip recipes that are not available in the book. And for all North American orders, I will send you in the mail a signed book plate and inspirational card to begin you on your plant based Ayurvedic journey. I've been waiting my whole life, slash this whole podcast career for this interview. I've never been more excited slash nervous for an interview in my life and I don't think I will have an interview with for the rest of my life with as much weight and impact as this one had. As you know, Dr. Deepak Chopra has been a lifelong inspiration of mine and so many of you, in fact, many of you even know about me because of Deepak sharing my book and our videos and our 31 day challenge together from his social media channels. So welcome. And Deepak has written two forwards for my book. My new book, Eat Feel, a Plant Based Ayurvedic Cookbook, as well as my former book, Idiot sky to Ayurveda. And I can't even explain to you what this episode meant to me and how just truly honored I am to share this wisdom with you. So, as you can imagine, for someone whose books I've read Since I was 12 years old, you know, when I was going through the toughest times with my family, it was Deepak that brought me through. Even though I had never met him, I would say, you know what? One day I'm going to be like Deepak. And my parents are like, you're crazy. And I would tell my mom, when she'd be like repeating herself telling me something, I would be like, did you know 80% of your thoughts are previously thought of before? That's what Deepak Chopra said. And she'd be like, oh, my God, stop. And I would just quote him, and I would fall asleep listening to his meditations. And when I was in Bali and by myself, I would just listen to his audiobooks. He was like my friend traveling with me. I'm sure some of you guys even feel like this with this podcast, but it's like, when you listen to someone's voice for so long, you really feel like you know them, which is really cool. If you. Any of you guys have that with me, let me know, because that's awesome. So you know, Deepak's voice, Deepak's message, Deepak's everything has literally been the biggest inspiration for me. And I finally got the chance just over a week ago, eight days ago, to interview him. So I had to get it on the podcast as soon as possible. And I had so many questions. Like, I didn't even know, where do I start? Like, how do I ask him all of the things that I want to ask him in such a short amount of time? Like, this episode's gonna have to take, like, 10 hours. And I had 30 minutes. We went for 35 minutes, but I had to get it all in. So I asked him questions on what you guys wanted to know about. I put in my Instagram story, if you're not following me on Instagram, it's, I am Sahara Rose. Sahara, like the desert. And I made a poll, just like I do with every guest I have here. I make a poll on my story, and I say, what questions do you guys have? And you guys had some awesome questions. So for this episode, I brought together the questions of your guys. Mine that I thought were the best, the most impactful, that will really help us find our dharma. So I asked him, how do you balance doing and being? Because as we know, Deepak is a spiritual teacher. He is someone who's thoroughly brought meditation to the Western world and popularized it. And he is, like, literally gonna, like, escape from his body because he's so enlightened at this point. And you'll hear it, you know, on this episode. Some parts of this episode actually may kind of fly over your head because he's so spiritually advanced. But it's incredible to listen to, and it really elevates your consciousness just to hear this dialogue and this level of, you know, really awareness and non duality and knowing that everything is connected and that we are here to really fulfill our highest calling. So we talk about how to balance doing and being, because Also, Deepak is 73 years old. And he is traveling to a new city or country every day. It's so incredible to see just, you know, the work ethic he has and the commitment he has to spreading this message far and wide. He doesn't need to be doing this. He wants to be doing this. Genuinely wants to help people and reach people and impact their lives. And he is working tirelessly around the clock, traveling, speaking, creating new organizations, foundations, videos, programs. Oh, my gosh. To bring this message out there. So how does he balance the doing and the being? I also wanted to ask him, what does he think? How do we discover our dharma in his point of view? What is a dharma in his point of view? He goes deep into that. We talk about what are the meanings of synchronicities. As you know, he has written books on synchronicities and how when we are in alignment with what we are meant to be doing on this world, we are going to be noticing these, what we think are coincidences, but in fact are not coincidental. And something beautiful that he says in this episode that I really want you guys to capture is that we are whole beings connected to nature. And in nature, there's a pattern to everything. There's a pattern to the seasons. There's a pattern to even a leaf, a snowflake. And we are not separate from that. We think, oh, it's just nature, but we're something else. But we are a part of nature. So when we are whole and when we are in alignment with our dharma, it is only natural for these patterns to emerge. That's not a superordinary thing. That just means you're living life the way that you are meant to be living. And I've shared this on the podcast before, but kind of a life changing moment for me was last year, a little over a year ago, when I first started working with Deepak, and suddenly my life had changed and everything was moving so fast and all of these incredible synchronicities were happening. And I sent him an email. I was like, hi, Dr. Chopra, I watched your Facebook Live. He does Facebook lives all the time about synchronicities. And I was wondering if you think that we are meant to always be experiencing life in this flow, really fast moving state, or whether periods of elevating fast need to be balanced by periods of inertia, periods of stillness, where we are in our winters of our lives and things aren't really happening for us because the way most of us are taught is, well, things can't always be going well, you know, when things are Going really well. We're sort of like, oh, we're waiting for that really horrible thing to happen. And he responded. He said, if life isn't always moving in flow, then something is wrong. And it was an aha moment for me because it changed the way that I look at things, that it's not like you go through a period of time that you're meeting all the right people and doing all the right things, and your career skyrockets, and then suddenly something has to happen and goes back to where it was before. What if you imagined this as a new way of your being? That every day you live your life, you are radically moving towards your dharma? You put your head on that pillow knowing that you did everything in your power to live the life that you were meant to live. What if that is your reality? What if we shifted the, oh, I can only experience bliss and joy and kriya flow for periods of time? And we said, no, this is actually how I live my life. And periods of inertia are things that I'm actually going to be in control of. And we can control the periods of inertia to something like meditation or a stillness practice instead of a wall placed in front of us that we are not in control of. So that was a huge shift for me. And we talk about synchronicities and serendipities on this episode, and we also talk about grounding and how grounding really helps with meditation. Deepak has an incredible company called Inner Space, and they have different grounding mats, which I use on my bed, and I sit on on my chair, and it brings the ions that replicate the ions of Earth's natural energy to wherever you are. So you can be lying down, sitting, and you're still grounding yourself without having to go outside again. It's not a replacement for going outside. Still go outside. Connect to nature. Walk with your feet in the soil. Try to take off your shoes. Hug a tree. That's why people hug trees. Oh, my God, it's so healing. Walk on a beach. Walk on dirt. When I was at the retreat center up north, when I was interviewing him this week, I went hiking barefoot. And it was so healing because I was just tapping into the negative ions of the Earth to rebalance my positive ionic charge. So we talk about grounding, and at the end of this episode, I'm going to be offering you a special discount to receive the Inner Space product so you can get your own grounding mat. So I don't need to introduce this man. He's written over 85 books, multiple new York Times best selling ones. He is listed as one of Time magazine's most influential people. He is truly a forefather of meditation, consciousness and Ayurveda to the west. Oh, and by the way, guys, he also shares with us his dosha on this episode. Without further ado, let's welcome Dr. Deepak Chopra to the Highest Self podcast.

Welcome Deepak, to the Highest Self podcast.

It's so great to have you here.

Thank you.

So the first question that I would love to ask you is what makes you your highest self?

What makes you your highest self is not being beholden to the hypnosis of social conditioning. So as long as you are enrolled in the ideas of the collective consciousness that have created the world we have right now, extinction of species and climate change and war and terrorism and eco destruction and mechanized death. This is the social construction generated in collective consciousness, which is creating the nightmare that could end in human extinction and other extinction. So what is the highest self? The highest self is that which is not bamboozled by the hypnosis of this kind of conditioning, which is very deep. It's cultural, it's social, it's economic, it's historical, it's religious, it's mythical, and in many cases it's ideological in that it comes from a certain framework of thinking, whether that's political ideology like communism or democracy, or economic ideology like capitalism, or how money is generated that leads to social and economic disparities. All this is not representing the higher self. The higher self is not represented in the collective ego mind. So what constitutes the highest self is getting in touch with your core being, which is beyond the collective stories. That core being is infinite possibilities, infinite creativity. Unpredictable, thank God, because without unpredictability, there's no creativity. It has infinite imagination. It is correlated. Correlated, entangled with everything that exists, therefore synchronistic. And it is the source of intention and attention, which are the two drivers through which consciousness navigates experience. And so getting in touch with your higher self is not through a system of thought. You have to abandon all systems of thought, including Ayurveda, Vedanta, whatever, unless you're ready to deconstruct your reality into fundamental experience, which is consciousness generating experience both as subject and object, both as knower and known, both as seer and scenery. Unless you're willing to abandon your stories. Just because you were told those stories for thousands of years doesn't mean they're true. No story is true, actually. So you have to transcend. The highest self is only available by transcending thought, by going beyond subject, object split. When you do experience that, then there are spontaneous emergence of what are called Platonic qualities. Truth, goodness, beauty, harmony, love, compassion, joy, equanimity. But there's also loss of the fear of death because death happens to social constructs, including the construct that you have a body and a mind and there's a universe. So that's called liberation. It's called freedom.

Love that.

And so true that even an ideology such as I'm a vegan or I practice Ayurveda or I'm a yogi are.

Things that we have to move stories and they make for a happier experience of that which we call life. But they are models.

So you're someone that does so much that I've just witnessed over the past year. You're traveling, you're writing books, programs, foundations. How do you balance the act between doing and being?

I'm not truly engaged in the sense that I have a personal investment in what I do. Now having said that, I'm fully engaged because I don't have a personal investment. And that is a process that happens if you are self aware as you grow older. So I wasn't like this all the time. I had a lot of ambition and exacting plans and goals. But once you kind of abandon that and that you can't force it, then everything happens by itself. So I like to say my body travels and my mind imagines, but I don't leave home.

So even in the act of doing, you're still in this detached state of being and that makes it easier to.

Be engaged and detached at the same time. Being and doing it as you said. Yeah.

And do you think that that's something that just shifted with age or was that a conscious shift that you made?

It's both. Both you grow old as you grow older, if you have focus on self awareness and you become independent, non judgmental observer of yourself, then the change is automatic. Yeah. And you know, when there's no anticipation of a response, there are no regrets, there's no resistance, then everything flows by itself.

Yeah.

A lot of younger people feel like in their 20s they have to hustle and push it and get it all done so they can relax later. What would you advise for people in their 20s?

Well, you can give them all the advice in the world, but they have to go through their own experience. So I don't think it's fair to tell a 20 year old or even a 30 year old that what you're driving at for in the future if you're not totally enjoying and flowing in the moment, then when that future arrives, you won't be present for it anyway. So everyone's trying to get somewhere, but actually there's nowhere to go. Because the point of arrival is always now. So if the point of arrival is always, always now and you are never in the now, despite all your grand plans, then when those plans are actualized, you won't be present for them anyway. So this can be said. But if somebody's in their 20s and 30s and comparing themselves to other people, which is the game, social game, you know, who is better off than me and who am I better off from? Or you know, who's superior to me, who's inferior to me, who's richer, who's poor, who has more social status, who has less social status. That is what drives people even in. It's kind of a learned phenomenon. You go into school, who's got the best grades, who's got the worst grades. That's how people are evaluated. They're not evaluated for who they are, but what they do and the social construct on what that doing means, then it's almost inevitable that they have to go through this journey. You know, you go through kindergarten, now you're in junior, then you're in junior high, then you're a senior, then you're a college student, now you get a job, then you get married, then you get kids, then you make a living, you do all the things that everybody has done for thousands of years and then you die. And so 99% of humans will go through that cycle till one day they'll say, what does it all mean? And then they'll start a different journey. But you can't tell somebody that the journey they're on is a never ending horizon. There's no point of arrival. I mean, you know, if you're a kid, you remember when you were a kid, or you, if you have kids, they always ask when you're traveling, are we almost there? Or well, that's life. You're almost there eternally. And if there is something that you think will when you get there, you'll be a happier person. You can only be a happy person if you're connected with yourself right now and enjoying this amazing virtual reality that we call everyday reality. And that includes your body as part of that virtual reality.

So true. And I think that we all have this, you know, human need to achieve and do more. And then the more conscious we become, the more detached we become from that. And you're just a Great example of really being immersed fully in both and also neither in both.

Yeah. And it comes with growing up, age or whatever, some little attention, intention. I don't think you should force yourself into that experience now. You know, all biological organisms, not just humans, all biological organisms are goal seeking organisms. That's true of an amoeba or a reptile or a snake or a bird. They're all seeking a goal. That's what keeps them alive. However their goals are, if you were to frame them in human terms, the goals of other species or biological organisms are basically survival and perpetuation of the species. So reproduction, food and survival and then reproduction of the species. Human beings, because we imbued raw experience with meaning and storytelling and constructs and context and meaning and relationships, we then have a hierarchy of needs which goes beyond survival, including the need for meaningful relationship. Not just relationship, but meaningful relationship. The meaning is important by us. And we have need for belonging, tribe, you know, we create tribes, nationalities, then we go beyond that. We have a need for creativity and self esteem. And then we have a need for archetypal imagination or consciousness or going beyond personal identity. And then there's the need for transcendence or getting in being one with the source. So this is a gradual evolution. What Abraham Maslow might have called the hierarchies of needs for humans are actually representations of consciousness in other models, like Vedic model, as the seven chakras, which are nothing other than metaphorical representations of human needs and human responses to those needs.

Absolutely.

And one of those needs is to find one's Dharma. And that's something that a lot of people are seeking and what is my purpose and why am I here? And I know you do a lot of dharma meditations, so what would you recommend for people trying to find that?

Well, dharma is such a interesting Sanskrit word. It has no direct translation in English. So you can translate dharma as purpose, living on purpose. What is the meaning and purpose of my existence? Dharma can also be translated. In one of its versions would be your unique skills and talents, which are unique to you, whatever that is for you. Writing a book, doing these podcasts, exploring Ayurveda, sharing that, teaching that it's obvious that that's what gives you joy and that's what gives you meaning. So but that also is a skill, and it's not really a learned skill. It's something that is unique to you. For somebody else, it may be a skill in mathematics, music, or dancing, or taking care of kids or playing tennis. It doesn't matter. So Dharma then In a very limited way is purpose and meaning and skills and talents that are uniquely yours. When you're expressing those unique skills and talents, you experience joy. You also think you're working because it's fun. So your vocation is almost. What's his name? Mark Twain used to say, it's like a vacation always. So your vocation and your vacation are the same thing. You're having a good time, there's no resistance. And you, in fact, might lose track of time and money and success ultimately is a byproduct. It's not a goal. So money and success is a byproduct of your unique expression. That's one framework of dharma. But the ultimate meaning of dharma is to understand how the elements and forces of the universe and the elements and forces in your body, mind system, if you want to call it that, are the same. And once you totally understand that the elements and forces that create what you might call a tree or a cloud or a star or an atom or a body or a brain, they're all actually coming from a single source, then your dharma becomes to align yourself in the bigger framework of elements and forces and live at the level of being and self awareness so that you can have what is called self actualization. You can understand who you are beyond the constructs of body, mind and universe. That's the ultimate Dharma, which again, as an ideology or a concept or story, is called freedom. It's the freedom to be who you are, but also create what you want to live in that freedom. You know that freedom. Sanskrit word is called moksha or samadhi. But there's a ways to kind of understand that. Some people say, that's my dharma, ultimately, when I get free of all this. But you can start from there. You can start from samadhi as the base starting point. And then you realize that all you have to do is trace every experience back to its source, whatever the experience is. Trace every experience. Is there sound without hearing? Is there hearing without witness awareness? Is there witness awareness without fundamental consciousness? Any experience you can take, a thought, a feeling, a sensation, a perception, you trace it back to your source. You end up with that which we call I or me. But the me is not a person. The me is the awareness in which the person and everything that goes along with that person, meanings and relationships and sceneries, they're all a process in that awareness. To identify yourself with that which you are is a process of tracing experience back to its source, understanding that raw experience is generated in you, experienced in you, known in you. And disappears in you. And that you are the field of awareness in which all experience is conceived, constructed, governed, and comes into existence. And that existence has two aspects to it. Invisible and visible. In any experience, you are the invisible experiencer. Any observation, you are the invisible observer. Any scenery, you are the invisible seer. To start to anchor yourself in the invisible is to realize that existence is both manifest and unmanifest. And most of it is unmanifest. And it's eternal and it's timeless. And if you get bamboozled by just the impermanent, transient, ephemeral, finite experience and get bound by it, then you'll be a prisoner of what they call karma. So karma and dharma are two opposite things?

Absolutely, yes.

And when you're in that flow, you experience the kriya. And this is something that you speak about. The synchronicities and the synchro destiny that are essentially breadcrumbs leading you towards your purpose.

Yeah, kriya is spontaneous right action, spontaneous right choice making, spontaneous right intention, attention. Basically, kriya is spontaneous creativity and evolution. Karma is spontaneous imprisonment by memory and addiction to memory and addiction to stories.

So when people start experiencing these synchronicities, they're meeting people at the right time, they're seeing these numbers. How can they know the real meaning behind them?

I have written books about this and done courses on this. And in fact I'm doing one in Sedona. So on. Synchronicity has to be understood as a very deep level of non local identity and non local correlation, or what we call entanglement, where everything is inseparable from everything else. So that's the basis of everything in nature. Your liver cells are synchronistically in activity of your liver cells is synchronistic with the activity of your stomach cells or your heart cells, your brain cells. They're not doing their own thing. They're correlated. And that correlation is instantaneous. It's not like the liver has to send a message to the brain. This, I'm removing toxins. The brain knows, okay, if I pinch you here, then the whole body responds at once. Somebody's injured or inflamed, the whole body responds at once. So wholeness is a characteristic that creates synchronicity. Meaningful coincidence. Coincidence means many incidents happening simultaneously. Synchronistic. Chronos means time. Synchronous means synchronized in time. So that's the nature of the cosmos. And you know, today many people call that entanglement. So synchronicities is very interesting phenomenon that has certain characteristics. Number one, the Synchronicities are acausally, acausally correlated around meaning. So one incident doesn't cause the other. They simultaneously co arise and they are meaningful to the person. So they're acausal. There are conspiracy of many things happening at the same time. One doesn't cause the other. They are non locally orchestrated, which means that the source is not in space time, it's consciousness. They slowly move you into higher consciousness. If you ask yourself what is the meaning of this? And the meaning is of course personal, you have given it meaning. They are also connected with intention. Whether you had the intention spontaneously, consciously, or it was triggered by a situation, a circumstance, an event, they are life transforming for sure. For many people they are very emotional because they create some kind of surprise or joy and that is around the meaning that they have imbued them and they open up you up to new possibilities. So in religious traditions, those people who are very religious, they say God's on my side or somebody is taking care of me. Anthropomorphic view of synchronicity. God is protecting me, taking care. Spiritual tradition Some people also call them the state of grace. Other people who are totally atheistic say good luck, random, unpredictable. Other people say opportunities. Other people say being at the right place at the right time, coincidences. So these are different ways of saying that you and the source of all experience are one, not overshadowed by the conditioned mind. So again, in the great traditions of the Vedanta wisdom traditions, there's a phrase, ritam bhara pragya. Ritam means rhythm. It's actually the Sanskrit word for rhythm which means music, regularities of experience, natural laws. Ritam bhara full of pragya consciousness. Consciousness that is imbued with the inherent synchronicities or rhythms of the universe. Now again, in the great wisdom traditions there are sutras to access this. So you know, even in Patanjali, for example, there's a whole chapter on siddhis and riddhis which are usually translated as supernormal powers. They're actually one way of saying that is supernormal power. Psychic abilities that makes it kind of mystical and mysterious. But all they are is dormant non local potentials that exist at in every consciousness. Every. Every conscious, every biological consciousness, every species of consciousness. Well as humans we've given stories to them. But this, the inherent nature of the universe though as I said that there are methodologies. So you know, Patanjali says you can experience synchronicity if you combine Dhyan which is meditation, the meditation process, Dharna, which is focused Awareness and samadhi, which is transcend. So you know, you know the eight limbs of yoga, these three are supposed to accelerate synchronicity. But of course the others are also important because all the other limbs of yoga are meant to take you to the source, whether it's yama, niyama, rules of conduct, but not imposed rules of conduct, not social morality, but rules of conduct that spontaneously come to you from being connected with your source. So yomaniyama, pratyahara, which is withdrawal of the senses, pranayama, the yoga asanas, which are the asanas are the definitely seats of awareness. And then dharna, Dhyan, samadhi, that's Patanjali's way. And therefore those chapters are very important. Those two chapters on the siddhis and riddhis are very important. But then other people have gone in different ways. So you know, in the Vedic literature there are what are called mahavakyas, the big aphorisms or sutras that shift you from local to non local, another way to shift into synchronicity. And then, you know, in the West, Carl Jung brought out the whole idea of archetypes and made that very dominant in Western psychology anyway, that archetypes are themes or motifs or stories or concentrations of psychic energy as states of information and states of consciousness. But actually in the Vedic literature that is also the so called gods and goddesses. So when somebody is thinking of Lakshmi, that's an archetype of qualities of consciousness that creates abundance, Somebody thinking of Hanuman, that's qualities of consciousness imbued with service or saraswati, qualities of consciousness imbued with knowledge and wisdom, on and on. Hundreds and thousands of archetypes that are present in almost every mythology, Egyptian mythology now, you know, the Greek mythologies with the divine feminine and all their aspects, the Indian mythologies, Egyptian mythologies, all these had archetypes. So these are not what people sometimes call my angels or my higher guides or my whatever, you know, gods, goddesses. These are symbolic representations of the infinite which you are. But the infinite cannot be imagined. So you symbolize it in this, these qualities. So those are all the ways to accelerate synchronicity through imbuing an archetype, through understanding, inseparability of existence, through understanding. Also mythology, because mythology is a story about human experience or extraordinary human experience. And then all these other practices, SUTRAs, etc. They all take you there.

So true. And thank you for that answer. And even the archetype of the doshas.

Looking at that related to the Dharma.

Yeah, doshas are Architects, do you know.

What your main dosha constitution is?

I'm transcending doshas now.

Past doshas, yes.

But it is pita kapha originally.

So one really great action step that everyone can take is to get more grounded. And this is a very big, you know, platform that you're having right now and sharing about how it alleviates anxiety, depression, back pain, and how we can all be doing this even from home. So can you tell us a little bit about grounding and its benefits?

Yeah. Well, grounding is based on understanding that the earth and the biosphere and your body are the same entity. Your body is recycling biosphere, which includes all the elements, but the earth as well. So when an animal or a biological organism is in direct contact with the earth, then it's grounded. And what we know today is that when an organism is grounded or connected to the earth or a tree, even if you touch a tree, you're connected to the earth. And if you touch a person who is touching a tree, they're also connected to the Earth, or you're barefoot, then there are negative ions that come from the earth into your body, and they neutralize the excess free radicals that are associated with inflammation, which is a background in almost every chronic disease. So when animals feel sick, they burrow themselves in the ground, and they just stay grounded till they feel better, till the inflammation comes down. And so that's our natural tendency. But ever since we invented shoes, and particularly rubber shoes, not necessarily leather shoes, because leather is a conductor of. Because skin is a conductor, we stopped being grounded. And as a result, inflammation went up. And inflammation, of course, goes up anytime you're stressed or you don't have good sleep or you eat toxic food or you have unhealthy emotions or relationships or toxic environments. It's there in almost every human being and helps helping decrease that inflammation. One process is grounding. And so we've been doing some experiment and some research that if you are sitting on a chair that's grounded or on a cushion that's grounded, or a mat that's grounded, even yoga mat that's grounded. There are even meditation, you know, sitting chairs with backrests that are grounded, then it doesn't matter where you are. You're connected to the Earth and you're decreasing inflammation. One other byproduct of grounding may be the restoration of biological rhythms. So, of course, in Ayurveda, there are daily rhythms, circadian rhythms, there are seasonal rhythms, there are lunar rhythms, there are gravitational rhythms, but they're all connected to each Other, the daily circadian rhythm is the spinning of the Earth. Then there's the seasonal rhythm as the Earth goes around the sun. There's a lunar rhythm in this relationship of the earth, moon, sun and stars. And there's tidal rhythms, which are due to gravity. But all these are correlated, synchronized with each other. That's part of the synchronicity. If you restore one rhythm, you restore the others. And grounding is a very effective way to get rid of jet lag, to improve sleep, to increase your energy, to decrease inflammation, to get rid of fatigue, et cetera. And you can use grounding appliances, which is what we're doing right now, because, you know, people in New York City walking with rubber shoes, sitting all day in an office on the 50th floor, they can still be grounded and reduce inflammation and be healed.

And can you tell us a little bit about inner space?

Inner Space is our program that helps people combine grounding with meditation. So you can be grounded on a grounded chair or a mat. And at the same time, you are practicing meditation, either guided through a device, a binaural beats, or even guided meditations on self reflection or other devices like Muse and so many others, but also meditations like Vipassana, or observing mental space, or being aware of Bisara, or being able to monitor what's happening in your body through stimulation of various nerves. All this is taught meditation. There's so many kinds. I'm now doing the encyclopedia for meditation, literally thousands of meditations that have to do with awareness of sensory experience, awareness of body, awareness of viscera, awareness of of mental space, awareness of relationship, awareness of universe, awareness of awareness, on and on. So what we are doing is trying to create a one place which is called Inner space, where you can use both traditional meditations that have existed for thousands of years, other guided meditations and devices, including devices that change brainwave entrainment and give you bioregulation, and now virtual reality and VR. We are experimenting with VR meditations. All of this will be part of inner space. Right now, inner space is being grounded and meditation at the same time, whatever method you choose. But ultimately, I think we can have these inner space pods or booths where at an airport, in a hotel lobby, in a hospital, in a dentist office, where you could take 15 minutes and tune in. Not tune out, but tune in. Meditation is not about tuning out, it's about tuning in. So tune into the absolute.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your profound wisdom with us on behalf of all of the listeners. You have really been a forefather of this wisdom, of these universal truths. And thank you for making it so.

Accessible for all of us.

Thank you, Sahara. Good luck with your new book.

Wow. Let's just take a moment to take all of that in. I know your head may be spinning, your third eye may be tingling. You may just just not even know what just happened because it was a transmission of knowledge coming forth. And that's really the power that Deepak Chopra has. So, so grateful to have such an important man that has truly changed humanity on the highest self podcast and honored, honored, honored to have you guys as part of this tribe. So I want to share with you the discount for Deepak Chopra's inner space. So inner space, as he mentioned, is a revolutionary new approach to reducing inflammat in both the body and mind. It allows us to restore the natural rhythms in our health by connecting back to Earth. And this helps us reduce inflammation, reduce chronic pain, lower stress, and have more restful sleep. And again, it is very important that we all spend time outside walking in the soil with no rubber shoes, so we can connect the negative ionic charge of the earth to rebalance our positive charge. Because, because as Deepak said in this episode, most of us live in apartments. We're on offices, we're in chairs. We are so disconnected from Earth. I mean, think about it. When is the last time you walked barefoot on this planet, skin to skin with the earth? When's the last time? So for most of us, not often enough. So they created inner space to bring some of the healing properties of the earth to your bed, to your chair, to where you are at home. So we don't have to deal with all of the issues that humans are dealing with now because of this disconnection to Earth. And you can head over to deepakchoprainerspace.com and you'll be able to learn more about their products, research that backs it. And we are offering a special discount for 10% off any of their products for highest self podcast listeners. So again, head over to Deepak Chopra innerspace.com use the coupon code Sahara. I have the bed mat and I have the chair mat. I love both really healing. And I definitely noticed the difference, especially on my back pain, because my back pain is actually related to inflammation from sitting down in a chair too long. So I absolutely love it. It is very, very healing. And all of Deepak's books are must listens. His podcast are amazing. I mean, his books are amazing, not podcasts. I wish he had a podcast with me. Deepak, can you do a podcast with me.

But he is incredible.

His he has so many audiobooks out there and I especially love his new album. It's like a meditation album called Home. It was released about a year ago and it's really groovy, guys. It's like mantras and stuff and he's like home and a lot of great songs. And it's also to raise money for immigrants and refugees and to help people from all around the world assimilate to this country, not experience the racism and prejudices that many immigrants like my own parents have experienced. So the Chopra foundation is incredible. Chopra center is incredible. So many great things that Deepak is doing. And again, check out my new book, Eat, Feel Fresh. Deepak wrote the foreword to it. Very, very honored. He wrote some incredible content about Ayurveda, how he believes Ayurveda is changing, what is the new stage of Ayurveda, how we can look at it from a modern lens. And I'm so hon to have him really introduce this book to you guys. So if you haven't pre ordered the book, head over to Amazon, Barnes and Nobles. Wherever you order your books, pre order the book, Eat, feel fresh and save your receipt. Input it on my website iamsaharrose.com where it says pre order the book and I will send you as a free gift 10 bonus recipes that are not available in the book. And I will mail you a signed book plate and an inspirational card in the mail for North Americans and love you forever. So thank you again so much for listening to this episode. Thank you Deepak Chofer, for being a part of it. And this is just the beginning of more high vibe content coming your way. Namaste.

It.