Unlocking Ayurvedic Secrets for Better Digestion, Energy & Wellness with Yogi Cameron

Cold plunges. What is your Ayurvedic take?

If your body's very thin, you're now going to get chilly bones. You're going to start deteriorating quicker.

Woman. I don't think it's really great for. Because in Ayurveda and all these ancient systems, the womb is always supposed to be warm. What would you suggest if every time they eat, they feel bloated?

First you got to see, what am I eating.

Second thing is, if you already struggle with water retention, puffiness, don't have yogurt.

Imagine how thick Greek yogurt is. It takes your body forever to try to break that down. If you're five times a day hungry, then something's up.

We grew up being told, eat five times a day to keep your metabolism going.

Yeah. Which just keeps creating acidity. Ayurveda is all about telling you how things are, but you've got to figure out how they are for you. Here's how to be healthy now. Do whatever you want with it.

Trust flow sooner Let go Trust flows soon to let go I'm the one I've been waiting for Let go Trust flow soon to let go Trust flow sooner Let go I'm the one I've been waiting for welcome back to the High Self Podcast. My name is Sahara Rose, and on this podcast I love to take spirituality and make it modern, grounded and relatable so it can actually serve your needs. So I have been on a yogic path since I was around 12 years old when I first saw a sign in my local town outside of Boston that said yoga. And I was like, mom, after school, you need to take me there. And so I started practicing hot yoga, which took me on a journey of diving deeper into reading about the yoga sutras and later living in India and studying Ayurveda and writing several books on Ayurveda and then on Dharma and going on the journey of the goddesses. And this is over 10 years ago now, more maybe 15 plus years ago. I want to say we'll ask, but me and my mom would watch this channel called Z Living, which was like the Healthy Wellness Channel on, like, tv. And there was a show called Yogi Cameron, Model, Guru. And me and my mom were like, wow, this guy's so cool. He, like meditates and does yoga and this and that. And then we found out he was Iranian. We're like, wow, he's like our soul brother. This is amazing. He's like my uncle, you know, and. And flash forward a few. I mean, like 15 years after that, I ended up on a panel speaking with him. And then he just came into my consciousness very recently and I was like, where is Yogi Cameron? And then I would like DM'd him. I'm like, where are you? And he's like, I'm here. I'm like, come on the podcast. And we have him here today. So this is a full circle moment because it's like, you know those people you see on tv, like doing spiritual things and you're like, I didn't even know that that was possible. I didn't even know people shared about that. And I'm sure you've seen them, you know, on, on YouTube and things like that. It's becoming more and more mainstream. Well, this is a moment for me that someone that I used to watch way before I got into this is now here on the podcast. So he is a yogi, an Ayurvedic practitioner, an author who has taught the likes of Madonna and so much more. And he's such a wealth of knowledge. And I want to ask him like some really, like, deeper questions about having a yoga practice. Like, so there's this thing called a naughty leaf that tells your whole future. I've been obsessed with it and he's actually done it. So I'm going to ask everything right now and just really getting deeper into it because I feel a lot of us, our experience of yoga, you know, we know it's more than the physical practice, but sometimes the teachings feel a little bit like maybe antiquated, like we're not really sure how they can apply to our lives. And I also love really just getting into the philosophy and the way of living, living, because it is, it's, it's not a practice, it's a way of life. And before we drop into this episode, be sure to hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast. That is the best way to stay up to date on the latest episodes. We've got this in video format, so if you're just hearing my voice, be sure to also watch our fabulous outfits on video as well on Spotify, YouTube or the Apple Store. This is the best way to stay in the flow with future conversations and also allows the podcast to reach more people. So hit subscribe so I can keep vibing with you on all future episodes. Now let's get into this one. So without further ado, let's welcome Yogi Cameron here on the Highest Self podcast. Welcome. So grateful. Full circle moment.

It is, isn't it?

I love it.

We were actually Thinking about each other at the same time, because we, you know, we haven't seen each other for a long time. And then I was like, oh, I wonder what she's doing. And then suddenly I was on Instagram and I saw you, and I was like, oh. And then we connected.

That is so crazy.

I think when you. When you're connected and you think about the same thing, you're going to connect with the same people.

The quantum realm. It's so real.

Exactly.

Okay, I just want to start with the naughty leaf. So 10 years ago, my friend Gabriella Wright, I don't know if you know her, she. She works a lot with Deepak Chopran, and she was telling me that in Tamil Nadu in southern India, there's this place that you can go, and there is a leaf written about every single person. And it has. When they're born, when they'll die, who. They'll mar, their siblings, like, their entire life written on this leaf. And I was like, there's no way. And then she brought Deepak there, and he found his leaf. And I was like, what? And so I have been really, like, curious to find my leaf. And I just mentioned it to you, and you've done it. So can you just share with us this experience?

Yeah. Well, these were written a long time ago.

When did they write them?

Thousands of years ago.

Okay. Are there leaves about every single person on Earth or. Or more people who are, like, in the conscious world?

It's leaves supposedly of everybody, but it's only a certain amount of people will go and find them. When we're talking about leaves, they're on stacks like this. They use. And they're very tiny writing, very tiny, but there's a stack of them, and they go and they find your stack. So the guy would. And this was 20 years ago, so I'm paraphrasing some of it. He would say, you know, he'd be like. And then the translator would say, you know, is this your father? Is this. And be like, no, he'll go away.

And they would say the full name of people like George and Madeline. Are these your parents? Okay. Wow.

It has to be spot on. So these were written so long ago. But remember, these weren't written by people in this consciousness. You know, it was written thousands of years ago. People sitting in the forest of another consciousness. How would they know? People who weren't alive. The soul that's coming into the body. So it's unbelievable to some degree. But then after, I don't know, 30 minutes or so, he Started going, oh, and Iraj and your Mother Teresa and who has a combination of that? And then he would say all kinds of different stuff about my life, which was already happened. How was that supposed to be? So I go in everything, a believer. And then, because I want to give it power, but I'm also not sitting there going, oh, God, believe everything. But once they say all the names, the whole thing, you're like, oh, okay. That was my. That was my Nadi reading. Yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty out there.

Have they told you something then that hadn't happened yet? And now it's happened.

You know what? I can't remember most of it, but I'm sure.

I'm sure that when I go to Tamil Nadu, I'll find yours too. Irajan. Teresa, be sure to take a screenshot.

I don't know if it will come up, but let's see.

We'll see.

Who knows?

That's so crazy to think that, like, how much of this life is destined? Like, how much is destined versus free will?

Karma, you know, karma means action, Just plainly just means action as a word. But every action has a reaction. So all the souls that took actions and reactions, that are our forefathers and our, you know, ancestors. And that's why we say everybody's connected, because at some level, everybody somewhere touched each other somewhere karmically. And then that karma continues. So all my dad's karma and the things he did, some of it lives in me, and I'm repeating the same patterns. And then some of it finished, and some of it will keep going. So the energy keeps going and keeps going. That's why we all find ourselves in different places. And the commonality is, I've known them, oh, this happened again. Oh, deja vu. So no matter how much you put it aside, even if you're not, you don't think you're spiritual. You don't believe in this stuff. It would just keep coming in your face until the day you go, okay, what is this? So the people who are more intuitive accept that and just give power to. It moves through things much quicker. It's that resistance that we have to, well, this is it. This is all I see. So that's all there is. Those people will get freaked out all the time because karma, spirits, all the things will come and go. Hey, you know, they'll give you an elbow first, and then they'll give you a poke, and then they'll give you a shove. So before you get shoved, it's better to pay Attention.

So do you think we're meant to kind of go through these karmic relationships and experiences to like burn through karma, or is it kind of spotting them and not going into it?

Yeah, if you're repeating something that you should have already learned, then you should go learn it. You don't need to step in the same hole to know what it feels like. If it's the first time around, then you're not conscious of it. Yeah, you'll have to go through some karma. If you're a yogic and you sort of think about everything as karma, then you're not trying to avoid anything because you even know when you come around again, that is karma as well, you know. So there's some part of it we can describe. It's intellectual, Some of it is more feeling. We can feel it from the heart. But there's so much in life is unexplainable. Right. We have to move into the next realm of consciousness to understand it. And there, there's no words, so you can't exactly repeat it. So that's when we say something becomes a knowing it just. I know, right? Woman's intuition, for example, things like that. If you know, you just know. But try to describe it. You come.

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Yogic practices, we generally do it through meditation or contemplation. Contemplation being the first step before meditation. So if you sit there and you contemplate meaning, you allow the thoughts to just come and you see what you're thinking about, you'll notice repetition of thoughts, and then you're in a loop and that becomes your cycle. What am I thinking about? You know, so and so bothered me why, you know, I did that. And you're off to the next thing and you're jumping. If you can't stop at one thing and just be understand it, almost like an observer. I'm just looking. I'm looking at a painting. I have no opinion about it. I don't like it or dislike it. If you can do that with your thought, then you start to understand it really well. But if you jump thoughts, you only give this one, you know, five seconds, then you're off to the next one. And it's kind of scrolling on you, you know, on YouTube or whatever it is, you get bits of things, but you never get the entirety of something. So because we live in the world we do today, we get bits of all kinds of stuff and then we're left with bits in our head. So nobody really masters anything anymore because mastery is of one thing. You know, we used to do that, stay in a job for 30 years. You became a master of that. Now we kind of love bits, so meditation is pretty tough as well. So I would say contemplation is the better place to be because you can use your intellect, you can sit in it, you can feel you're fully engaged with the senses, and then you can see what it is. And sure enough, you'll see if you're repeating, it's going round than you are in a cycle. Because the person can change, but the energy can be the same, right? So we've all done that 20 or whatever, we repeat the same thing over and over until we get a little more mature and then we're like, I don't like this. So hopefully we do something about it. But then we carrying ancestral Karmas that just keep repeating themselves. How do you figure those out? You know, I can figure out what my dad gave me, what my mom has given me. Those are already a workload, you know, the habits they gave us, the mentality they gave us, you know, so I'm working through a lot of those. And I've worked through a lot of those ancestral stuff. I've got to figure that stuff out.

Right on top of that past lives.

So we don't know everything. But also it's kind of exciting. If we didn't know everything, we get kind of bored as well. So I sort of see myself as a worker in progress. This lifetime is certain degree. I'll get it next lifetime. I'll get other things, and then maybe takes 10 lifetimes. I have no idea.

Have you ever felt like this is your last lifetime?

I have no idea where I am in the cycle.

I hear a lot of people say that.

Yeah.

So I wonder.

I don't know. But I'd ask them, how do you know if. If you really.

They're like, I went through so much shit, I can't imagine doing this again. I'm like, well, it sounds like there's more karma then.

Yeah, exactly.

Ye.

And the cycle continues. I like to just say, okay, I'm not sure where I am. It's almost like people who say I'm very spiritual or I'm very this and that. I don't know where I am in the cycle. I could be anywhere. And truly nobody will actually know because there's no gauge of spirituality. So we're somewhere. Everybody's somewhere.

Do you ever feel that those of us that are on a spiritual path maybe have had more lifetime? Simply the fact that we've been contemplating these kind of things.

Maybe, maybe, you know, I haven't been to that realm of understanding yet. I'm getting to. I'm so in the. Let's work this out in the moment. You know, the things that I used to. When I first went to India, you know, 22 years ago, I was so deeply into all of this stuff. And I would just sit there and contemplate everything. But then at some point after, I don't know, 10 years or 15 years, I realized, okay, you're getting to deeper meanings of things. But none of it changes anything. So I had to, you know, especially when I also got married. It's like, you're now a householder. You've got things to do. You can't just sit on your own and contemplate the whole day away. So duties Change. You've got to, you know, be in a different mindset. You. You start earning money, you're in a business, you're doing this. So you're juggling a lot of things, but you're also doing your spiritual practice daily. So we're doing pujas. We're doing all the, you know, two or three hours of rituals and everything. But they change because we're doing some together now, you know, and we're doing it as a household now. So I think it's also deepened the practice because before, when I was on my own, I could just go and sit in India for six months. And I grew in another way, but be in a relationship and grow and keep a house going. And that. That is not easy.

Yeah, it's the tantric path.

Yes. It has a whole different way of being. So it's actually elevated me a lot more being in the Shiva Shakti relationship.

How did you and your wife meet?

I came back from India after a while, and I hadn't been, you know, in the Western culture for a long time. I sort of. I was in the fashion business. I disappeared for I don't know how long. And then Elle magazine did a story on me saying, hey, I was back, and I was doing all this ayurvedic stuff. I went to stay with the editor of Elle for a few days, showed them exactly what I'm doing. And then my wife, to be read that article that time, she wasn't out of a relationship. I was kind of out of mind. And then she became my client. And she was taking all these different pills like most people, getting over different ailments and stuff. And then I didn't see her. I started shooting the show on Vereya, and I didn't see any of my clients anymore for a couple of years. And then an Indian mutual friend of ours from Tamil Nadu brought her to lunch one day.

The nadi leaf came back. That's so fascinating. So what kind of practices do you do together? And can you also share with people who've never heard of the word puja? What is a puja?

So puja is a ritual you do giving thanks to gods. So gods, meaning the. The gods outside reflect the gods within us. So for you to sit here and say, okay, we're going to meditate on God, what does that mean? We need some form. The mind needs some form. Otherwise it's lost in darkness kind of thing. So the statues or the lingam or all these things we use are for us to focus on and then to Let go of. So they give us a point of reference. So yantras, the geometrical forms, for example, they do the same thing. You chant, you look at them, and eventually you let them go, and then you take it within yourself. Puja is basically that, you know, there's fire involved, there's smoke involved. You basically giving thanks and reverence to something outside of yourself that's also within yourself, and then you're connecting. So that's puja. Then we're on the tantric path. So tantra, meaning sandhariya lahari, is a text of this path. So here we use the yantra, the geometrical form, with mantra chanting. And then eventually the yantra inwardly turns into a mandala over time. So that's our tantric part, and there's many other tantric parts as well. So it's really chanting and using geometrical forms that eventually.

Do you actually draw out the yantra or you just imagine it?

We have to draw them out. Yeah. So I'm terrible at doing it, so I leave Jema to do that. So she draws them, and then we sit, and we sometimes practice with the same or different ones that our guru gives us.

So you'll look into the s. Yantra, which is like a. Almost like a sacred geometry, and you'll say a certain mantra to evoke its qualities until it kind of becomes a mandala in your consciousness.

Exactly. So it moves into the next conscious level. So conscious levels just being they can go this way. They can go higher or lower. Higher or lower doesn't mean they're better or worse. It just means, you know, we're talking more in the beta format of consciousness. Then in our sleep, we have the next consciousness, then contemplation, we have the next one meditation. And then within meditation, we have the samadhis, the four different levels. So it's never ending. So all we're trying to do is keep raising the conscious level to be at the next conscious level so we can have a deeper understanding of all the things we're learning. And that's pretty much what the yogic path is. Live this life and then keep moving in consciousness. And wherever that takes you, you have to be there.

Can you tell us a little bit about Shiva Shakti and its story?

So Shiva is consciousness. Shakti is energy. So we're saying. And now, you know, science is picking it up. All the. All the guys out there are talking about it, which is amazing. That we need consciousness on its own is just sort of still. So when we sit in meditation, if we only have consciousness, then we're not moving. It's not going anywhere. It's almost like it's a void. So spandam, that movement within the void is shakti. Shakti is creation. So we often refer to the female as shakti. But although in male and female, we have the masculine and feminine, so the masculine is that consciousness and the feminine is the spandam is that movement. That's why we say those two are perfect match. When it could be a man, it can be a man and a man, it could be a woman and a woman. We just need masculine and feminine. And it's that coming together of it that creates consciousness and creativity. Consciousness, or we call it the mind as well, and energy of female. So these two come together, they can do everything. If you've only got two masculine energies, then they're more not going to gel as much. It's going to be too hot. So in ayurveda we say that creates heat. Too much masculinity, let's say in me and then say my partner has too much masculine or using too much masculinity, then we're going to be good at getting certain things done. But creatively we will probably suffer. So in a relationship of shiva shakti, we try to move like this. You know, we try to complement each other. So when one's too masculine, the other one becomes more feminine. Feminine and femininity is more nurturing. Whereas masculinity is about, you know, when you play sports, you bring a lot of heat to it and passion, that's more masculine. So when I'm playing pickleball, I'm playing tennis and I'm playing sports or I'm going to gym, I'm using more masculinity to push, but actually I'm using femininity for this subtle touch of the ball, you know. So if you watch a beautiful tennis player, like, you know, when I watch Roger Federer, he has. He uses the masculine. I don't know if he knows this. He's using the masculine foot to be forceful, but he's using the feminine to create touches to get over his opponent, you know, so that's sort of how it works in a relationship, in sports, in life and all of that.

Yeah, it's really about having the integration of them. And so tell us about working with like the shiva link in your puja. It's funny because this morning I was texting with my tantra teacher and he was like showing me the marble and all of that.

To the naked eye, lingam looks like a phallic symbol, Right. And it represents the male genitals as well. But actually what it represents is masculinity and consciousness. And in this form, this part you see is the lingam and the bottom part that it's in is the womb, let's call it, and the femininity. And that's why it's masculine with feminine. Those two together, they're often talked about as being sexual organs, which they can be because the male goes inside the female. But in that practice of meditation, we're really focusing on both masculine, feminine, as we are in Ayurveda. When you're looking at your Cl and you're looking to see how much masculinity are they using, how much femininity are they using? Because as soon as there's a shift in one to the other, if it's a slight shift, it's totally fine. But if it's a shift and then the weather is really hot and they're more masculine and then they're eating chili peppers and they're sweating a lot now they're going to get aggressive, Right. That makes them ungrounded. So then when they come to you, what do you do? You know, you start talking about the feminine and the cooling and the things. So that's basically what we're doing a lot of times is doing the opposite. You know, when we're trying to get people better or more focused or whatever it is, we talk about the opposite, you know, And I work with male, female a lot, because that's an aspect most people can understand, you know, because it's within them, they can feel it.

Yeah. And that, that pitta dosha, the fire energy is very masculine, you know.

Yeah.

It is that heat, that ambition, that goal orientedness, and then everything that you mentioned of that eruption as well.

Yeah. And then you have the guna in the mind. So if they're more rajas, then on top of the fear, a pitta in the body and the fire rajas is also fiery. So that temperament is great for, you know, I don't know, going to war and doing things like that. But it's not great for daily life, you know, unless you're doing heaps of energy work and, you know, you have to treat a client and you need. You're on the go, a lot of movement. But at some point you're going to have to cool down as well.

And it's hard to, you know, stay sattvic, which is that like purity consciousness in this society, you know, because it is so rajasic, like I find myself that's the one I can easily slip into of getting emails done and everything done. Tamas is one I don't really experience that much. But it's funny because I have kapha kind of face, but my personality is not very kapha. I'm curious, what do you see me as, what dosha is?

Well, you can be different. You could be dosha can be totally more kapha. Well, we are of all dosha. Right. So you may lean bodily more on kapha, but you can be right there on the precipice of pitta as well.

Right.

Both Right. Where vata is less.

I feel like I have a kapha face, but then my body is not really kapha. It's like interesting how doshas can stay in different parts. Like my wrists are very vata, you know, it's interesting.

Well, we're looking at it, all right. We're looking at absolutely what's going on with this person. And then where have you come from? Where did you grow up? And then where have you been living now? Because that's going to affect you, the immediate place you're living. But your body was different before. All of us were and then we moved somewhere. So I lived in Iran and I went to England and I went. So weathers have been so different and then land in California again. So we have to take everything into consideration and then look at ourselves. Because the signs we get from the skin, I find is the most sort of up to date. Because your eyes may have been like, you know, they're like that when you were a kid, they just happened to be there. That's one sign, but that's not all the sign. Right now skin to me holds a lot of. Because skin keeps reacting to the environment, so that keeps changing very rapidly, whereas all the rest can. Maybe, you know, your liver doesn't, for example.

So do you kind of look at if they have dry skin, more vatan balance, oily, more pitta.

Yeah, yeah. Blotchiness. Because the skin also is very reactive. You go in the sun and some people just straight away burn or get blotchiness where somebody else doesn't, you know. So it tells you a lot about this person and what their tolerance level is, you know. So a lot of the times when I'm talking to people, I'm like, you know, do you sit in the sun? How much sun do you get? Because a lot of people just don't sit in the sun anymore. They're scared.

So what are your thoughts on sunscreen? Do you Wear it ever.

I will wear some of it when I'm playing sports because I'm going to be in heat a lot, you know, exposed. If I feel the heat is soft, then I won't wear it. If I'm outside and it's summertime and it's 95 degrees, I just won't put my face in it. But I will look at the sun. Early morning as the sun's rising, I'll sort of look at it and stare at it for a while, for about 10, 15 minutes. And my face will get used to that heat coming up and then I'm done. Right. So it's really, you know, Ayurveda is all about telling you how things are, but you've got to figure out how they are for you, right? So we know fire is always hot, ice is always cool. They're never going to be different, you know, wind is always drying. It's not going to be different. So we take this information and then we apply it to ourselves. How is it working on me? You know, and we never look at somebody else because, for example, I'm not that affected by wind. So I can go outside, it's super windy, but my body is more vata like, but I'm not bothered by wind. Whereas my wife, you know, jamar will come out in two seconds of wind, and it really bothers her, but she's much more pitta like, you know, so we have to keep tweaking and saying, well, that's how my body works, you know, it doesn't mean it will be like that forever. Years ago, we used to spend time on all of this stuff. Now most of the people who come to us are sick. I got a problem. I'm not well. So we're fixing. We're not in that place of stopping it before it happens. That preventative medicine, which is actually most of Ayurveda, right?

Yeah. I find definitely the elements and how you're able to hold things. Some people cannot be in the heat. I find a lot of men, like, have a hard time with heat. They need air conditioning. So what does it mean if someone needs a. They cannot sleep without it being very, very cold in the room?

Well, you have people who just run hot. So they. They feel like if I have air on, I. I'm going to be cooler. That's kind of like drinking a cold beer in the summer, you know, your body's at a certain temperature, it's going to heat the. Whatever you drink, it's going to heat it up. That's why we usually drink something hot so our body has no energy loss. And then we put some peppermint or Tulsi or something cooling in the hot tea. And then like in Iran and India, they're sipping on hot tea, and this.

Is huge because everyone drinks ice water.

Yeah. Thinking, well, it's because it feels good for a moment, but then your body will produce more heat to make that ice hot. Right? So then you're producing more heat. So it's the same thing when you're sitting in air conditioning. First of all, you're breathing in that bad air in your lungs, which is terrible. It weakens the lung. But then you're trying to get to sleep. You're breathing in cold air. You're under a duvet, which is hot. So you've got this hot and cold thing happening. And then you get sick because the body's confused with, is it hot or is it cold? Where am I?

It's interesting because they now, like, in this, like, biohacking space, tell you to put it at 67 degrees. So all the men are like, see, I told you so. And it's like, yeah, but that juxtaposition. You put the AC on, but you have a duvet. I'm like, you know, in India, I don't even use air conditioning. I never use air conditioning or heat. I like it to be whatever it is. And they always thought I was so weird. I was like, I just will sleep naked, then put on an AC or a fan.

Yeah, that's how. That's how it's always been. But, you know, modern life has been great to some degree, but then it's made us lazy. So people are like, oh, it's hot ac. Oh, it's cold. Let's put the heating on. I mean, for us, it's like the body has to get used to both. And there's a point to which it's healthy. So I. If I'm sweating, it's the summer. Great. That's my air conditioning, right? The little film of water comes on my arm, the air blows on it. Air conditioning. So then I'm cooling down naturally. The fact my body is getting used to doing that. It's used to taking care of itself. But soon as I do something for the body that isn't, you know, it's. It's not taking care of itself, starts getting lazy, right? So that's the bad part about air conditioning. So I usually tell people, use it when you really have to. You know, your car is just unbearable. You open a window that's unbearable. It's healthier now to put the air on and put it on that minimum where you have to also still work so it's not cold because then you're going to step out, you're going to get that hot air in your face and lungs again. And that extreme between the hot and the cold, that's what will make you sick.

Something my mom used to teach me when it was really cold because I grew up in Boston, so it was like ice cold. And so inside I would like sometimes wear my. We never had AC or heat or anything. And so inside I would wear my jacket. And then she would say, don't wear your jacket inside because then you're going to get used to that level of warmth that when you go outside, you're going to be too cold.

Exactly. It's. It's that extreme. You know, the body's very resilient in one way, but on another way, it's fragile. So if we keep putting ourselves in the extreme, we're putting the body under pressure and then the mind is attached, you know, the head's attached to the body. So now we're putting pressure on the mind as well. So it's not taking ourselves to the extreme. We play in a field of this is comfortable. I'm not going too far and I'm not going to keep pushing. And especially as I age, if we think, you know, oh, at 50 or 60, that we're, you know, 40 and 30, we're not. So we have to respect that and aspect of it as well.

So I'm curious, what is your ayurvedic take on cold plunges, ice baths or the overheated?

People love it. Right, right. Well, you know, Wim Hof came along and he, you know, but the dude, I know what he's doing, you know, maybe his tolerance level, he's, you know, he's got pitter and the fire element in his body so high, you know, and a lot of stuff's coming out now that he had a lot of drinks as well, which takes you. Which is, you know, it makes the blood hot. But we can't say, hey, I can't go up there and go, hey, I'm going to do what he does. If the Guy's trained for 40 years or whatever, he lived in wherever it is, Poland, Bulgaria or somewhere, it's freezing. So he's got used to it. So you can come and train with him. You know, like we would go to the Himalayas and do stuff, but we're not doing what the Aghoris do up in the. You know, if we did, we die. Right. So it's really understanding cold plunge to some degree is good for you. If your body's very thin and you have not a lot of muscle, it's probably not good for you. All right. Because the muscle is what's taking all of that and the muscle's keeping the bone together. You know, if you're so thin that the bone's right there, you're now going to get chilly bones. And that's not correct it because the marrow is in the bone, calcium is in the bone. You just. You're gonna start deteriorating quicker.

I find that the people who really resonate with cold plunges are. Are, yeah, very pitta. Men who almost need that extreme to finally relax.

Right.

But though I think then instead of now cold, they need ice and they need longer and longer and longer. And it, you know, but I, I see it benefits them and if it's working for them, I think it's more natural to go into a cold pond or something.

Exactly.

You know, because that would make sense because it's like at that time of year. But the difference is woman. I don't think it's really great for. Because like in Ayurveda and all these like ancient systems, you're supposed to wrap up the womb. The womb is always supposed to be warm. Your feet are always supposed to be warm. So to put a woman in a cold plunge feels very unnatural for her being.

Well, it's all the women who have more fire in them.

Them.

So they finding it useful. But to what degree? Because I'm, you know, watching this. I'm watching people talk about this. So I think to some degree it's good. But to your point, yeah, you know, don't heat the head. Don't, you know, make the womb hot or cold to that degree either. That's not healthy. We're coming up with all these new things and we love new things. So it becomes entertainment. Then we turn it into a sport. So we misuse everything. So co plans. For example, in Sweden, if I've grown up in Sweden, I got used to the cold. I mean now.

And they're doing hot and cold too.

They're doing hot and cold. I'm used to this. I've been doing this since I was 1, 2, 3, 4. I'm acclimated to something different now. Right. In California, if I put one in the back garden and then I put it at 39 degrees and then I sit in that for 10 minutes, it's just not good for the body. Let's say it's gone past the point of positivity. Like to your point, if I'm going into a lake, it's colder outside, I'm already getting used to this. It's not icy, probably going to be okay, but again, how long for? Right? So I think with that we're entertaining ourselves with these things, you know, challenging ourselves. But the body is fragile in one way, resilient in another. We have to know, okay, now I'm just being silly and pushing for no reason, because what is this? Because the guy who's, you know, 30, 40 now, if he's starting to break down his immune system, not treat his body in a correct way, you can, you know, by the time you get to 60, you're just, just not going to be in good shape, you know, so we have to think a little bit, you know, down the road. But I don't know, everybody seems to be in a corner doing something.

So what are your thoughts on strength training from a yogic perspective?

From my own perspective, you know, I went to India 22 years ago. I stopped working out in the gym for probably, I don't know, 17, 18, 19 years, something like that. And then I started to, I mean, I was still fasting a lot.

So did you do like push ups and stuff like that?

Push ups, pull ups, sit ups. I lifted a lot of weights, but not humongous. But I was at least 15, 20 pounds heavier of just muscle before the yoga? Yeah, like in my early 30s and 20s. And then when I started doing yoga, I got flexibility and I started to understand the mobility. Flexibility was so much more useful. But then I fasted for 40 days not long ago and I started losing all my muscle very rapidly. What I didn't focus on was the last time I did that I was in my 30s and the time before I did that was in my 20s and I was fine. But in my 50s, you lose muscle very quickly. So about two, two years ago or something, I had to go to gym again, build up muscle, eat protein, you know, and we're vegetarian, so we're eating dal and rice and, you know, all the lentils and some dairy. So I had to eat more, although I wasn't that hungry. And finally after two years, I managed to put on, you know, about seven, eight pounds of muscle. And now I'm fine. But again, I had to do something about it because, you know, my body for somebody else, it's different. I mean, a lot of what we do is Intuitive. I need this and I need that. Like, now we want to go to Kailash, for example, the sacred mountain. It's cold, it's rugged, it's. I know how long it would take, maybe three weeks to go around it.

This is the mountain that Shiva reached enlightenment.

Yeah. So after it said, contemplate it, you know, how's my body going to be? Is it the right time? Because it's also a spiritual pilgrimage. So I have to sit with that for a little while as well. So I'm trusting, I'm getting information, knowledge from within. And I think as we get older and we're practitioners, that's sort of our path. It's not just jump in like we used to. It's more. You don't have to have fear about it. You just have to be more diligent. Because now this body is totally healthy. It has a limit, you know? Whereas I know, 10 years ago, I was up the Himalayas, bouncing around and doing the four temples and running around for like six weeks, you know, but again, I was. It was different.

So let's talk about digestion. You know, what are some, like, for example, let's start with bloating, a vata imbalance. What would you suggest if someone. Every time they eat, they feel bloated?

First you got to see, what am I eating? That's the first thing. It's almost like you got to look at it on the table. What am I eating? Second thing is, what is the quantity that I'm eating? The third thing is, what time am I eating? You know? And then the fourth is, what mixtures in this table. That's the first thing I would do. It's a lot, but you're getting the symptom, and then it's coming on. If it's very quick, then it's something you've eaten. You know, right now, if it happens in three or four hours, it could have been something you had six, seven, ten hours ago. Right. Again, it's consciousness when I'm eating, it should be a ritual. That's how we do it. You sit. Now, everything. Phones go away. We don't really talk. Let me focus. Because, you know, the other day I. I was. I got on the plane and I wasn't focusing and I ate something. What I didn't remember was, you're now going to be sitting for six hours on this plane. This is different. Every day you're eating this, but now you can't move. You would normally eat, then move.

Plus a plane is in the air, which is going to vata imbalance.

Exactly. And the air pressure is different. Air pressure usually is, I don't know, a few thousand feet lower. But it's not like being on the ground. So I didn't take that into consideration. And I got indigestion. Right. So then I had to treat that, which is I took some hot water with some ginger, that was what I had on the plane, you know, and a little black pepper.

Fresh ginger or.

No, this was a ginger tea bag and stuff I had on the plane.

Right.

So again, I treated it based on what the symptom is. But I forgot that although that's something I always eat, that's healthy now I'm stationary. I didn't, I forgot about that.

Do you walk after all your meals?

Well, I'm moving, so I eat maybe. I know it takes me 15 minutes and then I get up and then I'm moving. So my digestion is moving. You know, there is movement happening. So digestion is moving faster because of that movement. Whereas I was sitting on a plane, I probably didn't move. And I got up and went to the bathroom and then I maybe stood up for a minute, sat that. Everything was just sitting with no movement and air pressure. So to answer your question, the quantity, the mixture. Mixture, meaning when I look at this, you're not going to know all the good mixtures, but you will know by the third time when you've eaten something with something, if you're paying attention, it's not a good mixture. So we have always the same things, yogurt with fruit, because of the acidity and the culture and the yogurt, which.

Is interesting because everywhere you go they sell a Greek yogurt parfait, which is like with fruit and then all this granola filled sugar and dairy.

Terrible. Yeah. And then it just sits in your stomach so it gives you something. So if you get bloatedness or you get indigestion or you got constipation, the body will turn me.

Kombucha makes me so bloated.

Really.

And they say that's supposed to be good for it. But the fermentation, the bubbliness, it's not because it's a wild yeast. So it's like if you have any kind of like excess yeast, it will feed off of it, which most of us have like some bad bacteria. So I never eat like kombucha. Even yogurt, things like that.

Yeah, yeah, I eat yogurt, but I water it down so it becomes like kefir, basically. So I Put a little mint in there, like Iranians do, mix it up with some water. So now it's becomes. Yeah, so it becomes more like that. So what happens is it's still yogurt. You're getting the culture and the enzyme, but it's so watered down. I mean, imagine how thick Greek yogurt is. It's just so dense. It takes your body forever to try to break that down. And it's mucusy. So somebody who's very dry, they're going to be better off. But somebody who's more kapha orientated, that's going to take them forever. Have a, you know, I don't know how long to digest.

So, like, if you already struggle with water retention and, you know, puffiness. Don't have yogurt.

Yeah, don't have yogurt. Or have it in a very watery form and drink it during the day, never at night. Yeah. Generally we don't have any dairy at nighttime. Dairy at nighttime accumulates mucus and it, even if you can tolerate it, it's not a great. Eat something that digests out of your system super quickly within half an hour. Eat small amount and eat the bigger meals. Breakfast, lunch, or just eat when you're hungry. Unless you're mentally hungry. And if you're five times a day hungry, then something's up.

Right. Because we grew up being told eat five times a day to keep your metabolism going.

Yeah. Which just keeps creating acidity. And then you're putting food and then you're creating acid even by thinking. Ayurveda says this is the small stomach, the mouth, the saliva is starting, you're salivating. It's saying to the brain and saying to the stomach. Now even science is starting to say, this is a whole world. So when you eating something like that, that it's telling your stomach, hey, food's coming. Right. So people chew gum, for example, constantly. They're going to have irritation in the stomach because the stomach's like, where's this food? You know, you're salivating. I'm expecting food. I'm creating acidity for food. Food never comes, you know, so those people get ulcers and all kinds of other problems as well.

Yeah. Another like, little hack that I learned because, yes, when you start to, to, to chew, your body's expecting you to eat. But I don't have green juices, like often. But if I do, I will chew them. So then I'm telling my body, this is food, because if I just drink it like water, my body's not Actually breaking down all the nutrients and enzymes within it.

Yeah, good point. Yeah, yeah. Things like green juice, they're so strong, you know, if you put green juice in the stomach, you know that unless it's got a lot of cubicle, I.

Get, yeah, like if I do that celery juice I tried to get into, it made me just so vata and balance balanced, Bloated. It was not for me. Because it's so cold.

Yeah, it's cold, which gives you bloatedness and because it inhibits the digestion. But then all that green is too much. So you know, if you have a small amount, it's fine. But in ward, dilute it. It's like drinking oranges. If you keep chugging down oranges, it's just too acidic, you know. So I would always say dilute everything. If you're in, if you're not sure, dilute it and then the body can deal with it much quicker.

So what would you recommend if someone.

Is constipated, first of all is what's your environment like? People use a lot of air conditioning, get constipated. People sit in the car, sit at work, they get constipated. People don't have enough oil in their body, you know, ghee, olive oil, almond oil, this kind of stuff. If your food is too dry, feeding too much packaged food, again, because if your constitution, meaning if you have more airiness in your system and then fire and earth are secondary, you're already predisposed to dryness. So then you need the opposite, which is oiliness, start giving yourself lubrication. So we talk a lot about hydration, but we don't talk about lubrication too much. So lubrication is oiling. So if your skin is dry, you put oil on it and then it takes it in and it uses it. Hydration is from within, hydration isn't from outside. So you take inside, you take some water. But if you take water to a point's already made of water, whatever, 80%. So that means it's in your tissues, it's in your system. And then depending on how much you sweat, if you're somebody who sweats a lot, then you need to drink more to replenish that water. But if you're not, you're not going to get dehydrated. Unless you're playing a lot of sports, you're running, you sweat when you sleep something. But this whole notion that we're dehydrated all the time is sort of not correct.

Yeah, when I was in my early 20s, I was very deep in my Ashtanga yoga practice, but also a raw vegan. So I would only have everything, like cold, dry, raw salads, smoothies, coconut water. And then I was freezing all the time, constipated, bloated, hair falling out. And that's actually what brought me to Ayurveda because I went to so many doctors and they were like, oh, you're. You're estrogen, testosterone at zero. Like, I brought myself into a param. Menopausal state from not having my period for two years. And that's what. What, you know, took me along on this journey of self healing and. But back in the day, that's what health was considered, was being raw vegan and, you know, just drinking green juice all the time and just like snacking on little things. And I was already very vata and then doing very vata yoga and also not living my dharma confused. So it was like just perpetuating, perpetuating it. And so it's interesting because I think a lot of us grew up afraid of the foods that are like the lubricating foods. I know I was, I was like, yeah, like, I was like, I can't ever eat oil. Like, that's gonna make me huge. And it's interesting because the word for oil in Sanskrit, sneha is the word for love. So it's like when you oil yourself, you love yourself. And so that was like. I remember I heard, like, if you even put oil on your skin, that your body would like, take that as food and you'll gain weight. I was like, I can't even do that. It was like all this rewiring I had to do. Girls growing up in the 90s, like.

Fatphobia generation, that's the problem with the newness is great. We love it, new information, but we shouldn't apply all of it. It should be entertainment. It's like watching something for what we need, health wise, that we need to get educated on. You know, I mean, somebody came to me yesterday and they said, so I'm really stressed out because my doctor's telling me my numbers are, you know, high in cholesterol and my BP and they're reading off all these numbers. So I said, well, how do you feel? They're like, oh, nobody's asked me that yet. But nobody's in your body to know how you feel. So let's start with that. Sit as long as you need and then tell me how you feel. I actually feel good. Okay. If you didn't know all those Numbers, would you still feel good? Yeah, I actually feel bad because of those numbers. You know, I said, okay, so let's say, let's take all the numbers off the table, and if you feel good, that's great. So let's start there. And it's just empowering people to say, I have a say in this relationship with my doctor, with my therapist, with my practitioner. Know, I'm not just listening and going, well, they must be right, you know, especially a doctor. Doctors are best guessing what's going on, then turns to a machine that was designed by a person, and then it's reeling out data. We are more than data, you know, and data in Ayurveda is about, you tell me what's going on. I'm not telling you what's going on. I have the knowledge to see and put it all together. But information has to come from you. As your skin is talking to me, the eyes, the tongue, all this stuff is telling me something. But I don't feel what you feel. So tell me how you feel. So we started there, and then suddenly she was relieved, and she had more fear and stress about her numbers. And then it was like, she's now fine, you know, so we're in that perpetual place of, oh, let me try this. Oh, my doctor said that. But we take little responsibility that we're in. We need to be the one who says how we feel, who knows how we feel. You know, if something's achy, well, let me sit for five minutes and figure it out, right? Instead of running to have a test running to ask somebody running, I should be able to know more about myself than anybody else. That's how it should be. But it's not right.

It's like, if you feel fine but your doctor is telling you numbers, listen to yourself. But also, if you don't feel fine but your doctor's like, Tesla normal. It's like, inquire more. And it's. It's coming back to knowing ourselves. And I. And I feel a big part of our spiritual awakening journey is to realize that, you know, is to realize that our doctors are no. 1. Like, it's great for, you know, acute issues, but most people have never actually sat with, like, yeah, I feel bloated after every meal. Let me break down everything I'm eating and how I'm feeling before. And am I actually sitting down eating a meal, or am I standing up and, you know, watching 10,000 YouTube videos and answering emails and, like, no one's actually, like, really sat with those processes until we have the really bad symptom. And then we're like, I have ibs, you know, and it's like, like, you know, we all could have ibs. And so much of this is also just psychological as well. It was interesting because when I had my really bad digestive issues, the doctors prescribed me antidepressants. They were like, oh, the mind, body are connected, so take antidepressants. I was like, that is not the solution. Thank God. I. That's what brought me into this journey of like, how are the mind and body connected? And so how can I shift the mind? And that's what I love about Ayurveda, it's the lifestyle. You know, it's like, how are you sleeping and what's your meditation, what's your yoga, how are you eating, how are your bowels, how's your skin? And it's like all in one thing, all of it.

Take everything and then see what's happening. Right. I almost also feel it's unfair to doctors that people mistreat themselves, don't know anything about themselves, and then run to the doctor and go figure it out. And they're like, well, my training is that it could be five different things. So I think that's a little unfair as well. I think with all the knowledge in the world, with all the books, with all the videos, with everything, we should sort of meet halfway. You've done your homework, I've done mine. Let's meet and let's see together. Let's figure it out. But at no point I should be empowered. You should be empowered. Because I'm figuring out a lot of different things happening with this body and I'm not running to anybody about it. Yes, I'm trained, but I'm also just sitting for a moment and going, well, what happened? You know, like you say, and then we'll figure it out. If you have life threatening thing, if you've got, you need surgery, whatever that 1% of your life, maybe, yes, run to the doctor, great, you need them. Ayurveda won't be able to help you in this form that we're practicing. But that's not 99% of your life life, you know, so being intuitive, it's like people saying, oh, I caught cancer in time, thank God, you know, you could have probably caught it even before if you were just in touch and.

Trusting yourself, you know, absolutely having that deeper connection. Then you can feel the subtleties of like, you know, that subtle stomach ache, that subtle anxiety, that subtle. And, and it's so amazing because as you, you do more practices. I've been working a lot with mantras recently. We just have Navratri. So I was like doing and I just noticed this like almost like underlying anxiety that I had was gone. And it's so beautiful when you notice this. Like siddhi, the gifts of the spiritual practice and this more just like calm, full peace of mind. And so when you know what peace feels like, then you can feel when disease starts to come in, you can feel the subtlety. But most of us, we're living in chaos and then we're disconnected and we're disassociated. And the more the morning moment, we feel something, we take an Advil, we take a something and then has to get so loud for us to listen.

Yeah. And then it's not preventative anymore. If we just listened a little bit before this all, you know, we become a society of take something for something instead of do something about something. Right. If I do something about it, I won't need to probably take anything for it, you know. But it gets to that point and we're busy. But we've also given up our free will, you know, we have free will to the point like we talked about. We have karma, we have all of this. But I can choose what I'm going to have for breakfast. I can choose how much I'm on my phone. I can, you know, I have certain amount of choice. So if I push it and push it and push it, then who knows what's going to happen. It's going to break at some point. So I think it's to do with our mentality as well. Well what are we motivated by? What drives us? You know, some people are just overworking. So eventually a system will break down, others are relaxing too much, their system will break down, you know. So how do we find this balance of work, family, relationship, play? It's an everyday thing and it's probably every moment thing, you know. But of course we lose the moment sometimes, you know, but if we lose it 10% of the time we're still going to be okay. But if we're losing it 50% of the time, then we're not aware enough to see when things are coming. And then we're probably going to have to run to somebody and they're going to have to help us.

And it's never too late to evolve and come back. I've seen people reverse so many amazing things and sometimes we need to hit those rock bottoms to be like, okay, this is what burnout feels like. This is what being hospitalized feels like. And those become people's awakenings into a new form of healing.

Absolutely. Aura Veda doesn't say be healthy. It says here's how to be healthy. Now do whatever you want with it.

So where can listeners connect with you, learn more from you and have you in their lives?

So we have a portal called Inspire Living Co. So there you can find Yogini, Jmar and I, and that's our portal. Everything's free there, videos and knowledge and really it's for. We set it up for practitioners and seekers. We also have it seasonally. We open what we call my temple, which is here in la and we have our first season now. It's a place of gathering. You come, you have treatments and sessions. We invite, invite somebody usually to come as a third teacher to be with us. And you know, so you have sort of a plethora of knowledge and practices. And so yeah, I think Inspire Living Co would be the best place to come and find us. Or yogicamera.com as well.

Perfect. Well, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your wisdom with us. I really enjoyed it and thank you all so much for listening. You can find all of the links mentioned today in the show notes. Be sure to share this episode with a friend, with a family member. There are so many great health and wellness tips in there. I'm sure you have personally related to a lot of these issues. I mean, who hasn't been bloated and gassy and constipated at some point? We all have. So now we know some tips and tricks and many more. I will link his books, my books, lots of Ayurveda content below as well because I know a lot of you guys came to this journey through Ayurveda. So it felt good. Kind of homecoming having a great Ayurveda conversation again. I hope you loved it. Be sure to leave a review for it in the podcast store and as a free gift, I will send you my womb meditation. All you got to do is leave a review and take a screenshot. Email it over to me@saharaamsahara rose.com you can find that email and all of the links mentioned in the show notes. Thank you so much and I'll see you in the next one. Trust your intuition. Trust your inner wisdom. Trust your inner guidance. Let go. So trust your intuition, Trust your inner wisdom. Trust you in the guidance.