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Wisdom of Ayurveda w/ Brenda Carey
203 Plays1 year ago
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Brenda Carey is a spiritual and sensitive soul who is on a mission to empower empaths and healers to share their Light. Her purpose is to inspire others from her own personal transformation of the struggles from spinal fusion surgery and autoimmune issues to embrace each day with gratitude.
She is a Holistic Healer utilizing her training as an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Coach, Reiki Master, sacred ceremony facilitator, yoga and meditation teacher to create vibrant health. She is the owner of Sacred Path Healing, a co-host on Be The Love podcast, and hosts retreats in the US and internationally. When she is not on her yoga mat, you can find her hiking in the mountains of Montana.
Connect with Brenda:
https://www.sacredpathyogaandreiki.com
https://www.instagram.com/sacredpathyoga
https://www.facebook.com/sacredpathhealingyoga
https://www.bethelovepodcast.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to the Connecting Minds podcast, Christian Jordonov here. Today, our guest is Brenda Carey. She's a spiritual and sensitive soul who is on a mission to empower empaths and healers to share their light. Her purpose is to inspire others from her own personal transformation of the struggles from spinal fusion surgery and autoimmune issues to embrace each day with gratitude.
00:00:25
Speaker
She is a holistic healer utilizing her training as an Ayurvedic lifestyle coach, Reiki master, sacred ceremony facilitator, yoga and meditation teacher to create vibrant health.
Brenda's Career and Healing Journey
00:00:37
Speaker
Brenda is the owner of Sacred Path Healing, a co-host on the Be The Love podcast and hosts retreats in the US and internationally. When she's not on her yoga mat, you can find her hiking in the mountains of Montana. Brenda, thank you so much for joining me today.
00:00:53
Speaker
Thank you so much, Christian. I am so looking forward to our conversation. Yeah. You sound like the stuff you're engaged in, Reiki, sacred ceremonies, hiking, it sounds like you're living the dream there in Montana.
00:01:08
Speaker
I feel like I am. It took me a while to get here, though. I can't say that I would have even identified with being a yoga and meditation teacher. I think friends from my past and family would be like, wait, you do what now? Wait. So I think I've had an interesting healing journey that got me to this point. I mean, filled with struggles and pain for sure. And I still have those. I'm not saying life is
00:01:38
Speaker
picture perfect and always rainbows and unicorns there. But I feel like now I've learned resiliency and tools to get me through the really, really challenging times, which we've all been through.
Scoliosis Diagnosis and Surgery Experiences
00:01:50
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And so let's, let's actually talk about your health journey. When did it start? I know there's some serious stuff going on there.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, actually it started in adolescence. So when I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with scoliosis, which if your listeners aren't familiar with, that's a curvature of the spine. Most surgeons have no idea how it starts. Some say it's genetic. Some say it's, you know, lifestyle choices. There's no definite, you know, reason for a lot of people. And so consequently, the Western medicine protocol is like, let's wait and see.
00:02:27
Speaker
And so that's what I did. And eventually, a couple years later, during my teenage years, I was put in, I lovingly called it my plastic corset. It was literally like a plastic back brace. And so
00:02:41
Speaker
I didn't question the doctor. This was just standard protocol. Consequently, I didn't really learn how to breathe properly. I mean, think of the tightness of a corset, which was, yes, supposed to stop the continuing curvature of the spine. But inevitably, a few years later, I'm 18 years old.
00:03:03
Speaker
And it actually did not stop the curvature. It kept going. And so surgery was the next step. So at 19 years old, the surgeon gently pushed my spine over. And so I have less of a degree of curvature. I still have scoliosis. I think that's one thing that
00:03:22
Speaker
Unfortunately, when any kind of spinal fusion people will think, oh, when I get the surgery, then it'll be fixed and the pain will go away. And I'm here to lovingly say, not true. So it's just a different set of issues. So these two metal rods placed along most of the middle of my back to hold it
00:03:43
Speaker
in place and to prevent it from curbing. So that started in my teenage years. And I had complications with the surgery, which led to digestive issues. It was just kind of this downward spiral. I had some serious reactions to the anesthesia and really kind of came out in worse shape from the surgery than when I went in at a young age.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's how many times have we heard the similar story that you go in and they just make it worse. It's like we know that after cancer and heart disease, the third leading cause of death is eatrogenic, a.k.a. medical errors, you know, drugs. So it's sad that, you know,
00:04:33
Speaker
That's kind of the state of medicine nowadays. You know, we can help a lot of people in emergency situations, but anytime there's a chronic condition like that, it's just it looks like they're that we're helpless to do anything about it.
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, and I did really feel like, and at the time I wouldn't have recognized it, but I did give a lot of my power away. And keep in mind, I'm in my late teens, going into my early 20s. I came with the family of, just do what the doctor says, don't question it, doctor knows best. And I mean, this is back in the late 80s, early 90s, so that, okay, I'm gonna follow protocol and it's gonna work out.
00:05:16
Speaker
And after a long recovery period,
Resiliency and Healing Tools
00:05:20
Speaker
it did feel a little bit better until the body does what it's naturally designed to do. So when it recognized, huh, these metal rods in the back creates so much rigidity and no flexion, like I had no spinal flexion, very limited rotation, which I still have to this day. So the other areas of my spine, so like higher up into my neck and in my lumbar spine, started to overcompensate. And so then I had hypermobility, which that caused me pain.
00:05:50
Speaker
which that led to a whole other string of pain issues as well. It can really be so emotionally challenging, and I think that's the aspect of post-surgery that's not always addressed. The emotional rollercoaster that we go through thinking, okay, this issue was supposed to be fixed with surgery and the medication, and then
00:06:15
Speaker
a couple or a few years down the road, new issues crop up, along with maybe even some of the old issues resurfacing. And so it's just this emotional roller coaster spiral. Absolutely. I mean, even I went at the beginning of the month,
00:06:32
Speaker
I went to get my mercury fittings removed safely, and they gave me, I think, like 14 or 15 shots of anesthetic, local anesthetic around the teeth, which is, you know, three to four per tooth, because it was four of them to remove. And man, the next three or four days, I felt so lousy, and I kind of chalk it up to the
00:06:55
Speaker
The anesthesia, I can't think of. They were following protocol for me to not inhale or ingest any mercury vapor. So it must have been just my body just being poisoned from the anesthesia and taking a while.
00:07:10
Speaker
to get over it. So I can only imagine when you're younger or let's say someone with a less developed still immune system or detoxification system, I can only imagine how much worse these things can be. But just before we move on to the positive side of your health journey, do you remember, was there some type of trauma that preceded the scoliosis? Was there anything you could pinpoint it to?
00:07:41
Speaker
There really wasn't anything. In fact, you know, there wasn't any, you know, ancestors or, you know, grandparents before. Granted, back then, they didn't really do much for spinal issues back in, I mean, we're talking like the 20s, 30s, 40s. They, you know, just said, hey, you can work, you're fine, you're good. Ring the bells, Quasimodo.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I didn't identify any trauma that was mine. Now, in hindsight, and we could go down a spiritual wormhole with this as I've really dived into some generational and ancestral healing, I think there definitely could have been some emotional and spiritual issues attached to spine because
00:08:29
Speaker
The energetics of our spine is how supported we feel in this life. I didn't realize that till many years later, but for many of us, we don't feel supported in this lifetime or we haven't, you know, throughout the generations. Interesting. Yeah, if you want, let's explore that. You know, we can explore that after. Let's talk about how, so what helped you
00:08:54
Speaker
turn this whole thing around because you clearly now are using your experience to help others heal. So clearly there was, let's say, a method to the universe's madness, to ruffle you so hard. It's like the wounded healer in terms of the shaman. They have to
00:09:17
Speaker
be broken apart, torn apart, and then pieced back together, and then they can, you know, do the good work. So what do you kind of, you can give us the more esoteric spiritual side, and you can give us kind of the more material aspect in terms of this world. What would you think? Or rather, how did the journey develop from there?
00:09:36
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a multifaceted journey over many years. Honestly, initially, it started with taking my first yoga class, because I was in my early 20s at the time, really struggling with pain along my spine, not where the rods, the metal rods were, but where they were not, because again, they were hypermobile.
00:09:58
Speaker
And so my mom actually had said, well, why don't you just try yoga? She had been taking a class. She's like, and at this point, I'm like, well, I really couldn't, couldn't do any worse at this point. And so I went to this very gentle yoga class. Keep in mind, I'm in my early 20s, the instructor looks like she's 100 years old, but she looks fabulous. And I thought, that's, you know, like, that's what I want, you know, to age gracefully. And
00:10:26
Speaker
I'm not going to say that, and this is a typical story, you'll hear people say, oh, once I did yoga for the first time, I loved it and I did it forever. That's not my story. I got on that first time on my yoga mat and went, oh my gosh, this is not only physically painful, I had to relearn how my body moved,
00:10:46
Speaker
because it had so many different limitations than what I was used to. So it was like starting from scratch, like, okay, this is what my body can do safely. This is what it cannot do. So the self-awareness flooded in on a physical level. And then being still on my mat at the end when we're at Shavasana was absolute torture for me. Like, I had to sit there. It was probably five minutes, if that.
00:11:11
Speaker
and listen to my thoughts. And I think that was the wake up call for me. I had not really sat with the negative self talk that was flowing through my mind that had probably been going on since adolescence, since being in a back brace and feeling literally caged in and confined physically. But that also translates mentally and emotionally.
00:11:34
Speaker
And so I started and stopped and started and stopped yoga for probably a couple years, because it was like I could only take on so much, and this is the trauma work. I wouldn't have called it back then. I didn't know what that was, but eventually began to soften some of that negative self-talk. And I'm still so appreciative of my first yoga teacher and the ones after that, which eventually led into meditation, and really started to witness my thoughts.
00:12:03
Speaker
And once I truly embodied the belief that I am not my thoughts and I am so much more than the criticism and the identities and the roles that either I took on or somebody else had given me, you know, the girl with the crooked back.
00:12:19
Speaker
Like, that had left such an impression that to work through some of those labels and realize, no, I am not. I am so much more. And I am not those thoughts. So it was definitely this slow work in progress of being in my body. And I think that's so important for people to hear. When we're in physical pain, honestly, the last thing we sometimes want to do is move our body because we're just trying to protect it. We're trying to not create more pain and suffering.
00:12:47
Speaker
However, as humans, we are designed to move. We have all these cool joints that do all these really amazing things. We're designed to move. And I think this is part of my story, even with limitations, even with, as I lovingly call it, my spare parts that I have along my spine. It is totally possible to move.
00:13:12
Speaker
And so that was the start of the embodiment, like physically moving and then really starting to notice the workings of the mind. And that starts the self-healing journey.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think the way you said journey is very apt because I don't even think there's a finish line. Not at all. Yeah, even the stuff, I guess I was about 19 when I sort of started waking up to the fact that I have thoughts
00:13:49
Speaker
And there's an observer behind the thoughts. But that doesn't mean that you're enlightened now and everything is going to be fine or whatever, or suddenly all your troubles will vanish because it's also easy to
00:14:07
Speaker
let the monkey mind or the egoic mind completely take over. And I can actually see sometimes where I'm in a sort of whirlwind of negativity, one thought feeding on the next thought. And then I suddenly kind of like, you know, take a deep breath or whatever, or a breath is always just a conscious breath is always required. And you're just like, oh, wait,
00:14:33
Speaker
I'm here. The thoughts are there. I'm here. So talk to us more about how the meditation then changed your inner self-talk, which I think is such a big source for many of us of additional suffering on top of the pain we already are undergoing.
00:14:55
Speaker
I loved how you brought up take a breath because that was actually the first I guess you could call it formal meditation I learned was observing the breath and the first thing that I realized and this is actually I think a chronic issue for many people is that I was a reverse breather
Understanding Ayurveda
00:15:12
Speaker
and
00:15:12
Speaker
And a lot of people who do have spinal issues or even abdominal issues don't realize that. So just a quick recap of how we're supposed to breathe. When we inhale, the belly fills up like a balloon. And then when we exhale, it deflates and softens. And for many people stuck in even just low grade fight or flight, we do the opposite. So when we inhale, the belly would suck in. And exhale, the belly goes out.
00:15:40
Speaker
And when I was in, it was actually yoga teacher training that this light bulb went off and I went, wait, I'm doing the exact opposite. And so I had to retrain how to breathe.
00:15:52
Speaker
And I did that through a breathing meditation practice. So part of it was retraining how to breathe properly. Because when you think about it, when you do like that, when you get spooked or scared, and you do the, you know, your belly sucks in as you inhale. And so on a very subtle level, when we're reverse breathing, we're actually repeating that pattern of being on a very low grade,
00:16:19
Speaker
fight or flight operation. So to some of us, it's retraining how to breathe properly. So remember, inhale, belly fills up like a balloon. Exhale, belly deflates, and the belly softens down. And then using that to calm the nervous system down,
00:16:36
Speaker
As a start, longer, deeper breaths, like being in a back brace for so long, I had no idea how to breathe fully. Like it just wasn't even an option. And many of us, we breathe up top, like where our collarbone is, basically. And if we're not really engaging some of those lower diaphragmatic muscles, it's just not fully getting enough oxygen to our brains to be able to think clearly.
00:17:05
Speaker
And so it was a combination, learning how to breathe, breathe deeper, and then also just noticing and being aware of the repeated thoughts that I would think over and over. And like you mentioned, the negative downward spiral and how those are learned. I think often we sometimes treat our thoughts like I'm a victim to them.
00:17:27
Speaker
Like, this is just where they're going to go. And, you know, a lot of times they're learned from family, they're learned from, you know, just past habits that we've adopted. And as we know, in neuroscience, what fires together wires together and it just becomes quicker. And so I needed to learn tools, meditation was one.
00:17:48
Speaker
and then also some energy healing techniques to disrupt the mental habit and to not take it personal. I think so often, especially for me, I consider myself an empath. Like I feel other people's feelings. I can take it on sometimes and very sensitive to the energy around me. And so I will take in a lot of stimulation, whether that's emotions or noise or
00:18:12
Speaker
you know, whatever is around me. And so when we take all that in, the body gets very overwhelmed, as does the mind. And so it'll start that negative downward spiral. It starts usually with one little thing, and it could be so simple, like, oh, that noise really bothers me. Oh, I hope that noise doesn't keep going. Oh, what if it goes on all day? And then I won't be able to concentrate, and then I won't be able to do the work that I wanted. You know, it just goes and goes and goes. You can't hear that it stopped. Yeah.
00:18:41
Speaker
Exactly. And so to have a tool to like just gently interrupt it and be like, nope, I've not my thoughts. I can choose something different. That's awesome. Yeah. You know, I find though that some people can't do that for whatever reason, they cannot do it without some type of, whether physical or biochemical aid. I think that's probably because we are
00:19:11
Speaker
Right now in the modern world we are experiencing just unprecedented levels of stress, which is why I'm actually intrigued to hear about what these energy healing modalities you use because, you know,
00:19:26
Speaker
Even like with my wife, she had a tough period after our daughter was born of really just insomnia for quite a long time. And it was very hard for her to snap herself out of the psychological sort of torment of not being able to sleep. And, you know, we tried many things, including like she's tried all the breathing stuff and
00:19:53
Speaker
emotional freedom technique like tapping. We tried a lot of different supplements from CBD to CNE to glycine to GABA. Literally, I am an expert in sleep optimization when it comes to supplements and all these other things. But what energy healing techniques did you use? Because maybe there were some good ideas for the listeners as well.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, I use, I mean, I use a variety of one. I do like EFT or tapping with breath work. I tend to combine a lot of the modalities that I've learned because I feel like when they're isolated and keep in mind it's really individual. Like each person is so, I call it, we are our own unique energetic signature. So what works for me isn't necessarily going to work for someone else and just really tuning in
00:20:44
Speaker
And this is where Ayurveda comes in. Ayurveda, which is considered the sister science of yoga, looks at humans as we are this microcosm of the bigger macrocosm, so of nature. And this is why I am an avid hiker, and I live in the country now, so I can be closer to this macrocosm because I'm able to understand myself better.
00:21:12
Speaker
So just really brief, brief introduction to Ayurveda. It is a system of energy within the elements. So the elements are simply water, earth, fire, air, and space, or sometimes it's called ether. Spirit, yeah.
00:21:27
Speaker
And each one of us is a collection of all those energies. Some of them in some of us are going to be more predominant. Like for example, like someone who's very fiery, like they're usually pretty easy to identify. They're just like that.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of had thought so. That's why I brought it up. And we've only known each other for a short time. But they're gonna like be the movers and shakers and move forward and super focused and motivated, have a lot of goals in life. Like they just have that like, fireiness to them. And not, and
00:22:01
Speaker
other ones more like if they're more water element, they go with the flow, they're much slower paced, super compassionate people, you know, they're definitely like the healers and caretakers in our world. So there are certain energetic elements that are going to stand out. So consequently, there are different energy healing techniques or supplements, I still think supplements is energy when it all boils down to it.
00:22:25
Speaker
it's energy, whether it's in a capsule or certain acupressure points that we, you know, press on or tap, different modalities are going to work differently for different people. And I think for me, Ayurveda and acknowledging where those 5 elements are within ourselves can help figure out that balance and what's going to work most effectively for our Constitution.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, I have this really massive book on Ayurveda. It's thick, it's for like 800 pages. And I've tried to get into it a few times. We, even myself and my wife, we identified our dominant type. Adosha. Adosha, yes. I was a pita predominantly. I think she was a vata.
00:23:15
Speaker
I always like to do that and kind of juxtapose it on top of basically, so there's certain foods that they tell you you need to steer clear of and certain foods to focus on. So it's interesting how
00:23:31
Speaker
when we do these things, very often my favorite foods are the ones that I would gravitate towards would be the ones that are included. So I've done like genetic testing that tells you what kind of diet is best suited for you. I've done the metabolic typing test and those two are very, very close. So I think there's a lot of really awesome knowledge that we can extract and especially with these are like TCM, Ayurveda, there's just
00:23:58
Speaker
literally thousands of years of research and development of these modalities. I think I'm more intimidated to begin because I know it's such a vast body of knowledge, if you know what I mean. I want to respect it and be in the space of mind that I can devote a year of every day or half an hour to an hour every day of reading about it. Until I do that,
00:24:26
Speaker
I'd rather not disrespect the modality by dabbling in and then talking, oh, this, I, or whether that, and then you just kind of giving liners from the book that you remember, if you know what I mean. But you've been studying this for quite a while, right? I have. And I'm going to note that you spoke that truly like a Pitadosha person, like focused. I'm going all in
00:24:46
Speaker
And I'm really going to study it. And I'm like, I love that. I'm probably a little more like your wife. I'm more on the Vata side. I'm more of this air and space, creative, spiritual energy. And I have devoted many years to Ayurveda. And I also, like I mentioned, I like to blend different techniques. And not to say that those Ayurveda within itself isn't a beautiful tradition and science.
00:25:11
Speaker
However, with my more air Vata nature, I take what serves me and I creatively blend it with, you know, tapping breath work, other things that I've used. And it works for me. It may not work for you. You might be like the deep dive going to learn it all, get through the 800 page manual. And, you know, that's awesome. We need all the energy is just like we need, you know, all the unique signatures in this world to create that macro, to create the
Elements, Energies, and Family Dynamics
00:25:41
Speaker
whole.
00:25:41
Speaker
I would like to say what I do for myself and my clients is to make Ayurveda practical and simple in the modern lifestyle because you're right, it's over 5,000 years old. It is deep and rich and a lot of history and culture. And I think there's things that we can take from that and make it usable for modern lifestyle and things that we don't necessarily need, maybe not at this time, maybe we will later. I'm open.
00:26:10
Speaker
But I do really love the premise of we are each our own.
00:26:15
Speaker
unique elements within nature. We are all of them, but certain ones really stand out. And this is what is kind of not, I definitely think there's a place for Western medicine. But like we mentioned protocols, like they have certain protocols and they don't deviate much and don't take into consideration some of that unique energetic quality that each person has. So I'll give a perfect example of this. So people who
00:26:42
Speaker
are more vata, more air. We're going to be just more sensitive overall to herbal supplements, anesthesia, medication. I always would say to the doctor, what does a child dose like? What is that like? Because that's really what my body can really take because it is so sensitive. But of course, that's not protocol.
00:27:04
Speaker
So oftentimes it would just be too much and it would kind of tailspin into other side effects, which I think many of us are familiar with the side effects of Western medicine and also herbal supplements also can have side effects. I am a little bit of an experiment with a lot of different supplements just because first of all, a little bit of a biohacker and just I'm interested in
00:27:32
Speaker
So my wife is usually coming along for the journey and she's also rather sensitive to things. But I tell you, Brenda, I can take something that would give someone a detox reaction, like a herbal anti-pathogen mix of herbs. I could literally drink the whole bottle in one sitting and be like, okay, what?
00:27:56
Speaker
someone like my wife should take literally three or 10 drops or something, like tiny amount, and then it begins. Exactly. Because fire. So fire element
00:28:10
Speaker
the Ayurvedic people call this Agni. Agni has a much broader definition than just digestive fire. It has a whole span. Yes, you probably digest and assimilate food supplements really well.
00:28:30
Speaker
The fireiness in the mind is focused, fireiness like what you're passionate about. And so that comes really natural for you. For some of us, we've lost some of that fire or it just doesn't come as natural. And so that's my encouragement to people is to really look like, how do you tap into fire element? And what does that mean for you? Not just how well you digest food, although that's important, absolutely.
00:28:56
Speaker
But also, what gets you fired up and want to make a positive impact in this world? That is also Agni or that Pitadosha that we can also bring in. And it correlates.
00:29:10
Speaker
So someone to ask who's the other Doshah we haven't mentioned is Kaffa. Kaffas are this beautiful earth water element. I always say every single person needs to have friends that have this Doshah in them. They are just this grounded earth, easy going, slower flow to them. And they kind of counteract what's going on in the crazy modern world.
00:29:36
Speaker
So I always say find, you know, grounding practices, find people that embody this and hang around them and just see, see where it takes you. For some people, it might drive them crazy because they're like, why don't they move faster? Why don't they get stuff, more stuff done?
00:29:55
Speaker
And other people made me like, oh, they are just like the chillest people to hang out with. Yeah. So just know that we all have these like really beautiful balancing qualities. A kapha person may not have a lot of fire. And granted, we all have some, but they might need the person like you Pitta Dosha to give them a good little like
00:30:20
Speaker
kick in the pants to get something done. I love that. The way you paint that picture, I can really visualize when you say someone is in earth water. I see an archetype of the person and then I try to
00:30:35
Speaker
see which of my friends or people I know or family members are that type. Actually, I wish I instead of going from a big massive manual, I had something like even like someone maybe like when I listen to your podcast more, I'll get more just kind of visual visualizations of the concepts and the principles of it instead of getting super scientific and every nitty gritty detail. You know what I mean?
00:31:03
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the beauty of Ayurveda and yoga meditation, all these really beautiful holistic tools that we can pull in and can serve us in a way that most matches up to what's a best fit. And that's what I really love to teach people is not like I always say, I love to teach people how to fish.
00:31:26
Speaker
I mean, yes, I could fish for them. But ultimately, if I can teach them, you know, here are these energy healing techniques or yoga postures to embody, you know, and then as creators because we are all such powerful creators in our own unique way. And I think oftentimes we forget this, that we get to create our own healing journey.
00:31:49
Speaker
And we do need support along the way because it's still a roller coaster at times. But to just really embrace who we are and look at, okay, what tools most work for me. And the ones that don't, we'll just set those to the side, but they might work for somebody else.
00:32:07
Speaker
Absolutely. I like that. Teach a man to fish and all that. I like this one better. If you light a man a fire, you keep him warm for a day. If you light a man on fire, you keep him warm for the rest of his life.
00:32:22
Speaker
Yes. Spoken like a true Pitta. I love it. I guess anybody out there didn't get it. But you know, it's so funny that I'm a fire sign as well. I'm on Aries, right? Okay. Yeah. So I've always been like, I, even if I don't drink coffee, I remember when I quit coffee for a month and I'd be buzzing in the morning and my wife was like, are you back on the coffee? I'm like, no, no, you don't mean like I just
00:32:52
Speaker
But she's a water sign. And I always have these kind of zany, crazy ideas. And now I joke with her, you're pouring water on my fire. As soon as I have an idea, she comes in with the practical aspects. Can you really do that? Do you think that's really possible? But it's funny that our daughter,
00:33:13
Speaker
she is an earth sign. So maybe that's like the unification of our signs, you know what I mean? And it would be really funny if the next child is an air sign that would really kind of complete the
00:33:33
Speaker
I can't even call it a trifecta, I don't know what to call it, all of the signs. I don't know what it is, but it seems very interesting how we complement each other, these qualities of fire and water really complement each other.
00:33:49
Speaker
Absolutely. We're designed. We're designed to be in community. That's how we are meant to heal ourselves, heal other people. It's a ripple effect. And we'll draw in the people. I always say, if I want to get a project done, if I want something to be really focused, I draw in those fiery people. If I want to relax more, if I want to just
00:34:17
Speaker
you know, not take things so seriously, then I'll draw in that earth water Cappadocia person. And if I want to have like a creative, lighthearted time, then that Vata airspace person comes in. And we can all identify within ourselves and the other people. I really think that's how universe works in this macro vision of how we need the support and accountability to really help one another out.
Mindful Eating and Emotional Significance
00:34:43
Speaker
We're not meant to figure it all out on our own.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about such a nerd about, again, herbs and supplements. What are some of your favorite herbal preparations from Ayurveda that you use on yourself or with your clients? Well, I always say before we get into supplements, and I say this with my clients, because that's one of the biggest questions. It's either like, what am I supposed to eat?
00:35:14
Speaker
and what supplements are going to work. And I say, before we get into that, let's back up. I think, actually, more important than those two things is how we eat. And this gets down to mindfulness. And for some people, this might be like, well, what difference is that going to make? I see a lot of people, and we see this, if you go to a restaurant or a coffee shop, they're scrolling on their phone while they're feeding themselves, totally distracted.
00:35:41
Speaker
And when we get down to the root of food as medicine supplements, I kind of put those all in the same energy, they are meant to nourish us. And if we do not feel the nourishment, this is when we get in trouble with like emotional eating,
00:35:58
Speaker
when we overeat, and all the chronic inflammatory issues that basically come from being overweight and obese, because we're not fully present with our food as medicine. And I get it, living in the United States here,
00:36:17
Speaker
first world country, I go to the grocery store, I can pick from so many different varieties. It's not like I have to hunt and gather for my food. So it's kind of effortless. I just go to the store, pick it up or the farmer's market. So really, eating is meant to be a ritual. And I think we've forgotten that. And so the first thing I have my clients do is to sit, number one, not in a car, ideally,
00:36:42
Speaker
but to sit and be present with their food and to really take in. And I don't even initially get into the what to eat yet because oftentimes we just shovel it in.
00:36:53
Speaker
And we're not even sure like what it tasted like. Ayurveda is very much into taste. Like how does it feel in the mouth? When does the saliva secrete? Just things like that, that I think in our modern culture, we've just forgotten to be fully present with the nourishment that we are blessed to have. So that's number one. Number two is the when we eat. And this kind of spills off into emotional eating. Just like we have,
00:37:24
Speaker
a period like night and day. We have a time when we are meant to be active and awake and we have a period when we're meant to sleep, sleep well. So same with eating, we are meant to rest and digest. And I think oftentimes we focus a little too much on the digest, people who eat and graze all day long or who, you know, have breakfast and couple hours of snack and then lunch and then another snack. And then we are really meant to rest our digestive system. And if we are not doing that,
00:37:55
Speaker
in my training in Ayurveda, it's two or three meals per day, no snacking. And for some people, they think, oh, I could never do that. I would never make it from breakfast to lunch. And I'm like, you'd actually be surprised how resilient the digestive system is.
00:38:13
Speaker
Now, granted, there are some rare conditions like if someone's gone through chemo or they're very underweight that they need to eat more often. But for generally most people speaking, like to learn to rest our digestive system is another piece of how to consciously eat healthy.
00:38:33
Speaker
So not to interrupt your, like, what you eat in herbs. I feel like... Don't know what to think, Brenda. Like, why am I making it hard? I gotta do all these things now. I gotta bless my food.
00:38:46
Speaker
Right. And I always love to explore like what does food represent to people, you know, and a lot of people will be like, Oh, I remember, you know, my grandmother used to bake me cookies after school. And and that's a really heartfelt emotion.
00:39:03
Speaker
But then consequently, they might be eating cookies, you know, every day, you know, all day long. And so just to really identify, like, what emotional attachments do I have to the foods that I eat? And not judging, you know, I'm sure Grandma made some amazing cookies, not going to discount that, but to just identify, like, is this really the best choice for me? Because oftentimes we replace food
00:39:32
Speaker
for emotions that need to be healed. So that's my disclaimer with people like pay attention to how you eat and pay attention to when you eat to have enough time to rest the digestive system. Otherwise it's just go, go, go. And the digestive tract just doesn't get a break. Yeah, I like that.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah. So then we get into the what. In Ayurveda, seasonal eating is a key component, and then also nuanced with how powerful the digestive system is. So here, I'm in the United States. We're shifting into fall season. And so it's moving from summer season, which is more like cool, raw,
00:40:15
Speaker
type of vegetables, and now we're going into more like cooked squashes, more warming, higher fat, oily foods, good fats, of course. But it's essentially, you know, whole food, plant-based, shift it with the seasons as much as possible. I get it depending on where somebody lives. That may not be the case.
00:40:34
Speaker
And then I don't advocate, oh, you have to be a vegetarian or you have to be a vegan. Again, I think that goes a lot with someone's personal beliefs and their constitution. But as long as we're focusing on whole foods that nourish, that truly nourish us, then we can get into the nuances of what to eat. And that could be a whole other podcast episode right there.
00:41:02
Speaker
And then as far as supplements, I always say that depends on how well you are eating because food is medicine. And then I really have been getting into adaptogens. Uh, ashwagandha is kind of a go-to for me right now. I love golden milk. Have you had golden milk lately? I have a habit here. I haven't had it in quite a while though.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, that tends to be more for like fall winter season, but you know turmeric with and then I also put some ashwagandha in there. That's very warming and nourishing.
00:41:41
Speaker
And so again, it really goes back to what are we trying to balance and how can that supplement if we can't get it in a whole food form, if that's not possible, which that can definitely be the case, then start looking into what am I looking to balance in my own constitution?
Detoxification and Emotional Digestion
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah, actually, Ashwagandha is something we, myself and my wife have been taking.
00:42:07
Speaker
Not all the time, you kind of need a break from the adaptogens, but Jesus, I think three, four years, easily three years we've been taking Ashwagandha.
00:42:19
Speaker
And we have quite a lot of, I don't use a lot of hers myself, but especially now, more before, but my wife has been using Shatavari and Shizandra. That's great for women's health, absolutely. Yeah, Rodiola, that's another great one. Yep. And all the ginsengs, you know, Siberian.
00:42:44
Speaker
What was the other one? Panax. I forget which one was, which one was the American one. But yeah, those are really good. And even, excuse me, because we ran a hormone test on my wife. So her testosterone was quite low. So we've been using maca root and even tribulus terrestris to kind of increase the androgens.
00:43:09
Speaker
I wouldn't really use most of those except Ashwagandha in the evening. It seems to really lower the cortisol and just help to promote really good sleep, but that's what an adaptogen does. If you take it in the morning, it won't lower your cortisol so you feel sleepy. You actually have more resistance to fatigue with it.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yes. And that is the beauty of adaptogens. And I'm still going to put in my little plug. If we're looking to lower cortisol, I still think the go-to practices are like deep breath work because that calms the nervous system. Whole food diet that we're not drinking coffee or anything that's really stimulating, even spicy foods like peppery spicy foods can be overstimulating for some people, having some type of grounding practice.
00:43:57
Speaker
because I mean this is where I'm not trying to say don't take supplements but I'm saying have these other practices in place connect to your body have a breath work practice yes not just breathing that we do involuntarily but actually conscious breathing be mindful with our thoughts our foods the people that we are in front of like have those things it doesn't have to be perfect
00:44:23
Speaker
You know, absolutely. But when we have those things in place, food as medicine as well, some type of spiritual connection, not religious, but something where we get out of our thinking heads and remember that, you know, I am so much more than my thoughts, some kind of ritual practice that we love to do.
00:44:45
Speaker
And when those things are in place, then look at, okay, here's where I'm still feeling out of balance, and here's where supplements, and even teas. I think sometimes we forget, especially for people who do tend to be sensitive, keep in mind that that little capsule of whatever the supplement might be can be super potent. I have to really watch how much turmeric I take. And sometimes I'll just use whole turmeric.
00:45:11
Speaker
or I split the capsule in half because it's just too much. So if you do tend to be a sensitive individual, maybe it's a turmeric tea. I love liver detox tea. I do that more so like spring and fall. Those are traditional times for detoxification and Ayurveda, but that have dandelion root and burdock root and milk thistle that can really help cleanse the liver.
00:45:35
Speaker
So I know we tend to think supplements only as things in capsules or tablets, but herbal teas and essential oils can be just as powerful. Absolutely. I mean, I kind of forgot what I was going to say. I also do a spring and autumn liver cleanse. Have you done any liver flushes in your life?
00:46:04
Speaker
I have actually. So fast forward, after my spinal fusion surgery, after my second pregnancy, I was diagnosed with a digestive autoimmune condition. And my liver was liver and gallbladder, both.
00:46:21
Speaker
were just so depleted. And part of that was too much antibiotic use. Part of that was I do have metal in my body and the liver takes it all on. And so I have to be really clean with my eating.
00:46:41
Speaker
And the liver being the main detoxifier is key for that. And so I do, I do what's called a kittery cleanse, which is done either in spring and or fall, sometimes both, depending on the person. And then also using those liver detox, tea, sometimes herbs. I stick with tea. I feel like that serves me best to basically give my digestion a break.
00:47:08
Speaker
And so I'd be curious, what do you do for liver detox? I know you're a bit of an expert on that one. No, I mean, like I'm an expert in nothing. I just, I'm a student in a lot of things, but the liver cleanse that I do is basically you need to take malic acid for six days. And on the sixth day, you eat basically just rice or oats or just fruits.
00:47:35
Speaker
until lunch. So you have a couple of meals, no protein, no fat especially. And then you drink Epsom salts twice to dilate the bile ducts and clear the way in the intestine. And then at basically 10 o'clock before bed, you drink half a cup of olive oil. Olive oil and lemon.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yeah, lemon citrus. You immediately lie down in bed. Because all your bio is in your gallbladder, the sudden fat coming into the small intestine causes you to basically spew all the bile out from the liver as well because the liver cells are constantly making bile. When we have these stones that are congesting the tiny little bile ducts,
00:48:26
Speaker
they can coalesce from little crystals to these massive stones that I've had. I've passed big stones as big as this part of my thumb, the bigger than my thumbnail.
00:48:37
Speaker
and even some black ones that were quite hard, that it took me several flushes to get those out. They were really hard when you pressed them. It could have been mineral stones. But in fact, the guy that I learned it from his book addressed more. It's Hill saying that some people with scoliosis, I remember reading in the book, it could be exacerbated by liver stones.
00:49:03
Speaker
So I do that twice a year and I find when I do those more strictly, I don't have codes and flus and stuff because a lot of these codes and flus I don't even believe are actually pathogens. I believe it's just we get some type of signal from whatever the prevailing frequency around us is.
00:49:23
Speaker
And we initiate the high temperature that we give rise to makes the cellular water less viscous. So it allows for a lot more, quote unquote, junk, gunk toxins to come out, whether that's through phlegm, through tears, through sweat.
00:49:43
Speaker
obviously through the digestive tract, urine. So I think when I do these, when I do my bacterial cleanses, you know, twice a year, I just don't get sick as often and I don't have any other health issues, you know, coming up like fatigue or whatever else.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, a healthy digestive tract, I mean, obviously is key for energy and just living the productive life that we all want to. And I would also include, in addition to the physical toxins that our liver takes on, a part of my healing journey from autoimmunity was the mind toxins.
00:50:20
Speaker
And again, I feel like this was almost like another layer that surfaced from having the scoliosis surgery and pain. And then further down, I'm, you know, a mother of two daughters, and wouldn't have noticed it at first. But when I really look at all that I was stomaching,
00:50:41
Speaker
you know, trying to, you know, have it together as, you know, a newer mom at that point and not asking for help and trying to keep work going and all the things and I was stomaching other people's emotions. And so consequently, it's interesting how I started having digestive issues and
00:51:01
Speaker
What later came of that is realizing that, first of all, I don't need to take on other people's emotions and stomach them, because that literally directly affects our digestion. And I was thinking really like a sick person, and I hadn't noticed that before.
00:51:21
Speaker
But again, it took an interruption. And again, I used tapping and some other breathing techniques to realize that, oh my gosh, I'm starting the negative downward spiral. It's a different trigger. Usually it's at the time my daughter was a toddler, and she would have the usual toddler tantrum. And then, oh, why am I not a good mom? Why can't I figure this out? Why is she behaving this way? What am I doing wrong? And so again, it would kind of kick off.
00:51:48
Speaker
And then it would start into, why does my stomach hurt again? There really must be something wrong. And holding the physical tension and the mental tension in there did contribute to some of the inflammation. Not saying that there probably, there wasn't some bacteria and viral issues as well, but it's like this perfect storm of you get the physical issues in there and the mental, emotional issues that come in there.
00:52:13
Speaker
and recognizing that I'm, again, giving away my power and choosing to think like someone who expects to have digestive issues. And I'm not saying all of a sudden the next day I turned around and said, oh, my digestion's great. Everything's perfect. It wasn't that. But it's that slow turning the barge around and realizing, OK, new decisions need to be made.
00:52:39
Speaker
asking for help is key, whether that's help having someone watch my kids, you know, for the afternoon so mom can get a break.
Holistic Healing and Self-Awareness
00:52:49
Speaker
And then really, again, going back to nourishing myself while still taking care of young ones. So I look at our
00:53:00
Speaker
some of our most challenging, struggling times, and we won't see it in the moment because it's like we're in it. When we're in the pain, when we're in the digestive, autoimmune, whatever our suffering is, when we're in it, we don't always see the possibility of a teacher and the deepening of our own self-awareness in the moment. And I really hope your listeners take that in.
00:53:24
Speaker
I know oftentimes it feels like we're being punished or we didn't do something correct. Or, you know, we followed the doctor's orders and it didn't work. Why didn't it work? What did I do wrong? And so when we start that, it can be really hard to kind of pull ourselves out of that stream of thought. Absolutely. So true. I think so many young moms or any mom at any age, just their health
00:53:54
Speaker
gets wrecked. I don't know is it because now we're like these nuclear families that we don't have the quote unquote village raising the kids. I know I remember when we were kids back in Bulgaria, you know, you could be with your cousins playing the other ones and then your aunt, your uncle.
00:54:12
Speaker
There was always someone there to give the parents a hand so they could go to work or rest or whatever else. Nowadays, families are just smaller and a lot of it piles on the mom.
00:54:29
Speaker
because the dad might be working, you still need to have an income, but the mom has to be at home with the kid or two kids. And that really, I have some clients that just their health got destroyed through this. So I really like your perspectives. I believe our approach is really complement each other. You were coming in from a more,
00:54:57
Speaker
feminine energy, right? And I really love that. And mine is a lot more sort of masculine, you know, I'm kind of like, you know, let's do some lab tests, let's get some data, nuts and bolts. These are the mechanisms. Zinc will do this for the immune system. You know, magnesium will optimize this. And not that like, again, I do recommend things like EFT and and I have studied breathing with Patrick McKeown, you know, Botanical Clinic. So I do recommend other things, but I'm more kind of like the
00:55:28
Speaker
let's get to the root of the issue. But I totally agree that whether it's a bacteria that started the stomach issue, whether it's psychosomatic, whether it's generational trauma, because the body is a complex system, we have many different points of
00:55:48
Speaker
impact to the body so we could approach it from a kinesthetic thing with EFT, we could approach it from a nervous system aspect with the breathing, neurological, with the mind, with the meditation, the mindfulness stuff, or we could be more mechanistic with biochemical, with the nutrients.
00:56:09
Speaker
in all instances, we're going to have a positive impact. So I think when we use a complementary approach, because the body is a complex system, that's where we get the best results. So we can, we may or may not test for the bugs, we may or may not, you know, use probiotics, anti-pathogen, herbs, but we most certainly will be using, you know, the stuff you talk about, eating more mindfully, meditation, optimizing sleep,
00:56:36
Speaker
analyzing what emotions are feeding into the vicious cycle and then trying to interrupt that cycle. I love that. Absolutely. I'm going to quote one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Wayne Dyer. He's since passed and he's simply, and I might be paraphrasing somewhat, but he says, we don't attract what we want. We attract who we are. For me, that was a huge shift. We have to really ask ourselves, who is the person I want to become?
00:57:06
Speaker
And what does she look like? Like how does she eat? How does she move? How does she interact with people? And to me, that's the inner motivation to use the holistic tools to research and say, okay, this is the supplement that I need. It comes from this place. Like I say, I want to become a person
00:57:26
Speaker
who loves myself so much that I choose to do these practices. And thus the ripple effect, my daughters see this and I'm present with them and they choose to be a healthy person, not because they should or they're hoping it won't lead to something bad, but that it comes from this place of genuine self-love. And we see that out in nature.
00:57:51
Speaker
you know, the seasons, there's different changes and seasons and it's all, you know, from a place of love, the sunrise, the sunset, the ocean, like, whatever, you know, you gravitate towards that represents universal love, that is within us. And when we tap into that, the who do I want to become?
00:58:12
Speaker
then I feel like the practices or the person or the opportunities that we need, they draw in to us. We don't have to force it and look for it and try really hard. And this is part of that. I know manifesting sometimes gets a bad rap right now, but I do think that there is not so much the attraction of the what we want, but the who we are and who we want to become in this lifetime that we get to be in right now.
Rituals for Personal Growth and Resilience
00:58:42
Speaker
Yeah. I have one friend of mine on the show a couple of times, Brandon Thomas. He's all about the manifestation. So we've talked about that topic. Actually, I should introduce you guys to each other. I think you were hit it off. He's super positive. He's probably the most positive person I've met in my life.
00:59:04
Speaker
Well, that's the beauty of podcasting. We mentioned that we get to meet really cool people in all parts of the world. And I'm excited to have you on our show. Be the love podcast soon.
00:59:14
Speaker
It's going to be fun. I love these topics. In fact, we'll probably have you again in the future because I know there's actually a lot to unpack. Again, this is why I love different perspectives because another dude that I interviewed a while back, very wise, he said something along the lines of there are many ways to the top of the mountain, right? So when you're at the bottom of the mountain,
00:59:43
Speaker
There's many, many different paths, almost infinite paths. The closer you get to the top of the mountain, the more the same things look. And when you're at the top, whether you came up there through Ayurveda, another person came through TCM, another person came through, you know, Mechanistic Modern Medicine, when we get at the top,
01:00:04
Speaker
we are basically seeing the same things. And I've also noticed the better you get at doing things, the easier and simpler, more importantly, things become. Absolutely. The way you break it down, it's like, does it matter so much what you're eating? Do you have to know exactly what vitamins and minerals are in that food? Or
01:00:27
Speaker
Why don't we start with the basic things? Are you even sitting down and getting in a parasympathetic state? Because if you're running, or let's say one of my clients works in the service industry, a chef, very stressful job. I told her, look, and a lot of gut stuff there, I told her, look, we need to get you relaxing before you start putting food inside yourself. So sit down, express gratitude, do some tapping, just anything you can do.
01:00:55
Speaker
to get into that state before you're ready to eat. And you know, we did some things and there was improvement, you know? A lot of times it's not, people sometimes think, oh, I have to make these huge lifestyle changes. And honestly, sometimes it's just small, small little things that, you know, get us to where we want to go and the who we want to become.
01:01:20
Speaker
And those small little shifts then lead to other little shifts. And then it's like they build on one another. And then before we know it, we're like, you know what? I sit down at every meal and I breathe before I eat so that I am in that parasympathetic state. Not saying it was an overnight process, but just small incremental change to get there.
01:01:46
Speaker
Absolutely. I'm so bad about that because even today, my last meal, I was up on my feet trying to get my meal in because I had client calls and then I had to come back here, talk to you. So I actually am going to have to take a page out of our own book here and start being a little bit more mindful because it doesn't affect me because I'm healthy metabolically, but it's not optimal. And we have to practice what we preach at the end of the day.
01:02:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Brenda, this was an absolute pleasure. I do have one question that I've been asking all my guests. It's for my Solutions Talk segment that will eventually start getting published. So the question to you is, what are you doing that others can do also to increase their freedom, self-reliance, autonomy, and or resilience to the challenges that we face this decade and beyond? What a powerful question.
01:02:45
Speaker
What am I doing? I create morning and evening rituals. Now, some people might call those routines, but I refer because they are sacred times for myself in the early morning, in the evening before I go to bed. I call them my bookends, the bookends of my day. And in the morning, I set my intention. And I embrace this idea that I am a creator.
01:03:10
Speaker
And then I move from my day from there. And then at the end of the day, we mentioned gratitude. I write down three things that I was grateful for that day. And this is the most important part. I write down three things or situations or people that I'm going to be grateful for the next day. So I'm already setting up my mind to be in a state of gratitude when I wake up.
01:03:33
Speaker
Love it. That's awesome. All right, then can you tell the folks where they can find you on the internet and where they can connect with you? Absolutely. The best place to find me is on my website, which is sacredpathyogaandreiki.com. I do have online programs that are a fusion of Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, different energy healing techniques that are geared towards empathic people, highly sensitive people,
01:04:02
Speaker
to help bring in that vibrant house so they can be the ripple effect. They can be the positive impact maker in this lifetime that we get. I'm also on Instagram, Facebook, and check me and my co-host Stacy out on Be The Love podcast.
01:04:18
Speaker
We are on our third, well, coming up to the end of our third year, spiritual podcast. And we have just some really amazing conscious conversations, how to raise the consciousness of humans and the planet. And we're looking forward to seeing you there, Christian. Awesome. Likewise, just gonna ask you, do you think how empathic or sensitive would you rate me on the one to 10? Oh, geez, you're putting me on the spot.
01:04:47
Speaker
I would have to say highly Pitta, maybe not as empathic, but could still be very sensitive because you mentioned your wife and your daughter, I would say seven and a half.
01:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, probably a term pretty sensitive, almost pathologically sensitive, overthinking things and noticing every sort of twitch of a person or every facial expression and over analyzing. It's not been easy, you know, over the years. It really hasn't been because it just creates so much anxiety if you don't sort of let go of things.
01:05:22
Speaker
It can. And I would say, and with some holistic tools, like I do a lot of energetic boundary work, it can actually be such a superpower, I think.
01:05:34
Speaker
I think the older I get, the less I'm sort of bothered with the external world, I suppose, which is part of the maturation process of every child, I guess. So I'm not as bothered by it anymore. So anyway, we can discuss that another time. Sounds great. Thank you again for coming on the show. Thank you, Christian.