How to Be Healthy with Ayurveda | Lauren Domenge

Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world's number one English teacher, A.J. Hogue, where A.J. 's more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English, one for all, without the boring textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills. Here's A.J.

with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly. I'm A.J. Hogue, author of Effortless English. Learn to speak English like a native.

I teach you to speak English fluently. Join my VIP program at effortlessenglishclub.com. I have an interview today. Today, I'll be talking to Lauren Domenge.

I need to ask her how to pronounce her last name. Domenge, I think. D-O-M-E-N-G-E. She will be talking to us about Ayurveda today. Ayurveda. Ayurveda is an ancient, very old, health system.

a system for eating, for healing yourself, for being healthy. It's very old, from India originally, and now quite popular. So let's talk to her about being healthy, how to be healthy.

I'm going to call her now. Let's start. And she is American, so you'll get to hear two Americans talking, native English speakers, both of us American.

Okay, let me give her a call. Hey, Fernanda, good to see you. Okay. Here we go. Lauren, hi. Can you hear me? Hey, can you hear me okay? I can't hear you.

Uh-oh. Hold on. All right. Sorry, I've got you. Speakers are up. Can you hear me? Yes, I hear you fine. You can hear me fine? Yes. Lip reading. Okay, let's see.

Okay, what's going on with me then? All right. Okay. How about now? Hello, hello. Check, check, check. Check, check, check. Check, check. Check, check.

Check, check, check. Okay, check now. Check, check, check. Check, check. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? No? No? No. Dang it. Okay.

It's okay. No worries. It happens sometimes. I'm going to turn off my camera. Turn it back on. Let me try something. Check, check, check, check, check, check.

Let me try something real quick. Okay, sure. Okay, for everyone listening. Now I can hear it. You can hear me. Okay. All right. Apparently, I just can't use my microphone when I'm being interviewed.

I don't know. Oh, weird. Okay. All right. Well, how do you pronounce your last name? Dimange. Dimange. Okay. Yes. Dimange. Dimange. All right. All right.

So, and you, can you tell us about your background with Ayurveda? Yes. Sure. Yeah. So I guess a long, long time ago, I relatively, I started learning about herbs and replacement of Western medicine, which I hadn't really been having very good reactions to.

And I just wanted to look more deeply into the root of herbs. treating the problems because what I found in my own life and watching several other people who I knew very close to me, um, going through just different types of illnesses and diseases and discomforts and, um,

the pills were not working anymore. Right. Yeah. So, uh, I got into herbal medicine. I started seeing an herbalist of my own and then I ended up taking a two year, um, two and a half year herbalist course, um, here locally in Omaha, Nebraska.

And then simultaneously I also, um, completed David Frawley's correspondence course in Ayurveda. Um, so that, that was insanely amazing. eye-opening, and I've been in love with this practice ever since I very first started reading with it, because when I started reading the literature and the works, everything made so much sense to me, and then when I started implementing those things, it worked.

And when I started using herbal medicine, it worked, but it didn't have all the crazy side effects that you get from Western pharmaceutical drugs. So I was like, I need to help people with this. This is my calling. This is what I need to do.

Because when you are in suffering and everything that's pushed towards you is not working and only making it worse, and there are so many people who think that

you know, this is the only path there is, is drugs and going to doctors. They think that's their only option. And lo and behold, there's this wonderful, beautiful science called Ayurveda that has existed since quite literally almost the beginning of time. We have writings on Ayurveda in all, not all, in a lot of the Vedic literature.

And it's... scientists and researchers are finding, you know, they're validating it now, right? Right, right. But we know it's worked for thousands of years.

We don't need you to do your research. I mean, it's nice to have for those people who are very science-y minded, but we know that these things work from experience, so. Well, you know, you've just described it. I've seen it myself, family members mostly, I guess, that what can happen to people that get into that, you know, let's call it the industrial medicine system.

Sure. You know, where people, they have a problem. Let's say, here's a classic one. They have high cholesterol. So they go in and they're like, you have high cholesterol.

And then they put them on some drugs, statin drug. And then... As they take that drug, as some time goes on, then other problems start arising. They don't even connect it to the fact they're taking this drug.

So they go back, and then what happens? Oh, well, now you need this other drug to manage the problem caused by the first drug. And then you can just see the sort of downward spiral of health. And they just keep getting more and more, and then it's not uncommon to see people who are...

I don't know, middle-aged or, you know, 50, 60, sometimes younger, with just, you know, just taking like, you know, huge handfuls of pills every day, and they've got all these problems, and it's really sad. It's such a passive system, and it really can degrade people, their health. It sounds like you kind of were experiencing that.

Yeah, I was in a lot of different ways at a very early age. The one thing that got me out of it was that I wouldn't accept it. I refused to accept that this was something I had to live with. I'm not going to go into the details of what it was that I was experiencing, but it's something that a lot of people my age and even younger now are experiencing.

It The saddest part of it to me is, is that these doctors, a lot of doctors, I should say, not all of them, because there are some good ones out there.

But they lead you to believe this is something that just is this. This is just the way you are. You have to live this way. And yeah, but we can relieve some of your suffering by masking it with a pill or with surgery or anything.

insert western medical and I don't want to come off as someone who hates western medicine but I think that there is a time and a place for it and I think that there's so many you know if I had known about some of the options that there were out there before I had undergone some of the other things I went through I would have said heck yes let's do it and given that a try before

But thankfully, I did find Ayurveda pretty young. I mean, I guess I was about 24, 25. But some people go their whole lives thinking that drugs are the only thing that they have. They think that's the only option.

Yeah. One of my biggest things is I want people to know that there are other options. There are things that work. You don't have to live with dis-ease.

You can relieve that. It's possible, and people do it all the time. I mean, people who have cancer even, we've seen people with cancer bounce back or significantly reduce their symptoms or relieve their symptoms and sometimes go on to beat it.

So it is possible. You know, I think one of the main things, the key things that you did, like you said, that you just refused to accept it. And in other words, you know, you had a very, very active mindset, like that your health was ultimately up to you and that you went out looking, right? And I think that's the...

Perhaps the biggest, like you said, there's a place for Western medicine, industrial medicine, whatever. Right. But people just, I think the big problem is people passively accept it as the only thing. Like it's this big monopoly and it's the only way.

But you can take control of your health. Yeah. As you did. Well, let's get into Ayurveda now. So what is Ayurveda exactly? Because a lot of people might not.

I only have the very vague idea. I mean, I kind of... So if you could explain it to us. Sure. So Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word. It's broken up into two root words, Ayu, which means life, and Veda, which means wisdom or science or knowledge, roughly translated.

So it's not just... I'm going to give you an herb and that's going to be the end of it. It's an entire, it is, Ayurveda is truly holistic. You hear that the term holistic thrown around by a lot of naturally minded type of people, but then they only offer one modality of healing.

For instance, I do chiropractic, but I'm going to call it a holistic center. Or I do, you know, I'm an herbalist, but I'm holistic or I'm this or that, you know. insert naturopath, right? But they only provide one modality.

So Ayurveda is an entire system of how it tells you how to live your life and how to live your life in a balanced way such that at some point in your life, you're able to transcend the physical aspect of being human, right? So we are spiritual Ottomans, right? We are spiritual beings experiencing a physical reality here on Earth that is also very much spiritual. So the goal, really, in the literature is not just to transcend the physical so that you can be this really spiritual person and brag about it, right?

So that we can experience the divine and God and know ourself. And that was what I really loved about it as well, was that there was a goal. And that goal was greater than being my physical self. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So and so Ayurveda has there are a ton of different branches that cover every aspect, every stage of life. Right. And and we identify the different stages of life and the different characteristics of a person based on what is called a dosha.

So understanding the concept of the dosha is foundational in understanding yourself as a physical being. Yes. And then once you're able to identify your physical constitution and where that's out of balance, you can then balance that out with the opposite doshas. I see.

And so, dosha is like your physical type? Can you explain a little more? How do you know? Maybe give examples of the dosha. Sure. So, we have three different doshas.

Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Okay. Okay. And vata, so vata first is going to be, it's a combination of, so we have all the elements, right? The doshas correspond with the elements.

Vata is wind and ether. Okay. Okay. Pitta is fire. And kapha is water and earth. Okay. Okay. Okay? So if you think about those elements and the different traits and characteristics that they have, for example, the wind is very dry.

It's very cooling. It's light. It's rough. It's mobile. It's unpredictable. You know, sometimes the wind will change. It'll change its course, right? Yeah.

Um, it's very unsatisfied. It's, it can, you know, it'll delve one way and then go the other and it's unpredictable in such ways. So if you think about, and, and Vata corresponds to primarily the central nervous system. So if you think about somebody who's got a very active mind, you know, they're never satisfied or they're very scatterbrained.

They have a million different projects going on at once. Um, you know, they can, um, They can go very deeply into something, and then they can just kind of let it go. They're very unattached people sometimes, but they thrive on structure, which is kind of a kapha trait, and I'll get to that when we talk about kapha.

So that's vata. That's going to be your vata archetype person. Mm-hmm. Vatos also tend to be kind of rebellious people because they tend towards unstructure, even though they thrive on it.

Interesting. And they kind of like to blaze their trailblazers. They like to make their own path. They like to do it their own way. They don't like to follow the status quo.

Are there any physical character? I'm kind of thinking of the, I don't know where it comes from, maybe Greek or something, but the mesomorph and those kind of body types. Are there certain body types that go along with Vata? Yes.

So the Vata person tends to be very – doesn't have a very strong immune system. They can, but they really have to work at it. Okay. They're very skinny.

They have a very fast metabolism. But they also sometimes – don't have a strong metabolism or agni, as we say in Ayurveda. So their digestion will fluctuate.

Sometimes they can eat a lot. Sometimes they don't want to eat at all. They're very... that type of person where they can skip meals and not even notice it i see um yeah uh even though they should eat very so that right that's like our tendencies to do one thing tell us what our dosha is yes but the opposite thing that that is good for us is balancing to us is the opposite of what our dosha is i see yes makes sense

Okay. So people who have a certain type, which can cause problems. And so what you want to do is balance that then with the kind of opposite characteristics or practices. Yes.

I see. Yes. They also tend to be either very tall or very short and skinny to emaciated. So they sometimes have a hard time keeping weight on. I see. Mm-hmm.

And then you said then there's, is it Pitta? Pitta, yep. Pitta. So Pitta is kind of your middle-sized build type of person. They tend to have very good skin.

These people, they have a nice luster to their skin. They have very kind of piercing physical features. So this is, the Pitta is your fire element. I should start off with that.

So it's your fire element. These people are very quick-witted. They're very sharp in the mind. They can digest information very, very well and regurgitate it back to you very easily.

Like I said, middle type of build people, they have very kind of pronounced jawline, pronounced physical traits. They have, you know, like sharp-looking eyebrows. Yeah.

and forehead, and these people are very driven. They're very ambitious. They have a lot of passion. They digest things very well. They're typically very stable.

They're kind of like your middle route. I see. Yeah. And then the final kind of body type, or just physical type, or I don't even guess beyond physical.

Constitution is what we refer to that. Yeah, constitution. Okay. Yeah, so your third constitution is kapha, and kapha is going to be a combination of the elements earth and water.

So if you think about the earth and the water and what traits and characteristics those two things have, you kind of think of, well, when you mix them together, you get mud, right?

So these people, they hold weight very easily. Yeah. And they digest a little bit slower, but they digest fuller too. So they don't need to eat as much.

They can get away with eating probably one or two meals a day and be okay. They're very solid in stature, but they also tend to have a greater immunity. So they have a better immune system.

These people tend to be also, they kind of move and speak very slowly. They process things more slowly as well, but they can also process things on a deeper level. Like they can think very deeply, but they might not want to.

They're not very... big talkers all the time and i'm talking your your classic kappa here right yeah because within these we've got variations that of course make up all the human beings that exist right so your kappa people tend to be very structure oriented they love structure to the point where if you

impede on their structure it annoys them so they're very organized type people they have a routine routines are easy for them whereas with vata people it's the opposite vata people are they don't they don't do routine very well it's good for them but they're not good at it

They have to really work at it. Earth and water are also very cold, too. So these people need to move a lot in order to stay healthy. If they stay stagnant, they can get unhealthy pretty quickly, or it depends on their constitution and, again, longer immune system.

They tend to have very... Very good skin as well. Not so much like lustrous like Pitta people do, but it's just very good and clear. Very clear. So those are your three constitutions in a nutshell, so to speak.

So if someone was... So let's just... So I guess the first step would be kind of figuring out, you know, like what your type is, your physical type. So if someone's having some kind of health problems, whatever it is, or maybe they just don't feel...

They just feel kind of low energy or whatever. What would you advise people? How to get started? The first basic things you would tell people, like how to be healthier.

Sure. The simple things they could start with. And then we can get into more details and more complex things. Sure. The most foundational thing that I have found in my own life and doing research on health is that, and we're seeing a lot of things like this come out too, just in the mainstream even, is having a routine.

There's actually a word for it, which is Dhinacharya. And it means having a routine. So, you know, you get up. Hygiene is really big in Ayurveda. You know, we talk about having good dental and oral health by oil pulling and taking care of your physical body and doing nausea where you're, you know, using nasal oils, doing neti pot where you're cleansing out the sinuses, skin brushing, you know.

You want to move the lymph. Yeah. the lymph and the blood, um, with skin brushing. And there's so much research behind that that shows how incredibly effective that can be.

Just that simple thing. Daily massage is something that was done too. You can just, you can do daily massage on yourself with oils. Um, keeping your skin healthy is really, really important.

Um, Because it also moves the blood. And moving the blood, it helps circulate. It helps cleanse. It helps detox the deep tissues. So there's lots of things we can do.

Sorry, I'm kind of going off on a tangent here. No, it's okay. But a daily routine and establishing that, finding out what you need to do to feel good, to start off your day is so, so important. Yeah.

So kind of like, you know, like at the basic level, people brush their teeth every day. And so adding in other than other kind of health practices that just become part of your life. Sure. Another thing I really want to note, too, is that because we are such a screen-centered society now, one of the biggest things that takes away from people's energy is scrolling on their phones right before bed or right when they wake up in the morning.

Yeah, it's it. I've done it. I'm guilty of it. I know my some several of my relatives, friends and family talk about this is, you know, that screen is there.

Social media is there all the time. And so I learned from somebody who I actually listened to on YouTube a while ago. Put your phone in its own bed, like tuck it in his bed at night. That's a good idea.

And it sounds so silly and obvious, but having your phone and all of your devices in a different room before you go to sleep, at least more than one hour before you go to sleep, is so important for the quality of sleep that you're going to get and how you're going to feel when you wake up in the morning. Because people are drained all the time, and we hear about how people have no energy, but we're constantly scrolling and on our phones to the point where it's like an addiction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I would say...

A, have a daily routine. B, take note of your screen time and really work to reduce that or minimize it as much as possible. Especially right when you wake up in the morning, the first hour when you wake up and the first hour leading up to when you go to bed.

No screens. I think that's great. Yeah, yeah, fantastic. So I've got some good questions coming in, so I'm going to actually read a couple audience questions because they're giving me some good ones.

Okay, so, well, this is from Dimitri. Dimitri says, nutrition is the most important. Would you say that that is true? Like, what role does nutrition play in Ayurveda?

You know, from knowing a lot of people and being a person who has had a almost perfect diet and still suffers from things, from dis-ease, I would say that that is not entirely true, although it is significantly important. Because although you are what you eat, you also are... What you consume mentally, emotionally, your relationships, your lifestyle. Are you getting enough exercise?

Because you can have a perfect diet if you don't exercise and you're not getting that blood flowing and that lymph moving and you're not sweating and getting out all the toxins. Because even if you have a perfect diet, you are still daily exposed to toxins. Yeah. An incredible amount.

And we don't realize that, but it's so true. And getting the blood flowing and circulation going is so, so important. And I also want to note that Agni is one of the key principles, if not the key principle in Ayurveda. And Agni is your digestive power.

So if you have a perfect diet, but you're not digesting and breaking down and assimilating your food and your nutrients... you're not going to be healthy, you know? Right, right.

So making sure that you have good digestive strength and power and supporting that is the most important thing. That makes sense, right? If your digestion doesn't work, you're eating all this nutrition and it's just going right out again and you're not getting it. Yep.

Okay, that's a good, that's really, yeah. Okay, Slavika kind of agreeing with you here says many illnesses are psychosomatic, right? Meaning kind of starting in the mind. The cause is the wrong way of modern life.

If they are treated with pills, Slavika is a doctor, by the way. If they are treated with pills, then the body suffers even more. Yes. And we see that we are one of the United States is one of the biggest, if not the biggest consumer of pharmaceutical drugs.

And we have the highest level of diseases on the planet. Yeah, yeah. Because we're so stressed. We're stressed. We're overworked. But we consume all the drugs and we have access to the healthiest foods.

Yep. And we're still seeing disease. We still see heart disease and cancer and diabetes and all these terrible illnesses. And so, yes, a lot of it is emotional.

And are you moving? Now we're all stuck in front of our computers for our day jobs a lot of the time. And so it's hard to get moving and have a balanced life, but it is possible.

Awesome. Cash Shop says, how to cure allergies? It's a common problem. A lot of people have allergies or how to deal with allergies. Yes. So this is part of the trickiness of treating people and looking at diseases.

There's not a one herb or one diet fits all because of the variety of constitutions. So I would not feel... Like I was being a responsible Ayurvedic practitioner by giving him a remedy over online. If he'd like, he can schedule a consultation with me.

I do do consultations. You can access that on SuryavedaHealing.com, which is my website. But you have to look at what is imbalanced. What things are imbalanced in your body?

What are you consuming too much of? What are you not consuming enough of? Are you getting enough exercise? Are you breathing fresh air? There's so many different factors that go into looking at and analyzing a person's constitution that I can't just say...

you know, take this herb and you'll feel better. You know, there are a couple general ones that I would say like maybe nettles. I don't know if you've ever heard of nettle. I've heard of nettles.

Uh huh. Okay. So nettles are like, I see them as nature's multivitamin because if you drink an infusion of them, uh, Anybody can drink an infusion of nettles.

I give it to my child. It's a pretty safe tea. It's got a really high level of vitamin C that's water-soluble. So I would say that's a good place to start.

And you make a tea out of it. Nettles. It's N-E-T-T-L-E, guys. Nettle. Nettle with an S, actually. Nettles. Correct. Yeah. And it's also really cheap.

Ah, even better. Can you give me your website again? Yes, it's Suryaveda, so S-U-R-Y-A-V-E-D-A Healing Healing.com S-U-R-Y-A V-E-D-A Healing.com S-U-R-Y-A V-E-D-A Healing.com Got it. Alright, so it's now on the screen, guys.

All right, great. All right, good, good, good, good. All right, back to our questions here. Okay. Okay, Daniel Cruz asks, can you explain about damaged cells, especially the skin repairing through Ayurveda?

Okay, so some ideas for healthy skin and skin repair then. Right, so when we're dealing with the skin, There's a couple different things that you want to look at. The primary organ that relates to the skin is going to be the liver, right?

So you want to look at maybe doing a liver cleanse or looking at kind of like an elimination diet where you're eliminating common allergens, wheat, soy, dairy, gluten, all of those. I don't personally recommend eliminating those things from your diet unless you're like deathly allergic to something because... Ultimately, we want to look at strengthening digestion so that you can break those things down and assimilate them into your body. We've eaten these things for thousands and thousands of years.

I would say look at having as clean of a diet as you can, incorporating lots of greens, incorporating lots of root vegetables are very important as well.

And make sure you're getting a lot of fluids. Lots and lots of fluids. We want to stay hydrated. Skin things are either a pitta imbalance or a vata imbalance typically.

So either you've got some inflammation going on there somewhere internally. The liver filters out and cleanses the blood and the lymph, right? So if our blood is not being cleansed out, there's something wrong with the liver, possibly the stomach as well,

bladder to kind of break that stuff down and assimilate it and it's just kind of stagnating within our tissues and fermenting which sounds really gross right but that's kind of what's going on um so uh burdock root is one herb that has been used by herbalists for i don't know how long but it's it's kind of the first one of the first herbs that i was introduced to ever and it's um

In Japan, they call it gobo. Oh, gobo. Yeah, yeah. Yes. So you can eat that. You can make a soup out of it. You can take it in tincture or glycerite form where it's like a concentrated medicine.

Mm-hmm. So there's lots of things you can do. Again, I would need to look at the person individually. I would say look into alternative herbs. Alternative just means blood cleansing.

Ah, blood cleansing herbs. So issues with the skin can be, well, basically, starting on the inside then, right? Liver, blood issues. Yes. It could also, so another reason, if it's not the liver, another reason that we would have skin issues are due to lack of prana or a good quality breath, right?

So if you're not breathing well, if your lungs are weak, sometimes people smoke, right? So if you're suppressing the lungs, you're not going to circulate as well. If you're not going to circulate as well, your toxins aren't going to go through your body. They're going to sit there.

and stagnate we don't want that we want movement we want the cells to be moisturized we want them to be healthy we want them to be constantly excreting waste and pulling in good healthy fresh stuff yes indeed

I like this question because it applies to me. Khalid says, is it possible for those age 40 and over to need more medicine, better nutrition, etc. than those who are younger? In other words, as we get older, do our needs change nutritionally and otherwise?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, every person is different and the things they're going to experience at different points in their life are going to vary. Right.

So in general, though, I would say as we age, it's more and it gets more and more important to have a healthy diet. But again, mostly having a healthy and balanced lifestyle, because how many people do you know who eat nothing but crap and junk food? Yeah, they don't have any illnesses. Right.

Right. And they don't move. Yeah, they move a lot, but they're living their passions, right? They're living their dreams. They're doing what they love.

They're doing what sets their soul on fire. And that is another aspect on a more... macroscopic level of digestion digestion there's multiple forms right so physical digestion and cellular digestion are like the microscopic level but then when you think in broader terms how are how are your emotions what and what is your intellect like how are you processing everything that you sense on a daily basis how are you

coping with that, and these things are just as important as keeping up with a healthy diet. So I would say yes and yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. Go ahead.

No, no, I was just going to say, yeah, that it's just obvious that from, you know, your answers and your answer to this one again is that you're not looking at it, it's not, you're not zoning it on one little thing, in other words, right? It's just digestion!

But you're saying that it is... And for all these things, you have to look at nutrition, you have to look at your physical activity, you have to look at your emotions, you have to look at your, as you said, you know, just are you living the life that makes you feel alive? Right.

Right. Just as important as a healthy diet. Yeah. So, you know, and I'll see someone who, you know, they have a relatively perfect diet, but they're miserable.

And so they're having these problems. And it's like, well, how are you living? What are you doing on a day to day basis? What? You know, where where is the disconnect between your soul and who you are internally in this world?

And where do we make those things meet such that you're not suffering all the time? And that's when you get into the deeper aspects of Ayurveda, which is what I love again. And that's the thing that.

That I do love about Ayurveda is that it's not just physical. There are a variety of places we can look to see why are you having this disease? Why are you experiencing this?

It's such a great answer because I know people. I know people that... As you said, we want to be healthy and eat healthy food. But I know people who have made that such a stressful and strict thing in their life.

They're obsessed over every little thing they put in their mouth. And like you said, they're miserable. They're stressed out and they're ignoring the...

all these huge areas of their life, their spiritual life, their relationships, all these other issues that are making them completely miserable and just zoned in on, oh my God, I ate a piece of bread. Ah, I'm going to die. You know, like, ah, I can't eat this. You know, like, I ate this little piece.

Oh my gosh. Right. We all know we need to eat well, but that's, yeah, that's great. That's fantastic. Well, what good is eating? Well, if you're super miserable and unhappy and everything else in your life, you're creating stress and worry.

Yes. Okay, Leonardo Jose asks, are detoxes good? You mentioned before doing a liver cleanse, so can you talk about that? Cleansing, detoxing. Detox, just to explain, it means detoxing is a poison, so it's removing poison.

So in Ayurveda, seasonal cleanses are... Very important. Obviously, back in ancient times, they didn't have as many toxins as we do now, so now it's even more important to do a seasonal or yearly cleanse even, just to give your body a break, slow down, digest everything. We've all got some kind of stagnation.

I don't think I know anybody who has a perfect digestion or perfect health and a couple of people who are close, but, um, but yes, detoxing is a very, very important, um, modality for maintaining vibrant health and building. Oh, just,

I would say that there are some people who should never do a cleanse. Not never do a cleanse, but you should never do a cleanse, for example, when you're pregnant. Never, ever, ever do a cleanse when you're pregnant or breastfeeding or if you are immune compromised, you might want to do a very gentle cleanse, but nothing extreme. So there's all different types of detoxes.

I was going to say, yeah. What? Right. I'm actually doing one right now for fall to prepare for winter. And it's going to vary by season. So the spring cleanse, that's when you're about to get into summer.

That's when your liver, that's the liver cleanse season is in the spring. That's the most intense season that you are allowed to do a cleanse in. Right. Yeah, right.

People getting outdoors, typically getting more active, sun, all this energy. Yeah. Yes. For fall, you want to do a cleanse that's kind of geared more towards building.

And so you want to eat like really high nutrient dense foods, for example. And you want to eat seasonally, too. So detoxes are a lot about incorporating lots and lots of seasonal foods. For example, it's fall.

You're in Japan. I'm not sure if the season is the same over there. It is. yeah oh is it okay i wasn't sure um so right now we're in fall or we're approaching fall and we've got pumpkins we've got squash acorn squash all different types of squash are really really good um they have lots of beta carotene that's good for healing the skin that's one thing another thing you could do is get a lot of carrots um

Orange colored vegetables, squash, nuts and seeds are really, really good. Almonds, walnuts, cashews. Flax chia seeds are really, really great. Getting a lot of water into hydration, eliminating caffeine.

Caffeine is a really, really, really terrible thing for our cells. Especially when you're addicted to it or if you're an avid coffee drinker. That can be very detrimental to not only your skin and your cells, but But also your level of hydration and your cognition to a little bit is okay.

But when you're doing it to where it's like you need it, that's not for a good thing. You want to kind of back off a little. Mm hmm. Yeah, guilty. I have twin babies.

I have a little too much of the coffee. I'll talk to you later about it. We can use for that, AJ. Good, good. Actually, I do. I want to talk to you about it.

So I'll be in touch because I've gotten in some bad habits the last year and a half. You know, we all do. We all do. Because it is that kind of spiral.

I'm sure this can happen to people at different points in their life. So when the twins are born, then I'm getting no sleep. And so then I'm tired. So then I turn to things that will give me a jolt.

A quick, I'm exhausted. Coffee. All right. You're right, and it works for a while. For a while. A short while. And so the coffee will bring you back up, or sugar, like my wife has turned to more sugary stuff, and I do that too.

But then what happens is then over months... then that works less and less for a shorter and shorter amount of time. And then overall, I can feel my overall health and energy sliding down.

And then that's when, like you said, then you have to realize that, okay, these are short-term things that are actually hurting me long-term. Right. We're robbing Peter to pay Paul. Right.

So that caffeine, when we take that energy, when we're getting that quick boost, we're stealing tomorrow's energy for today. And then tomorrow we'll have less. There's a Chinese saying that alludes to something to the effect of, you know, you're robbing tomorrow's energy for

to pay for today and then you have less going forward. So yeah, we really want to work on to get that energy. That's where we get into talking about building ojas, which is your vital life force. Your overall, so like the person who has that pep in their step, very naturally, right?

They're vibrant, they're glowing, they're excited, but they're also very steady. They have a steady energy. We want that. That's where every, you know, your digestion, your emotions, your mental state, where everything you do comes together and supports that.

Right. That's so great. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. So when we have that, we're also supporting the kidneys because the kidneys is where in Ayurveda we recognize that the vital life force is stored, is in the kidneys.

Right. Um, and when we get into the winter months, it's more taxing on the kidneys. So if we do a fall cleanse to kind of get rid of all that other junk that's sitting in us, if we build up our kidneys and our ojas, then we're good to go through the winter. That cold isn't going to be as stressful on us and we won't resort to eating the heavy fats and the heavy oils and, and,

Sugar, again, is something that people resort to a lot more. You know, we've got the holidays where we're encouraged and often given a lot of sugary type foods. Yeah. Which, you know, it's okay to do that in moderation, right?

But you don't want to do it because you feel like you have to. You don't want to do it because you feel like it's a last resort. Right, right, right. And I just need this to get through the day.

We don't want that. We want to engage in things because it brings joy. Or we're doing it in a joyful sort of manner so that we're not assimilating foods with emotions.

I really love this picture of healthier giving because I think a lot of people... they think health, it just means, oh, I'm not sick. Okay, I'm, right, but they're tired, right? But you were talking about having that pep in your step and that it's, that great health is actually much, much, much, much higher level than that, a higher level of, like, it's that energy, that vitality, that aliveness, right?

Yes. And so if you don't have that, maybe you're not sick, you don't have a cold right now, but it's still possible to be unhealthy even though you're not currently sick. Right. Right.

You're not thriving. You want to thrive. You don't just want to survive. You want to thrive. Yeah, excellent. And like I said at the beginning, the ultimate goal is so that we can have that vitality so that we can know ourselves and we can thrive as ourselves.

And if you are a spiritual person, you can also commune with the divine. You can know God. You can meditate for longer periods of time without being disruptive. You can do what...

You can utilize the gifts that you have been given specifically as yourself on this planet at this time. You can use those things to the fullest and you can thrive doing those things when you have that energy. But when we're depleted of our energy and we don't have Ojas and we don't have vibrancy and we don't have that level of creativity, we can't utilize those gifts that we have. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Absolutely. Right. And then so you're not reaching, you know, your positive potential. Like, it's very hard. I see it myself. This is one of my motivations for, you know, resetting, I guess I would say, is that, like, just as, like, say, as a father then, like, okay, my patience is lower because I'm tired, right?

Everything else, everything goes down just because it's just because I'm physically tired and less healthy. then it's not just affecting me physically. It affects how I interact with everybody and everything I do.

So I'm not, like you said, whether it's spiritual or in relationships. So it affects everything. Everything gets affected by that level of energy and vitality. And if you don't have it, it can cause problems or it just means you're not living at the...

You're not reaching that level that you could. Exactly. You're exactly right. Okay. Let's see. Okay. Well, here it goes. It kind of goes right into what we were just talking about.

Modi Awad asks, how can we have extra energy if we don't drink coffee? Well, let me ask you this. Are you a coffee drinker now, or are you not a coffee drinker? Let's start with a coffee drinker now.

We'll use me as the guinea pig. So if you are a coffee drinker now, and I will say I am guilty of this as well, and I started my coffee... my coffee addiction later in life. I didn't start it right away.

But it is going to take a minute. For some people, it's worse than others. But there is a little bit of a lag where you will have... could potentially have a very severe headache for a couple of days.

And I'm just going to tell you, it's okay to take ibuprofen for that. It's perfectly fine. But hydration is key. One of the best things that you can do to start off your day...

especially when you're getting off of the coffee, right, is to drink a tepid cup of water with lime or lemon juice in it and a little pinch of salt. Okay, so tepid, so that's like room temperature-ish, right? Right. And with lime and salt.

Okay. Lime or salt. Now, how much? How much... A teeny tiny pinch. Oh, okay. Just a little bit of salt. Okay. Yeah. Because you're just getting the minerals in there and you're kind of retaining a little bit of the lemon and the lime that you wouldn't otherwise.

And you're kind of using that on a greater level. I see. Yeah. Expanding the availability of that fruit. Yeah. And this is going to help hydrate your body.

Hydrating means getting water, right? Getting water into your body. Correct. And hydration, you know, we think of what happens when we drink coffee, right?

We are dehydrating ourselves. Yeah. But we're also, like, forcing the circulation to happen because it's a very circulating, warming situation. dispersing herbs so coffee is an herb and we consider it an herb and it works in that way but we are also drying out our tissues so we need to hydrate first thing and we also need to circulate and then we need to build the oja so you again you want to be eating really high dense foods there are a couple of herbs and there are a lot of like coffee alternative herbal beverages yeah

that sort of mimic the taste of coffee and you can kind of like add your honey or add your coconut milk or whatever you like in your coffee like normal and you can drink that instead. Now, I'm just going to say as a coffee drinker, it is not ever going to be 100% satisfying to you ever. Right, yeah, I agree. I find it easier not to do it at all.

Yeah, yeah. But there are some herbs, like a chicory root is one of the primary herbs that are used in these alternative coffee blends. I really find, and I'm not trying to sell you anything, I promise.

I just, in my experience, I really enjoy it. It's called Rasa. R-A-S-A. And there are different varieties of Rasa. but I really like that. It's got things like burdock root, a lot of roots because roots are very, they're recognized as very energizing, but also nutrient dense herbs.

So when we use those, we're getting pretty immediate energy. We're also cleansing the liver and the blood and the lymphs. And we're also promoting circulation at the same time. So you're getting a little bit

of the same effect it's just not as quick as the coffee um green tea is also an excellent alternative although it's not remotely close to the taste of coffee it has a very similar effect but it's more hydrating for you and it's not as drying how interesting go ahead Yeah, I was just going to say, being in Japan, of course, there's lots of green tea here. Is there a specific kind of green tea? Because, you know, there's like the sencha, which is kind of the more yellowy, light.

And then there's matcha, which is like the dark, dark green, super powerful, very bitter. Does it matter? I think, again, it's going to depend on your constitution because the heavier constitutions can kind of take those more powerful green teas a little bit better. I cannot drink matcha straight.

It's too strong for me. Although I do like matcha tea with milk or coconut milk or something more creamy to kind of dilute it and give me a little bit more moisture in my stomach. Yeah.

All green tea, for the most part, is good. Okay. I also like Kukichwa. I think it's Kukichwa or Kukichwa. No, I don't know that. I think it's like the stem of the green tea, but it's got, I had it at a macrobiotic restaurant at one time in Texas.

And I just thought it was one of the most delicious things I'd ever tasted. And it turns out it's just like the stem of green tea. Oh, interesting. Huh.

But it was very, very pleasant and not overpowering, but different. It was a different sort of flavor that I'd never experienced before. And I don't think it tastes like green tea at all, but very good.

Um, Chai is also a very pleasant thing that you can drink that is rather stimulating and circulating and a little bit drying too, admittedly, but it's not going to be nearly drying like coffee is.

Okay, great. And chai, so kind of like traditional Indian chai, so is it black tea in chai? So it's either black tea or a psalm is used. You can use a psalm.

Or you could just use like the chai spices, like your cinnamon, your nutmeg, your ginger, your black pepper and white pepper. Um, I like to kind of play around with it and make my cardamom is one of my absolute favorite herbs. I love cardamom. I put it in almost everything.

Um, but yeah, just your, your spicy flavorful, more aromatic, because those are going to be a little bit easier on your stomach, right? That's another thing is, uh, coffee can sometimes really disrupt your stomach and your, your digestion and kind of be really hard and give you like nausea or, um,

just kind of like cramping some people get. But the spices are, they have a lot of different properties, but one of their main properties or attributes is that they are carminative.

And carminative simply means it's aromatic. You'll notice that we have a lot of essential oils that are made from those herbs. They're very, very fragrant, and those oils actually help the liver and gallbladder to break your food down. So they're also going to be really good for your skin in that way because when you're breaking your food down, you're assimilating your food, you're moving it through you.

They're also very circulating herbs, so they're going to help blood flow and cognition and things of that nature. Oh, interesting. All right. So there you go, guys.

Coffee. So we've got chai. We've got green tea. I put on the screen there that Rasa coffee alternative. So good. There's hope. All right. Let's see. There is always hope.

Let's see. Water, yes. Okay, well, this is a good point. Amina says, it's better to eat food that contains vitamins rather than taking vitamin pills. So it's getting into the whole idea of supplements and vitamins.

You know, I kind of used to think along those lines, but it just turns out that unless you can grow all of your own food from the healthiest soil on the planet, our food today does not contain nearly as many nutrients as in the past, as even 50 years ago. So supplements, I think, are...

Unless you have perfect digestion and you have a perfect diet and a perfect lifestyle, you could probably get away with not taking vitamins. Another thing that you could do is drinking herbal infusions, which, like I said, the nettle leaf is very, very high. It's, I believe, one of the highest...

One of the herbs with the highest level of vitamin and mineral content available to us. So nettle infusions and oat straw infusions, like your oatmeal, oat straw, are really, really high in vitamins and minerals. So you could probably actually get away with drinking those daily. It's just that they take time.

It's not... Drinking something like a gallon of liquid and preparing it is not as easy as popping a pill or a capsule or a chewable vitamin. So yes and no to that question. I would say that added vitamin and minerals are necessary, unfortunately.

I mean, I hate that it is that way, but... um like i said unless you live a perfect lifestyle and have a perfect diet and grow your own food from the perfect soil then you're probably going to need some more vitamins and nutrients than you're getting from just food yeah makes sense makes sense okay let's see ah let's see oh what about is it pronounced kefir it's kind of a yogurt type drink right Kefir, yes, I love kefir. It's fantastic.

This is Claudia Mazzoni asking. Yes, one of my favorite foods all time, although admittedly I haven't been drinking it as much lately. But kefir is great. It's really good for people who are dairy intolerant because it's got only 1% lactose.

But it's got tons and tons and tons of prebiotics and probiotics that are really great for gut health. They actually can help to restore the gut itself and your intestinal tract. A relative of mine drinks... a smoothie of kefir with blueberries and peanut butter every morning.

So she gets her protein, she gets her antioxidants from the blueberries, and she gets the benefits of the kefir, which are, again, when you take care of your gut health, you're also taking care of your skin health. So you're going to have really good skin. I've also heard of people who have drunk kefir and consumed other fermented vegetables like your sauerkraut and your kimchi and Yeah, so different foods that are fermented, probiotic foods, kombucha is another one.

That's really great. So when you're supporting your gut, you're going to see that in your skin as well. Yeah, I like kefir too. It tastes great as well.

I like the taste. Yeah, yeah. When I lived in Hawaii, there was this place that made, at a farmer's market, they made coconut kefir. It was really good.

They used coconut coconut milk. I've heard of that. I just thought it was so interesting that you could have non-dairy kefir. Yeah, it was interesting.

Big fan of it. I love it. Okay, let's see. Um... Okay, Fatima Salem says, what is good? Obviously, you can only answer very generally, but in general, what's good for people who are pregnant, for women who are pregnant during pregnancy?

Oh, my goodness. So I have experienced this, so I can talk on it. So one of the biggest things that you can do is you really want to support your uterine health. And red raspberry is red raspberry leaf.

Oh. is one of the prime herbs that are used across midwives, herbalists of all kinds, natural health practitioners, recognize that red raspberry is very, very important for tonifying the uterus to get...

the woman ready to give birth so that you're not having complications and you are just physically strong and tonified in that area so that you can give birth with the least amount of complications available. I would also just make sure you're getting an adequate amount of protein as well.

If you're a vegetarian, you can still. I've had a friend who was vegetarian while she was pregnant, had a perfectly healthy baby, had a healthy pregnancy. So it's doable.

Sesame seed. tahini, um, nettle infusions again. So, um, I actually have a friend who drank nettle infusions when she was pregnant with her second son. And she said that without, uh, the nettle infusion, she would not have had the energy to keep up with her then three-year-old, um, at the time.

So I'm going to investigate this, uh, nettle infusion. It's really, really good. It's good stuff. And it grows everywhere. It's so sad. You just have to be careful.

You can go wild harvesting your own, but you just have to be careful that it's not sprayed with pesticides or anything weird like that. I've harvested my own nettle. It's very, very cheap. You can get about a pound of it for, I don't know, like $15.

Oh, yeah. Great. So, yeah, nettle, red raspberry. There's another one. Oh my gosh, I can't think of the other one now. There's a couple that are good for after pregnancy too, but I would probably want to know the person before I give them any further advice.

Just because it's such a sensitive, like pregnancy is such a sensitive thing, I wouldn't want to go overboard recommending other things. But nettle infusions, adequate protein, get your veggies too, make sure you consume lots of greens.

Excellent. As you're talking, I'm just typing in what you're saying in the comment section so they can read it, just in case they don't catch it. Julia Takita asks, what about eggs in the Ayurveda diet?

Yes, that is a good question. So, Ayurveda primarily... Advocates for a vegetarian diet, obviously, because it's from the Vedas. We recognize that we want to practice ahimsa, which is nonviolence, so we don't want to harm animals.

Eggs are kind of a tricky subject because we do use them with people who are malnourished or emaciated. And who, you know, maybe they have gone through a very traumatic experience or they're having they've got very, very, very sick. So they're having a hard time keeping weight on eggs are a really, really great source of omega fatty acids. So they are really good for like young children or children who are failing to failing to thrive.

Yeah. And also, again, we use them more with Vata people. When they become to a point where they're just not keeping on weight, they're a really good source of protein, too. So we use them appropriately, I would say.

So it just depends on, again, your type, your situation. Some people are going to benefit, and maybe others might not. Correct. Yes. Excellent. All right.

Okay, let's see. Okay, here's a very... I'm not sure if I... I certainly can't answer this. I don't know if you can answer this or not. Matam Kumar says, obviously someone...

In terms of the Ayurveda, is it an Upa Veda, an Atharva, or Rig Veda? I don't recognize the first word. Okay. But Rig Veda and Atarva Veda both contain Ayurvedic checks.

Gotcha. Okay, great. Okay, let's see. Sorry, just scanning through. They're coming in fast. You're fine. Okay. Fernando, good to see you. The comments on YouTube, they jump around sometimes.

I know. Okay, well, we had a couple follow-ups. Okay, here we go. Daniel Cruz again says, Lemon and ginger and raw honey. Can this be a liver detox? Or can it be?

If so, what quantity, how much should we do on a daily basis? And should it be on an empty stomach? Lemon, ginger, and raw honey. Lemon, ginger, and raw honey is one of those formulas that are just timeless.

They are incredibly warming. So ginger is used for a whole array of things as well as lemon and honey. Um... Raw honey specifically. You always want to get raw and local if possible because it's best to consume the honey that is from the environment in which you live in because that can actually help you adapt and reduce your allergy symptoms if you have local allergy things.

Yeah. But yeah, for a detox, I guess I would need to know what else you're doing. Because again, I wouldn't want to tell you to take it on an empty stomach and you have like a Vata constitution. Kaphas could do something more along those lines on an empty stomach.

just because they can take a lot more, they have a lot more tissue buildup, they're able to digest things a lot slower. Whereas for a vata person, that might kind of jolt them a little bit. That might actually harm their tissues if they did that too much, just because ginger is so pungent. Yeah.

And it's really, really good for a lot of different things. Yeah. But I would say like making a tea out of it would be perfectly fine. If you wanted to make like a strong tea and drink that one, two, three times a day.

Seasonal cleanses are also another thing that I do with my clients. So if somebody wanted to do a seasonal cleanse or get further instructions on that, they could schedule a consultation with me about that as well. But as far as just that formula, that is a really great formula. And it's generally considered mild.

But again, I wouldn't say just do that. You want to do that while you're consuming other foods that are nurturing your tissues. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Makes sense.

Okay, do you have time for a couple more? I've got time. Okay, good, good, good. If you've got time, I've got time. All right, I've got a few more minutes, and then I'm going to have to go.

Let's see. Ah, fasting. Okay, so AMA is asking, do we need any compliments during fasting? So obviously there's all kinds of different fasting. So just what, I guess, what are your general thoughts on fasting and how to make it useful or powerful?

Sure, optimal. Yeah, so fasting, again, is... going to be better tolerated by a kapha type or a pitta type, depending on the health of the pitta. Vata people should not do extended fasts.

And I guess I also should ask you what you mean by fasting. Are you talking about a juice fast? Are you talking about just doing water? Are you talking about nothing at all?

I mean, you should always take something when you're doing a fast, some kind of liquid. You could even do like a kitchari fast or a kitchari cleanse. Kitchari is a...

is kind of a staple in Ayurveda. And all it is is brown basmati rice to equal parts of mung beans or mung beans and added vegetables and spices. And you can add coconut milk in there to make it a little more creamy. You can do whatever you want with the herbs and spices and vegetables that you throw in there.

But this is a very, very... First of all, it's vegan friendly, right? So vegan can eat this. You can also add ghee to this. I can't believe I haven't mentioned ghee yet.

Ghee is one of the most, yes, we love ghee. I try and put ghee in everything when I can, cook with it, add it to soups, to stews. But the ghee actually is something that the butyric acid in ghee is

most closely resembles the lining of our stomach. So when you consume ghee, you are rejuvenating and nourishing and moisturizing the cells in your stomach. And then, of course, that goes on to the rest of your intestines and your colon, which is very, very important.

But yes, I want to get back to fasting. Sorry, it's really easy for me to go on tangents. No, no, no, no, it's okay. But... There's different types of fasting.

Again, I would say for vatas, you want to be a little bit easier on yourself because you don't want to hinder your digestion. Sometimes when you go for extended periods of time, and we see this in a very extreme disease called anorexia, right? When you don't eat, you stop producing enzymes from your gallbladder and your liver that help you break down your food, and those things just shut down. So you want to encourage that in a healthy way.

You don't want to suppress it. So it's really a tailor-made practice that you should adjust according to your constitution. Excellent, excellent. Actually, I've got to get going.

Okay. It's really great talking to you. And, of course, we've got... you know, questions pouring in as usual. So maybe we can have you back on and we can talk more because it's this gigantic topic.

Yes, it really is. And I'm sorry we were cut off at the beginning because of technical issues, but AJ, thank you so much for having me on. This has been an incredible experience for me. I hope your viewers got something...

helpful out of it um i would love to come back on again and talk with you more about more niche areas and of ayurveda we can kind of dive deep into some different aspects of um of ayurveda and living in ayurvedic life and or herbs and herbal medicines and foods and all kinds of things so thank you so much oh sure sure sure perfect as well

Yes, exactly. I know. We've been connected on Facebook a little bit, so it's great to actually talk to you and see you by video, face-to-face. But yeah, this was kind of the big one.

We're just kind of, Ayurveda. It's like when I talk to Acharya Ji. Let's talk about God and everything. Yeah. You know, it's just like, ah. So after this, you know, we'll narrow it down.

Maybe we can focus on fasting or digestion or whatever. We'll talk and we'll communicate and figure out some, or we can narrow the topic a bit. Yeah. things like this are obviously giant topics, but very, very interesting.

I've got just a lot of personal questions just that I'm interested in. So, yeah, thank you so much. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay, so it's... And again, if your viewers want to contact me, they can email me or visit my website.

There's a contact form on there as well where we can hook up and schedule a consultation or a time to chat, and I'd love to talk more with them before you and I chat again. So... Yes, wonderful. So if you're interested, because so much of this can be very personal, depends on your body type, what you're dealing with, which is why it's not always just one answer for everybody.

So contact Lauren. So if you're watching on video, you can see it's SuryaVedaHealing.com. It's on the screen. If you're only listening, I'm going to read it.

Okay, so it's S-U-R-Y-A, Surya, Veda, V-E-D-A, and then the word healing in English, H-E-A-L-I-N-G. Surya Veda Healing. It's all together, no dashes, no spaces. SuryaVedaHealing.com. So contact her and talk about what you specifically want to talk about.

Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Yep. We'll do it again soon. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm starting my day. So I'll talk to you later. Okay. Yeah. Talk to you later.

Thanks again. Okay. Bye-bye. All righty. Great. So just as I was, uh, just, just as I was saying to Lauren, um, Sometimes we cover, especially interviews, it was the same actually even with Tiago about jiu-jitsu and self-defense and bullying.

Sometimes when I first interview somebody the first time, it's kind of like a big introduction and the topic is so big or what they do, they have so much knowledge, they have so much information that it's impossible to talk about all of it, right?

Acharya Ji is the same thing. So in one hour we cover just a tiny percent. So this is why I really like to have people come back again and again and do many different interviews because then we can go deeper into this topic. And obviously health is a giant topic, especially with Ayurveda because in Ayurveda...

they see it holistically, meaning whole, right? Not just a little piece. This is one of the problems you'll see in a lot of books about health or websites, that they focus only on nutrition, right? Nutrition is important, obviously, but then they're ignoring movement and many of them don't focus on, like she was saying, emotions, your spiritual health, your relationships.

All of it is... All of these things are interacting, right? They're all affecting each other. So for real total health, we need to look at all of these things.

And that's why it's such a huge topic. So I will have Lauren come back and we'll talk more about these different areas and how Ayurveda and how she helps people in these different areas.

So, okay, lots of love to you all. I got to go. I actually have a jujitsu class to go to. So, I will see you all later. Thanks again. As always, go to my website, effortlessenglishclub.com.

Get my Power English course or VIP lessons. And, again, if you're interested, one last time, if you're interested in Ayurveda, I think I'm going to...

contact her about and just talk to her, do some consulting with her on a few things I'm dealing with, mostly with sleep and being tired and the coffee issue. So it's SuryavedaHealing.com. SuryavedaHealing.com. It's on the screen if you're watching on video.

See you all next time. Lots of love and bye for now. Thank you.