Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Food for Thought with Billy and Jenny,
brought to you by the Box Center. For more than
fifteen years, this dining duo has been eating their way
through New England, mixing it up with top chefs, jumping
behind the line of the hottest restaurants and giving you
the inside scoop on where to wine, dine and spend
your time. So get ready, it's Food for Thought giving
you something to chew on.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hi, everybody, Welcome into Food for Thought, brought to you
by the Box Center. Excited this week to talk about
a subject that I've had the pleasure of talking about.
I'm probably a handful of times on this program. Ire
Veda and I recently had the opportunity to go down
to North Carolina to experience punch a karma, which is
not a term I'm assuming many people listening, Noah, But
(00:44):
we're going to take some time to sort of break
that down. And my guest today is a board certified
obstetrician and gynecologist. Her name is Brenda Devani and she
is very passionate about women's health and a believer in
point in kind of focusing on the bodies potential through
a lot of different methodologies, obviously the modern medicine that
we're more used to, but also she's able to blend
(01:07):
a lot of work that she's done in iraveda. So
she's studied under vasatt Laude, who I also have talked
about on this show before, who is really the person
kind of responsible for bringing ariveda to the United States,
and so she has worked with him for a number
of different years, both here in the United States and
also in India, and also studied iraveda in Nepal as well.
(01:32):
So she's certainly an expert in this space and also
does a really great job of explaining in a way
that feels approachable. And one of my goals in talking
about this so much on this program is for it
to feel like an area that people can feel open
and excited to explore, because it certainly has changed my
life from a health perspective, and the more people I
(01:53):
feel like that get introduced to it can have that
same opportunity. So it's my pleasure to introduce everybody to Rinder.
Thank you so much for joining us on the show today.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thank you, Jenny, It is such a pleasure. I so
appreciate being here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Of course, well I've been able to connect with you
a few different times, both from a promote promotional perspective,
but mainly from a practitioner perspective. So it was probably
about six months ago or maybe a little bit over
that I connected with you for the first time and
got to experience, you know, what it's like to be
in your care and it's been super thrilling. As someone
(02:30):
who has studied and appreciated Iraveta only for a short
time about six years, but working with you has been
so awesome. And one of the ways I like to
start in this show is to sort of give people
a background. So we won't even get necessarily into the
background of Iravata yet, but I want to get into
the background of Rinda, and so give us a little
bit of a background on you and how your journey
(02:52):
into sort of modern medicine but also connected with Iraveta began.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, no, I'm too so growing up, I grew up
in a pretty traditional Indian household, so I really, without
me even knowing, was part of my life, whether it
was my mom making you know, turmwork in small gargles
when we were sick, or whatever it was, but it
was always pro my life, and I also had a
pretty strong spiritual of bringing with with my parents and
(03:21):
just you know, the committee that we're part of, and
going into college, I actually wanted to do politics, pat
it or not. I went to a high school that
was focused on government international affairs, and I just loved
the thought of, you know, just really being able to
make mass change through systems. My mom kindly pointed out
(03:43):
to me, I'm very naive and gullible, and she's like,
maybe in another way, and I was just good at science.
So I dove into science and started saying medicine. But
one thing that was clear to me was it. While
I loved it, and I love medicine, I love Western medicine,
it completed one asset, but I didn't have this like
sense of like wholeness to me, and I think many
(04:06):
of us can relate to this longing to feel like
complete and whole and integrated and aligned within ourselves. And
so then between my first and sect year medical school,
I got introduced to Aravida and took a year off
a medical school between my first and second year medical school,
which my dad wasn't super thrilled about at the time.
(04:27):
He thought I would drop out altogether, and but I
loved it. You know, it really gave me this lens
through which I continued all my training after that, and
it just simplified everything. You know, for those that have
been through any medical training is there's a lot of memorization,
there's a lot of learn but Aravida just simplifying and
(04:47):
gave me a lens of how to organize it makes
sense of it all. And I even remember in residency,
you know, learning like oh Brooke control hills or ipiprofen
or surgery, and I was like, makes sense that everything
gets the same treatment, you know, like they're pathologically different.
So I felt like I was able to I'm able
to really work with clients at a more roote and
(05:09):
holistic level, like getting to the cause of what's making
them not feel great or making them feel missiligned or
just not within themselves and versus just putting a band
aid on the whole thing. So yeah, no, it's really
kind of completed my view of wellness and being healthy even.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I love that, and I love just the trajectory and
I think something that I've found, you know, it is
sort of the obvious beast growing up in a traditional
Indian family, Like ire Beta wasn't something you were taught
like I went, you know, to school to.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Learn about it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
This was just a way of living. And that's something
that I sort of I think it's taken me a
few years to sort of understand that after studying is
it's not it isn't necessarily this formula in the same
way you were talking about going to school, going to
medical school. It's it's it's all encompassing and it's a
way of being. And I love the idea of you
(06:07):
explaining how you have you know, like you you understand
the body in one way, but to give yourself sort
of the organization to understand the individual and not. Something
that we're going to talk a lot about on this
program is sort of how individualized ire Veda is. You
only have about a minute in this break, but Brenda,
how do you if you gave like a short definition
(06:29):
of ira Veda, what would you call it? And I
know that's basically impossible, but how do you that's been
the translation of it, how do you how do you
describe it? At that? At like the first sentences.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Science of life is literally what it translates to is
science of life and it's all encompassing. It's not just
the physical, it's also the it's a minding spirit as well.
So if I word it is summary that in this
one minute, that's what I would say, science of life encompassing.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, the good news says we had plenty of time
to explain it a lot more. But I do think
that that translation is very important because it is the
science of life. Right. We think of when we think
of traditionally with medicine as a science, and the truth
is is what this is is it is a very
beautiful science. But it's a science that takes into account
(07:19):
all parts of the body and a science that enables
us to live in a balanced, healing and healthful way. Okay,
so our guest is Rinda, and we're going to talk
more about are Beta in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel in Sweet.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Welcome back into Seek for Thoughts, dressed you by the
Box Center. Rinda is my guest. She is an OBGN
and also an Arabta practitioner. I had the pleasure of
working with her in a professional standpoint and also had
the pleasure of talking to her a little bit about
her background. So you gave us, like the literal Sanskrits
(07:57):
translation of Araveda, this science of life sort of that
that all encompassing idea of how to live within balance.
And yet that's that can't even begin to scratch the
surface of how just how deep and how thorough and
how you know, all encompassing this science is. So so
take it the next step further. It is the science
of life, you said, it involves the spiritual, the mental,
(08:20):
the physical. But how does are beta be put into
practice for someone who's interested?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, I love it, and so I just want to
dive deeper into what does that mean? You know, like
this this science of life and alignment of body, my
aminisphered and for me, this is the way I make
sense of it. What it has meant become to mean
to me is that it's really giving us a sense
of integrity and alignment, not just the physical side of us,
(08:51):
but life in general, and it's fullest form creating a
sense of alignment and integrity. And I find personally, when
I find have that alignment within myself, I feel healthier.
And you know, I say the last you know, for
five years or so, there was a good five chunk
period ten five ten years where I was really focused
(09:11):
on my mental growth and my spiritual growth. And then
you know, you turn forty or thirty five forty and
things start to change in your body. And so I
started to really get back into the physical part of
my being, and that came to bring a sense of
alignment to how I was growing mentally and spiritually as well.
And so that alignment of all of these growing and
(09:34):
being harmonious together to me is what is that holistic
aspect of aavida? And in Irida there's this, there's this
like you know skutra or it's like this in Sanskrits.
It's a couple of lines about what is the definition
of health, and it's balanced blulshaw, which is essentially the
elements either air, firewater, earth, having a balance of beef
(09:56):
five elements in your body, balanced of me, which is
our five fire, our digestifier is like the core of
our health is that which gives us the life balance
that then some of that the wich. It's the seven
tissue layers bringing balance to the seven tissue layers within
us from Amala, which is our elimination pathways you know,
(10:17):
our bowels, our urine, our sweat, our thoughts, like all
of this being having healthy eliminations that which isn't serving
us anymore. And then what I love is that the
situation then goes into like pleasant and content asthma which
is spirit, India which is our senses, and manda which
is mind. But I love that it brings this into
(10:37):
the context of health and wellness and vibrancy in our
life and personally, I when you ask, you know, like
how can you apply this? Like where do you even start?
I like to start with is this very simple concept
of alignment with the cycles of nature. Because our body
is really just a microcosm of the apricot, and so
(11:01):
right even you know, when we wake up, we wake
up in the morning, and certain hormones are secreated when
there's fun bets, certain hormones are secret. So we get
rest and we put ourself together. And so honestly, I
think that's been the most pivotal for me and others.
It's just alignment with cycles of nature.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yes, it's the cycles of nature, and the alignment is
a great way to start and I know that sharing
that focus, So it's it's so it's so powerful and
it has so many words in it and things that
people are saying. I don't necessarily know what that means,
but it's I think the best way to sort of
when I think about it, is we have learned to
think of our health as something that we have to
(11:41):
take care of when things are wrong. We've learned that
if something is wrong, we go to the doctor and
then we find some kind of medication to mask the
sense symptom that ails us. And So what I hear
you saying, and what I've learned through these years of
study and this idea of alignment and a balance, it's
about how do you, on a day to day basis,
(12:03):
Like you said, from the moment that you wake up
until the moment you go to bed, do things that
allow your body to stay in alignment. And I loved
how you said, you know, there was this chunk of
time where you were really focused on the mental and
the spiritual piece of life, and then there was a
shift in age and you said, Okay, I really want
to focus on the physical. It's so interesting because you know,
(12:24):
like I'm in a place where I've spent probably this
the past six years really really focused on the physical
how do I get the physical body into a place
of balance? And I'm now hopeful in stepping into sort
of the next realm of that more spiritual and mental place.
And so I think that wherever this conversation finds you,
if you're listening, the idea of ir Veda is to
(12:47):
not separate any of these things. And I think finally
modern medicine has, you know, more readily come on board
to say that there is the mind gut connection, there
is the mind body connection. Like there there's no way
to sort of consider those things in a sylo And
I think that is the part that is always most
rivetting to me about Iraveda is this has been going
(13:10):
on for six thousand years. Can you talk a little
bit about that, How the concepts that you're talking about,
how the way of living that you're talking about is literally,
you know, the most ancient we have as it relates
to sort of a thorough idea of of our health.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean six thousand years ago, it's
so hard to even imagine math time. But you know,
in the lineage of Ira that we've looked at this
concept of cosmic cycles and like cultures, humanity goes through
its cycles too, Like look around us, you know, like
there's cycles of like harmony in a culture and then
(13:51):
there and then you know, today it's really a worldwide culture.
Now there isn't like just one country's culture anymore. And
then there are periods of just comple disarray also, and
every culture has gone through that. And it's thought that
Irida came about when there was this like phase and
humanity where there was more harmony not just between human
(14:13):
beings but also with nature overall. And when I have
found also and when I feel when I'm in a
deep state of harmony balance, when I'm meditating, the insights
that I get about my own self, my own well being,
my family, the work I'm doing, just it comes right,
like we're just so clear, buoyant in our mind. And
(14:34):
so six thousand years ago there are these amazing human
beings that walk the earth and in their meditations and
their deep observation of how the body works, how nature works,
how our relationship between the two is, they came up
with the science and it wasn't like, hey, let me
write down this ireda you know, they called it Irida antie.
(14:54):
It's just they start documenting and sharing their insights with
each other, and then it started to be put together,
you know, however, many years later by individuals who took
these teachings and organized it better.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, and so part of those teachings is with looking
at thousands and thousands and thousands of people and observing them,
and through that you've been able to sort of reference
the doshas and you've been able to sort of categorize
people in a way that allows both the person and
the provider to understand, you know, why certain ailments would
(15:30):
be more present, or why certain ailments or why certain
issues would be more prevalent in a person's life. Can
you talk a little bit more about how you explained
dosha and briefly go into each of them.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Absolutely, So we'll start at the five elements either firewater,
and earth. These are just the elements that make everything
in this universe is physical plane of ours and those
five elements are then organized into three main energies. So
that's the is the principle of movement. So if you
take the essence of air, it's either in air but
(16:06):
this think I think air is easier to conceptualize. It's cold,
it's mobile, but it's also very you know, subtle, it's
very clear. So Vata gives that principle of movement. ITSSA
is the principle of transformation in the body. So focusing
on the fire element, any transformation, whether it's thought, food, learning, emotions,
(16:30):
that requires the power transformation is the fire element. And
then the last one is GUFFA, which is the principle
of cohesion in nourishment. It's the earth and water elements.
This gives our body that structure, substance, roundedness. It is
(16:51):
that principal cohesion in nourishment. And all of us, we
all have our own unique blueprint of these five elements,
and that combines to our unique blueprint of these three
energies or doches, and it's what my unique combination is,
what makes me me. Your unique combination does, Jenny, is
(17:11):
what makes you you. And really our path towards health
and balance is re connecting with our blueprint, our individual
blueprint and definite and IgA that each person, the way
they manifest disease is different. Even two people with rooumintoid
arthritis is not going to be exactly the same. Two
(17:33):
people with endermusis will not be exactly the same. And
how you approach, it will be different too.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And so the idea of learning about these doshas enables you,
as a practitioner, someone who studies irabta to know to
focus on certain things. We're going to take a quick
break and we're going to talk about some of the
traits that make up these doses.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
In just a minute, you're listening to Food for Thoughts
brought to you by It's the Box Center and Sale
and Waterfront Hotel and Sweets Rende.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
You referenced the doshas and and sort of what they
mean within the world. How do you connect them with
the individuals.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, so a that the person we're all going to
be combinations and none of us are just one of these,
but about the or predominantly ab the person is going
to be you know, either air tall, lighter, dinner frame, clairvoyant, creative.
They may be a little spacey, you know, they may
be going from here to they're not really able to
(18:27):
focus as much, but they're really just you know, just
very free flowing and airy. But it can also manifest
us like fear and anxiety as well. The fit the
individual is going to be more of that fire element.
There can be they know what they want. They're the
type a personality. They minus focused, they go for it.
They may be competitive, even ambitious, perhaps even jealous and envious,
(18:52):
but they know what they're going and it. Physically, they're
a little bit more in the medium build, they may
have more inflammatory things going on. And then you have
the gufa individual who is going to be more earth
and water, so they're a little bit more grounded, they're
more stable. They may be a little bit slow to
motivate and move, but they are going to be your
(19:13):
loyal friend, like they are by your side, and they're
they pace themselves. They're patient, they're compassionate, they're loving. But
on the flip side, they can struggle with weight issues.
It can also struggle with depression and attachment issues too
because of that heaviness and stickiness.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And so in working with a practitioner, you know they're
asking you questions that are going to help them understand
these doshes and how prevalent they are in your body.
Digestion quickly also plays obviously a big role in this too.
And then talk about how when you get this information
about their dooshes, what else you kind of what else
you do with it?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
What we're really honing in on is what is out
of balance, because just because these are dominant energies in
your body doesn't mean they always balanced. They can also
they're more likely to get out of balance. And so
we're kind of hone in on what is out of balance,
and then we really work with the principal treat with
the opposite. So what we're seeing out about is we
treat with the opposite qualities in diet, in lifestyle, and
(20:17):
even with herbs and just supplements as well.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, and you know, if you're a person that's racing
and racing and racing all the time, this could mean
a practitioner would say, well, running is probably not the
best exercise for you. Or if you're a person that's
very sedentory and you can't and you can't get off
the couch, you they are going to ask you to
go take a run and sort of give yourself a
little bit move yourself out of sort of that inert state.
(20:42):
So this idea of finding balance in a customized way
for the individual is really what I are made is
all about. We're going to take a break. We'll be
back with Brenda in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
You're listening to food for thought, brought to you by
It's the Box Center and Sailing Waterfront Hotel.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And sweets so Brenda, we've gett a little bit of
a background, really haven't even pross the service, but unfortunately
that's what time does. I want to be able to
talk about so Hum. So so Hum is the healing
center with which I had the opportunity to meet you
and learn from you and have you as a practitioner,
and a place that I had the opportunity to go
(21:16):
to to experience punch a Karma, which is the deep
healing modality that is within ire Veda. Not trying to
give too many words that are new to people, but
it was a week long kind of detox in some
way that was so profound for me and helped me
really understand this science in a much deeper and personal way.
(21:38):
So first, because this is the first time we're really
talking about so Hum, can you describe so Hum to
us and what takes place at this special retreat center.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Yeah. So you know doctor Ladd who's our teacher. He
did what we call puncha Karma, which is a cleansing
process in all Turkey for decades. So he had a
small retreat center that he started back in the eighties
and it stayed there for decades, and when we moved
over to North Carolina, we moved to school and a
(22:13):
lot of his work over here because he's wanting to
really to share it with as many people as possible.
We were looking for a place that would be really
more of an immersive experience that we brought that his expertise,
his presence, but then added also just the concept of
(22:33):
being fully residential, immersive in a space where you're very
very well held. It's like a cocoon is the is
the word that we use that we want people to
experience and feel because you know, in a cocoon there's
a deep transformation process that happens for catapults and then
they've become butterflies. But you need to nurture and hold
as this transformation is happening. And a lot of times,
(22:56):
you know that transformation can come with ups and downs,
periods where you're feeling amazing in their peers where you
don't feel amazing. You know, growth it's not always pleasant
and beautiful, and so we really want to create this
beautiful atmosphere. So it's nestled in the blue Rish Mountains
and at the top of Elk Mountain it has gorgeous views,
(23:18):
but at the same time you can't really sense the
presence of other things around you, like society in general,
so you can really focus on your healing. And that
was really the environment we wanted to create. In addition
to just the beauty of nature, the beauty of the furniture,
the artwork, we wanted to be that pleasantness to the
senses of spirit, the mind to allow that to unfold
(23:41):
as well.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And so when somebody goes to so hum in Asheville,
North Carolina, in this beautiful space where everything is really
thought out, what happens to them for that seven day
or more period that they that they come in.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yes, but right now we have one primary retreat. It's
called our puncha Karma Retreat. We are hoping to start
another retreat which is going to complement the Punch and
Charme experience by the end of the summer, but focusing
on the Punch charmea retreat because that's what we have
going on right now. This retreat is really designed around
traditional iotic practices to create a full detox of your body, mind,
(24:25):
and spirit and recreate alignment of those elements in your body,
restrengthen your digestifier and thereby bringing help to all of
your tissues as well. And so the process starts off
with two weeks before you come. We do we spend
about an hour with each person really understand the full background,
(24:47):
getting a sense of what your blueprint of the elements are,
and customizing a full plan. The process actually starts a
week before you come and we have a couple group
calls where we start the preparatory faces, which is strengthening
that digestifier as well as a couple of other steps
to really start loosening the toxins in the body. After
(25:10):
you come to Solhem, we are really just devoted to you.
So every single day there's body work to move with
toxins towards a digestive tract. So there's a synchronized four
handed oil massage that really moves the limp, moves the
toxins out of the tissue to the GI system. There's
a light sweatbox therapy to open up that elimination pathway
(25:32):
of sweat, and then also shiro data, which is this
continuous pouring of oil on the third eye that puts
in a deep pair sympathetic relaxation state, because that's we
know that that's where true repair happens, so that happens
every single day. There's also additional body work that may
be happening, you know, there may be based on what
(25:53):
your challenges are. We may be working with your heart,
your liver, just bringing a balance to any of these
areas as well. And then you're checking in with your
practitioner making sure every single day make sure things are
progressing well. Typically Monday or Tuesday we do a purgation
process and then there are three days of herbal enemas
as well to bring your sense of cohesion back to
(26:15):
the body. But yeah, every and every morning we have
a full morning routine with like a fire ceremony, yoga, breathrick.
Every evening we have a beautiful wind out ceremony as well.
And then certainly after you leave, we're really wanting to
make sure that you don't just have this amazing experience
and then you go home you're like, no, what. So
we have this membership that we give you access to
(26:37):
for a whole year to continue that iravidic lifestyle even
when you go home, which is really just a lifestyle
that's continuing that you know, just alignment within yourself and
with nature as well.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yes, and I love you touching again upon sort of
this customization. And I think if you're listening and interested
in this, this is probably one of the deepest resets
or cleanses or detox or you know, jumpstart or however
you want to describe it that you can do to
both your physical body, your minds, your spirits, like all
(27:15):
of it all encompassing. Okay, Brenda, we're going to take
a quick break and we come back. We're going to
talk about who puncha Karma is for.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel and Sweet.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I hope everybody is enjoying this conversation because Brenda does
such a good job of sort of breaking down what
can often feel like such a complicated science and way
of living. So we talked about Soham, this magical retreat
center that I hope all of you look into in
North Carolina, and we talked a little bit about puncha
Karma and the individualized resets. But one of the things
(27:51):
that I get asked often is like, who is puncha
Karma for so, how do you answer that.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, So punching karma is literally for anyone in that
you know, the classical types really encourage you to cleanse
at the turn of every season. And the reason why
is in IV that we really encourage pausing at transitions.
There is such opportune times for creating space, realigning, reshifting, reconsidering.
(28:22):
You know how you're going to proceed, and so whether
that is at the start of your day, at the
end of your day, between life chapters, at the end
of every year, that's one of my favorite times to
really bring a sense of pause into my life and
reconsider how I'm living. And so puncha karma with the
classical types. The reason why they say at the turn
(28:44):
of every season is you have accumulated elements and waste
from the previous season, and so this is the perfect
time to like go of that. So in the summer
season it's super hot, you want to eliminate the access
heat and fire element. At the end of fall you
want to eliminate the excess dryness and coldness in the body.
(29:06):
And at the end of spring you want to really
eliminate that excess moisture and dampness in the body that
leads to things like allergies and congestion, and so really
it is fantastic for anyone to reset to prevent the
quogging of channels, to prevent the accumulation of these things
in the body that leads to diseases later on. But
(29:29):
even if you have specific diseases, it can do the
same thing to bring balance back. So I love to
give the example of how we got into irid in
the first place, which is my brother in law, Because
when he was working out and lifting weights, he had
to look disk and he was losing about eighty percent
sensation and a couple of his fingers. Near surgeon recommended surgery.
(29:51):
And at the same time, one of our dear friends
was just meeting doctor lad and so her and her
husband had gone to one of his semino and they
came back and they were like, there's definitely something to
this guy, and definitely something to this thing called irida.
Why don't you go there check it out and see
what happens. What do you have to lose? So he
went there for two weeks, did punch a karma and
(30:12):
regained eighty percent of the sensation in his fingers. Your
surgeon did an MRI again and said, I don't know
what you did, but keep doing it because it's working
and it's we don't need to do surgery. So really,
for anyone, I do think it's it's a good, good option,
and I love that story.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
And the truth is there are millions and millions and
millions of stories like this. So so for anybody listening
who has who is struggling with a particular disease or
anything from autoimmune to you know, the nice part is
is no matter what you no matter where you find yourself,
there's opportunity within Iraveda and there's certainly opportunity and within
(30:53):
Puncha Karma. And thank you for sharing the seasonal piece
because I think you know it's something to keep in
mind as our bodies transition from one one season to another.
This is where you said accumulation can build up, and
when there's accumulation, there thus begins disease. So to be
able to give yourself a reset with regularity is vital.
(31:14):
But you know, to be able to do it for
one week and SOHA may not happen four times a year,
but if it could happen one it's something that would
certainly help stop any kind of disease progression. Now we
haven't really touched upon it because there's so many areas
to discuss, but food. Food plays an enormous role in
this way of living, and very sort of customized food
(31:37):
for who you are and for what you are managing with.
And I know people are so confused about what to
eat and about what not to eat. And I will
say the organization of what ara Veda has brought to me,
and certainly the education that I received at so Hum
took out kind of a lot of those questions and
enabled me to sort of understand this piece of it
(31:58):
more so as it really it's just so harm and
this punch of karma that we're talking about tell us
about the food and what people will experience as nourishment there.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, So one of what I love about AAVI that
is that no one person is going to have the
same meal plant, which is why you know, in the West,
when we talk about specific diets that are good, people
will be like this is the holy grail of the diet,
you know, like everyone needs to be on a Kido diet.
But the reality is it's going to be fantastic for
(32:33):
certain people and probably not so great for other people
because we are also different. Our elements and the way
their balots in our body are so different, and that's
why it doesn't there's no one that that works perfectly
for everyone. In IAVI that we really focus on a
couple of things. One is the sixth taste. You want
to have a balance of the sixth taste in your body.
(32:56):
Instead of having this like macro type mentality, we look
at the six tastes because each taste has a specific
function in the body. I'll give the example of bitter.
Bitter is really good for cleansing and stimulating our liver
and gallbladder. Sweet is going to be more nourishing. Salty
(33:16):
is going to bring more like fluid in our body
and give us a sense of life and enthusiasm in
our body. Each one of these tastes have a different function.
And one of the most interesting things to me is,
you know, recently we've in Western research, we've realized that
just because you're having seventy two grants of protein, if
(33:36):
it's all so fu are all chicken, you're not getting
the array of amino axis, and so this macro structure
is then to complete either you know, and I think
everyone's appreciating that. But when you think about the sixth
tastes in the protein world, if you incorporate the sixth
tastes of different proteins, then you'll get a more vast
(33:59):
array of acids. So I really appreciate this six caste model.
And then we take each person and their doshia and
we see, Okay, what are the qualities that are dominant
and out of balance here. Okay, there's a lot of
lightness and dryness in the body. We need to bring
in the opposite qualities of some oiliness and some heaviness
(34:21):
and some grounding in the body. So we may say,
for you have some warm cooked stews with some good
roots vegetables. If you eat meat, bring some meat into there,
and then also a good amount of olive oil. Have
a half avocado on the side, And so we're really
working with the opposite qualities in the diet as well.
But in terms of punch of karma, we're really simplifying
(34:43):
the diet because we want to conserve that digestifer to
process the toxins. So the diet during punch of karma
is more simple. But as solhome, one of the things
that we wanted was to make sure that people didn't
feel like they were lacking in t so our chef
is just so amazing and he uses their ingreens are
acceptable in Peek, but makes like a truly elevated dining experience.
(35:07):
I haven't heard anyone complain about your food experience. In fact,
they're like, when are you coming out with a cookbook?
So that's one thing that we're quite proud of with
our punch and Come experience.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, I mean I can tell you the food with
some of the best I've ever had, to the point where, like,
you know, we have a group chat with everyone that
I was doing Punchu Karma with, and you know, with
such regularity on that chat it's like, well, could you
just tell us how to make this? Could you tell
us how to make that? And I think that's one
of the most beautiful things that takes place at so
hum Is. It's not only this very very deep reset
(35:38):
for your body, but there's also so much education so
that when you go home you don't feel like you
don't know what to do about eating and about and
you're right, the chef does an incredible job. So I
also want to touch upon briefly that there are plans
for you guys at SOHM to be expanding where so
much of the food that chef will be cooking with
(35:59):
will actually be grown on site. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah? Yeah, So you know, we we're a national North
Carolina So we got hit by the hurricane and we
lost a fair amount of the trees on the land,
which on one hand was devastating for us. You know,
we we really after the hurricane, we came up to land,
we all kind of went through our own greeting process
with what would happen there. But the silver lining in
(36:25):
it is we once we cleared the trees, we were
able to have like beautiful farm land now where we
will have herbs growing there, food growing there, will be
more of a farm table. And then also like in
terms of you connecting with plants, we want you to
connect with the plants. We're as a healing ally as well,
(36:45):
and so that will happen in a very different way.
And it's funny because you know, before the hurricane, we're like,
we do want to clear trees, but we had this
guilt about cutting them down. Doctor Lett has the deep
connection with trees, and the stature was like here you go,
you need to do a four.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Year Oh well, it's and I think you know one
of the things you keep mentioning herbs and herbs are
a big part of what we do from the physical
sense to keep our bodies balanced. But spices is also
another thing that I think I've been able to explore
in these past handful of years. And it goes back
to something that you said in the very beginning, which
(37:20):
is about digestion. So really, and then, as we now
know everyone knows who cares about their health, their digestion
plays such a big role in this feeling of alignment
that you discussed, and so being able to have the
food grown right next to you is something that is
obviously so nourishing, but so good for your digestion. We're
going to take a break. We'll be back for our
(37:40):
last break with Brenda in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
You're listening to Food for Thought, brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel and sweet Oh.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Brenda, I love talking about you, And as everyone knows
who listens to the show with regularity, I love the
subject of Iraveda. I love living in an Arabada way,
I love being able to share this incredible science with people.
So to go back to sooham, what is the process
like for folks who are listening who are interested in visiting.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Absolutely so, if you go to our website so Homehealing
dot Com, you'll be able to gain a really strong
sense of what it is like. If you're just curious
about like what is it? I want to just see more?
I'm and see some pictures. I want to read more.
That will give you a beautiful way to just engage
with us initially, and then there is an option to
(38:31):
book a call with one of our ambassadors who will
share more with you. They'll also see make sure that
it is a good fit for you as well and
answering questions that you have as well.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And then you sort of prep your body, you make
a time that you come and then you know, everything
that we shared about puncha Karma comes next. So and
then you guys also are offering some specific things for
folks who are interested in certain areas of our raada.
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yeah? So a couple of things we're super excited about
is they're going to have two unique retreats in July.
So if you're looking at your summer plans and you're like,
what do I do? How do I fill the space?
And we have a cooking immersion featuring our chef as
well as Naha, who is an amazing cook. She has
(39:23):
a cooking show on our app that we have as well.
We have our own app is called Ipanoplus. So every
day they'll be body work, they'll be cooking and nutrition
education and beautiful experiences. And the second one is going
to be a woman's retreat, which I will be a
part of as well as one of our dear team members.
(39:46):
Her name is Erica. She's a casty clinical psychologist but
also has done amazing Rites of Passage work as well
as priestess training and she's just phenomenal. So that will
be a similar daily body work, group experiences and more
both in July. So yeah, our ambassadors are super excited
(40:07):
to share more about that.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
So exciting and want to make sure that everybody goes
to the website to check it out. So, Brenda, you
know this, We've given a lot of information and people
are probably like, Okay, I want to read a book,
I want to hear more about it, I want to
get more engaged. But there's also very simple things that
people can do. If somebody's looking to make a shift
in their life from an aerobatic perspective, what are some
(40:31):
small ways that you suggest people start.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Absolutely, so I'm going to harpigain my soapbox is really
living more in harmony with the cycles around you. So
take your day cycle if you can rise with the
sun and bring a pause during that time and have
it could be just a five minute routine, some breath work,
just sitting outside even with your feet on the ground.
(40:57):
That and then at the end of the day, really
as the sun is setting, So starting around six pm,
slow down your day, dim the life, change the music
in the house, life, start to turn off your phones
and your computers. Honoring the setting of the sun is
really really important as well. And then it loves because
(41:21):
of me. Is the core of your of your of
your health. Your digestify as the core of your health.
One of the unique principles which I think may may
take some like cash people off guard, is lunch should
be your biggest meal. That is when it's fun is
at its highest boring. So your your wrong thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It's definitely a hard one for people to wrap their
heads around, but lunch should be the biggest meal of
the day. I hope everybody goes to so hum Healing
dot com. Brenda, it's been an absolute honor to have
you on the show. Thank you for your amazing work
and for sharing it with us.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Thank you, thank you. I'm so grateful.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Okay, and we'll be back next week with more food
for thought, brought to you by the Bock Center.
You're listening to Food for Thought with Billy and Jenny,
brought to you by the Box Center. For more than
fifteen years, this dining duo has been eating their way
through New England, mixing it up with top chefs, jumping
behind the line of the hottest restaurants and giving you
the inside scoop on where to wine, dine and spend
your time. So get ready, it's Food for Thought giving
you something to chew on.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hi, everybody, Welcome into Food for Thought, brought to you
by the Box Center. Excited this week to talk about
a subject that I've had the pleasure of talking about.
I'm probably a handful of times on this program. Ire
Veda and I recently had the opportunity to go down
to North Carolina to experience punch a karma, which is
not a term I'm assuming many people listening, Noah, But
(00:44):
we're going to take some time to sort of break
that down. And my guest today is a board certified
obstetrician and gynecologist. Her name is Brenda Devani and she
is very passionate about women's health and a believer in
point in kind of focusing on the bodies potential through
a lot of different methodologies, obviously the modern medicine that
we're more used to, but also she's able to blend
(01:07):
a lot of work that she's done in iraveda. So
she's studied under vasatt Laude, who I also have talked
about on this show before, who is really the person
kind of responsible for bringing ariveda to the United States,
and so she has worked with him for a number
of different years, both here in the United States and
also in India, and also studied iraveda in Nepal as well.
(01:32):
So she's certainly an expert in this space and also
does a really great job of explaining in a way
that feels approachable. And one of my goals in talking
about this so much on this program is for it
to feel like an area that people can feel open
and excited to explore, because it certainly has changed my
life from a health perspective, and the more people I
(01:53):
feel like that get introduced to it can have that
same opportunity. So it's my pleasure to introduce everybody to Rinder.
Thank you so much for joining us on the show today.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thank you, Jenny, It is such a pleasure. I so
appreciate being here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Of course, well I've been able to connect with you
a few different times, both from a promote promotional perspective,
but mainly from a practitioner perspective. So it was probably
about six months ago or maybe a little bit over
that I connected with you for the first time and
got to experience, you know, what it's like to be
in your care and it's been super thrilling. As someone
(02:30):
who has studied and appreciated Iraveta only for a short
time about six years, but working with you has been
so awesome. And one of the ways I like to
start in this show is to sort of give people
a background. So we won't even get necessarily into the
background of Iravata yet, but I want to get into
the background of Rinda, and so give us a little
bit of a background on you and how your journey
(02:52):
into sort of modern medicine but also connected with Iraveta began.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, no, I'm too so growing up, I grew up
in a pretty traditional Indian household, so I really, without
me even knowing, was part of my life, whether it
was my mom making you know, turmwork in small gargles
when we were sick, or whatever it was, but it
was always pro my life, and I also had a
pretty strong spiritual of bringing with with my parents and
(03:21):
just you know, the committee that we're part of, and
going into college, I actually wanted to do politics, pat
it or not. I went to a high school that
was focused on government international affairs, and I just loved
the thought of, you know, just really being able to
make mass change through systems. My mom kindly pointed out
(03:43):
to me, I'm very naive and gullible, and she's like,
maybe in another way, and I was just good at science.
So I dove into science and started saying medicine. But
one thing that was clear to me was it. While
I loved it, and I love medicine, I love Western medicine,
it completed one asset, but I didn't have this like
sense of like wholeness to me, and I think many
(04:06):
of us can relate to this longing to feel like
complete and whole and integrated and aligned within ourselves. And
so then between my first and sect year medical school,
I got introduced to Aravida and took a year off
a medical school between my first and second year medical school,
which my dad wasn't super thrilled about at the time.
(04:27):
He thought I would drop out altogether, and but I
loved it. You know, it really gave me this lens
through which I continued all my training after that, and
it just simplified everything. You know, for those that have
been through any medical training is there's a lot of memorization,
there's a lot of learn but Aravida just simplifying and
(04:47):
gave me a lens of how to organize it makes
sense of it all. And I even remember in residency,
you know, learning like oh Brooke control hills or ipiprofen
or surgery, and I was like, makes sense that everything
gets the same treatment, you know, like they're pathologically different.
So I felt like I was able to I'm able
to really work with clients at a more roote and
(05:09):
holistic level, like getting to the cause of what's making
them not feel great or making them feel missiligned or
just not within themselves and versus just putting a band
aid on the whole thing. So yeah, no, it's really
kind of completed my view of wellness and being healthy even.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I love that, and I love just the trajectory and
I think something that I've found, you know, it is
sort of the obvious beast growing up in a traditional
Indian family, Like ire Beta wasn't something you were taught
like I went, you know, to school to.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Learn about it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
This was just a way of living. And that's something
that I sort of I think it's taken me a
few years to sort of understand that after studying is
it's not it isn't necessarily this formula in the same
way you were talking about going to school, going to
medical school. It's it's it's all encompassing and it's a
way of being. And I love the idea of you
(06:07):
explaining how you have you know, like you you understand
the body in one way, but to give yourself sort
of the organization to understand the individual and not. Something
that we're going to talk a lot about on this
program is sort of how individualized ire Veda is. You
only have about a minute in this break, but Brenda,
how do you if you gave like a short definition
(06:29):
of ira Veda, what would you call it? And I
know that's basically impossible, but how do you that's been
the translation of it, how do you how do you
describe it? At that? At like the first sentences.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Science of life is literally what it translates to is
science of life and it's all encompassing. It's not just
the physical, it's also the it's a minding spirit as well.
So if I word it is summary that in this
one minute, that's what I would say, science of life encompassing.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, the good news says we had plenty of time
to explain it a lot more. But I do think
that that translation is very important because it is the
science of life. Right. We think of when we think
of traditionally with medicine as a science, and the truth
is is what this is is it is a very
beautiful science. But it's a science that takes into account
(07:19):
all parts of the body and a science that enables
us to live in a balanced, healing and healthful way. Okay,
so our guest is Rinda, and we're going to talk
more about are Beta in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel in Sweet.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Welcome back into Seek for Thoughts, dressed you by the
Box Center. Rinda is my guest. She is an OBGN
and also an Arabta practitioner. I had the pleasure of
working with her in a professional standpoint and also had
the pleasure of talking to her a little bit about
her background. So you gave us, like the literal Sanskrits
(07:57):
translation of Araveda, this science of life sort of that
that all encompassing idea of how to live within balance.
And yet that's that can't even begin to scratch the
surface of how just how deep and how thorough and
how you know, all encompassing this science is. So so
take it the next step further. It is the science
of life, you said, it involves the spiritual, the mental,
(08:20):
the physical. But how does are beta be put into
practice for someone who's interested?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah, I love it, and so I just want to
dive deeper into what does that mean? You know, like
this this science of life and alignment of body, my
aminisphered and for me, this is the way I make
sense of it. What it has meant become to mean
to me is that it's really giving us a sense
of integrity and alignment, not just the physical side of us,
(08:51):
but life in general, and it's fullest form creating a
sense of alignment and integrity. And I find personally, when
I find have that alignment within myself, I feel healthier.
And you know, I say the last you know, for
five years or so, there was a good five chunk
period ten five ten years where I was really focused
(09:11):
on my mental growth and my spiritual growth. And then
you know, you turn forty or thirty five forty and
things start to change in your body. And so I
started to really get back into the physical part of
my being, and that came to bring a sense of
alignment to how I was growing mentally and spiritually as well.
And so that alignment of all of these growing and
(09:34):
being harmonious together to me is what is that holistic
aspect of aavida? And in Irida there's this, there's this
like you know skutra or it's like this in Sanskrits.
It's a couple of lines about what is the definition
of health, and it's balanced blulshaw, which is essentially the
elements either air, firewater, earth, having a balance of beef
(09:56):
five elements in your body, balanced of me, which is
our five fire, our digestifier is like the core of
our health is that which gives us the life balance
that then some of that the wich. It's the seven
tissue layers bringing balance to the seven tissue layers within
us from Amala, which is our elimination pathways you know,
(10:17):
our bowels, our urine, our sweat, our thoughts, like all
of this being having healthy eliminations that which isn't serving
us anymore. And then what I love is that the
situation then goes into like pleasant and content asthma which
is spirit, India which is our senses, and manda which
is mind. But I love that it brings this into
(10:37):
the context of health and wellness and vibrancy in our
life and personally, I when you ask, you know, like
how can you apply this? Like where do you even start?
I like to start with is this very simple concept
of alignment with the cycles of nature. Because our body
is really just a microcosm of the apricot, and so
(11:01):
right even you know, when we wake up, we wake
up in the morning, and certain hormones are secreated when
there's fun bets, certain hormones are secret. So we get
rest and we put ourself together. And so honestly, I
think that's been the most pivotal for me and others.
It's just alignment with cycles of nature.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yes, it's the cycles of nature, and the alignment is
a great way to start and I know that sharing
that focus, So it's it's so it's so powerful and
it has so many words in it and things that
people are saying. I don't necessarily know what that means,
but it's I think the best way to sort of
when I think about it, is we have learned to
think of our health as something that we have to
(11:41):
take care of when things are wrong. We've learned that
if something is wrong, we go to the doctor and
then we find some kind of medication to mask the
sense symptom that ails us. And So what I hear
you saying, and what I've learned through these years of
study and this idea of alignment and a balance, it's
about how do you, on a day to day basis,
(12:03):
Like you said, from the moment that you wake up
until the moment you go to bed, do things that
allow your body to stay in alignment. And I loved
how you said, you know, there was this chunk of
time where you were really focused on the mental and
the spiritual piece of life, and then there was a
shift in age and you said, Okay, I really want
to focus on the physical. It's so interesting because you know,
(12:24):
like I'm in a place where I've spent probably this
the past six years really really focused on the physical
how do I get the physical body into a place
of balance? And I'm now hopeful in stepping into sort
of the next realm of that more spiritual and mental place.
And so I think that wherever this conversation finds you,
if you're listening, the idea of ir Veda is to
(12:47):
not separate any of these things. And I think finally
modern medicine has, you know, more readily come on board
to say that there is the mind gut connection, there
is the mind body connection. Like there there's no way
to sort of consider those things in a sylo And
I think that is the part that is always most
rivetting to me about Iraveda is this has been going
(13:10):
on for six thousand years. Can you talk a little
bit about that, How the concepts that you're talking about,
how the way of living that you're talking about is literally,
you know, the most ancient we have as it relates
to sort of a thorough idea of of our health.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean six thousand years ago, it's
so hard to even imagine math time. But you know,
in the lineage of Ira that we've looked at this
concept of cosmic cycles and like cultures, humanity goes through
its cycles too, Like look around us, you know, like
there's cycles of like harmony in a culture and then
(13:51):
there and then you know, today it's really a worldwide culture.
Now there isn't like just one country's culture anymore. And
then there are periods of just comple disarray also, and
every culture has gone through that. And it's thought that
Irida came about when there was this like phase and
humanity where there was more harmony not just between human
(14:13):
beings but also with nature overall. And when I have
found also and when I feel when I'm in a
deep state of harmony balance, when I'm meditating, the insights
that I get about my own self, my own well being,
my family, the work I'm doing, just it comes right,
like we're just so clear, buoyant in our mind. And
(14:34):
so six thousand years ago there are these amazing human
beings that walk the earth and in their meditations and
their deep observation of how the body works, how nature works,
how our relationship between the two is, they came up
with the science and it wasn't like, hey, let me
write down this ireda you know, they called it Irida antie.
(14:54):
It's just they start documenting and sharing their insights with
each other, and then it started to be put together,
you know, however, many years later by individuals who took
these teachings and organized it better.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, and so part of those teachings is with looking
at thousands and thousands and thousands of people and observing them,
and through that you've been able to sort of reference
the doshas and you've been able to sort of categorize
people in a way that allows both the person and
the provider to understand, you know, why certain ailments would
(15:30):
be more present, or why certain ailments or why certain
issues would be more prevalent in a person's life. Can
you talk a little bit more about how you explained
dosha and briefly go into each of them.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Absolutely, So we'll start at the five elements either firewater,
and earth. These are just the elements that make everything
in this universe is physical plane of ours and those
five elements are then organized into three main energies. So
that's the is the principle of movement. So if you
take the essence of air, it's either in air but
(16:06):
this think I think air is easier to conceptualize. It's cold,
it's mobile, but it's also very you know, subtle, it's
very clear. So Vata gives that principle of movement. ITSSA
is the principle of transformation in the body. So focusing
on the fire element, any transformation, whether it's thought, food, learning, emotions,
(16:30):
that requires the power transformation is the fire element. And
then the last one is GUFFA, which is the principle
of cohesion in nourishment. It's the earth and water elements.
This gives our body that structure, substance, roundedness. It is
(16:51):
that principal cohesion in nourishment. And all of us, we
all have our own unique blueprint of these five elements,
and that combines to our unique blueprint of these three
energies or doches, and it's what my unique combination is,
what makes me me. Your unique combination does, Jenny, is
(17:11):
what makes you you. And really our path towards health
and balance is re connecting with our blueprint, our individual
blueprint and definite and IgA that each person, the way
they manifest disease is different. Even two people with rooumintoid
arthritis is not going to be exactly the same. Two
(17:33):
people with endermusis will not be exactly the same. And
how you approach, it will be different too.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And so the idea of learning about these doshas enables you,
as a practitioner, someone who studies irabta to know to
focus on certain things. We're going to take a quick
break and we're going to talk about some of the
traits that make up these doses.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
In just a minute, you're listening to Food for Thoughts
brought to you by It's the Box Center and Sale
and Waterfront Hotel and Sweets Rende.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
You referenced the doshas and and sort of what they
mean within the world. How do you connect them with
the individuals.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Yeah, so a that the person we're all going to
be combinations and none of us are just one of these,
but about the or predominantly ab the person is going
to be you know, either air tall, lighter, dinner frame, clairvoyant, creative.
They may be a little spacey, you know, they may
be going from here to they're not really able to
(18:27):
focus as much, but they're really just you know, just
very free flowing and airy. But it can also manifest
us like fear and anxiety as well. The fit the
individual is going to be more of that fire element.
There can be they know what they want. They're the
type a personality. They minus focused, they go for it.
They may be competitive, even ambitious, perhaps even jealous and envious,
(18:52):
but they know what they're going and it. Physically, they're
a little bit more in the medium build, they may
have more inflammatory things going on. And then you have
the gufa individual who is going to be more earth
and water, so they're a little bit more grounded, they're
more stable. They may be a little bit slow to
motivate and move, but they are going to be your
(19:13):
loyal friend, like they are by your side, and they're
they pace themselves. They're patient, they're compassionate, they're loving. But
on the flip side, they can struggle with weight issues.
It can also struggle with depression and attachment issues too
because of that heaviness and stickiness.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And so in working with a practitioner, you know they're
asking you questions that are going to help them understand
these doshes and how prevalent they are in your body.
Digestion quickly also plays obviously a big role in this too.
And then talk about how when you get this information
about their dooshes, what else you kind of what else
you do with it?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
What we're really honing in on is what is out
of balance, because just because these are dominant energies in
your body doesn't mean they always balanced. They can also
they're more likely to get out of balance. And so
we're kind of hone in on what is out of balance,
and then we really work with the principal treat with
the opposite. So what we're seeing out about is we
treat with the opposite qualities in diet, in lifestyle, and
(20:17):
even with herbs and just supplements as well.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, and you know, if you're a person that's racing
and racing and racing all the time, this could mean
a practitioner would say, well, running is probably not the
best exercise for you. Or if you're a person that's
very sedentory and you can't and you can't get off
the couch, you they are going to ask you to
go take a run and sort of give yourself a
little bit move yourself out of sort of that inert state.
(20:42):
So this idea of finding balance in a customized way
for the individual is really what I are made is
all about. We're going to take a break. We'll be
back with Brenda in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
You're listening to food for thought, brought to you by
It's the Box Center and Sailing Waterfront Hotel.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And sweets so Brenda, we've gett a little bit of
a background, really haven't even pross the service, but unfortunately
that's what time does. I want to be able to
talk about so Hum. So so Hum is the healing
center with which I had the opportunity to meet you
and learn from you and have you as a practitioner,
and a place that I had the opportunity to go
(21:16):
to to experience punch a Karma, which is the deep
healing modality that is within ire Veda. Not trying to
give too many words that are new to people, but
it was a week long kind of detox in some
way that was so profound for me and helped me
really understand this science in a much deeper and personal way.
(21:38):
So first, because this is the first time we're really
talking about so Hum, can you describe so Hum to
us and what takes place at this special retreat center.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Yeah. So you know doctor Ladd who's our teacher. He
did what we call puncha Karma, which is a cleansing
process in all Turkey for decades. So he had a
small retreat center that he started back in the eighties
and it stayed there for decades, and when we moved
over to North Carolina, we moved to school and a
(22:13):
lot of his work over here because he's wanting to
really to share it with as many people as possible.
We were looking for a place that would be really
more of an immersive experience that we brought that his expertise,
his presence, but then added also just the concept of
(22:33):
being fully residential, immersive in a space where you're very
very well held. It's like a cocoon is the is
the word that we use that we want people to
experience and feel because you know, in a cocoon there's
a deep transformation process that happens for catapults and then
they've become butterflies. But you need to nurture and hold
as this transformation is happening. And a lot of times,
(22:56):
you know that transformation can come with ups and downs,
periods where you're feeling amazing in their peers where you
don't feel amazing. You know, growth it's not always pleasant
and beautiful, and so we really want to create this
beautiful atmosphere. So it's nestled in the blue Rish Mountains
and at the top of Elk Mountain it has gorgeous views,
(23:18):
but at the same time you can't really sense the
presence of other things around you, like society in general,
so you can really focus on your healing. And that
was really the environment we wanted to create. In addition
to just the beauty of nature, the beauty of the furniture,
the artwork, we wanted to be that pleasantness to the
senses of spirit, the mind to allow that to unfold
(23:41):
as well.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And so when somebody goes to so hum in Asheville,
North Carolina, in this beautiful space where everything is really
thought out, what happens to them for that seven day
or more period that they that they come in.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yes, but right now we have one primary retreat. It's
called our puncha Karma Retreat. We are hoping to start
another retreat which is going to complement the Punch and
Charme experience by the end of the summer, but focusing
on the Punch charmea retreat because that's what we have
going on right now. This retreat is really designed around
traditional iotic practices to create a full detox of your body, mind,
(24:25):
and spirit and recreate alignment of those elements in your body,
restrengthen your digestifier and thereby bringing help to all of
your tissues as well. And so the process starts off
with two weeks before you come. We do we spend
about an hour with each person really understand the full background,
(24:47):
getting a sense of what your blueprint of the elements are,
and customizing a full plan. The process actually starts a
week before you come and we have a couple group
calls where we start the preparatory faces, which is strengthening
that digestifier as well as a couple of other steps
to really start loosening the toxins in the body. After
(25:10):
you come to Solhem, we are really just devoted to you.
So every single day there's body work to move with
toxins towards a digestive tract. So there's a synchronized four
handed oil massage that really moves the limp, moves the
toxins out of the tissue to the GI system. There's
a light sweatbox therapy to open up that elimination pathway
(25:32):
of sweat, and then also shiro data, which is this
continuous pouring of oil on the third eye that puts
in a deep pair sympathetic relaxation state, because that's we
know that that's where true repair happens, so that happens
every single day. There's also additional body work that may
be happening, you know, there may be based on what
(25:53):
your challenges are. We may be working with your heart,
your liver, just bringing a balance to any of these
areas as well. And then you're checking in with your
practitioner making sure every single day make sure things are
progressing well. Typically Monday or Tuesday we do a purgation
process and then there are three days of herbal enemas
as well to bring your sense of cohesion back to
(26:15):
the body. But yeah, every and every morning we have
a full morning routine with like a fire ceremony, yoga, breathrick.
Every evening we have a beautiful wind out ceremony as well.
And then certainly after you leave, we're really wanting to
make sure that you don't just have this amazing experience
and then you go home you're like, no, what. So
we have this membership that we give you access to
(26:37):
for a whole year to continue that iravidic lifestyle even
when you go home, which is really just a lifestyle
that's continuing that you know, just alignment within yourself and
with nature as well.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yes, and I love you touching again upon sort of
this customization. And I think if you're listening and interested
in this, this is probably one of the deepest resets
or cleanses or detox or you know, jumpstart or however
you want to describe it that you can do to
both your physical body, your minds, your spirits, like all
(27:15):
of it all encompassing. Okay, Brenda, we're going to take
a quick break and we come back. We're going to
talk about who puncha Karma is for.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You're listening to Food for Thought brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel and Sweet.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I hope everybody is enjoying this conversation because Brenda does
such a good job of sort of breaking down what
can often feel like such a complicated science and way
of living. So we talked about Soham, this magical retreat
center that I hope all of you look into in
North Carolina, and we talked a little bit about puncha
Karma and the individualized resets. But one of the things
(27:51):
that I get asked often is like, who is puncha
Karma for so, how do you answer that.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, So punching karma is literally for anyone in that
you know, the classical types really encourage you to cleanse
at the turn of every season. And the reason why
is in IV that we really encourage pausing at transitions.
There is such opportune times for creating space, realigning, reshifting, reconsidering.
(28:22):
You know how you're going to proceed, and so whether
that is at the start of your day, at the
end of your day, between life chapters, at the end
of every year, that's one of my favorite times to
really bring a sense of pause into my life and
reconsider how I'm living. And so puncha karma with the
classical types. The reason why they say at the turn
(28:44):
of every season is you have accumulated elements and waste
from the previous season, and so this is the perfect
time to like go of that. So in the summer
season it's super hot, you want to eliminate the access
heat and fire element. At the end of fall you
want to eliminate the excess dryness and coldness in the body.
(29:06):
And at the end of spring you want to really
eliminate that excess moisture and dampness in the body that
leads to things like allergies and congestion, and so really
it is fantastic for anyone to reset to prevent the
quogging of channels, to prevent the accumulation of these things
in the body that leads to diseases later on. But
(29:29):
even if you have specific diseases, it can do the
same thing to bring balance back. So I love to
give the example of how we got into irid in
the first place, which is my brother in law, Because
when he was working out and lifting weights, he had
to look disk and he was losing about eighty percent
sensation and a couple of his fingers. Near surgeon recommended surgery.
(29:51):
And at the same time, one of our dear friends
was just meeting doctor lad and so her and her
husband had gone to one of his semino and they
came back and they were like, there's definitely something to
this guy, and definitely something to this thing called irida.
Why don't you go there check it out and see
what happens. What do you have to lose? So he
went there for two weeks, did punch a karma and
(30:12):
regained eighty percent of the sensation in his fingers. Your
surgeon did an MRI again and said, I don't know
what you did, but keep doing it because it's working
and it's we don't need to do surgery. So really,
for anyone, I do think it's it's a good, good option,
and I love that story.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
And the truth is there are millions and millions and
millions of stories like this. So so for anybody listening
who has who is struggling with a particular disease or
anything from autoimmune to you know, the nice part is
is no matter what you no matter where you find yourself,
there's opportunity within Iraveda and there's certainly opportunity and within
(30:53):
Puncha Karma. And thank you for sharing the seasonal piece
because I think you know it's something to keep in
mind as our bodies transition from one one season to another.
This is where you said accumulation can build up, and
when there's accumulation, there thus begins disease. So to be
able to give yourself a reset with regularity is vital.
(31:14):
But you know, to be able to do it for
one week and SOHA may not happen four times a year,
but if it could happen one it's something that would
certainly help stop any kind of disease progression. Now we
haven't really touched upon it because there's so many areas
to discuss, but food. Food plays an enormous role in
this way of living, and very sort of customized food
(31:37):
for who you are and for what you are managing with.
And I know people are so confused about what to
eat and about what not to eat. And I will
say the organization of what ara Veda has brought to me,
and certainly the education that I received at so Hum
took out kind of a lot of those questions and
enabled me to sort of understand this piece of it
(31:58):
more so as it really it's just so harm and
this punch of karma that we're talking about tell us
about the food and what people will experience as nourishment there.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, So one of what I love about AAVI that
is that no one person is going to have the
same meal plant, which is why you know, in the West,
when we talk about specific diets that are good, people
will be like this is the holy grail of the diet,
you know, like everyone needs to be on a Kido diet.
But the reality is it's going to be fantastic for
(32:33):
certain people and probably not so great for other people
because we are also different. Our elements and the way
their balots in our body are so different, and that's
why it doesn't there's no one that that works perfectly
for everyone. In IAVI that we really focus on a
couple of things. One is the sixth taste. You want
to have a balance of the sixth taste in your body.
(32:56):
Instead of having this like macro type mentality, we look
at the six tastes because each taste has a specific
function in the body. I'll give the example of bitter.
Bitter is really good for cleansing and stimulating our liver
and gallbladder. Sweet is going to be more nourishing. Salty
(33:16):
is going to bring more like fluid in our body
and give us a sense of life and enthusiasm in
our body. Each one of these tastes have a different function.
And one of the most interesting things to me is,
you know, recently we've in Western research, we've realized that
just because you're having seventy two grants of protein, if
(33:36):
it's all so fu are all chicken, you're not getting
the array of amino axis, and so this macro structure
is then to complete either you know, and I think
everyone's appreciating that. But when you think about the sixth
tastes in the protein world, if you incorporate the sixth
tastes of different proteins, then you'll get a more vast
(33:59):
array of acids. So I really appreciate this six caste model.
And then we take each person and their doshia and
we see, Okay, what are the qualities that are dominant
and out of balance here. Okay, there's a lot of
lightness and dryness in the body. We need to bring
in the opposite qualities of some oiliness and some heaviness
(34:21):
and some grounding in the body. So we may say,
for you have some warm cooked stews with some good
roots vegetables. If you eat meat, bring some meat into there,
and then also a good amount of olive oil. Have
a half avocado on the side, And so we're really
working with the opposite qualities in the diet as well.
But in terms of punch of karma, we're really simplifying
(34:43):
the diet because we want to conserve that digestifer to
process the toxins. So the diet during punch of karma
is more simple. But as solhome, one of the things
that we wanted was to make sure that people didn't
feel like they were lacking in t so our chef
is just so amazing and he uses their ingreens are
acceptable in Peek, but makes like a truly elevated dining experience.
(35:07):
I haven't heard anyone complain about your food experience. In fact,
they're like, when are you coming out with a cookbook?
So that's one thing that we're quite proud of with
our punch and Come experience.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, I mean I can tell you the food with
some of the best I've ever had, to the point where, like,
you know, we have a group chat with everyone that
I was doing Punchu Karma with, and you know, with
such regularity on that chat it's like, well, could you
just tell us how to make this? Could you tell
us how to make that? And I think that's one
of the most beautiful things that takes place at so
hum Is. It's not only this very very deep reset
(35:38):
for your body, but there's also so much education so
that when you go home you don't feel like you
don't know what to do about eating and about and
you're right, the chef does an incredible job. So I
also want to touch upon briefly that there are plans
for you guys at SOHM to be expanding where so
much of the food that chef will be cooking with
(35:59):
will actually be grown on site. Is that right?
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah? Yeah, So you know, we we're a national North
Carolina So we got hit by the hurricane and we
lost a fair amount of the trees on the land,
which on one hand was devastating for us. You know,
we we really after the hurricane, we came up to land,
we all kind of went through our own greeting process
with what would happen there. But the silver lining in
(36:25):
it is we once we cleared the trees, we were
able to have like beautiful farm land now where we
will have herbs growing there, food growing there, will be
more of a farm table. And then also like in
terms of you connecting with plants, we want you to
connect with the plants. We're as a healing ally as well,
(36:45):
and so that will happen in a very different way.
And it's funny because you know, before the hurricane, we're like,
we do want to clear trees, but we had this
guilt about cutting them down. Doctor Lett has the deep
connection with trees, and the stature was like here you go,
you need to do a four.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Year Oh well, it's and I think you know one
of the things you keep mentioning herbs and herbs are
a big part of what we do from the physical
sense to keep our bodies balanced. But spices is also
another thing that I think I've been able to explore
in these past handful of years. And it goes back
to something that you said in the very beginning, which
(37:20):
is about digestion. So really, and then, as we now
know everyone knows who cares about their health, their digestion
plays such a big role in this feeling of alignment
that you discussed, and so being able to have the
food grown right next to you is something that is
obviously so nourishing, but so good for your digestion. We're
going to take a break. We'll be back for our
(37:40):
last break with Brenda in just a minute.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
You're listening to Food for Thought, brought to you by
the Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel and sweet Oh.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Brenda, I love talking about you, And as everyone knows
who listens to the show with regularity, I love the
subject of Iraveda. I love living in an Arabada way,
I love being able to share this incredible science with people.
So to go back to sooham, what is the process
like for folks who are listening who are interested in visiting.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Absolutely so, if you go to our website so Homehealing
dot Com, you'll be able to gain a really strong
sense of what it is like. If you're just curious
about like what is it? I want to just see more?
I'm and see some pictures. I want to read more.
That will give you a beautiful way to just engage
with us initially, and then there is an option to
(38:31):
book a call with one of our ambassadors who will
share more with you. They'll also see make sure that
it is a good fit for you as well and
answering questions that you have as well.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And then you sort of prep your body, you make
a time that you come and then you know, everything
that we shared about puncha Karma comes next. So and
then you guys also are offering some specific things for
folks who are interested in certain areas of our raada.
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yeah? So a couple of things we're super excited about
is they're going to have two unique retreats in July.
So if you're looking at your summer plans and you're like,
what do I do? How do I fill the space?
And we have a cooking immersion featuring our chef as
well as Naha, who is an amazing cook. She has
(39:23):
a cooking show on our app that we have as well.
We have our own app is called Ipanoplus. So every
day they'll be body work, they'll be cooking and nutrition
education and beautiful experiences. And the second one is going
to be a woman's retreat, which I will be a
part of as well as one of our dear team members.
(39:46):
Her name is Erica. She's a casty clinical psychologist but
also has done amazing Rites of Passage work as well
as priestess training and she's just phenomenal. So that will
be a similar daily body work, group experiences and more
both in July. So yeah, our ambassadors are super excited
(40:07):
to share more about that.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
So exciting and want to make sure that everybody goes
to the website to check it out. So, Brenda, you
know this, We've given a lot of information and people
are probably like, Okay, I want to read a book,
I want to hear more about it, I want to
get more engaged. But there's also very simple things that
people can do. If somebody's looking to make a shift
in their life from an aerobatic perspective, what are some
(40:31):
small ways that you suggest people start.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Absolutely, so I'm going to harpigain my soapbox is really
living more in harmony with the cycles around you. So
take your day cycle if you can rise with the
sun and bring a pause during that time and have
it could be just a five minute routine, some breath work,
just sitting outside even with your feet on the ground.
(40:57):
That and then at the end of the day, really
as the sun is setting, So starting around six pm,
slow down your day, dim the life, change the music
in the house, life, start to turn off your phones
and your computers. Honoring the setting of the sun is
really really important as well. And then it loves because
(41:21):
of me. Is the core of your of your of
your health. Your digestify as the core of your health.
One of the unique principles which I think may may
take some like cash people off guard, is lunch should
be your biggest meal. That is when it's fun is
at its highest boring. So your your wrong thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It's definitely a hard one for people to wrap their
heads around, but lunch should be the biggest meal of
the day. I hope everybody goes to so hum Healing
dot com. Brenda, it's been an absolute honor to have
you on the show. Thank you for your amazing work
and for sharing it with us.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Thank you, thank you. I'm so grateful.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Okay, and we'll be back next week with more food
for thought, brought to you by the Bock Center.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.