87 - Victoria Moran celebrates my 50th and inspires me to Age Like a Yogi - Sideline Sisters

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hey ladies, my name is Jenny Chaffetz and I am the host of
Sideline Sisters. Are you a busy mom, powerhouse
professional or high achieving go getter?
This show is for no BS women whowant to be inspired to get off
the sidelines of their lives. Ever feel like you're playing
small or safe or just on autopilot?

(00:23):
My guests are relatable women who've gone on a journey,
overcome challenges, and live toshare the lessons that we want
to hear. These conversations will be
funny, sad, scary, wise, encouraging, and most of all,
real. So whether you're driving, doing
chores, exercising, walking the dog, or just laying on the

(00:45):
couch, settle in and enjoy. I want to invite you to take
back your power, reignite your passions, and step off the
sidelines. Let's go.
Hello my friends and welcome to my 50th birthday party.
Yay. I am turning 50 next week and to

(01:05):
celebrate I invited a very special person on to the show
today. My name is Jenny Chaffetz, I'm
the host of Sideline Sisters, and today I am joined by someone
I have admired. For.
Quite a while now. Her name is Victoria Moran and
she is a powerhouse voice in theworld of of veganism, activism,

(01:29):
yoga and aging with purpose, style and fabulousness.
Cited by Veg News magazine amongthe top ten living vegetarian
authors, Victoria Moran has written 14 books, including the
international bestseller Creating a Charmed Life and her
latest, Age Like a. Yogi.

(01:52):
A Heavenly path to a dazzling Third act featured twice on
Oprah and voted Peta's Sexiest Vegan Over 50 in 2016.
She is the founder of Main Street Vegan Academy, training
vegan lifestyle coaches, educators and entrepreneurs, and
lead producer of the 2019 documentary A Prayer for
Compassion. She lives in New York City and

(02:14):
fun facts about Vic with a $1.00press card from a teen magazine.
She attended her first Beatles press conference at age 14, and
when she was 17, Paul McCartney bought her a drink.
Victoria is absolutely stunning.She's accomplished, smart,
talented, and has this vibrancy that comes out in the work that

(02:39):
she does and the lives that she touches.
It was her book Main Street Vegan that helped guide me as a
new vegan and I even contemplated attending Main
Street Vegan Academy five years ago and it looks like I am
actually going to take her up onthe offer.
She mentions at the end of the episode her newest book, Age

(03:01):
Like a Yogi, is freaking amazing.
It doesn't matter if you are into yoga or Ayurvedic medicine,
you will find value if you are aperson living in the world,
aging and desiring to do it in ahealthier, more energetic way.
So I encourage you to check. Out that book and I just want to

(03:22):
add before we get into the episode, as luck would have it,
as soon as I stopped recording and said goodbye to her, I
realized that there was a question I desperately wanted to
ask her that I didn't get aroundto asking and that is all about
turning 50. So I didn't get to it.
I didn't ask her about her own experience aging.

(03:46):
But if you listen to her interview with RIP Esselstyn on
the Plant Strong podcast, she does talk about the milestone of
50 several times in that conversation.
So I will link to that and you can check it out.
And before we get into the conversation, I want to remind
you that next Thursday, August 14th at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, I

(04:10):
am hosting a free workshop over Zoom called Coping with
Challenges. Because aren't we all doing that
all the time, every day? And wouldn't you like to do it
in a more compassionate, healthy, supportive way?
So I will have the link for thatworkshop in the show notes and
you can join me for that hour and learn how to cope with daily

(04:34):
stress and massive obstacles with healthier mechanisms.
Now let's get into the conversation with Vic.
OK, well today is such a specialepisode on Sideline Sisters I.
As we can all see, I am turning 50 in a few days and I wanted to

(04:58):
mark this special occasion by interviewing someone I deeply
admire and who has been my role model for aging beautifully and
vibrantly so, Victoria Moran, welcome to Sideline Sisters.
Thank you. It's an honor and pleasure.

(05:20):
It's it's all mine. So when I went vegan almost five
years ago, I read your book MainStreet Vegan.
Thank you. It, it was incredible.
And I, I don't even remember howI stumbled upon that or you or,
or, you know, the whole chain ofevents, but I did find it and I

(05:40):
quickly realized it was like a Bible, like a road map, like the
old AAA triptych on how to go vegan.
It, it was mind blowing in the best way and made the
transition, which was very dramatic.
You know, I, I chose to do the overnight transition and it made
it very smooth. Thank you for that.

(06:04):
And over the years, I've continued to follow your content
and just always be amazed by thethings that you are doing and
developing as you on on planet Earth or or you know by how
however we choose to explain it as you age.

(06:26):
So you have this newish book out.
I know it's been out for a few months.
Age like a Yogi and we will get into a lot about that.
And I will admit that I do not identify as a Yogi, but you
definitely make me curious or more interested in approaching
that lifestyle. So let's begin with in the book.

(06:51):
In this new newest book, you talk about a woman named Iris
repeatedly. And you talk about what an
inspirational force this woman was for you and for clearly
everyone she encountered. And but now that it's been what,
50 plus years since you met her,it seems just apropos to tell

(07:17):
you that you're basically my iris.
So thank you. Well, that's a that's a great
compliment because I think we doneed people, women in
particular, if we're women who who are have done this before
us. I had a wonderful conversation a
Saturday morning with Stella Cherfis, who was my first yoga

(07:41):
teacher. She is 100 now.
She still teaches one chair yogaClass A week.
She lives in a third floor walk up.
She's really remarkable. Another Iris.
So Iris was a woman that I met in the spiritual library where I
I worked and somebody's like, how can a library be spiritual?

(08:04):
It's a library that focused on books about religion,
philosophy, spirituality, that kind of thing.
Part of the Theosophical Societyin America where I actually
lived and worked at when I was 20 and and 21.
So Iris wasn't an actual employee.
She lived in the town there. But she had been a Theosophist

(08:27):
forever. And theosophy is a kind of yoga
like philosophy, Eastern spirituality packaged for
Westerners. But we would call on her, and
she was late 70s, and she had wonderful white hair.
And she'd walk in just like, youknow, I have arrived.

(08:48):
And she didn't say that she wasn't egotistical or anything
at all, but she just carried this light with her.
And I remember that whenever I would complain, you know, this
is wrong, That's wrong, she would always say the darling
physical plane. And that's kind of a yogic thing
to say because in those kinds oftraditions, we talk about

(09:10):
different planes of being the physical, being the most dense
and subtler planes of being planes of understanding.
But she just had this glow. And, you know, I'm there, I'm
20, she's 78. And it's like, wait a minute,

(09:31):
I'm supposed to have the glow ofyouth on my side, and here is
this woman that can be my grandmother lighting up the
room. What are we going to do about
that? So what I did was learn from her
and from so many of these other amazing women who have come
later. And to be able to pass that
along to someone as wonderful asyourself, I'm truly honored.

(09:53):
Thank you. Thank you.
I'm. I'm here to receive the wisdom.
So I'm sure you've told the story a million times.
Were you already inclined to a life of service, activism,
spirituality prior to age 20, let's say?
Well, I mean, how did you end upthere in that role?

(10:16):
And then, and then where did yougo from there?
And I, I asked this because my son is turning 20 tomorrow.
My daughter's not far behind. And that just seems like a very
evolved state. And and I'm so curious how that
how that came to be and how thatgrew.
From there, well, think I don't know if it's evolved or not or

(10:37):
if it's just that that's where my interests are.
You know, I think we, we look atyoung people and they all have
these fascinating interests. They can just find out about
something and just take it. I was just something popped up
on YouTube last night. It was an old What's My line
show from the early 60s and theyhave this little girl who was

(11:02):
then six years old and she was abilliards player.
And I Googled her to see if it was just a one off.
And she grew up to become one ofthe greatest billiards players
of all time. So I think sometimes these
things that we do when we're little kids are are really
significant. So for me, I was always

(11:24):
interested in in spiritual things.
I remember my nanny taking me out in my stroller just before
my third birthday. It was late at night.
I don't know why we were out except that maybe my husband, my
parents were having an argument.But we were out and there were
the stars, Bright, beautiful stars.
I don't see them much here in New York City.

(11:45):
We lived in Kansas City, so there were stars.
And I remember thinking, OK, that's home.
I'm here, I'm doing this. There is nothing wrong with it,
but it is not home. And, you know, looking back, it
seems like very adult cerebral, you know, kind of thinking.
But I think we, we are, we know we show up here, I believe as

(12:12):
souls fully formed, we have to learn to operate a new body and,
and whatnot. But we're not just these, these
little creatures that don't haveanything going on.
So my interest was always the big picture what what it means.
And that was underscored by another one of my many irises

(12:37):
and that's Didi, who was a grandmother aged nanny who was
hired to come and take care of me when I was six months old
because both my parents worked and this was before daycare.
And Didi had explored lots of different spiritual traditions.
By the time she got to us, she had landed in Unity, which is a
progressive Christian movement founded in the 1890s by Ethical

(13:00):
Vegetarian who managed somehow to print their Bibles with faux
leather in 1890s Amazing. But anyway, she was always very
open minded about these things. She was the first person to tell
me that vegetarians existed in the world.
That was a big deal. I didn't know what to do with

(13:21):
that information, but I filed itaway thinking, oh, vegetarians.
Oh, that might be something to be.
And yeah, and then when I was in7th grade, lovely woman.
I always say her name when I geta chance on podcast, just in
case somebody knows her. Rebecca Gott lived with her

(13:44):
mother there in in Kansas City. And the mother was into
Christian mysticism and she had all these books like The
Practice of the Presence of God and the Seven Story Mountain and
The Cloud of Unknowing. And we just, we just ate those
books up. I don't think we understood a

(14:05):
word, but we at least carried them around, tried to get them
by osmosis read to the degree that we were able because we
were both just those kinds of kids who wanted to know the
meaning of life. And that's what led me to yoga,
vegetarianism, veganism, all sorts of exploring different
kinds of, of spiritual traditions and getting my

(14:28):
degree, my bachelor's degree, which is the only one I have in
comparative religions and writing in the margins.
Oh, they said that in Taoism. Oh, Judaism said that too.
You know, I love the connections.
That's so beautiful. How?
I mean, did you encounter any pushback from the concrete

(14:51):
world? The were your parents supportive
of this? Did you have friends who were on
board? Or did people look at you and
say, Victoria, what are you going to do with that degree or
what do you plan to do with yourlife?
This is get your head out of theclouds.
Yeah, well, but I went to college late and I started
writing for publication when I was 14.

(15:11):
I wrote for teen magazines, got into my first Beatles press
conference when I was 14 1/2. And so by the time I went back
to school at 28, I had a career as a magazine writer.
And so everybody said, oh, you're going to go get your
degree in journalism. And I'm like, why would I do

(15:33):
that? I already do that.
And I that quotation attributed to Einstein.
I want to know God's thoughts. The rest is incidental.
That was what I was thinking, too.
And so that was the reason for that degree.
And I think I was old enough that people didn't tell me, you

(15:53):
know, you should major in something else.
But growing up, I think my parents, particularly my mom,
who didn't really know what to make of me.
I, I, I was different from either of my parents.
An astrologer once told me that Dee Dee, this lovely grandmother
aged nanny was my, my parent, that my parents had provided a

(16:18):
body and, you know, God bless them both.
But I really got, I related muchmore to, to DD.
So my mother, however, had grownup kind of just whatever kind of
Christian Church was nearby, youknow, they went to that.

(16:40):
My dad was raised Catholic and Iwas supposed to be brought up
Catholic and, and theoretically I was, but I was getting all
this other information from Deedee.
I remember learning the Lord's Prayer and wanting to add on for
thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever,
which they don't say in in the Catholic Church.

(17:03):
And I remember Deedee whisperingit.
And another time I was explaining to the nuns about
that Jesus wasn't the only avatar because you could look at
Krishna and Buddha and there were others who had, you know,
come to be expressions of God onearth.
And, you know, the nuns didn't like that.

(17:25):
And I was telling Deedee, and Deedee said, oh, they, they mean
well, they just don't get out much.
So that was kind of my childhood.
Plus my dad was a doctor in Kansas City.
When he'd opened his practice, the neighborhood was kind of
Eastern European, Jewish primarily, and and then it

(17:47):
became more and more African American.
So by the time I came along, it was a completely black
neighborhood. And so he had all of his black
patients, and then he had all ofthese other Eastern European
patients who had largely moved away but would come back for
their medical care. And as a result, I mean, we were

(18:08):
going to bar mitzvahs and, you know, Eastern Orthodox weddings
and big Black Baptist funerals and, you know, all these
wonderful ways to kind of grow up in the United Nations of
traditions, of faith traditions.I was just talking to someone

(18:30):
this morning. One of the projects I'm part of
now is the Compassion Consortium, which is an
interfaith spiritual Center for Animal Advocates Co, founded by
my husband and a colleague of his.
They're both interfaith ministers.
I'm the layperson tagging along.But anyway, I was interviewing A

(18:50):
fascinating gentleman. Ultima said he's a Pakistani
environmental and animal rights attorney.
This fascinating, fascinating person.
And, and we were talking about how people use religion as one
of the many ways to have reasonsto disagree when at the heart

(19:13):
and soul of every one of those wisdom traditions, there's the
same stuff. And if we could just find that,
we'd all get along a lot better.I, I know, I, I feel like that
sentiment has come up so many times when I have conversations
with growth minded spiritual people.
Is God, If people just did a A&B, wouldn't the world be

(19:37):
better? Why is it so simple and so
complicated at the same time? Which maybe transitions to a
question that I have wanted to ask you.
So I've gone down the rabbit hole of Victoria Moran and I've
I've listened to so many podcasts, read books and there
are things that you've said thathave stood out to me that I want
to go a little deeper on. So I heard you say in another

(20:00):
podcast that it's it's about living a love based life.
And in doing so, if one chooses to follow that concept, then
everything else takes care of itself.
Can you speak more about that? Does it really work like that?

(20:20):
Well, you know, not I think in the way that that we would hope.
I know in a lot of, you know, kind of new age and new thought
kinds of teachings, it's so easyto take some of that like, Oh,
well, if I just visualize the 12th room mentioned by the sea
will show up. Like not not often.

(20:43):
But what I do think is if we've truly focused on our inner
essence, which is love, then we know that we are connected to
all living beings. And even though I understand
there are some people who get way off course, you know, you
can't trust everybody. You can't walk up to everybody

(21:06):
you see on the street and befriend them, unfortunately.
But if you have this general idea that you are connected, a
lot of great things are going tohappen.
One is even if you happen to be alone, you aren't really alone
and you feel this incredible support.

(21:28):
It's easier to find resources that you need when you feel that
you're connected to everybody else instead of that you're at
odds with everybody else or or you're trying to get something
from them, but they're differentfrom you.
I think the other thing that happens with a love based life
is it fills this empty hole thatPascal called the God shaped

(21:53):
hole and every man that only Godcan fill.
So, you know, change the word God, change the word man,
whatever you need to do, but thehole is still there.
And, and this love, I mean, it really, really fills it.
And we know this because when we're in these intense love

(22:14):
situations in our lives, when weare in love or even think we
are, when we have a young child,new dog, old dog, past me dog,
you know, we really get this, this intense feeling of love.

(22:38):
And I think if you're really doing this and you're doing a
little spiritual practice here and there, sometimes you get
these glimpses. And for me, one description of
it is out to lunch with women friends and I look around the
table and think, my God, they'rebeautiful.

(23:02):
Am I hanging out with like ex pageant people?
I didn't think so. How'd they get so beautiful?
Well, that's because of how we're seeing.
Or every now and then I'll go inthe subway and everybody looks
like an Angel. Not every day, every now and
then. And and there's, it's just an

(23:23):
uplift, you know, it doesn't mean life will be perfect.
Life is just very difficult. And it certainly doesn't get
easier when you get older. Statistically, you become more
accepting. But there's a lot more to accept
with that understanding of just at the center of who we are is

(23:46):
is this light, this love, this bliss.
And to just remember that, I think is really helpful.
It's so true and if someone listening has not had this
experience yet, then I pray it happens soon because I have been
in that environment. I went to a retreat back in
April and it was 35 women and itwas just as you described,

(24:13):
sitting with girlfriends at lunch.
I knew one person in the room. I went with my best friend and
looked around at 33 strangers and the the overwhelm of
compassion and appreciation and connection to complete strangers

(24:34):
by just it's I guess again, I'm not a Yogi, but that whole the
light in me sees the light in you.
And it was like there were thesealmost like meteoric laser kind
of connection beams between us. I love it.
It was. Wild.
And I need to say too, because twice you've said you're not a

(24:56):
Yogi. When, when I was thinking of
this title, it's like a Yogi. It's really how can we age with
spirituality at our center. And I've been around yoga a long
time and the great thing about yoga and it's kind of Vedanta,

(25:16):
which is a yoga like thing too, is that all wisdom traditions
are accepted. And so anybody that has any kind
of spiritual life, whether it's attached to some tradition with
a name or whether it's fully independent, you know, I think
is a Yogi because yoga means union, union with ourselves,

(25:38):
with one another, with the divine.
So I think anybody who's paying attention to to their inner is a
Yogi. OK, I, I will, I will grasp at
that. And frankly, I heard you say in
another conversation that you had a different working title
five years ago for the book thatam I.

(26:01):
Is that correct in your head? Something about Iris?
Oh, that's right. Boy, you do have a good memory.
Yes. I I was thinking of calling it
becoming Iris and it was just going to be about aging and
spirituality and that. But then as I with a non fiction

(26:21):
book, you start with a proposal.And so as I was writing and
playing with it, I started to see that as we look at aging,
very few readers only want to look at the inner part.
It's like, OK, that's all great and I'll die peacefully.
Good for me. But between now and then, I want

(26:43):
to live vibrantly and amazingly and continue having adventures.
And what I talk about that in inthe book on the physical sense
is largely Yoga's sister scienceof Ayurveda, which are these
fabulous suggestions and and tips for self-care ways to get
to know yourself really well. So Iris is definitely in there,

(27:07):
but aged like a Yogi was able tobring in yoga philosophy and
Ayurveda, which is just just thecoolest thing.
I, I discovered it in the 1990s,even though I discovered yoga in
the 60s, You know, Ayurveda kindof came a little bit later, but
it's a, it's a lovely system that can be incorporated.

(27:29):
And this is the other thing too.You know, I think there was a
time when people looked at ways of being in the world and it was
almost like pick one. And when I was little, people
were still saying to little girls, do you want to be a mom
or housewife? They would even say or a career

(27:50):
girl. I remember thinking, well, why
can't I be both? Because my mom was, she was
completely, you know, different.But I think we, we thought that
like, well, you know, I can onlybe, you know, I can see things
this way. But the truth is you can see
things any way you see them. And if attaching some labels and

(28:13):
going deep in a particular path makes sense, well, that's fine.
But yeah. Well I mean I'm I'm glad you
changed the name because it it does speak to a non regular
practicing Yogi like myself. I and I.

(28:33):
I did find while there is so much content in that book and it
is magnificently dense with suggestions, it also wasn't
preachy. It wasn't.
A set of rules. I found your tone very

(28:56):
welcoming. Thank you.
Well, I appreciate that. Cause nobody likes being
preached to. I mean, there's a there's a very
popular book that I will not name that's out there in the
spiritual, you know, oeuvre of books and the genre that that
says something like at the very beginning, you might not read

(29:18):
this book today, but you will read this book at some point,
you know, like, you know, and it's like, you know what, I
really wanted to read this book,but now that it's sort of, you
know, has become this sort of, you are now drafted, it's like,
no, I think I'll pass. No, there's too much else out
there. Unlike when you were a child and

(29:39):
there were only three books in the library, now there's plenty
to read. Hey everybody, sorry for the
interruption but I have to tell you about the upcoming gentle
coaching workshop called Coping with Challenges.
Yeah, we all have coping strategies but maybe yours are
not the most healthy or supportive for your nervous
system. If your go to coping mechanism

(30:02):
is food, drink, shopping, gambling, scrolling, binging,
Netflix, perhaps denial and dismissal, then I want to invite
you into this free workshop where we will explore other
techniques takes that will be a little more conducive to overall
well-being, feeling, content, serenity and even better sleep.

(30:25):
The workshop is Thursday, August14th, 3:00 PM Eastern.
The link is in the show notes toregister.
I really hope to see you there. Gosh, there's so many.
Things I want to ask you with everything that you compiled
into the book, all the differentyogic ideas, all the Ayurvedic
possible practices, and you did leave space for people to be

(30:51):
individuals. What are your favorites or what
are the things that you feel most intensely about having in
your life? I think that meditation, I call
it in the book The Swiss Army Knife of the Spiritual Life.
I, I think it's intensely important and how you do it is

(31:15):
up to you. Traditionally yogically was
using a mantra, which can be, you know, Om Shanti, something
Sanskrit, it can be English. All is well, God is love.
I am blessed. I don't care what it is.
It's just something to focus on.And then some people just focus
on their breath. You know, it's more of a, a

(31:35):
Buddhist tradition, but the ideaof taking time every day,
certainly in the morning, but ideally morning and late
afternoon kind of before dinner changes everything.
So at its heart, it's spiritual practice.
And if you really are into yoga,Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are the

(31:59):
basic textbook of Raja yoga or philosophical yoga and all these
other things that we think of asyoga, like the exercise part,
the asanas, the breathing. It's all in service of getting
to this place of dharana, DNA samadhi, of concentration,

(32:20):
meditation and bliss or connection.
And in addition, ever since the early 1970s, we have known that
meditation is remarkable for what it does for the physical
body. People who meditate have fewer

(32:41):
sick days. Their stress is massively
reduced. It puts you in your
parasympathetic nervous system, which these days is very hard to
get to because we're under constant stress.
Somebody always wants something.Or we just happen to, you know,
open Instagram hoping we'll finda cat video.

(33:03):
And what we find is some disaster just happened somewhere
or dear friend just lost a relative.
I there's just so, so much. And so there are very few ways
to get into that parasympatheticstate.
One way is, is body work. So you're lying on the massage

(33:26):
table or you're getting acupuncture, which I was had
chef AJ that a lot of people know on on my podcast.
We were talking yesterday and she says she calls it ACU
napping because you're there andyou'd think, well, how could you
rest with needles in you? But they're just very, very
tiny. You can't feel them.
And it puts you in this almost sedated kind of state.

(33:50):
Well, that's all great. And if you're rich and you can
do that kind of stuff every day,maybe you wouldn't need to
meditate for your physical well-being.
But it's free and it works. So I think meditation #1 #2 is
some kind of movement. Now, obviously, I'm fond of

(34:10):
yoga, hatha yoga, the movement kind of yoga.
There are lots of different kinds of yoga now.
And if you're looking into it, especially if you're over 50 or
if you've got any kind of old injury, you want to really do a
deep dive because the kind of yoga that was available when I
started out was a classical hatha yoga.

(34:31):
It was very simple. It was characterized by a hold
in the posture. And when I say simple, I don't
mean that there weren't extremely challenging postures
for people who got to an advanced state of that, but a
yoga class that you would just walk into was doable by almost

(34:51):
everybody. And nowadays there's some very
rugged kinds of classes that that you'd want to, you know, if
you're not in super good shape, you don't want to start with
those. But really any kind of movement,
if, if yoga's not your thing, but you do Pilates or running or
fast walking or whatever it is, you know, obviously you need to

(35:13):
do something that's cardio, you need to do something that builds
muscle and bone and something for flexibility.
But I think especially with aging, the exercises, the
panacea, There's a wonderful book.
There are actually two books, 1 is called Younger next year.
The other is called Younger nextyear for women.
I think they came out in 2012 and 2013, written by a a

(35:39):
master's level skier and a medical doctor.
And it's really the the first one was for men and the second
one was pretty much the same book with a pink cover.
It was for women, but the gist of it was really about exercise
in the aging process. And something that I had never
learned before is that in an like, evolutionary sense, when

(36:05):
you think back to prehistoric times, a great many humans did
not make it through the winter. And they went into The Cave and
they just kind of hunched there to see if they were going to
make it through, and they didn'tmove.
And so the connection between the brain and the body became
such that this person is not moving.

(36:29):
Therefore we don't need to mountan immune response.
We don't need to send helpful hormones somewhere because this
person is on their way out. It's true today.
And it doesn't matter if we're eating, you know, amply it's
still this body is not moving. Don't help it.

(36:51):
And, and so I think that's really, really important.
And then the third thing that that I would say, and when I
talk about the meditation, that's meditation and spiritual
connection and then movement andthen #3 is to eat food with life
force intact. And there's so many reasons that

(37:13):
I have chosen to be vegan. You know, mostly for me, it's
the animals. There's heart disease in my
family going back, I don't know,generations.
And and so we've known since 1990 that a reasonable virtually
vegan diet can not only prevent but reverse heart disease.

(37:34):
You know, nothing's a panacea. Everybody gets sick.
But it, it seems like a very wise thing to do.
But for for the yoga point of view, it is so important on 2
levels to eat these wonderful plant foods.

(37:56):
One is ahimsa. That is the basic first moral
tenant of yoga that translates as non violence or non harming.
So we don't want to eat anythingthat killed somebody or caused
somebody to suffer. And then on the other hand, for
our own physical well-being, these kinds of of foods, they're

(38:20):
considered Satvik in yoga. So fruits, vegetables, grains,
legumes, nuts and seeds, these are these beautiful, gentle
foods. And of course, you know, within
that you make your own choices. You know, if something upsets
your stomach, you're allergic, Imean, obviously you don't eat
it, but there's 250,000 edible plants.

(38:42):
There's a lot out there. And I think just to really feed
yourself food that has its life force intact.
You know, in yoga we talk about prana, that life force energy,
and so beautiful colorful foods.So those would be my 3.
Perfect. I love that.

(39:04):
Now you. Alluded to the fact that yoga
has in its presentation in modern day is different than
decades, centuries, millennia ofpast.
You know, every corner has a yoga studio on it and most

(39:24):
people I know have tried a yoga class go regularly.
But the thing that I find interesting is the last point
that you made the that a massivetenet of yoga is this non
violence core belief. But I would say most people I

(39:44):
know who have a regular yoga practice do not have any
connection to food consumption. I don't know, has something
changed? The belief is still there in the
yoga tradition. So why is it that you learned
long ago if I'm following this movement?

(40:09):
Path. Well then it affects my eating.
What's different today? Yoga has become huge, and in all
honesty, I didn't know how huge it had become until I wrote this
book. Because I'm a writer.
I've been a writer, as I said, since I was a kid.
And the idea that a writer who is willing to research something

(40:32):
can't write about anything, I still don't get it.
But now we're supposed to be in these categories and these
platforms. In other words, you know, what
are your people on Instagram andFacebook know you for?
And even though I've been doing yoga for well over 50 years, I'm
not in that yoga world. And it's a world, you know, and

(40:55):
I guess that's just what happenswhen things get to be very big.
But what also happens is that the things that people like the
most and get focused on and the things that they're not so
interested in kind of fall away.And particularly for Americans,
we, we really want to look good.We like the idea of movement and

(41:20):
exercise and athletics, and we really honor athletes.
And so a lot of yoga has taken this very athletic turn.
If you look at Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, asana, which is what
would now be, you know, considered the poses or the
exercises, asana actually means easy, relaxed position.

(41:42):
And basically all Patanjali had to say about asana was find an
easy, relaxed position so that you can meditate for a long
time. But over time, as things evolve
and everything does, people did start doing some of these
exercise practices to help with that.
And in the Middle Ages, a book came out called the Hatha Yoga

(42:05):
Pradipika, which had the basic yoga postures, most of them
based on observations of nature,observations of animals.
This is why yoga poses are called, you know, Cabot and
Cabot, camel and rabbit. Dog, dog.
All those. And so as yoga came to the West,

(42:30):
it's very interesting. The first Yogi to come to
America was Swami Vivekananda in1893.
And if anybody really likes spirituality and really likes
history, as I do, I would inviteyou to Audible and look up Swami
Vivekananda recording, because there's a little recording of

(42:52):
him speaking at the Congress of the World's Religions in Chicago
in 1893, part of the World's Fair there.
And I didn't even know they could do recordings in 1893, but
evidently they could. And to hear this beautiful,
robust voice speaking with prideof coming from India, which was

(43:15):
this place that accepted all religions.
And he explained that after the destruction of the Second Temple
in Jerusalem, that Jews came to India and and were welcomed and
accepted. And the the Zoroastrians, when
they were run out of Persia, were warmly invited to India.

(43:37):
And it's like he could be talking today, except it was way
back then. And so that was what came as
yoga. And then a little bit later, we
got Swami Yogananda, ParamahansaYogananda.
I'm sorry, not Swami. Well, he was a Swami too, Swami
Paramahansa Yogananda who started self realization

(43:57):
fellowship. And again he brought this
beautiful philosophy. I remember when I was 18, coming
back from London on a plane, I read one of his little books and
one of the quotations has stayedwith me.
He wrote At the center of peace.I stand.
Nothing can harm me here. I mean, I have used that so many

(44:22):
times over love these many decades.
So that was coming. But the Hatha yoga came to the
the exercise parts and then somedifferent schools of that that
were very much focused, you know, on, on the physical.
And that's what people have gravitated toward.
But what I think is so importantnow is to remember that in even

(44:51):
the physical kinds of yoga, the schools in India that were
training people and including the yoga posture practice as
well, you had to master the moral precepts and the personal
disciplines first. And the very first one was
ahimsa, and that's nonviolence, and that includes nonviolent

(45:13):
dining. And now I know I said earlier
that I don't like people being preachy.
And some people are saying, hey,I guess she was being preachy.
It's basically what, what can you do within your own worldview
and what you believe and what you think's important and what
you think is right? What can you do to make your

(45:35):
life as a whole less violent andthe foods that you choose less
violent? Maybe you'll do Meatless Monday,
you know, or or maybe you won't.You know, it's like Ioffer ideas
'cause they're, you know, important to me.
But yoga has always stood for Peace to All beings, and that's

(46:01):
actually a beautiful book by Judy Carmen, Peace to All
Beings. And it's also stood for taking
really good care of the physicalbody because again, how they
came up with these beautiful Satvik foods, the fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.
And I will admit that in ancienttimes they came up also with

(46:24):
dairy, you know, milk from healthy cows.
And there's religious tradition in India where Krishna was
raised by milk maids and there'sall that kind of stuff.
But so many of, of the spiritualteachers today from India have
have seen that to truly honor the sacred cow is to not steal

(46:45):
her milk and steal her babies and, you know, let her end up in
a, in a bad state. So that's how for me, yoga is
vegan. There's a podcast.
It's not going on anymore. I think maybe the archives are
still out there. It's called Yoga is Vegan with
Holly's Beautiful, beautiful podcast.

(47:06):
She did for several years. Yeah.
You know, it's, it's like how westarted the conversation today,
that whole if we did a A&B or those simple things would result
in a peaceful world. And it just, it seems so obvious
to you and to me now that I havetransitioned to a vegan life,

(47:30):
that clearly the animal food industry is violent.
I do not want to consume that. I do not want to promote that.
And it just it, it's common sense to us to want to remove as
much violence from the rhetoric,from the consumption, from the

(47:52):
marketing, from commerce. It's, it just seems so obvious
to me. So I'm I'm a little sad that
this beautiful tradition has found its way into the weight
loss industry, and less so in its its roots, but.
Well, and it's funny too when when you talk about that,

(48:15):
because I remember traveling in that part of the world in India,
Nepal, Tibet. This was the early 90s when the
1st edition of my book, The LovePower Diet, which was my story
of overcoming disorder, binge eating and food addiction.
And I did lose some weight. And so people ask, what's your

(48:36):
book about? And I would say, well, it's a
book for people who eat too much.
And they would laugh. They thought that was a joke.
How could you eat too much? And, and things are probably
different now. There's a lot more prosperity in
India than than there was then. But there was still this idea
of, I mean, eating too much is just this, this great blessing,

(48:59):
and nobody gets the opportunity very often.
Pardon the Interruption, but I have to tell you about my
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It is a Wellness resort and there are several locations in
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Berkshires of Massachusetts and I'm telling you about it so that

(49:19):
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Everything from the food, the staff, the facilities, the
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It's first class so I hope you will check it out.
You can book online or over the phone using code sideline to
save 10%. And now let's get back to the

(49:41):
show. So I think that it's it's all
about being open and it's like anything else.
You start doing yoga and if you really look into it, you're
going to find this other stuff. Maybe it won't come at at your
yoga class at, you know, the hotyoga studio, health club or

(50:03):
wherever you are. But if you look, it's the.
Yes, yeah, that's you and I can pray for that.
So another thing that I heard you mention in other interviews
is living by doing the next indicated thing.
I love that. And it, it was so fascinating to

(50:26):
me that I mean, I just heard it in an interview I listened to
yesterday and it's like it hit me over the head with a brick
because I just in the last few days encountered a situation in
my own life and let me back up. So since I first read about you

(50:48):
learned about you read the book five years ago, I contemplated
joining your program, MainstreamVegan Academy.
And I considered that certification.
And I ended up going in a different direction and getting
life coaching certification elsewhere.
But it's always been there in the subconscious, you know, it's

(51:09):
should I have done that? Could I still do that?
It's still. There.
And so in the meantime, I have been wanting vegan community.
And so I, I found this other community and a conflict arose
between me and the founder of ofthat group just in the last few

(51:32):
days. And it led me to think, you
know, do I pivot? I don't know if that's the right
community for me. There should not be this kind of
conflict in a group that is supposed to bring me joy and
connection. And when I heard you say the
next indicated thing, it was like, not just a light bulb.

(51:55):
It it was, you know, a Times Square Jumbotron lit up saying I
think this is the next indicatedthing for me that it's not that
if that community is creating somuch strife in something that is
supposed to be so aligned and beautiful, maybe this is my sign
to follow the next indicated thing.

(52:18):
So I just where did that originate for you?
Where that belief system? Yeah, well, first, I'm very
honored and I hope that the nextindicated thing for you is Main
Street Vegan Academy, because it's a magical program.
I only created it to be excellent.
I didn't know it was going to bemagical.
It has been since its beginningsin in 2012, training and

(52:41):
certifying vegan lifestyle coaches and educators.
It's the next indicated thing isactually one of the slogans in
the 12 step programs where there's just so much wisdom and
and which have been so meaningful and important in my
life. And I kind of stole it and used

(53:03):
it for one of my little essays in my book called Creating a
Charmed Life, which was a charmed book.
It's. Quarter million copies and
foreign rights to 32 countries, which I think is probably more
than all my other books put together have sold.
But anyway, yeah, the the next indicated thing is the idea that

(53:28):
we really do have this inner wisdom.
But if we overthink it like, OK,what should I do?
What should I do? Let's see if you need a sign.
Maybe you need to call somebody and and it's just like.
I've never done that. I don't know what you're talking
about. Oh, well, you know, good.
But the next thing, and it's usually so simple.

(53:51):
It's just like a road map, like right now in my life.
The next indicated thing is to continue this conversation as
long as you want to continue it with with the prayer that I'm,
you know, I'm going to use the word channeling because this is
me. But you know that that the

(54:12):
highest and best in me is comingout and not just some kind of
ego stuff that I need to say because I felt like saying it.
And then the next indicated thing, you know, after that will
be I see my little dog here at the end of the bed.
It's going to be time to take him out and then Preheat the
oven because I need to get lunchfor my husband.
And it's just, it's never go change the world, but one after

(54:37):
another after another, it does change the world, you know, in
in ripples. So yeah, it's and it's also it's
such a great boon for anxiety. And this is really the age of
anxiety. I mean, young people are in such
vast numbers on anti anxiety medications and people are just

(55:02):
scared to death and, and with good reason oftentimes.
But the idea of, you know, I can't change international
policy. You know, I can't even change
the the billions of land animalsand you know, including fishes,
trillions of animals killed every year for food, which to me

(55:25):
is an important thing. But what I can do is the next
indicated thing, which is eat a vegan meal, smile at somebody.
If one of those international issues is truly tugging at my
heart, write a letter, post something kind and just keep it
going. Because it seems to me that

(55:47):
that's how the universe speaks to us.
You know, very seldom do people get, you know, these aha
experiences and burning bushes and genies coming out of
bottles. Most of the time it's this
little quiet nudge of the next indicated thing.
And if you're living a love based life, then chances are

(56:10):
doing the next indicated thing will be kind, will be rooted in
love and beauty and connection. Yeah, we would hope, you know,
and then sometimes, I mean, you can be just just the best person
ever and you don't get enough sleep one night and you can be
all snappy and nasty. So it's.

(56:34):
That was a question. I don't want a physical play as
I was. Right.
That was a question I wanted to ask you is how do you deal with
difficulties? You have this enormous arsenal
of tools, strategies, and clearly decades of experience
and wisdom to draw from. But what when you come up

(56:56):
against something difficult, something hard, what do you do?
What is that? What is that like?
Well, often I fail. You know, I, I think there's
something in the Bible about lean not on my own
understanding. And I think my way that I do

(57:16):
things and maybe most people is that's the first thing we try.
You know, we lean in our own understanding and like, well,
what can I do? How do I fix this?
And that can last for a while, but if you're going through
something that is an ongoing challenge, something that's
really difficult and that doesn't look like it's going to

(57:39):
turn itself around anytime soon,then our, I believe our personal
ego understanding, regardless ofhow much we know, you know, how
many books we've read, how many cool quotes we can say it, it
just, it just isn't enough. And so it calls, in my view, for

(58:00):
translating spiritual practice into spiritual wherewithal.
People often say use the analogyof money in the bank.
You know, every time you meditate, that puts some some
money in your serenity bank and you can use it when you need it.

(58:20):
And I think when things really go wrong, it's about making that
withdrawal and, and oftentimes we're not used to doing that.
It's like we do these things every day, whether it's, you
know, yoga or contemplation or, you know, whatever we do, that's
self-care, personal growth, etcetera.

(58:43):
But then when all hell breaks loose and it's happening, I
think now for a lot of people, Imean, I realize I'm at the age
where a lot of contemporaries are, you know, get sick, die.
But people of all ages that I know, you know, in real life,

(59:03):
online, the things that they're being met with are, are just
astronomical. And so for me, it takes all I've
got. Sometimes it takes more than
I've got and sometimes I just need help.
So in recent years, the biggest challenge for me has been my

(59:24):
husband's health and subsequent disability.
He fell onto the subway tracks, onto the tracks just before the
pandemic. And because it wasn't a stroke
or a heart attack, they just sort of wrote it off as a must
have fainted, must have passed out.
And it was just this random thing.

(59:46):
Well, what we have learned yearslater after other incidents and
a lot of damage to his brain wasthat he has a seizure disorder
and that he actually showed signs of as a child, but then
went away and nobody thought about it again.
So. What that means is he has some

(01:00:07):
mobility issues and he has aphasia, as every year it seems
like there's been another kind of crisis that has made things
harder. And, you know, my own
understanding was working there for a while, and I was doing,
you know, the superwoman thing and was all great.

(01:00:29):
And then last fall, he'd made somuch progress with the aphasia
and a really intensive speech therapy program, and then he had
another event and lost all of itand more besides.
And that really that just about took me under.

(01:00:53):
And what helped me frankly, you know, more than the spiritual
practice or more than you know, what I carry with me is the fact
that my, my oldest friend, I don't want to say oldest like
she's old, but she's my friend. I've had the longest came out
from Chicago. My friend Rita, she was going to
stay about 3 days. She ended up staying 2 1/2 weeks

(01:01:17):
until I just got it together so much that that she could leave.
And then then the spiritual did come in.
And one of my friends who's one of these interesting vegans, you
know, some vegans are just so incredibly healthy.
It's just like, whoa, where'd you get your kale?

(01:01:38):
He and his wife have not seen a medical doctor in over 35 years.
And he said whenever something you know isn't quite right, we
call a Christian Science practitioner.
Well, I told you about deity andunity and unity, the new thought
of tradition. And so is Christian Science,

(01:01:58):
although it's a little bit more orthodox than the other ones.
But I thought, you know what, I need help with not crying all
the time and just feeling like Ican't do this.
And so I found a Christian Science practitioner and that

(01:02:19):
was very, very helpful. And for me, it caused that
depression, the fact that I was crying a lot and that I wasn't
sleeping well and working with her caused that to lift.
And, you know, it's it's humbling.

(01:02:41):
Would be much better to come on here and say, oh, yes, you know,
whatever happens to me, I just meditate and I stand on my head
for a while and, you know, I gotit taken care of.
But that's just not, you know, the way it is for me.
I'm sure it is for some people and good for them.
But, you know, for me, I needed help.

(01:03:03):
And it was my friend Rita and the Christian Science lady.
And because of them, I'm on a nice even footing now so that
I'm able to do the meditation and standing on my head and you
know, ACU napping and other goodthings.
I think that's what people need to hear.
You talked about not speaking from ego and channeling wisdom.

(01:03:26):
That's brilliant right there andand relatable.
I mean, the people who listen tothis podcast are women, let's
say, I don't know, 40 to 80. And there's a good chance a lot
of them are dealing with caregiving, whether it's for an
aging parent or a partner, maybeeven a child, who knows what

(01:03:49):
what's going on in the family. But caregiving was not in my
vernacular 20 years ago. But now I'd be surprised if I
could toss a rock out the windowand not have it reach someone
who's got caregiving in their world.
So thank you for speaking so relatably, so honestly about

(01:04:11):
that. My pleasure.
Well, I, as much as I would loveto do this for the next three
straight days, I, I don't want to monopolize your whole world.
Oh gosh, let's, let's maybe try to wrap it up with you sharing

(01:04:31):
with this audience. Maybe is there a particular
piece of advice that perhaps is nestled in one of your books
that the audience hasn't read? What would you want to tell the,
the women listening? What do you want them to know
most? What?

(01:04:53):
What in your 75 years of of growth and evolution, what do
you want us to know? I'm going to quote Auntie Name.
It's my favorite movie, 1958 Rosalind Russell version.
Auntie Name, she said. Life is a banquet and most poor
suckers are starving to death. So I would strongly encourage

(01:05:18):
all of the women listening 40 to80 and at the edges of those two
ages, do something every single day that lights you up.
And wherever you are in life, whatever difficulties you might
be facing, whatever limitations you might have, whatever your

(01:05:39):
bank account is telling you or whatever the doctor is telling
you, you can find a way to lightup your life.
And without that, it's very easyto fall prey to anxiety and
depression and the general gunk that not only brings us down

(01:06:01):
individually, but, you know, we talk about ripple effects in a
good way. Like, oh, I did this happy
thing. It all ripples out.
Makes everybody I come run into happy, same way, other way.
So lots of times we don't want to do things for ourselves
because we've been told not to be selfish.
But if we don't, then our ripples going to be all muddy.

(01:06:23):
So, you know, find a way to light yourself up of today,
today and every day. You know it changes over time,
but it's still a light. Yeah.
Wow. That's good.
All right, Victoria, can you please tell the audience where
to get more of you? Oh, bless your heart.

(01:06:47):
Well, I got a bunch of websites,so Victoria moran.com is my
author website. So if you like books and you're
interested in books and the writer's life and more about Age
Like a Yogi, my latest title, you can go to victoriamoran.com.
If you are interested in Main Street Vegan Academy of checking

(01:07:09):
it out, becoming a vegan lifestyle coach, educator or
entrepreneur, that is Main Street vegan.com and I'll
actually share. We're doing this huge discount
for the 2025 fall program only simply because the world is a
mess and there needs to be as many people out there able to

(01:07:33):
make a difference as possible and vegan lifestyle coaches and
educators do that. So the code is friend FRIEND
because you're friends of this podcast say you're friends of
mine and and that'll get you 50%off the program that starts in
late September. So go to mainstreetvegan.com,

(01:07:56):
read up, see what you think. Then if you like movies, we have
a movie in development, a feature film, family feature
film, Miss Liberty, about a cow who escapes from a
slaughterhouse, and that is Misslibertythemovie.com.
I mentioned the Compassion Consortium, which is the

(01:08:17):
spiritual center interfaith. If you are any faith or none,
you're more than welcome. And that is
compassionconsortium.org. And then I'll just give you one
last thing, which is how to findme on a lot of social media,
Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. That's at Victoria Moran,

(01:08:41):
author. And you didn't even mention the
podcast, did you? Main Street Vegan Podcast has
been going close to weekly for 13 years.
That right there is. I mean, I, I am so proud of that
podcast. It's won a bunch of awards and

(01:09:02):
that's cool, but some of those episodes, and I don't know when
this one's going to come out yours.
Any day now. Any day now, OK, Because the the
one that I have coming at the end of this week when we're
talking, so it'll probably be there if people want to look, is
a conversation with Chef AJ. And those of you who who know

(01:09:25):
her know that she's been very vocal about her lung cancer
diagnosis and experience. And we've known each other for a
really long time. We have a lot in common.
And I just think of all the interviews that I've done, over
500, well over 500 now that thismight just be the most

(01:09:48):
energetic. So good time to check out the
Main Street Vegan Podcast. Yeah, yeah, I've, I've followed
her for a long time again, you know, being a loyal listener to
the exam room. I'm quite familiar with her and
and and her recent journey. So I'm excited for that.
Thank you. Well.

(01:10:09):
In conclusion, I want to invite you to raise your green juice or
whatever you have handy and let us say cheers to doing something
everyday that's fun and lights you up.
Light yourself up. Cheers.
Cheers. Victoria Moran, This has been

(01:10:32):
such an incredible birthday present to myself, so I am
enormously grateful to you for saying yes and finding the time
to fit this into your clearly busy schedule.
And I just can't think of a better way to honor this
milestone of 50 with someone whohas been doing phenomenal work

(01:10:55):
in the world for 50 plus years. Well, happy birthday, happy
decade and happy half century. Many more to come, right?
Absolutely. While I love interviewing all of
my guests on this show, there issomething additionally special
when I have the opportunity to be face to face with people I

(01:11:16):
admire, people I have looked up to as role models for long
periods of time, and today was one of those occasions.
Victoria Moran is so significantin my vegan journey and I'm just
so grateful that she took the time to be here.
Now let me get into Victoria's notes from the sidelines.
Number one, women need other women to admire.

(01:11:39):
Women who have gone before and done things so that we can look
to them and appreciate their journeys #2 if we truly focus on
inner essence, then we will findthe love.
We will feel the love and see that we are all connected.
And when you have that realization that we're all

(01:11:59):
connected, good things will happen.
That empty hole we were feeling inside will fill #3 Yoga means
union with ourselves, others andthe divine.
And if you're paying attention to your inner self, you're a
Yogi #4. I love how Victoria said
meditation is like a Swiss army knife of a spiritual life.

(01:12:23):
So whether you use a mantra or just focus on your breath, take
time every day, ideally in the morning and again late afternoon
to meditate #5 Another importantthing to include in your life is
movement. And it's best to include all
three elements of cardio, muscleand bone building.

(01:12:43):
So strength, work and also flexibility.
Because the body brain connection is real and if your
body isn't moving, your brain will tell all the
neurotransmitters and things within you that you don't need
help. Number six, equally as valuable
as meditation and movement is eating food with life force

(01:13:04):
intact. Rahimsa is the first moral tenet
of yoga, and it addresses nonviolence.
So consider that when you are eating.
Try a snack, a meal a day. Eating foods with life force
intact that came to your plate in nonviolent ways #7 we talked

(01:13:25):
about the importance of the nextindicated thing.
We have inner wisdom, but if we overthink and ruminate, we get
lost in it. The next indicated thing is
usually so simple. And by doing the next indicated
thing over and over and over, wehave the opportunity to change
the world. So pay attention to those quiet

(01:13:46):
nudges from the universe #8. When we meditate, we are making
spiritual deposits into a serenity bank so that when
things get really bad, we can make a withdrawal.
And sometimes, when things are really difficult, we need help
so we can call on friends or as Victoria suggests, a Christian

(01:14:08):
Science practitioner. And #9 do something every day
that lights you up. If you don't, it's easy to fall
into anxiety and depression. So remember, it's not selfish to
do things for yourself. It's helping with the ripple
effect of good things. You can check out the show notes
for all the ways to follow Victoria and access more of her

(01:14:32):
brilliance. And I just want to thank you for
tuning in and helping me celebrate my 50th birthday,
which will continue next week inmy conversation with the
phenomenal Dr. Jodi Carrington. You don't want to miss that one.
She is beyond hilarious and so wise.
And also remember to check the show notes so that you can
register for the Coping with Challenges workshop that is on

(01:14:55):
on Thursday, August 14th, 3:00 PM Eastern.
It's free and I would love to see you there.
I thank you for the birthday wishes and I'll see you right
back here next week. Cheers to you.

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87 - Victoria Moran celebrates my 50th and inspires me to Age Like a Yogi

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}87 - Victoria Moran celebrates my 50th and inspires me to Age Like a Yogi