March 7, 2025 • 42 mins
Most of us lead lives where we feel stuck, not allowing ourselves to feel our emotions fully. Business and embodiment coach Rhythm Malhotra talks about the transformative Heart Activation Cacao Ceremony, which brings together ceremonial-grade cacao, breathwork, and sound therapy for an emotional catharsis.
Cacao, which contains theobromine that increases blood flow to the heart, gently enhances mental clarity, presence and emotional agency, according to Rhythm. She talks about the role of conscious circular breathwork in preventive care to release trauma that is stored in our bodies.
Rhythm is part of FindYourFit’s Wellness Carnival 2025 being held at Gurugram’s DLF Cyber Hub on March 8th and 9th, 2025.
Listen in!
Cacao recipes, courtesy Rhythm Malhotra
(Check with your doctor if you are on BP or anti-anxiety medication)
Want to try making your own cacao at home? Whether you prefer it hot or cold, here’s asimple way to prepare it with intention:
Warm Heart-Opening Cacao
A cosy, grounding drink for reflection and relaxation.
Ingredients:
● 1 cup warm water or plant-based milk (almond, oat, or coconut work well)
● 1.5 tbsp ceremonial-grade cacao (finely chopped or in paste form)
● 1 tsp maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar (optional)
● A pinch of cinnamon or cayenne (for extra warmth and activation)
● A dash of sea salt (enhances flavor and grounding)
Method:
1. Heat the water or milk until warm but not boiling.
2. Add the cacao and stir continuously with a spoon or whisk until fully melted.
3. Stir in the sweetener, cinnamon, and salt.
4. Pour into a cup, take a deep breath, and set an intention before sipping.
Refreshing Iced Cacao Elixir
A cooling, energising version for warmer days.
Ingredients:
● 1 cup cold water or plant-based milk
● 1.5 tbsp ceremonial-grade cacao
● 1 tsp maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar (optional)
● ½ tsp vanilla extract (for a smooth, aromatic flavor)
● A pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg● Ice cubes
Method:
1. Blend the cacao with cold water or milk until smooth. (You can also shake it in a jar if you don’t have a blender.)
2. Add the sweetener, vanilla, and cinnamon, then mix well.
3. Pour over ice cubes and enjoy mindfully.
Pro Tip: Sip slowly, breathe deeply, and notice how your body feels as you drink.Make it a ritual.
Timestamps
00:44 How Rhythm found alternate healing during Covid, post-MBA
07:49 Conscious breathwork and circular breathing to bring out stored trauma
12:46 Essential to do circular breathing with a practitioner
17:12 How the sessions work
21:19 What is heart activation?
26:39 Cacao as plant medicine
32:18 Sound as part of the therapy
33:47 Experiences during the Heart Activation Cacao Ceremony
35:30 Daily ritual for charity: 10 deep breaths
38:06 Who can have cacao and who cannot? How to consume cacao
Follow and share to grow the conversation.
Follow Anuradha on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
Email: swishingmindsets@gmail.com
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are personal. Listener discretion is advised.
Cacao, which contains theobromine that increases blood flow to the heart, gently enhances mental clarity, presence and emotional agency, according to Rhythm. She talks about the role of conscious circular breathwork in preventive care to release trauma that is stored in our bodies.
Rhythm is part of FindYourFit’s Wellness Carnival 2025 being held at Gurugram’s DLF Cyber Hub on March 8th and 9th, 2025.
Listen in!
Cacao recipes, courtesy Rhythm Malhotra
(Check with your doctor if you are on BP or anti-anxiety medication)
Want to try making your own cacao at home? Whether you prefer it hot or cold, here’s asimple way to prepare it with intention:
Warm Heart-Opening Cacao
A cosy, grounding drink for reflection and relaxation.
Ingredients:
● 1 cup warm water or plant-based milk (almond, oat, or coconut work well)
● 1.5 tbsp ceremonial-grade cacao (finely chopped or in paste form)
● 1 tsp maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar (optional)
● A pinch of cinnamon or cayenne (for extra warmth and activation)
● A dash of sea salt (enhances flavor and grounding)
Method:
1. Heat the water or milk until warm but not boiling.
2. Add the cacao and stir continuously with a spoon or whisk until fully melted.
3. Stir in the sweetener, cinnamon, and salt.
4. Pour into a cup, take a deep breath, and set an intention before sipping.
Refreshing Iced Cacao Elixir
A cooling, energising version for warmer days.
Ingredients:
● 1 cup cold water or plant-based milk
● 1.5 tbsp ceremonial-grade cacao
● 1 tsp maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar (optional)
● ½ tsp vanilla extract (for a smooth, aromatic flavor)
● A pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg● Ice cubes
Method:
1. Blend the cacao with cold water or milk until smooth. (You can also shake it in a jar if you don’t have a blender.)
2. Add the sweetener, vanilla, and cinnamon, then mix well.
3. Pour over ice cubes and enjoy mindfully.
Pro Tip: Sip slowly, breathe deeply, and notice how your body feels as you drink.Make it a ritual.
Timestamps
00:44 How Rhythm found alternate healing during Covid, post-MBA
07:49 Conscious breathwork and circular breathing to bring out stored trauma
12:46 Essential to do circular breathing with a practitioner
17:12 How the sessions work
21:19 What is heart activation?
26:39 Cacao as plant medicine
32:18 Sound as part of the therapy
33:47 Experiences during the Heart Activation Cacao Ceremony
35:30 Daily ritual for charity: 10 deep breaths
38:06 Who can have cacao and who cannot? How to consume cacao
Follow and share to grow the conversation.
Follow Anuradha on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram
Email: swishingmindsets@gmail.com
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are personal. Listener discretion is advised.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Welcome to Swishing Mindsets. This is Anurradha and today
we're speaking to business and embodiment coach Rhythm Alotra on
the powerful Heart activation cacau ceremony for those seeking deeper healing.
Rhythm is also part of Find Your Fits Wellness Carnival
twenty twenty five, being held at Gurugram's DLF, Cyberham on
(00:20):
March eighth and ninth. So, Hi Rhythm, wonderful to have.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You here, Hi, Ana Radha, thanks for having me here.
Really looking forward to our conversation today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, so you know, tell me about yourself and you know,
then first tell me about yourself and then later about
you know what we're going to be talking about. That's
the heart activation cacau ceremony. I really could not find
much on it, so tell me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah great. So I basically found the path of alternative
healing therapies back in twenty twenty one when we were
all recovering from COVID. I think COVID did make me
realize that there is so much more in life than
a corner of his dream. Because I had done my
MBA working in corporates that time. I was working with
(01:03):
a company called American Express, so they were really nice
for having us stay in house and be safe during COVID.
But having so much time by myself living with my dog,
I realized that I needed to find a deeper understanding.
I was curious about, Okay, what is the purpose of
human beings? Why am I here? What is that I'm doing?
(01:24):
Because you know, once you reach a particular level of Okay,
I'm making enough money, I have a house, I've taken
care of the family and everything. Now what's next for me?
That's when I found breath work and somatic healing breath work.
And when I say breath work, it's different than pranaiama
because yes, we speak about breath work in a lot
(01:45):
of different traditions. But it made me also realize that
there is another form of breath work, which is called
conscious connected breathwork, and that really helped me deal with
my anxiety, my own specific beliefs that I was working with.
I usually say, you know, I was in a comfort zone,
in a golden cage, and conscious connected breath work helped
(02:08):
me actually tap into those stored emotions that stored feared
the traumas to be able to face them, let them go.
And then create space for more to be invited. I
was also recovering out of my divorce, so that was
also the time that I really needed support and a community,
and that really brought in together. And that's where I
(02:29):
got curious, and I went on spiritual shopping spree, as
I called myself during that time. So I went and
I did like sound heale, I went through different ashrums
like O Show and Shri Shri and lots of these
programs like Inner Engineering, Sudushan Kreas, everything that was trying
to claim that this will make you happy or something
(02:49):
that I was trying out, and I realized that there
is just so much more in terms of preventive care
that we can take as compared to not just physically,
which we do by working out, not just by nutrition,
by also supporting our mind and our soul and our
(03:10):
spiritual growth. Because after our universities are done and we
start working, we are surely growing our skills when it
comes to our mind, But what about our emotional realm?
And that's where my curiosity of understanding my own emotional realm,
dealing with my own nervous system and emotional regulation brought
(03:31):
me to the space of where I am today as
an embodiment coach. Over the last three three and a
half years, I have learned different practices which have also
helped me be more regulated, be more aware, be more present,
be more at peace with myself and my environment and
the people around me. And that's where I'm bringing all
(03:52):
of these medicines to the people in the city, because
if it helped me find a little bit more peace,
I'm sure it will help other people also find a
bit more peace. So that's my.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Journey to lie fantastic. I love the term you use,
the spiritual shopping. I think that's what we're all doing
these days, you know, because you're searching for something. We
don't know what, right, because clearly something is missing somewhere.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So an rada, you know, what is really missing is
the fact that in the last okay, I'll ask you
a question, in the last ten years, how many new
iPhones have come in I don't know ten exactly, So
imagine in the last ten years the technology of just
one iPhone brand has changed so much, last one hundred years,
how much has technology changed? According to you?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, I mean completely exactly in our generation, I mean
so much.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It's still going on, yeah, exactly, and look at how
our mind is adapting to the technological changes that is happening. Right, So,
if you compare twenty years back or thirty years back
when we were born and we were growing up, the
amount of effort physically that I needed to do was
much more, so I was much more busier. Earlier we
(05:10):
had to go to the grocery store to buy milk,
so our effort our time in that task. Now today
what are we doing in the morning and we are
doom scrolling right We our mind has adapted to the technology,
but our body hasn't. And this disconnect is actually grown
(05:32):
way more in the last hundred years. Look at how
technology has advanced. Look at how kids today are able
to adapt to technology. And what's happening with that is
in our mind we are either only planning for future
or thinking about the past. So you are ruminating too
much emotionally in your mind and you are unable to
process that emotion from your body. That is why all
(05:55):
of us are feeling more stuck. We are feeling what
is our purpose in life because we have so much time.
So it is actually a technology has been a great boon,
but it has also been a bail So hence we
need these practices of spiritual shopping that everybody's doing because
if you have money, if you have resources, you are
bound to have an existential question of what am I doing?
(06:18):
Where am I going? Because with social media coming in,
everybody has to be a unique person. But how can
you be a unique person when you are conditioned to
fix into a factory manufactured model of you know, study hard,
do your MBA, get a great corporate job, get married,
have your kids, buy your house, get a bigger car,
(06:41):
teach your children to a certain extent, educate them, get
them married. This is a cycle. This is our conditioning.
What social media is wanting us to be is an
individual self. Now, this is creating a lot of friction
between people, and that is why if you've seen in
the last ten years, there are so many people who
are claiming to be healers and practitioners. Everybody is wanting
(07:02):
to help each other, and that's how human beings are firmed.
We are supposed to have existential questions and we're supposed
to be a part of a community, and that's how
we survive as we grow.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, absolutely, we have to stay connected with it. Comes
to its own pressures, you know, like there's a lot
of stored emotions, there's toxicity all around us.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's becoming more and more difficult to cope.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, because yeah, I mean, we don't have to
worry about the day to day issues and survival and
all that, but existentially, there's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
A lot of struggle. So yeah, tell me.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You know, you came up conscious breath work. You said, Yeah,
what is conscious breath work?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Exactly? How is it different and how does it work? Okay, great,
So if you have heard of the polyvehicle theory or
any any kind of practices that talks about somatics, what
is somatics. Somatics is a is a tool to be
able to drop into your body. Writer, Like you said, right,
we are always overthinking, and we are always in the mind,
and we have a lot of stored emotions in our
(08:06):
body because we are trying to intellectualize a grief of
my lost father. I am trying to intellectualize my heartbreak.
I am trying to intellectualize my bullying when I was
a child. Unfortunately, all of this intellectualization cannot solve for
the trauma that is stored in the body. To give
(08:28):
you an example, if you have a snake that comes
in front of you, are you going to stand there
and think about what you're going to do or are
you going to run? Right, You're going to run because
that's your that's your fight and flight response, that is
that is stored as and when you look at the
nervous system development, the fight and flight response is actually
(08:49):
actually something that we have we have learned from our
reptilian counterparts when the nervous system evolution was happening, right, So,
fear is actually a fight and flight response which is
stored in your body, which is stored in your adrenaline
grand And hence, when you have fear or when somebody
(09:12):
actually threatens your security, you actually feel trauma bonding and
the trauma coming up and your anxiety coming up. And
while that is happening, you can also notice how your
breath pattern changes. So when you are angry, your breath
is different, When you are sad, your breath is different,
When you are happy, your breath is different. So if
(09:33):
you start noticing your breath holds the pattern of your
emotions and hence, with conscious connected breath work, what we
do is we breathe in a certain way. When I
say we breathe in a certain way, we breathe in
a circular manner, wherein we remove the gap between our
inhale and exhale. We do it for forty forty five
(09:57):
minutes in an extended format, and it helps activate your
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. So when you're activating your
nervous system in this manner, you are also surfacing upstored
emotions in your body. So you are not intellectualizing it.
You're not sitting with a therapist and talking about an
abandonment wound from your father. You're actually feeling that feeling,
(10:20):
that emotion of that abandonment. You're allowing yourself to feel
that emotion, for that emotion to surface up and then
maybe that emotion to be released or transmuted. Because we
are holding all of these emotions. We are not sitting
and trying to release or transmute these emotions. This can
(10:40):
only happen through body, It cannot happen through mind. And
that's where I had studied my in my graduation. I
had studied psychology then for about ten years in my life,
all throughout my twenties, I was in and out of
psychologist's offices because I had done my MBA and I
was like, listen, I know mental health is important, but
I am unable to find or groundedness. And then I
(11:02):
found this practice almost after ten years of working with psychologists,
and this practice within a year year and a half
made me actually quit my sleeping pills and anti anxiety tables.
In a year, I had stopped taking my medication which
I was taking for two and a half three years,
because I was able to free up space from my body,
(11:25):
from my fear response, my fight and flight response, to
be able to let it go, to be able to
know that, oh, yeah, you know that abandonment wasn't something
that was done intentionally. It was something that needed to
be processed and I needed to learn. Oh that grief
that I had to process was something that I needed
to process. But I can't hold on to it. And
(11:46):
that's why if you see a lot of people have
psychosomatic diseases. I was actually talking to my uncle yesterday
very interestingly, and he said, after the loss of our grandmother,
he started having ezema on his hands and legs, and
he's a doctor. I have a family full of doctors,
and I said, you know, if I talk about the
psycho spiritual leason of you having azema, it's because as
(12:07):
soon as you lost your mother, your body started creating
a layer of protection because you have lost somebody who
used to keep you safe and secure. You used to
have be with her every dinn in the morning for
the last fifty five years. So imagine now your body
very at Because he said, I went to all the
dermatologists and nobody could help me. I said, come, let's
(12:30):
do a breath work session together, because it's just your
body's response to create a safety net around you now
that you have lost your mother physically. So we do
have all of these psychosomatic diseases that start surfacing up
if we don't end up processing these emotions. It is
very essential to do circular breathing with a practitioner because
(12:52):
what a practitioner is doing in this case is creating
a set in a setting which is safe so when
the emotions are facing up, there is somebody to hold
that space for you. And hence this is this is
this is like a therapy. This is a therapy. I
should not say even like a therapy. This is a
therapy that you do with a trained and a certified practitioner,
(13:14):
But please don't come with an expectation that one session
is going to solve for things. It does take anywhere
between six to ten sessions based on what you are
working on to be able to resolve or at least
transmute that particular energy that is stuck in your body.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, so rhythm, I'm just curious you said that, you know,
very interesting that you know it works it physically, It's
not really something that you intellectualize. So when you're going
through the six to eight sessions with a practitioner like
such as yourself, so is there a uh, do you
also get into the deeper layers of what's troubling the person?
Is there a lot of talking, how does it work?
(13:53):
A lot of breathing? What is the procedure?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So I do these sessions one one and also in
group settings. When we do it in a group setting,
it's largely starts with a somatic awareness. That means we
help drop into our bodies first to be able to
learn how to witness and not be judging about the
sensations that we are feeling in our body. What happens
(14:18):
usually is that in the urban way that we live.
The thought or the emotion is what we end up becoming.
So if I'm thinking about grief, I become grief or
I become sad. So the idea here is to be
able to create awareness in the body to start with
without judgment. So that's what we start with. Then we
get into a space of a bit of movement, because
(14:40):
it's also important to tune into your body with movement
so that that energy starts flowing in. And then we
get into a conscious connected breath work session for about
forty five minutes to an hour, followed by a sound
healing and integrative expressive arts to be able to integrate
the experience that the group has had. When we are
(15:01):
doing this as a one on one session, like you asked,
I would usually recommend six sessions and in one hundred
because we do the session. Every session is for about
two hours. We start the session by again dropping into
our body, followed by yes more deeper conversation because if
you look at it, everybody around us have five adversities
(15:23):
in our lives. The five adversity starts with work, money, relationship, health,
and sexuality. All of our human beings problems actually fall
into these five adversities, and all of these five adversities
lead to some core fears, like the fear of being rejected,
the fear of not having enough value, the fear of abandonment,
(15:47):
the fear of not having security and safety. Now these
are very over fears, like how our nervous system is
also very or our physiology is very corely aligned with
each other. You have two eyes, I have two eyes. Similarly,
our fears are also very similar. So the intensity, maybe
my fear is the fear of abandonment and your fear
(16:10):
is the fear of rejection, but it is the fears
remain same. So the idea is by the end of
six sessions, to ensure that the person has their own
internal agency, their own internal resource to regulate their nervous systems.
So next time they have a boss screaming on them,
they are able to take a few deep breaths and
(16:32):
regulate themselves instead of just having that response of anger
or sadness or rejection come up. So it's so instead
of having your nervous system go up in spikes, you're
able to create a sign wave where it's going in
a more smoother manner. Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So you're like responding rather than reacting in a situation exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
So you are responding instead of reacting. So we can
also add and things like ice bats, which I usually
would start doing starting next month because you're waiting for
the dely season to get better. But ice bats is
a good way to also build your own resilience. So
in the sixth sessions, we start with obviously having somatic exercises,
we drop into speaking about what are the core woundings
(17:19):
we are working with. We then enter a breath work
session depending on the person's need. Not everybody needs a fast, activating,
super releasing crying session. A lot of people also need
down regulation. How can I be more calmer and peaceful,
So depending on the client, I would adjust the breath
work session for them. We would end the session with
(17:40):
an integration practice that could be an art movement really
depending on how and what the person needs. Then and
then we add in the modalities, so it's very personalized
way of how we work with the client in this space.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, that's great, And you know what you're saying is
tell tell me if I'm right. A lot of the times,
you know, we're not feeling our feelings really it's just numbed.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
We're just going about our day, rationalizing and you know,
just just moving on.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know. It's like, no, there's no time to sit
down with it.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's what it is, you know, And we consider it
weak if you sit down and you're in tears or
you're just taking a whole day not taking phone calls,
not going into work because you're depressed or just feeling
low about something.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So half the time we're like, no, no, we must
be strong.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
We must take these things in as tried, even the
smallest or biggest of traumas, right, we just move on.
So yeah, I guess it's nice to take the time
to feel all those feelings and let it go, you know,
let it transmute in whatever way it has to be.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Done, absolutely rather, because if you don't do that, you
are living in a feeling of stuckness. I have so
many hours, one of them really you know where, and
I'm like, I want to take that holiday, but I'm
unable to take that holiday. I want to say something
to this person, but I'm unable to see it to
the person. I want to quit my job and start
(19:01):
my own business, but I'm unable to do that. I
have to tell my mother in law, father in law,
my mother something, but I'm unable to express my true self.
We are stuck because we are unable to process the
emotions that we need to process and now, right now,
I would say this is becoming an epidemic for our
culture and society, wherein we want to be somebody else,
(19:23):
but we are positioning ourselves in shopcasing with lots of
masks and unable to be that person because we are
holding back so much. Imagine if we live in a
society wherein everybody's sensitive and vulnerable and authentic, wherein your
authenticity and my authenticity is appreciated, where somebody coming and
(19:45):
just holding my hand does not seen like oh my god,
this person is probably trying to haut me, but seen
as a help a connection. So I think it's just
about also seeing where are we right now and where
do I want to go? Because if you do not
process these emotions, you will be forty forty five, fifty
(20:05):
seventy living with or hurry way you know, like I
know so many of my grandparents or the people in
that age who are now realizing I wish I had
lived my life differently so today, with all of these tools,
you can live your life differently if you take the
ownership of your own life. The problem is that we
(20:26):
are not wanting to be proactive about our own life,
our own physical, mental, emotional health. People at thirty thirty
five are going to work out because they want to
lose weight. Hello, you need to work out because you
need to have strength to live a longer in a
better life, so that you don't have me problems and
back problems. What about prevention is better than cure? Yeah? True?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
And what you also said, you know, our issues are
pretty much universal. You know, it's centers around these few things,
and all of us are battling the same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And yeah, we should take care.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Of our health and also mental health, and you know exactly,
and then why we are doing it, Like if you're exercising,
you know, to live longer in a better way, not
just to get abs because the next person is doing it.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Really yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So rhythm yeah, just you know, so heart activation? What
is heart activation? You know, before we get into the
cacau ceremony, what is heart activation? We've spoken so much
about stored emotions and how it affects you, So what
is activating the heart really mean?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So what is heart? Right? What is the heart is
basically the relationship with myself. We say heart is where
the love lies.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
We talk about self love so much, so heart activation
is a way to be able to connect with that
deeper love for self. And then once you are able
to connect for the love for self, is when you
are able to share this love with others. Because the
heart understands giving and also receiving. So a lot of us,
(22:08):
you know, we say, oh, I've had a heart break,
my heart walls are very strong. Oh I am unable
to have this person enter my heart. What does it
all mean? Right? We talk about all of this. So
if you see and understand physiology wise, your heart is
basically suspended around the pery cardial layer, right, It's around
(22:30):
this liquid and liquid is surrounded by a wall. Now,
every time energetically speaking, you have a heart break, or
as a child you were say abused, or you have
had a case of bullying, and now you just feel
like you are not connected with self, or you do
not love yourself, or you cannot love others, it's because
(22:55):
the pery cardial layer has become very thick. Also, if
you notice a lot of us actually end up only
breathing very shallowly, So you're breathing only till here where
just the upper chest area. You're also not breathing into
your heart space or even your belly area. What when
(23:16):
we say heart activation, we say moving and entering into
energetically entering into the space of your heart. Heart space
is also the space of thymus gland. Now, thymus gland
is basically that hormonial gland which actually secretes the growth
hormones in human beings. And the thymus gland stops like
(23:37):
stop secreting very high amount of growth hormones once we
reach puberty, and then it's very slowly releasing very little
amount of growth hormones. Because if you notice, as very
goodrow older, I know, sometimes becomes longer, our cartilage starts
growing longer. Right, So it's not like it dies the
way or it doesn't it stops working. It's still working. Now,
(23:57):
if you had a childhood trauma or a childhood sadness,
a grief that you're carrying, it actually gets stored in
your heart space because time and that's largely your timers land.
So when you're breathing or when you're doing activations with
plant medicines. The idea is to activate the heart space
(24:19):
so that you can connect with your own self. You
can have a deeper self love, and you can also
connect with other people. It's connecting to the same thing
I'm feeling emotionally numb and stuck. Heart is the space
that's the most easiest for oneself to connect with. If
we just become more intentional in the practice.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
And what does heart activation do for you? How do
you change as a person? How does it transform you?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
So in a very structured way, what heart activation does
is it provides clarity. It provides a sense of relaxation.
It provides more emotional control or or resourcing with your
own self. I am able, I would be able to
take decisions for myself that I feel truly aligned with
(25:11):
and not because my mother said so, or my boss
said so, or my husband said so, etc. It's truly
what you want and what lights you up. You know
that that moment of certain excitement. But for that to
even connect with you have to be connected with your
heart space, that space of deeper emotionals, the space of
(25:35):
deeper relaxation, the space of deeper clarity, and that's what
heart activation is about. Yeah, so you're feeling things more,
you know, in all that glory? Really? Is that what
happens after a ceremony like this? Yeah, you're allowing yourself
to be more open, to be able to receive and
(25:56):
also give, if I have to say it. So are
you are opening that channel of what can I receive
and what can I give? Now? What you receive and
what you give is your hand?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, because you know you're more open because otherwise we
all have our guards up.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know. That's what happens.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Really, So the heart activation coming to that, Yeah, have
you got that right?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Is? Yeah? So how does that work?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
You know, because we've talked about breath work and you know,
activating the heart and how it works, et cetera. How
does it all come together with sound healing and everything
that you do. I mean, I'll let you explain.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Lovely, Okay. So I was just coming to that while
you were talking about it. So cacau is a great
plant medicine to actually work with the heart space. I
would like to start talking about cacau first before I
get to what the ceremony is going to be about.
But cocau contains theobromine, which increases circulation gently and stimulates
(26:56):
the heart. It also creates a sense of openness, not
in a way of the overwhelming space, but in a
way that it allows your emotions and insights to surface naturally.
It is also different from caffeine, which speeds you up
and makes you feel jittery. Cacao works with the body's
natural rhythm, helping you feel present, connected rather than wired.
(27:21):
Now you would ask me oka rhythm. What is the
difference between a cacao and a chocolate right that people
or cocoa that people are anyways using, So a ceremonial
Cacau is actually minimally processed, meaning it retains more natural compounds.
It comes and is produced in small scale forms, usually
in the regions like Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador in the Native
(27:44):
American space. Also in the Native American world, it used
to be added by the indigenous people. Cacau used to
be called as the food of God's like the mines
used to actually trade with cacao. So imagine cocao used
to be that popular and important during that time. Uh
the way it is sourced right now and prepared matters
(28:05):
a lot, because the energy that you're putting into the cacau.
The land it is growing in is what is interacting
with your body, so it affects, Like I mentioned, it
affects your nervous system. The cacau that we are bringing
in here is actually produced in Haramshala. It's minimally produced
by a brand called Yagia, and they are going to
(28:26):
be providing the cacao for the ceremony that we're going
to be doing UH on Sunday at the Wellness Carnival. Now,
having said that, what is heart activation ceremony with cacau
that you're going to be doing UH, It starts with
intention setting. Now, in the world of thinking too much,
(28:52):
this is a tool I would like to share with people.
Set an intention for every day because inten where the
intention lies, the action happens. So hence, we totally believe
that when we work with any plant medicine, coco being
one of them, we start with intention setting even before
(29:13):
we make the cocau. So the cocou is made and
brewed with vegan milk, with some honey, with some cinnamon
and some cardamoms. So that also while we're preparing the cocaw,
we are setting an intention for it to open the heart,
for it to help people process whatever they need to process,
(29:34):
whatever they need to not what we are trying to
set up. So what cocau does it it by setting
the intention, By preparing the cocao intentionally, it helps bring
whatever is present for us on the surface, whatever needs
to be explored to the surface. We then drink cocao very.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Slowly, very mindfully, engaging all our five senses with the cocaw,
allowing time for us and for.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Our body to feel the cacou drink, and from that
moment we get into different practices to activate that medicine
in our body. So we activate it through breath work.
We also activate it through movement and also sound, so
that people can drop deeper into themselves, like not from
(30:32):
the mind, but from the fell sense of the body
in a very structured way. It also supports whatever comes up.
We also let whatever emotions or clarity or purpose that
needs to come up allow it to come up. We
do end the ceremony with an integration circle because it's
(30:53):
very important for people to know that they're not alone
in the journey. So this is about how the ceremony
as such flows. It does have lots of moving elements,
and it also really it's not just me holding the space,
it's also the group of people that come together who
hold space energetically and then build the ceremony from there. Okay,
(31:19):
how long does the stake so to say the ceremony
really depends. Like right now, the ceremony that we're going
to be doing at the Wellness Cannival is about forty minutes,
but we could also do I've done workshops where cacao
breathwork and sound has been for three and a half hours.
It's about going deeper into our exploration. Now we're doing
it in a space where it's an open space, so
(31:39):
I need to also be a trauma informed and not
push people to larger extent. So when we do it
in festivals and open spaces, we use term we use awake,
which is tightrated so that we are creating a space
for everyone because everybody is emotional quotient and emotional availabilities
(32:02):
at different spaces, so we need to be able to
be supportive for everyone who's coming in the circle. Okay,
and this sound involved as well, right, So what kind
of sounds do you play? And is a special kind
of music so sound actually helps guide the expedience, while
singing balls create a sense of spaciousness, and some softer
(32:26):
sounds like chimes can shift emotions in a general way.
So the rhythm actually really depends on there's a lot
of heaviness in the space that I feel, I start
with a steady drumbeat maybe to help people process that emotion.
If the energy is already very flowing in the space,
(32:47):
the soft sounds might be what is needed. And it's
all about responding to what's really happening in the moment.
So I can't really like, like right now say okay,
this is but yes, there are different kind of instruments
that help me support the group at that particular time.
Depends on what is needed. I guess at what time
(33:08):
exactly it's what is needed. But surely mentioned there are
different ways that every instrument that I'm bringing about actually
helps support the group. So drums, chimes, singing bowls are
a few things I work with the rattles. Sometimes the
group needs is a lot of high energy. We also
start using our vocals. It's really good to use your
(33:29):
vocal because it helps activate your vagusnurve, which also helps
in you know, regulating your emotional and nervous system.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, but then can you tell me the experiences that
people have gone through, anything that you can share.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yeah, sounds like a powerful technique, you know. So there
have been a lot of moments where people have come
and feeling disconnected and living with a sense of clarity
or ease. I fondly remember one person who hadn't felt
much emotionally for a long time after he lost his mother,
(34:05):
and after the ceremony, he said that it was the
first time in a while that he could actually connect
with the grief because he actually never cried after he
lost his mother because he needed to be the strong
one in the family as he was the elder one
to take care of the family. Another lady was struggling
(34:27):
with creative blocks. A week after the ceremony, she reached
out to me and said that they finally had the
clarity and motivation to finish the project that she has
been working on for months. And sometimes the effects are immediate,
sometimes it might unfold over time, but in almost every case,
(34:48):
there is some shift of awareness or feeling that one
feels okay, and.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I can sense that, you know, there is more awareness
right of what your problem is and UNSTI darkness.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I suppose right, you get unstuck. Yeah, does that happen?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Like you know, you're saying that sometimes you want to
take on a project and then you know you stop midway,
or you want to quit your job, and you know, so,
is there some intention setting or some practice or ritual
that one can follow, you know, beyond this ceremony that
you can recommend, you know, on a daily basis or
once in a while, you know, activate and stay tuned
(35:25):
to what's happening inside of us.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, absolutely so. Once the practice is that is really
easy to add in your daily routine is ten deep
breaths every day in the morning, So before you get
out of the bed, before you touch your cell phone
to see what's happened all night while you will asleep,
(35:48):
just wake up, close your eyes, keep your one hand
on your heart, one hand on your stomach, and take
ten full deep breaths so you inhale from your nose
all the way into your belly, try inhaling as much
as possible, maybe also filling up your chest if you can,
and then exhale slowly. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, and you
(36:13):
do these ten breaths, deep breaths into your belly, into
your chest, letting go. And I have found that it
helps me find my center for the day. It helps
me stay grounded and present in my body and not
so much in my head. Because what you used to
happen with me was before I was getting out of
(36:36):
my bed, I had this to do list that was
running in my head, you know, like in just before
that moment when you get out of the bed, you know,
you're still in the alpha like phase of the sleep.
And I realized that that's not really healthy for my
nervous system, because my nervous system is getting activated as
soon as I wake up in the morning very very like,
you know, jittery, like ready to action. I needed to
(36:58):
first center myself to be able to react and not act.
So deep breath is what I would actually give out
as a tool to everyone. If you're listening to this
ten breaths every day in the morning, before you even
step out of your bed. You can do this lying
down in your bed, just straight in, a shave, a scent,
(37:18):
some ten breaths, maybe an affirmation saying I am powerful
or my day is going to be wonderful today and
just get out of the bed and that's all you
need to be a little more ituned in your body
and a little less in your head.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, that's wonderful because we do have this to doo
list running around in our heads, you know, because in fact,
even when you're going to bed, you're like, oh, I
have to get up in the morning and have to
do this. So actually getting that little bit of space
for yourself in the morning when you wake up, is
it sounds great?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
And the cacao bit rhythm, like you know, if somebody
can source it, can this be done on your own?
You know, you mix a drink? How does it work?
Is it's safe? And if it is, then how can
one do it?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Okay? So good question. So for the most part, cacau
is safe. People who feel emotionally disconnected, stack or just
looking for a deeper sense of connection tend to find
it really beneficial. Like I mentioned, it's essentially useful for
people who have had hard time either accessing or expressing
their emotions. That being said, there are a few considerations.
(38:28):
If someone has heart condition or is on certain medications
like high doses of antidepressants, they should check first with
their medical advisor before taking cacau because cocau naturally increases
your serotonin levels and also your heart rate, so it's
important to be a little more gentler with cacau. If
(38:52):
you have any of these conditions, and if you are
expecting that this should be a psychedelic experience, then this
isn't for you. It's it does help make subtle shifts
in awareness, but it is not psychedelic in nature. I
have included cocau and replaced cocau as my morning drink
(39:13):
instead of coffee. You can have say five to seven
grams on a regular daily basis if you would like
to include cacao as a ritual and replace it with coffee.
Because cocao is also very very high on antioxidants, so
it's really good for your heart health and it's much
(39:34):
better mention than caffeine because it doesn't make you feel jittery.
So yes, you can get cocau. Ideally recommend it ceremonial
grade cocau. There are two brands in India that are
really good. One is Yai Gia yg Ei A and
the other is called the Cocoa Carte. Both of them
source and make their cocau in India and the land
(39:57):
of our own mother Earth. You can source from either
of them and you can use these cacao You can
also add now these days there are lots of these
herbal mushroom powders that have come and like rachi and
chaga that are old, so really beneficial. You can also
add a bit of chargo or ratio to improve focus
(40:18):
or concentration and make it a really nice healthy drink.
You could also use cacao nibs in your smoothies. So yes,
to answer that question, you can use cocao on your
daily basis, just ensure that you don't have a heart
disease or on high doses of antidepressants. And cacao is
a really really nice drink to connect every day with
(40:40):
yourself and take that moment, make it a ritual to
spend that fifteen to twenty minutes with yourself, maybe journaling
or just enjoying the nature outside in your balcony. Yeah,
and it's chocolate, right, so it just sounds great. It's chocolate,
it's eye quality chocolate, and it's dark chocolate. So if
you've thought I like it bitter, but a lot of
(41:01):
people prey for putting some honey in it, so you
can put some honey in it as you're making it.
And they are enough and more nice recipes, maybe I
can send you one that you can shed with your audience.
Sounds good, Yeah, lovely, So they can actually try that
recipe and have a nice cup of cocao. You can
also make a cow durings cold, so with summer season
(41:21):
coming up, you can also have some iced coca.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, thank you to them. Anything you'd like to add soye,
even people can connect to you.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, So if anybody's curious and they would like to
stay in touch, my social media handle is called Breadth Journeys,
and they can join me there and get to know
about the other workshops, or they can come for the
upcoming ceremony or ninth of March at four pm and cyberhub.
Been good gao. But even if they're just starting at home,
I did encourage them to use cocao as a medicine,
(41:57):
to include it in their mindfulness practices, as a moment
of connection rather than just another task on their list.
So taking a moment for themselves and taking a deep
breath for everyone who's listening to this podcast today, Thank
you Annie, Yeah, thank you rhythm
Hi, Welcome to Swishing Mindsets. This is Anurradha and today
we're speaking to business and embodiment coach Rhythm Alotra on
the powerful Heart activation cacau ceremony for those seeking deeper healing.
Rhythm is also part of Find Your Fits Wellness Carnival
twenty twenty five, being held at Gurugram's DLF, Cyberham on
(00:20):
March eighth and ninth. So, Hi Rhythm, wonderful to have.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You here, Hi, Ana Radha, thanks for having me here.
Really looking forward to our conversation today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, so you know, tell me about yourself and you know,
then first tell me about yourself and then later about
you know what we're going to be talking about. That's
the heart activation cacau ceremony. I really could not find
much on it, so tell me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah great. So I basically found the path of alternative
healing therapies back in twenty twenty one when we were
all recovering from COVID. I think COVID did make me
realize that there is so much more in life than
a corner of his dream. Because I had done my
MBA working in corporates that time. I was working with
(01:03):
a company called American Express, so they were really nice
for having us stay in house and be safe during COVID.
But having so much time by myself living with my dog,
I realized that I needed to find a deeper understanding.
I was curious about, Okay, what is the purpose of
human beings? Why am I here? What is that I'm doing?
(01:24):
Because you know, once you reach a particular level of Okay,
I'm making enough money, I have a house, I've taken
care of the family and everything. Now what's next for me?
That's when I found breath work and somatic healing breath work.
And when I say breath work, it's different than pranaiama
because yes, we speak about breath work in a lot
(01:45):
of different traditions. But it made me also realize that
there is another form of breath work, which is called
conscious connected breathwork, and that really helped me deal with
my anxiety, my own specific beliefs that I was working with.
I usually say, you know, I was in a comfort zone,
in a golden cage, and conscious connected breath work helped
(02:08):
me actually tap into those stored emotions that stored feared
the traumas to be able to face them, let them go.
And then create space for more to be invited. I
was also recovering out of my divorce, so that was
also the time that I really needed support and a community,
and that really brought in together. And that's where I
(02:29):
got curious, and I went on spiritual shopping spree, as
I called myself during that time. So I went and
I did like sound heale, I went through different ashrums
like O Show and Shri Shri and lots of these
programs like Inner Engineering, Sudushan Kreas, everything that was trying
to claim that this will make you happy or something
(02:49):
that I was trying out, and I realized that there
is just so much more in terms of preventive care
that we can take as compared to not just physically,
which we do by working out, not just by nutrition,
by also supporting our mind and our soul and our
(03:10):
spiritual growth. Because after our universities are done and we
start working, we are surely growing our skills when it
comes to our mind, But what about our emotional realm?
And that's where my curiosity of understanding my own emotional realm,
dealing with my own nervous system and emotional regulation brought
(03:31):
me to the space of where I am today as
an embodiment coach. Over the last three three and a
half years, I have learned different practices which have also
helped me be more regulated, be more aware, be more present,
be more at peace with myself and my environment and
the people around me. And that's where I'm bringing all
(03:52):
of these medicines to the people in the city, because
if it helped me find a little bit more peace,
I'm sure it will help other people also find a
bit more peace. So that's my.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Journey to lie fantastic. I love the term you use,
the spiritual shopping. I think that's what we're all doing
these days, you know, because you're searching for something. We
don't know what, right, because clearly something is missing somewhere.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So an rada, you know, what is really missing is
the fact that in the last okay, I'll ask you
a question, in the last ten years, how many new
iPhones have come in I don't know ten exactly, So
imagine in the last ten years the technology of just
one iPhone brand has changed so much, last one hundred years,
how much has technology changed? According to you?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, I mean completely exactly in our generation, I mean
so much.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It's still going on, yeah, exactly, and look at how
our mind is adapting to the technological changes that is happening. Right, So,
if you compare twenty years back or thirty years back
when we were born and we were growing up, the
amount of effort physically that I needed to do was
much more, so I was much more busier. Earlier we
(05:10):
had to go to the grocery store to buy milk,
so our effort our time in that task. Now today
what are we doing in the morning and we are
doom scrolling right We our mind has adapted to the technology,
but our body hasn't. And this disconnect is actually grown
(05:32):
way more in the last hundred years. Look at how
technology has advanced. Look at how kids today are able
to adapt to technology. And what's happening with that is
in our mind we are either only planning for future
or thinking about the past. So you are ruminating too
much emotionally in your mind and you are unable to
process that emotion from your body. That is why all
(05:55):
of us are feeling more stuck. We are feeling what
is our purpose in life because we have so much time.
So it is actually a technology has been a great boon,
but it has also been a bail So hence we
need these practices of spiritual shopping that everybody's doing because
if you have money, if you have resources, you are
bound to have an existential question of what am I doing?
(06:18):
Where am I going? Because with social media coming in,
everybody has to be a unique person. But how can
you be a unique person when you are conditioned to
fix into a factory manufactured model of you know, study hard,
do your MBA, get a great corporate job, get married,
have your kids, buy your house, get a bigger car,
(06:41):
teach your children to a certain extent, educate them, get
them married. This is a cycle. This is our conditioning.
What social media is wanting us to be is an
individual self. Now, this is creating a lot of friction
between people, and that is why if you've seen in
the last ten years, there are so many people who
are claiming to be healers and practitioners. Everybody is wanting
(07:02):
to help each other, and that's how human beings are firmed.
We are supposed to have existential questions and we're supposed
to be a part of a community, and that's how
we survive as we grow.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, absolutely, we have to stay connected with it. Comes
to its own pressures, you know, like there's a lot
of stored emotions, there's toxicity all around us.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's becoming more and more difficult to cope.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, because yeah, I mean, we don't have to
worry about the day to day issues and survival and
all that, but existentially, there's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
A lot of struggle. So yeah, tell me.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
You know, you came up conscious breath work. You said, Yeah,
what is conscious breath work?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Exactly? How is it different and how does it work? Okay, great,
So if you have heard of the polyvehicle theory or
any any kind of practices that talks about somatics, what
is somatics. Somatics is a is a tool to be
able to drop into your body. Writer, Like you said, right,
we are always overthinking, and we are always in the mind,
and we have a lot of stored emotions in our
(08:06):
body because we are trying to intellectualize a grief of
my lost father. I am trying to intellectualize my heartbreak.
I am trying to intellectualize my bullying when I was
a child. Unfortunately, all of this intellectualization cannot solve for
the trauma that is stored in the body. To give
(08:28):
you an example, if you have a snake that comes
in front of you, are you going to stand there
and think about what you're going to do or are
you going to run? Right, You're going to run because
that's your that's your fight and flight response, that is
that is stored as and when you look at the
nervous system development, the fight and flight response is actually
(08:49):
actually something that we have we have learned from our
reptilian counterparts when the nervous system evolution was happening, right, So,
fear is actually a fight and flight response which is
stored in your body, which is stored in your adrenaline
grand And hence, when you have fear or when somebody
(09:12):
actually threatens your security, you actually feel trauma bonding and
the trauma coming up and your anxiety coming up. And
while that is happening, you can also notice how your
breath pattern changes. So when you are angry, your breath
is different, When you are sad, your breath is different,
When you are happy, your breath is different. So if
(09:33):
you start noticing your breath holds the pattern of your
emotions and hence, with conscious connected breath work, what we
do is we breathe in a certain way. When I
say we breathe in a certain way, we breathe in
a circular manner, wherein we remove the gap between our
inhale and exhale. We do it for forty forty five
(09:57):
minutes in an extended format, and it helps activate your
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. So when you're activating your
nervous system in this manner, you are also surfacing upstored
emotions in your body. So you are not intellectualizing it.
You're not sitting with a therapist and talking about an
abandonment wound from your father. You're actually feeling that feeling,
(10:20):
that emotion of that abandonment. You're allowing yourself to feel
that emotion, for that emotion to surface up and then
maybe that emotion to be released or transmuted. Because we
are holding all of these emotions. We are not sitting
and trying to release or transmute these emotions. This can
(10:40):
only happen through body, It cannot happen through mind. And
that's where I had studied my in my graduation. I
had studied psychology then for about ten years in my life,
all throughout my twenties, I was in and out of
psychologist's offices because I had done my MBA and I
was like, listen, I know mental health is important, but
I am unable to find or groundedness. And then I
(11:02):
found this practice almost after ten years of working with psychologists,
and this practice within a year year and a half
made me actually quit my sleeping pills and anti anxiety tables.
In a year, I had stopped taking my medication which
I was taking for two and a half three years,
because I was able to free up space from my body,
(11:25):
from my fear response, my fight and flight response, to
be able to let it go, to be able to
know that, oh, yeah, you know that abandonment wasn't something
that was done intentionally. It was something that needed to
be processed and I needed to learn. Oh that grief
that I had to process was something that I needed
to process. But I can't hold on to it. And
(11:46):
that's why if you see a lot of people have
psychosomatic diseases. I was actually talking to my uncle yesterday
very interestingly, and he said, after the loss of our grandmother,
he started having ezema on his hands and legs, and
he's a doctor. I have a family full of doctors,
and I said, you know, if I talk about the
psycho spiritual leason of you having azema, it's because as
(12:07):
soon as you lost your mother, your body started creating
a layer of protection because you have lost somebody who
used to keep you safe and secure. You used to
have be with her every dinn in the morning for
the last fifty five years. So imagine now your body
very at Because he said, I went to all the
dermatologists and nobody could help me. I said, come, let's
(12:30):
do a breath work session together, because it's just your
body's response to create a safety net around you now
that you have lost your mother physically. So we do
have all of these psychosomatic diseases that start surfacing up
if we don't end up processing these emotions. It is
very essential to do circular breathing with a practitioner because
(12:52):
what a practitioner is doing in this case is creating
a set in a setting which is safe so when
the emotions are facing up, there is somebody to hold
that space for you. And hence this is this is
this is like a therapy. This is a therapy. I
should not say even like a therapy. This is a
therapy that you do with a trained and a certified practitioner,
(13:14):
But please don't come with an expectation that one session
is going to solve for things. It does take anywhere
between six to ten sessions based on what you are
working on to be able to resolve or at least
transmute that particular energy that is stuck in your body.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, so rhythm, I'm just curious you said that, you know,
very interesting that you know it works it physically, It's
not really something that you intellectualize. So when you're going
through the six to eight sessions with a practitioner like
such as yourself, so is there a uh, do you
also get into the deeper layers of what's troubling the person?
Is there a lot of talking, how does it work?
(13:53):
A lot of breathing? What is the procedure?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So I do these sessions one one and also in
group settings. When we do it in a group setting,
it's largely starts with a somatic awareness. That means we
help drop into our bodies first to be able to
learn how to witness and not be judging about the
sensations that we are feeling in our body. What happens
(14:18):
usually is that in the urban way that we live.
The thought or the emotion is what we end up becoming.
So if I'm thinking about grief, I become grief or
I become sad. So the idea here is to be
able to create awareness in the body to start with
without judgment. So that's what we start with. Then we
get into a space of a bit of movement, because
(14:40):
it's also important to tune into your body with movement
so that that energy starts flowing in. And then we
get into a conscious connected breath work session for about
forty five minutes to an hour, followed by a sound
healing and integrative expressive arts to be able to integrate
the experience that the group has had. When we are
(15:01):
doing this as a one on one session, like you asked,
I would usually recommend six sessions and in one hundred
because we do the session. Every session is for about
two hours. We start the session by again dropping into
our body, followed by yes more deeper conversation because if
you look at it, everybody around us have five adversities
(15:23):
in our lives. The five adversity starts with work, money, relationship, health,
and sexuality. All of our human beings problems actually fall
into these five adversities, and all of these five adversities
lead to some core fears, like the fear of being rejected,
the fear of not having enough value, the fear of abandonment,
(15:47):
the fear of not having security and safety. Now these
are very over fears, like how our nervous system is
also very or our physiology is very corely aligned with
each other. You have two eyes, I have two eyes. Similarly,
our fears are also very similar. So the intensity, maybe
my fear is the fear of abandonment and your fear
(16:10):
is the fear of rejection, but it is the fears
remain same. So the idea is by the end of
six sessions, to ensure that the person has their own
internal agency, their own internal resource to regulate their nervous systems.
So next time they have a boss screaming on them,
they are able to take a few deep breaths and
(16:32):
regulate themselves instead of just having that response of anger
or sadness or rejection come up. So it's so instead
of having your nervous system go up in spikes, you're
able to create a sign wave where it's going in
a more smoother manner. Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So you're like responding rather than reacting in a situation exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
So you are responding instead of reacting. So we can
also add and things like ice bats, which I usually
would start doing starting next month because you're waiting for
the dely season to get better. But ice bats is
a good way to also build your own resilience. So
in the sixth sessions, we start with obviously having somatic exercises,
we drop into speaking about what are the core woundings
(17:19):
we are working with. We then enter a breath work
session depending on the person's need. Not everybody needs a fast, activating,
super releasing crying session. A lot of people also need
down regulation. How can I be more calmer and peaceful,
So depending on the client, I would adjust the breath
work session for them. We would end the session with
(17:40):
an integration practice that could be an art movement really
depending on how and what the person needs. Then and
then we add in the modalities, so it's very personalized
way of how we work with the client in this space.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, that's great, And you know what you're saying is
tell tell me if I'm right. A lot of the times,
you know, we're not feeling our feelings really it's just numbed.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
We're just going about our day, rationalizing and you know,
just just moving on.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know. It's like, no, there's no time to sit
down with it.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's what it is, you know, And we consider it
weak if you sit down and you're in tears or
you're just taking a whole day not taking phone calls,
not going into work because you're depressed or just feeling
low about something.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So half the time we're like, no, no, we must
be strong.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
We must take these things in as tried, even the
smallest or biggest of traumas, right, we just move on.
So yeah, I guess it's nice to take the time
to feel all those feelings and let it go, you know,
let it transmute in whatever way it has to be.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Done, absolutely rather, because if you don't do that, you
are living in a feeling of stuckness. I have so
many hours, one of them really you know where, and
I'm like, I want to take that holiday, but I'm
unable to take that holiday. I want to say something
to this person, but I'm unable to see it to
the person. I want to quit my job and start
(19:01):
my own business, but I'm unable to do that. I
have to tell my mother in law, father in law,
my mother something, but I'm unable to express my true self.
We are stuck because we are unable to process the
emotions that we need to process and now, right now,
I would say this is becoming an epidemic for our
culture and society, wherein we want to be somebody else,
(19:23):
but we are positioning ourselves in shopcasing with lots of
masks and unable to be that person because we are
holding back so much. Imagine if we live in a
society wherein everybody's sensitive and vulnerable and authentic, wherein your
authenticity and my authenticity is appreciated, where somebody coming and
(19:45):
just holding my hand does not seen like oh my god,
this person is probably trying to haut me, but seen
as a help a connection. So I think it's just
about also seeing where are we right now and where
do I want to go? Because if you do not
process these emotions, you will be forty forty five, fifty
(20:05):
seventy living with or hurry way you know, like I
know so many of my grandparents or the people in
that age who are now realizing I wish I had
lived my life differently so today, with all of these tools,
you can live your life differently if you take the
ownership of your own life. The problem is that we
(20:26):
are not wanting to be proactive about our own life,
our own physical, mental, emotional health. People at thirty thirty
five are going to work out because they want to
lose weight. Hello, you need to work out because you
need to have strength to live a longer in a
better life, so that you don't have me problems and
back problems. What about prevention is better than cure? Yeah? True?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
And what you also said, you know, our issues are
pretty much universal. You know, it's centers around these few things,
and all of us are battling the same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And yeah, we should take care.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Of our health and also mental health, and you know exactly,
and then why we are doing it, Like if you're exercising,
you know, to live longer in a better way, not
just to get abs because the next person is doing it.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Really yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So rhythm yeah, just you know, so heart activation? What
is heart activation? You know, before we get into the
cacau ceremony, what is heart activation? We've spoken so much
about stored emotions and how it affects you, So what
is activating the heart really mean?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So what is heart? Right? What is the heart is
basically the relationship with myself. We say heart is where
the love lies.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
We talk about self love so much, so heart activation
is a way to be able to connect with that
deeper love for self. And then once you are able
to connect for the love for self, is when you
are able to share this love with others. Because the
heart understands giving and also receiving. So a lot of us,
(22:08):
you know, we say, oh, I've had a heart break,
my heart walls are very strong. Oh I am unable
to have this person enter my heart. What does it
all mean? Right? We talk about all of this. So
if you see and understand physiology wise, your heart is
basically suspended around the pery cardial layer, right, It's around
(22:30):
this liquid and liquid is surrounded by a wall. Now,
every time energetically speaking, you have a heart break, or
as a child you were say abused, or you have
had a case of bullying, and now you just feel
like you are not connected with self, or you do
not love yourself, or you cannot love others, it's because
(22:55):
the pery cardial layer has become very thick. Also, if
you notice a lot of us actually end up only
breathing very shallowly, So you're breathing only till here where
just the upper chest area. You're also not breathing into
your heart space or even your belly area. What when
(23:16):
we say heart activation, we say moving and entering into
energetically entering into the space of your heart. Heart space
is also the space of thymus gland. Now, thymus gland
is basically that hormonial gland which actually secretes the growth
hormones in human beings. And the thymus gland stops like
(23:37):
stop secreting very high amount of growth hormones once we
reach puberty, and then it's very slowly releasing very little
amount of growth hormones. Because if you notice, as very
goodrow older, I know, sometimes becomes longer, our cartilage starts
growing longer. Right, So it's not like it dies the
way or it doesn't it stops working. It's still working. Now,
(23:57):
if you had a childhood trauma or a childhood sadness,
a grief that you're carrying, it actually gets stored in
your heart space because time and that's largely your timers land.
So when you're breathing or when you're doing activations with
plant medicines. The idea is to activate the heart space
(24:19):
so that you can connect with your own self. You
can have a deeper self love, and you can also
connect with other people. It's connecting to the same thing
I'm feeling emotionally numb and stuck. Heart is the space
that's the most easiest for oneself to connect with. If
we just become more intentional in the practice.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
And what does heart activation do for you? How do
you change as a person? How does it transform you?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
So in a very structured way, what heart activation does
is it provides clarity. It provides a sense of relaxation.
It provides more emotional control or or resourcing with your
own self. I am able, I would be able to
take decisions for myself that I feel truly aligned with
(25:11):
and not because my mother said so, or my boss
said so, or my husband said so, etc. It's truly
what you want and what lights you up. You know
that that moment of certain excitement. But for that to
even connect with you have to be connected with your
heart space, that space of deeper emotionals, the space of
(25:35):
deeper relaxation, the space of deeper clarity, and that's what
heart activation is about. Yeah, so you're feeling things more,
you know, in all that glory? Really? Is that what
happens after a ceremony like this? Yeah, you're allowing yourself
to be more open, to be able to receive and
(25:56):
also give, if I have to say it. So are
you are opening that channel of what can I receive
and what can I give? Now? What you receive and
what you give is your hand?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, because you know you're more open because otherwise we
all have our guards up.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know. That's what happens.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Really, So the heart activation coming to that, Yeah, have
you got that right?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Is? Yeah? So how does that work?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
You know, because we've talked about breath work and you know,
activating the heart and how it works, et cetera. How
does it all come together with sound healing and everything
that you do. I mean, I'll let you explain.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Lovely, Okay. So I was just coming to that while
you were talking about it. So cacau is a great
plant medicine to actually work with the heart space. I
would like to start talking about cacau first before I
get to what the ceremony is going to be about.
But cocau contains theobromine, which increases circulation gently and stimulates
(26:56):
the heart. It also creates a sense of openness, not
in a way of the overwhelming space, but in a
way that it allows your emotions and insights to surface naturally.
It is also different from caffeine, which speeds you up
and makes you feel jittery. Cacao works with the body's
natural rhythm, helping you feel present, connected rather than wired.
(27:21):
Now you would ask me oka rhythm. What is the
difference between a cacao and a chocolate right that people
or cocoa that people are anyways using, So a ceremonial
Cacau is actually minimally processed, meaning it retains more natural compounds.
It comes and is produced in small scale forms, usually
in the regions like Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador in the Native
(27:44):
American space. Also in the Native American world, it used
to be added by the indigenous people. Cacau used to
be called as the food of God's like the mines
used to actually trade with cacao. So imagine cocao used
to be that popular and important during that time. Uh
the way it is sourced right now and prepared matters
(28:05):
a lot, because the energy that you're putting into the cacau.
The land it is growing in is what is interacting
with your body, so it affects, Like I mentioned, it
affects your nervous system. The cacau that we are bringing
in here is actually produced in Haramshala. It's minimally produced
by a brand called Yagia, and they are going to
(28:26):
be providing the cacao for the ceremony that we're going
to be doing UH on Sunday at the Wellness Carnival. Now,
having said that, what is heart activation ceremony with cacau
that you're going to be doing UH, It starts with
intention setting. Now, in the world of thinking too much,
(28:52):
this is a tool I would like to share with people.
Set an intention for every day because inten where the
intention lies, the action happens. So hence, we totally believe
that when we work with any plant medicine, coco being
one of them, we start with intention setting even before
(29:13):
we make the cocau. So the cocou is made and
brewed with vegan milk, with some honey, with some cinnamon
and some cardamoms. So that also while we're preparing the cocaw,
we are setting an intention for it to open the heart,
for it to help people process whatever they need to process,
(29:34):
whatever they need to not what we are trying to
set up. So what cocau does it it by setting
the intention, By preparing the cocao intentionally, it helps bring
whatever is present for us on the surface, whatever needs
to be explored to the surface. We then drink cocao very.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Slowly, very mindfully, engaging all our five senses with the cocaw,
allowing time for us and for.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Our body to feel the cacou drink, and from that
moment we get into different practices to activate that medicine
in our body. So we activate it through breath work.
We also activate it through movement and also sound, so
that people can drop deeper into themselves, like not from
(30:32):
the mind, but from the fell sense of the body
in a very structured way. It also supports whatever comes up.
We also let whatever emotions or clarity or purpose that
needs to come up allow it to come up. We
do end the ceremony with an integration circle because it's
(30:53):
very important for people to know that they're not alone
in the journey. So this is about how the ceremony
as such flows. It does have lots of moving elements,
and it also really it's not just me holding the space,
it's also the group of people that come together who
hold space energetically and then build the ceremony from there. Okay,
(31:19):
how long does the stake so to say the ceremony
really depends. Like right now, the ceremony that we're going
to be doing at the Wellness Cannival is about forty minutes,
but we could also do I've done workshops where cacao
breathwork and sound has been for three and a half hours.
It's about going deeper into our exploration. Now we're doing
it in a space where it's an open space, so
(31:39):
I need to also be a trauma informed and not
push people to larger extent. So when we do it
in festivals and open spaces, we use term we use awake,
which is tightrated so that we are creating a space
for everyone because everybody is emotional quotient and emotional availabilities
(32:02):
at different spaces, so we need to be able to
be supportive for everyone who's coming in the circle. Okay,
and this sound involved as well, right, So what kind
of sounds do you play? And is a special kind
of music so sound actually helps guide the expedience, while
singing balls create a sense of spaciousness, and some softer
(32:26):
sounds like chimes can shift emotions in a general way.
So the rhythm actually really depends on there's a lot
of heaviness in the space that I feel, I start
with a steady drumbeat maybe to help people process that emotion.
If the energy is already very flowing in the space,
(32:47):
the soft sounds might be what is needed. And it's
all about responding to what's really happening in the moment.
So I can't really like, like right now say okay,
this is but yes, there are different kind of instruments
that help me support the group at that particular time.
Depends on what is needed. I guess at what time
(33:08):
exactly it's what is needed. But surely mentioned there are
different ways that every instrument that I'm bringing about actually
helps support the group. So drums, chimes, singing bowls are
a few things I work with the rattles. Sometimes the
group needs is a lot of high energy. We also
start using our vocals. It's really good to use your
(33:29):
vocal because it helps activate your vagusnurve, which also helps
in you know, regulating your emotional and nervous system.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, but then can you tell me the experiences that
people have gone through, anything that you can share.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yeah, sounds like a powerful technique, you know. So there
have been a lot of moments where people have come
and feeling disconnected and living with a sense of clarity
or ease. I fondly remember one person who hadn't felt
much emotionally for a long time after he lost his mother,
(34:05):
and after the ceremony, he said that it was the
first time in a while that he could actually connect
with the grief because he actually never cried after he
lost his mother because he needed to be the strong
one in the family as he was the elder one
to take care of the family. Another lady was struggling
(34:27):
with creative blocks. A week after the ceremony, she reached
out to me and said that they finally had the
clarity and motivation to finish the project that she has
been working on for months. And sometimes the effects are immediate,
sometimes it might unfold over time, but in almost every case,
(34:48):
there is some shift of awareness or feeling that one
feels okay, and.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I can sense that, you know, there is more awareness
right of what your problem is and UNSTI darkness.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
I suppose right, you get unstuck. Yeah, does that happen?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Like you know, you're saying that sometimes you want to
take on a project and then you know you stop midway,
or you want to quit your job, and you know, so,
is there some intention setting or some practice or ritual
that one can follow, you know, beyond this ceremony that
you can recommend, you know, on a daily basis or
once in a while, you know, activate and stay tuned
(35:25):
to what's happening inside of us.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, absolutely so. Once the practice is that is really
easy to add in your daily routine is ten deep
breaths every day in the morning, So before you get
out of the bed, before you touch your cell phone
to see what's happened all night while you will asleep,
(35:48):
just wake up, close your eyes, keep your one hand
on your heart, one hand on your stomach, and take
ten full deep breaths so you inhale from your nose
all the way into your belly, try inhaling as much
as possible, maybe also filling up your chest if you can,
and then exhale slowly. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, and you
(36:13):
do these ten breaths, deep breaths into your belly, into
your chest, letting go. And I have found that it
helps me find my center for the day. It helps
me stay grounded and present in my body and not
so much in my head. Because what you used to
happen with me was before I was getting out of
(36:36):
my bed, I had this to do list that was
running in my head, you know, like in just before
that moment when you get out of the bed, you know,
you're still in the alpha like phase of the sleep.
And I realized that that's not really healthy for my
nervous system, because my nervous system is getting activated as
soon as I wake up in the morning very very like,
you know, jittery, like ready to action. I needed to
(36:58):
first center myself to be able to react and not act.
So deep breath is what I would actually give out
as a tool to everyone. If you're listening to this
ten breaths every day in the morning, before you even
step out of your bed. You can do this lying
down in your bed, just straight in, a shave, a scent,
(37:18):
some ten breaths, maybe an affirmation saying I am powerful
or my day is going to be wonderful today and
just get out of the bed and that's all you
need to be a little more ituned in your body
and a little less in your head.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, that's wonderful because we do have this to doo
list running around in our heads, you know, because in fact,
even when you're going to bed, you're like, oh, I
have to get up in the morning and have to
do this. So actually getting that little bit of space
for yourself in the morning when you wake up, is
it sounds great?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
And the cacao bit rhythm, like you know, if somebody
can source it, can this be done on your own?
You know, you mix a drink? How does it work?
Is it's safe? And if it is, then how can
one do it?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Okay? So good question. So for the most part, cacau
is safe. People who feel emotionally disconnected, stack or just
looking for a deeper sense of connection tend to find
it really beneficial. Like I mentioned, it's essentially useful for
people who have had hard time either accessing or expressing
their emotions. That being said, there are a few considerations.
(38:28):
If someone has heart condition or is on certain medications
like high doses of antidepressants, they should check first with
their medical advisor before taking cacau because cocau naturally increases
your serotonin levels and also your heart rate, so it's
important to be a little more gentler with cacau. If
(38:52):
you have any of these conditions, and if you are
expecting that this should be a psychedelic experience, then this
isn't for you. It's it does help make subtle shifts
in awareness, but it is not psychedelic in nature. I
have included cocau and replaced cocau as my morning drink
(39:13):
instead of coffee. You can have say five to seven
grams on a regular daily basis if you would like
to include cacao as a ritual and replace it with coffee.
Because cocao is also very very high on antioxidants, so
it's really good for your heart health and it's much
(39:34):
better mention than caffeine because it doesn't make you feel jittery.
So yes, you can get cocau. Ideally recommend it ceremonial
grade cocau. There are two brands in India that are
really good. One is Yai Gia yg Ei A and
the other is called the Cocoa Carte. Both of them
source and make their cocau in India and the land
(39:57):
of our own mother Earth. You can source from either
of them and you can use these cacao You can
also add now these days there are lots of these
herbal mushroom powders that have come and like rachi and
chaga that are old, so really beneficial. You can also
add a bit of chargo or ratio to improve focus
(40:18):
or concentration and make it a really nice healthy drink.
You could also use cacao nibs in your smoothies. So yes,
to answer that question, you can use cocao on your
daily basis, just ensure that you don't have a heart
disease or on high doses of antidepressants. And cacao is
a really really nice drink to connect every day with
(40:40):
yourself and take that moment, make it a ritual to
spend that fifteen to twenty minutes with yourself, maybe journaling
or just enjoying the nature outside in your balcony. Yeah,
and it's chocolate, right, so it just sounds great. It's chocolate,
it's eye quality chocolate, and it's dark chocolate. So if
you've thought I like it bitter, but a lot of
(41:01):
people prey for putting some honey in it, so you
can put some honey in it as you're making it.
And they are enough and more nice recipes, maybe I
can send you one that you can shed with your audience.
Sounds good, Yeah, lovely, So they can actually try that
recipe and have a nice cup of cocao. You can
also make a cow durings cold, so with summer season
(41:21):
coming up, you can also have some iced coca.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, thank you to them. Anything you'd like to add soye,
even people can connect to you.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Yeah, So if anybody's curious and they would like to
stay in touch, my social media handle is called Breadth Journeys,
and they can join me there and get to know
about the other workshops, or they can come for the
upcoming ceremony or ninth of March at four pm and cyberhub.
Been good gao. But even if they're just starting at home,
I did encourage them to use cocao as a medicine,
(41:57):
to include it in their mindfulness practices, as a moment
of connection rather than just another task on their list.
So taking a moment for themselves and taking a deep
breath for everyone who's listening to this podcast today, Thank
you Annie, Yeah, thank you rhythm
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