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Finding Balance Through Ayurveda with Serena Arora · Building the Best You

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Building the Best You, a destination for you to reimagine what is possible in your life and then create it.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the show, everybody.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Sheen Collins, and today we have Serena Aurora on the show.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: She's actually up in Canada, but she lives in Costa Rica.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is like my dream.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: She's a yoga practitioner.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: She has a book out called Unbound.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: She's an Ayurvedic practitioner.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: She's been doing this for 25 years.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: She has a wealth of wisdom and her energy is just zen.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I am so excited to have you on the show and hear about everything that you do to help bring this practice to the world and to help everybody.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, Serena, welcome to the show.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Gene.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's such an honor to be here.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're welcome.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is so great.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I will just tell everybody technology sometimes is not our friend.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: We had to try really hard to get this going.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, not by anyone's fault, just sometimes the internet is not kind to us.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I appreciate your time that much more.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So before we dig into what you're doing in the present day and how you help everybody in your book and your retreats and everything in your practice, I would love to know a little bit about you and your background.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I really did write a lot of my life and my background in great detail in my book.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a very interesting experience for me to actually go back in time and in the past and start at the very beginning, if you know, when I was born, or even I would say before I was born, I told the story of my parents in the book as well.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I do believe part of the reason why I wrote the book was because I wanted people to see that me getting to this place right now in Costa Rica with a wellness retreat center on the Pacific coast of the Gold Coast and living the way I live with in this healthy lifestyle, using food as medicine, the Ayurveda, all of that, it didn't just happen overnight.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to show people that it is not a linear path, that we stumble and fall, that I make many made have made many poor decisions in my life, that uh when I look back, do I think of them as a mistake?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps, but I know that now that they were there for me to learn something about myself, to learn a lesson, so that I could then prepare myself for the next chapter of my life, literally the next chapter.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's really what got me here.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if I were to look turn the clock back, um, I was born in a smaller city in Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, uh, in the 70s and 80s.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So growing up in uh in a mixed, I was a mixed race, I am mixed-raced, uh, born to immigrant parents.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: My mom is Chinese, my dad is Indian.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I grew up in the 70s and 80s in a very white, quote unquote world.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh there was always this question that followed me from beginning to end, even till this day, really.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that was, what are you?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when someone asked me, what are you?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, I was looking for an answer.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't quite know what that question meant.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't quite know um what the answer was.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, what I realized, especially in writing the book, was that I had traveled the world, I had moved locations, I'd moved countries, I'd moved, changed relationships, changed my environment completely to really in search of that answer, the answer of what are you?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um to be able to find it 52 lit years later was a journey and a feat.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And now I support others in finding out who you really are.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I do believe when we were young, we know who we are, and yet then over time it gets layered and covered and buried.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that takes us some time and some lessons and some experiences to unravel and to unbind um what we've suppressed.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so to really unravel and to really show who we are and the essence of our truest, most authentic self.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when I was young, uh, my dad is from India, as I said.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I would do yoga and uh we would use food as medicine, the Ayurveda, and unbeknownst to me.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know it had a name.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really know nobody really did that where I was.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then I let it go.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was went to school, I realized, oh, people don't really do yoga and this isn't really a thing.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I let it go.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I I looked at my Western upbringing as the the answer until, you know, I became a middle school teacher.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was teaching science and French and um, you know, all the things that didn't quite feel as fulfilling as I knew that I could feel.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I so I went back to the yoga.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I at near my late 20s, I became a yoga instructor.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I and then everything started to come back to me, like, oh, that feeling.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And yet what I did was I layered my Western upbringing, my Western mentality onto this Eastern practice.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I taught a lot of yoga.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I taught in the fitness world.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was a fitness instructor as well.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I used yoga as a fitness um experience for people rather than really the essence, the true essence of what yoga was and really what I had known when I was a young little girl.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it, I burnt out.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so it took me a long time.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I quit teaching.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I uh went back to the yoga, but I really started to then practice it for myself.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I let go of teaching.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I it took me quite a many, quite a few years, about four years or so, to really heal uh from this burnout, from the relationship.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I left a marriage, I left a city, I left a whole life, a career.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I used the Ayurveda, I met Ayurveda for the second time in my life.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, but now I knew the nuances of it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I studied it, I did deep dive, I understood how it was able to serve me, heal me, and give me the lifestyle, the balance that I needed to not burn out.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So to share what I knew, to share my wisdom, to share the practice of yoga, to share the even the practice of Ayurveda, and not burn out and to be able to embody that practice myself so that I could be a beacon for others, I could be an inspiration for others versus, you know, passing on not just knowledge and information, which is such a beautiful story.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So before we move on, I just want to point out a couple of things to people that I think is so important that this journey took you time.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think sometimes, especially now we live in a society where we want everything to happen quickly.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if we reach rock bottom or we feel burned out, it's like we want to feel better immediately.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think something that you said that's so important is like, you know, it takes years to build to that.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: It takes years for your body to get to that state of being broken and for things in your life to feel broken and for your body to finally respond in a way that makes you wake up.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so you don't reverse all of that right away.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yet you are demonstrating that you can and you can get better and your body can heal and your life can get better, and mind, body, spirit, all of it can get to a better place, but it does take time and many detours.
• 8:20
  unknown: Yeah, right.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's so not linear for any of us in the entrepreneur space.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: None of it is linear.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I getting comfortable with the non-linear part.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, let me take a step back.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, for people who don't know what Ayurveda is, can you explain what it is?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start there.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Ayurveda loosely translates to the science of life.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, no big deal, just life.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a very deep, vast science that's over 5,000 years old, uh, started in India, where uh Vedyas or Rishis, the sages would look at Mother Nature for answers.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And they would study what was happening in nature.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just like in yoga, yogas, they would look at the animals and they would see how the animals moved and the shapes that they made, and what how then they would, you know, copy those shapes and see how it uh felt in their own bodies, in our human bodies.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: The same is true for Ayurveda.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: It started, it's this yoga sister science.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it started out as that.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It started out as, okay, perhaps now I can see Mother Nature.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can see plant life.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it starts as a seed and it grows and it needs the sun and water and other beings to come and help it proliferate and procreate.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was so much uh harmony in life in nature that they realized, ah, if we can mirror these natural circadian rhythms of nature, then we too, as humans, will demonstrate, will embody these natural, beautiful, harmonious circadian rhythms that that mother nature exhibits.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's so much, there's so much fluidity, there's so much resilience in Mother Nature.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: She has seasons where she grows and then she has there's an arc where she grows and then she dies and then she comes back in another shape or another form.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that we as beings are also doing that same thing.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're all changing, we're constantly changing, and we're always in different seasons of our lifetime.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can start to continue this cycle, what I like to tell my clients uh when I they come to me for Ayurveda is I like for my clients to look at the cycle as in a human form, as ingest, digest, assimilate, and eliminate.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so even though in nature we're seeing different um seasons, it's still this idea, this notion of we're ingesting something, we're digesting something, we're assimilating and we're eliminating.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if that cycle is blocked or interrupted or not at its most ideal optimal way of moving, of movement and fluidity, then we will be stagnant.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: We will not be at ease.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when we are not at ease as humans, we are at I call it dyshyphen ease.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So not at ease, dys-hyphen ease.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're that way long enough and we do not take care of ourselves or not change something in that, then dyshyphen ease will eventually become disease.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Which makes perfect sense.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: So when someone comes to you, I would assume you're not the first call.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would think that people have tried other things before they get to a more alternative form of healing.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So what brings people to you?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a theme?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a common illness?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a common state?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: How do they find their way to you?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It does vary, but I would say that for the most part, I and I, you know, look at it as I have this retreat center in Costa Rica.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Most of our guests come to us exhausted, dehydrated, and or stuck.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so these feelings of feeling stuck or kind of at this, like I said, dis-ease.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's there know something's not right.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't quite feel right, but they don't know what to do.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, maybe they've tried certain things, they've looked at, they've listened to podcasts, they go on YouTube, they Google their symptoms, and all of that is fine.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: What we're doing, though, in that is outsourcing our health.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Ayurveda empowers the person to start to in-source your health again.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So understanding what is happening inside your body, pausing long enough to hear what your body has to say, because our bodies are speaking to us all the time.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're telling you if they're just whispering little things to you, my suggestion in Ayurveda and I help help people sort of pinpoint this is what are what is your body trying to say?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you feel it?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: What and then to understand what it's saying when it's whispering.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we ignore it or we we just don't listen, then that whisper gets louder and louder and louder.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes for me, what it is isn't what my client needs to do or what I have to do to change something.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's more what do I stop doing?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because often we are doing that the problem isn't that we do things.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I find as humans and as uh women especially, we tend to see something that isn't right and we'll try and quote unquote fix it.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what do we do to fix it?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll try this food, we'll try this diet, we'll try this drink, we'll try this exercise, we'll try this healer, we'll try this doctor, whatever it is.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so we start to try and fix things.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: But then what we've forgotten or what's been lost along the way is that inner wisdom, that inner knowing, that pause, that quiet where your body actually is telling you what it is that it needs.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we often, and this is my experience as well, I in my 20s, 30s, even my 40s, I don't believe I really knew what I needed.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was never um encouraged really to find out what I needed.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was, I come from a, you know, a family of immigrants where they were just, they put their needs aside.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just go put your head down, work hard, put food on the table, a roof over your head.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And um I call this immigrant.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so this immigrate that I inherited was very strong in me.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I too would just put one foot in front of the other, keep going and going and going.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: As a teacher, I would, you know, pee on a bell, eat on a bell.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I would always be putting someone else's needs in front of my own.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in the back of my head, I knew in my mind, I knew something didn't feel right, but I couldn't quite understand what that was.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even those of us who go we're fitness, who go to the gym and we're going and doing and doing and doing, is that exactly what we need in that moment?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps not.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we need to actually rest.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps our body is asking us to slow down.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps our body is asking us to stop in some ways.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of this becomes the real lesson is what do we know what we need?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I, it took me a long time to pause, to sit with myself, to descend deeper into my heart, my gut, my womb, and say, okay, what do you need right now?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because we know when we're not feeling at ease.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: We know when there's conflict, we know that life is lifing or there's too much, it's overwhelm.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've got lots of things that we're need to tend to.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, how do we actually take time, pause, and say, what is it that we need, and then listen for an answer?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it took me a long time to hear the answer, but it's a practice.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And like anything, it is a practice.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have practiced ourselves to doing.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so, can we practice ourselves into being and human beings as we are?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And resting.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I yeah, I hear a common theme, and you've said it multiple times in many different ways, right?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: You said it as pause, you said it as resting.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: You haven't said the word sleep, but my guess is that's right, right behind all of those things, too, because we also have created a society that's sort of I'll sleep when I'm dead mentality, and that doesn't work either.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So if someone comes to you, how do you teach a go, go, go, do, do, do human being to do that when that is not what we have been conditioned and trained to do most of our lives?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: How do you do that?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: How do you accomplish that?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the only answer that is for everybody in Ayurveda is it depends.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only true answer.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because it's not a one size fits all.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's um what is medicine for one person can be poison for another.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um what I like to do, and I do get the people that are go, go, go, I'll say this.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: We are used to a life of overwhelm.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are used to being bombarded by uh marketing, by voices, by uh sounds and people and um, you know, people, those of us who live in cities and those of us who live in busy companies or, you know, we're working, all or we're surrounded by a lot of people.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: That becomes the new normal where we are our our nervous systems are at a very high dysregulated uh state.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And to come back down, that's why, you know, when it's people say, oh, just do a yoga, do some yoga or meditate or you know, all of that, that's why it's so difficult.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because to get from, you know, zero to 60, we we can get there fast.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've we're just like it's easy because it's so supported.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Our environment supports that, like you said.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And whether what it takes is very small increments to slow down.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to just slam on the brakes.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because slamming on the brakes could also trigger anxiety.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh for some people, that doesn't feel that's dis-eased to them.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I've learned through yoga therapy, I mean, been a yoga therapist for over 25 years, to me, using yoga as therapy is that it's slow, very small, bite-sized practices that you do every single day that start to add up over time.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Ayurveda is the same way.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I would never ask my doers, I I could, I could ask them to do 17 things and they'll make sure they do them all and they'll check them off the list.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we are not, that is not a sustainable way of healing.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is going to be burnout, they're going to fall off the wagon, it just becomes another chore because and basically where I'm enhancing or or I'm increasing their go-getter attitude.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's a principle in Ayurveda where opposites often bring balance.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, I agree to bring in the rest, to bring in the slowing down, but I would do it more in pieces.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, I'll say to my doers, okay, I mean, I would love for them to stop working at 8 p.m., no screens after eight, and then in bed by 10.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a big ask.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would ask them to just simply rest their eyes because the doers, they take life in through their eyes.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would focus on something about their eyes.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I would have them do, you know, a candle meditation.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So something where you would, they're looking at a candle and it's starting to, they're, they're actually doing something.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, somatic movement, which is a slow um movement, but you're still moving and you're breathing, you're moving, you're doing a lot of things at the same time.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's also different somatic exercises that are just a shaking practice, for example.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they could do that every um, you know, once a night, legs up the wall uh at the end of the day, uh, just for, you know, a minute.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so certain little things that we can start with, or uh that they will I do this thing where it's An empty bowl meditation where I actually they when they breathe in, it's it's done very um systematically.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's an inhale, gather up all the to-do list, and then exhale, and you imagine it falling away from you and landing in your hands, which are the empty bowls, and then you'll, you know, kind of empty the bowl out.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: So these are things that they can actually think about doing.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: They, they, it's not just sitting there and not thinking, it's actually sitting and having a task that they will be able to, I'm going to consciously empty out my mind.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, that becomes something where they'll see the difference.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And for my doers, when they see the difference, that's when the Then they're all in.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh, give me more.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I understand.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's as you're describing it, I'm like, oh, that sounds so peaceful.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's a combination of breath work and meditation and potentially some gentle movement and all things that, you know, all practices I've tried in many different forms that do really make a difference.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I've I personally have found one of the things that all of those practices do is it breaks the cycle of whatever it is I'm doing at the time.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: It breaks the doing cycle, whatever that is, whether that be the narrative that's going on in my brain, the physical movement of the cycle, whatever the cycle is, I am able, I'm breaking that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm saying, like, okay, no, we're now gonna pivot over here.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I come back after doing it for however long, I I feel differently about that.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: And like it's so good for stress and anxiety and being like, what really matters?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: What do I really need to get done today?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like do I really need to go back and do more work for another hour or do I maybe go read a book?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like it's a good reset.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you said that because that becomes the practice.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just the breaking, just the pause, just the acknowledgement of that.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: And even if you do go back to working for an hour, that's okay.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: You you practice the pause, you practice that break.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, so that is wonderful.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is important.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, where does food come into this?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've I I know I own yet have not used, I have some Ayurvedic cookbooks, and I hear people in the cooking world talk about this all the time.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is that as it relates to food and nutrition?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it depends.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: However, with food, I use the food as medicine approach.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said earlier, what can be medicine for one person can be poison for another.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not a diet, it's not uh always do this or never do that.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I that the always and never doesn't exist in in Ayurveda or really in life, if you really think about it.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: For me, what I like to bring into people's awareness is temperature.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the temperature that you feel?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you look at Chinese medicine or in Ayurvedic medicine, so there's we there's often a reference to this is cold or this is hot or this is damp or this is dry, or you know, and there's so there's qualities that we like to look at.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: In Ayurveda, there are 10 pairs of qualities.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when I mentioned earlier, the opposite often brings balance.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is the general perspective that I invite people to look at.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: If it's cold outside, then eating something cold will then increase that same quality of cold.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so like increases like and the opposite often brings balance.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if we want to have balance, if it's cold outside, the the lesson is not to eat ice cream.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or to eat iced drink or to drink iced drinks.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, iced drinks aren't are really, and ice cream in fact are not really recommended in Ayurveda because of our body's temperature.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So our internal temperature.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: 97.9 is that 97.8?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is that 97.8, yeah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: In Fahrenheit.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: So and so it is we want to bring in the same quality that is this is the very same temperature so that our body feels at ease.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: So when there's something very cold in our body's temperature, it's going to shock us.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll bring a yes, it'll bring it our temperature down, obviously.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to think of it as this warm bath versus a cold shower.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so can we continue to always bring in, not always, can we bring in warm, uncuous foods that are cooked, typically, that our body can easily digest.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: So what we want is for our bodies to be able to eat foods that they can digest, that they recognize, and that it they don't have to work so hard to break down.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we make it harder for our body to break food down, that is using up more energy, more fuel, more fire, which we some of us don't really have.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this fire, this digestive fire, that's why it depends.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your, it's not about the food that you eat, it's really about the fire and the level of fire that you have.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we call this Agni in Ayurveda.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And whether your Agni is low, whether it's medium or whether it's high, that is where it depends.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And can you, if you have a high agni, maybe things just go right through you and that it it's difficult for you to absorb the nutrients.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a too low, your agni is too low, then maybe you don't have enough fire to digest what's coming, what you're ingesting.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so it sits there, it ferments, it becomes um this kind of toxic morbid waste product that it's undigested food and that becomes disease eventually.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it really is about how to increase your fire.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when I say warm water, if you're drinking warm hot water instead of cold water, that actually helps your digestive fire.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: That helps your agni grow.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sleep, sleep actually helps your agni to sustain itself.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Certain breath works, certain breath uh practices, they will help increase your digestive fire.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so we really want to look at the fire versus the food.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that makes perfect sense, actually.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it also ties into that every body, every person and their makeup and their composition are different.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, some people have no issue eating beans, other people can't eat beans at all, and just using beans as an example because it's one that a lot of people can relate to.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the bean doesn't necessarily have to be any different, it's just how your body can handle that nutrient and handle that food.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: So in Ayurveda, for example, we will recommend if it is with a bean, we want it to be with certain spices.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the spices that you use will give the quality uh to increase your digestive fire, to be able to maybe digest the beans and to lower the uh air qualities of the beans.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so then you can actually digest them.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's with anything.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: So there's spices, there's it's we now your video, it's food combining.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So certain foods go well together, and then you can eat them, and they actually you it helps you digest them, foods and spices.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then certain foods we recommend that they do not be combined.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those is fruits, for example, fruits with any other food, definitely melons without any other food.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So melons should be eaten alone on their own, and either be 30 minutes before a meal or 30 minutes after a meal.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: So really on their own.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we in the West we create a fruit salad, yeah, that's mind-boggling for Ayurveda.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's happening?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we don't do that.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do that.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: We don't do mixed berries.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the berries are okay.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And all the things.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: And because your body doesn't it it has a very difficult time uh parsing out the qualities of those foods.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the fruits typically are heavy in in qualities.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when we eat them after a meal, especially like fruit salad after a meal for dessert, we think it's healthy in the West.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yet it's a heavy, sweet quality that is sitting on our meal that we just ate, and that it is going to push it down, and our body, our fire is going to have a very difficult time digesting not only the fruit, but the meal itself.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: So then everything becomes just starts to ferment in our bodies and in our guts, and that never feels good.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's fascinating.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: I would have never ever thought that.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: It makes sense as you're saying it, but I would have never thought that.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: And because a lot of times if you're trying to eat less sweets and less dessert, it's like, okay, well, I'll have some fruit for dessert instead of having a piece of chocolate.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, if that might not actually be working for you.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm so curious what happens at a retreat at your place in Costa Rica?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because it sounds absolutely heavenly.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So what happens at a retreat?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: It depends.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have so many different beautiful, uh, amazing people come through.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: We host a group so people can come in and host their own retreat.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so whether that is a yoga retreat or a uh writing retreat or a horse whispering retreat or a ukulele retreat or a plant medicine retreat or whatever it is.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many different kinds.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for me, what I hold there uh we've created and curated is a space to really support the work that is being done.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the groups can come.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: We support, we have an Ayurvedic menu with uh fresh local food uh native to Costa Rica.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then also we have these food combining, like I said, that is appropriate and good for digestion.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh different ways of uh we have digestive tea and teas and uh those kinds of things after um at your disposal.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, what I love to do is when I'm I'm my next retreat is in October.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is living unbound.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so this retreat that I'm holding is Ayurvedic self-care.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: They will cook themselves.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: We will cook together so that it doesn't become overwhelming.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like I love what you said, you know, you have these cookbooks, but you know, you've yet to use them.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ayurveda can be overwhelming.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I really see that, you know, in the Western world, it's like, I want to do all these things.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, I can't.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's too much.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I hold your hand.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's I in in in implementing simply one thing, just one thing that is effective for you in particular, and that you will be able to do every day for 30 days and then see the change over time.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have a community that we just support one another, one another uh and asking any questions because it takes time.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: And after 30 days, your body then starts to crave that practice or uh starts to uh change and shift your elimination.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: You will really notice your elimination will start to change.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so when that all happens and that's all starting, then we can start to keep the things that are staples and that are the non-negotiables.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can just continue your when you go back from Costa Rica, you continue your life and you keep the just this the non-negotiables.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the things that are going to sustain you over the years.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And because I don't, you know, for me, it's like we go to Costa Rica, we have a retreat center and it's a one and done, and then oh, I'm back to the familiar and I'm in the rat race and I'm go, go, go again.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that it is actually worse for your body.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, your body it had this moment, this week, let's say, of feeling at ease, and then it kind of lets go, it relaxes, and then you're exposing it again to something the familiar, which is not creating ease for itself.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so the body has to protect itself again.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the layers just get harder over and over.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, I really focus on the feminine, um, the feminine uh wisdom that we all hold, which lives in our wombs and in our guts.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't have a womb, it's still there, it's in our space in the space of where the womb resides.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it is tapping in, we spend entire 30 days tapping into that wisdom and so that we can start to clear the channel.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that ingest, digest, assimilate, eliminate that I'm speaking of, it has been blocked.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when there's blocks, the feminine wisdom is the water.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: When I said that they come to me, they're exhausted and they're dehydrated.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: The dehydration is a big one.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Women are naturally water, and so that it flows through us.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if the channels are blocked, then that water cannot flow.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: It ceases to flow.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we feel stuck, we don't feel productive, we don't feel fulfilled.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: We aren't able to share and give of our waters in the way that naturally fulfills us.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: That it actually is fulfilling to share our waters, let our waters flow and feed and nurture the parched lands.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the parched, the male counterpart, for example, is a solar energy.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so our lunar energy actually feeds and nourishes the solar energy.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's the count that yin yang, I guess you can say, is how that works.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's the harmonious rhythm of nature.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so can we start to unblock the channels, clear the channels, let the waters remove the dams, and start the waters to flow because we have an endless supply within us.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of nourishing, hydrating, oleating, and caring for ourselves in a way, little bit by little bit, just a little bit every day.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that over time, that well will refill itself, will come back.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: So if you guys are not watching this, you need to jump over to YouTube and watch.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because as I'm listening to you talk, I'm like, you have this flowy, calm, aligned energy about you where it's like, okay, I want what, I want what you have.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like whatever you're doing, like, yes, yes, please.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, please, whatever that is.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even, you know, like whatever it is, just the the way that you carry yourself, the way that you speak about it, the way I can tell that you feel in your own body, it so comes through the camera.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I can feel how just balanced and in flow you are.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: It is amazing.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: It really is unbelievable to see and to witness what is possible and where that is.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't always that way.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it was.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: So if people are interested in working with you, what's the best way for them to find you and get in touch with you?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: The website, uh, my website, SerenaAurora.com.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no you in Aurora, A-R-O-R-A.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then the retreat that I'm speaking of is SerenaAurora.com forward slash living unbound.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what we're doing.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we want to live in this very unbound way because what we what stops us from the stops the flow is the binding.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we start to unbind, it can be messy, it can be scary, it can be unfamiliar.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can hold each other in the space and community and accountable, that's when we'll all win.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it becomes this collective of all being able to support one another in this flow.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then you know what happens when the water waterfall is much more powerful.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: A river, a flowing river is much more powerful than the stagnant waters that little ponds individually.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we're much we're stronger together for sure.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll put all that in the show notes so people can come and find you.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: We'll link your book as well.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I just got your book.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm super excited to read it.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for sending it over.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: So before we go, two last questions for you.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: Did I miss anything?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or is there anything that we didn't touch on that you think is really important that we cover?
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Did we miss anything?
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think there's so many things that we could talk about.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, like I said, digestible pieces.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so if uh so yeah, I do believe that the reason why I wrote the book was to uh start the conversation.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so that we, as it's a guide to show you a vulnerable guide of all the ways in which I fell, failed, and and picked myself back up and started to unblock those channels.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, the conversation is the most important part of all of this.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: Starts with awareness.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have awareness, then the rest of it doesn't matter.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for creating a platform where that can occur.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we need more of it.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, no, I'm happy to.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the gifts that I have is being able to bring some awareness to people of not only the tools and the resources that are out there, but what is possible and what balanced living even looks and feels and sounds like.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because many people are not exposed to that at all in their everyday life.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that I get to bring that to them.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, before we run out of time, I love I will your book will obviously be in the show notes so people can go check it out.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's available on your website, it's available at Amazon.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I also like to ask if there is another book or books that you've read that has impacted you personally or professionally that you think everyone should read.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, what would you like to recommend?
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: There is so many.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: There are.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there is one that I actually really uh just it it struck me and and maybe just because of my upbringing and and you know, I resonated with very much.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's crying in in Hmart.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've heard of it.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have not heard of that.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: A new one.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love when someone brings me a new one.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: Crying in Hmart.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's perfect.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: I will put that in the show notes also because I love to read the books that people recommend and it helps expose me to new things that I might not have heard of.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: I will give that a try.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Serena, it's been so lovely to have you on the show.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for your time and for your wisdom and your knowledge and even just your incredibly calm presence.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have to tell you, I'm like, I feel my blood pressure is like way lower than it was before we started.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I thank you for that.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'll put everything in the show notes so people can come and follow you.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: They can learn more about you, they can learn more about your retreats, your private practice, your book.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I thank you, and we'll definitely stay connected.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Gene.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: Have a beautiful day.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's been such a pleasure.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of Building the Best You.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you are ready to take a deeper dive into transforming your life, check out my Empowerment Fundamentals course on my website, houseofgermar.com.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, and I will see you next week with another inspiring guest.