Pillars of Wellness: Emotional, Physical and Mental Harmony

Can understanding your individual constitution transform your health and well-being? Join us as we unlock the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda with esteemed practitioner Nidhi Pandya from New York.
Throughout this enlightening conversation, Nidhi shares her family tradition in Ayurveda and provides an in-depth look at how the doshas—Kapha, Pitta, and Vata—define our natural constitution (prakriti) and current state (vikruti). By examining the primary functions of the body—building, transformation, and movement and decline—Nidhi reveals the interplay that maintains our health and emphasizes the importance of self-awareness for achieving true wellness.

We discuss the profound impact of emotions like fear, anger, and overthinking on our doshas, supported by references to ancient Ayurvedic texts. Nidhi also introduces the concept of Agni (digestive fire) and its crucial relationship with the doshas, offering insights into aligning our daily activities with natural cycles for optimal health. From the significance of proper sleep and exercise to the benefits of a balanced lifestyle, this episode is packed with practical tips for maintaining harmony and well-being. Tune in to gain a personalized approach to health through the timeless principles of Ayurveda.

For a very in-depth conversation on Ayurveda, use our full chat with Nidhi Pandya.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only.This is not intended to be medical advice, nor is it a substitute for medical advice.Consult your physician for medical needs and individual case by case needs.

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Chapters

• 0:10 Understanding Ayurveda and Doshas
• 4:41 Understanding Ayurvedic Doshas and Emotions
• 19:06 Understanding Ayurvedic Lifestyle and Well-Being

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to Freshly Forever, a podcast that gives you fascinating insights week after week. Here's your host, vaikumar. Hey folks, welcome to another episode on podcast, freshly Forever. Today we are here to break down the topic of what it means to be really healthy. Health, I guess, is a combination of emotional, physical and social well-being. But let's find out what our expert, nidhi Pandya, an Ayurvedic practitioner from New York, has to say on these different aspects as she walks us through the different facets from an Ayurvedic perspective. Indian system of medicine. That truly is the science of life. It just tells us how we basically lead life so we can be on this path to wellness. Let's get to the episode. Your background in Ayurveda. Can you tell listeners how it all started and how you got oriented and initiated?

Speaker 2: 1:24

into it. So I was actually born in a family where my grandfather was an Ayurveda healer, so I lived in a huge joint family, so everything I thought that's how everybody in the world lives. Actually, I was naive enough to think that way, but I basically grew up with it as a part of my daily life. Always, given that we were a family of 14 people, there was always awareness that each person responds differently to heat, to the weather, to different foods, to even different emotional stimulus. Right Like, for example, I say that if you know, something went off if two of us were scolded for something. Each person responds differently.

Speaker 2: 2:00

So the awareness that what you are within, what your body and your mind are within, is really how you interact with the world, and a lot of the Western focus is that, oh, it depends on what you consume was studying more sociology, psychology, marketing till that point. But when I reached a point and I said, wow, like what's really missing in the world is this awareness of self which comes through Ayurveda. And then I went and got years and years of formal education and I always said that it never ends. So I'm still such a vast and amazing science. So I'm still a student of Ayurveda, but really my journey started with being born into a family which had this deep awareness.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Excellent, and every day is a learning journey, right for all of us. So you know it's it's a continuous process and, speaking about you know you said how each of us react to situations is all because of what we are composed of, and you know what we are right now, listeners, what the relevance of dosa to one's prakriti and vikruti, which I guess, to put it in you know, like very basic terms, is what you are born with and what you are post right, right, and you know, just again, if I put it into perspective, I'm going to start talking about what doshas are for people in a very simple manner, and then we'll talk about what prakriti is and what vikruti is in relationship with doshas.

Speaker 2: 3:49

And for anybody who's listening, even if you've never heard about doshas or ayurveda, let's just present you with this idea. So, as a human body, as a human being, there are three functions that you're essentially doing throughout your life. The three functions are building, right, and they are. You're always building cells. You're building nutrients. You know you're building tissues out of the foods you eat. There's always a building process, which you can. Of course, it's exaggerated in childhood because it's really a building phase. You're born maybe 18, 19 inches and by a year's time you are like this toddler right. So the building is exaggerated in childhood, but you have a building function.

Speaker 2: 4:25

And there's another function transformation, because we are building and then we all need to transform. You need to transform the food that we eat. When we see something or we read something, we transform that into information and memories. You know you're transforming nervous signals all the time. So transformation is a second function. You know that we have, as human beings, a very dominant function.

Speaker 2: 4:47

The third is movement and decline. Right, for all of this to happen, you know, for even your arm to move or for transportation of substances to happen, there's a function of movement which is inherent in your body. And I say movement and decline because things need to be eliminated from your body, right, even as we age, things need to be eliminated from your body, right, even as we age, things need to, kind of, you know, decline, decay, eliminate, and that is a third function, right now, in terms of doshas. These are, these are the functions. The kapha dosha is the building function. Your body is building, building, building that is supported by this term called kapha dosha. Transformation is supported by something called pitta dosha. Transformation is supported by something called pitta dosha, which transforms everything, and the movement and decline is supported by vata dosha. However, what we can have is a tendency to have one of these functions more exaggerated than others. So, in an ideal situation, you're building appropriately or transforming appropriately, and then your movement and decline is appropriate, right.

Speaker 1: 5:50

So, in other words, all of us have all three components. It's just what we are, kind of more dominant or made rather, you know, we tend to show more dominance exactly right.

Speaker 2: 6:04

So the way, so the way I say right, is that some. So, of course, given the age right, children will always build more teenagers in your youth, you're always transforming more. All the knowledge you know becomes productive work. You're procreating, you're having children. You know teenagers or even young. The more younger you are, the you'll quickly metabolize and transform your food. So that's dominated by transformation and you're only just dominated by movement and decline. You dry up and your body shrivels up.

Speaker 2: 6:30

But what happens is that all of us, right, could have an exaggerated tendency for one of these functions lifelong. For example, if your body likes to build more, or if you're kapha dominant, then you basically are. You know, let's say the easiest way to see this you have more excess tissue than anybody else. You're even slower, right, because when you're building, things slow down, so you're slower. You may be more grounded in your speech. Your everything is more, you know. You may have bigger eyes, bigger head. Everything is more building, building If you'd like to transform more. You may have a very active mind, but you may be very sharp and focused. Your digestion may be hot. You may react stronger to the sun, because anytime you have the opportunity to transform, your body likes to over transform. It loves transformation and Vata is dominated by like more of a movement.

Speaker 2: 7:18

You know there are children who like to move a lot. Their attention is not in one place, they're always fidgeting and they're going from one thing to the other. That could be a tendency. We could have it throughout our lives the dry moving tendency. So if, depending on what your exaggerated tendency is now I'll go to prakriti and vikruti, we're all depending on the nature of the sperm and the egg at conception.

Speaker 2: 7:43

You are usually born right, unless you're in perfect balance and harmony and all three are equal. Most of us are born with a dominance. Some people are those children who just build and sleep. You know those cuddly big children or kids who break out into hot rashes and they are like transforming. They have loose stools and hot rashes and they cannot take the sun and they are like the pitta children. And there could be kids who are just uneasy and moving and hot rashes and they cannot take the sun and they're like the pitta children. And there could be kids who are just uneasy and moving and fidgeting and not sleeping. Well, because vata likes to move and not rest, they could be the vata children, and so that's prakriti.

Speaker 1: 8:13

However, as would that be the say, all the khalik and everything that happens you know. Would you categorize that as vata for the most part right.

Speaker 2: 8:24

The stomach, the air filling in places, that unease you see. In childhood it's very distinct. In babies you can see these three very distinctly. And then as we grow right, depending on what we consume, where we live, what experiences we have, how we interact with the world, that can change your original constitution a little bit, like kind of all create an imbalance, what you would say, and that is called vikruti. So your vikruti is the imbalance that has happened beyond and beneath. You could be born with a kapha dominance, but you could adopt regimens which keep you healthy right, or with a pitta or with a vata, but as we kind of really create imbalance, that imbalance is called vikruti. Okay, and it could be the same. It could be the same. You could be have kapha prakriti and you could have kapha vikruti, which means you've really exaggerated it even beyond what you were born with.

Speaker 1: 9:21

You can quickly touch upon the role of emotions, say fear, anger, overthinking and those kind of stuff, how it plays into someone feeling good or not feeling so good.

Speaker 2: 9:37

So the first sutra of the Ashtangra Daya, which is one of my favorite ancient texts, is Raga Adi Rogan All the diseases which begin at emotional imbalance. Raga is lust, adhis, etc. So anything that goes wrong in your body, any disease begins with an emotion, because even if you eat extra, you're basically greedy. So it's a big part of it. Right Now there are two aspects of it and I want to touch upon both briefly. Right now. There are two aspects of it and I want to touch upon both briefly. One aspect is every emotion will support one of these functions.

Speaker 2: 10:16

Right, I'm gonna just help you, I'm gonna get your help now again, getting into the gunas, the properties, the qualitative aspects of things. Now you talk about uh, you said overthinking right, or anxiety, or anxiety. Does that have movement? Of course it's an intuitive concept. Is it a movement right in your nervous system, or is it like a sluggish denial, depression in your movement system, in your nervous system?

Speaker 1: 10:41

I would say movement because I think it's dynamic, depending on the situation. You know, because I think it's dynamic, depending on the situation, you know, certain things can make me think a lot Certain times, certain junctures I would just be content with okay, I can just be easy and move on.

Speaker 2: 11:00

Absolutely right. So it supports movement. The guna of overthinking is movement, because in your brain you had a thought. Now the thought is ruminating, it's staying and it's picking up pace. It picks up pace, for example. It just the more you think, the faster it moves in your brain and you can't take it anymore and I like fight or flight mode yeah, right, I know, and sometimes there's freeze mode where you just go shut down, um, but so, so you tell me.

Speaker 2: 11:25

So, in that, right, when we talked about the three functions, we talked about kapha, which is more building, grounding slower. We talked about pitta, which is more transformative and hot. And there's the third, vata, which is movement and decline. So if this is movement and vata is movement, right, this emotion will aggravate vata, which means you will be drier. And then, of course, there's a whole science into everything that goes with that, which means you will stay up more, you will be drier. And then, of course, there's a whole science into everything that goes with that, which means you will stay up more, you'll be more anxious, you'll feel more depleted, you'll be more tired, etc. So, every emotion I'm going to ask you another emotion, just very quickly anger, is it hot, is it, you know, like? Is it hot or cold, for example, hot, hot, right, and pitta is hot. So people who, people who are angry, usually can feel very hot, they can get acidity, they can get. So every emotion can support a corresponding reaction in your body today, in the west. So that's the one aspect of it, right.

Speaker 2: 12:20

In fact, in the first few sutras of the ashtangarudayam would say what will increase vata? It says chiya. Chintiya is a word Besides movement, dryness. It says chintiya will increase vata, which means when you're thinking too much, it will increase vata. Right, depression, sluggishness will increase kapha because it's an immobile. It holds the same place. Emotions have a very, very big role, not only in the way they respond, interact with your body, but in terms of the choices you make in the world. So, from within to outside, emotions will determine how you interact with the world. Now, that's the second aspect.

Speaker 2: 12:59

Right is that every emotion has a corresponding chemical reaction in the body right. Very simple. I'm thinking about, let's say, the loss of a loved one which has not even happened. It could be so powerful that I could release tears, that's a chemical reaction, right?

Speaker 2: 13:15

so one thought, which may not even be real, has a chemical reaction with that. Every single thought 24, 7 alters your body's chemistry. In the long term, the chemistry will alter the biology of the body and again you have your health is affected because your biology, I mean we, are being fed by this transportation, nutrient transportation system, your blood, your plasma, that goes all around the body and every thought changes your blood chemistry. Then it's a no-brainer that how important emotions are, emotions that are in equilibrium to what your body is the nutrients of your body. So, that being said, emotions big role in the choices you make in the climate and environment of your body and I'm so glad more and more we're talking about this today.

Speaker 1: 14:05

What about hydration? How important is it? Several people think, oh morning, I get up, I gulp down a liter of water or, like you know, okay, four cups of water. What is the role of doing things correctly, so as not to disturb the equilibrium or the internal climate that you're talking about?

Speaker 2: 14:28

I have to say that you're very intuitive about this science. It's been such a pleasure to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 14:32

You can really take it in a very deep manner. I love it and you know, this is one of the things that I see, right, what is the journey? We start off in youth like grape and we end up as raisins. Old age, we're like raisins, all wrinkled, and the difference between the grape and the raisin is the loss of water content, the dryness that sense. So, then, the preservation of youth and the preservation of longevity is preservation of those fluid elements.

Speaker 2: 15:05

But the fluid elements are not just hydration and water. That is the important part. The fluid elements has everything that's soft and fluid, most importantly, good fat, right. So water is very complicated, because water can change which membrane it is in given osmotic pressure, right, and and you have to think about it, like, even if you've ever worked in a, in a farm, right it's, the farmer is very careful about how much he waters, how he waters, whether, even if you have a plant at home, you cannot just dunk a bucket of water. Yeah, absolutely. There's a certain time it'll absorb water better. There's a certain speed it will absorb water. You can't put it in one part. So, similarly, we have, I think over hydration is a problem, right, because you know, over hydration is 100 a problem because you're, there's membranes in your body. You know, and it's like, let's say, the concentric circles and this exchange of fluids is such a big part of it how it goes through every membrane. We kind of distort that function when we just guzzle crazy amounts of water, even though it goes through our GI, gastrointestinal tract and Ayurveda. You know fluids are separated and all of that happens, but still it's very important.

Speaker 2: 16:21

That being said, I say you drink in Ayurveda, you drink to thirst. Drinking excessively affects, it's like a monsoon in your gut. It's going to make it slimy, give rise to parasites, kill your agni. Things won't grow properly. Agni is a digestifier, so you don't overhydrate. I see you drink warm water, sip by sip to thirst throughout the day, more in the first half, less in the second half of the day, and um, and then your body already knows that happens when it's sip by sip. It's lateral, it's slower absorption, you're not guzzling, everything goes right. The temperature of your body, being warm-blooded, is kept intact.

Speaker 2: 17:02

That being said, you you make sure that you're not depriving your body of fats at all, right? So of course you always support in India, in Indian food, there's always a concept of a vaghar, which means you temper your spices in a good fat. That's brilliant because the spices, which are the hot nature, will help in the breakdown of the fat. So your fat is being broken down nicely. You're not doing crazy amounts, you're doing in moderation throughout the day. You're oiling your body but not depriving yourself. Right? Some people are like this is an amazing chickpea salad. It has no fat, it has nothing, just. Oh yeah, I'm like that is the problem. If you put the fat and you put the spices, I will take it right. So, for example, um, I think that's the one basic principle keep fats and keep spices in all your foods. Of course, depending on how much you can take and digest, it doesn't have to be great amounts, but that's your key to preservation of life.

Speaker 1: 18:00

OK, and so we really can't emphasize more that there is no one size fits all approach to anything for that matter. Fits all approach to anything for that matter. What is the role of Agni in someone being at their robust health? And what about the doshas, vata, pitta, kapha? And can Agni differ based on the body types or the categorization?

Speaker 2: 18:27

Absolutely so. Agni is extremely important, right? I mean, it's what agni is? Your digestive environment in the gut which supports a breakdown of your food, absorption of nutrients, transportation of nutrients, right? So, really, digestion, absorption, separating nutrients and waste and then sending them off where they need to go. So you are only as strong as your agni is you can. I have not met a single person who says my agni is fine and I'm not. And, uh, you know, if there's any disease, it starts, I mean, in your physical realm. Agni becomes a part. Even if it's an emotional realm, eventually agni will become a part of it. Now, so why my question to you? Is that? So if the function of Kapha because we're seeing how Agni differs in Doshas if the function of Kapha is to slow down the breakdown, you think the Agni will burn sharper. If you want to slow cook something, is the Agni going to burn sharper or duller?

Speaker 1: 19:26

Oh, it's going to be a very gradual process, I would think.

Speaker 2: 19:30

So Kapha has lower Agni because it builds more. So, kapha, if you have a dominance, kapha, prakriti or vikruti and you're like, oh my god, I eat so much, I build so much because your agni is not breaking things down, right pitta, if pitta transforms quickly, will the agni be sharper or duller? It's probably going to be very rapid, very sharp. Right just burns things up right like lava. So generally people with pitta pitta can, they can have soft bowel movements, go two, three times because their body breaks down. Vata is volatile. It's wind. On a windy day you're making a bonfire doesn't work, but it could be because it's very volatile. Sometimes it's windy, sometimes it's like it's a volatile thing, it's moving all the time. So with vata it could be volatile. Agni means it's, it can burn. Well, one day hungry, one day I'm hungry, one day I'm not hungry, one day I'm constipated, one day I'm not constipated, and that could be your typical vata digestive okay, makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 1: 20:27

How best can you build your agni?

Speaker 2: 20:30

and anybody listening to this. The first thing I want you to know is that ayurveda is the science of flow, of finding your flow. So don't let any of this information make you rigid and be like oh my God, now I have to do this Because by that token the flow is going to be disturbed. You understand the beauty and the order of nature and you embrace it with love. That's the way to follow Ayurveda. I mean, only then can you be Ayurvedic.

Speaker 2: 20:55

But you're going to like I have to eat at five, you're not right it has a flow, because you're working in flow and harmony now, that being said, just the gentle understanding of how we are diurnal mammals we wake up with the sun and we sleep with the sun, and the sun determines all our cycles and how we function. When to sleep, when to wake? Okay, so when the sun is at its peak and the metabolic activity is the highest, your agni corresponds with the sun. Your agni is the highest when the sun is highest. So lunchtime around 12 1 is when your digestive fire will do the best job of digesting your food. When do you go to bed? When the sun is down. When the sun is down, there's a slow down, and by 10 between 10 and 2 are the best hours to be asleep. So you want to ideally sleep as close to 10 as possible. Right, but all our cues? It's such an intuitive science.

Speaker 2: 21:45

Whatever activity you want to do, let's see what's happening in the world outside and understand what might be happening in the world inside, and then take that gesture. And if you did that, what you're doing is essentially swimming with the tide. Instead of saying I'm going to eat dinner, your body is swimming against the tide At every given hour. There are certain juices. I'm going to call them juices. People can call them hormones, neurotransmitters I'm going to just call them juices. There are certain juices released at different parts of different times of the day. Those juices support certain activities and while those juices are still living in your body, you want to conduct those activities. So they happen effortlessly. And they happen with these, whether it's sleeping at 10 because you have higher melatonin, or whether it's eating lunch at lunchtime because you have more digestive enzymes.

Speaker 1: 22:35

Okay, Is the importance of sleep in helping an individual rejuvenate and feel good? Because that seems like a much ignored aspect and I want you to throw light on that aspect please.

Speaker 2: 22:48

So the night is as important, if not more, than the day. All our life is about designing our day. I say, if you put half as much effort in designing your night, planning for your night, you won't have to do much in the day. Like the day will be a breeze because the three pillars and I and I, whether the three pillars of well-being are a hard food. Nidra, sleep, brahmacharya's you how much you, how appropriately you use your senses. Nidra, or sleep, is huge from all aspects. Your body is going through free repair, like your cells say hey, you know, there's such a loving, oh, my god, I find so, feel so grateful to the body because it's such a loving service your body offers and says hey, you know, you know why go to sleep. It's time for you to rest. I'll do the work and you know all of these great juices come out to rest, repair, see what's needed, what's not needed, to throw gunk out, to process emotions. I mean, what a gift. Sleep is right.

Speaker 1: 23:49

The role of exercise in an individual being. You know again, feeling good, feeling healthy, and we talked about the mind body connection and whatnot and we have covered so much here, nidhi. What is the role of exercise?

Speaker 2: 24:04

exercise again. Vyayama, I mean, even before we had the word exercise, vyayama was a part of our science and you know your body needs to move. I mean, yoga has its own. Asana has its own merits. Right, normal vayama, normal exercise also has its amazing merits because you're it's like you just you take your car for a drive if you've not driven it. Right, because everything needs to be moving, everything needs to be stimulated.

Speaker 2: 24:29

When you do vayama or exercise, and especially asana, you're kind of stimulating certain glands in your body. You're moving your joints, you're stimulating your glands and ensuring health. We look after our muscle, whatever we can see. We look after skin, hair, but their glands and their muscles and their body is working so hard always to keep them. Exercise helps to restore their health and to keep them in motion, to keep them working. So I say exercise is extremely important. But even in your mental health, right, our nervous system we just said right In the beginning of the podcast that anxiety is this mobile, overthinking Nervous system establishes loves to go in a rut.

Speaker 2: 25:07

It's like this. It'll catch on to this. Let's go this way. I'm working hard, I just keep working hard, I'm just going to keep doing that and your nervous system loves this clingy child that wants to cling on to something right? When you're inspired, you're over-inspired, right? So exercise allows you to systematically break that obsession that your nervous system goes into, and it's a gift to your nervous system to be able to do that. So it's a no-brainer for every individual to exercise.

Speaker 1: 25:33

Okay, what a fascinating conversation, nidhi. That was our guest, nidhi Pandya, on emotional, physical and mental well-being. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to follow the podcast, rate the podcast and leave a review from your podcast app of choice. Follow me on Instagram and YouTube at YP Kumar. That's V-A-I-P-K-U-M-A-R for all things digital media and lifestyle. Until next time with yet another interesting guest and yet another interesting topic. It's me, vaibh Singh. Next time with yet another interesting guest and yet another interesting topic.