Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #291: Chahna Gupta with Life Market
Curious about how ancient wisdom and modern wellness intersect? Join us in a transformative conversation with Chahna Gupta from Life Market, as she shares her journey from occupational therapy to becoming an advocate for Ayurveda and holistic wellness practices. Through Life Market, Chahna introduces a novel concept of wellness markets where communities can experience free activities like yoga, meditation, and sound healing, akin to a farmer's market but centered on well-being. We explore how these markets create a vibrant community space that encourages natural healing methods, tapping into the body's innate ability to heal through meditation, breathwork, and plant medicine.
In our conversation, we also dive into the entrepreneurial spirit driving the wellness industry, where resilience and adaptability become crucial. Chahna and I discuss our personal connections to Eastern practices, finding a path back to our cultural roots, and the journey of growth in a Western society often focused on quick fixes. As the episode unfolds, we express gratitude for community bonds and the chance to support local businesses. We invite you to engage with this thriving community at the upcoming wellness market on January 11 and celebrate the power of connection, individuality, and the promise of personal wellness journeys.
Call: (954) 695-9296
Visit: www.lifemarketfl.com
Like: https://www.facebook.com/namastelifeevents/
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/namastelifeevents/
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, friends, family, wonderful universe. We are back for another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, and this seems to be a common theme happening lately. I've been having a lot of guests in the personal growth and development space and the spirituality space and just these things that have been on my mind since I turned 40. For the last four years, I've been on this journey and I've been interacting with so many great people that are all about improving their life through holistic means, and our guest today is one of those. I'm here with Chana Gupta and Chana joins us from Life Market.
Speaker 3:Chana, thanks, hi thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course, it's our pleasure and thanks as always to our wonderful listeners for tuning in to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us. So, without further ado, chana, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about what you guys do at Life Market?
Speaker 3:Sure. So Life Market is a wellness market and we focus on offering a free program and a free experience for people. So you can come, you can take a free yoga class, you can do free meditations, free sound healing, and then there are a lot of vendors so you can shop, you can get food, you can find services Maybe you need a new doctor or a chiropractor, so there's just something for everybody at the market.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what they say. If it's free, it's for me. If you're buying, I'm trying. If there's no fair, I'm there. This is cool. I've never heard of a wellness market. Walk me through. What do I expect? When I come to a wellness, I'm thinking in my mind, I think, of a farmer's market. Right, you go in, there's an outdoor space, there's different vendors set up Is that basically what it is? But it's centered around the wellness space, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's just like that. It's outdoors, there's something for everybody, there's going to be lawn games for children, there'll be children's activities, and there's something for you to do. So if you want to take a class, you can take a class. If you want to walk around and have a picnic, you can do that too. It's just about just chilling out and enjoying and relaxing.
Speaker 2:That's so cool. I had no idea that something like that even existed, and this is like right up my alley. Where is this event held and how often?
Speaker 3:What's the so we are monthly, but our next one is in January, so it will be at the South Florida Hindu Temple off of Griffin Road and 75. And it's on January 11, 2025, from 10am to 3pm, and there's just there's a live concert too for an hour. You know there's. There's just there's always going to be something different at each market, but for January that's kind of some stuff that we have planned.
Speaker 2:Well, you're gonna send, you're gonna send me over all that info. I'm definitely going to going to hit that up when it comes. How did you get into like, is this your thing? Is this your idea? Is this your event? What's the background behind the life market?
Speaker 3:You know, of course there are other markets out there that have definitely inspired us, but um out we. We focus on this ancient Indian system of medicine called Ayurveda, and it means the science of life.
Speaker 2:What is it?
Speaker 3:Ayurveda.
Speaker 2:Ayurveda. Okay, the science of life, all right, continue.
Speaker 3:And so it's an ancient Indian system of medicine that finds holistic and individualized treatment plans for you to bring a person back to their balanced state. So, basically, what may balance you may not balance me, and vice versa. So the markets kind of vision is that there's something for everybody to find balance from. So it's just there's going to be something different and there in you might like it and it might be good for you, and then for me it's something else. So it's about just catering to everybody and creating, like, still an individualized place of wellness for you.
Speaker 2:Is this something that you have deep roots in going back? How long have you personally been involved in this kind of wellness space? Talk a little bit about your journey.
Speaker 3:Sure, I actually started in occupational therapy. I was working in skilled nursing facilities and a lot of those people were struggling with their health and fitness and it was kind of stressful to see. So then I went to India and I started training in yoga and then I started offering corporate wellness programs and then I started studying Ayurveda. Because of their sister sciences One is like a more mental science and one is like of the body so they kind of go hand in hand and then I've been trying to bridge them together and I think through this market it's a good way where you can take a yoga class and you can, you know, work on your mind and your body and you can also find something of health for your physical body. You know so, like your your digestive system and you know your muscles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think we have it in many ways backwards in Western society, all these Eastern traditions, all these natural modalities. The human body has an unbelievable propensity to heal itself and we've come so far away from that because we live in this instant gratification, quick fix society where if you have a problem, nobody really wants to dive in and do the work. Everybody just wants a quick solution. So they'll go to a doctor and they just give you a pill and it's really just a bandaid and it's not addressing the underlying issue.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I've learned in my journey is that there are so many things available to increase your wellness, whether it's meditation For me, I love doing ice baths, I love doing breath work, I love sound healing. I also enjoy psychedelics as well. Sometimes I do my journeys there. But this whole plant medicine space it's so useful, yet so stigmatized in our society and there's so many people out there that this topic is taboo. You start talking about it and people roll their eyes back of their head like, oh, you're going to go do yoga or you're going to go do this or go do that. What would you say to somebody that feels that way about this whole space?
Speaker 3:I think you just have to give it a try and open your mind. You just never know what you will find. And I think it's really difficult because, you're right, like we have been kind of trained in the society yeah, absolutely, conditions that we just want to take a pill for everything, and sometimes we're not, well, not sometimes, you know, many times we're not addressing the root cause, and sometimes it's something mental, sometimes it's something physical that's not manifesting in the way that you think it's manifesting. You know, so it's. It's really just beautiful that I think there is a shift where more people are opening up and trying new things.
Speaker 2:So it definitely. It definitely feels that way that there's just something I don't know, it's just there's a palpable feeling that this is becoming more mainstream. It's almost like, with all this talk, you've got this new administration coming in and not to really talk about politics, but you've got somebody like RFK coming in I don't know if you've been following this at all. He's talking about rattling up big pharma and FDA and the food and everything, and it's opening up these conversations and it's really uncovering the fact that, yeah, we have been conditioned by a system that's kind of leaning in favor towards these things we've been talking about. So it's just exciting, it feels and I've been following it so deeply over the last, you know, really over the last couple of years, but even more so now and I'm just constantly taking in new information about this space and it never ceases to amaze me. And I'm just constantly taking in new information about this space and it never ceases to amaze me and I'm always, always happy to engage somebody like yourself that's in that space, because I get to learn new things, I get to meet new people and share ideas and further the mission, if you will.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, for sure, yeah, so now you do the life market. It's just a monthly thing. What do you do currently outside the life market? Do you work? Do you still work? You mentioned you did occupational therapy. Do you work in this type of space? So like, what do you do for work?
Speaker 3:So I offer Ayurvedic health counseling one-on-one. I still am offering like private, corporate and community services so, and that's more like yoga, pranayama, which is breath work and meditation. And yeah, I also work on kind of different events as well. So I do like individualized event planning and hosting other types of large scale events that are not really wellness related but culturally related. So, yeah, I'm just, I'm more in the event space now, so that's kind of where I've been dabbling with.
Speaker 2:So like event planning, but for any. So I'm just thinking in terms of our listeners that are hearing this, that want to reach out, that want to maybe hire you to help them with something. What types of things specifically speak to that? Because I want to make sure that people know exactly what you do and how they could benefit from what you're doing, aside from just the life market.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Like, for example, if you have a weekend like a girl's trip or a guy's trip and you want to like you're down here, obviously, and you want to schedule a few days, you want to do a bunch of events. I can help coordinate that, since I have access to a lot of vendors through our life market. A lot of them are able to do a lot of private sessions, so I kind of been mixing and utilizing them that way they get more business too, they're able to find more clientele and book these smaller gigs on weekends and stuff.
Speaker 2:Okay, very cool, I'm actually doing I do. I have a good friend of mine, actually my best friend. He's in Orlando and we do every, probably twice a year, but we're trying to do it more frequently we do these men's retreats where we'll either go we'll rent a cabin out in the mountains somewhere we're actually doing one outside Orlando in a couple of weeks and we go and we do one night, we do a plant medicine ceremony one night and then it's all about connecting and brotherhood and just kind of really sharpened in those skills that we've been talking about. And it's kind of a mission of mine to do that on a more full-time type basis. And really because the two I think I've been on two of the retreats with them They've truly been some of the most transformational experiences that I've had in my life.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's been really really powerful to go in and go through that process and it's had a profound impact on the months after the retreat. It all comes down to the integration after you do these things and it's difficult sometimes to go on a journey like that and have an experience like that and then plug yourself right back into the rat race, the society. There's a big divide there. So my mission is to bridge that gap and figure that thing out.
Speaker 3:I love that. That is probably the most difficult part you have that retreat and you just feel so good and you come back to real life and you're like whoa oh man, what am I doing here?
Speaker 2:But the fact of the matter is like if you want to survive in society, you got to figure out a way to make income and earn and whatever. And the trick is to find a way to do something that you truly a passion, something that you truly love, that you can spread to people. And then, if you do that, you know good things should come to you. Yeah. Very true, I appreciate that. Yeah, so tell us a little bit about Chana. You said you've traveled to India. You're not from there originally, are you?
Speaker 3:I am actually. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't born there, I was born here.
Speaker 2:I'm Floridian born and raised your roots. Go back from there. Yeah, my roots are from there.
Speaker 3:And yeah, you know, I never actually cared for Eastern medicine or wellness at growing up because I grew up here, you know. So it was just very random and very different actually that I kind of got back into it, I guess, if I think of like from a cultural perspective. And yeah, I wanted to learn more yoga and like the real meaning and how to really like practice it. So I went to learn yoga in India and then, while I was there, I learned about Ayurveda and then I went back for clinicals. I'm in a school, I went to school here locally for that and then I went there to see like patients and stuff and see the medicine actually in practice, which was cool.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean, I mean I'm definitely more than that. I do like to like. I don't know. My husband and I we always love to think about new business ideas and find new ways to implement unique things and I enjoy spending time with people. So I don't, I don't, I'm not like somebody that talks about yoga and I read all day long. You know I have other aspects to me too.
Speaker 2:Now you still have family back in India that you visit from time to time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually funny thing I'm going in about a week and a half I'm going to be there again, so that'll be fun. I'm going to see everybody no-transcript it's going to be a long one. It's like a 21 hour flight or something like that Only 21 hours.
Speaker 2:Only you know not even a full day. I've heard it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It is, it is, yeah, it is. There's so much culture and architecture that's so ancient. It's really beautiful and, you know, it's nice to see family.
Speaker 2:Indeed, indeed. So one of the things I found throughout my journey is that we're often defined by some of our biggest challenges, our biggest struggles, the things that, when we're experiencing it, it seems like the end of the world. There's no escape. Sure, it's great to have wins and all those things, but the really really nitty gritty stuff, the really uncomfortable stuff, are like the big growth moments often, where you look back with hindsight and you're grateful for having experienced that. Looking through your journey, is there something that comes to mind, an experience that you had, something that fits that bill, that you could share with us?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. You know, we're also, I feel like, conditioned to think of like a 40 hour work week, and to go out of that and become an entrepreneur is actually very difficult. You know you, you really have to stand on your feet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have to keep hustling, you have to keep fighting, you have to be okay with no's and you have to keep going. And I think that really builds tough skin. And I remember initially thinking like I can't do this. And that was seven years ago when I opened the business. I was like what am I thinking? I left my job in occupational therapy, I went to India to learn yoga and I'm like what?
Speaker 1:have I done like.
Speaker 3:I just completely changed my entire path. But you know, I'm here seven years later and I'm just like thank God. You know, I'm glad I took the step, I'm glad I tried and I'm having fun and I really think I'm helping people, but in a different way than I thought I was helping. So I'm enjoying it. I think it's you just got to keep going.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that Like one of the one of the big shifts for me mentally has been in the past I'd always look back at things and wished, oh, I should have done this differently or I should have done that differently. If I did this this way, then I'd be here and, like lately, I don't look at it like that anymore. I kind of I stay to the present and I look at it like I am right where I'm supposed to be and everything that has happened to me in the past has led me to where I'm at today and I wouldn't change it for the world. And I think that's so important to frame things like that because from a mental perspective, just to have that clarity, it helps you stay present and it helps you keep a positive attitude moving forward and it helps you to put a great energy out into the universe. And when you shine a light on the positive, good things come your way. And when you start shining the light on the negative, well, murphy's law kicks in and everything starts going wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I absolutely agree. It's about what you're trying to manifest. You have to stay positive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what would be? Before we wrap up here, what would be one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with? It could be about your business. It could be just a nugget of wisdom about your life. What would you like to leave our listeners with?
Speaker 3:I think wellness is individual and unique and you should always be searching for what makes you feel balanced. And I think, in addition to that, come to our market on January 11. And see, see if you enjoy it. You know, you never know. And it's a Saturday, you know. Come join us. It's going to be beautiful weather. Since it's January, it's not going to be like overly hot. There's free yoga classes, meditation, sound healing. We've got a concert for an hour. Food vendors, you know you can buy gifts for people or for yourself. I mean, you need retail therapy too. It's a thing.
Speaker 3:So you know, come come over and you can find us at Namaste life events on instagram or our website, lifemarketflcom.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to instagram now. Yeah, it's a namaste life events. Namaste life events. There you are.
Speaker 3:There we are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I go every month I go to. There's a full moon gathering here in the neighborhood in Cooper City. It's right behind Florida Nursery Mart on Griffin. I don't know if you're familiar with the big plant nursery on Griffin Road. Right behind there in the neighborhood there's a place called Botanica Organica and a group called Soul Fire. Alchemy comes and we do breath work, we do sound healing, meditation, ice bath always a fun time, wonderful space.
Speaker 3:What was it called?
Speaker 2:Botanica Organica. They actually did this last month. I missed it, but they didn't do it there this month. They changed the location. I don't know if they're going to continue it at Botanic Organic, but they have a wonderful natural fruit market there Fruits and Cahoots. They do smoothies, they have like exotic fruits and things like that. But it's such a wonderful space, oh I love that.
Speaker 2:Love the people Love the space. I'll send you information next time we have an event there, but I will, of course. You're going to send me over all of the information for the next life market, all your information, obviously, your contact information, your website. We're going to put that on our website. We're going to share it out there. We need to spread the word, chana, because we are doing good work here in the community and people need to know about it. Really do.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I appreciate that. I just want people to know and come and experience. That's it.
Speaker 2:Yep, all right, very cool. Well, shana, pleasure meeting you. Great having you on the show. Looking forward to connecting with you again in the near future.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you so much for having me, thank you for this opportunity, and I just really appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Our pleasure and have a wonderful Thanksgiving you too. Take care. Everyone, thanks so much for tuning in and we will catch you all next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care and have a blessed day.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to gnpcoopercitycom. That's gnpcoopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.