Conscious Living with Lucy

Ayurveda: Accessing Ancient Wisdom to Nurture Holistic Health and Support Pregnancy and The Postpartum Period.

• Lucy Sam-McKee • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Unlock the secrets of holistic health as we welcome Dr. Sairupa Krishnamurti to Conscious Living with Lucy. A renowned naturopathic doctor and Ayurveda practitioner, Dr. Sairupa shares her compelling transformation story—from battling eczema to finding healing through Ayurveda with the guidance of Dr. Ismat Nathani. This episode offers a rich exploration into the foundational principles of Ayurveda, shedding light on how this ancient practice not only addresses physical ailments but also nurtures emotional and spiritual well-being, providing listeners with a comprehensive framework for a healthier life.

Dr. Sairupa provides her expert perspective on the Ayurvedic approach to pregnancy and postpartum care. Discover how thoughtful dietary and lifestyle choices can enhance fetal development by balancing the five elements—space, air, fire, water, and earth—within the body. We dive into the postpartum period, emphasising the importance of the 40-day Sutika Kala for new mothers. Through practical advice and heartfelt insights, Dr. Sairupa helps mothers navigate the challenges of societal expectations while prioritising self-care and emotional wellness during this transformative time.

Our conversation expands into the broader landscape of Ayurveda, offering valuable insights into the balance of doshas and their impact on individual and community well-being. Dr. Sairupa shares her spiritual journey rooted in the Bhakti tradition and goddess worship, which profoundly influences her practice. Learn about balancing doshas with daily routines, managing the demands of modern life, and the significance of morning practices. We wrap up with a short practice from Dr. Sairupa and gratitude for the deep insights shared throughout the discussion, aiming to inspire listeners to integrate Ayurveda into their lives for enhanced health and harmony.

You can connect with Dr Sairupa via Instagram @dr.sairupa and Linktree https://linktr.ee/dr.sairupa?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=a91ec46e-f8bb-40eb-b693-aa7010ac8f13

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Podcast Music created by Vitaliy Dominichenko
Title: Long Road Trip
To hear the full track and others from Vitaliy please visit https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=iuOM-gVaUgQ&list=OLAK5uy_lQQ7YHnzEbywBY3y4SOiPITLFqrXymtJo

Speaker 1:

Welcome. I'm Lucy, host of Conscious Living with Lucy podcast. Welcome, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Sairupa Krishnamurti. I was introduced to Dr Sairupa and her work through a postnatal yoga training program I studied. Dr Sairupa is a licensed naturopathic doctor and Ayurveda practitioner who specializes in reproductive health, fertility, pregnancy, postnatal care, pediatrics and mental emotional health. Dr Sairufa aims to provide compassionate and trauma-informed health care, rooted in a heart-centered space, guiding people to discover their inner wisdom through herbal medicine, nutrition, lifestyle transformation and counselling. Dr Sairupa received her training in Ayurveda from the Centre for Ayurveda and Indian Systems of Healing and Naturopathic Medicine at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine. Additionally, she worked full-time for two years in Singapore with an integrative clinic, cultivating her skills, working with the perinatal and pediatric populations. Her non-judgmental, integrative approach to medicine welcomes diverse individuals, families, relationships and genders. Welcome, dr Sairuka. So, just before we go into learning about your approaches, could you tell us a bit about your journey and what led you to this work?

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you so much for having me here, lucy. I'm really looking forward to connecting and talking with you today. So just a little bit about my journey. Like many of us do, when we're coming into a healing path, we tend to also be wanting to do some healing on ourself.

Speaker 2:

So I've been in clinical practice for about 10 years, but I've also been a student of ayurveda and yoga for 20 or so years, and in those earlier years I was seeking out health care for myself because I was dealing with eczema, which is a common problem, but I had it throughout my life and, doctor to doctor, they would typically just prescribe me some band-aid solutions that were hydrocortisone creams, things like this, that would just take away the symptoms, but I was really wanting to understand that there was a root cause to this away the symptoms, but I was really wanting to understand that there was a root cause to this.

Speaker 2:

So I went to seek out Ayurveda after I started learning a little bit more about Ayurveda, and in that approach I met one of my dear teachers, dr Ismat Nathani, who is the founder of the Center for Ayurveda and Indian Systems of Healing, and what really struck me about our initial consultation was that she had asked me what was actually happening in my environment, in my life, right, and she was wanting to understand me as more of like a whole person, wanting to understand, you know, if there was any emotional components to what I was dealing with and at the time, yes there was and I was experiencing like a full body eczema outbreak. So through understanding that emotional approach and her guiding me on what was individually best for my body type through diet and through herbs, this offered a lot of healing to myself, and so I wanted to study further and explore Ayurveda further, for myself, but also for, of course, supporting others on this path too.

Speaker 1:

So that's a little bit about my journey and amazing that connection with that doctor led you on this path as well as helping you, but then obviously started your journey on this path. So wonderful to hear about that. Yes, absolutely. Can you give a brief overview of what Ayurveda is for those who are hearing about this for the first time?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So just to break down what the word means and a little bit about the history of Ayurveda. So Ayurveda is often called to be the sibling science to yoga. Yeah, so they go hand in hand together. Considered to be 5,000 year old, very ancient system of holistic medicine from South Asia and preserved in India in such a deep way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so with Ayurveda, the meaning of the word Ayu means life and Veda means wisdom. Ayurveda, the foundational teachings on this, guide us back as individuals into what I say is like a wiser relationship with ourself, but also with our environment around us, and what that means is that we learn how to become aware of our body's needs in a way that most of us aren't taught right. So most of us aren't taught from moment to moment awareness or seasonal awareness what our needs are during major transitions of our life right, such as pregnancy and postpartum. But Ayurveda really asks us to tune into what our needs are and when we learn about our individual self and what our needs are, based on the environment and our circumstances, we can apply teachings that are very holistic in nature so food-oriented herbal medicine, meditation or pranayama breathwork practices, and even asana or yoga practices as well no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful, yeah, I can see this is a really holistic approach and something that's definitely missing from our Western models of health and wellbeing. You know, often we're not asked about all of these other factors which play a crucial role in our health and wellbeing, so it is an amazing approach and people need to become more aware of it. I think it's something that we could all benefit from utilizing.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and it's growing. Yeah, it's growing. The awareness of Ayurveda and the interest in Ayurveda is definitely growing in the world, which is very powerful to witness.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's wonderful, it was great to be talking to you today, so hopefully we can get this awareness more out there into the world and obviously with Ayurveda you can apply this to lots of different settings and contexts and groups of people. But I know your work focuses a lot on supporting mothers during pregnancy and the postnatal period and I've experienced this being a mother myself, when I was pregnant and obviously in the fourth trimester there wasn't really much out there that this type of thing and I was more interested in the emotional wellbeing, the emotional development, also kind of spiritual aspects, and I found there was lots of kind of support and guidance on, you know, checking developmental milestones but not really considering the whole person physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. So, as you've obviously just alluded to, ayurveda approach is very different. So how can Ayurveda support women during pregnancy, in the postnatal period?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so. This is such a huge topic, such a vast topic, but just to summarize a little bit right on this, is that Ayurveda's focus on fertility and pregnancy is that when we cultivate our seed, so the fetus, we're really desiring to encourage more hope in the world, right? So we're wanting to support that fetus to be as fortified and nurtured as absolutely possible so that they can grow into the most whole being themselves, feeling love, feeling so much you know, nurturance around them, so that they can go on in their life and become a tree and offer fruits to others in terms of service or their actions in the world as well. Ayurveda places great emphasis on that, so that even conscious conception is very much encouraged, so that there's a preparation period for the partners, so that we are really emphasizing optimal health for both sperm and ovum.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I didn't know it went that far back. Actually I didn't know it started at that point. That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. It starts at that point and of course, we understand that it's not always possible to have conscious conception right. It's not always possible in any way. However, what we do during pregnancy can really have an impact on that nurturance, on strengthening the fetus and also strengthening the birthing parent, the mother, and so what is taught in Ayurveda is that nutrition plays a very big role and, again, awareness of the elements that make up the mother's health. Ayurveda looks at five elements, so I just wanted to quickly introduce that. So we're looking at space, air, fire, water and earth. Those elements make up all of us, okay, and then they're also making up the fetus as the fetus grows. The reason why we put an emphasis on the elements is that each of us have a different balance of those elements, and when we're aware of what those are through speaking with a practitioner and through doing further sort of understanding, self-understanding within ourselves, then we can apply specific foods and specific principles that actually match our needs. So pregnancy needs differ according to Ayurveda, month to month and trimester to trimester, and when we can accommodate our foods and really focus on foods that are nurturing for this period of time, we work on building not only the fetus's health, but also there's a focus on the mother's health in such a great way and a focus on breast milk as well. So we work on breast milk production through pregnancy as well, and the intention also to be that we have an easeful birth right. So Ayurveda does take an emphasis on this as well, that we can have an easeful birth through what we practice, what we do throughout our pregnancy. Practical tips are things like you know what you eat, the time you eat and then also how you actually sit and move your body through pregnancy will have an impact on an easeful birth as well, and when we follow these guidelines having follow these guidelines, having you know as much as we can a smooth journey through labor will also allow for a postpartum period that can be tended to as well.

Speaker 2:

You know Ayurveda is so specific on postpartum right. So you know postpartum being like a sacred window. It's called suttika kala, which is a specific time for the birthing parent. They should rest. The mother should be resting for 40 days specifically, and they say that Ayurveda teaches that whatever we do during those 40 days will also go on to impact the next 40 years of our life, and so it said that when we can actually do some care around this period, which is often so neglected in our world, right the postpartum period.

Speaker 2:

When we do care around this period things like resting, eating specific foods that are warm and lubricating for the body, easy to digest Then we can actually prevent some of the common things that come up in our postpartum period. Common things like postpartum anxiety or depression and things like constipation or hair loss. So many things are considered to be preventable when we follow this period. But I do also want to acknowledge which I'm sure that you know as a mother you can understand, is that the aspect around support is really important and necessary, and that's also a huge part of how we can support this 40-day postpartum period is through having a village around us to care, love and also mother, not only the baby but also, you know, the parent as well, the mother.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this time is really kind of precious and it's also, you know, having the support, but also, I can imagine, for some people as well, it can be overwhelming, especially in the West, I'm not sure, with different cultures and different ways of being or people who may follow these more Vedic approaches, but everyone wants to see the baby, be with the baby, and you'd also don't necessarily easily get that time you need to just rest and recover and being this bubble with your, your baby. So it's that kind of how. How do you manage to balance that with giving yourself the time you need and also, you know other people will want to see you and spend time with your baby and the pressures yeah, it's tricky, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so I mean guiding people on the fact that it's such a sacred time that we should be limiting, right who we're seeing into just the close ones, right, as much as realistic, definitely.

Speaker 1:

And also just I wonder how you approach it as well, because I definitely see the benefit of eating certain foods and ones that nourish the body and help with breast milk and all of that. But what if you're experiencing morning sickness? Are there specific things to support with that? If, obviously, if you want to have a program of a certain diet, but then it's very difficult to keep anything down, how do you, how does Ayurveda approach that?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so, yes, there's specific foods and spices and even herbs that might be used for morning sickness, nausea during pregnancy, right. Usually what happens is that nausea should end by around week 12, right when we're entering the second trimester. But that's not often. Sometimes that is not the case, right. But the foods that are advised are to eat foods that are nourishing, sweet in quality, also warm, easy to digest and appetizing, and that means like spiced well, right, so not hot in nature, but just spiced well, with good flavor. When we incorporate those foods there should be ease on the digestive system, which does typically become irregular and sluggish in that first trimester. Irregular and sluggish in that first trimester. But you know, if that's not helping, I always will advise to eat as frequently as you can, but small meals, because sometimes it's blood sugar fluctuations that will increase further the nausea. So eating frequently will help, small meals and eating lots of ginger, which is anti-nausea, yeah, so ginger is encouraged. Yeah, so just some small guidelines.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so there's something to support each different stage or each different symptom, and that might be through diet. And again, I guess also you're looking at all the environmental things as well that might be playing a part in that. In Ayurveda it's thought that we are a microcosm of the macrocosm. I've heard that often mentioned. Can you just explain what that means? To get a?

Speaker 2:

better understanding oh, that's nice that you mentioned that Absolutely that whatever exists basically in the universe also make up our being as individuals. What that's saying is that all the elements that are made up of the cosmos, the elements that I mentioned space, air, fire, water, earth those elements also make up our being. So whatever is in the macrocosm also exists in the microcosm.

Speaker 2:

Us Ayurveda looks at dosha types or constitutional types.

Speaker 2:

I'll just do a quick introduction there.

Speaker 2:

But essentially what that means is that you know different elements will be expressed in a greater way or bigger for certain individuals, and so at time of conception, our dosha becomes established, our constitutional type, so the balance of those elements become established at that time. That gives us a good blueprint of what our tendencies and our strengths will be as a human being and throughout our life. That balance may change or shift because of what we experience. Life experience, traumas, whether big or small, will have an impact on these doshas, and also things like season, environment, climate, things that are happening in the world in general will have an impact on this as well how we care for ourselves, how we're cared for. And, that being said, when we're looking through an Ayurvedic lens, we're looking at bringing a balance to those doshas as best as we can. But coming back again to what your question was, this is just again a reflection right that we are the greater macrocosm as well, that we're connected to the universe, to all of the elements in the universe and to our environments.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful, thank you. And that leads me on to another question I want to ask you. So I mean, obviously your work focuses a lot on supporting women. Also, how can, with Ayurveda we support people generally as individuals, and then how do we take this wider out into relationships and connection with the world? And I guess maybe there's some reciprocity there from what you're saying with the kind of macrocosm and the microcosm, obviously we understand a little bit how we can support ourselves as individuals, but how can we take this wider to enhance these other relationships?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's such a great, great question. I love that Because Ayurveda is so much about relationship, right, and the number one relationship, of course, with yourself, but then expanding outward into the care for others as our collective as well. So the guidance in Ayurveda is that we work on our health in a holistic way, right, the term for health is called a swastika, a beautiful definition that I've come across over the years and this is from one teacher named Robert Swagoda that that definition of swastika is called to be established in the self. And I expand on that to also teach. You know it's about being centered in yourself or anchored in yourself.

Speaker 2:

So when we work on that relationship first with ourself, and come to these practices that Ayurveda focuses so much on, practices that are so basic in nature but so many of us are so far removed, things like a daily routine right, a food routine and also a night routine right, all of these things that just help to really anchor us in the basics of health. Right Of having good digestion, good sleep this will also expand out to having good hormone balance as well. You know all of these factors. So when we follow these basic guidelines for health and we're living more towards swastika to being centered in ourself. Then we can indeed have more to give right to others as well in terms of supporting others and their health and then being space holders for other people on their journey as well. So that's, you know, one aspect of caring for the collective.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes complete sense and that is the thing that, yeah, as you say, something we really should focus on, but so easily that is disrupted. It's, you know, with work life, modern life, especially mothers caring for children, you know, trying to juggle all the different needs and balances to kind of just keep those simple things for yourself, which we kind of just keep those simple things for yourself, which we kind of take for granted, just having a regular schedule, it can go all off and can see very easily, why people get knocked out of balance quite quickly.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, but I hope to really be reminded of the importance of that. Just those simple things. If you can find the time in your day for those, yeah, then that has a ripple effect. So wonderful, and it'd be great to hear about any spiritual approaches that you draw from that inform your work yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to share. You know I grew up in a in a very spiritual family. My family is from ind India, from South India in particular, so mostly Telangana, so they're Telugu speaking. But yeah, like many of us, I grew up kind of in the diaspora right, seeking out my ancestral roots, which also brought me back to Ayurveda teachings as well. So in my spiritual approach, I grew up in more of a bhakti tradition, and bhakti is basically a devotional tradition in which we were connected to guru as well, to a guru in our family, and this actually expanded me towards more goddess worship and devi. So devi is the word for goddess in Sanskrit. No-transcript.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful. Wonderful to hear that. Thank you for sharing, and is there anything you would like to share about the work you offer to support people?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so I offer consultations mainly. I have a virtual clinic and I see people individually. I see both families and also couples in terms of fertility, and then I also see individuals, so it can range, but basically I share this to mention that I work with children as well as mothers and couples as well. So, in terms of my consultations, when I meet with people, I support them in understanding what their dosha, their constitution is, and then provide guidelines that they could use towards finding more balance in their life.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful, as you were talking about the child being conceived and getting your kind of blueprint from that early on. It did make me think, oh, we should be working with children. So it's interesting. It's the first time I've actually heard I mean, I'm sure it, maybe it happens a lot, but it's the first time I've really heard of an Ayurvedic practitioner saying that they work with children, which I can see. This is really quite important. So how, what age would you start working with children?

Speaker 2:

so even as early on, yeah, so so from infancy itself. So supporting the mother with breastfeeding and so on, yeah, that will have an impact.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so working from infants infancy and then into food introductions and then for toddlerhood and um, also, just saying you're working with families is a kind of systemic approach and then obviously looking at all of the different doshas that each individual has and then how they kind of play out together as a family and the dynamics.

Speaker 2:

I can yeah, I'm just trying to understand that how that works as well yeah, so we are.

Speaker 2:

We're looking at the dosha needs of the family, but also, when we implement like a daily routine or support around daily routine for the family, that rhythm itself can have such a huge impact on home life, right? So just supporting the family life in terms of rhythm, routine, ritual, all of this and Ayurveda is so beautiful for guiding us in that it doesn't have to be like individual needs for each family. Sometimes, if we follow a three dosha approach, that means like including a diverse range of foods that are simple to make but actually just supportive for all of the family members.

Speaker 1:

So that's one way you can kind of, you know, offer care to the whole family as well, wonderful, and to not then have too many things when family is already under pressure every day working school life, and then yeah not having to try and accommodate to each individual. But looking at it collectively, I can see the benefits of doing that too, to make it manageable.

Speaker 2:

You know, it's really important to me to offer care that's accessible, right Like, that feels more doable for families and that feels doable for the individual. Especially when it comes to motherhood, it can be quite challenging in many ways I should share. I don't know if it was mentioned that I'm also a mother of two children, so I have a nine-year-old and three-year-old and through my journey itself, I really practice these teachings of Ayurveda through my pregnancy and also through my birth process and also postpartum period.

Speaker 1:

And, of course, these teachings also influence our family life greatly as well. Wonderful. It's great to hear that you also use them in your own life and can reap the benefits there. Wonderful Thank you. And just before we close, it's been wonderful hearing a bit more about Ayurveda and your approach to it. Is there anything you would like to offer to close or guide our listeners with through a spiritual practice, a meditation or a mantra? It would be lovely just to experience something with you. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, I just wanted to say that what I often share with people is especially mothers is to use small moments of their day to tune into their body right, just to feel what they're feeling. So when we wake up in the morning, a beautiful teaching that I received from Indu Arora, a wonderful Ayurveda and yoga teacher, is she suggests to do a body scan every morning and basically witness yourself waking up from sleep to awake and just scanning over your body. So we don't miss that period of time where our breath is slowed right and so we're just very much bringing awareness, tuning in and doing the body scan, and that can also just settle our nervous system a little bit more before we open our eyes and, you know, engage in everyday life, whether it's like attending to our children right away, looking at our phone, you know, whatever it is, opening up emails. So just take that moment. I always encourage that, and another practice is actually just kind of a spin-off of that is just to tune into ourselves.

Speaker 2:

I just wanted to guide you all in this practice of just sitting and becoming aware of your breath. So I'll invite all of the listeners to just slow their breath, tune in and scan from head all the way down to your toes, okay, and then placing your hands on your belly, just feeling the belly expand as you breathe and release as you exhale, and again inhaling and exhaling Okay, and one more breath and releasing, and a practice like this where you're just scanning over from head to toe, tuning into your breath, can be done like in short moments of the day, right. So on waking before you eat as well, any moment that you have a small transition as a tool to kind of bring more awareness to yourself.

Speaker 1:

Wonderful. I got a bit lost there. It was lovely and deep in a nice deep space. It's quite a powerful practice, and I can even imagine for mums, if they're woken up with a baby or something, even when they're just feeding, breastfeeding or bottle feeding, whatever they're doing that they could just try and find a moment to do something like this as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it's going to be quite nice. Okay well, thank you so much for joining me today. I've really really benefited and enjoyed talking to you and learning more about the work you offer and more about Ayurveda, so it's been wonderful. Thank you so much, very enriching.

Speaker 2:

It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Lucy. Thank you so much for having me, Lucy. Thank you.