04 - Three Times Cancer Survivor - How Ayurveda and Spirit Guided Jo’s Healing

In today’s episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jo from Mood Foods Kitchen—a retreat chef, nutritionist, and spiritual medium—whose journey is nothing short of inspiring.

Jo shares how her travels to India led her to study Ayurveda in depth, giving her the tools not only to support others, but also to navigate her own healing journey—having faced and overcome cancer three times. Her story is a powerful reminder of the connection between food, balance, and self-healing.

We dive into the foundations of Ayurveda, including the importance of the doshas and how tuning into your body’s natural constitution can transform your health. Jo also speaks about the vital role food plays in well-being—not just physically, but emotionally and energetically.

This episode is packed with wisdom, practical insights, and a touch of the spiritual as Jo reflects on how her role as a medium supports her work in and out of the kitchen.

Edited and produced by Mike at Making Digital Real

Transcript

It does but it also as well I mean I work with a lot of cancer patients privately and one of the things I mean I have them on a strict diet and a very strict diet so we have to take out meat, we have to take out dairy, we have to take sugar out and I think the word cancer is such a scary word and it shouldn't be. It's just another disease but we give so much energy to it and there's so much money involved in it that this is the I think behind the scenes this is the problem. Welcome to Guide to Spirituality's podcast with me Stacy Bower. 

It's a down-to-earth space where we talk all things spiritual. Each episode I'm joined by guests from all walks of life to share real experiences, practical tools and honest conversations about healing, growth and the unseen spiritual world. Whether you're just starting out or you're deep on your journey this podcast is here to support your path with insight, connection and that little bit of magic.

Today's conversation offers a beautiful mix of insight, healing and grounded nourishment. I'm joined by Jo from Mood Foods Kitchen, a retreat chef, Ayurvedic practitioner and a spiritual medium who shares her incredible journey of studying in India, healing from cancer and helping others reconnect with the power of food as medicine. Whether you're curious about Ayurvedia, seeking balance or simply looking to be inspired by someone who walks her talk, this episode is for you. 

Good morning Jo, thank you very much for joining me today. How are you feeling today? I'm really good thank you, how are you? I'm very well thank you. So I met you Jo through a retreat that we did in March this year and for our listeners Jo is an amazing retreat chef. 

Jo did all the food on our retreat and you did the Ayurvedic cooking Jo, yes? I did, yeah. Now obviously the food was a bit of a point because I understood that you were a vegetarian chef and you're not all right you know to put me and what I've got a few other guests while one lady said to me my husband doesn't like all this exotic food and actually when I looked I said to her I said exotic I said it's an aubergine and stuff like that but he was so like panicked about this oh there's gonna be no meat what do I do so actually when he came to the retreat and the food that you did were amazing the compliments you got about it were out of this world but I'll tell you what we really liked the fact that you know you'd said that you'd actually cured yourself from cancer with the food that you the Ayurvedic way of cooking and the fact that you explained every meal to us so we know exactly what we're eating what part of the body it was good for so how did you get into the Ayurvedic way of cooking Jo? I've had uh thank you for your comments about my food by the way beautiful interesting because I think there was only about two people when I arrived that actually came up to me and said I've got to be honest I've seen the menu and I'm not I'm not I'm not overwhelmed by it and um I thought my own food and I was like oh okay uh I was really grateful for that honesty actually and um it turned out those kind of clients are my best clients because they're the one that after they tried the food and then they give you the comments afterwards it was amazing and um you know there was the two gentlemen in particular that they turned around and said oh we bought our own food or we were googling takeaways up the road and you know all this kind of stuff and I was like well okay no pressure but just try and then you'll see how we get on and you know I'm happy to to move things around and change things if it's really not to your taste and I'm more than happy to do that for any of my clients but I think it was into the second day and I think it's nice because then everyone gets to know you everyone's a bit more comfortable and they feel a little bit more familiar to be able to come up to you and speak to you and you know they were like I really thought I was going to be hungry this whole retreat and I didn't think I was going to like anything but actually everything that you've cooked and provided has been amazing and I'm just overwhelmed by it and I think the first thing was the cake because I put down courgette lemon and thyme cake yeah um and I I think that always makes people go oh cause I don't like that and then I put it out and it was just you know it's gone you know and they were the comments and that was the first introduction into my food when everyone arrived in the afternoon so yeah I kind of broke the ice a little bit and then dinner and then then we were okay after that and yeah so I was really really grateful for those comments and it's always really nice to get people to try different things and you going back and saying about how I explain how um so every meal time I think it's really important to talk to people about what the food is what the health benefits of it are and um how it can heal the body from the outside in psychologically psychologically emotionally spiritually in all facets um and I got into Ayurveda I've been studying Ayurveda for about seven years but I went to India two years ago to actually complete my degree in Ayurveda nutrition yeah I went out to India for two and a half weeks it was quite full-on I was studying all day every day the only day I had off was a Sunday and the main reason I got into Ayurveda was I've had cancer three times in my life I had chemotherapy for one of my cancers and it made me so ill it took me five years for me to get my immune system back up together yeah um I have very strong views about cancer and the treatment that is currently available for it I personally don't agree with it um I know that's a little bit of a controversial subject and everyone's entirely everyone's allowed to make their own decisions we have to make decisions for our own well-being and for me it just wasn't an option for me moving forward but I must admit my husband's had cancer he had bowel cancer years ago he's had the all clear and he had um they actually said that the thought he had the operation to remove a lot of it and they said that the thought that actually he you know they removed it all but they'd give him chemotherapy for I think you were right for 10 months just to mop up any cells that could have been there that could have been cancerous and he got to the end one and said honestly says if I had to have any more it'd kill me and he's always said things if ever I got it again I'd never have chemotherapy again ever ever ever it ruins so much of your life doesn't it it does it does but it also as well I mean I work with a lot of cancer patients privately um and one of the things I mean I have them on a strict diet and a very strict diet so we have to take out meat we have to take out dairy we have to take sugar out and I think the word cancer is such a scary word and it shouldn't be it's just another disease but we give so much energy to it and there's so much money involved in it that this is the I think behind the scenes this is the problem um so yes sorry I forgot what I was saying that's all right um yeah so I think I work with some cancer patients I mean when we learn when we understand how cancer grows and what actually it is and how it um works within the body we can then start looking at other ways in which we heal it so cancer grows from an acidic environment it grows from sugar and candida which is yeast so if we've got an imbalance within our cells because everybody has the cells in order to grow cancer it's just a mutation of the cells that's all it is um you know and then it spurs off in different areas there is ways that you can contain that cancer to an area also as well for instance um everyone goes on about having biopsies well our body is designed to do what it should do so basically the our body will keep cancer as a as a contained sack within the body and then what I then do is use certain um treatments um certain supplements certain diets to be able to hit that spot of where that um that tumor is and then look to start peeling back those layers to eradicate it so um when you have a biopsy it's like sticking a pin in a balloon it goes everywhere and so if you imagine that biopsy being done inside the body all of that stuff within that tumor is then leaked into your bloodstream and that's how it carries it throughout the rest of the body and that's how you have secondaries and that's why so once you start understanding that it makes sense so um yes so I do have a lot of patients I help privately um yes and I have more and more people coming to me for it because you know having had it three times and you know the other thing I wanted to say to people I'm a life coach and have been for about 15 years and one of the things that's really important when people are having treatment is looking after their mental well-being yeah send you on this journey that is incomprehensible like unless you've had those words said to you you've seen someone go through it I remember when I had my um when they said to me oh you you're basically you're clear and I was like I was more upset at that stage than I was when I was going through it because all of a sudden all of those that help all of that protective blanket that you've had around you is just taken away oh no nothing afterwards there's no aftercare there's no follow-up there's no how are you doing you're just left with this these thoughts of like well what if it comes back yes well I mean unless you understand how this disease works you are left with that and then for me as a spiritual person I go into the realms of am I manifesting it you know yeah so it's really the mental health side of it is probably worse than the diagnosis itself and actually having it yeah being told you've got it yeah yeah and then afterwards being said well that's okay um you're okay now and off you go enjoy your life and then you're just left any lump or bump or you know any ailment any illness it's always in your head it never leaves you at all you know and you're always worried about it because there's not enough education being given about um what we need to do afterwards you know what diet do we need to have afterwards how do we need to look after ourselves in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle none of this is none of this information is given to you you're just left and that's it and I find that really upsetting and I think some of my clients that I've helped over the years um the mental health side of it you can watch them decline and during treatment their mental health really suffers and also with chemotherapy and the radiotherapy it ends your it leaves you in bed one of my clients she went she was in a wheelchair within six weeks of having the chemo and then there was lockdown and they stopped all her treatment just literally stopped it so she wasn't working with me what would she have done um and then do you know what no chemo she was out of a wheelchair within five weeks well shit yes yeah and um with um then I had a call I started working with her in January and then in the April uh sorry in uh August the 17th she had um bowel cancer um eight months to live with palliative care um uh stage four um then it spread um into other organs so we worked really hard to contain that again once she come off the chemo and lockdown and then August 17th she was cancer free oh never yeah well that you see there you're getting everything ready aren't you to what am I going to do with what my wish is now because obviously my life's going to an end out you know you're at a point like that aren't you so then to come back from that yeah well I mean exactly I mean and also as well like when I work with certain clients um I use an oil that's not it's um basically THC oil that's one of the main things that actually helps with the um cellular damage that's caused from cancer it's very controversial there's a lot of information a lot of studies about it um but it's I know you know it works and um it's cannabis oil oh all right yeah so the cannabinoids found in the compounds within the cannabis plant itself namely THC is one of the compounds um works very well to repair uh cellular damage helps to repair the cellular growth and it it helps to combat the cancerous cells and helps to eradicate them alongside supplements and a really strict diet that is your keys to combating cancer right yeah when you said the THC oil you don't mean to like cooking I don't like that you have it um I you have it is like um it's called RSO oil so Rick Simpson was a gentleman from America who had um cancer from a mole on his nose and he started using this cannabis oil that's now called RSO Rick Simpson oil and so it's basically in like a paste format and people I um will administer or um recommend that people take a certain dosage um so I go to Spain quite a lot to do some work out there because it's legal over there and so it helps me to be able to research more because I do it in a in a country that is legal so it allows a bit more freedom yeah um and also as well a lot of the um the lounges and stuff in Lanzarote or in Spain they are a lot of the um THC stuff is actually laced with sugar so the the stuff that I have been looking at over in Spain is just medical purely from this news so nothing else yeah because if you're trying to eradicate sugar from your diet to cure yourself and then you're using what you think's right but it's laced with sugar you exactly exactly so the best way to do that is get the RSO oil that's normally mixed with a um you can get it in suppository form or you can take it orally um a lot of people when they first start out with it I recommend they take it at night time because it is THC so it can have that that effect on you with the suppositories though there's no effect because it goes into but it bypasses the bloodstream and then if you've got cancer from the waist downwards the THC suppository is a really good way better and I was um healing somebody with um a testicle cancer um with the oil and he was doing remarkably well with it to the point that he was on no other medication um he was on Oramor pre-gablin's everything and it was not doing his mental health any good at all um his PSA levels were through the roof and they were basically giving him female hormones to reduce um the the tumors in his uh testicles and um yeah and when he started working with me he was off all pharmaceutical drugs the the hospital couldn't believe it and they were like well what's going on you know like we don't understand it they wanted him to go into a hospice he was like he was down the road with his mates having bite to eat in the local pub when they told him he was end of life so yeah yeah so it just goes to show doesn't it yeah absolutely and that's how important food is isn't it that is how important what we put in it's so important what we're putting yeah just for anybody that's not sure Jo what is Ayurveda how would you explain it how would you say it out Ayurveda basically is the Indian health care tradition that they've been using five and a half thousand years um when I went to India not only did I have to learn to navigate the Indian language I had to learn Sanskrit as well because you speak Indian no no I say like the odd word or something but no um I don't but by the end of the time I'm going to be finished in India I'll talk about that in a bit but I hope to speak a little bit of it but um I had to learn Sanskrit as well because all Ayurveda is written in Sanskrit all the old textbooks of Ayurveda it's all written in Sanskrit so a lot of people within in India don't know uh can't read Sanskrit anyway so and because India is becoming a lot more westernized now it's a real shame that the um the essence of Ayurveda is being lost in India so I think it's really nice to be able to bring that over to the west and return the favor so and I really like that exchange and when I I'm still very good friends with my teachers in Kerala and I also are on um first name terms with the doctors there and I still buy my medicine from Kerala um Ayurveda medicine for my clients that comes direct from Kerala um and where I studied in Kerala they had a pharmacy on site and they make everything on site so that's where I buy my stuff from because I know the quality of it I know people that's making it and for me that energy exchange is is really important and if I'm going to recommend that to a client then I have to be 100% sure that what I'm recommending is as I said to say yeah absolutely right yeah so yes so um Ayurveda means life science so it's all about knowing so when you look at Ayurveda from especially from a nutritional point of view it's a whole health care system so there is loads of facets with Ayurveda itself but what I've just trained in fundamentally is the nutrition side of it so when we look at Ayurveda we have something called doshas and it's all worked on your elements so on your you have three doshas so you have pitta kapha and vata so vata is the element of air kapha is the element of earth and pitta is the element of fire so all of those three elements together work together to not only eliminate toxins from the body but also help you to regulate your entire self from the inside out and keep you balanced so you're look I can normally tell someone's dosha by looking at them and I did that on your retreat yeah yeah yeah when they went off and they come back in the next day and said oh yes I am vata I'm pitta but there's a there's a quiz that you can do to find out what your dosha is so for example if we have an imbalance in the body so with kapha people they need very nourishing foods so kapha people generally tend to be like more apple shaped people you're bigger people children under 16 always looked at as kapha and people over 65 are also looked at as kapha because they need that more nourishment during the early years and the latter years so and then your vata is your element of air so it's very fast moving we use the element vata to release toxins from the body so an imbalance of vata energy for example so most all neurological problems of that be depression alzheimer's schizophrenia whatever it is is a vata imbalance hi I'm just taking a quick break to thank you all so much for listening to the podcast and for all your lovely support if this episode gave you something to think about or simply felt helpful you can support future episodes and my tea habit over at buy me a coffee the link is buymeacoffee.com forward slash guide to spirituality every little bit helps me keep creating sharing and growing this space and I'm truly grateful yeah so when we know when we're out of balance and we know how to then regulate ourselves using our dosha then you can then rebalance yourself out and then what we have what we use the pita which is a fire energy i'm a pita kapha so it's no no surprise i'm a leo so and i'm very fast i'm i'm 100 miles an hour so that makes good sense but your pita is also ruling your agony which is your digestive fire so certain so when i gave you the patty mug and water in the morning yes give it something warm which is an ayurvedic drink it allows your agony to to start working so your digestive fire is starting off on a really good basis so throughout the day whatever you eat and drink isn't going to cause that much of a problem if you're eating to what your dosha yeah so if you're an avata person you generally tend to stick to more seeds more nuts food that is air because it's the element of air yeah and kapha opposite so like your root vegetables earth products yeah and like pita for example pita people i stay away from um really spicy food because my digestive fire is already strong as well so yes so we don't have our own to a fire and then um also vinegars really not good for pita people um ferments that kind of thing but i think if we we know our body tells us what it likes and what it doesn't like but we're so far removed from that that i think we forget sometimes um to listen yes yeah especially if you're busy as well so you've got a busy lifestyle so you know it's like mumma three she's taking one to drama one to football one to this she's dentist appointment all the rest of it she ain't gonna come and go right now this child of yours are saying that would all be under 16 anyway wouldn't this would all be kapha anyway wouldn't that yeah right innit yes yeah okay but how would you put that into everyday life then so it would be easy or is it that you really just have to research it well no not really i mean a perfect example was my partner said to me and i said look i said i'd like the family to live more of an ayurvedic lifestyle especially nutritionally so he's a kapha so my son was it'll be a kapha as well and i'm a pita so he his first reaction was oh well i'm not sure i'm gonna like that i you know i like this i like this and i said that's the joy about ayurveda it's not a diet it is a lifestyle choice which means that you're not you're not i'm not saying to you right you're not allowed to eat that because i think that's that's the mental um negative side of you know this whole thing about health we we've got this thing oh well you know i need to diet to be healthy i need to be a certain size to be healthy i need to be this no ayurveda doesn't concentrate on anything of that it's about nourishing yourself from the inside out using your dosha so i said to well actually all it is is learning don't eat that with that that food group is better for me i need to limit that food group it's not saying that you can't have anything you still can but it's about knowing okay if i eat that with that that's going to make me feel like this it's going to make me feel lethargic it's going to give me um an indigestion it's going to give me digestion problems so you can still have it but i think when you're mindful about what that food group is actually doing to you you're probably more likely to eat it less often so i'm not saying you can't have anything but it's just about knowing what foods nurture you and heal you and what nourish you and what don't and what foods don't do that and when i said that he was like oh okay well that sounds i i wouldn't mind doing that then that sounds like something i can do and i think one of part of one of the things i work is always putting the onus back on to the client how do you feel what do you want i think you know allowing people to make informed choices for their own well-being is really really important and actually getting them to recognize um you know what if i eat that that's going to happen it's about the people's relationship with the food as well which is really important so i've got um i'm actually on trying to i'm trying to get rid of it properly so i'm following a lower carb diet now i think from what you said i think so i'm obviously um i'm a capricorn anyway so i'm an earth element anyway but i think from what you said i would be anywhere from you're a kappa definitely yeah yeah i think that's what i would be yeah i'm trying i've got type 2 diabetes so i'm trying to get rid of that now okay so i've reduced sugar obviously massively um and then also reduce well i quite totally but reduce carbs massively now i know we've had a discussion before you said really just cut out anything white yes i didn't realize cauliflowers full of carbs and all sorts in it i mean i know a lot less if you're gonna also eat carbs because um our body it's um our sugar is secreted for our pancreas so it depends on how our body breaks down that particular food that you're eating for example so if you've got simple carbs like your white bread white pasta white potatoes um for example a jack of potatoes probably worse for you than any other potato because when you've lost it the sugar is secreted from it it's really high on a glycemic load as well so on the glycemic index is one of the worst foods to eat and all it does is spikes your blood sugar levels so if you're already trying to come off sugar as well uh you might find that you need carbs earlier in the day to balance out that um that dip in your blood sugar levels so we also you'd also need a certain amount of carbs as well to be able to sustain you throughout the day but for you i would say probably stay away from carbs after about maybe four o'clock in the afternoon so have your carbs earlier in the day but have ones that are going to sustain you for longer periods so and you need something high in fiber as well so things like your brown rice um wholemeal pasta and also if you were to look at the i always ask my clients to write keep a food diary for me for at least a week i hope like normally about two weeks uh what you eat what you drink times of the day you drink them your moods how you feel and then we can use that as a pinpoint so for some people that find dieting really hard and it's a lot and it's all mental mental work that you need to get through it's about saying okay well this is what my diet is this is what i've been eating and i really like eating this this and this so i then work with clients and saying okay i'm not saying you have to eradicate everything like other people are saying but actually what how what can we switch up a little bit can we swap that product out for something a little bit healthier can we add in some extras to help the absorption process of that food because what you don't want to do is be bloody miserable whilst you're trying to be healthy it's just it's hopeless and you're never going to sustain that either but i must admit on the um on the retreat that you did for us in march my sugars were constantly um balanced yeah that's it i don't use white sugar and i use sugar alternatives so i'll use um a date syrup or coconut sugar um or agave syrup but i use it in small quantities you don't really need to add sugar to everything and also that's why i like making the certain cakes as well because it allows you to be able to try stuff using different ingredients yes and having still getting that same effect are you still getting that oh i've had a piece of cake so your mind the understands that you've had cake but it's not loaded with sugar so yeah you know it's not like you know it's not going to do you any harm is it but also as well it doesn't spike your blood sugar levels because blood sugars are doing this all the time it's also also your moods are doing this as well yeah you also get a slump about three o'clock in the afternoon that's when the irritability kicks in that's when people go for a packet of crisp or a chocolate bar or a cake or whatever so once you learn how to stabilize those blood sugar levels you can actually do quite a lot with that to maintain a healthy lifestyle it's fascinating isn't it right so do you so do you like work i know you've just said you know you do like lifestyle coaching so do you have a range of clients that you solely work with on their diet so if somebody came to you and said right i've got this illness with such and such these are my symptoms how can i combat do you work with people like that yeah yeah i'm looking more to i do but there's only one of me as well so the thing it's a lot isn't it so i'm what i'm thinking moving forward or no i'm thinking what i am going to be doing moving forward i'd love to host more group sessions yeah um so and i'm i'm working on um a cookbook a book um which you very kindly told me about the other weeks that's been going around in my head every day every day obviously so um and i've got my dictaphone out as well so thanks very much so um yes so basically i um i want to write these modules up and that people can buy online so if you've got a health ailment whether that be heart disease um high blood pressure weight management depression hormones and i think also hormones is a really big thing and i'm looking going to be looking at hormones for teenagers as well yes because the food that we're eating um i know when i went to study ayurveda in india we talked extensively um about hormones and about the fact that children are aware well not just children we're all eating this fast food um that's laced with hormones um chicken for example from kfc for example sorry kfc but um but you only have a certain amount of periods in your life from the from a female point of view which is why girls are developing earlier in life and which is why hormones a hormone um menopause is coming earlier and earlier earlier yeah it's because of the food that we're eating right well that makes sense yeah yeah i mean you look at um even children now you look at the size of their feet look how tall they are yes i it's you know it's phenomenal girls are um do you know they're they're growing a lot a lot earlier some like yeah you know in my day when i was a kid that that was unheard of you know like a few people were were growing breasts and whatever by the age of nine ten but you know it's it's it's a reality in these days and yeah and i think you know we if we look at the long-term aspects of it and actually the menopause is coming forward there's so much help that's needed and i think the only group i'd like to concentrate on is the younger ones because you know with other people you know we do have a responsibility to teach our younger generation and the mental health side of the of what they're eating and their lifestyle is is going to have huge implications on their later life if we don't start helping them out now absolutely but like you say like i remember my mum my mum worked at a nursing home and when she worked there there were a time when i think there were about six or else seven ladies all at the same time were all diagnosed with either breast cancer cervical cancer and somebody said one of the ladies had done some research and said it's the hormone that they're putting in the dairy cow that um i don't say that caused it but was a massive factor in it so a few of them cut out dairy some of them unfortunately lost their lives but some of them combated it now whether that would be that you know cured the whether that would be that their body would naturally you know have a higher chance of curing themselves anyway or were it that the others had a different type of cancer i suppose it's for such a small group of women i don't think you could say completely exactly what had happened but i know that a lot said about this hormone at the time that we are you know it's in the meat we're eating it's in the dairy it's in everything that we're eating we're pumping so much in what do we expect it's going to do to our body we're not supposed to design for all this no and if you look at some of the fast food chains and where they the quality of the meat that they're actually you know growing um farming um going back to the cow thing um you know we're the only species that still drinks milk from yeah that that when we're grown up um but then you're saying that then you know you have this whole plant-based world you know and certain plant-based milks aren't good for you either they're also laced with sugar so it is such a minefield i'm not against dairy on the whole depending on the quality of it um according to ayurveda goat is your best bet uh so goat's milk is your best bet purely because um cows are artificially inseminated they also have a lot of um diseases a lot of infections that they need antibiotics for um and everything else like that and so the and also the cow is pregnant to produce milk so in that milk is the hormones from that cow that you are ingesting yourself yeah and then the milk it has to go through such a um a complex process to make it fit for human consumption that always makes me think oh if you've got to do all of that to make the milk we can drink it yeah no it's not what i even started off being is it you know not at all am i um i remember being a kid my grandfather was a farmer dairy farmer and um my mum's family of farmers and we used to drink straight from the cow you know like it was put on the table and um and nowadays you're told you're not allowed to do that which always makes me wonder is that the process of the farming and not actually the milk itself because if it was okay back then why is it not now yeah why is it not now and you didn't have all these procedures and everything in place that you do now um for all the infections and all the artificial insemination and you know what's in that um and also i mean a lot of dairy farmers are really good to their to their cow some are not um so again you know it's about being conscious about where are we sourcing this stuff from we're so far removed from where it's actually come from we're so used to going to a shop you know and and picking up a um a plastic packaging with a bit of meat in it but you know where has that come from how have they been farmed what's happened to them in that process so for me i eat meat and i eat fish um and i do eat dairy but i'm mindful about where i get it from yeah um and i won't use anything i won't use anything that's um yeah that i can't trace back to animal basically fair enough yeah well earlier on when you said um and we'll be going back to india tell us about that right well so i i'm 47 this year and so i'm literally now at the point in my life where i'm thinking okay i need to have a five and a ten year plan um and i've realized that what really drives me is helping people i love that that is me to a t and one of the one of the reasons i explain the the food as well to everybody is so they know on a conscious level because we eat with all our senses so not only does it have to be tasty and look nice also when you know what that particular food is doing to you you're then it's it's like the placebo effect isn't it i suppose yeah this is doing this so you're nourishing yourself from the inside out you're giving that love and thought to yourself and i think that is a massive factor in it as well so i when i studied ayurveda i this is even before i went to india the first time it just made sense everything i've been through i'm a very spiritual person i've been a medium since i was a kid um i don't you know i don't know any different um and then i went through all of these traumatic experiences in my life but i always kind of had that mindset well there must be a reason for it there must be a reason and now i can look back and think ah okay that all makes sense that happened to me because i'm meant to be doing this moving forward when i went to india to study ayurveda i didn't realize just how much i was going to fall in love with ayurveda and how much it just makes sense to me it makes so much sense on every level that i wanted to look at not just the nutritional side of it but also how ayurveda works within the body from a chemical biology point of view as well uh we although we touched on it with the nutrition side of it um i wanted to learn more so then this opportunity came about for me to do my doctors in ayurveda pharmaceuticals and disease management and i um denied about it for about two years it's quite a big investment it's also um a lot of study uh you know going for my doctors that's nothing and then i'm thinking am i too old to do that now you know um am i can i do it am i i'm going for the menopause as well so like can my brain take that can i can i retain this information like you know i could barely get to the top of the stairs about forgetting what i've gone up there for so i'm like can i you know yeah and when i when i do something i give my all you know i do i give my entire self to it and so there's no point for me attempting to do anything unless i can commit to that and i've consulted them from upstairs consulted that ugly self um and i'm gonna go for it so i get it for it so i know so i'm gonna message um my friends in kerala this weekend i was supposed to do it um this week i just haven't got around to it yet i just want to know what the formalities of the course is so i'll be looking at pathology um the body in huge detail we go really into the nutritional aspects of ayurveda um and i'm it's 200 hours study in india so for the next two years i will be going there each year um for probably a minimum of two weeks to study um so it is a huge investor yes personally um financially everything else but i believe in it so much and i don't think this is the last piece of the puzzle that i needed to be able to move forward i could still do what i want to do without my doctorate but it's just something i feel that it's just going to give me a bit of an added extra and actually when i have that and when i bring to the forefront what it is i've got planned in my head of what's coming next no one does it um and i've always wanted to be um you know bring something new to the table something innovational not exhausting old ways of doing things because we've done that you know let's bring something new let's bring something fresh let's bring something that works let's put the onus back on people to make informed choices for their own well-being giving them the information that they need and i'll say i will bring them snippets of information and expecting them to join the dots up as if you were to look up what a balanced healthy diet was you'd be you'd you'd you'd just be lost because after about 10 minutes you'll be like well that's conflicting that's conflicting oh i don't like what i'm doing and that's it and i think that's wrong so do we have to then call you dr joe well this is a joke i've been having with my family and uh my daughter was laughing about it she goes i think i'll just keep calling you mum yeah i get i'm not really pretentious or precious about anything and also i'm one brother i think i'm feeling i'd feel embarrassed i think if people were to call me that but officially yes i i suppose but yeah yeah so it's it's huge i mean it's really huge and then i thought you know 47 is this too much you know do i really want to spend bring that on and i think actually 47 that's really young that's i'm gonna say that i mean 47 you're not 87 do you know i mean if you said i was flying out to india to learn this at 87 i'd be like all right nice one joe do what you will but but i mean 47 you don't need a puppy yet aren't you yeah and i believe in it so much and i think i think the thing is you know we've always got that little gremlin that sits on our shoulder that says i hope i don't do that and i suffer from that quite a lot so i always have to keep reminding myself actually no stay focused this is my goal this is what i want and actually it's for the benefit of other people which is what i put on this earth to do yeah well soon and so how can i not do it when all that when you put all of those things down um you know and then moving forward later on i want to run a retreat center that i have i would like to get referrals from therapists doctors people that have that they can't help basically because when i went to india there was two people who were doctors one was from australia and one was in europe the girl from australia sheer eyesight had turned upside down and for in this was pretty much stress related so no one else could help her it was for years she went to do the cleanse in ayurveda the pancha mahabhuta um and she it fixed her she did yeah it did and then this other doctor he went there for other issues that nobody else could fix himself and he went through the the three week four week cleanse totally fine um so it's a series of things they do it's not just one one particular facet that you need to concentrate on with ayurveda it's a whole multitude of things that you can do for your dosha that can rebalance you to make you all well again and it's just so amazing and then when i want to do this um retreat center i would also love to give out free places and scholarships every year to people that can't afford it so there'll be a certain number of places or there'll be the the people can sponsor people as well if that's what they want to do because i've always said that treatment nutrition and stuff that shouldn't just be available to people with money no no i totally agree with that absolutely not it's one of my you know having a nutritional balanced diet should be a choice and a right for everybody yeah absolutely and unfortunately it's not so um yeah that's long term what i want to do with it and there's so much good that can be given back and ayurveda when i started looking at it seven years ago nobody knew what it was they were like no what's that never heard of that and now you can start here it's now being dropped in certain places i think i heard it on the tv last week or something i was like oh so it is becoming more and more popular but i think um i've always been one to want to be ahead of the game and actually the way in which i want to work with ayurveda is very different to what other people are already doing with it um and i think that's just what i need to focus on is where i'm going with it what i'm doing and actually what the benefits are to other people long term because i think they're going to be huge yeah absolutely absolutely so if somebody wants to get in touch with you joe would like some um you know some coaching with you some uh you know bookie for anything any retreats they can't have march or september next year though because that's from where but then not allowed them dates uh honestly i must admit when i put the new retreats out new spiritual retreats out um people said to me we are having is joe going joe's not doing the food i don't think i want to book i'm like yeah yes she is yeah so so if anybody wants to get in touch with you joe um to discuss um you know working with you where will they find you i am currently redoing my website at the moment so i don't have a website um for people to view but i'm on facebook as mood food's kitchen and i'm in instagram at mood foods kitchen um all my numbers and details are up on there so i mean um if people wanted to send me a message i get a lot of people message me on facebook i'm trying to build up my social media this year i'm probably going to look to outsource it because it's it's just quite a lot to do um and i'm aware that i need to grow my following so i'm kind of it's one of those as in i'm not going to do that too soon and bring everything to the market until i've signed up on the course i have a plan of what i'm doing and how i want to bring that out to the marketplace so um and then the cookbook which everyone keeps nagging me about yeah when's it coming when's it coming it's been in process about four years it will come um but i just need some other little pieces of the puzzle yet to come before that can come out for sale so i'm hoping that towards the end of the year or the beginning of next year although you said to about the book that i need to write first to give people a bit of a background on who i am why i'm here why i'm doing what i'm doing and then for the cookbook to come afterwards so that's probably going to be the way it goes but yeah i mean you've a lot to do john you're very very busy wow peter peter ennedy constantly on the door i love it thanks so much for joining me today joe i've really enjoyed it thanks for having me all right thank you very much we'll speak to you again though because what i want to know is when the books are out i need to know that immediately and we also need to know when we've got stack on your doctor yeah a few years yeah i'm sure yeah oh thank you so much joe thank you very much for having me thank you okay thank you so much for listening to me stacy bauer on guide to spirituality podcast if you enjoyed this chat feel free to follow share or leave a review it really helps take what resonates leave what doesn't and keep showing up for you see you next time