SHE Asked Podcast
Welcome to The SHE Asked Podcast with Anna McBride—a space where the stories we tell ourselves are challenged, reimagined, and rewritten to unlock personal transformation.
Hosted by former therapist, storyteller, and lifelong seeker Anna McBride, this podcast dives deep into the power of narrative. Through personal stories and intimate conversations with guests, we explore how shifting our internal dialogue can change not just how we see our lives—but how we live them.
Each episode offers what Anna calls “practical hope”—real tools, lived experience, and emotional honesty for anyone feeling stuck, lost, or ready for change. Whether you’re navigating divorce, grief, reinvention, or simply trying to understand your past, The SHE Asked Podcast invites you to become the author of your own story—and the hero in it, too.
Follow along for weekly episodes filled with compassion, perspective, and the courage to ask yourself:
What story am I telling—and is it still serving me?
SHE Asked Podcast
Ancient Ayurvedic Secrets for Fall Wellness with Rima Shah
Anna McBride sits down with Ayurvedic expert and longtime friend Rima Shah to explore the wisdom of Ayurveda for the fall season.
🌿 Together, they dive into:
• Rima’s childhood stories of Ayurveda in India and how sacred rhythms shaped her life
• The meaning of seasonal transitions (Ritu Sandhi) and why fall is the most vulnerable time of year
• Understanding the doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) and how the five elements show up in your body and mind
• Daily rituals for calming Vata energy (oil massage, warm foods, journaling, sleep hygiene)
• Practical Ayurvedic food and lifestyle tips to stay warm, nourished, and balanced during autumn
Whether you’re new to Ayurveda or looking to deepen your seasonal practices, this conversation will help you connect to nature’s rhythm, find balance, and cultivate inner peace during this transition time.
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Follow Rima Shah
@rimashah.ayurveda
Welcome back to she Asked. Tools for Practical Hope. I'm your host, Anna McBride, and I am so excited you're here. My really good friend, Rima Shah, is here today with us and we're going to be talking about Ayurveda and the fall, but we're going to actually start with a story, so I'm going to turn it over to you, Rima, where you can share your Ayurvedic story with us. Tell us more Welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much and I'm so excited to be on. She Asked with you, my dear friend, longtime friend, and I love your love of storytelling. I think it's a good way to set the stage. So I want you all to picture 1978 India. I want to give you a little bit of a picture of how this has just been such a part of my life with my family.
Speaker 2:So, 1978 India, I was a little girl. All my family lives in India. At that time every place in India was a little village, and when a little village, there was dirt roads, no cars. All my family members drove scooters, so it was very common to see four or five family members on one scooter. There was a lot of elephants, cows and camels on the streets. My grandparents house had jollies, and jollies are carved wooden windows because in India it's a subtropical country, it's a very agrarian, it's very much living with nature, so much so that it's not cold weather, and people pretty much lived in open-air homes.
Speaker 2:And one of my favorite memories was going to my grandparents' house. Their house was called Bakul the houses had names there because everything was sacred, including the home, and one of my favorite memories was sitting on the bench in the hallway, the front door was always open, because that's really how India was and my grandmother would sit me down and she would oil my curly, wild mane of hair and we would watch the camel, the cows, the elephants walk by and she would oil it and she would talk to me and she would tell me stories and then she would, after oiling it, she would put it in such a tight braid and it would be so slick and that was the ritual and it was just such a part of my life, like the oiling of the hair, the sacred space, the fact that the animals were all around us, that the animals were all around us, and every day the guy with the mule cart would come and bring the local vegetables. So every single day you had a relationship with the food that was being grown around you. And there was no modernization.
Speaker 2:Many times we wouldn't have electricity. Many times electricity would come on for a little time and would go off. But the one thing that I truly remember of all those years being at my grandparents' house is how everything had sacred rhythm. So I think that was a good story to start off with, because I talk a lot about how my family, my grandparents are my first teachers, but I really wanted to take you back almost 45 years ago to truly what that meant and what that time was like, because Ayurveda was used in every household back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a great story. I could just picture you with your grandmother and the animals. It's like you're in the jungle and that it was just all around right. Finding that rhythm is what I have learned from you as to really what is at the heart of Ayurveda. How do we relate to the seasons, to the world, right? So I really appreciated hearing your connection with your grandmother and how that's really been a big part of why Ayurveda is so important to you. So we're going to be entering into fall soon and I wanted to get a little idea from you as to what all means when we're talking about Ayurveda.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. So you know, anna, a good thing to bring up is that the ancient sages truly understood that the transition between the seasons was extremely vulnerable. It was called Ritu Sandhi Ritu means time and Sandi means transition. Okay, and if we could just look at ourselves, we're both in North America right now, but we can see if we look outside, right now it is vulnerable because summer is waning and fall is coming, so we might experience things like really windy afternoon, like extremely windy, which a month ago we wouldn't have had experience because we would have been in more of that warmth, humidity type of season. So this time is vulnerable and when it, when this, when the nature outside is vulnerable, we are vulnerable. We are more vulnerable to imbalance, to feeling dis ease, to getting symptoms pop up that you didn't experience. So the ancients clearly understood that really taking time between the seasons to get back to your routines was going to make the transition so much easier.
Speaker 1:Okay, so in a previous episode, I speak to the different parts of the basics of Ayurveda. However, before we go further with fall, let's talk a bit about Ayurveda, the seasons, in terms of what the doshas are right and how they're affected, and even let's break down what these meanings are, because it matters to give us some foundation. Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:The thing that I always remind people is that Ayurveda can get very complex, but in the essence of everything we talk about is the simplicity of the element earth, water, fire, air and ether. Those five elements have inherent qualities to them. Like we can say that earth is heavy, if we stand next to a mountain, we can say that this is heavy water. We can swim in it, we can bathe in it, so there's a softness to it, but it's inherently cold. It's always cold. We're actually using techniques to warm up water. So we start to really put emphasis on the qualities and when we do that we can understand the three doshas vata, pitta kapha. We can understand how the doshas, vata, pitta kapha. We can understand how the doshas affect the seasons. Pretty much everything could be related to the five elements and all the gunas. So let's start with spring, because spring is rebirth, it's renewal, it's the beginning of the zodiac sign. So that is springtime in North America and springtime is Kapha season, because Kapha people have a lot of earth and water energy to them and the qualities of earth and water are heavy, dense, gross, like we say. Gross anatomy, it's in front of you, it's tangible. Gross anatomy, it's in front of you, it's tangible. We say that they're soft, they're grounded, they're stable. So this is kapha energy, and I also like to call it the mud season, because it tends to be cold and damp still in many parts of North America and we have to be really mindful to eat and live accordingly. And then pitta season is summertime in North America and that is ruled by fire, and so for all of us, because we've just finishing summer, we know that we've just experienced a period of a lot of warmth, a lot of mobility, a lot of energy.
Speaker 2:There's also sharpness. The quality of sharp is very unique to fire. In fact, that's like the only element that uses the word sharp, and that's why Pitta people can have a sharp tongue, but they also have a sharp mind. But there is, like this element of sharpness even in the season that we look at. It's a very flourishing and blooming season, so there's a lot of flourishing of the seeds that were planted so long ago. And then it takes us to fall season, which is what we're talking about now, and fall is dominated by qualities of cold, rough, hard, dry, light and mobile, because the qualities of Vata season are predominantly air and ether. Air is inherently cold, ether is inherently cold. So the one thing that really marks Vata season no matter where you live even if you're in California and you experience mild winters there is the element of the most cold of that area coming in, and that's the one big thing that we need to be mindful of. So we can help balance that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we'll address a little bit of that, but why don't you finish it out with winter?
Speaker 2:Yes, so Vata season being air and ether, it's actually fall and winter. It's a big time. So for us people in North America we're talking about September to late February that's Vata season, and then late February to May is Kapha season in North America, and then May to September is pitta season. We are a four season country, but we can pair fall and winter together for vata. This blueprint can actually work anywhere in the world, because India actually has six seasons, africa has four seasons, africa has four seasons, but their seasons are very different from us. They have long rains, short rains, summer and spring. So we can use this template, no matter what climate, what geography, what microclimate you are in. When you're in a cold, damp part of that time, that is very kapha time. When you're in the hottest, warmest part of wherever you are, that's pitta time. And when you're feeling the coldest, the windiest and the driest, that's vata time.
Speaker 1:Okay, that gives us a good general understanding, and I have a question for you. During this time of year, at least on the calendar, we're seeing things like eclipses and certain full moons that are occurring, and I'm wondering in what way does that affect the Vata season? Does it emphasize it or make it less? What's your understanding of that?
Speaker 2:So much change happens in Vata season, including in the astrology. There's change, there's constant change and it can be overwhelming. Let's talk about these eclipses. The full moon started a lunar eclipse. Eclipses are very powerful in Vedic astrology, so powerful that they actually say to you to not actually go out during a solar eclipse because the energy is very strong. They actually tell you to meditate and to do your practices because that's how much we can get influenced by things happening in the sky.
Speaker 2:Another thing that I think is really cool because Vedic astrology, along with Ayurveda and yoga and meditation, they're all sister sciences. And one thing that I think is cool is it's also called Pitru Paksha, and Pitru Paksha is a portal where your ancestors basically are very close to you. And in Vedic astrology and our Hindu culture, these two weeks we actually do a lot of ceremony for our ancestors to convene with them, to communicate with them, to please them. They want to see that we're living our Dharma, them to please them. They want to see that we're living our dharma. So we do things to show our ancestors that we're listening, we're following your lineage.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I think that's interesting. My culture, which is Spanish, we do that at the end of October, beginning of November, where we celebrate the ancestors that have passed before us. Because, you're right, there is this connection and I'm just curious, as we're talking about these big changes and what Vata means, share with us from your experience how this affects the mind and the body for people.
Speaker 2:So Ayurveda is opposite cures like, by the way. So if you're feeling cold, we use warm therapies, if you're feeling dry, we use moist therapies. Homeopathy, which actually flourished greatly in India also, is like cures like they'll take, actually like the venom of a bee and they'll potentize it. Well, they'll take a little drop of the venom and they'll potentize it with drops of water and then they'll take a drop of that water and potentize it again. So by the end of that cycle they'll have a homeopathic pellet, but it will have been potentized so many times that it actually just holds the vibration of the bee sting, but that remedy is given for people that have bee stings. So homeopathy is like cures like. That's a beautiful method on its own, but Ayurveda really we call it cosmic medicine is opposite cures like.
Speaker 2:So we always want to come back to the gunas, the qualities of vata season, and that is cold, rough, hard, dry, mobile energy. So the mind at this time starts to have consistent, mobile thoughts, and when we have too many thoughts we do have too much going on in our mind. Vata season when we're balanced, you can be the most creative that you possibly can be throughout the whole year, because we have a lot of great juice flowing in our mind, but when we don't know how to balance it, it's very easy to go out of control. So some of the biggest mental challenges are anxiety, overwhelm, feeling overwhelmed. So when you're facing a stressful situation, instead of being able to dig your heels and rise to the challenge, you can feel overwhelmed, and to the point that you're not sure where to start. Eventually that can lead to insomnia. Also. Nervous, nelly, feeling nervous. Feeling like your nervous system is more on edge. Feeling worry anything that I say is cold. Emotions are very vata tendency. Mental imbalances when we don't know how to balance.
Speaker 1:As well as focus.
Speaker 2:Yes, when you get overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:if that's a byproduct of that, as well as having many thoughts and so being a treatment of opposites to bring back balance, what are some things, when people are imbalanced in this Vata season, that you would recommend that they approach doing to help rebalance themselves?
Speaker 2:Yes, vatas love to say to people I dance to the beat of my own drum, I follow my own path. I don't like to be told what to do. I need to flit like the wind and that is wonderful, but guess what? You're going to so much more. Be able to be your creative, carefree self when you do one of the most important things in Ayurveda, which is establish Dhinacharya. Dhinacharya is your daily routine. It is what you do from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, and if you ask Ayurvedic doctors what is one of three concepts that you think are really important, they will always say your Dhinacharya, because, at the end of the day, ayurveda is ancient wisdom for practical everyday living. So the biggest thing is routine, because Vata's want to say I don't like routine, it messes with my creativity. And the number one thing you need to do is to establish a good Dhinacharya, especially for Vata season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I find, being a Pitta myself, that I really love a routine and I have had this very structured morning ritual for years now, which I know is a bit of kapha in me as well, and so the way to balance it out I find as well, and so the way to balance it out, I find, is like not to be too held tight to something, to be open-minded to new ways of doing it.
Speaker 2:However, following a routine is important during the season? Yes, very, and Ayurveda is a very established daily routine and most of it occurs in the morning.
Speaker 1:Okay, so give me some examples of what are some morning routine things from an Ayurvedic perspective that you recommend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll start from the moment you wake up. So, the moment you wake up and really, anna, you tap into this so much, but a daily prayer affirmation before you even leave the bed, but a daily prayer affirmation before you even leave the bed You're about to start the day, and every day you're starting a day over and again. So to make that part of your routine and many Ayurvedic doctors have said this for a long time do a body scan, do a prayer, do an affirmation. And we know, because we've studied meditation so much, that we also know that when you start your day with positive affirmations, you have a 50% chance of having a better day. Just by doing that. I think that you and I both have made meditation a first thing, so nothing gets in the way of that. So, prayer meditation.
Speaker 2:But then you go into your bathroom and there's quite a beautiful bathroom ritual and in Ayurveda we like to dry skin brush to get your lymphatic system going, and that only takes about five minutes.
Speaker 2:And then after that, a daily warm oil massage, which is called Abhyanga. That is very key and very essential to daily routine. Then we also sometimes apply nasal oil. We do our regular cleansing, like brushing our teeth, but we add a tongue scraper. A tongue scraper is a beautiful way to get the coating, the toxic coating, off your tongue so it doesn't get reabsorbed into your body, and then we get ready to prepare ourselves to have a really good breakfast. You know, I would say that's key elements to the morning, and you could add so much more into that if you want to do yoga, if you want to do other things, if you want to do journaling. But I think some of the key is to realize that the way that we tap into our body through abhyanga, through dry skin brushing, and then with our mind, through prayer and meditation, that sets the day up in the most beautiful way.
Speaker 1:What I hear you saying is touch you yeah, what our teacher would tell us is is what sets the trajectory for the day. You have to tend both to the mind and to the body. Yeah, and that morning ritual is a great way to kick that off. Now, does it differ at all in suggestion for fall versus other times of year as to what the morning ritual be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, warm is key, keeping yourself warm. I cannot stress enough how I've met so many clients and students over the years and they know how they feel. They come to me and they say that they feel cold, they feel dry, and they don't establish a routine to necessarily help that. And then I'll see them three or four months later and it's really hit them Because now you're really been in the cold season. So the oil is extremely important in Vata season. In fact, the mantra that I say for Vata season is warm, moist and oily.
Speaker 2:Keep yourself warm. Do it with a hot shower or a bath, do it with a hot water bottle, do it with your extra blankets, make sure that your meditation room is warm these kind of things. You can say that you're going to do it, but if you don't feel warm, you're not going to show up every day. We definitely want to use more oils in our diet, we want to have more soups, we want to get into teas and then oily. So I think Abhyanga for Vata season is really necessary, especially for Vata type people. You and me are both Pittas, so Pittas and Kaphas. They might not oleate every day, but it's something that every dosha should do regularly during Vata season.
Speaker 1:Okay, so each dosha should have a similar morning ritual. When it comes to how we take care of the body, is that what I hear you saying during Vata season?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course each dosha is different Vatas because they're the most dry, the most prone to things like constipation, any kind of dry things like dry eyes, dry mouth, dry hair. For vatas you can pretty much guarantee that, like a daily oil massage would be wonderful. For pittas we have a sense of oiliness. I always use J-Lo as a celebrity to say that she's very pitta. J-lo's got that glow because pitta people have lustrous skin. We have fire and that lends to oily skin. So a lot of times pitta people naturally feel oily, but fire can eventually dry your tissues out too. So pitta people might not feel the need to do oil massage every day, but two times a week, three times a week, every Sunday, they need it and they'll figure out what works for them too. Once you get into these it's like your body tells you Because sometimes you'll be like I don't feel the need for oil today.
Speaker 2:And then kapha people are actually very lubricated because they're made up of earth and water. The saying goes that a kapha person who's 70 years old many times is mistaken for a 50 year old because they have a thick head of lustrous hair still and they virtually have no wrinkles. So kapha people are the ones that least need oil massage. And I'm picking Abhyanga as a focal point because I want to educate your audience on how we can do the same practice, but it will look different for all the doshas. Kapha person might be fine to do it once every three weeks because they have such a lubricated skin, but for kapha people, one thing that they should consistently do is dry skin brushing, because they have a tendency to get stagnant. So I would say vatas are going to need to have abhyanga a lot, kaphas are going to need to dry skin brush a lot, and pittas they're going to find that nice balance in the middle between both.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the abhyanga, which is the massage, the personal massage done with the oil, is highly recommended. Now, what about foods?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Food is medicine, and if you really find a way to to find a daily rhythm where you're feeling good about what you're eating two or three times a day, you're already going to be well ahead of the game for most people, because I think what really stops people is their confusion around food. So food is extremely important, and here's something that I want to bring back to the Vata season and Vatas in particular. It is so common for a Vata person to say, oh, I ate at 7 am yesterday because I was hungry, but then the day before I totally forgot to eat all day and I think I ate at 9 pm at night. It's very common eat all day and I think I ate at 9 pm at night. It's very common.
Speaker 2:We have our agni means our digestive fire right, and in order for us to have good agni, we have to make sure that we have proper meal times at the same times every day. So the first thing that I say to clients, especially vatas you must establish a food routine, because when your body knows that Anna's going to eat at eight o'clock, your body's already working at 7 am to prepare you. And when your body knows that Anna's always going to eat between 12 and 1, then your body's ready for that. But when your body is not sure when it's going to happen, that's going to be really hard. Vata season we say we stick on more moist oily.
Speaker 2:I do think that what I've discovered working so many years in America is we have a very cold diet, especially for the morning time. People have cold yogurt, cold berries, cold smoothies. Maybe the only thing that they're having warm is maybe black coffee, cold cereal, cold milk, like it's very cold. And one thing that's extremely important during Vata season is you need to wake up your Agni. Our physiology is feeling cold. So we want to have a morning routine where we're having some warm foods or cooked foods or some good teas, so Agni gets to warm up. Because if we follow this sort of diet that I see is very common. Avocado toast is another one that's a healthier option, but it's still cold. So I think the number one thing for Vata season is we've got to expand our repertoire and feel okay about some cooked foods in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what's interesting about Ayurveda is that we're focusing, we're learning from Ayurveda to seek balance, given that we live in North America and I know that we're not unique in the world. However, we're unique in this. I think we're moving, moving, moving. I live in New York City, for example, and the world is so fast outside my door. It's a setup for imbalance and, given that it's Vata season, I noticed in anything that's news related or any TV, right, that social media influence. Then, when you couple that with whatever is going on emotionally within my life I'm a mother of three children and that expression you're only as happy as your least happy child, right. And that expression you're only as happy as your least happy child, right? I think what I really would like to hear from you is, given that we live in this part of the world, speak a little bit about what Ayurveda how we would apply it here that might be different in other parts of the world.
Speaker 2:Ayurveda is one word that I really love in Sanskrit and, by the way, the words that I'm using are Sanskrit. It's one of the oldest languages in the world and it's based on the sounds from the cosmos. All the Vedas are written in Sanskrit, and so when I'm referring to it, it's really the language of the Vedas, which is the oldest written scriptures on the planet, and one of the Sanskrit words I really love is swasta, swasta, and swasta means perfect health, but it also means swasta to know thyself. So ultimately, whether we're in New York or we're in a beautiful idyllic farmhouse in the countryside of Vermont, we are here as human beings to know ourselves more.
Speaker 2:Ayurveda is when you know who you are, and you take time, and every day you keep diving into this, because Ayurveda is a lifelong learning tool, so you start to learn more and more about yourself as every year goes by, but when you learn, first of all, are you very fiery, are you airy, are you earthy? That's the starting point, because once you know that, you stop judging yourself on the symptoms you see yourself having, instead of saying I'm an airhead, people always say I'm unaccountable, people always say I'm late. Instead of judging yourself, you can have compassion for yourself because you can say to yourself I'm really vata, I've got a lot of air and ether, and I think that's really theata I've got a lot of air and ether, and I think that's really the basis, like we are all here to have a better quality of life and less stress, and I think we're going to be able to do that using Ayurveda, when we feel like we know ourselves more on an elemental level.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the stress of the world is mitigated through Ayurveda, first, by getting to know ourselves and really talking about ourselves in terms of nature and how we are really related to nature. You did a great job earlier talking about the different seasons and how the different personalities of the doshas, about the different seasons and how the different personalities of the doshas. We were taught. I was taught that everything that we see outside of ourselves in terms of the five elements live within us. Right, we have earth, fire, water, ether and air, and within us, and I think, if we can even get to know ourselves that our bodies are a reflection of what the cosmos are, right, then maybe being able to relate to nature more, relate to how it affects us, maybe an antidote perhaps for some of the stress that we're facing now. Do you see that as a possibility?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think even you and I, just speaking from our own experience, like I am a pitta, I could see the fire in me throughout my whole life and the more we grow and the more we use all these tools, not just in Ayurveda but in every self-help avenue that we've gotten to, I know you and I both have had conversations with our fire self and we've learned how to use it for our benefit instead of harming, because for us Pitta people, we need to know that our fire is strong, it's sharp, it could burn down a village if we're not careful.
Speaker 2:But if we really use it in a way to our benefit, then that fire brings out the beautiful aspects, like the natural born, the clarity, the natural born leader, knowing your truth but not having to declare the righteousness of it, because one of the things I always say to pit to people is do you want to be right or do you want to be peaceful? So I think it empowers you on how to see the higher version of yourself you on how to see the higher version of yourself.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's what Ayurveda does.
Speaker 2:It helps us to seek a better connection to our place in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it makes us have control over the way we act. Instead of judging us for how we act or how our digestion is, or why do I have gas and she doesn't have gas? Like instead of that judgment and seeing it as like a final thing like I guess I'm somebody that has poor digestion and a lot of gas, you start to say, oh, the gas is a lot of air in your body and that poor digestion probably lends to the fact that I don't meal plan, that I don't think about my day. We can really pinpoint it and once we start to look at those things and see how we can add more balance into our lives, we start to let it empower us versus us judging our flaws that we see, or you know what I'm saying. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:I believe that what I hear you saying is that we, if we can relate to our connection to nature, really relate to it. We can see it a lot working within us. We can see where we may be working against it Instead of making it a problem. There's so many possibilities in terms of how to rebalance ourselves just by looking at the seasons and how we can be more in harmony with the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as we start to wrap up here, I wanted to ask you what some of your favorite daily practices are for you in your dosha, as well as your favorite foods this time of year.
Speaker 2:Because Vata season. Another thing I also want to bring up to Anna is that very few people and you and I have had many discussions about is that very few people, and you and I've had many discussions about this very few people are only one dosha. Right, we can say we're pitta, vata, kapha, but most of the planet is dual doshik, meaning you have one primary dosha and one secondary dosha, and maybe that's something we'll talk about in the future, because it's also really a beautiful thing to dive into. So, in saying that, many people, even if you don't relate to being predominantly Vata, many people have secondary Vata and no matter if you're relating to being a Pitta or Kapha, we are in Vata season. So all of us need to remember that we are seasonal beings. We are here to change with the seasons, so none of us should be having the same diet throughout the entire year, because the seasons change. We have to change with them.
Speaker 1:Okay. So how are you changing this time of year? What works best for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I've got a lot of pit in me but I get cold. So one thing I incorporate in this season is I can't express how amazing Abhyanga is, and I actually have recorded a how to on Abhyanga too. So if you feel like you ever want that as a resource, we can talk about that. But Abhyanga, warm oil massage so important.
Speaker 2:But then do you know what I incorporate this season?
Speaker 2:I actually take a warm bath in the morning before I start the day, because that really helps me not feel like that cold is entering my bones.
Speaker 2:So that's a very common practice that I only literally do during Vata season, especially November, december, when it gets really cold in Wisconsin I will do my Abhyanga and then I will just go inside an Epsom salts, magnesium salts bath and that instead of a shower, and then I'll go and start my day and I feel like that's helped me a lot with just that feeling of cold that a lot of people get, where you'll see people say I can't get the cold out of me. So that's one of my favorite daily routines. Another one that I love about the season, because it gets so dark in North America. I really love journaling before bedtime because I think it's really important to close the bookends in Vata season because it is very common to feel isolated, lonely, fearful. The dark is deep. It starts to get dark at 430. So there's a lot of inner thoughts that we all have and I think for me, journaling before bedtime, really closing my thoughts, is a practice I really bring in for Vata season.
Speaker 1:Okay, I find that what's interesting for me. I'm Pitta Vata myself and I have to be careful of the technology exposure before bedtime because it will keep me awake later and or it will interrupt my sleep at some point throughout the night. What do you think about that bedtime ritual and besides, journaling for people during the season Sleep?
Speaker 2:hygiene is extremely important. We're facing a time in history that it's now over 90 percent of the population has sleep issues of one kind or the other. So sleep hygiene is extremely important and I like to follow the 10, 3, 2, 1 rule. 10 hours before you want to go to sleep which for most people, hopefully it's you're winding down between 9 and 10. That's what we want in Ayurveda. So 10 hours before you want to go to sleep, you don't have any more caffeine, which is a reminder to people that they really shouldn't have caffeine after 12 pm. You really can't, because it will affect your sleep.
Speaker 2:Three hours before bedtime I make sure I finish my food and, being in menopause, I find this extremely important to me. If I eat late, it affects my sleep. So, three hours before bedtime, finish your food. Two hours before bedtime no distractions For me. I'm somebody in the community that people come and they want to talk to me, they want my advice, and I cut off phone calls. I'll cut off any distractions so I won't answer that phone call of a girlfriend that needs to talk about something at eight o'clock at night. That's really important, especially during bata season for me. And then one hour before bed, absolutely no phone at all.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So 10 hours no caffeine? Okay, so 10 hours no caffeine. Three hours no food, two hours no distractions, which is a great time to get into journaling or reading or an evening bath or whatever. And then one hour no food.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's a great process for a bedtime ritual. And what about your favorite foods? What are your favorite foods that you go to during this season?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love dal, which is basically Indian lentil soup, and yellow moong dal is so easily digestible because you know your digestion can be affected by the cold weather. So I love yellow moong dal with spiced with cumin seeds, mustard seeds, a little bit of a cinnamon stick cloves, because those are nice warming spices. So I'll saute all of that in the ghee or the oil before I even put the dal in to be cooked. And then we're spicing with turmeric and coriander and cumin and a little bit of chili. We want some chili to keep us warm.
Speaker 2:And that's just such a wonderful comfort food. Because lentils are so good in fiber, so good for your colon, and because they're heavy, they work through your body slower as you're digesting them, so you're really able to eke out all the nutrients from them, which is why there's such a powerhouse food in Ayurveda. So absolutely, the good spiced toward Moong Dal is amazing, amazing. And then another thing that I just really love a lot is making stone ground rotis. They're like chapati, so they would be like tortillas, and we make it into a dough and we'll roll it out so thin and then we will heat it over a dry skillet and then we drizzle a lot of ghee on it and then we'll eat it with vegetables. Okay, but that ghee drenched with the cooked vegetables, all that, when we eat it we can feel so grounded, like the food makes us feel so grounded.
Speaker 2:Feeling hungry right now listening to you feel so grounded, feeling hungry right now, listening to you. I know, I know. So those are two of my favorites, but I'm also a tea girl. I think this is a great time to get out all your teas.
Speaker 1:That sounds wonderful.
Speaker 1:The idea of just warming yourself up by bath, by tea, by dal right Moong dal is one of my favorites. Coming back full circle to a story, my favorite story, which I know we both share a love for it, is the Bhagavad Gita, and it talks in there a lot about Ayurveda practices that Krishna, who is one of the characters, was saying to Arjuna in terms of how to take care of yourself. And, if I remember, one part of the story that he goes to or speaks to is how it's important to take action right, that's the pitta. It's important to do yoga, which is everything, and it's important to know yourself right and to be still right. And I think, like one of my favorite quotes from that story is center yourself in the present moment before you take action.
Speaker 1:And I even remember that when Arjuna didn't know himself, and I even remember that when Arjuna didn't know himself or didn't know what to do about his dilemma, krishna said of course you don't know what to do because you don't know who you are. And as we wrap up this conversation today, I think that one of the things I love about that story and I want to hear your favorite in terms of Ayurveda is that it just reminds us that we all come from nature, we all come from the cosmos. We're connected to everything and everyone. That's what Arjuna was struggling with, and when we understand the connection, we can understand that we are able to be rebalanced if we seek it. So tell me a bit about what your favorite Ayurveda moments are from that story.
Speaker 2:I just love the Bhagavad Gita as our Hindu's Bible, so it's I just love that. You love it so much because it's a text that I've been loving ever since being a child, and that's the thing is that it's not very long, but you can spend a lifetime contemplating the Bhagavad Gita, and that's what makes it so amazing. What I really get from you telling that story is that health is a byproduct of enlightenment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, balance too, right, yeah. And if we get to know ourselves, if we really lighten up, we can have a better connection with our mind, our body, our spirit, the world nature. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I really want people to remember that this is not wasted work. I feel like the slow movement of ancient cultures is really necessary right now. I think we live in a time where we want to do good things, but we don't think we should give ourselves the time for it. This is slow medicine getting to know who you are Like. You have to come into your ego so you can become Anna and I can become Rima, but then a lot of it is unlearning the things that are getting in our way to really growing described in some circles anyway, about being woo-woo, and yet I think there's nothing more practical about a science that is one of the oldest sciences, that's been around since the beginning of time.
Speaker 1:I appreciate your connection, I appreciate the time we got to spend in India together and I appreciate this conversation. Thank you so much, rima.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, you're my roomie.
Speaker 1:Yes, you're mine too. Thank you for joining me and my dear friend Rima on. She Asked Tools for Practical Hope. Until soon, be well.