Zarah Kravitz | Ayurveda for Modern Life: Postpartum Healing, Seasonal Eating & Yoga

Zarah Kravitz is an esteemed Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga teacher currently residing in Southern California. Originally from New Jersey, Zarah moved to New Mexico at a young age and grew up in Santa Fe and Albuquerque before settling in San Diego. 

She possesses a deep-rooted passion for Ayurveda and yoga, having studied extensively with renowned experts, including Dr. Vasant Lad at The Ayurvedic Institute. Zarah is also an emerging entrepreneur, co-founding Mama Rest—a postpartum nourishment service providing Ayurvedic meals for new mothers. 

Additionally, Zarah continues to share her passion for yoga and holistic living by teaching yoga classes and offering a specialized cooking course tailored around bioregional and seasonal eating.

Visit Zarah: https://www.yogaonstate.com/ayurveda-on-state & on IG https://www.instagram.com/zarahkravitz/

Key Takeaways:

• Integrative Health: Zarah highlights the importance of Ayurveda in creating a holistic health approach, emphasizing the need for understanding one's own body and constitution to promote optimal health.
• Postpartum Nutrition: Through her venture Mama Rest, Zarah underlines the significance of tailored nutritional support for postpartum mothers using Ayurvedic principles.
• Ayurveda & Modern Living: She discusses how Ayurveda can be adapted to fit modern lifestyles by promoting seasonal and local food consumption to enhance digestion and overall vitality.
• Yoga & Spiritual Practice: Zarah shares her journey into yoga, focusing on its transformative power when combined with Ayurveda, and the benefits of community singing practices like Kirtan.

🎧 Practice with Native Yoga:
8IN8 Ashtanga Yoga Course (FREE coupon):
https://info.nativeyogacenter.com/8in8-ashtanga-yoga-for-beginners-8-limbs-in-8-days/

Daily Online Classes (Code: FIRSTMONTHFREE):
https://nativeyogacenter.teachable.com/p/today-s-community-class

About the Podcast:
The Native Yoga Toddcast explores yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and personal growth through conversations with teachers, creators, and thought leaders.

https://info.nativeyogacenter.com/8in8-ashtanga-yoga-for-beginners-8-limbs-in-8-days/

Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast, so happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage, body work and beyond. Follow us at @nativeyoga and check us out at Nativeyogacenter.com. All right, let's begin. Hello. Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. My name is Todd McLaughlin, and thank you so much for joining both myself and my special guest Zarah Kravitz. Zarah is an Ayurvedic specialist. She's a yoga teacher practitioner. She lives in San Diego, California. I'm going to give some links in the description for you to find her. She has a lot of different things that she offers, so I'm going to put all of them down below. Check her out if you want to take class with her in southern california at yogaonstate.com if you know somebody in the VISTA San Diego area that's having a baby. Check out. She provides Ayurvedic meals for postpartum, and that's

at https: 1:48

//www.mama-rest.com and then you can also find her Ayurvedic cooking class on the https://www.jennygriffith.com/the-living-kitchen link. And then, of course, Instagram, where we can all trade ideas. That's at ZaraKravitz, spelt Z, A, R, A, H, all right. So with that being said, I'm so excited you're here and to have this opportunity to meet and learn from Zarah Kravitz. Let's begin. I'm so happy to be here with Zarah Kravitz. Zarah, thanks for taking time out of your day today. How's your day going so far?

Zarah Kravitz: 2:24

It is going really, really well. Thank you. Yeah, beautiful Monday here and in Southern California, yes, sunny, and it's been a little warm. It's a little bit of a cooler day. Today. We have some nice breezes

Todd McLaughlin: 2:40

coming through, very cool. Are you originally born and raised there?

Unknown: 2:46

No, I'm actually. I was actually born in New Jersey, and when I was five months old, my parents got this call, this inner call to move to the southwest, and so we picked up and we headed across the country with animals, plants, all types of things, and a big van, and moved to New Mexico. We landed in Santa Fe, and I grew up in Santa Fe and and Albuquerque. My parents eventually parted ways, and then I grew up in both, really Albuquerque and

Todd McLaughlin: 3:20

Santa Fe very cool. When did you go to San Diego?

Unknown: 3:26

Ooh, many, many years later, I ended up here because my sister, she's still here, and she, at the time, had been here for over 20 years, and she had had a baby, and I was going through a whole transformational moment in my life. And our mother was also diagnosed with with pancreatic cancer at the same time. So there was a lot of shiftings, and I decided to come, come back to the US at that that time I was living in Colombia, South America, actually, yeah. So made my way here to San Diego. I didn't think I would, I would stay, but I've been here for about six years.

Todd McLaughlin: 4:05

Very cool. And you are another Ayurvedic practitioner and also a yoga practitioner and teacher, which came first?

Unknown: 4:14

Yeah. Oh, well, that's a great question. You know, I think that both of those pathways and doorways and journeys came from the same root, and that root was me, really deeply questioning food and diet and nutrition at a very young age, and partially sprouted From my my stepfather going on the Atkins diet, so he was eating a lot of meat, and we had a lot of animals. We had a little mini farm at the time. So we had, you know, we had chickens and geese and sheep and goats and horses, and it was at some moment we had pigs. We never had cows, but we. Had all these beautiful animals, and I was developing strong relationship with all of them, and I didn't, there was some disconnect for me. I was like, we're eating, you know, we're eating all this meat, and then we have all these friends and animals out there in the barn, and I'm feeding them and developing relationship and but, you know, the that that relationship is not full circle, right? We're not processing these animals, but we're we're eating these other animals. So I went into a deep inner quest, I think, at a very young age. I was about 13 years old, my older sister was also already a vegetarian, so she influenced me, and I basically decided I was going to be vegetarian, and I didn't really know what to do or how to do that, but that kind of took me into many different pathways and exploring different diets, different nutritional pathways, and that eventually took me to, you know, this greater quest of health and well being, and How to really, yeah, how to take care of oneself, and in all the ways. And I feel like yoga and and Ayurveda give you that wholeness and that the fullness of what that what that really is. So I had heard about Ayurveda for a long time, but I ended up studying yoga first. I found Dharma Mitra first, actually, and that he Dharma loves to joke about, you know, food. And he loves to talk about, you know, you know, pizza, a little bit of mozzarella on the pizza. At the time, I, you know, we were all vegans and drinking a lot of green juice, and I was going through a lot of a deep fasting cleansing period and dharma taught me a lot about nutrition and just prana in general, pranic, pranic, rich foods, and what, how that affects practice and the mind. And that led me to study nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is a beautiful course on very whole mind, whole body, thinking about nutrition and how to feed ourselves well and take care, take care of ourselves in that way. And that eventually took me many years later, down to the, you know, the pathway of Ayurveda. It's always an interesting question, how these things evolve when they when they come up and when there's when there's, like that, that next step to say, oh, okay, I'm ready to study this, or I'm ready to deep dive, yeah, yeah.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:29

Like, meaning, maybe you had come across the the terminology of Ayurveda, but then from that point to the time that you started to study it more intensely, a few years had gone by,

Unknown: 7:42

yeah, so at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, well, in the Dharma yoga training, we got like this little, teeny, tiny, you know, something, a little seed was planted. And also a seed was planted in my earlier years, because I grew up in New Mexico, and the Ayurvedic Institute was birthed in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr Ladd started it there, and then he moved to Albuquerque because he actually saw Ganesha in the mountains. And the darshan of Ganesha was like bringing him to Albuquerque from Santa Fe, about an hour south. And so he landed in Albuquerque and birthed the Ayurvedic Institute there. And they had, they were there for about, I think, 3035, years, something like that. And then they moved recently to Asheville, North Carolina. So I had grown up in the same place of the Ayurvedic Institute. And what did we suffer from in New Mexico? Bloody noses because it's very dry, very, very vata aggravating weather. And so my stepmother actually used to buy the nausea oil, and she used to make me put it in my nose. And it helped. It helped so much, because my nose was so dry and was I was really suffering for a while when I was a young, a young child, and the the nausea really helped. So that was another little seed that was planted. And then, when I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Dr John douillard, who runs the life spa, he's an incredible ayurvedic doctor, bridging a lot of ancient Ayurvedic medicine with modern, modern forms of thinking and modern, you know, yeah, approaches to medicine, to health, to biohacking, all of that. And he really bridges a really nice gap. And he was one of our teachers at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. So he planted another seed in my heart and and then I was doing a lot of health counseling for many years when I moved to Colombia, after being in New York for many years, I moved to Colombia, South America, and I was helping a lot of people nutritionally there, and that brought me to a place where I felt I wanted more. I wanted to offer people more than what I could give. I kind of hit a wall, I guess you could say in like my. Inner, my own inner process of, like, understanding what, what, how to really take care of oneself. And I felt like there was this higher call to study Ayurveda, and that is, that's when I made the decision to to do it. It was a big decision, because I was pretty rooted in Colombia at the time, gotcha.

Todd McLaughlin: 10:21

And that took you then back to Albuquerque, and that's where you studied with Dr Laude prior to his move to North Carolina. Is that correct? Yes, yeah, that is correct. What was that like? Because I've always heard so many great things about him and how incredible he is. What what is? What was your experience there, studying in Albuquerque with him?

Unknown: 10:40

I mean, just so special that time in my life was, was very, very powerful. It was, you know, it was multi leveled powerful. I think these things always are partially because I was able to go back to my home, place, right where I grew up, and live with my mom, and really deepen my connection with my mother before she passed. A few years later, I started studying in 2016 through 2018 and I lost my mother in 2020 so it was really interesting, because my life gifted me this beautiful two years with my mom to really deep in relationship and and study Ayurveda. So I was gifting my mom all this like wisdom and all this beauty. And she actually was even able to receive a consultation directly from Dr Ladd and sit with Dr Ladd and receive his his love and darshan as well. Yeah, so the institute was at a very, I think the Ayurvedic Institute had always been through a lot of things. People always, people would call it the the karmic washing machine. So you would step into it, and, you know, it's like, well, well, what year or have you stepped into? And people would talk about, you know, teachers that have been there in the past, and what had happened and what had gone on, and then, you know, what you were passing through at that moment, and what kind of transition? And we definitely went through a big transitional time at that moment. My first year was spent with a set of teachers that then ended up leaving, and then we got, like, this new set of teachers that came on for my second year. So, you know, it's just, it's beautiful. Dr Ladd is an incredible being. He's so magical. He's so pure. He just embodies Yoga and Ayurveda to its to its fullest, its purest. And we had so much intimate spaces with him. It was so magical. My first year, our class was bigger. I think we were maybe like 2025, people. And half the year, he's in India, and you learn from other teachers. And then he comes and he gives you, you know, the second part of the year. And then my second year, I think there was only 12 of us, and we would sit with him and be in pancha, the Panchakarma spaces with him. So people would out from the outside world would come in to do the detoxification programs with him, and we were his his like right hand women and men, fellow yoginis, yogis helping him, serving Him, taking pulses, looking at their astrological charts, recommending herbs that we thought could be good. We had a really deep, intimate relationship and space with him, and we spent many poojas with him. And it was just such a sacred time. It was such a transformational space when I, when I go back and, well, let me say, what I, when I when I have struggles, when I have moments of struggle and big questioning. I guess within I go back to that time and I feel at peace again. It brings me a great amount of peace. And that's so cool. Sarah, I

Todd McLaughlin: 13:55

love hearing I love hearing all that. I've heard so many great things. So it's nice to hear your experience, and I was so positive. Yes, I'm curious. I'm curious because you had made mention that you felt like you had hit a wall in relation to what you could offer your clients through the training that you initially had with nutrition. And then, what do you feel like Ayurveda like what? What do you feel broke that wall down, and what part of Ayurveda made it seem like you now had more to offer, because you just made mention that in the process of doing a consultation and maybe feeling for someone's pulse and then also looking at their astrological chart like that, right there already implies that there's a bigger, more well rounded, perhaps, look at what could be affecting an individual. So I'm curious if, if that's what Ayurveda did for your nutrition training, to kind of like open up more avenues of things to look for when seeking solutions for the people that you. Work with

Unknown: 15:01

absolutely, yeah, I think that the Institute for Integrative Nutrition is beautiful because it gives you so many different viewpoints, a lot of different world views on nutrition. And so we learned about raw food, we learned about raw milk, we learned about, you know, all these, all these fad diets as well, and also a little bit of Ayurveda. And, you know, it was, it was a beautiful, it was a it was like a menu, you know, I could, like, look through and kind of touch and taste these different, these different forms. And at the time, because I was, I was a pretty devout vegan at the time, and even raw foodist for a moment there that was, it was very specific who I could help and how I was helping. And I was kind of taking people down that road like I realized, Okay, well, I can help people make the transition into vegetarianism. Because my transition was, it was Rocky. It was like junk food, vegetarian, full on for several years. So I decided I could help, you know, help people make that transition, and then I could help them, empower them in whatever that is right, like, how, you know, great, delicious vegan recipes, how to substitute for things, for animal products, yeah, and just how to be in the kitchen a little bit more and be a little more fluid and open, instead of, you know, buying all these processed vegan things that are plentiful on the market these days. So I think that that was kind of my that was my avenue for a long time, but, but at a at a lot, of, many times I would receive clients that were not vegetarian, and they didn't want to become vegetarians. And I had, I felt like it was hard for me to help them, even though I wanted to help them, and they were there, and they wanted a more holistic approach. And it was, yeah, it was, it was, it was hard. There was something inside me that was that was calling me to just be able to kind of embrace a bigger, wider worldview and understanding of the wholeness of humans. And I love the way Dr Ladd explains it. He says, We are whole holy beings, right? So whole, as in, W, H, O, L, E, like, we are whole. We are we are mind, body, soul, spirit, right? We are that, that Trinity, and we are also holy. We are divine, we are sacred, we are precious. And I think that when I, when I had this higher intuition and calling to study Ayurveda, I think my, my soul, my spirit, was calling in a bigger something to help, to help, help people with,

Todd McLaughlin: 17:45

yeah, yeah. Does Ayurveda build accessibility for those that are choosing not to be vegetarian? Does it take a wider angle and say that there are situations where some people benefit if they choose to not be vegetarian. Is that? Is that true?

Unknown: 18:06

Yes, most definitely. Yeah. Got it, yeah. And I actually, personally moved out of my vegan phase through through a few different avenues. What the first was ghee, actually developing really sacred relationship with guy I used to I found this beautiful farmer, a dairy farmer in our area, in Albuquerque, and I would go, and I would go buy his butter. And then I would, on every full moon, I would be with my mother, and we would chant to the butter, and we would churn it, and we would, you know, take out the impurities on the top, and we would chant and chant, and we would make ghee together every every full moon. And it's part of what we were doing at the Institute as well. And it was very healing, because, again, New Mexico is so vata aggravating. It's such a dry, arid place, that I was really dry. My skin was dry. I was suffering from constipation, cracking and popping joints. It was hard to concentrate. Sometimes there was anxiety, all these vata, vata things were very high. My mom was also dealing with a lot of vata. And we started eating this ghee that we were making and praying to and it was incredible. I mean, both of us felt the difference. We felt the difference in our digestion, our mind, our energy. And that was my first. That was my first doorway, entry, entry way into incorporating more animal products and seeing the divine medicine actually of them and really, really taking them in and doing it very consciously and carefully,

Todd McLaughlin: 19:41

nice, amazing. Can you, you know, maybe, if I'm someone who has never been around the yoga world, and I hear someone saying that they're chanting and praying at the time, that they're churning butter, and then maybe my first dismissive thought would be, oh. This sounds a little bit wacky. What's going on. So if you could help me understand why you would do that, like, is there some is there way you could explain that? So that if, if I am listening and thinking, What in the world is she talking about? Can you tell me why? What sort of process you believe occurs when you make the food process almost like a ritual or a spiritual endeavor.

Unknown: 20:31

We're living in such a toxic world, such a toxic time. I mean, maybe, you know, I always reflect on this like maybe it's always been toxic. There's always different levels of toxicity, right? Obviously, the yogis, the yogis, knew something. They knew something deep, that that purification was essential, is essential, right? An essential part of of life, purifying objects, purifying spaces, purifying our bodies, purifying our minds, purifying our hearts, purifying our relationships. I think that there's something really important there that we all can connect with, right? And so chanting and having some sort of ritual really, ultimately, is, is purifying it, bringing it, bringing a different, a different, a different consciousness into that, into that thing. Because, you know, everything has, it has its impurities. And, you know, even though we were choosing really, really high quality butter, it still needs to be purified, just like, just like everything else. So I think, I think it's just really simple, like, purification is essential. And when there is some sort of pre purification that happens, you're going to receive that medicine as as a deeper form of medicine. And, you know, yeah, I always think about all the all these special medicated ghees that are used in Ayurveda. And I've heard that some of these Vaidya, some of these wisdom keepers in India, have gees, that have been there for 500 years, right, that have been just sitting there full potent, very, very, very potent medicines that are, that are there and ready for whatever patient is going to come and receive those, those medicines, so you know, and they're potent because they've been purified. So I think that's, I think that would be just the point to help someone understand

Todd McLaughlin: 22:29

that's cool. I really appreciate that. What can you explain a little bit like the idea of a medicated ghee? So you're saying that the ghee has been different herbs or plants have maybe been infused in it, or are you saying that the specific mantra that's chanted at the time of the making process is what gives it the medicinal quality,

Unknown: 22:49

both, both most certainly on this subtle, subtle level, the mantra the intention on the physical, gross material level. So we have a few different forms on how to infuse ghee, but one of the main forms is we make a decoction. So it's either made with with specific herbs or leaves or even spices. You can do with spices and you you boil that down from 16 parts down to four parts. So it takes a while you really, really get it to to boil down, boil down. So it's a very condensed and purified form of that of that herb or that spice, or whatever you're using, right? And then you take that and you give it to equal parts ghee. And then you you cook that together, and you cook away all the water, and once all that water is cooked into that ghee, what is left is the herbal decoction and full fat, full fat, so there's no more water right in there. And then it's actually a room stable. You don't have to put it into the refrigerator, which is why these vaidyas have had these ghees for, you know, years and years of even 500 years, when you when you see ghee in the refrigerator at the supermarket? No, no, it is not essential. It does not need to be in the refrigerator. It's actually a shelf stable oil, just like coconut oil or tallow or any of those. And if they have some sort of infused, infused spice or herb or whatever that is, they're going to be probably a different color as well, either red or green or brownish or even yellow. And they're very potent, very potent.

Todd McLaughlin: 24:31

Yeah, amazing. That's so interesting. You know? It's funny, because I remember when you saying that, and when you were 13, you had that sort of philosophical questioning going on of like, I love these animals, but, yeah, we're eating these animals. I'm not really sure what to make of all this. I remember when I was in high school, I read diet for a new America, and that was my first kind of real heavy look at, like, slaughterhouses and where our food comes from and and so I switched over to being vegetarian. And then. Went to being vegan, but I also did what you said, became a junk food vegan, like I lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So I'm curious, if I'm listening, and I've never explored the concept of or even if I just use the word vegetarian, I don't use the word vegetarianism, and I think more like I want to eat healthy living, or healthy eating, holistically eating, holistic living. What would be a recommendation? I know everybody's so different, and so you would want to consult with each individual. But what are some like, key basic tools that you think I could implement, or we could implement to start to just improve our appreciation for food on a small

Unknown: 25:41

level for a vegetarian or non vegetarian, or both.

Todd McLaughlin: 25:44

I guess both. I guess, I guess maybe, I'm thinking like, maybe there's little, small things that we could do, because sometimes it feels like, oh, it's gonna be such a big shift. I'm doing what I'm doing, and this new idea, it's a good idea to eat healthy, but I don't want to give up the things that I'm already enjoying, and how am I going to make this whole process happen? Are there little tips or tricks that you found work for helping people to make subtle shifts gradually that can then add up to being a really, a big shift?

Unknown: 26:15

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's such a deep question. And, you know, I think, I mean, I think it's, it's been one of the greatest questions of my life, and I love it. I still question it. I still wake up, what, what? What should I eat today? How should I serve myself? You know, I think I love Ayurveda is approach to we are not just what we eat, but we are what we can digest. So I think a lot of us really suffer from digestive issues and problems. So maybe we're eating foods that we love and they are so delicious, but maybe they're not actually serving our our digestive tracts, right? Maybe we're suffering afterwards from fatigue or bloating or gas or constipation, or, you know, headaches, or there, the list goes on and on. So I think oftentimes, when we have some sort of health problem that helps us, you know, that's the inspiring push to do something different and to seek something different. And if we're not necessarily feeling that it can be challenging to want to change. Because why should we right things are looking good and feeling good. But I think, I think what I tried to guide my clients first and foremost, and oftentimes people do come to Ayurveda when they're like, at their last straw, they've tried this, they've been there, they've done this, they they're like, I can't do it anymore. Help me. And I'm like, Why didn't you come to Ayurveda a long time ago? This is preventative medicine. We want to prevent all these things that you've been through, right? But really, I think the biggest question is just tapping in. How do, how do, how do I feel? How are my foods? Are my foods helping me feel good? Are they serving me? Do they help with my with my work? Do they help, you know, give me energy. Do Do they cause digestive distress? I think those questions, those self inquiry questions and connections, will help naturally build a greater sense of relationship with what we're putting in our body, and that alone will begin to kind of inspire some small little changes, you know, tapping into like, Am I hungry? Am I actually hungry right now? When did I last eat? You know? Am I eating in regularity? Am I, you know, am I listening to those inner calls? Am I? Am I hydrating enough as well? Am I overly hydrating? You know, it's like you said, it completely depends on the Constitution, always with Ayurveda, and that's the most beautiful approach, because we are all so so different. We all need different things, but we all do have this daily ritual or relationship that we wake up to saying, okay, how am I going to serve this body, this temple, right? You know, does water come in first? Does coffee come in first? You know, am I going to the bathroom in the morning, or am I struggling to do that all morning long? Am I starving in the morning and I need a really big, hearty breakfast, or do I not get hungry until noon, you know, when the sun is at its highest. And so I think just asking your question, your yourself, that question first, like, how do I feel? And does this thing serve me? Is it? Is it helping me feel good? Is a good question for for all

Todd McLaughlin: 29:37

great answers there. That's cool. You know, I think what I noticed personally is that if I don't do any preparation, and then I get really hungry, is when I want to grab, I don't want to say fast food, but like, you know, pretzels or like, something that's like, fast I can just eat. And so I'm curious how sometimes I feel like, when I was going through, like. Really trying to when I when I try to eat really well. The more I prep and prepare and plan, the more successful I can be. Can you give us any tips or strategies for prepping but not having it rule our entire existence Absolutely?

Unknown: 30:15

Yeah, I think going to the farmers market is amazing if you don't go to the farmers market or connect the local, the low, the bio, regional, you know, season of your area, I really invite you all to do that. It is, it is just so amazing. Every Saturday I go to my farmers market and I get to just tap in and connect to what feels good, what looks good to my my my being right, my heart, my mind, my eyes. So, you know, I get to see what's in season. I get to see what looks like. Literally looks good. When we go into our typical grocery store, everything is shiny and bright, and supposedly, you know, quote, unquote, in season. And it's not right. We don't have accessibility to everything all the time. I mean, we do, but that's really not the way that it should be. We should really be tapping into our local environments and what's available seasonally. And when we do that, we get to that will naturally just inspire recipes, recipe ideas. It will, it will inspire your hunger, a natural sense of hunger, because you'll be seeing those things like, wow, that's in season. Cool. You know, like, strawberries are coming back right now, for example, in California. And I've really missed strawberries. I mean, strawberries have been on the shelf all winter long, but they've been literally $10 for a box, and they're coming from Mexico or wherever. And so, of course, I don't buy them, but now they finally are coming back to the farmers market, and they are so sweet and so red and so beautiful. And I just that makes my heart just so shiny. I've been, you know, eating a lot of apples and a lot of pears and a lot of citrus. And so now I'm like, I'm excited about the berries. You know, the berries are going to are going to start coming. The stone fruits are going to start coming. So I think that that that will help people. If you can't go to a farmer's market, even checking out a CSA, a community supported agriculture, could help. They'll send you a box, or you pick up your box, and that will be connected to some sort of local seasonal availability. And then you can check out recipes, you know, recipes for, you know, strawberries, for example, or, you know, butternut squash recipes. What are all the different things I could do with butternut squash? I can roast it. I can make it into a sauce. I can I can put it in my smoothie, you know. I mean, there's a lot of different things that that you can do with it. You can do with all these things. So that was one little tip I would give. Yeah, that's a great idea.

Todd McLaughlin: 32:51

That's so interesting to think that if we're eating foods that are not a part of the season in the area that we live, I guess I wonder how much that affects us. I mean, and that's really fascinating, just even to think about the fact that probably, I don't know what the percentage of Americans and or anyone around the world in a, like, a fast paced society, like, when we really look at, like, what we're eating, if I like, live on pizza for five days straight, you know, like that really is like crazy to think about, like, how that would affect me, as compared to you purchasing some strawberries and fruits that are actually being grown in the local area. Surely that has to have a huge effect on our mind and our mood and our overall health.

Unknown: 33:39

Absolutely. Yeah. And you know the see, the seasonal living, the seasonal connecting, the seasonal kind of ebb and flow of relationship, it's going to serve you so much deeper. And it's because your body's going to recognize, it's going to recognize, in a way, what is available in your bio region and your surrounding kind of environment, right? What's, what's close to wherever you're living? So when we're bringing things all the way from across the world, right, and then we're ingesting those things, I do always wonder, like, is, this? Is, does, will my body recognize this? Will my body connect with this and be able to receive the medicine of this thing? And I think this is a big question for Ayurvedic herbs, for example, like, I'm going to order that herb. It's coming all the way from India. How is it going to serve me? Is it really good for me? Can my body actually digest it? And I think one of my personal approaches to Ayurveda is to actually bring it a little more local and use the herbs and the spices and the things that are more here around my area, or they can thrive and can grow here, which I'm in Southern California. So I am lucky I can. I do have access to a lot of things that are really close, but I do think that there's something about our body, our mind, our beings, recognizing things that are. Locally grown, seasonal seasonally grown, I think we can digest them better, receive their

Todd McLaughlin: 35:04

medicine better. That's fascinating. I noticed, Sarah, that you have you offer women who have just given birth service of providing food for them. Can you tell me a little bit about how that part of your service has come to light and and how what your method of offering that to people is,

Unknown: 36:09

yeah, well, that was birthed from just planning my own postpartum I had learned about postpartum care at the Ayurvedic Institute with Dr Ladd and some of the teachers, and I was always very interested in what that is, and you can deep dive into that. You can actually just study postpartum care in Ayurveda. It's a really deep, it's a, it's a really deep pathway, and just, it's just a, it's just a beautiful service for for mothers. And I felt attracted to it, but I hadn't become a mother yet. So, you know, I hadn't gone through that great initiation, and then when I got pregnant, I was actually more than organizing and planning for my birth. I was organizing and planning for my postpartum because I knew that that that was really important according to Ayurveda, and I knew I needed to understand what I needed to eat and, you know, belly binding, and massage oil massages and just all these different things that I could help myself with postpartum. And I was really, really glad that I did that. And I, you know, I probably could have called in, maybe, like, one specific person that could have cooked for me. I had a lot of different people. I had a meal train, and I gave people recipes to cook, and they, for the most part, followed it and offered and it was beautiful, but I didn't have one specific person cooking for me. So then, you know, a little many months later, my a dear friend of mine, who also studied Ayurveda, got pregnant and said, Hey, can you cook for me postpartum? And I said, Absolutely yes. And it was kind of my first moment to be to step into that role for the first time and understand and kind of plan it out. And so I cooked for her postpartum. And at the time, it was really hard to cook with my little one. He was, I think he was about 10 months at that time, and it was just very hard. It was comical, you know, just trying to cook with a little wee one who's trying to, you know, trying to walk and crawling everywhere, getting into everything. You don't want them around hot stoves and, you know, gee, geese sputtering everywhere. So it was very comical, and I just gave it a rest. And then many months later, she approached me again, and she said, Hey, would you mentor me? I would like to start this postpartum nourishment business. And I said, I don't want to mentor you. I want to do it with you. And so we, we birthed, what's called mama rest. And we've been going for about six months, and we've just been it's been really fluid. We've met a lot of we already had a lot of moms that were ready to give birth, and we decided, yeah, let's just offer them this beautiful service. And so we cook for them daily, and we bring them these beautiful Ayurvedic meals that are cooked with intention and very, very specific according to how postpartum goes. So it's different if you've had a surgical birth or a hospital birth or an early, you know, preterm birth, like there's all these different things involved when mothers are having trouble with their milk coming in. You know, we help support them in that way, and we, you know, give them daily teas, and all the food is very digestible and sweet and healing, and it's, it's a beautiful, beautiful offering, beautiful service. And we're just starting, it's just starting to kind of grow. You're the first

Todd McLaughlin: 39:42

person that I've met that has this idea, but surely it's happening somewhere, elsewhere or not. What are you noticing? Do you have any competition?

Unknown: 39:55

Well, locally, we do not. There isn't there is another person that is doing it, you know, maybe an hour from us, but she actually packages everything. It's pre packaged. It's not uniquely designed for that Mama. So that's one difference, and another difference is she freezes them and then she sends them, which is actually not very Ayurvedic, because we try not to freeze food. It kills the piranha, it kills all that vitality. And it's can be very aggravating for vata, and Vata is very high postpartum. So we don't want to, we don't want to affect we don't want to have vata go even higher because of the food we want it. We want every everything to be soothing and grounding, calming. So yeah, we don't have any competitors right now. If anything, we. That we have, like 1000 more goddess arms to cover all the bases.

Todd McLaughlin: 40:46

I'm thinking it'd be challenging to cook and then have someone deliver it and then have that each meal specific for each person. How are you managing all that?

Unknown: 40:56

Yeah, it is. It's a lot. It we do a little consultation before they give birth. Hopefully it has happened where they've given birth early, and we haven't done the consultation yet, and we don't know if they have allergies, and we're talking to their spouses like, you know, what? How are they what's going on? You know? What is she like? What does she not like? But in general, we try to get that consultation, and so we have a good idea of their likes and dislikes and any allergies or anything like that. Although we don't really use any gluten, the gluten is very little, and we don't really use anything that could be inflammatory. We don't really use any tomatoes or peppers or things like that. Nothing is spicy. So, yeah, I think we just, we just plan we plan it a lot. We have some basic things that are already kind of set, and then we kind of adapt those accordingly. And Ayurveda, again, has it very mapped out in a specific way. So those first few days, everything is very oily and soupy, easy to digest, generally sweet, sweet foods. Then we start to incorporate a little more salty things, then slowly some more vegetables. So it's very it's already kind of written in the texts, you could say, and we are just adapting it specifically to the to the mom in need. It does require a lot of pre organization and and all that. But it's, it's actually become, it's pretty fluid, and it's, it's not as complicated as it might sound.

Todd McLaughlin: 42:30

That's cool. Well done. Well done. I love the fact that you're entrepreneurial natured and coming up with a new idea and a new business model. That's so cool. Can you talk a little bit? I noticed that you also teach and so the the website for that service is mama dash, rest.com and then I also noticed that you teach yoga in the VISTA and or San Diego area. Can you talk a little bit about what your passion is in relation to teaching yoga classes?

Unknown: 43:03

Yes, yes. Well, I studied with Dharma, with Sri Dharma back in 2008 and at that time I had been, I had been shopping, I've been shopping for, for a teacher for a while, and a lineage, I guess you could say. And I was in New York City at the time. I had gone to college there, and I was an actress, and I was struggling with my health, you know, being a junk food vegetarian. And it was just it was hard to be in New York City, and I had a little, a little moment where I ended up in the hospital with a kidney infection, and that was a little bit of a wake up call to say, Okay, I need to do something differently. So I started serving this yoga studio so I could take classes there, and I would help them, and I became the receptionist, and that helped me kind of shop a little bit more and find all these different teachers. And one day, a Dharma yoga teacher came and I took his class. And I said, Who is your teacher? I love this practice. I What is this? He said, Oh, Sri dharma. Sri dharma. I said, Oh, okay, well, I gotta, I gotta go take class with this Sri dharma. So I finally went, and I remember walking up the stairs. The first level was a bagel shop. The second level was a salon. So it's like bagel smells, and then, like, toxic, you know, hairspray smells, and then incense. Third floor incense was like going for the get up to the top floor. Dharma wasn't even there. The room was packed. Everyone's warming up, sweating already. Class hadn't even begun, and everyone's sweating, and I just, I just knew I walked into that space and I said, Oh, this is it. I'm home. I found it beautiful. And, you know, dharma came, and I did the teacher training right away. And I did not want to teach. I just wanted to, I just wanted to learn really. I just wanted to deepen whatever that that internal call was. And and then a dear friend of mine said, I have a I have a job for you. It's at a gym. I said, I don't want to teach yoga at a gym. He said, Yes, Sarah, you're going to teach yoga at this gym. They need you. They need you. And I, I'm, like, what they need me. Like, I don't know about this. He said, You're gonna teach there. So I, I graduated, and he said, Are you, are you ready the classes is, you know, on this date, whatever. So I go to the place. I'm very resistant. It's a G. Gym. You know, it's on the bottom floor in, of course, a mirrored room. It's dark, like, Okay, I'm going to turn these yogis into Dharma Yogi's. And it was, it was really funny. It was really beautiful. Actually, I, I taught there for a long time, and I met the most beautiful people, and I introduced all these people to dharma yoga, who ended up, you know, going to take class directly with Dharma, of course. And, yeah, it was, it was really special. It kind of initiated me into the whole yoga teaching world. And I've been teaching ever since I ran a little, a little home Yoga Studio in Colombia, South America, with my with my old partner, and we really wanted to bring Dharma yoga down to South America. At the time, it had already been brought down a lot through through another disciple. Oh, my goodness. How am I forgetting his name? That's so terrible. He'll come, he'll come to me Andre, Andre. Rom, good job, good job. Pardon Andre, I love you Andre. He had brought a lot of beautiful souls down to South America. He brought Dharma, actually, down to South America to do a teacher training. And there was just a there was a lot of Dharma yogis down there, and we were teaching and doing lots of retreats and things like that. And I would go back to New York to be able to study with him. And, yeah, I'm still, I'm still teaching today. When I got to San Diego, I looked, I was looking desperately for dharma yogis. Eventually, I found Rob, and he had just opened his studio in in in Carlsbad village, yoga on state. And then covid hit. And it was, it was quite a time. My mother was also getting ready to leave her body at the time. And it was just a very it was, it was a lot. There was a lot, a lot of shifting parts. I also met my my husband, my partner at the time. So there was just all these different things moving, swirling in my life. But I, you know, I'm so grateful for yoga and state and for Rob Mendez and just the community that we've built. We just celebrated our five year anniversary of doing kirtans there. My husband, Trevor, is a, is a kirtan bhakti lover and guider. And he, yeah, we've been doing kirtans there for five years. So it's been a beautiful community that's been birthed and is just Yeah, it's, it's our it's our family. It's our home away from home.

Todd McLaughlin: 48:24

Very cool. Well, that's awesome that your husband is into it as well, and a lover of yoga and and music as well. What can What have you noticed with the challenge of attempting to get people interested in practicing bhakti yoga and or kirtan and singing.

Unknown: 48:46

I mean, I think that there's just people are have a have a lot of resistance to singing in general, right? Like that. We always judge ourselves immediately. Oh, my voice, it doesn't sound good. Oh, and then you add it's in Sanskrit. Oh, no. I don't know how to I don't know how to do that. I can't do that. So, you know, we just, we just invite people and just hopefully that they can even just sit there and receive it. I think eventually they start kind of humming the tune or the melody, and then they they start expressing through, through song, and they realize no one can hear them sing, and it doesn't matter that it's really just what's coming from their heart and and it's, it's such a it's such a beautiful experience to sing in community, and especially when you're singing the Divine Names, it's even more potent. And I mean, you're literally, like, activating your entire your entire body, your whole body is buzzing with the mantra, with the sound. And it's, it's really, it's a really powerful practice. How many it's been really,

Todd McLaughlin: 49:46

yeah, oh, it's cool. How many times a week do you guys offer that we do it?

Unknown: 49:50

We do it every two weeks.

Todd McLaughlin: 49:52

Got it? Yeah? And what? What day and time we do on

Unknown: 49:56

Fridays, from seven to nine, yeah, every other Friday,

Todd McLaughlin: 50:00

seven in the evening.

Unknown: 50:01

Yeah, seven in the evening.

Todd McLaughlin: 50:02

Very cool. Very cool. I first got fully in love with it because my teacher, Tim Miller, who also had a studio right there in Carlsbad and Encinitas, would sing the Hannah mancha Lisa every Tuesday morning in his studio. And I fell in love with it. And big groups would show up. He would get 3040, 50 people in there, all just belting it out. And the energy was incredible. So I bought a harmonium at the Self Realization fellowship there in Encinitas. And then when I came back to Florida, I thought, You know what, that's it. I can do this. So I memorized the Honda Monte Lisa. Yeah, and started playing it every single Tuesday at the same time he dicks. I thought maybe there was some magic in that. And sometimes it's, it's still just me and two others that are still doing it every Tuesday. And I just thought I'm in awe at how he was able to cultivate that. Like, I mean, it just, there's something about it, where I just thought this seemed so easy for him to do, and I'm finding that it's a little more challenging. So I'm loving hearing your story, that you guys are consistent every two weeks, and then obviously it comes from the passion, like, of your husband, if he's really into it, like, there's a certain level of like, how passionate the people that are leading it obviously helps get people enthusiastic and excited, but I'm glad to hear you also notice that getting people to sing is not so easy, and like the whole Sanskrit thing, you know, so there's a couple of barriers to entry, but that's cool that you guys are doing that. I really respect that

Unknown: 51:35

absolutely it's it's so funny. That's how my husband also entered into his bhakti path. Was with Tim Miller. So yes,

Todd McLaughlin: 51:42

I wonder if we bumped into each other. I know. I know what is his name. Do you don't mind sharing? Do you? Trevor? Yeah. Trevor Arthur, all right, cool. I'll look in. Yeah. All right, yeah.

Unknown: 51:53

Hanuman Chalisa is a staple in our in our household, and when I that's actually how Trevor and I met, because he chanted the Hanuman Chalisa at this beautiful gathering, this other kirtan gathering that happens still at the soul of yoga and another studio here. And he chanted the Hanuman Chalisa. And I had just come back from Colombia, and I was like, what you're chanting? The Hanuman Chalisa at a kirtan and people know it. I looked around, know it here, like, what is going on? These are my people. And so I went up to him afterward, and I said, Oh, how you know? Thank you so much for offering a chalice out of kirtan this that was so magical. He's like, Yeah, absolutely, you know, do I know you? I'm like, No, you don't know me. You know? I'm like, Uh huh, pick up line. You don't know me. Well, it turns out he actually did recognize me. We went to the same college 14 years before in New York City together. We graduated the same year. We were both transfer students. I'm sure we passed pathway, you know, past each other in the hallway. But New York City as your, you know, your campus is, it's a

Todd McLaughlin: 53:04

little never actually officially met each other, but, but then you piece it together through that conversation that you guys maybe probably that came later, obviously, right?

Unknown: 53:14

We pieced it together. Well, we pieced it together because we just became friends on social media and saw, Oh, you graduated from Eugene Lang College. Oh, you What year do you know this person? Do you know that person? And he we realized that he had seen a play that I was in, and my my picture was on the flyer, and the flyer was on his refrigerator for a long time because his roommate was also in the play. So he actually did recognize me because of the play. He had seen the play, and he was very moved by the play, I guess. And life is so funny. And then here we are. Oh my god, 14 years later, and because of the Hanuman, Chalisa brought us back together.

Todd McLaughlin: 53:56

Yeah, there is some magic there. Oh my gosh, how cool is that? Yeah? Oh my god, I love hearing that story. Thank you, Sarah, oh my gosh, that's awesome. Yeah, it's a sweet love story. How old is your son now?

Unknown: 54:11

He is. He'll be three the end of May. So he's almost, almost three.

Todd McLaughlin: 54:17

Amazing, yeah, just getting into so much activities, right? Yeah, three, that's such an active state.

Unknown: 54:26

It is his consciousness is just like every day, expanding, new words, new awareness, new sense of awareness. It also just even in his physical body, like what can be done on certain days and what's discovered on other days. And it's incredible just to watch

Todd McLaughlin: 54:44

this grow. What is something he said lately that totally caught you off guard and made you like, like, Oh my gosh. That's incredible that you just said that.

Unknown: 54:52

Oh my gosh. Well, every day, I mean, every day he every day, he blows my mind away.

Todd McLaughlin: 55:01

That's good, yeah, goodness. I think one of the cool things personally having children and watching how they learn language, like the conglomeration of words, and the hilarity of how words would be pieced together, and it made sense, but if you didn't know them, and you didn't know how they would have gotten that, it would sound so funny outside of the context of the situation. But it's a watching language development is, like, for me, was really exciting.

Unknown: 55:32

Yeah, it's incredible. It's so special. It really is. He, he started talking at like two. So it's been it's been coming. It's been coming for. A while, he's quite advanced, and he's even reciting quotes from books we read, which is pretty impressive, and we're quite inspired by Dr Seuss these days, which, as you can imagine, can create a lot of, like, zany talk, yeah, a lot of a lot of rhyming and a lot of a lot of silliness.

Todd McLaughlin: 56:03

That's so cool. Zara, amazing. How many kiddos Do you have? I have two. I have a 19 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. Oh, beautiful. Yeah. Oh my gosh, yes. My son is in college now, and when my son was three years old, I just didn't think it would, you know, just not going to happen. So it's incredible all the changes and evolution that occur. Oh boy. Well, oh my gosh, Sarah, I am so honored to have this opportunity and to meet you. I love hearing how passionate you are about helping people through healthy eating, healthy living, through yoga practice. I really, I just thank you so much for sharing all these stories with us. Is there anything that you feel either we didn't touch upon or some words of wisdom that you would like to leave us with?

Unknown: 56:55

Yeah, just one last little project that has been developing over the years, is a cooking course that my friend and I offer before we actually called it the sacred Vedic cooking course, based on, of course, with the principles of Ayurveda to guide us through. And then we both became moms, and we've just been through so many evolutions, and we both have this deep, deep inquiry and question into, what do we eat and what, what makes us feel good? And you know, how, how can we serve ourselves nutritionally? And so we've kind of rebirth the program. It's now called the Living kitchen, and it's very much our approach devoted to our both of our life's work and our approach to to staying very bio, regional and seasonal, and how to bring that into your kitchen, into your own living kitchen, and allow your kitchen also to become more alive and real and like this living, beautiful entity that is breathing and pulsating with you and adapting and adjusting as you, As you adapt your own food choices and dietary inclinations. So yeah, that is called the Living kitchen, and we we have an on only online option, but we also do invite people that live in the area to join us, which would include some cooking classes, of course, and some gardening and connecting with the Earth as well. Yeah, you'll have that. You can put that in the show notes, and they can visit the website for more information.

Todd McLaughlin: 58:29

Yes, absolutely. So in the description, you can see that's on the Jenny griffith.com website, if anyone is interested, that lives locally near you in postpartum Ayurvedic cooking that's on the mama rest.com website. And then if anybody wants to practice yoga with you and or go to kirtan with you and your husband, that's on the yoga on state.com website. So I will put all those links in the description, and then I might as well just add your Instagram handle as well. At zero. Kravitz, I really enjoyed looking all your photos and and you look really happy and like you're having a good time doing it. So yeah,

Unknown: 59:12

I have a pretty of a pretty positive person in general, pretty I got, I have, like that loving mama energy to me, and I do want to I know the effect of positivity and light and smiles, so I'm always trying to, like smile and bring some light into into people's lives and hearts. If there's anything that needs to happen right now, it's that, so, yeah, just remember to smile. That would be my one, one little word of wisdom. Just smiling for yourself feels so good. Smiling for others, to others feels good. You know, when someone like cuts me off on the highway, I usually am not. I'm not like a negative what is that word, road rage? A road rage. I do not have road rage at all. I actually generally try to smile at them, like, I give them a big smile. Like, oh, really, you're gonna do that to me.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:00:09

Give him some thumbs up and a peace sign and, yo, I love you. Yeah, exactly, yeah. They're probably like, what? What is she? For real? You know, she actually, oh my gosh, I hear you. Well, if everybody in the world did that today alone, maybe we would have less war. But let's not even try to solve that problem. Let's just keep enjoying some good food and good vibes. Yeah, yeah, yay. Zara, well, thank you so much. I can't wait to next time I get a chance to visit California, I'm gonna look you out. And come visit. So maybe sing some Hanuman Chalisa. That would be incredible.

Unknown: 1:00:46

Yeah, absolutely. On April 1, everyone should be chanting, it's Hanuman Jayanti. We're actually going to host an event at at yogan State for Hanuman Jayanti, and we're going to chant it 108 times. It's going to probably take us about, you know, 13 to 16 hours.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:01:05

Does that coordinate? Does that coordinate with a full moon? I know the full moon is March 3. I wonder if it actually lands on April 1. I'll look

Unknown: 1:01:12

that up. Yeah, we'll have to look that up. Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:01:15

Cool. Yay. Sarah, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Todd, it's a pleasure. Native yoga. Todd. Cast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you like this show, let me know if there's room for improvement. I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of what I can improve. And if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native yoga center. You can find us at Native yoga center.com, and hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends. Rate it and review and join us next time you.