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Sophie has studied Ayurveda for many years now and has a website all about the art of living the Ayurvedic way.

On this website, she has a link to a test Marianne took.

In this conversation, Sophie is going over some of the basics of Ayurveda and how to apply the principles to our daily lives.

You can find the test here if you are curious about your doshas.

Sophie explains what Doshas are.

If you are interested in a detailed example of how the results can be interpreted - or, for that matter, how to determine your answers to the question, we have a detailed analysis of Marianne's results on our Patreon page.

And good news for all Patrons supporting us on any level - Sophie offers a 20% discount on her online course.

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us on Instagram Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

Join us and be part of a beautiful community on Patreon. We have many plans for this year.

Learn something new no matter your age.

Sophie's friend had a drum and it was love at first sight.

Before you know it, Sophie also had a drum.

This is the story of a girl and her drum lol

After exploring the usual channels we learn these days - YouTube and other internet resources, Sophie decided to find a teacher.

As with everything, practice is the most important way to improvement. But a drum is loud and when your partner works from home, other places must be found to get the daily 15 minutes of practice in.

Where there is a will - there is a way.

Marianne shared how she made a drum many years ago, and you will hear that drum while she tells you about it.

Then, we get into the joys of knitting and how Ravelry changed her knitting life forever - and for the better.

We talk about the different positive impacts of knitting - it can be a mindless activity to keep the hands busy and the mind free to concentrate on a lecture, or anything we want to take in - or, it can be a complicated thing that requires our full attention.

Sophie and Marianne's Yoga teacher Sashi always said that any activity can be a meditation as long as we fully concentrate on what we are doing.

Sophie points out the similarities of such different activities as drumming and knitting.

Having a passion is very important in our lives and gives us a feeling of wholeness.

Sophie's recipe to open yourself to new experiences. Anything you are interested in and have thought or are thinking now that it is too complicated - just add to the end of the thought - until now.

Now, it is different, and the new thought can be, let's give it a try.

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us on Instagram Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

Marianne is sitting on the sofa with her foot up, looking at a mess all around her.

Why, oh why, is she just sitting there?

Because she didn't listen!! Didn't listen to her body.

While packing the car for a trip, she dropped a full metal water bottle on her foot. While it hurt like hell in the moment, she soon forgot about it while sitting in the car, not using her foot at all, and filling her mind and soul by drinking in the beautiful countryside.

A week spend with family, friends, walking, talking, and being happy added to suppressing the memory of that heavy bottle falling on her foot.

Yes, there was pain - but first, she was too busy ignoring that pain. Then, her mind went to exploring (and getting paranoid about) the different possible causes of said pain.

Back on the Rez, on her way to the doctor, the water bottle incident came back to her.

The cure the doctor recommended was elevate, ice, compress - stay off your feet for a week.

Hence, Marianne is sitting on the sofa with her feet up, waiting for better days.

Sophie, timely as ever, just read a book on how sometimes our mind plays tricks on us. In this case, Marianne did not listen to her body telling her to take care of that foot, which made the situation worse.

As always, Sophie has pearls of wisdom to share.

• We create our own stress in our mind
• If the house gets cleaned later, it is not that much more work.
• Adjust the mind to make healing the first priority, and such make peace with everything else that will have to wait.

And let's be honest. The minute something was cleaned, it gets dirty again….

Adjusting your mental agitate is not a one-time thing. We have to remind ourselves over and over again what we want to think and feel instead of the negative thoughts that pop up.

While Marianne came back full of energy to jump into action to reorganize and adjust life for another year away from home - only to find herself on the couch, Sophie invites her to use that time for planning, clarity work, and of course, some knitting.

A Sophie wisdom: All experiences are there for us to grow.

We are working on some awesome rewards for our Patrons on Patreon!

Make sure to check that out!

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us on Instagram Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

Marianne is sharing with Sophie how a change of weather seems to impact her mood and even her body. She gets very tired and runs out of energy.

Sophie explains some of the theories of Ayurveda. For example, if a person has a lot of air element and a strong wind is blowing, maybe some grounding is in order. That can be as simple as placing feet firmly on the ground.

People with lots of air element also tend to be cold. So, keeping warm and drinking warming drinks is important.

Did you know that even hot mint tea is cooling?

Try a mixture of cumin, coriander, and fennel instead. Or ginger tea is always a delight.

Our conversation touches on macrobiotics, fermenting and more.

If you search for Sandor Katz, many articles on fermentation and his journey will pop up. I highly recommend his books. You probably can get them at your local library. Or purchase them from an independent book store.

This is an excellent article comparing different fermentation lids for mason jars.

https://www.makesauerkraut.com/fermentation-lids/

If you search for Gärtopf, many beautiful examples will come up for your viewing pleasure. Many articles are in German and of course, in the US the usual online order business comes up. The pot comes in handy if you have a huge garden and eat lots of fermented products. For purchase, I highly recommend buying from a smaller company.

An example of preserving food. Marianne was gifted a full bag of small, unripe peaches. She made different variants of green peach preserves with vinegar. In a month, we know how it turned out and will talk about it then.

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us on Instagram Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

Sophie hadn't been feeling well and allowed herself to completely rest for a while - physically and mentally.

She emphasizes that we have to let go of expectations - the musts we created for ourselves.

Marianne shares that she is having a hard time with letting go of projects she has invested a lot of time in even though they aren't fun anymore.

An example is her Daily Writing Prompt, which she had published for well over 2000 days on a Social Media Platform called Hive. (The Daily Prompt is still being published if you want to join the writing fun.)

Sophie: It takes a while to get clarity and make a decision, but implementing the decision can be very fast.

Sometimes, we also can be clear on what we want but don't know how to best reach our goals.

Sophie wants to build an intentional community based on kindness and similar interests but does not know where to start.

Our podcast is one tool to create such a community and we are hoping to utilize Patreon as a platform to host virtual get-togethers.

We are discussing how often are we doing things because we truly want to or because we perceive that it is expected of us.

Sophie attends a weekly meditation group. They pick a monthly topic to meditate on. The theme of this month is death - that really seems to be on our minds right now.

While some are contemplating physical death, others the death of an idea or circumstance in life, all agree that if we want a peaceful death, it is essential to be mindful in our daily lives.

We have some homework for you:

• Write down what no longer serves you.
• What kind of courage it will take to let go?

• Reflect on how you show up in the world.
• What do you like about it?
• What do you not like?

Please share your thoughts with us.

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We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

We all will experience grief many times throughout our lives. Sophie recorded a meditation designed to help us move through the phases of grief and is making it available to our Patrons.

Join our Patreon community here.

Sophie took an unexpected trip to France. Her brother in Law had suddenly died.

First, she felt resistance to traveling with her husband until she realized that she didn't want to relive the grief she felt when her mother passed six years ago.

Once in France, she felt that her presence and the emotional support she could give to her in-law family was not only supportive to them but also freed her husband to deal with his emotions.

Many years ago, Marianne's mother died, and she had to make a similar decision - to go or not to go.

She is glad she went and had the chance to say goodbye.

Also, coming together with her siblings and making a pact to get along was a healing experience for the family.

While there, she attended a workshop on death and dying and came out with a death-positive attitude.

Some of the things she learned:

• Dying people like a firm touch. A light touch feels irritating.
• The Living sometimes need to give permission to the dying person to leave.

Sophie mentioned this book she had just read.

The Need of the Dying by David Kessler

Please support your independent bookstores. If you don't, they will be gone.

If you want to know how Marianne feels about the easy order solution that most people use, listen to Episode #4 - Find Good News.

Marianne recalls her own cancer experience and realizes that her current struggle is not with the fact that our lives have an end date but rather with the question of whether she is living her life well.

During the same time Sophie was mourning her brother-in-law, Marianne had to make the decision to end the life of her very sick dog.

SoMa explore how grief impacts our lives and what we can do for ourselves to help us move to a happier space.

Sophie asks herself, if she died today, did she do everything she wanted to do?

Have you asked yourself that question? Please share your experience with us.

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us

on Instagram: Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook: Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

Marianne feels reflective and a little sad that so many things she has worked for are still the same - nothing has changed. She is questioning if it is a function of getting older to question if what we have done with our lives was a big waste of time.

Sophie responds with the example of raising children. That we try our best and are coming from a place of love - but we can't control the outcomes.

She gives the example of doing her best to raise her children with a healthy diet. She feels that she did a good job when she sees her oldest son cooking for himself and making good food choices.

Marianne comes back to her favorite topic - the environment and the impact of our actions. She quotes some numbers from memory but is not certain about the accuracy.

One thing she is sure about. The population of the US consumes way more than any European Country, which consumes way more than any less industrialized country.

Here is an interesting links

US Environmental Footprint Fact Sheet: https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/sustainability-indicators/us-environmental-footprint-factsheet

That led to Marianne's other - or related pet peeve topic. Amazon and the out-of-control consumerism that supports one person getting very rich who does not spread the wealth to his employees.

Sophie relates how difficult it is to escape the unnecessary packaging of just about every item we buy.

We dive deep into our feeling around that subject and are probably depressing each other a bit.

One of Sophie's suggestions is to seek a positive News source on days when the world seems a bit bleak.

While we touch on many subjects, don't worry, not all are depressing.

Sophie shares Yoga wisdom from a meditation she taught in a recent Yoga class

Join us on Patreon and find the Yoga Wisdom waiting for you - free, of course.

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us on Instagram Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

Marianne took her dog, BB, to her Vet thinking that she had an abscessed tooth, only to find out that we were dealing with a cancerous tumor.

In this episode, Marianne shares the feelings an impending death bring up for her. Also, the mental dilemma of figuring out when is the right time to ease her dog and end her suffering.

Here is little Miss BB when she was younger.

Please share your experiences with us.

We love for you to join us on Patreon. Our intention is to create a mindful community where we can support each other.

Patreon: Explore Soma

You can also find us on Instagram Explore_Soma_Podcast

and on Facebook Explore Soma Podcast

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sophie & Marianne

It took us a while to get started with our podcast. You will hear mentions of winter weather - yes, we know it is summer now.

A move into a new area brings about a certain amount of loneliness

Sophie shares strategies her son used when moving to a new city.

Sophie's wisdom: Do what you love - even if you have to do it alone. Waiting for someone to show up to do it with you is a sure way to feel lonely.

Self-care helps

We can be lonely in the middle of a lot of people if we don't have the same interests.

Here is a link to a podcast dealing with loneliness. Hidden Brain

Even small daily interactions can make a difference. Marianne used to have a small store, and many customers came to talk. Shoutout to small businesses everywhere.

Sophie shares that one way to counter loneliness is to use touch - like playing with your hair, taking a hot shower, using essential oils, or even wearing clothing or accessories that bring up happy memories.

Oiling the body on a regular basis has so many benefits. Marianne learned that she should be using sesame oil since she tends to feel cold very easily.

Coconut oil is great for people who feel hot most of the time.

Oil before a shower, but be careful since things can get slippery.

Please join us on Patreon

and request to take part in the 3-Day

Challenge Sophie is offering.

Give us feedback there, and tell us what topics interest you.

In this, our very first episode, we explain why we sound as we do.

We also reminisce about the time we met, and what Yoga meant and means to us.

You will hear that we aren't so sure about podcasting and where that will take us but are willing to give it a try.