Thrive with Cate Stillman Podcast

The YogiDetox experience is one that involves complex emotions and challenges. While its rewards can be astounding, it is definitely not an easy journey. Grace Edison explains that before her detoxing experiences, she was not in touch with her emotions and their influence over her actions. Subconsciously experiencing an emotional trigger would lead to her eating comfort food without understanding why.

A detox from things we are addicted to can aid us in realizing why we actually seek these comforts in the first place.

Grace and Carly discuss that YogiDetox is not a one size fits all journey. When it comes to Grace’s experiences, she has tried to do it differently each time. Although we often want to go all in, these kind of challenging experiences are better handled when we customize the experience based on our needs. It is important to realize to ask for help and to accept that self-care can also include stress.

A detox experience is a challenge, and just like in yin yoga, we can reach a higher level of vitality and thrive if we put ourselves through a controlled amount of stress. The YogiDetox allows for an outstanding opportunity for us to reset and prepare for the future to come. For everyone out there, no matter the circumstance, there is always a wonderful reason to detox.

• Why stress is good for detoxing
• How to be flexible during cleanses
• How to handle emotions on a detox

• YogiDetox Webpage 
• Your Seasonal Detox Style 
• Ayurvedic Spring Detox And The Doshas With Alex Biondo 

• 3:05 - By cleansing, we make new space in our bodies. Often, if we splurge after the detox process we find we have become hyper-sensitive to what our bodies do not handle or process well.
• 9:30 - Detoxing can help us reach a level of clarity about our feelings that we may normally have trouble finding. This clarity can help us identify things like why we are eating and what we are actually looking for?
• 22:45 - Sometimes what we need to reach a higher level of thrive is to experience a controlled level of stress. Yin yoga encourages stressing our bodies in order to cleanse them, just as YogiDetox encourages some strict habits that can make us uncomfortable and cause initial stress.
  
  
  

• “We take on this perspective of curiosity.” - Grace Edison
  “If you want to find out why you’re doing something, stop doing it.” - Grace Edison
• “Doing these detoxes allows for a reset and reflect and an opportunity to sit and celebrate what's happened in the past and calibrate for what’s going to happen in the future.” - Cary Banks

The Body Thrive path led Carly to a new and exciting world where all can be accomplished with ease. Adding YHC certification training to work and parenting is proving to be easy, with the right tools. Carly’s shattering old patterns and false beliefs about herself, to become the person that she and her family deserve.  Connecting? Connect and hear more about how Carly juggles life as a busy mom at Nourished living.

Grace Edison lives in British Columbia, Canada. She’s a mom of twin 8 year olds, a Yoga teacher, studio owner, and Yoga Health Coach — and she also works for Cate Stillman in Admissions at Yogahealer! More than anything, she loves to make people laugh and has a not-so-secret dream of doing stand-up comedy. Grace has a strong passion for empowering others to take their health and wellness into their own hands. She loves building authentic relationships, making people laugh, and creating supportive communities. After a long-standing relationship with severe depression, Grace has found deep relief through the habits of Ayurveda — and much credit is due to Cate and her Body Thrive program. After taking Body Thrive several times and jumping into Yoga Health Coaching, Grace came aboard the Yogahealer team.

Fertility is a strong reflection of the health and resilience of our bodies. In today’s population, especially in millenials, we are seeing an increase in infertility. With a modern environment that constantly provides a plethora of stimuli and stressors, it is easy to lose the space that our body requires to reproduce. Vrinda Devani, OBGYN, explains how infertility is often a sign of an underlying health imbalance in individuals.

When our ojus, the element that creates homeostasis and immunity in the body,  is imperfect, so is our fertility.

Cate and Vrinda discuss how the critical health issues and infertility of millennials can be interpreted from an Eastern perspective. Poor breathing and stagnation, especially in the lower body and hips, is prevalent in modern society. Although this lack of natural space in the body can drive infertility, a Western perspective ignores this connection. By doing simple things such as getting into nature, singing, a changing out diet and even our makeup products, we can strongly enhance our fertility without unnatural interventions such as progesterone.

There are many avenues to explore to address fertility issues, and Cate encourages us to explore and optimize the practices that work for us.

• How to solve infertility
• Why infertility is an issue
• How millennials can increase thrive
  
  

• YogiDetox Fall
• Banyan Botanicals Ayurveda Dosha quiz
• Body Thrive Course Webpage
• The best question for emotional detox with Dr. Mary Jo Cravatta

• 2:45 - When our ojus, the creator of homeostasis in the body, is off, so is our health and fertility. Poor digestion and absorption of food is a sign of this and can be addressed through practices that increase space and improve breath in the body.
• 8:45 - Stagnation is rampant in our modern environment, where we move less and snack more. This loss of activity is critically linked to the decrease in the space and fertility we may be finding in our bodies.
• 20:40 - With meditation, breathing practices, and other ayurvedic habits, we can seriously direct our consciousness and energy to other loci in our bodies. By learning how to direct this energy to our womb and fertility centers, we can restore the “juiciness” and vitality that was otherwise lost.
  
  
  

• “If you’re not fertile, what does that really mean?” - Cate Stillman
• “The level of stagnation in day to day movement is just at an all time high.” - Cate Stillman
• “Fertility is the creative power, and creative power only happens when there is space.” - Dr.Vrinda Devani
  
  

 Dr.Vrinda Devani, M.D.,  is a board-certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Vrinda Devani with a passion for women's health and empowering women towards vibrant health and living. As a physician, she utilizes a blend of complementary and allopathic medicine in an effort to empower women to obtain a higher level of health and vitality. Vrinda is also the research director for Banyan Botanicals, an influential Ayurvedic company that disseminates valuable information and products. She has studied Ayurveda extensively under Dr. Vasant Lad in addition to studying Ayurvedic medicine in Nepal with Dr. Sarita Shrestha. Vrinda possesses a passion for yoga and is a certified AyurYoga teacher. With a family that also practices Ayurveda, and a loving husband of ten years, she has a great support system. Vrinda emphasizes how Ayurveda has allowed her to “see how the body is in constant interaction with its environment, other souls, and, most importantly, the mind and spirit.”

When we are looking to feel better or to improve chronic health issues, we may turn to a range of remedies, including drugs or lifestyle changes. However, it is easy to lose hope when these remedies or changes do not work, which is oftentimes the case. Drugs are likely to target only symptoms of disease, and not the actual root cause. People following Ayurvedic habits may find they feel better, but that they can’t completely achieve the health transformation they seek in order to thrive.

Eric Karchmer has 20 years of education in Chinese medicine, and through his work at Dao Labs, he is bringing ancient wisdom back to modern times. Dao Labs offers herbal remedies for a variety of health issues, and they are all rooted in the ancient teachings of Chinese herbal medicine.

Eric and Cate chat about what Chinese medicine has to offer to the modern world with knowledge regarding herbs and herbal combinations. The products at Dao Labs address common underlying health issues in the population, so more people can bring this great wisdom into their modern lives. We know that not getting enough sleep can cause a myriad of health issues down the road. Dao Labs offers two different sleep remedies based on different underlying imbalances.

Often, even with lifestyle changes, we need something more to really get at the imbalances in our systems in order to feel better, and thrive sooner. Chinese medicine can be that powerful missing piece that gets us headed in the right direction.

• How Chinese medicine can improve your sleep
• Why it is important to combine herbs in remedies
• How to address underlying deficiencies 

Common Links:

• YogiDetox Fall
• DAO Labs
• The Mystical Powers of Your Internal Organs 
• A Chinese Medicine Perspective

• 8:30 - In our modern age, we have drifted from nature and lost contact with the plants around us. By utilizing traditional Chinese medicine, we can see how different plants and herbs powerfully interact to treat a wide range of underlying health issues and deficiencies.
• 19:50 - Dao Labs advertises two formulas to help with sleep, which is something many people struggle with across the world. Each one addresses separate underlying deficiencies which manifest as different symptoms. One of them might be right for you.
• 27:20 - Even if we are following profound lifestyle habits such as those taught in Ayurveda, this may not be enough to overcome underlying physiological imbalances that plague our health. An herbal formula taken regularly for a period of time can correct these imbalances and take you to the next level.

• “As soon as it gets to complexity, people are already overwhelmed.” - Cate Stillman
• “There’s a certain ways of thinking about plants and their properties and how they work together that is very helpful” - Dr. Eric Karchmer
• “There is this huge respect for the intelligence for these plants.” - Cate Stillman
• “Anything made in a lab denatures your pallet.” - Cate Stillman

Dr. Eric Karchmer’s interest in Chinese medicine began when he visited Taiwan to teach English 30 years ago. He holds both a PhD in Anthropology and a Bachelor of Medicine from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. His research focuses on modern developments of Chinese medicine in China. With over 20 years of education in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dr. Eric Karchmer develops DAO Labs’ proprietary herbal formulas.

As a respected academic thought leader and practitioner of Chinese Medicine, Eric designs the most efficacious mix of herbs to bring balance to the mind, body and spirit. He has published several academic articles and is currently working on the final copy of his new book, Double Truths, Postcolonial Transformations in Chinese Medicine.
In addition to regularly teaching at Appalachian State University, Eric can also be found helping clients using Chinese medicine at his clinic in Boone, North Carolina. At his clinic, he practices both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. His wife and three children are, not surprisingly, big fans of Chinese medicine as well. Connect with Dr. Eriv on Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Being a nurse, Miranda was apprehensive when she first heard of detox growing in popularity. After having gone through YogiDetox herself, however, Miranda has seen first-hand the massive benefits detoxing has had on her health. Gale and Miranda chat about the transformational experience that this program has brought to so many people. Often in our busy modern lives, it can be really great for us to take a step back from things that aren’t serving us. Detoxing allows us to remove ourselves from our everyday lifestyles, so we can more easily cut out foods that we don’t realize are negatively impacting us.

Additionally, it encourages stricter adherence to practices and habits that serve us well, such as going to bed early. Cate Stillman has designed YogiDetox so that you have the power to design your own detox and do it how you want. Miranda emphasizes how it is less about increasing stress through strict adherence to guidelines, and more about doing the things that you know serve your health best. Detoxing allows us to get back into alignment and balance with ourselves, and YogiDetox provides the support we need to get there.

• Why detoxing can be so transformative
• Why you should do YogiDetox
• What eliminating certain foods can tell us

• YogiDetox Fall 
• Intermittent Fasting, Detoxing And The Ayurvedic Clock 
• The Detox Path of Deep Nourishment with Deanna Minich 

• 3:38 - Miranda discusses with Gale how YogiDetox is designed for participants to design their detox to fit what they need at any given time in their lives. It is powerfully transformative to take a step back from things that aren’t serving you, and to do little experiments in your lifestyle and diet to see the changes that result.
• 5:50 - YogiDetox allows you to go about your detox individually while also having access to a community of people going through the same experience. While Miranda detoxed more on her own, she underscores the value of the Facebook community for answering questions, providing support, and showing how others are handling the detox journey.
• 11:45 - Miranda emphasizes looking at our local environment, including local plants that grow, to see how we can utilize these resources to feed our health. Invasive weeds can serve as abundant sources of local nutrients that connect us with what our environment is providing for us.
  
  

• “Reexamining things to do little experiments on yourself to see how you feel when those things are taken out of your life - I think it's very valuable.” - Miranda
• “It is very valuable that we start looking at what’s around us and how it’s supposed to be helping us.” - Miranda
• “How are we feeding ourselves in other ways?” - Gale Edison

Miranda Smith is a 48 year old registered nurse, who lives in Northwestern, B.C., Canada. She loves spending time with her family, especially her 2 little grandsons. She loves yoga, paddle boarding, hiking, golf and has a big interest in wild edibles.  She hopes to continue to live a healthy, active life and appreciates the yoga healer community for its knowledge and support. She has taken the Living Ayurveda course and has participated in several yogi detoxes. This year instead of a New Years resolution she has decided to say “Yes!” to things that make her feel alive and it has been opening up some new and interesting opportunities." Connect on facebook page.

Gale’s life has always been anchored in a committed physical practice. Practicing ballet from the age of 3, and highland dancing from the age of 4 into her adulthood, she went on to study dance in university. After exploring other career choices, her passion for movement therapies became her apparent life dharma- Committing to a life of learning and sharing empowering life practices. Gale studied hatha yoga under Meghan Currie and Sridaiva with Desi Springer and John Friend, and Yoga Tune Up’s Embodied Anatomy with Trina Altman. The most influential teacher in her practice is Dana Skoglund, her teacher who has a background in Anusara and Sridaiva yoga, as well as ayurveda. Through yoga and ayurveda Gale strives to facilitate a newfound sense of self-empowerment, self-accountability and gratitude for life in all those who practice in her community. Check out her website and contact on facebook page.

In our enculturated western lives, we often neglect our relationships with nature. There is a lot we can learn about this relationship from the Andean people, who follow indigenous wisdom regarding their interactions with the Earth. Our ancestors all over the world lived as land stewards in harmony with their ecosystems and with the cycles of nature. The Andean people not only value their relationship with the Earth, but also those within their communities.

In the Andes, the Andean people practice Ayni, or sacred reciprocity which keeps life in balance. Ritual offerings, such as the sharing of coca leaves and offerings to the Earth, are beautiful means of connecting to the sacred in everyday life. Their ancient traditions are both practical and transcendent. Weavers literally weave sacred symbols into the mundane clothing and materials used in their everyday lives.

Cate, Caroline, and Annie discuss how we can learn from the Andean people by integrating indigenous wisdom into our modern lifestyles. A great place to start is through the practice of Ayni - honoring reciprocity in our relationships with people and the land. By additionally honoring and aligning to cyclical rhythms of nature and creating offerings, we can improve our connection to the land. These Andean ancestral tools grant us solid connections to each other and to the Earth, which deepens our ability to thrive.

• How Andean wisdom can inform our lives
• How to become a successful land steward
• Why Anyi - sacred reciprocity - is so important

• Vibrant Peru Journey
• 2018 Schedule Peru Retreats/Courses
• Wisdom of the Andes
• Ayurvedic Wellness + Yoga
• Yoga Immersions and Teacher Training Programs
• YogiDetox Fall 

• 7:45 -  The Andean people have a dynamic and beautiful relationship with the earth, called Pachamama. Through practice, we too can develop a deep intuitive awareness that allows us to hear the Earth’s messages that we easily miss in our enculturated, modern lives.
• 14:50 - Being a land steward involves the practice of Ayni, or sacred reciprocity. By listening to the land and engaging in offering, we participate in a reciprocation of respect with the land, which becomes the basis of a balanced interaction and lifestyle.
• 29:20 - Traditions like weaving in the Andes show us how something can be at once practical and transcendent. Weavers literally weave the sacred into the mundane by the conscious act of weaving the sacred symbols of each community into their everyday clothing and materials.

• “How can we model our current way of living with indigenous wisdom so that as people come and experience it, they can bring that out into the world.” - Caroline Putnam
• “That reciprocity becomes the basis of a balanced interaction” - Caroline Putnam
• “The land instructs us.” - Cate Stillman

Carolina Putnam is a Louisiana native- and the founder & director of Reviveolution. For the past 6 years she has lived full-time in the Sacred Valley of Peru with her Q'ero Family, dedicated to sculpting a middle path between ancestral wisdom and modern innovation. Through sharing experiential education in retreats and courses, serving by her maestro's side in traditional ceremony around the world, and sharing Earth stewardship practices through ancestral arts & native nutrition, her work aims to support individuals and communities in healing and purposeful living. Connect with Caroline on her website and Facebook.

Annie Barrett  is the founder of VibrantSoulful.com and Vibrant Living School. As an educator, public speaker, certified yoga health coach, yoga teacher, consultant, and teacher trainer, she models and teach folks how to thrive in body, mind and spirit, and how to live a purposeful and passionate life with Ayurvedic and Yoga wisdom and wellness. She has walked the householder yoga path for twenty five years, and has a gift for making the wisdom teachings of yoga fresh and accessible. She guides folks into knowing themselves more deeply, embracing themselves more fully, and evolving into a state of well-being and expansive freedom. As a Certified Yoga Health Coach, she is trained and practiced in the daily habits and health principles of Ayurveda. She coaches and guides individuals into up-leveling their health and reaching your full potential with proven habits for vitality, health and happiness.Her family spends their time between the evergreen forest on the edge of Olympia, WA and the Andes mountains of Pisac. Connect with Annie on her website and Facebook. 

Intermittent fasting is more than a way to eat. It is a lifelong journey of refining and creating space in your mind and your body. Cate used to experience challenges with her weight, food sensitivities, and her overall health. In our modern complex world, we often feel stressed, rushed and overwhelmed. Through intermittent fasting, Cate discovered a way to bring back a rhythm into her life that allows her to do so much more with much less. Cate and Jessica discuss how establishing a regular rhythm in our diets allows our bodies to function based off of cellular hunger. This way, we are capable of eating more effectively for what our cells actually need at that time, allowing us to be more resilient and less sensitive, allowing us to Thrive.

Cate discusses how the Body Thrive course is a great way of escalating our commitment to a more rhythmic path due to the support from other people that are going through the same transformation. These peers are capable of holding us accountable for the goals set in Body Thrive. By learning how to automate habits through the course, we can apply these skills to make changes in all other aspects of our lives.


Why should we consider Intermittent fasting?
- How to transition to Intermittent fasting rhythm?
- 3 must for Intermittent fasting?
- What is Cate's story with her intermittent fasting lifestyle (challenges, breakthroughs)?
- How to adopt this rhythm during traveling season? - Tip-sheet for insipiration:
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/yogahealer/Business+Files/Tips-for-Intermittent-Fasting.pdf

3 Bullet Points/What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• Why intermittent fasting is so transformative
• What rhythm has to do with diet and digestion.
• Why escalating commitment is transforming

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• Body Thrive Website

Links:

• Body Thrive Book
• Related YH Podcast
  
• Intermittent Fasting, Detoxing And The Ayurvedic Clock
  
• Mindfulness + Intermittent Fasting: A Womens’ Perspective With Jenn Diamond
  
• Q&A with Cate: Sussing Out Shakti, Augmenting Agni, + Firing Up Fasting
  
• Get Intermittent-Fasting Tip-Sheet

Show Highlights:

• 4:35 - The three doshas in Ayurveda are vata, pitta and kapha. They are movement, transformation, and regeneration, respectively, which are the three energies of our physiology.
• 12:30 Cate sticks to a primarily fluid diet for most of her day. In her smoothies, she includes seasonal, highly nutritive produce, especially in the morning when she breaks her fast and sets her intention for the day.  
• 22:20 - We can only achieve transformation in our lives if we actually escalate our commitment. Body Thrive is a great way to ensure this by providing a group of people going through the same journey who can provide support and serve as accountability partners.  

Favorite Quotes:

• “With greater rhythm comes greater resistance.” - Cate Stillman
• “You are designed to become more resilient over time.” - Cate Stillman
• “Yoga is the path where you need less to do more.” - Cate Stillman

Guest BIO:

Jessica Graham Robinson is a yogi, mama, bodyworker, and a Yoga Health Coach (in training). She is owner of Sacred Space Healing Arts in Wyoming, where she homeschools her two children in the foothills of the mountains. Jessica is thrilled to be using the wisdom of Ayurveda to be guiding other mamas (with or without children) on the transformational journey from the dull and painful land of stagnation and resentment into the Kingdom of Thrive where they become Rhythm Champions!

You can find Jessica through her website, follow her on Instagram, and on facebook.

Relationships are a vital part of our lives. Acharya Shunya struggled with her relationships with others and with herself for years. Through ancient Ayurvedic wisdom, she learned valuable pointers that have caused profound transformations in her relationships. Now, she hosts retreats and events for people around the world so that she can share this powerful wisdom with as many people as possible. Cate and Acharya chat about how often we feel stuck in stagnant relationships. This doesn’t mean, however, that we have to keep feeling this way. Through hard work and practice -especially by attending one of Acharya’s retreats - we can truly transform our relationships. Acharya found that by being straightforward in her interactions with others and maintaining tranquility, she was able to increase the quality of her interactions with those around her. By improving our communication with Ayurvedic wisdom, we can significantly increase our satisfaction and growth in all of our relationships.

• How to create strong, intimate relationships
• How to improve relationships using Ayurvedic wisdom
• Which Ayurvedic practices grow emotional intimacy

• Acharya Website
• Acharya Events
• Discover more about the Body Thrive
• Body Thrive book
• YogiDetox Fall

• 5:00 - Acharya says that in life, we stumble into three types of relationships that we experience differently. These include relationships with inanimate objects, other people, and ourselves.
• 12:00 - Along with being straightforward, Acharya recommends four ancient communication points; being non-violent, staying truthful, speaking pleasantly, and ensuring your words benefit the others.
• 18:00 - It is not abnormal for us to feel stuck in our relationships. Acharya explains that that pain is a cosmic reminder that we have introspection and work to do in these relationships.

• “There’s so much to being able to retreat and to practice and to go apply it.” - Cate Stillman
• “There is a degree of mindfulness in what we share.” - Acharya Shunya
• “Everything we speak stays in the planet and becomes a vibration.” - Acharya Shunya

Acharya Shunya is a master teacher of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual mystical teachings from India, which are the crowning philosophy of the Vedic tradition, one the most ancient surviving spiritual traditions on the planet today.She is founder of Vedika Global, a wisdom and international spiritual community, which has its world headquarters in Northern California. At Vedika Global, Acharya Shunya teaches the profound awakening teachings of the enlightened sages of ancient India, including the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Brahma Sutras.

A rarity today, Acharya Shunya was born into the home of her Guru, and grew up studying the Vedas. She spent 14 years perfecting her learning under her Guru, Acharya Ayodhya Nath – a renowned Vedic Guru of his time, who was the disciple of his Guru (his father) Acharya Paramatman Shanti Prakash, another renowned master of his time. Under her ancestors’ direction, the lineage reached great heights and undertook memorable Vedic scholastic and humanitarian activities. The title “Acharya” means spiritual preceptor, master, or Guru in the Vedic tradition.

Through her teachings, Acharya Shunya touches hearts and awakens seekers from the dream of a separate, powerless, and joyless existence. She extends the invitation to awaken to consciousness and health. Acharya Shunya has received prestigious awards in the United States and India, including the Award for Distinguished Service in Vedic Sciences from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and being named amongst the top 100 Ayurveda and Yoga Trailblazers in the U.S. by Spirituality & Health Magazine. She has also received an Award of Excellence in Education by the Association of Ayurveda Professionals of North America. Acharya Shunya is the author of the bestselling book, Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom(Sounds True, 2017), highlighting the Vedic path of mind, body, soul health and healing, which has been licensed to be translated and printed in six different languages and countries. Check out her website and facebook page.

Lea Horvatic spent years of her life helping and healing others as a nutritional therapist, naturopath, and homeopath. Through her extensive reading into Ayurveda, she became very knowledgeable in holistic and healthy lifestyle habits. Her career path allowed her to disseminate this knowledge and advice to those around her. It was not until she started her journey with Body Thrive, however, that she realized that she was having trouble listening to her own advice and sticking to habits that could help her thrive. Lea goes on to explain her realization of how far she had fallen out of integrity with herself and how she fixed this on her Body Thrive journey. 

Jessica and Leah discuss the true extent of the impact that the Body Thrive course has had on Lea’s overall health. They discuss the development of getting to bed early as Lea’s keystone habit, and how it grounded the rest of her habits, allowing everything to fall into place. Cate helped Lea to realize her true identity as an early riser, and how that led her to finding a refreshing, abundantly healthier version of herself. Lea describes how she utilized Body Thrive to kindle abundant energy, productivity, creativity, effective digestion and more. Listen in to hear how starting a journey with Body Thrive can lead to an abundance of compassion and clarity in your own life. 

• How to truly realize your identity for personal growth.
• How Body Thrive improves clarity, confidence and overall health.
• Why commitment to key habits can help you to thrive

• Discover more about the Body Thrive
• Body Thrive book
• YogiDetox Fall 

• 1:50 - Even people who know what’s best for themselves and others have a hard time putting in into practice. This disconnect between knowing what we need and doing something different leaves us feeling out of integrity with ourselves. 
• 4:50 - Identifying and committing to a keystone habit, such as going to bed early, can have a profound influence on grounding the rest of our Body Thrive habits. 
• 9:45 - The Body Thrive habits are amazing at transforming all the areas of life, ranging from confidence to creativity and even to our relationships with others. 
  

• “I was helping other people and knowing what I wanted to be doing, what I should be doing, and I wasn’t showing up that way. I was feeling a complete lack of integrity.” - Jessica Robinson 
• “I’ve got hours to just leisurely indulge myself  at the same time as having this crazy productivity.” - Lea Horvatic 
• “The group dynamic and the whole support of the community has been amazing.” -Lea Horvatic 
• “I also feel like I have much more compassion towards myself, but also towards others.” - Lea Horvatic
  

In a very unlikely series of events, Lea discovered yoga at the age of 9, cigarettes at 10, and vodka by 12. What ensued was a magnificent, epic journey leading to an inevitable destruction by the age of 20, and eventually the radical change in trajectory that saved her life. These experiences led her to the path of helping others heal with the aid of yoga, herbs, proper nutrition, homeopathy and the magic of flower essences. Fully “walking her talk” evolved as soon as Lea embodied the habits of yogis as learned from Yogahealer’s Cate Stillman. Lea now helps others optimise their health and wellbeing by guiding them in automating these same Ayurvedic Habits and attuning to greater freedom and ease on all levels of their being.

Dave Gray had me at “Assume that you are not objective. If you’re part of the system you want to change, you’re part of the problem.” That teaching intensified by the basic exericse of writing down my beliefs about a challenging situation I found myself in and then coming up with 3 or 4 alternate beliefs, both plausible and outlandish, proven useful immediately.

My new favorite book is Liminal Thinking. Dave Gray is this crazy cool mix of design thinking, business team strategist, writer, and enlightened illustrator. I was sort of shocked he agreed to the interview. Then I found out that he is really interested in the results of us ordinary people reading his book and doing the exercises.

He was surprised I did the exercises. He said most people don’t do them. So, I invite you, before you listen to the rest of this show, press pause. Write down a challenge you have. Now. “Assume that you are not objective. If you’re part of the system you want to change, you’re part of the problem.” Write down the core belief or beliefs inherent in the way you wrote down the your challenge. The more outside your box the better. I’ve found that diametrically opposite beliefs are very insightful here. That’s it. You are thinking beyond your threshold. Welcome to liminal thinking. Press play.

• How to ““Hold your theories loosely”
• Why do we assume we’re objective, when we’re usually not?
• Where meditation fits into liminal thinking
• Why travel, moving + new relationship arrangements, and true leaders stimulate liminal thinking

• How this plays into current politics
• How Gandhi stimulated the masses into liminal thinking
• Understanding the relationship between beliefs and needs

• Liminal Thinking
• Xplaner
• Check out the 9 practices of Liminal Thinking from Dave Gray
• Join our Facebook group

1. Assume that you are not objective. If you’re part of the system you want to change, you’re part of the problem.
2. Empty your cup. You can’t learn new things without letting go of old things. Stop, look, and listen. Suspend judgment. What’s going on?
3. Create safe space. If you don’t understand the underlying need, nothing else matters. People will not share their innermost needs unless they feel safe, respected, and accepted for who they are.
4. Triangulate and validate. Look at situations from as many points of view as possible. Consider the possibility that seemingly different or contradictory beliefs may be valid. If something doesn’t make sense to you, then you’re missing something.
5. Ask questions, make connections. Try to understand people’s hopes, dreams and frustrations. Explore the social system and make connections to create new opportunities.
6. Disrupt routines. Many beliefs are embedded in habitual routines that run on autopilot. If a routine is a problem, disrupt the routine to create new possibilities.
7. Act as-if in the here-and-now. You can test beliefs even if you don’t believe they are true. All you need to do is act as if they were true and see what happens. If you find something that works, do more of it.
8. Make sense with stories. If you give people facts without a story, they will explain it within their existing belief system. The best way to promote a new or different belief is not with facts, but with a story.
9. Evolve yourself. If you can be open about how change affects you personally, you have a better chance of achieving your aims. To change the world, you must be willing to change yourself.

Dave Gray is a leader and manager with a background in design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies, as well as mid-sized businesses, startups, executives and individuals.

He is the founder of XPLANE, a strategic design consultancy, and co-founder of Boardthing, a collaboration platform for distributed teams.

He is the author of two books on design, change and innovation: Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rule-breakers and changemakers; and The Connected Company.

His area of focus is the human side of change and innovation, specifically: How can you get people to adopt new ideas? How can you win their hearts and minds? How can you get people, including yourself, to change deeply embedded habits and behaviors? How can you transform a business strategy from a good idea to a living fact in the real world? Connect with Dave on his website and facebook group.

Sam Norman joins us today to share some of her wisdom on the hot summer sun, sun exposure, and skin protection. We talk about Sam’s backgrounds in both Ayurveda and nursing and what they say about safe sun exposure and how to stay healthy this summer season. We naturally absorb vitamin D from sunlight and there are huge benefits of this vitamin, such as preventing Seasonal Affective Disorder, decreasing fatigue, and increasing our immune system. However, too much of this vitamin has it downsides as well. We rap about lotions and sunscreens and how they can be more detrimental to our skin than advantageous due to the chemicals used in these products, and other healthier alternatives for skin care. We also discuss the importance of balance and how too much of anything can bring us out of a state of balance and make us toxic.

Tune in to today’s podcast to gain some helpful tips and insights on skin protection and sun exposure this summer!

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of Vitamin D from sun exposure?
• Is sunscreen helping or hurting our skin?
• Which oils work as natural sunscreen?

• To look up lotions and skin products and their effects on your skin  
• Find a recipe for making your own sunscreen
• Sam's facebook
• Discover more about the Body Thrive
• Sign-up for the FREE live Living Ayurveda Masterclass series now!

• “ I myself have experimented with coconut oil for the past two summers and I have not gotten a sunburn.” - Sam Norman
• “None of us can come on here and say this is the doctrine, this is the way, and this is the only way.... It’s going to be like every other part of living an Ayurvedic lifestyle, it’s going to be individualized.” - Sam Norman
• “The coconut oil is more repairing for sun damage or sun exposure to our skin.” - Jessica Robinson

Sam Norman created Family Healer in the winter of 2017 after the birth of her daughter and a deep desire to raise her with the habits that have healed Sam. After a lifetime of allergies, asthma, auto-immune dysfunction and antibiotics, she felt a pull towards studying medicine. Sam became an RN in 2001 focusing her career in pediatrics and kidney dialysis. Her health continued to get worse and in 2011 she was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. After years of doctors looking at her like an interesting case and never actually being able to heal her, Sam turned to a naturopath and was thus introduced to natural healing remedies.

In 2013 Sam began to study Ayurveda at Spirit Path Ayurveda School in Anchorage, Alaska. During her studies she learned that the answers to her wellness were deep inside of her. As she worked and studied Ayur (self) Veda (knowledge) she began to see how disconnected from self and nature she had become.

She is proud to say that since focusing on her wellness and becoming her own healer she is cancer, asthma, and auto-immune dysfunction free! Sam is confident that no matter what state of health you are in now, she can help you to start listening deeply and living in better balance with you. In creating our own healing journey we learn to become healers for ourselves and our family's, and Sam would love to help you along that healing path. Connect with Sam on her facebook page.

Jessica Graham Robinson is a yogi, mama, bodyworker, and a Yoga Health Coach (in training). She is owner of Sacred Space Healing Arts in Wyoming, where she homeschools her two children in the foothills of the mountains. Jessica is thrilled to be using the wisdom of Ayurveda to be guiding other mamas (with or without children) on the transformational journey from the dull and painful land of stagnation and resentment into the Kingdom of Thrive where they become Rhythm Champions! You can find Jessica through her website.