EP 39: How to Align Your Routine With The Cycles of Nature Featuring Ayurvedic Doctor and Holistic Healer Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya (Part 1)

This week I am so excited to welcome back Our Nature’s first repeat guest, my Ayurvedic teacher Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya. For those of you who have been listening since last season, you may recall that Dr. Bhaswati joined me on Episode 27 to share a wonderful overview of Ayurveda. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I highly suggest you go back and listen to that episode before this one because we will not be discussing the foundational principles of Ayurveda in this episode. Instead, this episode will really focus on the elements of Dinacharya, which is the sanskrit word for the concept of looking at the cycles of nature and basing daily routines around these cycles to maintain optimum health.

Before I go more into detail about what we discuss in this episode, here’s a refresher on Dr. Bhaswati. She is a biomedical scientist, international health specialist, primary care physician and holistic healer. She has a masters in neuroscience and pharmacology from Columbia University, a masters in International Public Health from Harvard University, and a doctorate from Rush Medical College. I also just learned that she was the first U.S. Fulbright Scholar to exclusively research medical ayurveda throughout India and teach at Banaras Hindu University. Today, she serves as the director of the Dinacharya Institute, teaching workshops, seminars and courses for students (such as myself) who are interested in studying Ayurveda. In her book “Everyday Ayurveda,” Dr. Bhaswati focuses on Dinacharya, or the daily habits that can change your life.

In this conversation, we discuss: why the body needs routine to maintain optimum health, everything that’s involved in the early morning routine, how to create your morning alter, the natural cure for depression, how to approach your daily routine according to your dosha, how to bring more health and prosperity into your life, the best natural treatment for thyroid problems and the number one thing you can do for your health. We actually didn’t get through all of the daily routines in this episode, so I will be sharing a part 2 of this conversation. But, I know that you guys don’t like surfacy stuff, so I’d rather go deep even if that means we have to have multiple parts.

When Dr. Bhaswati and I recorded this episode, she was in India, and I want to take a moment to send prayers to everyone in India who is suffering and dying from Covid. Many of my beloved Ayurvedic teachers are there, and as doctors, I know they are doing all they can to help those who are sick. Please join me in sending healing thoughts to everyone in India right now. They need our support.

Dr. Bhaswati is one of my absolute favorite people to speak with and I hope you’ll use the wisdom she shares to align your routines with cycles of nature. Even the smallest shifts will change your life.

“Ayurveda is about attuning yourself back to nature by just remembering that you are an animal living on this spinning globe as part of the ecosystem called earth.”
“Most people are not inside their bodies anymore. They have either been traumatized or they’re so busy or they're so distracted taking care of what they think are the basic parts of survival...but if you just get rid of all of that stuff, there’s a place where you need to connect with your belly.”
“When you cannot trust your senses, when you cannot trust what you see. When you cannot trust what you’re hearing, then how do you connect with the world around you?”
“The guru says that depression is about the ego. When you have an inflated ego and you think that this is the way that things are supposed to be and things are not this way, you get depressed.”
“If you can be in your present and say ‘this is what I have and I’m so grateful for it’ that’s the first key of moving out of depression.”

Resources

Show Notes

Ayurveda in a nutshell as described by Dr. Bhaswati
Why everything you take in matters
Why the body needs routine to maintain optimum health
Everything that’s involved in the early morning routine
Why you should touch the ground with your hands upon waking
Your morning alter - connecting to the divine through the five senses
The natural cure for depression
How to approach your daily routine according to your dosha
Drinking water - how much, when, why
How to modify Dinacharya according to the seasons or climate
Circumstances when you should shift your Dinacharya
What to do if you have chronic indigestion
How to bring more health and prosperity into your life
Setting up rituals and observing what works for you
The best natural treatment for thyroid problems
Rasa Shastra
The number one thing you can do for your health
The last five questions

Connect with Dr. Bhaswati:

Bhaswati’s website

The Last Five Questions

What is your favorite place in nature?
I love the forests.
What is the animal, mineral or plant that resonates with you the most?
The mineral that I love is gold.
What is one thing we can do right now to connect with the natural world and bring more harmony into our lives?
Every person should take a bowl of water and put it outside their windowsill or in their garden, so birds have water. The scarcity of water in so many parts of the world makes animals suffer needlessly and they are part of our ecosystem.
What’s the greatest lesson nature has taught you?
That poop is one of the most sacred things out there.
Complete this sentence: Nature brings me…
Calm.

Connect with Our Nature Podcast: