A Fun, Free-Range Conversation on Wellness with Ayurveda Expert Swami Tirtha
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Enjoy this intriguing Q and A from The Autoimmune Hour’s interview with Swami Tirtha, the #1 bestselling author of the ‘Ayurveda Encyclopedia.’
“I’m challenging is the concept of aging. I refuse to accept it. Why can’t we live to 200, 300, or 400?”
SHARON: I think it’s critically important to listen to your intuition because even in Western medicine, they’re giving you statistics like “Most people will…” or “The study shows…” But there’s always an outlier.
This is the science of Sharon. I’m just going to put that out there.
I’ve always had this feeling that people who have an autoimmune condition tend to be a little bit more of the outlier where the common knowledge maybe has to be tweaked to work for whatever is going on in their body because, to me, autoimmune is being out of balance.
SWAMI: You raise an interesting point and I’d like to ask you a question, if I may because you’re a master of autoimmune. In terms of thinking of a cause of autoimmune, would it be a truism or maybe we haven’t done the research yet but have you found that more people or enough people who have autoimmune have the habit of listening to the mainstream instead of listening to their bodies and that’s maybe why they got sick?
It’s a thought that popped into my head.
SHARON: I’m not even sure if that’s true just for autoimmune. I think it is for a lot of people to accept without doing their own research or checking within. Until we have that reckoning moment ─ I think, for me, coming down with the autoimmune, it’s easy to not have to think or work at coming to your own conclusions.
But when I think about your question, to me, it’s more than just what one expert has told me…. what is important to think about is that idea of whether it was a toxin in your world or toxins or whether it was stress or trauma or all of the above may be a too frantic a lifestyle and so on.
All these things play into it because I talk to a number of listeners and they say things like, “Wow, when I changed my stress and started meditating every day, I got well” or “Wow, I cleaned all the toxins out of my home and I eat only organic food and I got well.”
To me, it’s a cumulative effect. As you know, you taught me a long time ago that it’s like this big bucket. When we get ill, the bucket is full and overflowing and what we have to do is re-stabilize and rebalance that bucket.
As long as we keep an open mind ─ I found many things through my search for wellness. I had to use my own intuition on myself like, okay, is that right for me?
And maybe my friends will say, “Sharon try this. It really worked.” But, somehow, something inside says, hmm, no. So I don’t. As you know, healing is very individualized.
SWAMI: And I think that’s the most important takeaway if anybody forgets everything else we’ve talked about today….
Listen to yourself. Listen to your intuition.
SHARON: Trust it, too. The times I’ve been talked out of it, I’ve later regretted it whether I regretted it because it didn’t end up the way I wanted or I regretted it because I just allowed myself to be talked out of trusting myself when deep inside I knew.
This is just a little bit gender-related ─ the science of Sharon again, guys. Women allow themselves to be talked out of things much easier. And I’m always saying, “Please trust yourself. Go ahead.”
If you’re on video, you saw Swami’s face. He just rolled his eyes there. So challenge me, Swami.
SWAMI: Think about men who adopt the macho way: “You’ve got to be a macho guy. You’ve got to be the provider.”
There are so many rules for the male that they don’t have the opportunity or they don’t have the courage or they don’t have the wherewithal, oftentimes, to say, “Well, what do I believe about that? Am I going to stand up to all my friends who say, ‘Be this way,’ when I feel this way?”
It may be a different motivation to listen to the gender but I think the men have an equal amount of difficulty following their intuition.
There are certain truisms and one of them is to trust your intuition. The other is the idea of universality, of oneness.
As long as we keep thinking of anything in terms of dualities, we’re doing ourselves and our hearts a disservice. There are, obviously, differences between male and female but we all have the same types of challenges. We all have to listen to our intuitions and we all have to buck the various systems ─ male, female, age, all these things. And they all need to be stood up to in our hearts.
Here’s the thing. To go back to what you were saying earlier, there are so many people who get the prognosis from their doctors, “This is incurable. You’ll have a week to live” or whatever, and the people say, “No way! I refuse to accept and I’m going to ─” whatever. And they do.
One of the things I’m challenging is the concept of aging. I refuse to accept it. Why can’t we live to 200, 300, or 400?
It’s so prevalent in our society to say, “Oh, it’s my aging. It’s my memory.” Everything is geared to that. But there are people who live in their nineties and a hundred and they’ve got all their faculties, and they’re huge inspirations to me and to other people.
And so, whatever we’re talking about whether it’s an illness or age or gender barrier or whatever the barrier is, you don’t have to be angry. You don’t have to fight about it. But you don’t have to accept it. Say, “Not me. Where is the solution for me?”
SHARON: Awesome! I love that because accepting ownership of things that aren’t true for us can keep us weighted down. I remember when I got the diagnosis ─ the doctor is almost anointing you with this diagnosis and telling you all of the terrible statistics. They call them “outcomes.”
I’m like, “No, those are statistics. That’s not an outcome.”
We had this spirited discussion because he thought I wasn’t “being real, being realistic.”
How we think and talk about ourselves can create our reality.
SWAMI: Just in terms of the aging, for example, they say that you get stiff as you get older.
Yes, if you sit in a chair for eight hours a day at work and come home and sit on the couch for another six hours, you’re going to get stiff.
That’s not aging. Those are poor lifestyle choices.
Thank you Swami Tirtha for your wisdom and “Keep listening to yourself, listen and trust your intuition” As always enjoy new adventures wherever you are.
In joy!
Sharon
