Balancing Body and Mind Through Ayurvedic Practices w/ Alex Taylor

#174: We're constantly bombarded with one-size-fits-all health advice, yet millions still struggle with chronic conditions despite following "all the rules." What if the problem isn't your discipline, but rather that your unique body requires a completely different approach?

In this eye-opening conversation with Alex Taylor, founder of Dosha Wellness and specialist in Ayurvedic healing, we explore the ancient wisdom that might be the missing piece in your health journey. Alex reveals how the 5,000-year-old practice of Ayurveda views each person as having a unique constitution based on five elements—ether, air, fire, water, and earth—which explains why that diet or exercise routine that transformed your friend's life might be completely wrong for you.

"What works well and can be medicine for one can be poison to another," Alex explains, cutting through the confusion of contradictory health information. We discuss how modern Western medicine excels at treating acute conditions while falling short on prevention, and how combining traditional wisdom with contemporary healthcare creates the balanced approach many of us desperately need.

You'll discover practical, often free ways to bring your body back to balance, from simple adjustments like drinking warm instead of cold water, to understanding how your unique dosha influences everything from digestion to sleep patterns. Alex shares client success stories, busts health myths, and explains why regulating your circadian rhythm might be the single most powerful change you can make for hormone balance and overall wellbeing.

Whether you're battling unexplained symptoms that standard medicine hasn't resolved, tired of failed diet attempts, or simply curious about natural approaches to wellness, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective that honors your body's inherent wisdom. Ready to discover your unique path to balance? Listen now and take the first step toward truly personalized health.

Find Alex here:

https://www.instagram.com/balancethedoshas/

https://www.doshawellness.net/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaet2s4wopm67Tio4_80bfF9c6ZIk1g6wk2EebrDoDm5VyG92h8w4eRxrHPFJQ_aem_u4B6gV00d8vK8RrvbFr65w

If you book a consult with Alex in May 2025, use code YOGAWEEK for 20% off your consult. 

Follow me on social: https://www.instagram.com/babbles_nonsense/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Alex Taylor and Dosha Wellness
• 1:15 Understanding Integrative Healthcare vs Western Medicine
• 7:16 The Foundation of Ayurveda: Five Elements
• 16:32 How Your Body Type Affects Health
• 27:13 Personalized Health Beyond Fad Diets
• 41:47 Digestive Health and Warm Food Benefits
• 54:58 The Three Doshas Explained
• 1:19:25 Circadian Rhythm and Sleep Regulation
• 1:25:00 Closing and Where to Find Dosha Wellness

Transcript

Johnna: 0:00

What is up everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the Babbles Nonsense Podcast. I want to point out a mistake I made in last week's episode, where I mentioned that I was going to be interviewing Light On Yoga fitness instructor, which I am. I just meant to elaborate more that I'm interviewing Alex Taylor, who is the founder of Dosha Wellness in Huntsville, alabama. But she is also an instructor at Light on Yoga Fitness Studio and we did the interview there, so that's why I jumbled my words last week. But help me welcome Alex Taylor, who is the founder of Dosha Wellness here in Huntsville. She holds a Master's of Science in Integrative Healthcare and specializes in Ayurvedic healing, where she is helping her clients find balance through personalized wellness plans rooted in ancient practices.

Johnna: 0:45

I learned so much in this interview and I cannot wait for you all to hear it, so here we go. All right, welcome back to another episode. You guys are the babbles nonsense podcast. I'm sitting here with alex taylor, the owner and ceo of dosha wellness, and I'm going to butcher this, but it's she. She's an integrative health practitioner, but she does Ayurvedic practices. Yes, did I say that correctly?

Alex: 1:27

You did great.

Johnna: 1:28

Everyone knows I can't speak.

Alex: 1:30

That's my thing. That's a new term for everyone, including myself, only three years ago, so you're doing great, all right.

Johnna: 1:37

So welcome to the Babbles Nonsense Podcast. I'm super excited to have you here. If you know me, or if anybody listens to this, y'all know I'm super excited about anything health and wellness, especially when it comes to like medicine from other countries and stuff like that, and just because, being a practitioner in the United States, like Western medicine, I don't personally think it's the end all be all of medicine. I think there's a lot of other things that we could incorporate to make it better. So I'm super excited to have you here to learn about this. Likewise, I'm so pumped. Thank you, yeah, absolutely so. Obviously we have to know who you are. So kind of tell me a little bit about yourself, your background and how you got interested in just integrative wellness altogether, right on.

Alex: 2:15

So my name is Alex. I am a Huntsville native, so this is my hometown, and I was raised with a very holistic health perspective, um per the culture here of the of the deep South. So it was really thanks to my mother that I discovered holistic lifestyle medicine, things like that. We were always raised with that in mind. Um, basically, through the transition of me educationally, I dove deeper and deeper through the progress of my education and ultimately ended up finding more about holistic healthcare and eventually got my bachelor's degree in integrative healthcare from Denver and then decided to extend that into my master's degree, which I obtained a year ago, in integrative healthcare with a specialty in Ayurveda. So it was really cool. I got to learn the basics and the dichotomy, if you will, of integrative medicine, right? So, like you said, kind of the Western perspectives of healthcare and then integrating that together with alternative approaches, what we call traditional medicine, right?

Johnna: 3:32

Right. So what would be the difference, like in learning integrative health, like in wellness, versus like going to school to be a doctor? Like where where's the difference there? Like do you have to do all the pre, like biology, chemistry, all of that, and then specialize?

Alex: 3:46

to do all the pre, like biology, chemistry, all of that and then specialize yes, so it all kind of went together. So, again, my bachelor's degree was in integrative healthcare. So that's really where I got all the foundations that I needed right Biology A and P, anatomy and physiology, learning about the body in the modern Western view. And then we expanded right and it all kind of happened at the same time. We expanded on different modalities that can collaborate. You know the basics right. When we're talking about, say, as a good example, like chemotherapy treatment, right, okay, we need the chemotherapy to um deal with the cancer, but simultaneously, what are some alternative approaches that we can take to manage the symptoms?

Johnna: 4:25

Right, that's where diet lifestyle, so like if someone's going to chemo. We know side effects are like nausea, fatigue, so then your practices could help with the side effects of the chemotherapy, but obviously still use the Western medicine for the chemotherapy. Yeah, okay, I like that, yeah.

Alex: 4:40

Yeah, and I really and I know that I've heard you appreciate this too I really feel like this is the transition of healthcare in society, for sure, how?

Alex: 4:50

can we find that healthy dichotomy for both sides working together? And I always try to um emphasize this too. Um, I do have the Ayurvedic, which we'll expand on in a little bit, but I have the Ayurvedic perspective on ways of living. But it's very important that I make sure people are aware that there's an integrative approach to care. It is, like you said, not one all ends with one Western or holistic perspectives of health. They work together. I would never ask somebody to stop their medications of health. They work together. Um, I would never ask somebody to stop their medications. I would never ask someone to not see um their physician, um or get a surgery or you know. But my goal is how can we combine the two and find a really healthy balance, and I really feel like that is the future of medicine.

Johnna: 5:40

Well, to me like being in the Western medicine side. I feel like and you correct me if I'm wrong Western medicine is there to treat sick patients. We're not there to prevent you getting sick. But what your approach is is actually to prevent you getting sick. Yeah, so like if we kind of combine the two see you for prevention, then see Western when you're sick. Honestly, if Western medicine would just be integrative or what I would call functional I don't know if that's the same, yes.

Johnna: 6:07

Then, yeah, I feel like it would be so much better of a medicine because, yes, everyone thinks, oh, the United States has the best health care and I don't. I don't know that to be true, to be honest with you, because I've worked in it and I feel like it. Maybe it's just not just the health care system. Well, yeah, the system itself, not the healthcare, not the doctors, not the people trying to provide the stuff behind the scenes right, administration, insurance, everything that doesn't allow it to be covered, which I've noticed that in healthcare, a lot of people are dropping their insurance and saying, why, why am I going to pay for this when it doesn't help any? Or not that it doesn't help, but they don't cover anything anyways, because functional or integrative wellness practitioners don't take insurance anyways.

Alex: 6:53

Exactly so, and it's a frustrating circumstance that we're in right now, but there is hope and I do think that the system, as you said, which is kind of what's in control of all of this, it's changing, it is getting better.

Alex: 7:01

There is more expansion and more awareness right in general, because that's where it starts too, it's just letting people know that these alternative approaches are there and, to your point, yes, there are unfortunately most of them not covered by health insurance right now. Right, but it's expanding. Things like chiropractic care, massage therapy, acupuncture those types of approaches are becoming more and more available in the healthcare system. So it's happening, um and we're, we're getting there, so um, but what I think makes Ayurveda, my specialty so unique is we are focused on prevention, not necessarily treatment based care, but preventing it from the start. Now, that doesn't mean that if someone comes in with preexisting health conditions, that you can't treat it.

Alex: 7:48

that's not it at all. It's just saying okay, how can we augment the lifestyle? And what most people end up realizing with Ayurveda specifically is most of the recommendations are free. Yeah, all I'm asking you to do is shift some things in your lifestyle. There's really not a lot to be purchased.

Johnna: 8:07

There are. You're not one of these people. That's like go out and buy 50 supplements.

Johnna: 8:11

And yes, you do see that with some functional people because it's a money thing and so which I'm not saying supplements aren't needed because there are, but like, not, like we're. You can kind of tell when you're being I don't want to use the word quote unquote scammed, but you can kind of tell when someone's like oh well, you need these 50 supplements and this and this and this, and you're like I just spent $600 and I don't feel any different and I think the to your point there.

Alex: 8:35

What we're talking about is reaching for something else to bring balance to the body, whatever the condition is instead of saying what's the root cause of the problem, and I love that you said that, yeah, because I can.

Johnna: 8:47

For example, I have Hashimoto's and thyroid issues and I'm pretty sure we haven't gotten to the root cause of what's going on. I've had this since I was, I think, 22. So, gosh, 15 years now, okay, and it's been a whirlwind, like I have all kinds of weird medical things that it. And it's hard because, like I try my best, I eat clean, I work out, I've hired a nutritionist, I've done all the things right. I'm very fortunate because my doctor now he is very like, he's very smart in western medicine. He's actually going back to school to be to get his functional degree, so he's very good at listening. But like working with someone like you, I think, like just trying to figure out why, because that's always bothered me why did this happen? What is actually going on, which I don't know. If you've ever heard of the medical medium, have you ever heard of him?

Alex: 9:32

Oh, no, I don't think so. It's kind of way out there, okay.

Johnna: 9:36

So he talks to God. He's been talking to God since he was a young child and apparently these spirit voices tell him how to cure certain diseases and his whole thing for Hashimoto's and the thyroid is it's all stemming from the EBV virus, yeah. And so he's like you've got to get that out of your body or it's never going to go away. And so I was just like that's interesting, like, but of course my mind because I have that medical background. I'm just like but is this true?

Alex: 10:02

And it's hard because, especially for you and you are so open to other approaches. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of pre, there's a lot of conditioned right, um awareness around what is diagnosable, what are the tests right, where is the definite right?

Johnna: 10:19

you know um, even for thyroid disruption, it happens all the time well, a lot of people are misdiagnosed, exactly Like I was misdiagnosed for a long time because my labs weren't quite bad enough.

Alex: 10:30

And that's what we hear so often. And you know, just sidebar quick, I work in a OBGYN office. That's my other kind of full-time work there, and what you hear all the time, right, is okay, I'm having these symptoms that are indicative of, say, something is an example different than the thyroid, but PCOS, right, yeah, okay, but my test is not positive for it, right, but I'm just on the fine line between abnormal versus normal results, and so you can imagine.

Johnna: 10:59

I'm so glad you said that the patient is going to have these symptoms. Well, I started having all you know with my thyroid stuff, and then I started having weight gain and all this stuff despite like, hiring a nutritionist, hiring a fitness trainer, all these things, and then my testosterone, all my hormones, were zero. I was basically perimenopausal at 30.

Johnna: 11:17

And my doctor was like that's why I like my doctor, because he was like I can't tell you what's wrong with you. He was like but it's something at the cellular level and we don't have quantum computers yet. Yeah, he's like no lab test is ever going to tell you what's wrong. And he literally said I think you have pcos. He was like and your labs just aren't showing it. Yeah, yeah, and it's frustrating for the patient.

Alex: 11:36

It's so frustrating because we put a lot of trust into the health care system and the ways that the doctor is telling us to live, the ways that the doctor is saying this is what is diagnosable and then therefore treatable, and there's nothing wrong with that to an extent.

Alex: 11:56

But my goal with the shift in healthcare right now is to bring the balance of care pun intended back to you Right and creating an environment in healthcare where the patients are confident in understanding these subtle cues, the ways that the body provides communication which is beyond intelligent.

Alex: 12:22

Our bodies are incredible in the ways that they can communicate with us, and so the science behind kind of the principles of something like Ayurveda and other you know more older traditional healthcare systems is going back to that. How can I respond to what my body is telling me? And then that pulls you away from putting so much of of of what your doctor has to stay up, stay up on a pedestal Right. And again, I, I, I choose my words cautiously here because I really don't want anyone, myself included, to pull themselves away from from allopathic care. But at the same time, it's it's as we can see, our chronic disease rates of all different variables are rising in immensely, and especially in women's health care too, right, and so I think it's it's in due time that we shift back and I get what you're saying.

Johnna: 13:18

It's not that you're telling someone not to go to the doctor, but this is something I see a lot, even when it comes to me, or like interviewing a patient. It's no longer collaborative, it's more of a you know, you're, you're putting all your marbles in one basket and saying this doctor should have these answers. And I'm here to say like I've even had discussions with very close friends of mine and they're like well, I don't understand why a doctor doesn't know what's wrong. And I'm like well, think about it. Like there are so many disease processes that they have to learn, there's so many disease processes that are not discovered yet. And if you're not textbook, you don't fit the pattern.

Johnna: 13:52

So you come in and I'll just use an example, because I worked in the ER. If you come in, like with right upper quadrant pain in your abdomen, the first thought is gallbladder. Right, you're thinking gallbladder. So then you ask all these symptoms? Well, then I just have to throw the labs at you that I know could diagnose that, and then, if those don't show anything, then we move to the next step of diagnostic imaging. So it is all based on symptoms and if your symptoms don't fit something that is already diagnosable, then no, because when I got diagnosed my thyroid, it was crazy, like they even sent me to Vanderbilt and everything, because they were like I've never seen thyroid labs like this in my life. Wow, because if you know anything about the thyroid out there your tsh or your thyroid stimulating hormone and your free t3 and your free t4, they're invert. They're supposed to be inverted.

Johnna: 14:35

Mine were not my t3 was zero, wow my tsh was normal and they were like your tsh should be like sky high, right, but it wasn but. I had every symptom of hypothyroidism and everybody was like you're fine, your labs are fine. And I was like what about my hair falling out? Well, what about me sleeping 16 hours a day. So tired yeah.

Alex: 14:53

All the things and and I think that that's the point we have to get away from the diagnostics and come back to the patient is struggling period, right, I think, um, fibromyalgia is a really good example. You know, we're really expanding in health care on giving that a lot more of a platform.

Johnna: 15:11

Um, you know, because it is such a untangible condition in a lot of ways when it comes to diagnostics well, because it's basically a diagnosis based on exclusion. Yeah you, you ruled, everything else could be and you cannot figure out what it is.

Alex: 15:26

So you just say well, I guess it's fibromyalgia, right, this person's in pain, they're struggling, they have all of these symptoms down the list, but we don't have an answer. So we're just going to kind of throw this at that. Yeah, so, yeah, so I'm really excited, I think, that these conversations happening so much lately, and there there is a transition happening that I think will be a really, really cool, cool change into care and, like I said before, I really think it's full circle right. Coming back to the self, coming back to taking responsibility without fear, without judgment, um, you know, and kind of, I think, if we can shift into what makes ayurveda so special is just that you know, um, into what makes Ayurveda so special is just that, you know, creating an environment of your healthcare that is unique to you.

Alex: 16:10

And that's what makes Ayurveda so cool. It emphasizes that each person is different. Their body and their mind constitution is unique for them. When people are being treated for certain conditions in the west, um, with modern health care, we kind of say, okay, you have let's use an example hyper acidity of the gut. You're dealing with GERD issues, right? Okay, you're supposed to give acid, right, period not, we not reduce it period.

Alex: 16:40

We we treat everybody from the same way, but the problem is everybody gets your experience of GERD may be very different than mine, right, and so, rather than throwing a medication on it or a quick fix, right, symptom relief rather than well care, it's sick care, right. It's saying okay, what makes my body and mind constitution unique and why am I dealing with this differently than this person? And again, the non-judgment factor I really appreciate, because in another example, okay, why do I struggle to, um, absorb dairy products, but my partner can eat them without a single problem? It comes down to why is your body unique? Genetics, genetics, and and and right.

Alex: 17:28

The ancients this medicine is over 5,000 years old. The ancients didn't know that, right, we didn't have this type of technology. So they went back, you know. They went back into using nature and understanding why somebody is different than someone else. And that's exactly how someone, when they come in to see me, is being treated. Somebody is different than someone else, and that's exactly how someone, when they come in to see me, is being treated. It's completely unique, it's completely customized and curated to what your body needs and it's and it pulls us away to from the idea of fad dieting, which is really relevant in the world right now. Um, and that tells me that's one size fits all Right Right, and that's not the case. Um you know, intermittent fasting may work beautifully.

Johnna: 18:09

Everything you're saying, I'm just like, oh my God, I just love you so much Like you. It's like you crawled into my brain and was like oh my God, you're someone who gets it Likewise.

Alex: 18:16

Well, well, and it's, it's fun to have these conversations. There's so many. When I have these conversations in this consult room that we're in right now, there's so many light bulbs, and not just light bulbs of like oh ha, ha, it comes from. Thank goodness I can pull this self judgment away and say, okay, my best friend Sandy, you know, just example does great with intermittent fasting. And there's a Ayurvedic, it's called a Shloka, but it's a, it's a term, it's a phrase that from the ancients that use, that it says what works well and can be medicine for one can be poison to another. And that's why I think that this type of care, this type of medicine, is so unique, because I'm pulling people away from this idea that that just because it worked great for somebody doesn't mean it's going to work well for you. We have to get away from the fads and we have to come back to what do I need, what serves me best?

Johnna: 19:08

And I love that you say that, because I used to do a lot of nutrition coaching and I still do it occasionally for my friend Adrian. But I used to be like that I'd be like, okay, if you're going to work with me, we're going to cut out dairy gluten, all the things, right. But then I realized, like we're going to cut out dairy gluten, all the things. But then I realized, okay, not everybody has an intolerance Now I would say majority, depending on where they're getting their sources. I don't think it's the actual place. I don't think it's the actual gluten. I don't think it's the actual dairy, I think it's. Is it full of pesticides?

Alex: 19:40

What brand are we getting? Uh-oh girlfriend.

Johnna: 19:47

Don't pull me down the glyphosate conversation. I think it is that like. I truly think, because when I went to Iceland with my friends and them which they have, I've heard this all a lot that if you go into a European country and you have a gluten intolerance and you have gluten in a European country, it doesn't affect you how many people go to Europe and stay in a week in Tuscany and they lose weight.

Alex: 20:04

They can drink all the wine, they can eat all the pasta, um, and have zero bloat, zero headaches, zero problems, um, but then come back here and and it's it's, it's nobody's fault. We have to, you know, have the resources that we have, um, but it's just bringing that awareness of. Yes, it's unfortunate that there are some things out of our control, such as the heavy pesticides and herbicides that are being used in most of our agricultural system. But how do we smart shop organic to get away from those things? What are some things we can prioritize? Organic that are free of these problems, and what things can we, you know, because the economy is hard, you know. And organic that are free of these problems, and what things can we, you know, because the economy is hard, you know.

Alex: 20:48

And, and I think a lot of people, when they come to practitioners like myself, are scared. They're like, oh no, she's going to tell me I have to eat like this, I have to buy like this and it's expensive, um, so I'm here to kind of like relieve that stress and say we can find what works for you. But yes, it's, it's, it's um you know you said this before kind of it's the system. That's the problem, not the person, not the food. You know it's, it's bigger than that.

Johnna: 21:18

I'm kind of into conspiracy theories a little bit, and so my my conspiracy theory is it's set up that way on purpose, because if it wasn't, then would our fda, would our big pharma, what our you know, would they be making the billions and millions circle back to cancer. Right, I'm gonna get canceled probably for saying this, but I'm just like that's just my opinion to be discussed.

Alex: 21:38

It is your opinion, but I, I, I agree, so I'll, I'll take the heat off of you I'll take, but, and you know, so it, it and I, I. I use caution having those conversations sometimes to the masses, because I don't want to create a fear-based culture.

Johnna: 21:54

No, no, no.

Alex: 21:54

Just an awareness-based culture that we have to, and this is, yeah, a full circle.

Johnna: 21:59

It comes back to you, but I think, like you said, more people are becoming aware of it, so it is easier to discuss, because back probably even five years ago, if we were having this conversation, somebody would turn this off within the first five minutes and be like, oh, that's a bunch of woo woo bullshit, you know.

Alex: 22:14

But now we have politicians and certain people that are really standing in front of Congress, standing in front of different people, having the conversation of hey, we've been doing this successfully, quote unquote, for a long time, but now we're seeing the effects, we're seeing the problem.

Johnna: 22:38

And we have to fix it okay. So, all in all, for that to say, that was a long introduction, guys, but still, um, all that to say, like, so, when you you've explained and again I'm probably gonna butcher this a bunch of times ayurvedic, um, what actually is the definition of it? Like, like, if you like, I know you've explained what it is and what you do, but like, what would you say? Like, if someone came and said what is that?

Alex: 22:55

yeah, yeah. So let's get, let's take a dive. So ayurveda is the proper way to pronounce it. So I think, if the word I like you are so good, but that is a sanskrit term, that is an ancient term, um, from ancient India. It's over 5,000 years old.

Alex: 23:13

This perspective, these principles of medicine, comes from that culture, um, and that translates to the science of life or the knowledge of life, and what that means is, again, we talked about how the ancients didn't have diagnostics, they didn't have understandings in certain technologies to understand why the body works in certain ways. So they really found a lot of understanding and ways to conceptualize the physiology and the anatomy through the five elements. So Ayurveda is all about working with nature, understanding that we, our bodies, our physiologies, the way our minds work, our nature in and of itself right, we are organic beings and we live in an organic environment, and so it's all about working in accordance with nature, understanding that those five elements which will break those down to be ether or space, air, fire, water and earth, those are the five elements that are understood from the principles of Ayurveda, and everything in the environment is comprised of those different elements. We can use an example of the sky. The sky is made of those ether space elements. There's a lot of movement, a lot of empty space.

Alex: 24:36

Contrary, the more gross idea would be earth itself, the soil. It's made of the watery, the earthy elements. It's a lot denser, it has a lot of structure, kind of in between the ground and in between the sky would be kind of more the fire. That's where there's a lot of transformation happens, that's where our bodies exist. And so then, pulling us back to the person, each person is also comprised of those five elements, but that's where what makes us unique comes in five elements.

Alex: 25:15

But that's where what makes us unique comes in you. Your body has a different composition of those five elements than I do, then my mother does, then my dog does, then my partner does Um, and that's what makes the care so fun and unique is we get to learn which combination of those elements do I have, and then that helps us again move away from judgment of why does my body react or interact with nature, or foods that I eat, or the way I speak to other people different than Jonna, right, so it gives you an understanding of how your body works. Okay, I have a lot more fire in my physiology.

Johnna: 25:55

I embody a lot of that like so look at, do you just look at someone and you can, so, like you can, sit here and look at me and tell me what kind of energy I have, yeah, yeah and it goes beyond observance, okay, and into we.

Alex: 26:06

There's a whole questionnaire that I go through. There's a whole technology, if you will around, kind of uh, I'll use the word diagnosing right or giving someone the idea of which we call it a dosha, which dosha their body and their mind resonate with most that's really cool.

Alex: 26:24

Yeah, it is super cool and it's so fun to have these consultations with patients, where they come in totally unaware of what Ayurveda even is, and then we kind of break it down, have this conversation and then I say, okay, you're embodying more of those fire elements. So what are some conditions that may be plaguing you? A lot of times this is what I'll hear. I have hyper acidity of the gut, I have GERD, I have inflammatory conditions in my body, I have pain here, there, all the things. I have blood disorders, I have heart problems. So we look at the fire element Again. In the ancients they didn't have the term inflammation yet right.

Alex: 27:05

So that was how they used that term.

Johnna: 27:09

They understood inflammation to be paralleled to fire and is this similar to like in chinese medicine where, like, if you I've heard, like in chinese medicine, like you either, like with, I think, women? I'm gonna butcher this, never mind, just ignore that but, basically like if it was cold and like hot and cold therapy. Like you, you do the opposite. Like if your body's like full of cold then you want to do hot therapy, versus if you're fully hot then you want to do cold therapy.

Alex: 27:35

You nailed it on the head. It's embracing balance. That's the goal of this type of medicine, is finding balance. So to your point, if someone has too much heat in the body, my suggestions to them would be to cool yourself down. Favor more cooling foods. Again, we'll continue kind of on the hyperacidity gird example, because I think a lot of people which makes sense, because spicy food yeah, causes, gird it's favor and avoid you're gonna favor more cooling foods and you're gonna avoid things that will increase the basic common knowledge.

Johnna: 28:05

Now that you're the way you're explaining it, you're just like over here going duh right and, like I said, that light bulb moment that I have that conversation.

Alex: 28:12

It's so exciting patients get so giddy because they're like, oh my gosh, that breaks it down to be so simple, it makes so much sense. I'm really struggling with these inflammatory conditions. How can I cool myself down? Right, and instead of say, let's take a tylenol or an ibuprofen that will make your gird worse, right, that just manages the symptoms. Let's get a Tylenol or an ibuprofen that will make your GERD worse Right, that just manages the symptoms. Let's get to the root cause. The root is you've got too much fire in the body, girl, how can we pull?

Johnna: 28:39

you down. You know what's even funny about that and I didn't even think about that. Ibuprofens are typically brown. They're red. Yeah, fire yeah.

Alex: 28:52

It's hot, it, yeah, that's a fun way to like conceptualize it, well, you know, but it makes it super cool. And and again, um, you know, kind of understanding your body type, living in accordance with nature. Um, that is, that is the whole goal. Um is just to educate patients, clients, on why does my body function the way that it does? We can use genes.

Alex: 29:09

Why do, why do my genes do this, and how can I live in accordance to find balance, instead of say, oh, I can't digest dairy, uh, I have allergies, so much worse than my partner does every year. You know, okay, you, you have these different elements that make you more prone to that. What tendencies do you have and how can you preventatively care for yourself to avoid spring allergy season? How can you prepare yourself to avoid more increased inflammatory conditions during summertime, when you have too much heat in the body? How can you prepare yourself for the winter months to come, when cold and flu season come about? What are some ways that we can live in accordance with the seasons, with nature, and live in balance, but again, full circle. That's why I want to urge people to pull away from the fad diets, because that says it's one size fits all and that is not the case?

Johnna: 30:10

Well, you know I've talked about that on my podcast several times. If it was the case, then why is it a multi-billion dollar industry? Why is it that it doesn't work or long lasting for a lot of people and you just keep coming back, keep coming back and you're trying a different one? I tried keto this you know this month. It didn't work. I tried intermittent fasting next month. That didn't work. And so I've always preached that like if it worked, they wouldn't be a rich multi billion dollar company, because if it worked, you would be done.

Alex: 30:37

And to your point before, when we look at the ideas of the Western culture. You know big pharma wants to make their money. So if we really found the cure for cancer, if we really covered medicines like Ayurveda or TCM traditional Chinese medicine that you alluded to before, we would pull people away from sick culture and into well-balanced culture. That doesn't mean you're just going to forever live in harmony and be without allergies, be without stomach problems. It just means that it's not going to plague you and you can use your own tools and come back to yourself for the resources that you need, instead of putting your health in the hands of of of a large industry that benefits so much more on you staying sick.

Johnna: 31:30

No, I, I, I agree with that.

Johnna: 31:31

Like I'm even in the system and sometimes, like I think, and I think that's why it was just so out of balance with my energy I struggled a lot when I was in the ER because it I loved it and I loved what I did, but I think it didn't fulfill me in the fact that I do believe there's more out there. Not to say that again, not to say that Western medicine is not needing, not to say that we didn't help a lot of people. Yeah, it's just with everything that's happened to me and the system failed me, yeah, and I can't imagine being someone that doesn't have the knowledge that I have, because I kept pushing and I kept asking for different tests and I kept asking for certain things and a lot of people, like a lot of my friends who come to cause I, I'm really great with a thyroid just because of how much I had to do for myself and advocate for myself. There are so many patients out there that they'll just accept what it is and they'll be like, okay, I still feel bad, but okay.

Alex: 32:24

And I love that you said that so much. It's advocating for yourself and putting the responsibility back in your hand.

Johnna: 32:36

Well, like I said earlier, it's went away from collaborative practice, and what I mean by that is too many doctors and providers get offended. If someone's chat, gbt or Googling their symptoms, now I only would get offended and not really offended. It's more when you come in and say this is what I'm going to do. If the patient's telling me you're going to order this and you're like, no, let's collaborate, let's talk about it, let's say why you do need something or why you don't need something, cause you may bring something to my attention that I didn't even think of.

Alex: 32:58

Exactly, you know, and likewise it goes vice versa. It's both ways, yeah, and and and. To stress again the importance of to your point we have vaccines for a reason we have eradicated immense diseases that have wiped out populations. We have surgeries, for a reason If someone gets into a horrible accident, thank goodness we have the technology and the resources that we have. Um, thank goodness that we have the knowledge that allopathic modern medicine has. It's, it's super important and amazing. Um, but when we're talking about chronic conditions, when we're talking about preventative care, that's where we need to reset the tone and come back. To come back to alternatives like Ayurveda.

Alex: 33:42

Um, there's a reason that this knowledge existed thousands of years ago and people survived it.

Johnna: 33:47

Well, now agreed, and I and I appreciate you saying that because I remember there's this one case that I'll never forget this lady came into the ER and I don't know if I've told the story on the podcast yet or not I probably have, cause I repeat stories but um, she was like, yeah, something's wrong with my breast or whatever, and I was like, okay, well, we got to look at it. So I look at it and no skin, just a tumor sitting on her Like she just had her breast cancer there and I was like, oh, okay, like it.

Johnna: 34:14

I was in shock. I'd never seen anything like it. I was like, let me go get the doctor. I'll be right back. So got the doctor in there and the doctor's like, did you know? Like you have breast cancer, like we didn't, it was so bad. You did. I mean, obviously you could see the tumor and she was like I knew, I just decided not to do chemo, I decided to do all these holistic practices like creams and rubs and all this other stuff. So like I'm not saying that that can't help, I'm just saying like there is a time and a place, yeah, for what? Just like you said there is. There's surgery for a reason, there's chemo for a reason.

Johnna: 34:46

So we're not telling you to stop all your medications and all your stuff to just go do this. It's a combination.

Alex: 34:52

It is a combination. And again, going back to the root cause, you know what, what could be the predisposition genetically, if we want to look at it that way, um, and what are the ways that we can augment our lifestyle? You know, if someone comes in and they have a huge familial history of breast cancer or, um, any, any condition, really it's saying, okay, your genes are at risk, so what lifestyle can I guide you into preventing that from coming up? And it shouldn't be hard, it shouldn't be scary, it should be exciting, it should be nourishing to know that we have these avenues towards living in a state of balance and kind of shifting a little bit. That's what the body wants to do. The body is amazing. These avenues towards living in a state of balance and and kind of shifting a little bit. You know that's what the body wants to do the body is amazing.

Alex: 35:36

It is so intelligent it desires to live in a state of homeostasis, and so what I want to push and convey with this type of medicine is that that's supporting that. This type of medicine is supporting what the body innately is designed to do. The body is not designed to live in a chronic state of disease that many people are plagued with, um, because they they maybe are just not aware that there are alternatives. The body's designed to live well, and so our lifestyle should be designed to parallel that and to support the natural rhythms of the body. I see this a lot or I do not see, but we talk about this a lot, especially in women's healthcare. There is a lot of problems that women deal with, unfortunately, and it's just kind of a shrug your shoulders, you know. Just, hormone imbalance sucks, man, just kind of sucks to be a woman, you know. You hear stuff like that all the time.

Johnna: 36:37

It's funny because, going back to my example of the low hormones, when I was 30, I was I was seeing a really great OBGYN in town but he was a male and when he found out that I was on hormone replacement, like progesterone and testosterone, was like why are you doing that? You don't need you don't need hormones and I was like well, because I'm experiencing every menopausal symptom at age 30 so and that's not normal, right, that's not quote unquote, normal.

Johnna: 37:00

Yeah, I was like so yeah, I'm gonna continue taking that. I was like I'm gonna do ob thanks.

Alex: 37:05

Well, and it's like the next question would be too outside of hrt is were there any recommendations on your diet?

Alex: 37:12

on your stress management, your lifestyle. I know you're obviously well you know apt to those things already. That's the culture that you live in, which is amazing, but that's the that's when you talk about the collaborative piece. That's the piece that's missing, that I really am excited to continue seeing the shift in healthcare, to watch physicians say, okay, I'm trained in this direction and I have empathy towards physicians that that they're trained to say, and they spent many years and a lot of money on this training to say this is the condition, this is how we treat it, but we really need to shift the care into. This is your problem. This is what's going on. But also, outside of the medicine I'm prescribing, here's someone you can go see that will tell you what lifestyle changes you can make too.

Alex: 37:59

Obviously, the obesity epidemic is also a big chronic problem. That's on the uprise and um it it's just can be so easy, you know, to just fall into. Here's a statin for my blood pressure. Here's, here's this, that or the third. And when is anybody? Or even the? I say cautiously, but you know the Ozempic, you know transition people are going through. Where is the guidance on lifestyle? Where's the guidance on why is this food better for me than than another. But but that's also generalized. Yeah, ayurveda comes in to say this isn't just a general heart. Healthy, low fat, you know. Low carb, whatever diet, here are the specific foods that your body, your individual body type, needs and will thrive with. You know. Telling somebody that an avocado is super healthy, we all know that. Super amazing.

Johnna: 39:05

Healthy fats Great source of protein, but it can also be inflammatory for people. But some people's body do not respond well, and that can be really frustrating it took me the longest time to figure out eggs was causing a lot of my digestive issues because I ate them every morning, I love them. I was like they're healthy for you. No one has reactions to eggs, yeah. And I was like oh yeah, people have a lot of reactions.

Johnna: 39:25

Yeah, yeah, as soon as I quit eating them like all, like a lot, like 75 of my digestive issues went away.

Alex: 39:31

A big thing for digestion is um like salad. It's a great example right in the ayurvedic culture. In the ayurvedic principle, the whole goal is um to proceed in a diet routine that is nourishing. This is for everybody. Um foods should. This is according to the Ayurvedic principles. Food should be served warm and freshly cooked.

Alex: 39:54

Now really now, if you break this down and think about why that is going back to salads, um, your stomach organ is warm. It's full of a bunch of HCL, right, that's what breaks down and metabolizes our food. The first step of that if that environment is frozen up really quickly, we add super raw cold temperatures to it, it's going to decrease the heat. It's going to decrease the stomach acid and prevent the organ from its ability to do what it's designed to do.

Johnna: 40:32

Which I've always been told don't drink cold water. Yes, Drink room temperature water.

Alex: 40:35

Yes, that's a huge principle that I share with everybody is off the bat. What's one thing you could change? Please take the ice out of your drinks. You're literally just freezing the system that's designed to be warm, lubricating, nourishing, to do the work, to churn up the nutrients. And the second you, you know, throw a ice cube onto it. It dilutes those acids, it prevents the body from doing what it's designed to do. So again, back to like salads as a health, you know, quote, unquote health food choice. Great, of course. Yeah, you know. Raw lettuce, raw carrots, raw tomatoes, things like that. You know they are healthy, nourishing foods, but when we eat them in this form, it does inhibit our body's ability to digest them.

Alex: 41:23

So even though a salad quote unquote the individual components of it may be healthy foods, people have a hard time digesting raw lettuce right, so would you recommend someone not like so, for example, like cook your vegetables versus eating raw cold vegetables?

Alex: 41:40

Exactly Just as simple as that. Just give your body a little bit of that boost, right? Like working with nature, working with the body wants and needs. Give it that little extra tool that it needs to be able to digest better. Okay, um, you know, cook your foods. Make sure that that they're not served raw super cold. You know, try to try to. You know, the ancients didn't have freezers, right, right makes sense, unless they had snow unless they had snow.

Alex: 42:08

But they're. But right, their physiology, genetically, was designed to work in harmony with that, you know. So, um, you know, but yeah, the the ancients didn't have freezers to put sonic, amazing ice cubes in every drink that they drank. They weren't eating ice cream, you know. They weren't freezing their milk. Um, they were eating things and drinking things at room temperature, or they were cooking them prior and it just, you know, you said it before. You're like, oh duh.

Johnna: 42:38

It's like I don't know why I'm gonna sound real dumb when I say this. When you said freezing their milk, I was like oh wait, yeah. In my head I was like ice cream is frozen milk. Why did I ever think about that? You've known that like I think it's just common sense that you don't sit down and break it down and go, yeah, what is ice cream?

Alex: 42:54

And again, moving from a place of non judgment. We are conditioned to enjoy these things. Little kids love going and eating frozen milk through the source of ice cream. It's a fun thing, right? But hey, if you're somebody that really struggles with respiratory problems, you have a lot of mucus issues, you have a lot of sinus congestion. Making sense of your body right, Working with nature Okay, this is something I have a tendency towards. It probably would be in my best effort to reduce cold milk, to reduce eating ice cream, to reduce drinking my beverages with ice in them, To reduce dairy overall. It just makes sense. You know what like attracts, like Opposites create balance.

Johnna: 43:43

And I know the answer to this, but I just want to hear your response to it. So, like, what do you do if someone is so resistant? I would assume they wouldn't be in your chair anyway. What do you do if someone is so resistant? I would assume they wouldn't be in your chair anyway. But let's just go out on a limb and say someone is so resistant that maybe their husband or their wife forced them to come see you and you tell them all this. And they're so resistant. Like, how do you handle that difficult patient? Because I've been there, like even in Western medicine, like, for example, the biggest one of all time is antibiotics, right?

Alex: 44:15

No one finishes their antibiotics.

Johnna: 44:16

They save them and they leave them for whenever their next element comes later when they're, and the antibiotic doesn't even treat the organism that you're taking it for, not to mention, we prescribe it for a certain amount of time to kill the organism and that you're supposed to take it till it's over, so like if you cannot get someone to hear you or listen to you. How how do you handle that?

Alex: 44:31

how much are you suffering? Yeah, why? Why? At what point did it become so much that you've either chosen to come here on your own accord, or a family member who deeply cares for you and realizes that enough is enough is saying come and explore an alternative? So at some point you have to say there's a reason you've come this far, girlfriend or whoever is sitting there You're.

Alex: 44:59

You're struggling, right. So if you don't want to struggle anymore, here's an option to to find another avenue of of care that may finally give you the answers that you need.

Johnna: 45:10

You're so much nicer than me because I literally am like well, what was working for you? It wasn't working, was it? It's hard, Keep doing what you want to do. It's hard.

Alex: 45:19

The progression just to give a fun story, the progression of my educational career started first. I went to UAB for a period of time in Birmingham, alabama, and, um, I was discovering dietetics there, nutrition, wellness. That was kind of the first initial direction that I was taking my educational career. And I was in a class where we were having practicals where, right, we had to like have mock mock seat seated um consultations with people. And the professor eventually came up to me and was like I think you may need to like take a step back or discover a way that you can find ways to help people, because I was at that point where I, I, I would get so frustrated because someone would say, well, I'm dealing with metabolic syndrome, meaning obesity, right Things like that.

Alex: 46:12

Um, but I won't stop eating Big Macs.

Johnna: 46:14

This is a generality right Right, Right Right.

Alex: 46:16

And it's like it's so hard to be like. Well, your answer is right in front of you, you know. So that was 10 years prior to getting where I am now, and I think that it takes a lot of patience, a lot of understanding and I know that you deal with this yourself all the time, too, with patients. It's it takes that, just that empathy of what we've been discussing. There's a culture, there's conditioning that's been created. It's not so easy for someone to look at these aha moments or these dumb moments and say, oh, it should be that simple. It takes time.

Johnna: 46:49

And I've been there before too. But I also think that I guess the difference like where I said, like when I was doing this, it didn't align with who I am yeah, so I lost patients a lot quicker. I got agitated because I wanted to be saying, actually, if you could just change your diet like when people would come in with such severe acid reflux GERD that they thought they were having a heart attack I would literally be like have you ever thought about taking some HCL to help break down your food? And they're like I can't do that. But I obviously couldn't tell them that in a year, because that's just not the standard of care, because that's something I used to have acid reflux. And then I started working with a functional practitioner and she actually was like I want you to start taking HCL with every meal. And I was like are you crazy? Like I'm going to start having acid reflux at the wazoo?

Alex: 47:29

And she's like no, you're not, it's going to help you break those foods down.

Johnna: 47:32

Help me break the food down so that I didn't create more stomach acid.

Alex: 47:35

And then the lifestyle difference, that is, the, you know supplemental help. That, yes, makes perfect sense, right, but then I would come in and say so what are you eating specifically, though, that you're having a hard time breaking down? Are you eating a lot of tomatoes in your diet? Are you eating a lot of like, acidic natured foods? Are you drinking a lot of coffee? You?

Alex: 47:58

know it's like what's the next step? Right, and if you and if you're not participating in those things, then yes, that's where the allopathic care comes in, you know I'm trust me.

Johnna: 48:07

I should sign up with you because I'm like a mystery, it's it. It intrigues most providers that I go to because they're just like. This is weird because I started having metabolic syndrome even though I was eating paleo clean, like doing an anti-inflammatory diet, which is the hardest diet in the world to do um or autoimmune protocol or whatever and then I was still gaining weight.

Johnna: 48:29

I was still my thyroid was optimal, all my labs were optimal. We were like what is going on? And that's when the doctor was like I think you've got PCOS or something, because then my hormones dropped and we were like. I was like I can't stand this anymore. I was like I'm literally doing everything, I'm hiring all the right people, I'm doing all the right things. I've went to a functional doctor. I've done the supplements.

Alex: 48:55

I've done everything I've cut everything out of my diet. Most people, you have that foundational knowledge too.

Johnna: 48:58

It was very frustrating, and that is frustrating. Yes, so, and he was just like that's when he was just like I don't think we're going to diagnose you in my lifetime and I was like, oh, thanks, okay.

Alex: 49:04

But then how many people in the medical world are told that like, shrug your shoulders.

Johnna: 49:09

Sorry is what it is, you know breast implants out because I was like convinced I had breast implant illness. I was like, maybe it's the breast implants that you know foreign, foreign substance. Somebody took them out.

Alex: 49:19

Yeah, didn't and and, and I just kind of want to like digress right back to like the principles of ayurveda here, and I'm not saying that this is your circumstance. But there's another piece to that puzzle, you know the body and mind perspective that they are one and that they work inversely together.

Alex: 49:35

Um, if there's things going on in the brain, it can manifest in the body. Vice versa, if there's things going on in the body, this can manifest in the brain as well. We're using the brain as like the gut brain barrier. The gut brain barrier right, it is, and we've just, in modern medicine, learned about it and to learn about the gut brain access and access rather, and the ancients knew about this a long time ago. Right, let's. Let's use an example of okay, I have severe anxiety, I'm so nervous about this interview, I'm so nervous about this new job. I'm starting blah, blah, blah.

Alex: 50:15

Typically, we see that manifest right in digestive problems. We're going to get either one or the other. We might have increased diarrhea because we have that nervous thought. You know, we run straight to the bathroom because we're nervous right To get up on stage or, contrary, we might have, like, so much constipation for the next five days because we're so worried. We're holding up all this tension, holding up all these emotions. Much constipation for the next five days because we're so worried. We're holding up all this tension, holding up all these emotions. That in there is a good example of why does that person have diarrhea when their brain and nervous system is disrupted? Why does this person have constipation when their brain and nervous system is disrupted? This is what we can understand that makes us unique and then therefore treat appropriately so. But back to the. You know the gut brain connection there. It's crazy that that these ancients understood that I just wonder how they figured it out.

Johnna: 51:00

Like I've always, do you ever like random thoughts pop in your head? You're like how did someone walk past a coffee bean and say this would make a good drink?

Alex: 51:07

you know what I'm saying. We're on the opposite spectrum, imagining the, the hunter-gatherer that walks up to the berry bush and is like well, jim, let's try this one out, right? Tom died yesterday from eating a berry off of a bush.

Alex: 51:19

But hey, we'll give it a go I'm so thankful that they put all of this time and energy and effort into discovering these things. But there's a big piece to that puzzle. It wasn't just like cause and effect, r and D research and discovery. This berry worked great for us and this berry sent Tom to death because it was poisonous. There was an innate quality to the ancients. There is that innate.

Alex: 51:46

Like just intuition and collaborating with nature and and and seeing it as our friend, you know, seeing, seeing the balance of and harmonizing with the rhythms of nature. It came easier to them because there weren't other distractions that were telling them that that was hokey, Right, Right, or that that was bizarre, right To know that. Um, that my mind is is really nervous. I'm having a lot of anxiety, I'm nervous, blah, blah, blah. Maybe I should sit with nature, close my eyes, take some deep breaths, right?

Johnna: 52:17

Not let me go zone out and watch Netflix to ignore my thoughts and trust Right, like I have to.

Alex: 52:23

I have to humanize myself. Like no one's perfect, I'm a human too. I have my times where I'll doom scroll or I go to Netflix we, you know we have those times. Or, you know, maybe I'll have some wine. You know, we'll have those times. But it's about just returning back to what you know is innately well for you. And I do believe that the more, as humans, we choose balancing techniques and routines in our day to day, the principles that say Ayurveda gives us, the easier it becomes to make those decisions, um, to know what's right and wrong for our bodies, because our body's designed to tell us these things. It's. It's about coming back to, like I said at the beginning of our conversation, the subtle cues, using the powerful communication tools that the body gives us to say this is working well for me and this isn't.

Alex: 53:15

I'm watching a lot of Netflix, I'm doom scrolling every day. I'm on the go, I'm eating while I'm driving. Go, go, go, go, go. I can't be stopped. And because I'm so exhausted, I'm not sleeping. Because all those things, I'm drinking five cups of coffee, but then I can't sleep again. When we just slow down and give ourselves, give our body and mind an opportunity. Just give ourselves a chance to take it back and say, all right, that's not working for me. It's spiraling me deeper down the rabbit hole of anxiety, nervousness, and it's coming out in digestive problems. It's coming out in autoimmune disorders, diseases. It's coming out in anxiety and restlessness, lack of sleep. Just taking a step back.

Johnna: 54:02

Sometimes it can be that simple no, no, no, no. I love that you say that because, like, that was the hardest thing for me to even convey, like to clients of mine when, like, when we're doing nutrition and stuff, and it was something hard for me Like. So, like, for example, you have a woman. She's trying to lose weight. We're trying to increase the calories because we've been taught and brainwashed our entire life Eat less, move more. That's, that's the way to weigh calories in calories out when it's actually not.

Johnna: 54:28

We actually are probably under eating, pretty much starving ourselves. And to tell someone, okay, I'm going to need you not to go to the gym for the next four weeks, and you see the, the scare, like how scared and fear, because you're just like they're like I can't do that, I'm already gaining all this weight. But when you have that conversation and you say like, okay, well, you can keep doing what you're doing and see if it continues to work for you or we can try something different, and all the clients that I've worked with when we've stopped the gym, like all you're allowed to do is walk, we're going to increase your calories slowly. We're not just going to give you like a bunch of calories and the weight just starts coming off and them to go. How is this possible? It's everything opposite of what I've ever been taught.

Alex: 55:17

I'm going to go for a strong guess here that when the nervous system is totally haywire and we're nervous and we're trying to control this, this, this, is that we've got to keep going to the gym. We've got to keep going. Cortisol.

Johnna: 55:28

Yeah, it's usually.

Johnna: 55:29

we're just trying to get the cortisol down and cortisol is just going to keep that fat growing in the belly and to get someone to understand, like, yes, the gym feels good and, yes, it can be a stress. This was very hard for me to understand until my coach like drove it into my head. Yes, the gym is a great stress reliever and it can be all those things, but it also, at the same time, is a cortisol inducing, because your body, even though we have come a long way, doesn't know that you're not being chased by a bear, that you're not being murdered in in the street. Like stress is stress, whether it's good stress or bad stress. Your body cannot differentiate.

Alex: 56:05

Correct, correct. There's um a um fantastic author that I really appreciate and I learned a lot about the nervous system. His name is Robert Sapolsky. I don't know if you've heard of him before. He has a really great book called why zebras don't get ulcers. Oh, I'll have to read that you, you would love it. It talks a lot about cortisol and how the body works and, to your point of, we're not, you know, hunters, gatherers anymore, um, and our uh culture, if you will, of humanity, we have kind of that social system, um, and so we're living in chronic states of stress because we're trying to always be the one on the top. You know, you can think about monkeys and kind of their social hierarchy system, things like that. But what he was stressing in this book about why zebras don't get ulcers, you can consider them an example of just the natural world. They're chilling, they're eating, they're drinking at the water hole together. A lion comes, cortisol pumps tells them, run really fast, and then the threat is now gone, the lion is away, they return back to homeostasis.

Alex: 57:16

So, contrary our modern human society, like you said, we're not being chased by the bear or the lion anymore, but we're being chased by the hierarchy of our social system all day, every day, and all of our concerns, and so that natural cortisol uptake that's designed to keep us safe is now our worst enemy, because we're just living in chronic states of stress.

Johnna: 57:40

Cause it was like what you were talking about earlier. It's just that repeat and rent cycle where you know you're in traffic, you're agitated cause you're late for work, you get a call from your school and your kids are throwing up and you need to take them somewhere, but you're you really don't have the PTO to take off work. Then you go to the gym to try to get some stress relief. Then you go home and you stay up till midnight watching TV with blue lights in your eyes all day. Then you're not sleeping. So it's just that rinse and repeat cycle all day, every day.

Alex: 58:06

And I want to stress that too. You know, sometimes you know I'll have people come in and we'll have the conversation about the you know lifestyle choices, the tweaks that they can make.

Alex: 58:15

And you know, sometimes, a lot of times, people come because they're already so overwhelmed with the laundry list you just mentioned got to do kids, got to, got to get to work, got to blah, blah, blah, got to get my workout and all the things, and sometimes it's like, oh man, she's asking me to like, do more, and in a way I could be, but I'm also asking you at what point are you going to put the foot down though? Because you said this earlier, it's not working for you anymore, babe.

Johnna: 58:44

Yeah Well, it goes back to like, like kind of in my world, where people and I still see this online all the time and I used to be one of these people and thank God that our brains and opinions can change but like being like, well, if you just tried hard enough you could lose weight. If you just got up at 4am, that's not the same for everybody, correct? Can I get up at 4am because I don't have children? Absolutely I can, because I go to bed at six o'clock.

Alex: 59:09

There has to be empathy and healthcare that it's not so easy.

Alex: 59:13

And Ayurveda again makes your routine which is my whole point in care. I give you recommendations on your lifestyle and your waking through, sleeping routine. What are we doing each day? And it's augmented again for you. So, if you do have four kids, if you are a CEO, if your in-laws live with you because they need care, and the laundry list goes on of all of your, your, um, your responsibilities it's exhaustive and it's endless. But I'm here to tweak just a few things to make your nervous system regulate so that you can get through those things, because you can't just tell someone well, get rid of your kids, get rid of your in-laws, get rid of all of your responsibilities at your job. It's not that easy, you know, but how can I help you? Augment your lifestyle to where? What are some breathing techniques you can use through the busy times of the day? Here's a recommendation Stop to eat.

Alex: 1:00:14

Don't eat on your drive to work. If that means yes, maybe I need to wake up a few minutes earlier in the morning to make that possible. I will, but it's returning that balance of care and that responsibility back to you to say it hasn't been working before, it's too much. I'm in a state of overwhelm Now. I have to say these are hard boundaries for me.

Johnna: 1:00:33

Yes, I am a working mother.

Alex: 1:00:34

I'm doing the most. I'm maybe a single mom doing the most, but you have to have the boundary and I love when I get to sit in sessions with consultations and I can help you, be an advocate for yourself, to say I care for you. I know that you're sitting in a state of overwhelm and how it's now manifesting in these conditions that are plaguing you. How can I be your advocate to remind you to be your own advocate?

Johnna: 1:01:01

yeah, enough is enough. I have to have my boundaries do you have a client that you can think of that maybe made an impact on you kind of like? I know, like not to tell like too much because it hit me and stuff like that, but like it's kind of a two-part question, so like a client that you can recall and kind of walk us through the consult process and stuff, so that the listeners can kind of understand what you do but also hear an amazing story that you have.

Alex: 1:01:25

Yeah, that's a really good thought. A really good example would be someone that how do I say this? I had a client that is a female and she has been dealing with autoimmune disorders, which is very common in the female population because we have so much stress and overwhelm. It's very common, so it can manifest in these ways. And you know, I'm hearing the. I have to do this. I have to take this person to school, I have to, you know, maintain this part of my job. I have to travel for my in-law to take care of them. I have to do this, this, that and the third. And I'm dealing with these autoimmune disruptions. Um, but by the time, it's time for me to eat.

Alex: 1:02:09

all I, all I can even stand to to do, is have some coffee and have some candy or sugar, yeah Right, which where you're like, wait, whoa, you're having these problems but you're not giving your body any tools to deal with them, but you're not giving your body any tools to deal with them. And it was as simple. Not as simple she's still working on this but it can be as simple as just saying it's a lot. Why don't we sit in this consultation and do a breathing exercise together so that you can practically use this tool when that moment in the car or when that moment at home gets too stressful, here's some breathing that you can do. Right then, it takes no, no effort beyond you, just sitting still for a moment and returning back to yourself. And the next time I saw her, of course there was, you know, a lot of other recommendations I gave her, but that was the biggest one that stood out to her- so you're kind of like a two for one, you're kind of like a number one, a wellness instructor, and you're a therapist.

Alex: 1:03:06

I think a lot of us feel that way because, um, it comes down to just having that conversation, especially for women. You know, I have to advocate. There is sometimes no one wants to listen and it can be that simple. So, um, just sitting down and just making that space and making that safe space to know that it's okay to be overwhelmed and it's okay to have these problems, You're not at fault, your body's not fighting against you, right? In terms of autoimmune disorders, disruptions, it's. Why is my body doing this to me? Right, it's. It's. It's flipping the narrative and saying actually, my body has an innate ability and a desire to live in a state of homeostasis, live in a state of balance, and there's things out of my control that are fighting against me. Where can I return back control? What are spaces in my lifestyle that I do have control over? So, what a consultation would look like?

Alex: 1:04:01

If somebody comes in, we meet, um, of course, I give a general synopsis of what Ayurveda is right, those five elements, how we work in accordance with nature, how we harmonize, and I'll say okay, here's some questions to ask. You know, um, what are some ways that you tolerate temperature? Do you tolerate cold? Do you tolerate heat? Um, are you someone that just cannot stand wind and cold and you just can't even go outside? Um, are you someone that during the summers you're just like I'm, just always hot? I can't stand it. There's certain questions like that that I'll ask about.

Alex: 1:04:35

How do you respond to the environment? How do you respond to nature? How do you digest foods? Not just do you eat it, and nothing happens Like what does that feel like to you? Do you have acidity and acid reflux? Do you have bloat when you eat foods? Do you experience nothing at all? How does your elimination go? What's the quality of your eliminations? We're talking about poop. Right, it's okay. It's a safe space. It's important. What goes in is just as important as the quality of what comes out to it.

Alex: 1:05:04

It's a huge diagnostic tool it can tell you a lot, a lot. So those are the types of questions that I ask. I want to know every piece to the puzzle of your mind and your body. How do you respond to stress? Do you respond with anxiety, nervousness? Do you respond with anger, frustration? Do you stay in the corner? Do you isolate and you have no motivation? These are questions that I want to know that help me have an idea of, not just beyond, what does your body look like to me right now, but what? How does your body literally function? And then, with those answers in mind, I will say okay, you don't respond super well this way, this way, this way. So now we can tweak your routine a little bit.

Alex: 1:05:49

If you don't respond well to the heat in the environment, here's ways that you can. What hours of the day should you avoid going outside? Here's some drinks that you can drink or foods that you can eat that will keep your body cool so that, when you do go outside, the heat won't harm you as much. The list goes on. It's everything right. So, and back to the stress factor. Full circle there. Okay, when I'm super stressed, I have anxiety, nervousness, my mind is a wreck. Here's some breathing exercises before, during and after the stressful event. That can really help your nervous system regulate. And again, everything I just said are free. It's free recommendations. I'm not asking you to spend money. I do have herbs available, because sometimes it does take a little bit of supplementation, and that's what they're there for. Again, nature working with us. The herbs are created from plants. Right, nature has been there since the beginning of time for humans to help us, isn't aspirin from the willow bark?

Alex: 1:06:48

Yes, it is. I was like yeah.

Johnna: 1:06:50

And like basically, and again, guys, this is you talk to your doctor before you change anything over, because we're not telling you we anything over, because we're not telling you, we're just talking, yes, um, I think, berberine they did a study with berberine and metformin and berberine out. Um, basically did the same in the studies as metformin for diabetics.

Alex: 1:07:08

There's so many anti-inflammatory herbs um. Ginger, turmeric, are great examples in your diet that you can increase every day and it can literally pull you away from a lot of certain prescription medications because it actually works better yeah, it's crazy.

Johnna: 1:07:26

My friend who's from saint lucia like if he even felt a cold coming on, he would be like where's my ginger tea?

Alex: 1:07:33

I'm not gonna name names on here, but she'll listen and she'll know why. But it's okay. I have one sneeze at the beginning of spring in Jones Valley and I have to go get a Z-Pak right away. No local hunting, give it a second.

Alex: 1:07:50

Yeah, there's so many different ways we can use nature right Use the local honey, because those bees pollinated the plants that are creating the allergies in your environment. It's great. Bees pollinated the plants that are creating the allergies in your environment. It's great, but not even just that. Give it a second. And I and we can't blame ourselves because we live in a fast paced culture where we don't have time to be sick.

Johnna: 1:08:08

We have to get back to work.

Alex: 1:08:10

We don't have PTO. But it's also like, yes, these natural quote unquote we're using here at these natural alternatives to care, when we use something like cold or flu as an example, take longer, but that's, and that could be just a couple more days, but that's because we're letting the body do the work on its own. So again, like you said, please see your doctor.

Johnna: 1:08:33

I'm not stressing on that though, psa, though, psa on that that that that does irritate me when people do that. Because do that? Because when I worked in the ER we'd have a lot of people who would sneeze one time and be like I need something. Right now, literature tells you usually a cold is going to be its worst at day three to five. When you get prescribed an antibiotic on day one sorry, I'm sorry you're supposed to start feeling better by day five when you get prescribed an antibiotic. Let's say you go to the doctor on day two and you're three days into an antibiotic. You are already going to feel better anyways. And an antibiotic isn't for a virus and that's why we have a lot of antibiotic resistant organisms, because we're being prescribed too many antibiotics. But doctors are afraid not to prescribe antibiotics because then the patient gets mad and they don't come back to their practice.

Alex: 1:09:17

And then that's my PSA on that. I love it. We're speaking the language, it's great. And antibiotics have also helped us, when they're prescribed appropriately for the right thing, being bacterium.

Johnna: 1:09:28

And again, we're not telling you what to do because we're not assessing you. So if you feel, like you need to go to the doctor. Please go to the doctor?

Alex: 1:09:33

Absolutely, we're. This is an integrative healthcare conversation. But but going back to even that, you know, resist maybe if, if it's not a dire necessity to have penicillin as an example, resist the, the urge to take certain antibiotics, because then the next phase is gut microbiome disruption and then that can lead into the next problem, and the next problem, and the next problem. So what are ways that we can live in accordance with nature and supplement your immune system? Root cause to to, to deal with whatever's coming up cold flu, whatever it is the body's just saying.

Alex: 1:10:14

Hey, my immune system is disrupted so quick. You know. If we then take an antibiotic, yes, it might help the cold, but then it just disrupted the immune system because the microbiome holds what we now know as being 90% of the immune system.

Johnna: 1:10:29

People don't realize like antibiotics killed both good and bad bacteria because they can't target, just like chemotherapy targets all cells, not just not just cancer cells.

Johnna: 1:10:38

So that's something. But you know what? Also, that goes into educating your patient. I think if more providers did just educate and sit down and have a conversation, say, hey, I can prescribe you this, but let me tell you, you know what, the reasons not to, or the reasons why to, and let the patient kind of collaborate on that decision, because maybe the patient then, if they had a better understanding, would say, ok, well, never mind.

Alex: 1:11:00

then yeah, you know, and again it's like going back to the empathy of the medical culture. I mean, we've been conditioned to say whatever my doctor says goes Right, not. How can I learn more about my body and how it responds to my environment and what can I do preventatively or when it's time to treat? What can I reach for in my pantry, in my refrigerator, on my supplement counter? What can I reach for, instead of saying I got to go to the doctor right away?

Johnna: 1:11:32

Well, I do have a few more personal questions are kind of kind of for your wellness too, but what advice would you give someone looking to pursue? Sorry, wrong, you already answered that. Um, your favorite daily Ayurvedic practice, ayurvedic practice, and what Ayurvedic routine or remedy do you swear by personally?

Alex: 1:11:51

Okay, so my favorite practice and I'll expand on why this is for everybody um is regulating your waking and sleeping routine.

Johnna: 1:12:04

I cannot do that to save my life. I'm going to come see you.

Alex: 1:12:06

Hey girl, I'm telling you, some days are easier than others for myself to terrible sleeper, since I was five years old.

Alex: 1:12:12

Here's, here's the baseline of why that's so important and I and this, hopefully, will resonate with a lot of people Um, we are beings that regulate based off of our circadian rhythm. For those that don't know, that means you're waking and sleeping routine and we have a substance um in our body that's released and inhibited when we sleep and we wake. This is called melatonin. When we go to sleep, melatonin rises, allowing us to have restful sleep. This is when cell repair happens. When we wake, melatonin decreases, so that we're not so sleepy and groggy and we can go about our day. When we regulate just that system alone meaning we have the same time of day we wake up in the same time of day that we go to sleep as much as as physically possible.

Alex: 1:13:06

I know that some RNs, third shift at the hospital, are rolling their eyes right now, and I get it, um, but optimally, if we can create a regulated timeframe for those two waking and sleeping times, your circadian rhythm will also regulate itself, and that your circadian rhythm happens to be what sets the tone for other systems in the body, our thyroid system that controls our hormone regulation. It's probably why my hormones are zero. Well, and I get that.

Johnna: 1:13:40

I get that question a lot.

Alex: 1:13:41

How can women right it's may, so it's women's health month. How can I regulate my hormones as a woman? That's my first thing. Girl, just get your circadian rhythm in order, because it gives rise to all the other systems our hormone regulation, our thyroid, the way that our bodies digest foods, the way that our brain works, um lubrication of our joints. You wouldn't believe the ways that the circadian rhythm then um transcends to the other rhythms of the body that are so important. So that's huge and you know quickly. We have to mention that that's really hard in our modern culture because we're doom scrolling at nine 30 at night.

Alex: 1:14:20

The blue light is confusing our circadian rhythm. Um, you were spiking your cortisol. Spiking your cortisol, so your your melatonin. The piece to your circadian rhythm that controls your desire to fall asleep is controlled by the sun. So when the sun rises, your melatonin turns off and that tells your body it's time to wake up, it's time to get going, be productive, turns on your digestive system, turns everything on, and when the sun sets, melatonin begins to release, telling us to fall asleep.

Alex: 1:14:55

So the best medicine right that you can do to help regulate that is not only set your alarm for the same time in the morning, but start reducing what we've heard already. Start reducing your screen time. You know, an hour or two before it's time to go to bed, because that blue light from your TV, your iPad as small children or your cell phone, whatever it is is really disrupting that melatonin release in the brain. So that's probably the best way that you can do that and then set your alarm for the same time. I know it's hard on the weekends, we want to sleep in, but if you can try to wake at the same time for those of us that feel super sluggish in the morning upon waking things like that. If you give yourself one week of regulating that, you will feel tremendous changes in the body and in the mind.

Johnna: 1:15:38

So my problem is is I wake up before my alarm and I just wake up like at 3am and it really makes me angry naturally.

Alex: 1:15:43

Well, we can take a deep dive into why that is. If you'd like to sit for a consultation cause there's a lot of reasons, literally.

Johnna: 1:15:50

It makes me so angry.

Alex: 1:15:52

Yeah, the, the that fire element that we discussed. It's really starting to start to Kindle, if you will, between like 11 and 3 AM. So for a lot of people we have that typical why do I always wake up at like two, 30 or 3 AM and I look at my clock and it's the same time every night, every time. That's why there's there's a little bit of that, and then for you, you're feeling that anger, so maybe you have that fire element, a little bit like me and your body, so you tend towards that. So there's ways that we can regulate and calm that down, okay.

Johnna: 1:16:21

So that's definitely coming to see you.

Alex: 1:16:23

That's a big piece. Please do. It'd be so much fun, we could expand and I could learn so much from you too. Um, so, and then nature's best medicine, if you will, can be hot water. Okay, we go back to digestion water. Okay, we go back to digestion, right. Um, we don't want to slow digestion by giving cool temperature foods or drinks in the gut.

Alex: 1:16:48

Anything and the body is is run by the channels. Right, we have different channels, esoterically speaking that, that keep the body moving and going, not just our circulatory system with our blood, but in our nervous system, with our nerves. But you can see the body kind of as this moving creature that has all of these rhythms and channels going through it. So keeping them open is the most important thing we can do so that the body can then function appropriately. So when we drink warm fluids, ie hot or room temp or even just warm water, this can be a huge, huge benefit, especially when we have blockages in those channels. We'll see that, right, in digestive problems, constipation, even diarrhea, things like that. We can see it in congestion in the face, we can see it in heart congestion, right, blockages through cholesterol, um, cholesterol, things like that. So if we can keep the channels clear and open and again right. This is a free recommendation. We can all heat up hot water and make them for ourselves and just sip that throughout the day.

Alex: 1:17:53

If you're having any of these blockages, sensations or symptoms in the body, that can be. One of nature's best medicines is just heat the body back up and allow it to flow freely. Um, when I give that recommendation to everybody, people will be like wait what?

Johnna: 1:18:08

And is it okay to do like a hot tea, like a non-caffeinated tea? Yeah, yeah, I definitely give it a little flavor.

Alex: 1:18:13

Yeah, to give it some flavor. Um, if you can, you know, make it just plain, you might really enjoy those benefits. But we've heard this for a long time. First thing upon waking, have warm lemon water.

Johnna: 1:18:24

Detoxify the body.

Alex: 1:18:25

So we're already used to that. That's already something that we've heard. So if you can add some lemon in it, that can be really stimulating and nice. If you have too much acid in the body, you may want to reduce the lemon and just go for plain warm to hot water. You may want to reduce the lemon and just go for plain warm to hot water. Um, but yes, if, if it's more palatable for you to to add a tea to make that possible, still get great benefits.

Johnna: 1:18:53

All right.

Alex: 1:18:53

And which dosha do you identify with most and why, and has that changed over time? If you probably haven't already realized, I think you and I are pretty aligned with this, so I resonate most with the Pitta Dosha. We talked about the five elements earlier and there's three different dosha types. That's how we break down which of those five elements we resonate with most. Which ones are most in our body. The Pitta Dosha is the middle one. It's made of that fiery element and I've always resonated with that and yes, it can change over time. Everybody has different doshas that govern the physiology at different stages of life, so everybody gets those changes, but we all have one that dominates our physiology through most of the life path and mine would be the fiery one.

Johnna: 1:19:37

That's my bad for not asking you. I thought the doshas and the elements were the same thing.

Alex: 1:19:42

That's my bad for not asking that earlier so there's three doshas yeah, there's three doshas, so there's five elements. Okay to to nature ether, or known as space, air, fire, water and earth. Everybody has all of those in the body, but wait, what makes us unique is our individual combination of those elements, which is the dos dosha. That's the dosha.

Johnna: 1:20:01

So what are the three doshas?

Alex: 1:20:02

Vata is the first one. It's made of the space and the air elements. So you can imagine if someone's a Vata dominant dosha person, they're going to be your super fast paced person. They can't stop moving, they won't stop talking, they go, go, go, go go. They're super enthusiastic about life. They can't really sit still and you can see this in their like hand and body motions. They're always on the move. You know, um, and. But that just means that they have more of that air element. So they're literally like air, just moving all the time. So, physiologically speaking, they might be your person. That's thinner, they might have more prominent bony structures and, um, the, the next dosha would be Pitta. So that's what myself and what I'm going to gauge, if you're comfortable with it you might be too.

Alex: 1:20:48

It's kind of that middle dosha. It embodies a lot more of that fire element to it. So because they have more fire, they're going to be that person that's more like intellectually focused. They want to always learn something new. They're very sharp and that can not just like intellectually focused. They want to always learn something new. They're very sharp and that can not just be intellectually sharp.

Alex: 1:21:04

They might come off as sharp which I've heard this, I've heard this given back to me Um, but when it comes to their body like they might, because they have that fire member, they might be more prone to those inflammatory conditions. They might have more fire literally in the body. Um, so physiologically speaking, they look more like medium size. They have like more medium structure, but they tend to have more muscle tone because they have that increased blood. They've got all that strength there. They might somebody that when you talk about their, their tendons, their bones, it's medium, but they might be the person that you can really see their veins prominently like. They're like the muscle person in the group right. They like to exercise, they like to work out and do weight, weight lifting, things like that okay last dosha is called kapha and this dosha is more of again that like more gross elements.

Alex: 1:21:58

Gross meaning heavy, right. So your earth, your water elements, so they're going to embody a little bit of a slower pace. They like to move slow, they talk a little slower. There's somebody that could be a really great friend, because they'll just sit and listen and they don't really need to talk a lot. They don't have sharp responses towards you, they're just kind of like, you know, hanging out, they're your chill friend. Now, their body type might be a little bit more structurally sound because they are more earthy. They might be your taller friend, that's a little bigger boned. They might have larger hips, larger thighs, their gate, they might like, literally like, move a lot slower than others, different than that first vata person, right, that's like oh, it's something they just can't can't tell me your kafa person's gonna be super chill now because they have more of that deep, heavier earth element to them.

Alex: 1:22:55

They might have tendencies towards slowing down problems. They might be more depressive in nature. Their digestion might be super slow, really dull, Um. So those are just some examples. It's a lot to break down and it's new terms that people haven't heard before, but those are just examples of the three. But um, I definitely resonate with the Pitta one right in the center. Anybody that knows me knows like I am like sharp, I'm on it, Like I've got to have control over everything, Like um that's definitely me.

Johnna: 1:23:27

Now. I will say I used to be probably more of the like speak faster, like before I started working with practitioners and stuff actually.

Alex: 1:23:42

And everybody has all of them. Remember, we all have all those elements within us. It's just that some of us have one that's dominating more than the other, and sometimes it's not that easy too. Someone may come in and, and you know, you might assume that, oh, it's vata, pitta or kapha, and we're going to treat them with that in mind. Somebody might have an even split right down the middle of two, or even all three, and that's where it gets fun and exciting, because it's not just simple, and so that can happen a lot. And so if you're listening to this and you're like whoa, I feel like I'm not even sure where I land to take a test. This is available on my website dosha wellnessnet. D O S H a wellnessnet. There's a property assessment in there and that's your mind, body type, that's that, that esoteric term property, and it's super fun to take. It's so fun because it breaks down all of those questions I asked before, like how do you tolerate certain temperatures, how?

Johnna: 1:24:39

do you?

Alex: 1:24:39

respond to stress? How does your digestive system work? What does your physical body look like? Blah, blah, blah. And it's really cool because it gives you an opportunity to understand more about how your body works and interacts with nature. And um, keep in mind, if you take those tests, a lot of us are going to have a, a, an even split between a lot of things, but you'll find pretty quickly that a lot of us have that dominating one and you're like oh, that makes sense. And I like to interject this in as well, whenever I do workshops and we take this test as a group and we all discuss it. It's so fun because not only do we move from a place of less judgment towards ourselves and we become less critical of why we have tendencies towards certain things that others may not, or maybe why we're known as that sharp friend that just can be kind of too much to some people like myself same, moving from a place of less judgment for the self, and knowing this is my nature.

Alex: 1:25:41

Yeah, how can I live in accordance with it and use it? Use it for its strengths. Not it's, it's what we might look as weaknesses, but how can we understand others? Yeah, how can we understand our partner, our mother, our father, our child, um, our boss, even, yeah, our co-workers? So it becomes this, this kind of avenue of communication, not only with yourself but society around you. So when someone says something sharp to you or they seem super unmotivated and heavy and dull and they don't care about the things that you care about, um, or maybe they're like super anxious and you just like can't understand why, it almost becomes this like guiding tool to be like oh, I get why Jonna talks like that or thinks like that, or why her body does this or that. It's really cool because it gives this like empathy and compassion for not only yourself but everyone and everything around you, and I think it's a really cool way to to learn more about, for sure, for sure.

Johnna: 1:26:44

No, I appreciate you doing this and explaining everything. You're so easy to talk to. So tell everybody again where they can find you, maybe book a consult, and this will definitely be in the show notes. So, guys, just click in the show notes, but also say it for everyone where they can follow you on socials and all the things.

Alex: 1:27:00

Yes, so I am a business within a business. So I'm an instructor here at light on yoga fitness and this is my wellness suite inside of it, um, where I have my Ayurvedic wellness business called dosha wellness. So if you would like to book or have questions or want to research more, you can go to my website directly, wwwdoshawellnessnet. You can also go to light on yoga fitness's website, um, and you can book directly through that um site. Learn more about your dosha type, take the quiz on there, learn more about the principles of Ayurveda there's a blog on there that has some fun tips and tricks about the different doshas, things like that Um and then always be on the lookout because I do offer workshops throughout the community where we can sit and learn more about some of these principles and dive deeper into Ayurveda. So you can do consults, and then all throughout the month of May the consultations are 20% off. So if you do decide to book online, you can use the code yoga week and um it'll give you 20% to give it your first try.

Johnna: 1:28:06

All right. Well, thank you so much. And we're going to have to do a part two cause I have so many more questions.

Alex: 1:28:10

Likewise, we have a lot to talk about. I really enjoyed this. Thank you so much.

Johnna: 1:28:14

Absolutely All right, guys, Until next time. Bye you.