Did you know there is an ancient science of life called Ayurveda that can transform the way you live your life?

Are you curious about how to support your health while you travel?

Dr. Shivani Gupta, a renowned Ayurveda practitioner & owner of Fusionary Formulas, uncovers the secrets of Ayurveda and its transformative impact on your health, especially while you travel. Tune in for an enlightening discussion exploring the art of organically reducing inflammation and harmonizing Eastern and Western practices, fostering holistic health and balance.

What We Discuss:

• What is Ayurveda & Ayurveda 101 
• How Dr. Gupta learned about the power of Ayurveda
• Living between two Worlds - India & America
• Pregnancy & Postpartum in India and America
• How to Travel based on your Dohsa
• Getting back into your rhythms & habits after traveling

Connect With Dr. Shivani Gupta:

• Website (https://shivanigupta.com/)
• Supplements & Courses (https://fusionaryformulas.com/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheShivaniGupta/) 
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dr.shivanigupta/) 

Resources:

• Find Your Dosha Quiz
• The Conscious Pregnancy Book
• 6-Week Inflammation Solution Course

Connect with Kelly:

• Instagram @kelly.tolliday.yoga
• Instagram @risingnatureretreats
• Website

Thanks for Tuning In!

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Mentioned in this episode:

Child & Company

Rising Nature Retreats

I'm your host Kelli Tolede and it's my mission to inspire you to live life to its fullest. Travel with an open mind and heart and let the world show you a new perspective. I'm so grateful you're here with us today. So let's dive right in. Happy exploring.

Welcome to the Transform with Travel podcast. I'm so excited to welcome Dr. Shivani Gupta here with us today. We're going to share so many. Amazing little nuggets of wisdom and really dive into your story. Dr. Shivani Gupta is an Ayurvedic practitioner and an expert in fusing Eastern and Western practices that help our bodies achieve equilibrium.

Yeah. Dr. Shivani Gupta has practiced Ayurvedic medicine for over 20 years and her approach is to show you the tools in your toolkit so you can reach for them every time you need them. She is also the founder of Fusionary Formulas, an Ayurvedic company that helps people with inflammation and pain and I can say as a personal customer of Fusionary Formulas, you have transformed my sleep with your deep sleep tea so I'm so excited for people to share and just learn more about you and be able to find these products.

I'd love for you to Just give a little background on, you know, what, what it's like having gone down this journey of an Ayurvedic path and how you even got involved in Ayurveda. What is Ayurveda? Let's start with that. All the questions.

So Ayurveda is an entire system. and health and healing from India that's over 5, 000 years old. And what's really cool is it's this ancient system that had so much wisdom in it, it encompasses detox like protocols for us. Nutrition, gut health, brain health, circadian rhythm, self care, how to eat, when to eat.

So it's really a preventive lifestyle that we can all live every single day. And I truly believe that if we lived the Ayurvedic lifestyle, we would not see disease and chronic disease and inflammation and all these horrible things that we see happening in our populations at the rate that we're seeing them.

So I'm just really passionate about teaching it. Cause I think we should all live a life that's preventive. So we get to live as long as we want, as healthy as we want and, you know, be there for our families.

Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a really big trend right now in people learning about longevity and not just how many years are in your life, but the quality of years that are in your life.

Shivani: that.

Sure.

So I'm from Houston, Texas, and I grew up in a household right here in the West with an immigrant family where we were just trying to, like, my parents were trying to just build financial foundation for us and survive. And I remember once we finally achieved some stability, we'd go back to India every year, and I would hang out in my grandparents homes, my mom's house, my dad's house, and my grandma, my mom's mom, Anytime I had a stomach issue, any problem, she would just make like hinka pani, like she would open the spice cabinet, the Indian spice cabinet, use some spices, make some teas, and serve them to us.

I was doing Indian classical dance and going to Sunday school at the temple every Sunday. But in school all week, it was just a different approach.

And finally, by the time I hit high school, I realized I don't have the same body or immune system as anyone else. For some reason, everyone else gets to live a normal life, and I'm car sick, air sick, sea sick, and if anyone sneezes, I ghost.

Like, I'd go down hard, and my pediatrician was giving me Augmentin every month for those colds. She was like, oh, you're sick again, oh, you're sick again, obviously we should go with a strong antibiotic. And at that time, there was less awareness around the punishments of high antibiotic use. And so I got to college, and I, it became an even more acute issue.

All my friends could party and have fun, and I was in college in Boston, where it was cold, and I just, I got so sick of being sick. And so finally, I was in India on one of our family trips. I was disastrously sick and this Dr. Gupta handed me a prescription for this medication I needed. He listed 12 medicines.

And I was like, watch me. And I was like, you haven't prescribed me one probiotic. You're about to blow my gut up for the 10th time with some crazy antibiotic out of India. Let's just, please, like let's, let's have a conversation. I'm not doing any of this. And so that's when I went on this journey. Through India.

I told my parents I will open an Ayurvedic spa. I have to change my life. I know Ayurveda works. Like I just went on this exploration. And everything I found healed me, and I have a gut that's, like, I can't even tell you how strong my immune system is now. We just got through a pandemic, and I'm, like, unscathed.

I'm very impressed with, if you, like, really honor the body, the power of the body to come back completely refreshed and new.

Shivani: system?

Sure. So along in our gut lining, about 80 percent of our immune system is existing within our gut. So a lot of people think, Oh, I have this immune system. Oh, and I have gut health and, and we don't correlate it really. In Ayurveda, we teach that gut is the key to all. We teach that we have a digestive. fire within us and it's our job to honor that fire like a campfire.

Like every day you wake that thing up and you're gonna use it to digest and metabolize your three meals. Your gut is your brain health. Your gut is your immune health. Your gut is your energy. Your gut is your metabolism. So everything you want in life from a longevity perspective or really just an immune perspective, it all comes down to gut health.

And the problem is in modern day times, there's a million factors that want to destroy our gut. And so we have to really play defense. to have a healthy gut and thus lifestyle. Yeah,

How's her, how's her nutrition? And trying to correlate that to all the colds that they get in daycare. So I think it's a really interesting, Turn of events that are happening right now and you're on the forefront of talking to a lot of different doctors and you're in doctor's offices all the time trying to get your amazing, amazing supplements and your courses out there so more people can live a vibrant life, which I absolutely love when you talk about going from Houston to India and back and forth visiting family and going back.

Shivani: There's a lot there.

There's huge contrasts. So growing up in the West, my parents were very hardworking, very successful entrepreneurs. They were the greatest combination of luck meets hard work. And so they went from having like 25 in their pocket to building a company worth tens of millions of dollars.

But what that meant was We had a nanny. We had a housekeeper who was living. They would travel on business and just leave us home. We ate a lot of McDonald's and junk food. We were just those typical American kids. You have lots of activities. You're busy. Either your parents are picking up or someone's picking you up.

And so my grandma was always home. My aunts were always home. And there was this honoring, like you would wake up and, you know, the temple where the gods are, God had already been, you know, you'd already meditated in the morning, they had already done an offering to God, then the preparation of food for the whole day had started.

Proper fresh breakfast, proper fresh lunch made, proper fresh dinner made. Like such an honoring that food and nutrition for the family comes first. There's these vegetable valas, like these men who come down the street with their carts, they sell you your vegetables for the day. So everything was fresh daily.

It's not like when I go to Publix and I buy my food and I'm hoping it lasts two weeks and I Instacart my Costco, you know, like it's a. Completely different vibe. Yeah. So that honoring of food, that honoring of sitting down as a family and eating people would wake up, not necessarily in my family, but in a lot of families to do their yoga.

Or I'm trying to fit in my health. Versus there, the rhythm of life is just built differently. And so now, I mean, it's You know, 30 years later, since I went there as a child, it's different. I've watched India change and evolve and modernize and westernize. I watched fast food come in and MTV come in and all these things.

But now you can see the revert, the return to Ayurveda, the return to yoga, the understanding that, hey, we signed up for all this. And it was bad for us. So it's like a returning to wisdom.

You mentioned how India really like the fabric of life, and this is a big generalization obviously, and it depends on which village you're in or which city, but It has that, that, that rhythm of life that incorporates health as part of their daily life, as, as, as a core part of their daily life, not just I'm going to slot in 30 minutes at a HIT class and then boom, I've ticked off my health for the day, I'm done.

And a lot of other places around the world that I've observed are like that as well. I know the Dutch have now been, The, in the Netherlands, they've been dubbed the most fit or they get the most exercise in the whole world per week, per person. And it's not because they're slogging it out for six hours a day at the gym.

It's because they're riding their bicycles to work and their whole society has been built around making it cycle friendly. And so that kind of reminds me of like, okay, how can we slot in instead of slotting in wellness? We talked about this when I was on your podcast a few months ago, baking and wellness to our life.

What's different to that from America to India or how women are treated in that capacity?

Shivani: What a loaded question. Yeah, right? It is so different. When I chose to get pregnant with my children, I had already planned years ahead. That I knew the year I was going to conceive right when I was 30. I was ready to give up entrepreneurship for a period of time to focus on motherhood.

They're going to start taking some vitamins and then they bust through pregnancy working as hard as they can and then they go, boom, running into the hospital to have this birth, which might have some trauma involved. And I was like, all of that just sounds... wrong. I want to have an organic, happy, healthy baby who is zen.

Because the way I looked at it, I was like, I get to live with you and you get to live with me for the rest of my life. So you're either going to be a torture device or you're going to be an amazing human. But I do have some control over which way you turn out. I don't have total control, but I knew I had some.

And so I wrote a book called The Conscious Pregnancy back then because it was just bursting out of me. But in India, we really look at pregnancy as Everything the mother consumes goes to the baby. So what would you like your future child to be consuming? Is it horrible media content? Horrible social media content?

Horror movies? Negative things and negative emotions? Or do you want to hold her as like a goddess level of care and love her and feed her and nourish her? I remember every time I went to my mother in law's house, she'd be like, Shivani, here's food. I cooked it just for you and I put ghee on top and I'd be like, I don't want to gain weight.

She's like, Shivani, it's ghee. It's Ayurvedic. Like, come on. I'm here to nourish you. You have to nourish yourself. That's the whole focus for this nine months. And so it's just vastly different. I, and the modern day woman, whether Indian or not, definitely treats herself like, alright, this is just a time period.

Focus on their nourishment and health. Like, remember that the key pieces matter and all the little

Kelly: stuff doesn't. Mm. Totally. And with, so I know in a lot of ancient cultures with postpartum, there is this very sacred period of time post baby. Sometimes it's 30 days, sometimes it's 40 days, sometimes it's even up to two months in some cultures.

What does that look like from Indian culture to American culture?

So she doesn't have chronic long term issues. And this is the time where baby is most sensitive and really honoring baby is important. So that's where I took the most notes from the aunties. I was like, okay, what do you feed mommy after baby? What do you mean non gas producing foods? What are those super spices you're using?

So they would recommend things like ajwain kappani. Ajwain is this spice that reduces gas in the body. And Ka'apani just means made in the water, made in tea. So I would have ajwain in my tea, I'd have ajwain in these parathas and breads. There was a huge category of foods I wasn't allowed to eat, like cauliflower, anything that would produce gas.

Certainly no meat or outside food or processed food. Everything was homemade. My mom stayed with me for those 40 days. She flew in, even though she's an entrepreneur and she was busy, she's like, I'm taking these 40 days off to take care of you. And there's also like a Chinese medicine Ayurveda intersection there.

Peace to nurture and heal before you move on. So there's so much there culturally And that's why I wrote that book and I honestly I wish I wrote like deeper further ones after that one You can do

Kelly: a second edition.

Shivani: Yeah There's just so much there where you know, I have friends who were like, well, you know, I had the baby four weeks ago I'm done.

I'm hitting the gym and I was like you were gonna get joint pain for life You may not put wind energy in your body. You may not exercise. I know it's tempting, but like, let the body heal first. So you get the long term healthy one. Don't look, don't be short

Kelly: sighted. Yeah, I think, and even just from, from the physical point of view, just from your actual healing muscles, like the pelvic floor, oftentimes people get that six weeks, okay, I'm off, I'm running.

So it's like really thinking about the longevity, asking yourself, what does my 80 year old self want to feel like? And is what I'm doing right now, hurting her or hindering her? And I think that's what Ayurveda, the science of life is really all about is how can I bring more quality? into my life. So with Ayurveda, can you go a little bit into, you mentioned the word dosha, can you go a little bit into like Ayurveda 101 in case people are interested and how do they learn more about it?

Then you have the Pitta woman or man, but a Pitta person is fiery. They're like on fire, entrepreneurial, go getters. They tend to get jealous and angry a lot, but they're more in the medium body or have a reddish tone to them even, which I'm a bit though. And then the guffa crew is like big boned, of the earth, stronger, they can lift heavier they have curly oily hair.

They're very loyal, very good friends. They're kind of like mother nature. They hold that nature, earth energy to them. And so these three constitutions are very interesting because we are born with our constitution. We can have different life traumas and events that shift our constitutions and lead us to being vitiated or imbalanced.

And when I finally just did the work, it took me over a year, but I brought myself back to my core initial dosha. All of a sudden, since then, I've been on fire. Like, everything I create, I create with purity, alignment, and intention. Everything I want to do in the world works out now because I'm coming from this aligned place.

My intuition is strong, my digestive fire and brain are on point. So like there's a lot of tools in Ayurveda's toolkits that you can use and customize. To your dosha, including your own circadian rhythm, your own schedule, your daily rhythm can be built on your dosha, and then you're that much more successful as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as a woman, as anyone out there who's trying to build a life that's of a higher caliber or a

Kelly: higher quality.

So, that's really cool, and You mentioned circadian rhythm, which I know is something that you talk a lot about. You do a lot of workshops on. It's a big part of your course. You have a six week course all about being able to bring in these Ayurvedic principles into your life and bring yourself into balance, which we'll talk about in a little bit, but as travelers, circadian rhythm.

Is like the biggest problem that we face almost, especially as travelers with young babies as well, which that's a whole nother topic, but how can someone who's traveling internationally or even just traveling to a different time zone within the U. S. or within their own country. What are some of your best tips for someone, as someone who travels a lot for work, what do you do to help keep your circadian rhythm on point?

And so nature's rhythm is the seasons. It's the moon cycle. It's the daily sun rising and sun setting. And so if we learn how to live in our own circadian rhythm here now in our own city, we have this new power where we're more energized when we can Leverage our energy during our certain times of day, and we have certain parts of the day which are just low energy times.

And I just laugh at myself and I'm like, would you like to do that tomorrow? No? Okay. So, what I do to win at travel, because this last year has been nuts, I grew my company by a 3x. I have been traveling to conferences and visiting factories and It's just been more travel than I'm used to, and it's definitely created this vata energy, this wind energy in me that I have to constantly battle with, and I'm like, Shivani, stay grounded.

Come on, be in nature. But I hold my schedule no matter where I go. So I will always wake up, take a few moments to meditate. I will always have my morning tea at 7 o'clock in whatever city I'm in. Whatever is the strong rhythm I hold all day, I'll make a very conscious effort to hold it in that city.

I'll wake up and work out. Just exercising on the same day you land anywhere helps you with jet lag

Kelly: tremendously. Interesting. Anytime, anytime that you, I mean obviously not super, super late at night, but let's say you land at 9am and you went for a workout at 12, that's going to help you. Yes.

Shivani: Oh, interesting.

I was like, oh gosh, three hours. That's a big time difference. So sleep with that schedule. Adjust to that schedule. Don't push through and. And fight with the schedule. Yeah, like

Kelly: try to, like, hack your way through. Yeah, don't hack. What would you say, like, someone who is traveling, let's say to Europe, and you're, you're going overnight on a flight, and you wake up, and it's really like 1am your time, but it's 6am over there.

It happens a lot, especially in the summer, there's a lot of European travel. When this episode airs, it'll be over the holidays, so people will be traveling all over the world to see their family. What do you do for overnight flights or when you arrive somewhere it's like a completely different time zone to where you are?

I look

I want to show up where I'm going as rested as possible. I'm not trying to bust through and watch 10 movies and drink and party on this flight. Wherever you show up, if you're rested, you're that much more supported to go deal with whatever this time schedule is and adjust to it. Now, some people try to think real hard about the For example, when I go to India, it throws all of us off, and so sleeping and not sleeping, you can try to play with, but to me, if I just get all the rest I need, I'm going to show up, yes, when I land, I might be up too late for the first night, but then I'll quickly adjust it to the rhythm, versus if you show up exhausted, you're not going to have the tools you need to Stay up, stay, you know, all those adjustments

Kelly: you need to make.

Can you explain a little bit about? When someone travels, if they're a Kaffa, if they're a Pitta, if they're a Vata, what they can do to kind of help themselves and alleviate some of that extra Vata energy that they're feeling when they travel.

Shivani: Yeah, I think that's where dosha awareness can be very powerful for us, because if you know your primary dosha, your travel can be customized seasonally and according to your dosha.

So, for example, I'm a born pitta. I hate being overheated. And so traveling, I finally caught this when I was pregnant with my second child. We went to this beach day on vacation. Our friends had said, we're going to spend the

whole

Shivani: day at the beach. And I was like, okay. We go to this faraway place. There's no restaurants.

There's nothing to escape Yeah, you're like always in the

Kelly: heat. Yeah So

Shivani: what I do now is I very consciously direct every vacation to be near the mountains Even if I'm going to Europe, let's go see some mountains. Let's go see some snowcaps. Those are the things that nourish me and balance my core energy, especially in the summer.

A bit that person is already fire. The summer is already hot. We should only go to cooling places. Because otherwise we will exacerbate what's in us. Gaffa people should go to places that are more about movement and wind and energy, maybe a city with that energy, because it's going to move the energy with them.

What are the places I can travel to that really support me? Like a lot of people went to Europe this summer. Yes. And this year was burning hot. And I was like, you know what, I'm so glad I couldn't go to Europe this summer. I would have, I would have erupted out of my mind. That was the least supportive thing I could do to myself.

And so I was booking a trip to Italy. My kids really want to go because I've heard me talk about it two billion times. And so we were trying to book a trip and I kept saying October, November, like where can I go where it's just the beautiful amount of cold without being too cold? Because that's the way to enjoy it fully for

Kelly: my body type.

Right. Yeah, just being aware of like the way that you react to things like, you know, as, as having a more of that Pitta energy, when you get overheated, when you get in those environments, you're going to erupt, you're going to have that anger. And so knowing how you react to certain ways, I feel that way.

So I find the places that where the mountains meet the sea is like the perfect mix for me. Those are my happiest places in the whole world. And apart from geographic locations that people can choose, how else can people support them? Maybe just as a whole, I, from an Ayurvedic perspective. What can they take or how can they support themselves through food?

Or what are some of the things from Ayurvedic? Perspective, what can they do to support themselves through travel?

Shivani: You know, I think it's about traveling with your toolkit. So when I travel, because I was trained so young that my immune system needs to be guarded, I travel with my supplements. I travel with my teas.

You have like your

Kelly: own suitcase just for, just for your supplements. Yeah,

Shivani: a lot of times when I travel, I just, that's the first thing that gets packed. I'm like, well, I could buy clothes, but I can't find my teas and supplements on the road. Exactly. So I have to go with all that, but that's part of my daily rhythm.

And so it's part of my travel rhythm too. And that's what keeps me like on a track, on a rhythm that doesn't let travel throw me off course. Back in the day when my kids were littler, our friends would take us on these trips. And I would just. And I would just eat whatever and drink whatever and our friends love to drink and I would come back and be like, what just happened?

Okay, I'm allowed to have alcohol and treats, but I'm a gluten free vegetarian. I'm not breaking my gluten free rule for travel. It's not worth it. But really looking at what you're eating. Are you eating an anti inflammatory diet? Are you eating a nutritious diet when you travel? Not just saying okay.

Well, I'm traveling So now it's like fries and grilled cheese time. It's It's keeping your daily rhythm when you travel, I think is the best investment we can make in our vibrant health. That we keep all year, but that we also keep when we travel. I don't want to be traveling and get sick. So I do take my supplements daily.

I have my teas at the exact same time. I use my sleep tools to ensure I get good sleep. Because often times in hotels I'm not going to sleep as well. It's a different bed, different pillow, all the factors. And all the

Kelly: different sounds. Yes. So I make sure

Shivani: I have my deep sleep tea, I have my deep sleep formula on hand.

Whatever it takes to ensure that I'll stay on rhythm, and then that ensures I'm going to have a better experience.

And something that's always stuck with me is, well, my naturopathic doctor in Sydney, she would always say, Your body doesn't know it's on vacation your body is operating the exact same way that it's gonna operate if you're at home So if like you said if you're gluten free vegetarian for 99 percent of your days back home And then you just go totally off script and you lose the plot and you you know

So, I think that's a really good point for people to remember and I think it goes back to a lot of ancient traditions and cultures and specifically in Ayurveda, it is so based on rhythms and like your biggest piece of advice you just said was, just try to stay within your rhythms and focus on your sleep.

Shivani: sleeping. Exactly. And, and Ayurveda is very much about moderation. So like meeting in the middle. I, I love a great glass of wine. I love certain foods. I really love food in Italy.

But it's like, okay, well, I love those things. I can really enjoy them then. But in a rhythm and in a balance. And moderation's fine. You can go one way or the other, but just don't go whole hog off the ship and then cause troubles.

Kelly: And so when you get home from your travels, and if you do say, okay, I drank a little bit more than I'm used to, I ate more pasta than I'm used to, and you get home, what's your, Get back into my rhythm, detox, Ayurvedic strategy.

Do you have specific practices that you do to help you get back grounded at

Shivani: home? I do, I do. Like, I just was in Canada on a true vacation. My mom had had this health crisis that came up and it scared me and I was like, That's it. I'm taking mom on vacation. But we should go somewhere cooling because it's summer so we picked it somewhere cool like Canada Banff Canada Which I love and the minute I got back.

It's, I have that in my home, but bringing the habit back is hard because you just got back from vacation, you're not remembering all your habits. Yeah, totally. So I was like, okay, first, let's just clean up the gut. The gut's working, everything works. Then part two, I said, you have to drop into an anti inflammatory diet.

higher protein, homemade foods, no outside food for a week or two, and then cut down on the carbs and the sugar, like retrain the body that the vacation meals are not your daily meals. This is a homemade, normal meal. And that's also a retraining when you get back from any trip. So I just immediately drop into an anti inflammatory diet, fresh, more cooked foods, which is more ayurvedic, but I do a good mix of fresh and raw as the salads alongside.

Kelly: think about it. Yeah, and because, especially with air travel, your gut goes haywire and your system is automatically in like a, like, fight or flight, like what's happening to us? There's a lot of inflammation.

And so, yeah, I can definitely see how that gut health can be number one priority for sure.

Shivani: Yeah, and go to yoga, exercise, whatever it is you do in your rhythm, I immediately go back to rhythm. And so because I, I get right back into my life schedule. There's no interruption. Versus if I'm like, oh, I don't feel like going to the gym yet.

I can't do that because I'll, I'll then give it a week of not getting into my rhythm.

Kelly: Yeah, so one of our past guests, Sean Spire, he's on episode five. He talks about, it's okay, you know. five days a week, six days a week. That's perfect. You don't need to be seven days a week on point every single time. And when you travel, it's okay if you take a little bit of a break of your routine.

And with detox in particular, I know there's a couple Ayurvedic practices like tongue scraping and And dry brushing. Can you talk a little bit about about those that people can look into?

Shivani: For sure. I love Ayurvedic self care rituals. As a mom, I kind of every once in a while have to go back and just do all of them just to reset myself.

Certainly after travel or anything like that. So we in Ayurveda recommend using a tongue scraper that's metal or copper. Which is a metal every single day in the morning and scraping the tongue seven to 14 times to remove or toxic buildup and toxins that accumulate in the body because our tongue reflects every organ in the body.

And so it's recommended for everyone. And a lot of times I do podcasts and that's the one habit people pick up, which makes me pretty happy. Everyone should pick

Shivani: ready to. I'll create like a luxury line of iron.

Ooh, let's do it. Yeah. So tongue scraping is really important and I travel with my tongue scraper because of course when you're traveling you're going to eat more fun foods and they're going to cause more buildup of toxins in the body. So there's that. We recommend oil pulling. Oil pulling is just taking like two tablespoons of any food grade organic oil.

Coconut oil, sesame oil, putting it in the mouth, holding it 5 to 20 minutes, and then spitting it out in the trash, not the sink, not the shower, not in any pipes. So that one will take all the oral microbiome that you have and every bacteria and thing that's not good in there, collect it, and send it out.

I don't do that one when I travel, although now there are travel packets I've seen for coconut oil. Oh, okay. They're sold at Whole Foods. I was like, good job, guys. You're very smart. But I do opaling at home. And that's a great way to detox after any trip. It'll pull toxins out of the body as well. We also love dry brushing.

But you can dry brush on vacation if you want. Or you can just dry brush when you get back. Then we recommend something called a Pyong massage. A Pyong is really great. Probably post travel, now that I say it. A Pyong is massaging the self with any food grade organic oil. Starting again from the feet.

So I'll usually put a towel down and do both of these. But, or, you know, you can use coconut oil. Sesame oil is the king of oils in Ayurveda because it has vitamin E. It's antibacterial. It's very beneficial. So if you want that, like, Luxe, beautiful, supple skin for life, sesame oil is the go to and you can also put it in your hair.

And then I'll usually do an Epsom salt bath after. Then get in bed. And I'm like,

Kelly: life. I feel like ready to sleep just, just hearing about all this. It sounds amazing. You have this like profound

Shivani: sleep. You feel like all is well in the world. And then have your deep sleep

Kelly: tea before, boom. You're done. You're

Shivani: done.

And you get this amazing sleep. Like my goal right now, because of how busy life is, I just want to wake up like refreshed and happy and feeling like life's epic. And I have been achieving that. I'm using all my tools, but I'm getting this perfect sleep right now. And then I'm when I wake up, I'm like, Yes, let's gym.

Yes, let's yoga. Yes, let's work. And I want to feel like that every day. So that's why I use all the Ayurvedic tools because It's a whole different quality of life mentally, emotionally, and physically when you do those things.

Kelly: Yeah, totally, because like we said, it's, it's not like Ayurveda is, is allowing yourself to get the quality of the longevity of your life.

And when an opportunity comes, you want to be able to take it full throttle and sure. And go for that. And you need to be able to bring these practices into your life so that you can, can get, can get that balance. And so it sounds like with all of these practices that you do, and, but also enjoying the world so much, like it seems like you've had such a vast array of travel experiences and that you really do allow yourself to Indulge in all of the experiences that life and this world can offer.

Where have been like some of your favorite places? I know you mentioned Italy, so I don't know if that's going to be number one, but can you talk a little bit about like your favorite travel experiences that you have or what you love so much about travel?

Shivani: Yeah. You know, growing up, what's great is my parents knew that we were going to see our family in India every year or every other year.

So I've seen the southernmost point. I've seen Bombay, Calcutta, all the places the mountains. And so my favorite place to travel on earth is actually India. I would go there every year or twice a year if I could. Right now I have little young kids, but when they're older, I'll be traveling more and I'm a Sagittarius.

So I just love leaving and running around anywhere and exploring new places. But India, I think is just so fascinating. The food is so cool that the experiences are so beautiful. I love the richness, the textures, obviously, and I'm Indian. I love the clothing and the shopping and all the things. Then after India's Italy because I studied abroad in Italy in college.

I mean, sounds like a dream. That's all I wanted and they knew it. So they were like, we cannot let this one off on to lose a leash. We need to bring her back, make her focus on business and be successful. So those are my two favorites, but honestly, I'm one of those just. I'm like a kid. I just want to see a new place.

My dad used to make so much fun of me. He'd say, Shvani, it doesn't matter where I take you in the world. You always say, I want to live here. This is it. He's like, we've taken you to France. We've taken you to Malaysia, Singapore. It doesn't matter. You just get so excited. So I'm like one of those Childlike people you can take me anywhere as long as it's comfortable.

I don't like to run too hot I don't want to hot not too hot and I don't like to rough it anymore at like too rough a level But as long as I get fed, I'm happy and I just want to like see anything new in the world

Kelly: Yeah, I I'm like the exact same way whenever I go somewhere new I'm like Secretly looking up long term rentals.

I'm like, how can I live here

Like, I want to live in those places.

Kelly: Yeah, and I think, I really do appreciate what you say about India, because I, I, I spent five weeks mainly in the north, so I spent a lot of time in Rajasthan, mostly, and then we were up in Rishikesh and Varanasi, and, and we spent some time in New Delhi, which I surprisingly really loved.

I was not expecting to love it, but I did. And it is just such, like, the, the richness, and I think it's just, So overwhelming with the senses that you are forced to be so present. Yeah. Like if you take your eye off the ball for one second, you don't even know where you are. You'll get run over. Exactly.

Shivani: And I'm from Delhi, that's where my family's from and Rajasthan is stunning and Rishikesh like has this Ayurvedic spa that I was just like, I just want to live here for the rest of my life.

So yeah.

Like when I was in Canada just now, I started writing my next book, then I got back and I've got no creative flow. Exactly. It's like the most inspired places in the world can transform. Our entire life experience and that's why I love what you do with the retreats. I'm like, yes, of course we should go on wellness retreats that completely change our life experience and and our outlooks.

Yeah,

Kelly: I appreciate that. Thank you. Come on retreat with us. I will. Absolutely. I agree. I remember I tell the story a lot, but I remember sitting in this like. three story bunk bed on a train in Vietnam. It's like an overnight train. And I have this notebook and we were, we were traveling for like a year and I had this notebook and it was just business ideas after business ideas.

Do you think. This is me just going completely off the cuff, but do you think your, like, tendency to be like, No, I have to, I have to stay at home and I have to work. Do you think that's your kapha or your pitta energy of being like, wanting to be at home is your kapha and your pitta is being like, but I gotta keep working, I gotta keep working, and you need more vata?

Like, get out there and

Shivani: explore. Yeah, I think it's funny. I think we have these, like, There's so many factors, right? I'm an introvert, naturally, by like birth, but I've learned to be an ambivert because that's what supports me in business. I am a pitta, and I'm a Sagittarius, and by human design, I'm a projector.

I know that I'm healthiest at home because when I do travel, I do like loosen the leash a bit on my health, and I'm one of those body types where I, based on my genetics, but also based on just who I am, I have to like watch my health. It's one of my jobs. So I watch my health first. I manage my family and life second.

I work third. So because I have my priority list, I, I do hold a tight schedule when I travel because I want to maintain my health, but I don't know. I just, it's like this funny juxtaposition.

Kelly: Yeah. You're like three or four people in one.

Shivani: Exactly. I really do feel that way. I, like this week I was like, you know, we've just been living in the school routine.

It's only been a month, but the school routine is dragging me down. So I'm like, we need to go on a trip. And they're like, Shwani, stop. Like. Do the work. Come on, just stay focused. Yeah.

Like if you're on it 80 percent of the time, 90 percent of the time, then it's okay to have those fun gallivants and those fun indulgences and, and go. And it's just, just making sure you're staying within the parameters of those boundaries of health, which Ayurveda is so beautiful because, I mean, we've known each other now, For four years, 2019, we met down in Zen Mindspace down in Fort Lauderdale, and you were Doing Ayurvedic workshops and consultations and we started getting into contact and I was learning a lot from you at the time and especially on your Instagram, you share so much information and from what I gather from you is Ayurveda is just such a beautiful, sustainable Health philosophy, life philosophy.

Yeah,

Shivani: and the thing is, you know, my memories from my childhood that are my best memories is when we traveled. And so I really do think of that. My father passed away when I was about 23 and when I looked back, I remembered Hawaii. I remembered India. I remembered Boston. I remembered New York, like I could remember all these trips we had.

I didn't really remember the day to day and so even though I'm so focused on like health and schedule and rhythm and all these things, I have this awareness of the time when we let all our guards down and are super present to our family is usually when we leave because the level of responsibility that at least me and my husband carry on a daily basis with the family we're moving with and living with.

You're going to eat fun stuff. You're going to do fun stuff. Who cares? At least you got to. Create those core memories, those magical memories. That's what I call them. I want those magical memories with my kids, not the mommy got us through the week and activities. Yeah, which is my daily life.

Kelly: And they'll appreciate that when they're older.

Like I look back and I, I, with such deep respect to my mom about the day in, day out, every meal, every soccer practice. But as you said, it's those really novel, new like, out of, out of your routine experiences that stand out most in your timeline. So as an adult, I can a hundred percent appreciate everything that my mom did for me and my dad as well.

Exactly. So, I so appreciate you being here today. I'm going to give all the time in the world at the end of this so you can share all the things because I do think... I actually, back it up, I want to hear about your six week Ayurvedic course online, online program that you have because I think it's such a good launching point for people that hear all this and they're like, this sounds amazing.

I'm in, check me off. How do I just even start? Because it can be a little overwhelming at the start. So how, one, how would you say? People start looking into this, and two, how can they get involved with your program?

Shivani: Sure, so a good starting off point is my Dosha quiz. On my website, I put up a free Dosha quiz just so you can kind of understand your personality type.

And then in 2020 I created a six week program because after doing so many Ayurveda consultations, what I learned was no matter what your health issue is, Ayurveda has a lifestyle protocol that we can all live that will help if you have an autoimmune condition. If you're inflamed, if you have a disease you're struggling with that's based in inflammation or any sort of chronic disease pattern, fixing the gut, fixing sleep, adjusting diet, using super spices and your medicine cabinet, all the things I teach regularly, when you learn it at a deep level, it becomes part of you.

And so that's why I created the six week program. And after a lot of women take, took it, they said, Shivani, I feel like I have a Shivani on my shoulder. And this, your voice comes through and tells me, do more self care. It's time for tea. Put down that Netflix or TV and take care of yourself and nourish yourself.

So the six week program is FusionaryMethod. com, my website is ShivaniGupta. com, and then like you said, I teach a lot on Instagram because I love it, so it's at Doctor. ShivaniGupta.

Kelly: Awesome. And what's, what seems cool about the program is that you... You get involved in a Facebook group and you get to meet all these other people that are also on the journey with you.

Oh my god,

Shivani: Positano, Italy. I'm obsessed. I think it's the most beautiful place. I was just there two years ago. It's just magic. You know, it's one of those cities that holds magic and the food's amazing and the people are amazing and I think Italy teaches us how to live this much more relaxed lifestyle where we appreciate life as opposed to just busting through life.

Kelly: Yeah, that's slow living for sure. Okay, number two is What's number one on your bucket list right now? Bali. Ooh, you haven't been? No. Oh yeah, you're going to love it. I want to go so bad. You're going

Shivani: to love it. It's on my like, life

Kelly: bucket list to go. Oh my gosh, yeah. I actually just did an interview with yoga teacher Nikki Ni.

I don't know.

Shivani: It's on my list. I have no idea.

Kelly: All right. We'll make it happen. We're just going to speak it out into the universe there. Please. All right. Number three. What's the biggest life lesson you've learned while traveling?

Shivani: Oh, oh my goodness. I think it's in India that life is short and we really think we've got forever.

Growing up I'd go to India and someone would pass away of a health disease related to diabetes. Every time I went and that family member a family member and it really shaped me because it was like in my high school years I was like, what is wrong with my family? I already know I have a not great body and immune system So it really just reminded me in India like there's so many people it moves so fast you never know and someone's like gotten run over by a bus and like there's just such a Rapidness to life there that I just I always get there and I'm like gosh, we should just appreciate each day So

Kelly: yeah.

Death is in your face all the time, whether it's an animal or a person or something like it's in your face and it is very. for something like a society as in America, we shy away from death so much. Someone passes away and it's, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry for your loss, and then you see them a couple months later and you think, oh, they have to be better now, they're not grieving anymore.

Sure. Bye. Whereas, in India, it's very much like a spiritual practice of honoring the dead and, and being very, open. Yeah. And Okay with sitting with death. Yeah. I remember there was a tree in Veranasi and the Bodhi tree maybe. Mm-Hmm. I can't remember. There's a specific tree in Veranasi where older people who feel like they're going to be passing soon, they travel from all over India and sit under the tree so that they can pass away under this sacred tree.

Wow. And we just walking around we're, we're looking at everyone and it's just like. such a part of the culture.

And our understanding, we're still going through it, but our understanding is, you know, when you live your life, like I'm in my 40s, so you have these quarters of your life. You're born, you study, you work, you build, you work, you build, and then all of a sudden you retire. And that last quarter. We believe you're meant to like let go of all attachments, release all karmas, let go of everything you're attached to so you can become one with God.

So it's just a different approach. Yeah.

Kelly: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.

Shivani: I don't even know how to explain it. It's like, Like, our culture is just so different that it's, it's, it's beautiful in its own ways and it's also tough because you're very intertwined.

Kelly: Yeah, definitely. Number four, the last one, is if you could give a piece of advice to someone who's just starting out in their travel journey or just maybe has a little bit of fear or anxiety around it, what would you, what would you say to them?

Shivani: I would say that our travel experiences are probably the biggest ones that are going to shape us in this life.

They're the ones that push us. We're going to push our boundaries. We're going to experience a lot of change. We're going to experience new foods, new smells, new sights, all those things. And so just be open to it. But also carry your little security blankets that make you feel at home. Nowadays, my mom will travel with her chutneys and pickles because if the food doesn't taste good, she can fix anything with that.

Kelly: the new world.

I love that. Awesome. Well, thank you so, so much. I will definitely, I'm going to link everything in the show notes so that everyone can connect with you, and I highly encourage. All of our listeners to look at fusionary formulas for all of your amazing supplements, all your amazing teas. If you're interested in diving deep with Ayurveda, I would highly recommend her six week program and just connect and say hi.

And I just thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Transform with Travel podcast. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode of inspiration, adventure, and exploration. If you felt inspired by this episode, please rate and review in whatever streaming app you're listening from.

Shivani: exploring.