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This is a show called Ayurveda, the Science of Life on UK Health Radio. Dr. Oscar O'Doochan, an Ayurvedic practitioner, introduces Ayurveda, an ancient system of medicine still in use today. Ayurveda focuses on digestion, nutrition, lifestyle modifications, and herbal remedies to achieve balance of body and mind. The show discusses the importance of gut health, the gut-brain axis, and the impact of stress on digestion. Common causes of poor digestion include diet, environmental toxins, medications, physical stress, and mental stress. The show provides tips on improving digestion, such as eating in a calm environment and eating according to your unique constitution. Hello and welcome to this new show called Ayurveda, the Science of Life on UK Health Radio. My name is Dr. Oscar O'Doochan and I'm working now as an Ayurvedic practitioner in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following a career working as a GP, a family doctor, throughout the UK and Ireland in the last 30 years. In this show, I would like to introduce the listener to the ancient system of medicine known as Ayurveda, which is still in use today and growing in popularity worldwide. It uses digestion, nutrition advice, along with lifestyle modifications and daily routines and practices, as well as herbal based remedies and herbal based medications to achieve balance of body and mind. So much of our root cause of illness today are caused by our digestion and lifestyle. Ayurveda teaches that everything we do in our lives has an effect upon our wellbeing and health. On this show, I hope to teach you and show you how learning about Ayurveda will benefit you and your health into the future. As I often like to say, Ayurveda has stood the test of time for 5,000 years or so and I hope by learning about Ayurveda that you and I can do the same. So, once again, welcome to the show and on today's episode, I will be discussing Ayurvedic views on gut health in general and with special mention about the gut microbiome, which is very commonly heard about in the media and online. It's a very common topic these days. I will also be discussing how to eat according to your constitution, which I have touched on in previous episodes. I will also discuss that we are not just what we eat and that does affect our digestion, but how and where we eat. In other words, the environment where we take our meals and the moods that we are in and the emotional state we are in can also affect our digestion. I will be discussing that in detail. Lastly, I will round up some simple tips that you can follow to help improve your digestion. So, I hope you enjoyed the content of the show today. It's all about digestion, which Ayurveda is so focused on as part of a way to maintain our health and prevent illness. So, to the topic of gut health. We are hearing more and more about our gut health on the news and online these days. You may have heard about the topic of gut microbiome and how important it is to maintain a healthy gut microbiome for effective digestion. Well, this is something Ayurveda has understood for many years by a process of observation and recording that's occurred over 5,000 years of the importance of digestion as part of an essential in maintaining our overall health and well-being. So, in Ayurveda, it's always believed and taught that your digestive system has more impact on your overall well-being and health than any other single factor. And this is increasingly becoming a recognised factor in modern science and in modern medicine as well these days, the importance of our digestion. So, what is the number one issue that impacts your digestion? It could vary, but most commonly, it is stress. Stress is one of the commonest causes for us to have a poor gut health. And you may have heard about the gut-brain axis, which really is a way of trying to explain the connection between the gut and the brain. And when I talk about the gut, I talk about the entire gastrointestinal tract, from your mouth to your anus where you eliminate your stool. So, the brain acts on the gut and the gut acts on the brain. So, it's a two-way connection. And it's recognised nowadays that what's called functional gastrointestinal disorders affect up to 35% to 70% of people at some point in their lives. It's more common in women than men. And what this means is that people will present with problems related to the gastrointestinal tract, but there's no apparent physical cause, such as a structural or mechanical cause found for it, or an infection. There's no infection that could be causing it either. Yet, they will complain of genuine symptoms of pain, for instance, bloating, and other gastrointestinal tract-related problems, just discomfort in the digestion and so on. So, essentially, these are common complaints, which we cannot find an obvious cause for. Now, the relationship between our physical, environmental, and psychological issues, and this gastrointestinal distress that we're experiencing, is complex. I always think that the gut-brain axis is a two-way street. So, bidirectional stress can trigger and worsen this pain, as well as, if you're getting problems with your gut, it can make you feel good, it can make you feel anxious and depressed, and vice versa, if you're feeling anxious and depressed, you can develop symptoms related to your gut, your stomach, or your gastrointestinal tract. So, it's a classic example of how the body and mind are interconnected both ways. Now, what are the common causes of stress that are related to our poor digestion, shall we say? Well, the first and common cause would be the types of food we eat this moment in time. We're eating quite a lot of what we call as junk food, or essentially highly processed food, which have excess sugar in the foods than was the case in the past. There may be issues to do with pesticides, remnants of pesticides that are in our food chain, may be causing allergies and inflammation, inflammatory problems. There are environmental toxins that we are increasingly becoming aware of that have an effect upon our digestion, as well as the habitual or constant use of medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen and nurofen, paracetamol, and, of course, antibiotics. These all have an effect upon our gut. Another cause is a physical stress. If we're having poor sleep or if our lifestyle is too sedentary, that can have an effect on our digestion, which you can imagine if you're too sedentary, you don't get an appetite and your digestion is sluggish. So, we need to be at a certain level of activity in order to have an optimal and a good functioning gut. And, of course, mental stress, which could be work-related or environmental or problems within your relationship group, these can all cause stress on our system and, correspondingly, will affect our digestion. So, briefly, just to describe how stress can affect our nervous system and our digestion. Now, our nervous system is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Now, the sympathetic nervous system is what you may have heard of as the fight-or-flight side of our nervous system. So, it's what we need in the event of an extreme stress situation where we need to react quickly and our sympathetic nervous system kicks in. Now, it's like when we're on high alert. Okay. Now, the other system, the parasympathetic system, is different in its role and its function. It's described as the rest and digest part of our nervous system. Okay. What's happening with us at the moment, because we're under such chronic stress for multiple reasons, is that this balance of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic is skewed so that we're feeling more in the sympathetic or the fight-or-flight part of our nervous system than the parasympathetic. So, this will also affect our, obviously, our digestion because we're not in that side of our nervous system that we're needing to have the best digestion, which is the rest and digest parasympathetic system. So, I think it's fairly obvious that we all can understand that stress will affect the digestion and this chronic stress that we can be under where our sympathetic nervous system is more in control of us than our parasympathetic will have an adverse or a detrimental effect on our digestion and cause us symptoms related to our digestion that there are no clear and obvious causes that we can find by looking in with scopes or by scanning our digestive tract. We can't find anything, but we know that there are problems that are purported to be genuine. For instance, when you're going for an exam, the last thing you'd want to sit down is have a three-course meal because your sympathetic system is in overdrive in expectation of an exam. And the same applies to, we need to be comfortable and relaxed in order to enjoy a meal and for our digestion to work properly. Now, I'll give just a couple of simple tips to, the main two important things that I would suggest that we can do to help that would be, first and foremost, the environment that we eat in and to eat in a calm, distraction-free space and to try and eat as much as possible when we are hungry and at regular meal times. And secondly, of course, I really would say that it's important to eat according to your unique constitution. So, each of us have a specific dosha, make-up of batha, pitta and kapha that I've explained in previous shows and it's unique to us and we need to try as much as possible to eat the appropriate foods for our particular constitution. This is a crucially important thing and I'll go into a little more detail after a short break. So, remember, eat in a calm, distraction-free space and eat when hungry and eat according to your dosha type, which I'll explain a little bit more about that after a short break. So, see you back in a few minutes. So, welcome back to the show, I Evaded the Science of Life. And today what I'm discussing is the importance of gut health and how I evade the abuse of gut health and how to have a best digestion to maintain your overall health and well-being. And before I had a break, I just mentioned the two important things that we need to think about in order to have a good digestion and maintain good gut health. And those are to eat in a calm, distraction-free space, ideally when we are hungry and at regular times throughout the day. And the second thing Ayurveda teaches is that we need to eat according to our constitution. Now, what does that mean, eating according to a constitution? We all have certain foods that agree and disagree with us, but it's a little bit more than that from an Ayurvedic point of view. So, I'll try and explain that in the next few minutes. Now, according to Ayurveda, there are four types of digestion, or four types of digestive fire, or strength as we call it, which they call digestive fire, or Agni, which is basically the strength of our digestion. And the first and the most ideal is what's called Samadhi, where your digestion is balanced, and your food is digested properly, it's taken in the correct amounts and at the correct times. And when you have this type of digestion, you have a good appetite, you have good energy, you've got good sleep, and you maintain an ideal body weight for your specific constitution, neither overweight or underweight. And you don't have any digestive issues, imagine, unless you overeat. Okay, so that's the perfect type of digestion. Now, to be honest, it's very rare that you hear people with that type of digestion, but some people do are fortunate to be in a happy state. Now, the second type of digestion that's described in Ayurveda is what's called Vishampadmi. Now, Vishampadmi is like an erotic or irregular type of digestion, where there's too much air in your gastrointestinal tract. You've got a variable digestive fire, so you're kind of on off with it. Sometimes you digest your food, okay, sometimes you don't digest it so well. And you've got variable energy. And since the other symptoms you would report, dry skin, your good symptoms would be mainly in the lower bowel, and colon would be bloating, gassiness, constipation, and belching. This is like an irregular, irregular, erotic type of digestive fire or digestive strength. Now, the third digestive type that's described in Ayurveda is called Atikshana. Atikshana means fiery or hot in Sanskrit. And this is associated with there being too much heat in your digestive tract, as if you imagine a fire and the flame is too high in the fire. And you have a straw appetite, but you don't gain weight, you lose weight, you can lose weight, and you can suffer from fatigue, low energy, and you have issues with what's called malabsorption. If your food isn't being absorbed properly, because of your digestive fire is too strong, so the food essentially has gone through too quickly, and you can have nutritional deficiencies as a result, which can affect your health. And the symptoms you'd get from this type of digestion would be mainly upper, related to the stomach, the duodenum, or the small intestine, would be acid reflux, gastritis, a burning sensation in the stomach, you can get gastric ulcers, get a bad breath, and in general, irritability. So that's the third type. And the fourth type of digestion is called Amanda Agni. And this is where you get a slow digestion. So it's a sluggish digestion, as if the flame is sputtering and is not on full power. You would have a weak appetite, not feeling hungry, you would get full quite easily, and you would suffer some fatigue and low energy as well. And general symptoms for the rest of the body in this particular type of digestion would be related to congestion, and lack of circulation, weight gain and lethargy. Now, if you've listened to my previous shows, you will recognise amongst the last three of those, that they are similar to the characteristics of a specific dosha. And I'll describe that now. This is where it's important that we know what we understand that we need to eat according to our dosha, or according to a balance that we can imbalance and shuffle from. So why do we need to eat according to our dosha balance? Remember again, the energies of the doshas. There are three. The Vata dosha is characterised by a movement tendency of movement in the mind and body. The Pitta dosha is characterised by a tendency towards transformation and change, and also is associated with warmth and fire in this reactivity and intensity. And then the Kapha dosha is associated is the dosha of nourishment. So it tends to inertia and towards conserving energy. So the Vata dosha needs to balance it, it would need to eat warm foods, moist, rich and grounding types of foods. The Pitta dosha then, to balance that digestive tendency it has, would need cooling foods with minimal spices, and cooling foods such as salads and lentils. And the Kapha dosha, in order to balance that digestive tendency they have, would need easy to digest foods like leafy greens, and limit the intake of heavy and sweet foods like grains and meats, sweet juices and large fruits. So what are the benefits of eating according to our dosha type? Well, we will firstly get improved digestion, we'll get increased energy, we'll get better sleep, and we'll be able to maintain our natural body weight, neither too light or too heavy. All the body tissues levels will be nourished equally if we have a good effective digestion and eating according to our dosha, our constitution. Dosha-bandhasana constitution. We will feel calm and satisfied after meals, we'll be able to prevent any illness or conditions that are common to your dominant dosha, or conditions that you're more likely to get if you have an effective digestion according to your constitution. And this is particularly, it's particularly important to stress that figuring out your own dosha balance is not an easy thing to do, and it is really best done in consultation with a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner who can use his experience to assess your current state, if there's any imbalance that you're suffering from, any symptoms or problems that could indicate that, and then be able to develop an understanding, or figure out your natural constitution in consultation with the practitioner, because it is very difficult to do yourself, especially if you feel that you're not yourself, or that you're imbalanced in any way that you don't understand. So they can be, and the dosha balances themselves can be complicated, and you can have one or two doshas imbalanced, and really would benefit from a full and detailed assessment. I'm giving some general advice on the show, I realise, and it's really just to raise an awareness about looking at your health from an Ayurvedic point of view, but certainly it cannot compare to having a good assessment with an experienced Ayurvedic practitioner who will look in more detail, because we're all individual, and we all have different types of problems. So what I described then is like a typical scenario for each dosha energy. We are made up of three doshas of course, a combination of all three, two are generally a little bit more prominent than the other, and we can have, as I said before, we can have dual imbalances of one or two, or maybe even sometimes three, and they're appearing at the same time, so it can be confusing even for the practitioner in his experience to figure out what exactly is going on, and which imbalances to deal with first. So as I said, assessing these underlying imbalances is one thing, as in knowing what imbalance you might have is one thing, but knowing how to address them is another thing altogether, and that's best left to your Ayurvedic practitioner. So how do we understand good health from an Ayurvedic point of view? Now, as I said before, Ayurveda understood the importance of good health thousands of years ago. Modern science is finding out the same as Ayurveda observed during this period, when we hear about the gut microbiome, and the gut brain axis, and the importance of good health. Now what exactly is our gut microbiome, and why is it so important? Okay, firstly it's helpful to describe what the gut or the gastrointestinal tract actually does. We probably know this from our school days, but it's worth reminding exactly what the function of the gut is. So our gut helps us ingest food, take it in, and break it down, and then absorb the nutrients from the food, and eliminate the waste products, and the undigested food products via the large intestine. Now most of this process occurs in the small intestine. The large intestine is all about eliminating waste essentially, and it's also involved in electrolyte balance, ensuring that we're getting the right amount of water from our food as well. So the microbiome is essentially the bacteria, and the viruses, and the fungi which reside in our gut. Now most of the studies have been done on bacteria, so I won't mention the viruses and fungi as much, but they're also part of the microbiome. Now the microbiome, it controls our digestion. In other words, it controls how the nutrients are absorbed, and what toxins are eliminated. So you begin to see how important it is to have it functioning properly. It also has a central role in our immune system, and it's been observed that 70-80% of our immunity is housed or located in our gut, and it maintains our brain health as well, amongst many other functions. But these are the three key functions that the gut microbiome is responsible for. So you can understand that the balance or health of this gut microbiome is critical to our digestion, and ultimately our overall health, and anything that disturbs it will lead to illness. For example, if we have a low immunity, even if the immunity is working properly, we're more at risk of getting infections, and we can have hormonal problems, and chronic inflammation can occur if the gut microbiome isn't working correctly. And we can also have nervous system disorders. Remember, the gut brain, actually I spoke about earlier on, with anxiety and depression. Now, Ayurveda may not have described the gut microbiome in the way we're seeing it and describing it today, with all the tools of modern science, such as electron microscopes and such. However, it has always understood the role of digestion in the cause of prevention of illness, and this is really important to repeat. It teaches us that all disease has a root cause in our digestion. There may be other causes as well, but there will always be a digestive cause for all the disorders we suffer from. And we are now beginning to understand how true this is, as we find out more about our gut microbiome. You may have heard about the chemical serotonin, and serotonin blockers are used as antiexpressant pills to treat depression and anxiety by increasing the levels of this chemical, this natural chemical in our body, both in our body and our brain. Now, we have discovered that 90% of the serotonin is produced in the lining of our guts. So, serotonin not only regulates our mood, but it also stimulates mirror cell growth and alerts the immune system to germs. And it has a role as a chemical messenger in our nervous system. And this is such an important part of our gut microbiome that the gut is often called the second grade. So, we are understanding the deep connections between mood and food. Our gut and digestion reflect our emotional and our mental state more closely than we understood before. Now, we always knew that our body is in stress or we are in an anxious state. We feel it in our stomach when our body is in stress, hence the term feeling butterflies in our tummies. But it seems there is even more to this phenomenon that we are beginning to discover now. So, Ayurveda has observed these effects and recorded the relationship to how we eat and the health of our digestion for many, many, many thousands of years. We know food can have a positive and can have both positive and negative energies, depending on several factors. The harvesting of the food, the preparation, processing, the cooking of the food, the use of different herbs and spices, different food combinations, the setting of the meal, our emotional state, our stress levels that we are suffering from at the time and so on. So, these are the energies food can have. Basically, really everything will affect your gut and how you eat. So, it's about what, when, how you eat, your lifestyle, how you exercise, what exercise you do, your stress levels, your relationship with yourself, with others, the work colleagues, your family, your sleep, your work, your social interactions, what you listen to, what you watch and who you surround yourself with. All of these factors have an effect upon your digestion. So, that's been quite a bit now. I'll have a short break and come back to the part of the show where I'll run through some simple tips you could do to improve your digestion and by improving your digestion, improve your gut microbiome as well and have an effective, balanced digestion to help you prevent illness and maintain optimal well-being. So, see you back after a very few short minutes. So, so if there is welcome back. On the show today, I've been talking about Ayurvedic view on good health and about the gut microbiome, which you'll hear so much about today. And I tried to explain that even though Ayurveda didn't describe the gut microbiome as we do today, it understood the importance of digestion in maintaining overall health. And most importantly, I discussed about eating according to your constitution and some simple tips about how some simple rules to follow for having an effective digestion. And one of those most important rules would be to eat in a calm, distracted, free environment with maximum focus on your food. And this is something we talk about today when we describe eating mindfully. And I heard Heston Bliverton on the radio the other day, and he's done a lot of work on this himself. And he described how you can eat a great or current mindfully and described it in over five minutes. And it was fascinating when you when you really focus on food in that level of detail, how your brain can kind of synchronize with your digestion to have the best possible experience of the food to give you the most knowledge from the digestion of it. Okay, well, this is the last part of the show. And I think it's helpful just to run through some simple tips, because I appreciate a lot of information that I tried to pack into the show is a little repetition, of course, from show to show, and even within the same show, stressing the important facts again and again. And hopefully, by running through some simple tips, I've kept about six, and then I could make maybe 10 or 15. But really six important ones are kind of just about the right number for you to bear in mind to remember. So once again, the importance of the firstly the importance of the environment, where you eat, as well as what you eat. So emotions affect our digestion. So obviously, don't eat when you're upset, and you're anxious, or you're stressed, as much as possible. Try and bring a calming routine of practicing before you digest food. And that can be different for different people. But sitting down at the desk, even sitting outside, getting away from your work is really important. And this habit of eating out of desks is just appalling. It's exactly what not to do. And get away from, leave your phone face down, or better still, not even in the same room. Void screens, looking at TVs, of course, is definitely a harmful way to eat and digest. And focus on your food. Give it some respect, look at it. And I'm not saying so much to talk to your food, but have some kind of connection with it before you before you eat it. Too often, I see people, my daughters particularly, and me as well at times, eating distracted and looking around with anything but your food. Just look at your food and maybe just bring yourself into the moment a little bit more, as they say, by using a prayer, or a blessing, or a gratefulness practice even, can be helpful just to kind of prepare yourself for eating and digestion. And eating in companies is a good, you often enjoy that experience of eating, as well as this present company, and you're not stressed in the company, and it can be a very enjoyable experience, and your digestion can be improved as a result. The second one, and I've mentioned this in previous shows, would be to, in terms of the food that you would choose, would be to try and find food that follows this soul food. In other words, not specifically a type of cuisine, but the acronym S-O-U-L, which would stand for Seasonal, Organic, Unprocessed and Local. You may have heard this before, but it's certainly worth repeating and keeping in mind when you're choosing foods. And why these foods would have to be more healthy, shall we say? Well, the food is not as likely to be depleted in energy, or vitamins, or minerals. Remember, I spoke about the prana, or the energy of individual foods, and how the prana of food disappears, or is reduced to the less fresh food. Okay, so we've used, as Sarah mentioned, using spices at particular times, particularly close to when you're ready to eat. So, if you eat soul food, or seasonal food, you're more likely to eat food that's in season, of course. There is reduced transport costs, and food may be cheaper. Food is good for you, because you're reaching quality of the season, and it's good for the planet as well. You're making an eco-conscious choice about the food choices, so something to feel good about. And then you're more able to maybe source or check food, what it comes from, how it was produced, particularly in relation to animal products. And this is something we all need to be more aware of now, and beginning to realise more and more. So, another reason for seasonal eating is because nature gives us what will help us balance for that time of the year, not just in larger foods, but often in the herbs that are available at different times of the year. And they are there for a reason, that's how nature works. And it's all about, this is what RUV is all about. It's increasing our connection to nature, in our foods, and in our digestion. And also avoiding processed foods, because there are so many additives, which we do not know the effect they have. There's so many additives in the food, when we look at the ingredients, it's striking. All the different things, rather than the processed foods. So, if you know what you're eating in the food, it's obviously a better experience, and you're more able to control the effects of the foods by choosing in a manner that you're comfortable with what you're eating. Another tip that is really helpful is, and we see this more and more, people are opting for this type of diet, is trying to have most of our food for a plant-based source. At least maybe up to 75 to 80 percent. Not necessarily for a plant-based diet, but predominantly plant-based. So, if you're eating our products, try to eat a little less of them, and favour the plant-based and the vegetables, essentially vegetable fruits, more than the animal products. And obviously, cooking food as well, rather than eating raw foods or cold foods, because it makes it easier to digest, and that's just the ultimate, the ultimate standard, simple, biteable. Now, the advantages of eating plant-based foods is that you can increase your fibre intake, which is a very important part of our foods that we need to have, in order to help eliminate waste in the large bowel, because the fibres and the roughage is used for, it means our transit to the large bowel is easier, we don't suffer from symptoms such as constipation or excess gas. Fibre has a positive effect on our bacteria as well, and on our good microbiome. So, those are some of the benefits of a plant-based diet. Fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, they all have beneficial effects. And even fruits like coconuts and avocados, they have good fats in them, which allow us to maintain the moisture within our system, and also reduce inflammation. And inflammation now is recognised as a common link to a lot of the common diseases we suffer from. So, anything that we can eat to reduce inflammation, we'll have an absolute benefit. And just on some of these new, I mean, eating more plant-based foods is more common now, people are talking about it more, and people are opting to make these choices more. There's a big hype around fermented foods, which I call the three Ks of kefir, kimchi, and kombucha. Those are the common ones that you might be familiar with. In Ayurveda, of course, we are slightly more nuanced and look at things that we understand that not everything suits everybody. So, fermented foods may not be suitable for people with a Pitta constitution, or if you're Pitta imbalanced, because of the sour and the sharp nature of the fermented foods. So, once again, diet trends don't suit everybody, even though they're touted with huge health benefits and such. There may be benefits for fermented foods in particular cases, but certainly they may also have harmful effects for people with a Pitta constitution. And this is what Ayurveda teaches again and again, that their approach to diet is unique, in that it focuses on the individual, and you need to provide tailored advice for your current state of balance, or any imbalance to your supplement, which is more often the case, as in no one's house fits all. A common advice in Ayurveda as well is around the drinks you take with your meals, and it would caution against taking cold drinks, because this has an effect on reducing your digestive fire, and certainly no icing drinks. Warm or lukewarm water with either a slice of lemon or a slice of ginger is helpful to boost digestion. And herbal teas are a good option at this time, because they have different tastes that can be helpful to add in when you're having a meal, if you put a bitter taste or an astringent taste, for instance, which may not be present in your food. And once again, another tip is to eat at regular set times, and ideally eat when you're hungry. So you need to kind of train your body to be hungry on time, and this does require practice and being time aware, and not skipping meals, and shacking in between meals as a substitute to having a regular meal schedule. It doesn't matter if you eat two meals a day or three meals a day, different people, different people, it works better for different people, three and sometimes two. Sometimes other people, particularly with a Catholic constitution, can manage more effectively than two meals a day. Another thing I found helpful is to swap your lunch and dinner on days that you can, so have your bigger meal in the middle of the day and your lighter meal at the end of the day, rather than is the case, has become the case really that we have our bigger dinner in the evening time. Then the reason for this is that your digestive fire is at its maximum at the middle of the day, and is tending to tail off and not be as strong towards the end of the day. And the last thing is something that we all could benefit from is to develop a calming practice, either a practice of meditation, or some breath work, where you focus on your breathing, or even just taking time outside in a quiet space, and enjoy a herbal tea, or even a phenomenal tea or coffee, and just focusing on just the pleasure of that few moments that you're taking quiet time away for yourself. We don't do this often enough, we're spending too much of the day chasing what we're figured to be chasing, and running from one thing to the next without really thinking, or even certainly not having the same amount of reflection and conscious thought that we need to kind of calm our mind, and have a steady, calm mental state to develop that. Particularly around meal times, that we're eating in a calm and kind of grounded way, that we're not distracted and thinking about something different from what we're doing. I thought that was a lumpy thing, because one of the most important times to be present is when we're eating. And there are so many apps and video tips on YouTube to choose from, and certainly they can be helpful, even if they're a little distracting, but I often find it's a bit ironic that we're, but the cause of what we're causing distraction has been used as a way to manage the problems that we have from too much of our full use and so on. And if it works, that's the most important thing. And using these apps and video tips are helpful for beginners, people who aren't practised with this. Network is very commonly used these days, and it has many, many beneficial effects. And it's just a simple act of focusing on your breathing, much like you do when you're trying to meditate, to calm yourself. Large, deep breaths and then slowly are really very helpful to help you reach a calm state of mind. So really, to summarise everything I've been talking about so far, really the things that we need to do to improve our relationship with food and digestion is essentially to eat in a calm and distraction-free environment and develop a practice where we can become calm for the few minutes prior to our meal times, eat on a regular meal schedule, avoid snacking between meals when it's not necessary, eat a mostly plant-based diet, and then eating a soul food diet which is really seasonal, organic, unprocessed and local. I hope those tips have been helpful for you. So once again, I hope you've enjoyed the show, both the content and the delivery. Ayurveda is a way of life and living that has relevance and resonance now more than ever in spite of the history. As I said, we live in challenging times, in a fast-paced and changing environment with increased demands on our time and attention. This is certainly having an effect upon our digestion rather than staying in the show. The world we live in is undergoing many changes. Our natural world and environments are under threat as never before, and our weather systems and climate also. As we are so closely connected to nature, even in our modern world, this causes stresses and strains on our natural constitution and ultimately our health. I believe Ayurveda provides a way to manage these external factors through our diets and digestion, and lifestyle habits and routines and practices. This way we can take control of our health and well-being to live a better, more fulfilled, and ultimately a more conscious life. Tune in again next week for more discussion about Ayurveda. You can find more information on my website, hanumayurvedal.com. Hanum is the Irish word for syllable, which is interesting. So, until then, as we say in Irish, crí phuláin, bad séil, healthy heart, long life. See you all next week.
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