Jay Shetty (2:21)

Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the place you come to listen, learn and grow. Today's guest is someone I know personally and someone I'm so excited to introduce you to. Mona Sharma is a globally recognized nutritionist, entrepreneur and corporate wellness strategist whose work has transformed the lives of high performing individuals. Mona blends ayurvedic wisdom with cutting edge science to create personalized health blueprints that drive lasting vitality. Mona's approach is rooted in the belief that you are the healer, guiding clients to reconnect with their body's innate ability to heal through nutrition, stress, resilience, and holistic practices. Please welcome to On Purpose, Mona Sharma. Mona, it's great to have you here.

Mona Sharma (3:06)

I'm so honored to be here with you.

Jay Shetty (3:08)

I was really looking forward to this because we met a few years ago now and you were helping me with my health journey. And since then you've gone on to launch a podcast. I mean, you've been helping incredible people. I first got introduced to you through Will Smith, who is a client of yours as well. And when Will introduced, I remember you were working with like his team and everyone else. And so I'm really glad that we finally get to do this on the show. So thanks for joining.

Mona Sharma (3:32)

It's special because we have that connection and just watching your journey too, and so honored.

Jay Shetty (3:36)

Thank you. Well, I want to start off because I want people to get a sense of you and your journey and your background. And the first question I want to ask is, like, what is the number one? Or what are the top three reasons that your clients come to you? What are they saying to you when they approach you?

Mona Sharma (3:51)

Yeah, I think that, you know, my story is what resonates with people the most. And I think that when clients come to see me, they're ready to unlearn a way of what it takes to be healthy in this world and ready to actually step into that. And what does that mean? It means breaking up with diet culture, workout culture, and really understanding that the health goals that they're craving go so much deeper. And for my own healing journey, which we can absolutely talk to, it's really about getting to the root cause. And right now I feel like there's so much disconnection, dissociation between what's happening in the world of medicine that people are treating symptoms in its own instead of looking at the body like a whole. So when people work with me, they really know that they're working with their mind, their body, and their spirit. So finally, they take this holistic approach to feel better while they heal their bodies.

Jay Shetty (4:43)

I think that approach seems to be common sense, but it's not. It feels like it's counterintuitive right now where we're speaking about one organ or one part of the brain or one part of the body. Why do you think that's happened? That we've created this fragmented view of who we are?

Mona Sharma (5:00)

Well, this is conventional medicine, right? We go to our doctors, we talk about a symptom, and they are trained to treat the symptom without looking at the body in its whole, without uncovering where the symptom comes from. And we know that our bodies are so resilient. There's intelligence within the body. So if someone comes to me and they say, oh, Yamona, I have a headache that I get every day, I can easily put that person on some Advil, you know, on a program to kind of help them dissipate their headache, or we can uncover where it actually comes from. So the way that I work with my clients, kind of like I did with you, there's two parts. There's one, the amazing world that we have with Western medicine and science. So we run your blood labs, I do a full panel blood lab on every single system in your body. Sometimes we look at your stress level through cortisol test. We do genetic tests the way that we did with you. Sometimes there's an MRI that's involved or a Dutch test also. But then there's also the other side of things. So the first thing that I ask my client is, you know, if I could take away three things, what, what would it be? And they typically list the symptoms that they're suffering from. And they want to know, Mona, just like, give me the protocol, give me the. The workout, the supplement protocol, the food protocol, and I'm going to go do it. And I think that most people by now know that that's dieting. That's that cycle that you've probably tried one or a hundred times that just doesn't work at all. So from there, we dig a little bit deeper. And after we dig a little bit deeper, often my clients are. They're met with tears thinking about, you know, the last time I really felt good in my body was when I was little. And we uncover things like what their limiting beliefs are. I know with you, we did your core value elicitation to really understand what's your core value around healing, how do you really want to feel? It's not just about getting to a number on a scale or a pan size. It's understanding how do you really want to feel, and then what steps can we take every single day in order for you to align with that? Right. And that's kind of a strategy that came to me from the ashram when I healed from my heart surgeries. It wasn't about the protocol. It was actually on a hardcore protocol that didn't work. It took me really doing deeper work, getting to the root cause of my own suffering in order for my physical symptoms to go away.

Jay Shetty (7:09)

Yeah, let's talk about that. I want to dive into your personal experience because I believe that's why you do what you do. And so tell us about your journey. Before you were helping other people with their health, what was the state of your health?

Mona Sharma (7:20)

Well, it's funny how your story really paves the path for your destiny. And I can tell you from my story, nothing matters when your health is gone. So prior to working in nutrition, I worked in the corporate cosmetic world. On paper, it sounds like a really, really fun job that I had working for these great luxury cosmetic brands. But I was working out of alignment. I wasn't on purpose with my calling. It was a sales job. I ended up getting to that typical corporate burnout. I suffered from digestive issues. I ended up getting pcos, which is polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is so bad that doctors told me would never have kids. And then I started getting heart palpitations. These heart palpitations would beat so fast, I thought that I would black out and I would just bend down to pick something off the ground. It got to a point where if I tried to exercise or go for a run, I would almost hit the deck. But at that point in my life, this is in my 20s, I wasn't interested in getting to the root cause at all. I wanted quick fix. Just tell me how to take care of it. I'm too busy living this amazing, you know, fashion lifestyle, waking up in hotel rooms, not knowing what city I was in. And I went to see cardiologists, and they figured out that I had something called atrial tachycardia. Just like these extra electrical valves beating in my atrial center of my heart. And the quick fix was going on a beta blocker prescription medication. That beta blocker medication ended up causing me to gain about 45 pounds. So 45 pounds later, went back to the doctor. I'm like, this is not working. I'm completely lethargic. I felt like, like any excitement to live was really gone. People on the outside probably wouldn't know that I was suffering, but I was really suffering. There was a lot of sadness that was happening in my life at time also. And at that point, they said, well, let's go in for surgery. So I went in for my first heart surgery at 23 years old. You're awake for the whole thing, it's a catheter, ablation, awake for the whole thing. So it's not open heart. They send one catheter up through your groin, another one through your neck, and they start pumping you full of adrenaline and caffeine to try to induce these palpitations that I kind of knew would only happen if I was moving my body. And so here I am on the table, they're pumping me with all these things. Finally, you know, an hour or so into it, they figure out where they can do an ablation. Ablation feels like this explosion going off in your chest because they burn off this electrical valve. And the next morning I woke up and same thing, palpitations were still there. And I was like, this is ridiculous. I'm young, you know, I grew up with a really, really healthy background, which we should talk about also. Why is this happening to me? And they said, well, let's go back in. We went back in for a second heart surgery again. Heart, massive screen. I see the wires going everywhere. There's a log keeping my leg in place that I can't move. And honestly, Jay, it was one of those moments where like, you know, when your life flashes before your eyes. I'm sure you've heard this from other guests. It was that moment doctors did another ablation, felt that bomb go off, but there was still more tachycardia. And they said, well, you know what, Mona? We found where we can do another ablation, but it's too close to your SA node. So if we burn that off, there's a chance that you might have to wear a pacemaker for the rest of your life. And that's when what am I doing? How is this my life? How have I burnt out? I'm only in my 20s. How am I out of alignment? And the irony of all of it is that I knew that there was a better way. So growing up, my father is East Indian, my mom is Danish. I've only ever known my mom to suffer from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis. So her hands are completely deformed. My dad being Indian, it's actually my mom that found the ashram Sivananda Ashram in Valmoran in Quebec. Growing up, we would go and spend summers at this ashram. We would practice yoga and meditation every day. Some kids got to go to fun summer camp. I had to go to yoga camp as a kid. We ate vegetarian food, we sat in satsang. We were in nature about community. And I noticed the difference in my parents health and Happiness when we were there, the motto in my house growing up was, eat it, it's good for you. My mom tried anything and everything to get rid of this autoimmune disease. But in my 20s, I again, I didn't want any of this. And so I went for the quick fix. The last surgery was not going to be the solution. I decided in that moment I had to go back to my roots to heal. And that's exactly what I did. I said no to the ablation. I went back to the Sivanandashram. I became a yoga teacher, a meditation teacher. Eventually I became a Reiki master, a holistic nutritionist. I ended up going into NLP. I probably could have got my PhD at this time, but I was just studying all of these aspects of human healing for my own health to heal. But the crazy thing that people need to understand is that when I went from my heart palpitations in my busy life in the corporate world, I was already like hardcore. I was exercising hardcore. I was dieting hardcore. My apartment was called the house of free, sugar free, fat free, carb free, this free, whatever it was, right? Like, I was really hardcore. And when I went to the ashram, I wasn't hardcore anymore. I started relaxing. I started listening to all of the open running tabs that we all have in our brain. But I had a lot of of them. I started dealing with the actual heartache inside me that doctors never asked about. And I started to heal through those practices that I mentioned at the ashram. And I never look back. The heart palpitations almost completely went away. The 45 pounds melted off of my body. I started eating more carbs than I'd probably eaten in a year from all the vegetarian food. And yet I felt my best. I needed less sleep. I felt more energized. I felt calm, clear, happy. I felt like I was going to be happy again. And from there on, I knew that if I was going to do this professionally, it was no longer about a diet and exercise protocol. Those things are very important, but we have to uncover the deeper root of what's preventing you from making the choices from yourself that are optimized health to begin with. Like, what is that one thing that happens that's stopping you from fulfilling your optimal health and happiness?

Jay Shetty (13:20)

I think it's really challenging for us to almost look at the root when the symptom causes so much pain. And I think that's what kind of makes us all want to go. I just want this pain to go. And so when someone says to you, hey, I want you to focus on finding the root. Your brain automatically goes to the path of least resistance. And it goes, yeah, maybe later. I just want to get rid of my headache. And I think that's why generics in this country have taken off and why we pop a pill to solve every problem we have. Because we'd rather solve the symptoms then focus on the root as well. If someone's listening right now and they're listening to you going, actually, Mona, I get what you're saying, because I'm trying a lot of stuff. Like, maybe someone's listening right now and they're saying, I tried that workout, I tried the diet, I tried this, but I can't lose weight, I can't get healthier, I can't build muscle, I can't solve my gut issues, whatever it is. How does someone start to understand what the root of the problem is?

Mona Sharma (14:20)

I would say the instigation of everything, and we know the instigation of all dis. Ease in the body is stress. We need to talk about stress. Stress is happening to all of us at this, like, epidemic level, and it's the precursor to all disease. So I think it really is important for you to do some deeper investigation. Like, when did your symptoms first start? What was happening in your life at that time? Doctors asked me if I was drinking too much alcohol, eating out at McDonald's. I passed the stress test, but they didn't ask about, you know, what was happening in my personal life. The fact that my parents were going through divorce. There was a major move that was involved. They also didn't ask about the state of my nervous system. So I love that. Nervous system regulation is really, really becoming more aware for so many people. But we need to address the state of our nervous system because I think that for me, what doctors didn't understand is that I lived most of my life in this nervous system, dysregulated state.

Jay Shetty (15:20)

Explain to me what a regulated and dysregulated nervous system is.

Mona Sharma (15:24)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So think about our nervous system, right? It basically has three stages, according to polyvagal theory. The first one is the feeling of safety. Safety, rest, digest. Life is good. I feel calm in my body. I eat when I'm hungry. I stop when I'm full. I sleep really well. I feel, for the most part, happy. And then the next one is activation. Activation is fight, flight, freeze. We shift into that when we've got big projects, when there's big events that are happening, maybe at work throughout the day, but a lot of us will get stuck there. I was stuck there. And then the last one is overwhelm or shutdown, where at the end of the day, let's just say you've been living in fight or flight all day. When you go home, you go straight for a bottle of wine in the Netflix, you're shutting down. And that might mimic that first safety phase, that parasympathetic phase, because you're not doing anything. But all you've done is put your stressors or your fears up onto a shelf. You know, that you have to deal with them the next day, Right? So when we think about this fight flight freeze response, think about the things that we are bombarded with every single day. From our environment, from our stressors, our obligations, having to make money from world events, from social media, from the news. If you're a sensitive person, you might be feeling that just like, really in your body, right? I know especially over the past few years, we see things on social media, and it's like they're happening right in front of us. Our brain can't discern the difference. So if you don't catch yourself getting stuck in that fight flight freeze stage, this is hypervigilance. For me, hypervigilance felt really, really good. If there was something hard to do, amazing. If it was harder, great. If I could accomplish it, awesome. If there was a challenge that I could go for, that would really, you know, pump my adrenaline. I wanted to have it because that was the happy state that I was in. The longer I could stay in that state means that I could be stuck in my head, just not think about what was happening in my body. But meanwhile, for years, I was stuffing sadness, emotion, fear, worry, anxiety into my body so that I didn't have to deal with it. And for listeners, you know, maybe you've been stuffing these emotions down since you were a little kid. I think where there's a misunderstanding is that when we talk about the nervous system or trauma, for example, trauma is simply how your nervous system metabolizes an experience. And we think of trauma, obviously, as the big things, if there's abuse or neglect or something terrible that happened. But trauma for you can also be something that that really impacted you, but no one else really noticed. So maybe you were humiliated as a little kid, or you were teased or made fun of, or your grandmother said something to you and it really made you become shy or not want to shine your true colors or your vibrant light Right now, moving forward, if you don't process that emotion, that feeling every time there's a resonance of that feeling coming up again. The humiliation, the fear, the worry, the excitement, the stressors. It's like reliving that tone of again the frequency within your body. So throughout the day you might shift into fight, flight, freeze pretty consistently and you're not even noticing that you're there because you're not deregulating, you're not adopting that resilience within the body to regulate your nervous system. And I would say this is probably one of the biggest pillars that I spend with my clients. One helping them even become aware that they're living in that hyper vigilant state and that they don't have to wear it as a badge of honor anymore. They don't have to be busy because we, we celebrate busyness in our world. We see bus as a sign of success when that's the opposite case. And I get them back into their parasympathetic nervous system where they can rest and digest. And we now know with a nervous system, if you can live as your parasympathetic nervous system being the kind of dominant preferred state, or you have a healthy system that can bounce from fight, flight, freeze back into a parasympathetic state, this is where healing happens. This is your rest and digest and restore. This is when your immune system is prime, your digestion functions at a its best. So I think it's important for people to really recognize that as the first stage of healing in order for the diet and the exercise and all the other modalities to work. What is your state of being?

Jay Shetty (19:39)

I think we all know stress is bad and too much stress can be really, really bad. And I think we've seen over time that people have been more vulnerable about burnout, about shutting down, about, you know, having major health issues. And we almost wait till something goes really bad, till we address something. I think the other side of it though, we also see is that laziness, a lack of motivation, the ability to not create or take on any stress doesn't make us happy or healthy as humans either. Because we almost end up at the other end of the spectrum. When you're trying to balance it out and figure it out, how much stress can we take on in seven days? And how should we be thinking about that? Because I think the challenge is, you're right, we're living at one end of the spectrum, but we also know lots of people struggling at the other end of the spectrum. So it's almost like, how do we invite the right amount of stress? How do we take on a Healthy amount of stress. So it pushes us forward, but not so much that it breaks us. So how do you balance that out?

Mona Sharma (20:37)

I think there's a couple of ways to approach this. So the first is how stressful is your stress. So my version of stress. If we were to imagine that the way that I interpret stress is like wearing glasses with a yellow lens, everything is going to have a yellow tinge to it. Because I'm wearing these glasses of stress with a yellow tinge now, does it mean that my day is stressful? No. But I have these glasses on, I'm living in a stressed state. So I'm going to interpret everything as being stressful. So often it takes kind of breaking that cycle, taking that lens off to really understand, like I don't really have to be stressed out right now. Where did I learn being this way? I don't want to be this way anymore. This is where working with a coach can be really, really supportive. And to your point, yeah, you know, stress, we demonize it, but it can actually be really good for us. Right. Like having a cortisol spike in a healthy way first thing in the morning. It's actually our drive, our ambition, our motivation. But the problem is, is that when we live in the sympathetic state for too long, often the way that our cortisol is signal, it's spiking at the wrong times throughout the day. Sometimes for, for people who've experienced this, they're waking up between two and four o'clock in the morning just thinking about the world crashing around them. Right. This is not a healthy stress thing response. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, if people perhaps like you mentioned are stuck in that, well, I'm not going to do anything. I don't like feeling stressed, I don't like what it does to my body. So I'm just going to stay over here, I'm going to stay comfortable. We know that that could backfire in the future also. And this is where some deeper investigating is really, really helpful. How do you want to feel? Are you happy in your day to day life? Do you feel like you're being productive? Because we know that having sense of purpose and service is so important to our health and our fulfillment. And of course like if you're not in motion with your life, then you're stuck in a way of being and God, if you're not here to live, then what's the point, right? But you know, it really does take a leap of faith and so much courage for people to address these things because it's almost like, well, I don't want anyone else to see that I'm lazy. I don't want people to call me out on my hyper vigilance because, gosh, it just means that I've been busy for all these years and for what I've been suffering. Right. But it really does take a leap of faith to do the deeper dive again, to come back into that state of resilience where you can shift into, you know what? Today's a stressful day, but I'm going to really master my relaxation. Like, you're so good at doing tomorrow. And that way there's that balance so that you learn how to live in both worlds.

Jay Shetty (23:06)

Let's say someone answers those questions and they say, mona, I'm definitely exhausted. I'm overworked. Like, I just feel like I'm just constantly chasing everything. My weekends are just full of, like, social events and maybe there's a couple of work things. And I just feel like I've been on that treadmill. And I'm sure you hear this a lot. I don't think this is a picture that's abnormal. Where do they start? What should they do first?

Mona Sharma (23:31)

Yeah, I work with a lot of high performers and people who are on the go all the time, and it's a norm. And they don't really want to think about feeling that way because they know that they're overworked, they're overtired, they don't have time to relax and restore. And I think the first stage really is about just the awareness. Like, I'm here. I don't think I can sustain this for a long time. And now we have experts saying it's not a good idea to sustain it. Right.

Jay Shetty (23:57)

How long should you sustain it for if you were to sustain it?

Mona Sharma (24:00)

I think it depends on the resiliency of your body and what you're actually doing to repair. So, for example, someone like you who I know is prioritizing their morning, who is doing meditation, who has grounding practices throughout the day, you can live in that world of stress and really go hard for some time, but I know that you will take time to come back and recover other people. And this is, like, so common today. I'm thinking of a group of men that I work with, and they're about, do more, go harder, dream bigger, do a harder race next time, do a hundred miler next time. And they see it as a badge of honor because society's really entrained them to believe that that's a success. Motivator Right. Makes them a better person. Mind over matter. Right. When that's just not the case. So I think maybe a good opportunity would be to ask, what symptoms are you suffering from? So I love doing this exercise when I'm in a group of people and I just ask, how many people here suffer from anxiety, from wor. They're putting their hands up from tension, from digestive issues, from heartburn, from gas, from bloating, from poor sleep, from muscle pain and aches, from low sex drive, low energy, brain fog, lack of mental focus, brittle hair breakouts. Right. By the end of all this, every hand in the audience is up. So if you're the person who's living in that stress state for too long and you've said yes to 1, 2, 3 of those symptoms. Symptoms, then it's time for you to do something, to course correct. Don't ignore the symptoms the way that I did. Because these symptoms are whispers from your body. Again, it's that intelligence of your body which is communicating with you during every second of every day. It's not about waiting until Monday to course correct or next month or January 1st to course correct. We can course correct at any point of every day and the body will respond, but it takes some time. So step number one, the awareness, acknowledging those symptoms. But step number two is learning what the modalities are to really help you shift. And I know you know so many of these, so one is just take a breath. Like right now, everybody listening, take long, deep breath in. Like, if I had to cue you how to do that, then chances are you're probably not breathing like that throughout the day. Breath is number one. Meditation is a great option. Getting out and going for a walk, doing some yoga, journaling, scribble exercises to really, like, get the thoughts out of your brain and onto paper, breaking the cycle of stress. But again, that's not making the problem go away. So you have to come back to and understand, well, what again, where is this coming from? What do I need to do? So coaching is really great for people who need some additional support. Like, I just can't shake this feeling. What do I need? Coaching is great. And one of those modalities in coaching, it's called a best self snapshot. Other people call it a circle of excellence. So visualization is such a powerful modality to help us change our state. And if we're living in that stressful state for too long, but we don't want to break there, we have to break the cycle through visualization. If I were to Ask you, Jay, like, how do you want to feel in your body? If you were to think about yourself in the most optimal health and happiness and waking up feeling joyful, knowing that your digestion is working, your body is primed, everything is just in tune. Your body, your body is working so hard to help you heal. And it knows that you're busy, but it's just. It's taking care of things. It's got you right by visualizing that so clearly to the point that you can make it feel real. That's a physiological shift to shift you out of that sympathetic state into a parasympathetic state, which I think is so powerful. Breath work is another really great way to do this. Box breathing is a really great way to do this. But I would say that visualization, especially from an NLP front, when I'm coaching my clients, clients, if I can get my clients in touch with their higher self, like, really understand, like, what am I working so hard to achieve? You know, I'm doing so much work around living a great, strong, happy life and dieting and exercising, but how do I want to feel in my body? If you can take a few moments every single day and get so clear on how that feels, then your body doesn't know the difference between it being the reality or not. It doesn't know that it's going to be in the future. But it means that you have to practice that muscle.

Jay Shetty (28:19)

Is there a particular time of day that that's more prominent?

Mona Sharma (28:21)

And I would say first thing in the morning. If you can make your mornings your magic, healing mornings, this is like prime time, because our thoughts tend to be a little bit more quiet and still first thing in the morning. You know, a modality that I use with my clients is to get up, go to the bathroom, and immediately come into meditation. Now, I'm always cautious talking about these because people think that my wellness routine is, like, what I'm recommending to everybody. No, just like a healing protocol that I'm customizing for all my clients. The way that you start your morning, that feels really great for you. And mindfulness should be as unique as your blueprint, right? As your thumbprint. So maybe for you, it's meditation or visualization or journaling or walking or getting out in the sun. But figuring out what and where is a good place for you to feel stillness. Then I want you to go ahead and start to answer some of those questions. How do I want to feel? What does it look like? I think an easy grounding practice would be to Say if you were to go outside in your favorite place, place in nature. You can do this right now. If you're listening, what is your favorite place in nature? I want you to go outside, put your feet on the ground. I want you to feel the sunlight on your skin. How does the wind feel on your skin? What does it look like? What are the sounds in the background? Are there birds chirping? Like really doing the investigating to make it feel real. Now I want you to notice how you feel in your body in this state. Notice that you feel a sense of happiness, of peace, of calmness. Can you turn on the feeling of joy in your body? What happens in your body when you feel the feeling of joy? And then all of a sudden it's like you're turning down the noise on all of the distractions in life that are causing you to feel stress and illness and symptoms, and you're coming into a space that allows you to feel calm and joy. And if you can practice that like a muscle throughout the day, then you're retraining your nervous system to make that your core reality. There's all of a sudden meaning behind everything that you. The stressors or not.

Jay Shetty (30:19)

I love that idea. And for anyone who's never tried it and wondering whether it works, it works, it works. And why does it work? Because I think a lot of people, if they're doubtful about practices like this, how do you convince people that this works rather than it just being some sort of placebo?

Mona Sharma (30:36)

So 10 years ago, I used to use the word vibration with my clients. I helped shift my client's vibration from imbalance to balance. And I remember, like the eye roll back then. Yeah, yeah, vibration. But now these words vibration and frequency, they're no longer woo, woo. They are being backed by science. Doctors like Dr. Bruce Lipton, Joe Dispenza are validifying through biofeedback the ability to change our state without doing anything. It's the feelings, our thoughts, our emotions, that literally have the power to change our physiology. Right. I'm actually doing my master's in quantum healing right now because I believe that there's so much more to healing. There's this interconnectedness between our thoughts, our feelings and our emotions. And so when people get into that state and they can really feel or imagine, even if they don't know what the feeling of joy is like in their body, just try to imagine what it feels like. For a lot of my clients, a really great practice is to go back to when you're a little kid. What was Your note. We all came into this world with like a really beautiful note or frequency to play in this world. We love wearing vibrant colors and playing outside. What did you like playing? What kind colors were you wearing? How did you like dressing? Did you make a lot of noise and scream and dance? Like what was your core essence back then? And even asking those questions, I see my clients faces just light up because they're going back to a memory of what their core being is. It's a feeling of oneness within themselves before all this stuff started happening in their lives. And it's like stillness, quietness and coming to center. And I think that it really just takes practice for people to feel that every single day. There's so many incredible guidance, guided meditations, online guided visualizations online that people can practice to really go back to that feeling of joy. And I think that this is the future of medicine. The future of medicine is really going to have to consider the integration between these western modalities, but also Eastern medicine. The things that we're talking about, our ancestors have known since the beginning of time. Yoga has been practicing mindfulness and guided meditations and breath work and visualizations for over 5,000 years. Right. But now we're backing it with science. Traditional Chinese medicine also just recognizes the energy of your body, these systems within your body. When there's lack of coherence, it means that there's stress and that the body simply doesn't have the tools to deal with that stress. But what happens when we can come back into coherence? The body shifts. Another incredible company is heartmath. The heartmath community, gosh. Is understanding the concept of the resilience of the heart and heart coherence. So an amazing heart coherence practice to also deliver the same state is to really just start to tune into gratitude. If I were to ask you to think of something or someone that you love so much right now, make it feel real. Imagine hugging them. Imagine waking up with them first thing in the morning, traveling with them. How good does it feel to be in their presence? If you're a parent thinking about being with your child, all of a sudden, the problems from your 9 to 5, if you're present with your child in that moment because of the love and gratitude that you feel, everything just dissipates. That frequency of stress just turns down. And I think that we all hold the superpower to change our frequency from imbalance to balance. And it's a muscle that we have to practice for optimal health.

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Mona Sharma (34:41)

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This is Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

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Matt Rogers (34:53)

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Matt Rogers (35:13)

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JBL Advertiser (35:26)

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Matt Rogers (35:33)

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Scott Hanson (35:40)

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Mona Sharma (35:56)

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

Scott Hanson (35:58)

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Jay Shetty (36:17)

I mean I can honestly say personally like there's so much value in everything you're sharing and having practiced so much of it myself, I found so much it almost like gives you a breakthrough from the place you're at. Like I think when you're trying to change the externals it can kind of feel a bit clunky and almost when you change it from the inside out it's like oh wow, there is another side that there is that belief and I think that's where it comes to is is do you even have the belief that there is a healed, happier, healthier version of you? And if you don't have that belief and you don't have that in your vision it's not going to suddenly happen.

Mona Sharma (36:52)

When I was sick, there was not that vision. No doctors had given me a label. You have a heart condition. You are on medication. You're going to have heart surgery. I identified as somebody who was sick. I had a heart condition, and I gave so many, much of my power away to the doctors. Right. The doctors were doing their job. They recognized the symptom that they wanted to heal within me. And they tried to do that. God bless them for trying to do that. But they weren't uncovering again, the root cause. Right. So at that time, I wasn't interested in getting to the root cause. I was sick. And, you know, you're making me think of a story. My brother, my big brother, he was the marathon runner. He'd done, you know, so many triathlons and everything. And he asked me one year to do this triathlon with him. And I was like, no, mo. Like, I can't. My heart. And he just looked at me and he's like, how's that working for you? And it took someone that I love just like, bringing that up, like, oh, my God. Kind of like shook me for a second. I really identified as somebody who is sick. And unfortunately, it takes those moments sometimes from the people that we love in our life, or even listening to this conversation, just questioning what are the thoughts that you've identified with, the symptoms that you've identified with. Maybe you've suffered from some. Something is like digestive issues your entire life, that it's become you. When it's not you, it's simply your body communicating with you that there's an opportunity to resolve something within.

Jay Shetty (38:16)

I want to talk about the physical changes as well, because I think that that's what you're encouraging. You're encouraging this visualized change, this internal change, as well as practical external changes. And I wanted to ask you about the connection between stress and the gut, because I think what's only happened very recently is we've started to. To, you know, at least in modern conversation, it's been around in Irada, which you practice for thousands of years. But only very recently have we started to understand that. Wait a minute. My emotional stress is related to my gut health. Like, my mental stress is related to my physical pain. And I wanted to ask you. Talk to me about how stress is related to nutritional health, to your gut.

Mona Sharma (38:59)

Yeah. So we never really consider in the Western world that stress could be the instigation of your bloating or your gas or your constipation or your diarrhea and yet now we understand that we have this incredible wisdom, this intelligence of the vagus nerve in the body that runs from your brain down through your heart into your gut microbiome. And what's incredible about this nerve is that there's bi directional communication. If the head is thinking stressful thoughts, I'm worried, I'm scared, I'm fearful that is going to the gut, right? How many of your listeners, they feel stressed about giving a presentation, all of a sudden their stomach feels off, right? They have to run to the bathroom. But we also know that the opposite is true, right? So we now know that we have more nerve endings in our gut than we do in our brain. It's communication. So if we've been living with years of imbalances, constantly communicate like there's stress happening down here, but we were never taught to tune into that. We were never really taught to tune into distens. And in fact, I would even say that we live in a world where we're normalizing all these symptoms, right? I know as a woman going out with my girlfriends, oh, I'm so bloated. Getting bloated after dinner, it's like, oh yeah, me too, me too. It's like this new norm. But the symptoms are so common, they are not normal. Again, your body is communicating with you. So with stress being in the instigation of disease, we need to make sure that within the gut microbiome, if the gut is the source of all health, we need to take care of our digestion in Ayurveda digestion, the quality of your digestion and your gut health is really the root to all health and all disease prevention. So digestion is everything. So this is why we need to not ignore these symptoms. I know that with you together, like we were really working towards healing your gut. And I'm using you as an example because you're somebody who is a high performer. But I knew that you were doing the mindfulness work. But I also work with so many people like you who they don't even notice that they're living in a stress state. But it's the same messages that are being communicated to the gut. So we've just become masters at ignoring those symptoms, right? So when it comes to stress over time, if your digestion is compromised, what does that mean? It means that you've got an imbalance of good and bad bacteria, right? The good bacteria help you thrive. They're associated with longevity with your immune system, with optimal health and energy and motivation. And it means that you're also having probably a lot more food cravings for bad foods. Like, like even trying to eat really, really well. But you just don't understand why you're craving those those foods so often. You're craving lots of sugars and lots of carbs. It's also impacting your anxiety. Like why do I have anxiety? Again? It's that bi directional communication. And if we think about that long term, if we're living with those stressful symptoms and digestive imbalances long term that's what leads to further dis ease within the body. That could lead to things like joint pain, to getting more headaches, to having really really poor sleep, to having lack of sex drive, to not being able weight and just gaining weight because of feeling too much stress and too much cortisol throughout the day. So healing your digestion has to be pillar when optimizing your health.

Jay Shetty (42:08)

If someone's really struggling with bloating, it's so common now, where should they start?

Mona Sharma (42:13)

There's a couple of things. So one, just having a look at how you're starting your day. Two, what is the state in which you're eating? Are you eating while you're scrolling, while you're driving, while you're working? You know, at the ashram, we each without any devices, we're eating in nature, we're eating in community, we're eating in a really, really calm state. Remember, your body has to be in that rest and digest for your body to optimize digestion. If you're eating in fight or flight, you cannot digest your food. The analogy of running from a lion, if you were running from a lion for your life, you never say oh I'm hungry and decide to eat an apple when you're running. Right? But that's the equivalent of the type of stress that we're living with today. The second thing is looking at the foods that you're eating. So one of the first things that I do with my clients is I get them off ultra Processed Foods. 80% of the diet in the US comes from ultra processed packaged foods.

Jay Shetty (43:07)

80%.

Mona Sharma (43:08)

It's insane, right? And we're kind of being deceived because on the front of the labels of those packages and boxes it might say healthy, gluten free organic keto, all natural. In air quotes. The ashram belief is if it comes from a box then it's dead food. There's no life force energy to it, there's no prana to it. Food is information that helps every single one of the trillion cells in our body. Thrive. So ask yourself if what you're eating is nourishing you and helping you become the version of yourself that you want to become, or is the food that you're eating depleting you and taking you away from the health that you want? The second one is inflammatory seed oils and vegetable oil. These sweet oils are in everything. These vegetable oils, soybean oil, safflower oil, canola oil are in everything. If you look closely at the labels, even on healthy foods, like I'm talking, even in health food stores, you will see those foods. And if you were a parent, please read the labels of your children's snacks, because they are in everything. These we know, are pro inflammatory omega 6 fatty acids that actually cause inflammation to our cells cells. They cause free radical damage. And if you look at one of these blood cells under a microscope, it literally looks like it has these spikes around it, right? That leads to systemic inflammation in the body. So taking out those inflammatory seed oils is key. The last one is sugar. A lot of my clients will say, I'm not eating that much sugar. You know, just a little bit here, a little bit there. But by the time we add it all up, it's like, you know, 20, 30, 40 grams of sugar in a day. It's too much. Even simple things like a fruit, organic Greek Yogurt could have 20 grams of sugar in the morning. You're starting your day off with that sugar boost, right? General population is starting with a coffee or coffee cake or muffins or these bars, right? These protein bars that have so much sugar and refined oils and refined ingredients that aren't good for us. Taking out an excess of caffeine is also a really big deal because that's a stimulant that causes our body to feel stress. Too much alcohol, alcohol shuts down digestion. It causes a further dysbiosis of that good and bad bacteria within the gut microbiome. So those are definitely the key pillars, the state in which you're digesting and then of course, the quality of the foods that you're digesting. Also.

Jay Shetty (45:34)

What's the biggest problem with a sugary breakfast?

Mona Sharma (45:36)

Sugary breakfast. So you're starting your day with this spike in glucose, right? Whatever goes up has got to come down. That leads to a sugar crash. So for a lot of people who start their day with coffee, a donut, a muffin, a bar, they crash. So at 10 o', clock, they need another coffee. They're looking for another hit of sugar to get them back up. And then the cycle is Kind of going all day. This causes the cycle of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to metabolic dysfunction. When I'm looking at my clients blood labs, I can see over time, this type of person, their fasting glucose is rising. It's leading them to diabetes. Like, this is a big area of concern. And again, I want to just really point out that a lot of those foods might seem like they're healthy, but they're just laden with sugar. So it's not really about the label of the front of the product that you're eating, it's the label of the back. Become a master at reading that label, looking at the sugar, looking at the ingredients. If you don't know what the ingredient is, then neither will your body. So take ownership of that. So over time, if we're on this cycle of insulin instability, then we're going to continue to crave more carbs and crave more sugar. The cortisol levels within our body are going to continue to rise. We will be more stress. It's just not how our body is meant to function. So starting your day with a high protein breakfast. You and I talked about a savory breakfast as being so beneficial. But protein and fiber, I would say, are like the. The two things that you really want to optimize first thing in the morning or when you break your fast. When you do that, you'll feel more satiated, right? I think, you know, a lot of my clients will work towards between 30 and 40 grams of protein first thing in the morning. This is gonna keep your blood glucose a lot more throughout the day. You actually won't be craving as many carbs and starches and sugars. You'll actually be craving just more sustenance or nourishment, which means you'll make better choices for yourself and for people listening. They're like, yeah, yeah, I've tried that. Maybe try it for a little bit longer. Give me two weeks of just focusing on a higher protein, higher nutrient density breakfast, and you're going to notice that your taste buds are going to change, your glucose levels are going to change, your mood might improve, right? Less highs and lows, you might be less reactive, your sleep might improve, you might have more creativity because you're no longer crashing throughout the day. So just take the chance. Try it out. It's really, really worth it.

Jay Shetty (48:04)

It's fascinating to watch how quickly your taste buds change and how much your body changes. I find myself having less cravings, for sure. I'm someone who needed sugar every single day and craved it. So Badly and now that that's like almost you know, dissipated where I'm not turning towards it. And on top of all of that, I'm wanting to make healthier choices simply by that savory breakfast, that protein, that fiber. And I wanted to ask you, how much alcohol is too much alcohol?

Mona Sharma (48:38)

The question, honestly, I think any alcohol is too much alcohol. Like I've really gotten to that point. Dr. Amen has really shed a lot of light on this. The fact that alcohol can shrink your brain. As somebody who's focused on living a really long life full of vitality, I don't want to take anything in that's going to shrink my brain, right. And it's a drug and we've normalized it as a society and it feels so good because it's a coping mechanism at the end of the day to deal with the stressors that we're all enduring. We've normalized it and we really need to stop doing this because it's impacting our health. Gets us on that metabolic instability again. It disrupts our sleep. I think over time it makes you more irritable, more anxious and more stress. So taking alcohol out of your diet, I think, gosh, do that for a month and you're gonna feel yourself, how great you feel, how much more clarity that you have first thing in the morning. And there's so many better alternatives to, you know, there's non alcoholic options that are out there that are delicious and like you would never even know. Whenever I go out to a social event, I literally will get some sparkling water, I'll get some lime juice, some lemon juice put into it. I'll put it into a cocktail glass so everyone thinks it's a cocktail. And I do not feel like I'm missing out. My digestion is better, I'm digesting my food better. I'm more present in the conversations that I'm having. Alcohol is a drug. And when we think about the state of the world, anxiety related disorders are on the rise. Over 40 million people are suffering from anxiety related disorders and depression. And I think that it's something that we really need to stop normalizing.

Jay Shetty (50:18)

I wanted to ask you because you spoke about alcohol, you spoke about sugars, you spoke about fiber and protein. I was thinking, yeah, what do we substitute coffee for? Because that seems to be such a big need for people. What do you trade the coffee for in the morning?

Mona Sharma (50:32)

Oh my gosh. Okay. So this is what I'm living through right now. So I used to say that I was the nutritionist that would never take you off of coffee. I love the taste, I love the smell. I love the aroma. I love the ritual. Even on days where I couldn't meditate, I would wake up, up, put on my coffee machine. I would do tree pose. I would set an intention, make it a mindful moment. But then speaking about what we're speaking to today, I was that hypervigilant person. I used to say that anxiety was my blueprint and coffee was not doing me any favors. Right. It increases our cortisol. It can put us into that fight or flight state. And let's face it, it's something that we really, really abuse. I still love coffee. So these past two weeks, I've just been really focused on removing my diet altogether. And it's hard. This is a full addiction for me. And for me also, I feel like it was one of my only vices. So I like, I wouldn't give it up. There's no way that I wanted to give it up. So now I'm making chai first thing in the morning. I'm using things like mud water, which I absolutely love. No caffeine, no stimulants. And I would say by about day four, day five, headaches dissipated. I wasn't running to the bathroom, you know, every so often because it was stimulating my bladder so much. I'm looking at my sleep to the see if it's tracking for better sleep. But I would say that if you're somebody who experiences any type of anxiety, if you are more prone to being stressed, if you're more prone to hypervigilance, I know you love that coffee first thing in the morning, but do yourself a favor, maybe switch to decaf. Use a organic mold tested Swiss water, decaffeinated coffee first thing in the morning. Trick your brain, still go for the aroma, but get off of the drugs. The addiction.

Jay Shetty (52:16)

Yeah. These are really great solutions and really great options to choose from because I feel like we've just talked about, like, the core aspects of what's kind of wiring our day that way.

Mona Sharma (52:27)

Yeah.

Jay Shetty (52:28)

And it does take a beat. It does take a second. Like I'm someone who. I crave a sugary breakfast, or used to crave a sugary breakfast. It was my favorite thing in the world was to have a sweet breakfast. And now that I've been eating a savory breakfast five out of seven days a week, it's almost like I'm so used to that now. And so much of this is habit breaking, habit formation, habit learning. Why is it so hard in the beginning to break these habits and start a new one.

Mona Sharma (52:55)

I always say that habits come and go, but rituals become you. And this is actually one of the greatest lessons that come from the ashram. Every single day, the schedule is the same, Right? You know this from being a monk. The schedule is the same. We're up at the same time every single day with the same activities scheduled at the same time while you're living, living there. The first few days, it feels like torture until you get used to it. And what's so great about it is that it teaches you how to become so, like, hyper present and focus, and you start to ritualize your behavior. So over time, with practice and repetition, and also associating with a feeling like, oh, this feels really good. By merging those two together, you ritualize your healthy habits. So, you know, I think a lot of the things that we're talking about, it can feel so overwhelming, like, okay, she's saying to do this, cut out these foods, cut out these stimulants. It feels like so much. Look at the 1, 2, or 3 things that could make the most impact for your lifestyle and start there and then maybe start habit stacking. So you would never leave the house forgetting to brush your teeth or having a shower. Right. So a lot of my clients will habit stack. They will, you know, brush their teeth and do something like tongue scraping, which is really, really beneficial. They will make their morning tea and, you know, hold their loved one while the. The tea is brewing. They go to the gym, but when they go to the gym, they're spending five minutes in mindfulness afterwards. So looking at where you can merge a habit that you're already doing, something that you're already doing and loving with something that would help you kind of step into the higher version of yourself and make you feel really, really good. That could be playing loud music and dancing. Like, that could be an amazing habit stack because again, it's elevating your vibration to make better choices for yourself throughout the day.

Jay Shetty (54:44)

Yeah, habit stacking is such a great, great, great skill. And you're so right. If you're gonna go work out five minutes of mindfulness, even when you're thinking about being grateful, like, while you're waiting for your tea in the morning to just heat up or whatever it may be to practice gratitude at that time, I think people often think, oh, my gosh, I've gotta find all this time in my day. No, but there are so many activities that can allow us to be internal. And by the way, we're thinking during those times anyway. So it's replacing what we think about it with.

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Mona Sharma (55:50)

Lenovo.

Matt Rogers (55:54)

This is Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

JBL Advertiser (55:59)

JBL Tour Pro 3 earbuds are for those who don't conform to the standard.

Matt Rogers (56:03)

Yeah, I mean if you want to get into some touchscreen technology, how about the smart charging case Clear sound These are not you're only gonna get them with the JBL Tour Pro 3, baby.

JBL Advertiser (56:14)

And I love the sound of JBL when it goes. These earbuds are packed with innovation because you can't stand out by following others.

Matt Rogers (56:22)

Touchscreen Smart charging case for one touch control, instant EQ customization, true adaptive noise canceling and the one of a kind audio transmitter which can plug and play with everything from game consoles to in flight entertainment.

JBL Advertiser (56:36)

The audio transmitter also allows for JBL Spatial360 sound that takes any audio and turns it into a 360 immersive experience.

Matt Rogers (56:43)

What more could you want? First doesn't follow. Grab a pair@jbl.com.

Scott Hanson (56:49)

And Doug here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

Mona Sharma (57:05)

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

Scott Hanson (57:08)

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@liberty mutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Affiliates excludes Massachusetts.

Jay Shetty (57:26)

I was wondering, what about someone who's dealing with brain fog? Like, what are some of the tools that someone can have to sort brain fog?

Mona Sharma (57:34)

Yeah. So big topic. There's a couple of things so I really become an investigator for these clients. One, is there anything in your physical environment that could be causing your brain fog? So we're looking for, you know, chemical air fresheners and perfumes and maybe noises in the background or things that are just constantly distracting you. We're looking at the foods that you're eating. Having food sensitivities can actually cause brain fog. You might not even know it no way. Yeah. Like, remember, you and I both had some similar things. Like, we had coconut come up and almond come up, like pineapple. Like, these things that are seemingly healthy, but our bodies just were like, we don't have the enzymes to digest those foods right now. That could be causing brain fog as well. Nervous system dysregulation. Right again, living in that state of hypervigilance could be causing your brain fog. And then we look at sleep also. When I work with my clients, sleep is actually one of the biggest pillars of health. If you are not resting properly and recovering and restoring, there is no way that you're going to have the energy to proceed in your life and to do all the things that you want to do with energy and focus. So looking at your sleep, I'm. I love data, so I'll use things like Oura ring. I know we looked at your Oura ring also, but I had mold exposure a few years ago. That was my environment that was causing stress to my. My body. And it wasn't actually until I looked at my OURA ring, my heart rate variability continued to drop and drop. My REM sleep started dropping as well. I got like 20 minutes of REM sleep every single night. You wonder why I have brain fog. So that caused me to do some deeper investigation. So this is where, like, again, if you're suffering from those symptoms, any symptom at all, investigate to see where they come from. Because the sources could be very different for all of us.

Jay Shetty (59:23)

Totally. And it's always so much simpler than we think it is. And I think often we do get caught in our heads and we just think, there's something in my head, like I'm doing something wrong.

Mona Sharma (59:34)

It's just the way that I am.

Jay Shetty (59:35)

Exactly. And so often it becomes, like you said earlier, it becomes our identity. It's really interesting. So I'm someone who's generally, thankfully, never struggled with sleep. Knock on wood. And it's so funny. Cause I was talking about this recently. Recently and for the past couple of weeks, my sleep was getting really rough. And I was like, that's really weird. Like, I literally just spoke about this on a podcast. Like, what's going on? And I was thinking about it. I was trying to figure it out. I was like, wait a minute. I'm not looking at my phone. I'm not stressed. I'm not anxious. I've got a really good routine. I'm working out. I'm eating. What is going on? And I realized it sounds crazy, but it was my mattress. And so My mattress was slowly getting worse, and my sleep was slowly getting worse. And it was only until me and Radhi had a conversation about it. And I was like, rather, I just have been sleeping well for the past couple of weeks. Like, how are you doing? Because obviously we're sleeping in the same bed next to each other, so it's like. And she was like, you know what? I've not been sleeping well either. I was like, what do you think? She goes, I think it's the mattress. I was like, you're so right. I keep waking up because my back hurts and I'm uncomfortable. But I didn't. I just didn't. Like, it sounds so ridiculous, but I couldn't sense it because life's so busy. You keep moving fast and you're out of bed. You're in your day and your day's f. And then only in your bed are you feeling that way. And so we recently replaced our mattress. And again, my sleep's back to normal. Because I was thinking about it. I was like, wait a minute. Why am I sleeping well in hotels but not in my own house? And it was the mattress, and I was literally in a hotel for the last two nights. Slept amazing. And then we got back last night, slept in a new mattress, Slept amazing. But something as small as that can have such a big impact.

Mona Sharma (61:08)

Do you remember? I think we started working together. You lived in a different house or something.

Jay Shetty (61:11)

Oh, my gosh. Don't even get me started.

Mona Sharma (61:13)

Yeah, your sleep back then was that.

Jay Shetty (61:15)

Energy of that home. There was lots of things wrong with that home. The first thing is the main generator was hidden behind the master bedroom in the house. So the sounds, the frequency, the vibration of that was there. It was also a home that was really old, so you could hear animals in the floorboards and the walls. I would wake up to that, and then the energy of the home by day was beautiful and by night was not good. Like, there was a. There was some kind of stuff going on there.

Mona Sharma (61:43)

Well, how many people put up with that? Right? Like, they put up with maybe the partner that's snoring or the mattress that isn't so great or too much light coming in, or they just get used to it. This is how I sleep. I'm a terrible sleeper. Right. Again, you've got to become an expert. You are the healer. You have to take control of your life. And without even working with me, pretend I was in your bedroom. Like, I'm doing an audit of your bedroom. We're looking at the quality of your mattress. The quality of your duvet, your pillows, everything. The temperature, the, the sounds, right. How do you make your bedroom your rest and digest oasis? I don't allow my clients to have any screens in the bedrooms. Bedrooms are meant for rest, restoration, for sleep and for sex. That is it. And once you master your sleep, like, gosh, the joke is like, let that cure 99% of your problems because your body has the ability to heal itself. Our bodies are healing in the second. As you're listening to this, your body is so resilient, it is healing. But if we're not giving it the proper and restoration that it needs, it's not going to be able to do that. It's putting out fires here and there to try to keep up with your busy life.

Jay Shetty (62:52)

We have to change the identity. What you just said, that this idea that I'm a terrible sleeper, that's what needs to be solved. At the root of it, because if you keep saying that and you keep repeating it rather than what you said, do an audit of everything from the pillow shape and size to your bed sheets, everything that you just mentioned. That audit is so important because you'll find it in that audit that there's something else tripping you up. And it isn't this weakness you have or the fact that you're just a bad sleeper or. And also, sometimes I think we do overestimate the anxiety in our life. Like, we do just make it about, oh my gosh, I'm just anxious, I'm just this. And it's like, no, no, no, you've got a TV on in your room, you're on your phone all this time before you go to bed. Of course you're not just going to switch off.

Mona Sharma (63:36)

Sleep anxiety is a real thing. This is actually a really important part of Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, we talk about not only digesting the foods that we eat, we metabolize everything in our life. It's not only what we eat, it's what we're watching, it's what we're listening to, it's what we can smell and it's what we can feel. So look around you right now, or look around in the rooms where you spend the most time and ask what you are digesting. You know, I always say clean up that. The, the cupboard or that drawer. That's just like chaos for you because a cluttered house causes a cluttered mind, right? That was my dad's message growing up. Look at your space and see. Is it a reflection of the version of Yourself that you want to become and how you want to feel. Often with my clients, I'll help kind of build their ashram. As much as I want everybody to go away and experience what ashram like is and all the gifts that come with it. Create your ashram at home. So what does that mean? We talked about your bedroom, optimizing your sleep, going into your kitchen. And I always say that self care starts in the kitchen. Your kitchen is your first line of defense when it comes to your healthcare. So if I were to come over again, do an audit, your cabinets, your cupboard, your fridge, what would I see? What would you have to hide from a nutritionist, Right? Just get rid of it. Why do you think it's okay to feed yourself those foods if you know that they're inflammatory? Why aren't you putting yourself into the position of wanting to nourish yourself so much and heal and break that addiction? I often say to people, you build an altar, whether you are religious or spiritual or not, build an altar in your home that reminds you of what it means to go back to that core frequency of who you are, who are you? How do you want to feel? What are you working towards? It could include a religious deity or a God or something spiritual. It could be a picture of yourself in nature, in your happiest spot. It could be a picture of your family. It could be a vision board. It could be, you know, some devotional practice that you have there. I love putting some palo santo and stuff like that there. But have a space in your home where you go to that altar. It's always something that's going to anchor you and the version of yourself that you are becoming. And then I also add in, like, have a space for. For mindfulness. It's funny, you and I, we talk a lot about meditation, right? If there was something that you could do that would take away your stress, improve your digestion, help your memory, your brain function, your mood, your motivation, your creativity, how you show up in this world. Would you do it?

Jay Shetty (66:07)

Yeah.

Mona Sharma (66:08)

Yeah. Meditate, right? No, we don't do it. It's free. What if doctors started to prescribe meditation? What if one day we could go to our doctor's offices and before we even stepped in to see them, we were guided into a meditation. To surrender and just practice that muscle of feeling, peace. You would learn how to change your physiology. You become the master of your own health then, because you remember how good it feels, even if it's a split second in the meditation that day, you're practicing that Muscle, you're building the fuel of what it feels like to feel good and you deserve to feel that way. So yes, you need to, to meditate and gosh, if you haven't practiced yoga. Yoga is something that I think that needs to be recommended to everyone. A lot of my clients will say, I can't do it, I can't stay still for that long. That's why you need to be doing yoga, right? That's exactly why you should do it. But when we think about the ancient wisdom behind it. Surya Namaskar, right? Sun salutations first thing in the morning. Right now we're talking about our circadian rhythm going out into the sun. We know that this really supports us with our sleep training. At night it helps to boost serotonin in our gut microbiome. Yogis have known this forever. We go outside, we salute the sun, we're inhaling sunshine, allowing nature to really calm and soothe us. We're aligning with the rhythm of nature. Also, we're moving our bodies in different ways to alleviate stillness, working our lymphatic system, our respiratory system, ultimately letting go, releasing things from the night before, stuff that's come up from while we sleep. Do that first time thing in the morning. If it's, you know, one round of sun salutations, two rounds of sun salutations, but just give it a go. Notice how it's like an instant energy boost. You won't need coffee anymore. Your body will feel primed for your day.

Jay Shetty (68:01)

When you talk about it, you make it sound so easy. I'm like listening, just going, mona, you're amazing. This is awesome. This is like, it's so blissful to live this way. And I think anyone who's listening right now, it's about finding the time you have to start doing one of these things and seeing how it changes your life and that will build your confidence. I think when I've looked at my health journey, it's been changing a pillar at a time. And when I've changed a pillar and built confidence, then I can add another pillar and then I can add another one. Rather than this, let me just destruct my entire health regime and start a new one. And it doesn't work that way. I feel like if you solve your sleep all of a sudden now you can solve your food, then you can solve your workout. If you try to do it all at the the same time, most people don't have the time or can't find it or are not prioritizing it. There's too Many things going wrong because each of these things is going to take time to practice and prepare for and get right.

Mona Sharma (68:59)

Oh, yeah. And that's a good reflection, too, because I don't want people to look at me and think that I've got it figured out. Mona's outside doing sun salutations every single morning. It's just her blissful self. No, I'm a mom. I've got two little kids. Life is stressful and it's really busy. But I know that when I come back to those core practices, then I feel my best. And for listeners, I want you to start thinking about what are one, two, or three things that you can start doing? And maybe consider one thing in the nutrition category, what's one thing like drinking water first thing in the morning? That could be so simple. That could help you optimize. What if it's removing one food ingredient? What if it's deciding to eat dinner a little bit earlier because you know that's going to help you sleep a little bit bit better. Then from the movement category, you know, what's one type of exercise that you actually love? Focus on doing something that you love. Don't go do hit training because, you know, social media is telling you to do that. Don't go and lift heavy weights if it's something that you just absolutely hate. Find something that you love doing. And then do something for your spirit, what makes your spirit feel really, really great. And do one thing from each of those buckets. And every day, acknowledging that it's that 1%, it's the 1% every day that's really putting you on the best training ground to have the most optimal health span. And I wanted to point out too, also having a strong why. Everyone's talking about longevity, right? I want to live longer, you know. But why? Why do you want to live longer? Right. The way that we're looking at aging right now, aging kind of sucks. We get to the last 10, 15 years of our life and, you know, we're put into nurs homes or given a chronic disease or put on prescription medication. Like, I don't want any of that. But my visualization is to think about, I want to live till I'm 100 so that I can throw my grandkid on my back and hike Runyon Canyon and have that strength and that posture to have clarity of my mind so I can be fully present. So with a why that is so powerful for me, because I really want to meet my grandkids one day and I can visualize this I can visualize hiking and mountain, make it feel real. Now my actions throughout the day are going to be aligned with the version of myself that I am becoming. I love that so many of us listen to social media, and I'm guilty of it too. We hear about these things that we should be doing, you know, the things that we need to be doing for longevity, but we don't have a why backed behind them. And it's like trial and error to see, like, what works, what will stick. Maybe stop looking for trial and error and finally just get to the source of what's going to make you feel your best and then follow those nuggets and that's going to lead you to your perfect healing protocol, not somebody else's. Yours. Own that.

Jay Shetty (71:46)

I love that. Mona. What a beautiful reminder. And I loved hearing about your visualization because you made it so tangible and real for us and I could vision it for you as you were saying it. So imagine if we were all doing that for ourselves. And I think the why is so critical and so important. And I think everything gets fueled from that deeper purpose that we, we have of why we want to live longer. I always think about it. It's like, I want to be able to do this for as long as I possibly can. This is all I want to do, is serve and give. And when I came to seek your help or when I've gone to others to find their coaching or mentorship in my health, it's purely been because I'm just like, I want to do this forever. Like, I'm not trying to retire. I'm not trying to stop doing what I'm doing. There's no end point for me. This is what I love doing, but I want to be healthy while I do it. And so, Mona, we end every episode of On Purpose with a final five. So these are your final five. They have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum. So, Mona Sharma, these are your final five. Question number one. What is the best health advice you've ever heard or received or given?

Mona Sharma (72:55)

Eat like you love yourself.

Jay Shetty (72:57)

Question number two. What is the worst health advice you've ever, ever heard received?

Mona Sharma (73:01)

Carbs are your enemy.

Jay Shetty (73:03)

Oh, explain.

Mona Sharma (73:03)

Expand carbohydrates. Our body needs carbs. But I want you to start loving on carbohydrates that come from the earth. Vegetables that are grown in the ground, squashes, yams, sweet potato. Those type of carbohydrates are loaded with nutrients, with vitamins, with minerals, with polyphenols that help our bodies thrive. They are antioxidants for our bodies. So focus on those carbohydrates. Carbohydrates from the earth.

Jay Shetty (73:28)

Great answer. Question number three. What's something you used to believe was true about health but you don't anymore?

Mona Sharma (73:34)

That somebody else knows the answers to my body and how to heal.

Jay Shetty (73:38)

Tell me more.

Mona Sharma (73:39)

When you don't have your health, nothing matters. Time stops. I had to get to that point to really take initiative to learn what my body needed to get to a place to heal. And ultimately that was embodiment. It was coming into my body to learn what my body needed. And I think that if we start to talk, talk more and have conversations like this about the fact that our bodies actually do have this intelligence and maybe for once and for all we start teaching our kids on the wisdom that our bodies have, then they're not going to be in the same position when they grew up. They will acknowledge that they are their own healers, that we can merge western medicine with these eastern training modalities that we've talked about today.

Jay Shetty (74:20)

Yeah. I love that you've been speaking about that so much. That's what I'm so passionate about as well. I feel like there's so many great strengths from both and it's a missed opportunity to ignore either or.

Mona Sharma (74:30)

My dream is that the future of healthcare is really the integration of modern science, which is so cool. There's so many cool things that are happening with ancient wisdom. And if the two would come together, I think that the trajectory for the future of health, how we age, the symptoms that we suffer from will dissipate. There will be more awareness and openness that we will be on this like exciting journey to uncover the human body.

Jay Shetty (74:56)

Question number four. What's the first thing you do every morning and the last thing you do every night?

Mona Sharma (75:02)

Meditate in gratitude for my heart. Yeah. Our hearts have been beating for us since before we even got here. And to get into my heart, I come to the feeling of just love. I'm so in love with my kids and my husband and being a mom in my life and coming into that heart coherence is everything beautiful.

Jay Shetty (75:19)

It comes across, it's very, it's very real. It just oozes from you. Beautiful. Fifth and final question. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

Mona Sharma (75:30)

Lead with empathy. You do not know. You're at the other person's story and notice how often you are the critic or the judge in your day to day life. Maybe turn that around. To empathy towards yourself. Once you experience that, you will take that out into the world and it, it will be contagious.

Jay Shetty (75:49)

It's amazing. Mona, thank you so much for your time today. Everyone who's been listening or watching, I want you to tag me and Mona on Instagram on TikTok, whatever platform you use, tell us what you're testing, what you're experimenting with, what you're trying, because I want you to try and put at least one piece of advice into practice. And of course, please go and follow Mona Sharma across all of the social media platforms and you can check out her podcast, Rooted in Wellness as well. Mona, thank you so much again for your wealth of wisdom, your amazing energy and aura that you have that you carry everywhere you go. And I'm so grateful that we got to finally connect on the show and I'm excited for people to start practicing these things. So thank you so much.

Mona Sharma (76:29)

Thank you for having me.

Jay Shetty (76:30)

Jay if you love this episode, you'll love my conversation with Dr. Joe Dispenza on why stress and overthinking negatively impacts your brain and heart and how to change your habits that are on autopilot. Listen to it right now. How many times do we have to forget until we stop forgetting and start remembering. That's the moment of change.

Mona Sharma (76:51)

No one cares how many times you.

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Jay Shetty (76:53)

If you ride the bicycle now, you ride the bike.

Mona Sharma (76:56)

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Mona Sharma (79:27)

This is an iHeart podcast.