Nidhi Pandeya (5:32)

Firstly, I'm actually not horrified at all. I'm actually very, very honored to be here because all of those things that you just said, I believe in all of them. And that's why I wrote this book called your Body Already knows. Health is not a complicated system. And I want to start at the top that, you know, we know that deer don't wake up in the morning complaining about how early they have to wake up and they're not wondering, oh my God, do I really have to eat grass again? We know every species on the planet knows exactly what they need to stay well and become well when they get sick. There are animals in the jungle, they know exactly what to eat when the seasons change, when they're not feeling well, when they're nursing bear, for example, eat cabbage heads before they eat anything else, right before hibernation because they want to wake up and have that big dump as babies. We know baby never uses its mouth in the womb. And yet the moment the baby comes out, it's looking for the smell of the breast. And instantly as it comes to the breast, the baby will open its mouth and suckle onto that nipple. We know what we need. Our instincts tell us. However, we've over intellectualized so much, we're so exposed to information that we've lost our wisdom. And I've written this book, and this is my fundamental belief and how I work with women all around the world, is to tap back into what your body already knows, because it does know everything that you need to stay well and become well.

Nicole Kahlil (7:07)

Okay, so I buy into that completely. And you know, there have been a lot of unlearnings that have happened through the course of our life and a lot of influences and teachings that sort of separate us from this inner wisdom. Can we first talk about what, from your experience and expertise, what are some of those barriers that we should keep an eye out for? What is actually disconnecting us from that?

Nidhi Pandeya (7:39)

Yeah, you know, it is over intellectualizing as, as any species on the planet, we're supposed to be very connected to what humans call the sixth sense, which is your instinct is that deep knowing. And it comes from a great place of logic. Now according to Ayurveda, which is basically the science of life translated into. And when I look at all ancient cultures that knew a thing or two about health, they knew this. One of the fundamental ways to understand what our instincts are, to come back to it, is understanding that we are. There's a. There's a whole universal pattern, there's a theme, the sun and the moon and we are diurnal mammals. And as above, so below as is the macro, such as the micro. So the observation of patterns outside in the universe to understand the patterns inside the human body. And of course we'll talk more about that. That is actually enough for us to start understanding how we need to live. But because of excessive information and prescription, we've gone into a whole area of fear. Growing up, because I grew up in an Ayurvedic family, I say that health was only about the freedom of being well rather than the fear of disease. And we've, we've shifted the paradigm. You're living in the fear of disease, and that's, that's why we're seeking health. You know, Nicole, and that's why it was so refreshing to hear you, because it doesn't seem like you're living in that fear of health. And that's how, that's, that's the message that I want to bring out there, that I want to teach people in my book to connect with these rhythms and these patterns so that they can start to connect with the rhythms and patterns inside their body and to realign themselves to start feeling healthy in every aspect. You know, you spoke about burnout, you spoke about how you parent, you spoke about just overall health and wellness. And it's all come. It's all the same. It's the same exact understanding that will solve all your problems.

Nicole Kahlil (9:30)

Okay, so I think we think about health and wellness a lot and being healthy and avoiding disease, as you said. And then as you started our conversation, you talked about how other species, they know what my brain is going to is those other species don't think about this stuff. They're not evaluating or overanalyzing or anything like that. So is thinking about this too much a sign that maybe we've crossed over? And what is even the healthy way to think about this?

Nidhi Pandeya (10:11)

Wow, Nicole, I am so impressed by you because you say that you don't think about this, but you actually know what it takes, right? So thinking is the. Is the word when I say over intellectualizing it is too much thinking. You know, thinking is what sets us apart from other species. Thinking is what is what allowed us to invent and create and all of that. And then now thinking is what is also leading us to our peril. And thinking actually creates debris in our nervous system. Our body needs to clean it out. And overthinking and not being able to process is what creates the, you know, loss of that instinct that we carry. So, yes, you're absolutely right. Thinking comes from a different part of your brain, and knowing comes from a different part of your being. And we need to go back from thinking to knowing. And we need a framework. And my book gives people the framework to go back to knowing so that they can stop to think and overthink.

Nicole Kahlil (11:04)

So let's talk a little bit about that framework, because the words that popped into my head were reconnect, relearn. Because I think it's important, as you said, that we do know this stuff innately, inherently. We've sort of disconnected. So it's about a re. Connection or relearning. What are the ways that we can go about doing that?

Nidhi Pandeya (11:27)

Beautiful, right? Because. Because it all sounds really great, but I'm like, oh, my God, that's so easy to say. Somebody can say my body just wants to watch Netflix or eat this whole big bag of chips, you know? So, I mean, how do you know? So I have based this book on three main principles, Nicole, and that gives you the framework. And these three principles are basically the principles of life. And they can be applied to any area of your life, from your mindset to your relationships to your gut. Exercise, sleep, every single. So the first is, I mean, it's based on the premise of this understanding that we're all interconnected, right? And we are diurnal mammals. So we have the clock of the sun and the moon. We. We are not tigers. We don't hunt at night. We're not bats. That's not. When we wake up. We do. We rise with the sun and we start dwindling when the sun dwindles. And in fact, so electrification has kind of damaged the way we live. That's a different story. So anyways, what would it look like? I live in New York City. What does it look like to come back to this? So the first principle. The first principle in my book is called the inner climate. And this principle states that just like any other species, there is, every single species requires a certain climate that they can thrive in. Right. Which means you cannot grow tomatoes in Alaska normally. Right. But there are belts on the equator, like in our planet around the equator that can grow a lot of food. So when the climate is right, life will exist. The only planet that hosts life in the entire Milky Way is the planet Earth that we know of. The only reason is the climate is right. And now the climate is wrong. And climate is, you know, we're feeling threatened with the climate. For the first time in four and a half billion years, we are questioning life on our planet and whether, whether it's going to be sustainable. So similarly, our body, the insides of our body, right, the insides of our body are home to trillions of microorganisms, let's say known as microbiome these days. And more and more people are, you know, we are, we are linking microbiome to gut health, to nervous health, to reproduction, to hormones, to autoimmune, to all of it. They say, oh my God, if this little, these little buggers inside our body are happy, we are happy, we're healthy, we don't need to do much else. So there is a certain climate that they thrive the most in and we want to identify what that climate is. Right? So I, the first concept is coming back to that inner, optimum, inner climate, that homeostasis where life just naturally thrives. Just as from single cell organisms on our planet we became these full blown mammals. Same thing can happen, you can come back to health. So what is that inner climate? Right. Nicole and I would love to do this with you. I ask people to kind of blow into their mouth, into their palms and blow out air. The climate inside our body that is ideal is warm and moist like our breath, like our blood, like mother's milk, like reproductive fluids in our body. Right? It is, it is exactly what is outside, what is conducive. We are just very connected to the outside. Whereas the most agriculture in a place that is warm and moist, Florida in March. If it's too hot and humid, like the Amazon rainforest, tropical places, you're going to have parasites. If it's cold and dry, like a cold desert, nothing grows. If it's hot and dry, only cacti grow and that's inflammation in the body. So there's this climate, right? Any deviation from that and this, like I can go into, I could go into technically many conditions and tell you how the climate changes. And that's when you, that's when imbalance is created. So this inner climate, warm and moist, the book teaches you how do you eat warm and moist. And when you look at the blue zones and you look at all the cultures, they always brought in through cooking, through spices, through good fats, they brought in warm and moist foods. In fact, even fermentation is a warm and moist process. That is what fermentation is. There's multiplication of bacteria and you can see the actual vessel becomes warm and it's aerobic, so it has moisture. And so as long as we keep coming back to this warm and moist, and that's really the main premise, we start thriving we don't need to treat diseases. Your body just reorganizes the microbiome. The inner army takes over. And I've seen this time and time again with the hundreds and thousands of patients that I've worked with. But also this can be extended to your emotions. For example, anger is hot. It creates a hot climate. It depression is sluggish and dense and slimy. Right? Stress is hot and dry. Anxiety is too drying. But love, gratitude, compassion are warm and moist. When we talk about the kind of people we like, nobody ever teaches us, oh, this is a warm person. We just know that warmth feels right. Cold people, they don't go anywhere. No relationship can transform. If you're hot, tempered, you burn things out quickly. So you like warm people. All, all comfort foods, soups, porridges, all warm and moist. A hug is warm and moist. A cozy blanket is warm and moist. Nobody likes their, their palms to be dry or sticky. While you like it just moist, you want your room just warm. So you know, I then I create a whole system out of this, right? Plus on our planet, the sun comes, it becomes, it heats and dries up the system. The moon comes and cools and refuels the system. The, the center point is warm and moist. So this can be applied to all areas of our life and we can all come back to warm and moist in a very systematic, practical manner.

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Nidhi Pandeya (18:04)

So this took the longest time. I'm going to go through the other two principles much quicker. Quicker. So the second part of the framework again going back to this, that balance of solar and lunar, right, Is warm and moist, right? So what is that? Right, we are day, we rise with the sun and there's six parts to the day. There's a morning part between 6 and 10, which is sluggish outside, sluggish inside. So how do you live? 10 to 2 is when the sun takes its peak. Human beings are the most focused. Our digestive enzymes are also at their peak. So I basically in through the second principle. I divide the day into six parts and I teach people how to what activity to plan for those six parts. So that you're moving with the tide, you're actually moving with the natural occurrence of hormones and neurotransmitters that are high. For example, morning cortisol is high, blood sugar is high. What is it that you need to do? Afternoon, your gastric juices are high. What do you need to do and how your day, if you can learn to design your day according to these six phases, you automatically balance the solar and lunar. Unfortunately, the word burnout, we are just burnt out. We are too. Solar is what I call it in my language. Hot and dry. That's what the sun does. Whether it's caffeine, whether it's alcohol, whether it's overproductivity, whether it's excessive stress, whether it's just working too much, it's too drying. It's so solar and global warming outside and burning out inside and inflammation inside. They're not very different. Different, you know, because we've become that go, go, go. So I talk about these six phases of the day and how do you design them for maximum efficiency and maximum repair and rest? Super easy. You can actually get a lot more done. I live in New York City with two young daughters that I'm raising, two teenage daughters. And you can still get a lot done if you learn to design your day. So that's the second principle. And the third principle is that no matter how warm and moist you are, no matter how much you follow the circadian rhythms, building transformation and decline are inevitable. A fruit will build and ripen, and in its ripe, warm stage, it will be in its. It's that transformation phase and then it will decay and decline. But understanding these phases in our own bodies, in the seasons, outside, like the daytime is building, the afternoon is like this transformation hot phase. And Then the evening is decay seasons. Spring is a building time, summer is a transformation time, and then autumn and winter are declining time. And they all have specific properties. And when you understand these cycles of nature outside of you and inside of you and in everything that you interact with, even people, right? Like a relation has its building phase transformation. And if you don't keep building, you will go into decline. So once you start understanding these three phases, you know how to interact with the world around you. You also understand its transience. And then you look forward to a new building phase each time. So these are the three foundational principles. And by applying these, and I also teach this in a program to people. And what you see is that you can basically then learn to solve every single question. You learn if there's a new eat food fad, you know, how to put this principle in place and be like, does this work for me? You know this. If it can be filtered through this framework and come out successful, you know that it works. But it kind of goes into a great detail of practical, you know, just practical experience as well.

Nicole Kahlil (21:31)

Well, Nidhi, I'd started out this episode by saying I'm just not all that interested, but that my friend was fascinating. Like, I am so curious and so much of what you said made sense. Yes, to my brain, but more importantly to something like inside me, something that knows that I know, really connected to that. And this might be the only health and wellness even adjacent book that I ever read this year. So, okay, let me ask then about our differences as humans. So you give us three principles and yet, you know, each of us have our own bodies with our own DNA with all of that, like, how do we listen to ourselves while applying general principles so that we understand what is unique to us? Is my question making sense?

Nidhi Pandeya (22:29)

It's making perfect sense. Right, because of what? Because basically what I'm doing is saying that, look, homeostasis, that optimum inner climate is equal, should be equal for all. Like, we all need to come back to warm and moist. And yet we are, you know, yet bio individuality is true. Yet I would say yes, we have different bodies. And I want to address that. Right, you're absolutely right. And our bio individuality is also understanding that is also what allows us to prevent disease. So there are builders, people whose bodies. Like there are only three types usually of people for the most part. Right. Or combinations of these three. Three types. So there are people who build their bodies, like to build everything, you know, they usually, they build more tissue, they could be a little bit slower A little bit heavier. But they hold on to things longer in their mind. They hold on to relationships longer. So these are all the builders because it's like their, their job is to build and hold then their bodies. Usually in terms of their body, they, like I said, they could build more tissue, but they could also, also they could also have other conditions like eventually they're more prone to obesity or plaque or high cholesterol or diabetes. All these building, building conditions in their minds they are more used to, they could be you know, more of a little bit like attached, overly attached, a little bit maybe hoarding, attached to memories, even grudges. They can love deeply too. So they have their advantages as well. But when you understand that, right, and they understand that their bodies are become a little cold and dense, then they're coming back to warm and moist. Looks slightly different from the other two categories. But they would also start making their way towards warm and moist because they can feel a little bit stuck and stagnant at times. So those are the builders. Stuck and stagnant could be when they're off balance. Then the second category of people are, you know, so that I said the builders, but then I had the second one and I, it sounds funny when I say this. Other transformers, for the lack of a better word, their bodies are hot and metabolic and they're super hot all the time. And their bodies, so they are like super focused. Super. They, they're very hot. Digestion, hot hormones, everything in their body can be overly heated. And so that's the second type. And their, their imbalances could look like, like I said, acidity, skin rash, sensitivity to the sun, excessive inflammation, low grade inflammation, red eyes. They can also gray quickly because everything is burning out in their system and they're coming back to that. Warm and moist. Could look slightly different. They need to put little gentler refueling elements. And I explain all of that in my book as well. And then the third category of people are just people who are just quickly in their declining decay phase. They are just become cold and frigid. They may have really dry skin, skin very dry hair, anxiety, bloating, constipation, scatterbrained, you know, they're just all over. They're like the wind, what I call the wind. So the first the builders are like, like aloe vera gel, slow, stagnant, sweet, mushy. The second one, the transforming ones are like hot, like just think of hot oil, hot lava. And then the third is like the wind. And, and in that category people get often very diplomatic, very Very just frazzled, depleted. And the bodies don't build as well because just it's in that decay constantly. Like let's move fast, let's move fast. And so there is bio individuality and people can be born like that because we are carrying generations of genetic frameworks which are compromised. We also have our own experiences in childhood. So there's, you know, we carry a genetic framework, then we have an experience in the womb, then we have a childhood and you know, so there's a. This. We're carrying so much with us and so we kind of come prone to one of these three for the most part, or combination of these. And I call that inner climate either hot and dry people or cold and sluggish people, or just cool and dry or hot. And so there's a combination of these, a few. And then once you understand what your tendencies are, then you're more kinder and gentler to yourself. I just want to give you one quick example. I have one daughter who is hot and dry and she's so dry, she's like a desert. I'm like Suhani. And sometimes her personality is so snappy, like a cactus. And like you're becoming more hot and dry for her excessive rest, oil massages, you know, consuming more grounding foods, good fats is more important. That's my 17 year old. My 12 year old is, she's this moist and you know, she's hot and moist too, but she's, she's like lava, she's bubbling. When one is like, like a desert, the other one is like Amazon rainfore, you know, and I know that she's more prone to parasites. I know that if it's a really sunny, sweaty, sticky day, she's going to be in a, you know, in a foul mood. And of course this is new for anyone who's listening and for you. But as you start to wrap your head around these concepts and you identify your own body's landscape or its landscape tendencies, you know exactly how to live for it. You know how your relationships will feel, how your mindset will feel, how you should exercise. Like Suhani, my older one, who's hot and dry. For her excessive exercise is going to dry her even further. So she needs to do more restorative stuff, you know, so it looks very different for each person and it could look very different. But no matter who where you are, your goal is to come back to warm and moist because that is where life thrives. And in that your body's detox mechanisms are automatically upgraded. You don't have to worry so much about, oh, my God, this is this toxic world we're living in. Honestly, at this point, Nicole, I'm like, there's only so much you can do. Looks like the world is full of toxic waste and toxins everywhere. Air pollution, food everywhere. You just got to upgrade your detox mechanisms. And in living in a certain way, you can do that.

Nicole Kahlil (28:22)

Yeah. So what I'm hearing from all of this is that the journey home to ourselves into this thriving climate is innate and universal. But the journey we take to get there is going to be varied and nuanced depending on a lot of factors. And so what I'm really hearing is if I'm a builder, I probably can't follow the same advice as, you know, you would give a transformer. And we do have a tendency to do that in today's day and age. We take advice from people who are on a different journey or maybe even to a different destination. And that messes with us just as much as anything else.

Nidhi Pandeya (29:10)

So true, Nicole. I mean, I have to say, you're one of the most perceptive people. I'm sorry, I'm just going to say this. You're one of the most perceptive people that I've spoken to in the last many years. You just, you really, really get this so. Well, it is, it is. And yet I would say some things are not drastically different. Like, we all need to eat cooked foods with good fats and spices. Every single ancient culture did this. Like every single blue zone did this because that is warm and moist food. Like if you are using food to nourish yourself, it has to be warm and moist. Now some people could afford, like builders could afford it a little bit more spicy if they wanted to. Somebody who's already hot kin does not, does not need that extra spice, you know, but otherwise it'll still be spiced with good spices because it'll still have good fats, it'll still be cooked. And that's how blue zones ate, that's how our ancestors ate. So some things are going to look similar. We people will still wake up when the sun rises and will still start winding down when the sun sets. So a lot of the basic framework looks very, very similar. And then what you build on top of it changes. And which is also beautiful, right, because you can live in the same household and you can have a, you can have. One person's a builder. One person is like just, you know, dry and frail and they can still, you can still cook for the same, same Food, but maybe what you spice it with will be different. You know, what you add to it. One will add an extra drizzle of olive oil and the other will scrape, skip that olive oil. So, and that's why the idea is to really simplify it as much as you can. You don't really have to go and create this whole new way of living. You can live wherever on the planet you are and you can live in this way.

Nicole Kahlil (30:46)

So the word simplify really stuck out at me. And that is, I think, so important because as you've said a couple times, we're over complicating, we're overthinking. Okay, my last question is around some small rituals. You talk about connecting to nature and the seasons. What are some examples of small rituals that any of us could employ to better listen, to bring us closer, to take us home?

Nidhi Pandeya (31:21)

One, I would say you live with the, this is more of organization design of your day. And then I want to just give one more is that you want to start living with the clock of the sun. We were not, nobody was nocturnal till we invented electricity and, you know, came into urban homes. Till 1930s, our ancestors were not sitting out with oil lamps at 11pm Say, oh, I'm nocturnal, I'm just going to do this. You know, people were not doing that. So which basically means you rise with the sun, you sleep with the sun, but you also eat your heaviest meal during lunch because that's when the sun peaks. Even plants don't dare to do photosynthesis at any other time. So we are, we're functioning the best. And so either light dinner, a heavy lunch, most important, I would say eat cooked foods. But in terms of actual rituals, like I'll tell you one ritual from Ayurveda which I find amazing, is to oil your body instead of moisturizing, but do it before the shower instead of after the shower. And oil is the perfect example of warm and moist. You know, like Ayurveda uses sesame. Almond oil, either. Sesame oil, almond oil, and they all come from like seeds and nuts. And they're very warming. Seeds and nuts are actually warming in their inherent nature. And you can just intuitively relate to that, but it's also moist. And today they're proving that that most microbiome that lives on your skin is lipophilic, which means that it lives on good fats to thrive. And just by doing that, skin is a channel of consumption. You really ground your nervous system. You pause, you reconnect with yourself, you come back into your parasympathetic.

Nicole Kahlil (32:51)

State.

Nidhi Pandeya (32:51)

State you, you heal from burnout. The reason why you would do it before you get into the shower is water is water makes your skin dry, it doesn't moisturize your body. And that oil creates that barrier, you know, that protects your skin barrier. And you'll notice that you probably don't need to moisturize afterwards if you apply oil and spend those five minutes massaging those few things. I'll say that if you learn. When we learn to live like this and pause through our day remembering to exhale through our nostrils, no nasal breathing. Because every inhale sets your body on the solar action sympathetic. Every exhale brings you back into the lunar parasympathetic rest and digest and repair. And very often we are taking really quick short inhales and we almost forget to exhale fully and that's why we sigh often. So just, even if you just did this right today, this is all you take away. I can tell you that in a week or two you will notice that your energy, your health, your everything is drastically better.

Nicole Kahlil (33:58)

Okay, so this is incredible. I know I'm not the only one who's gonna wanna learn more. So just a reminder to our listener, Nidhi's book is called you'd Body Already Knows. And if you want to learn more about her work, she also has a 21 day healing program. You can go to the website, which is nidhi.comme. we're going to put the links to the book, her website, Instagram, all of that in show notes. Nidhi, thank you so much for your wisdom and for reminding us that our body loves us, is here for us and already knows what we need. This has been an incredible conversation.

Nidhi Pandeya (34:37)

Thank you so much. Nicole, it's been a pleasure.

Nicole Kahlil (34:39)

My pleasure. Okay, friend, if there's one thing I hope you take away from this conversation, it's the this. Seeking information, getting expert advice and staying curious are all important, but never at the expense of your body, its intuition or your inner knowing. Your body is speaking to you all the time. Your gut, your instincts, your energy levels, your emotions. They're not random, they're signals, guideposts, messages designed specifically for you. And yet we've been conditioned to prioritize outside voices over our own. To trust the expert, the influencer, the latest study before trusting the simple wisdom our bodies already hold. So let's keep it simple. Eat in a way that feels good, not just tastes good. Move in a way that brings energy, rest when you need it, stress less, laugh more, and most of all, listen to yourself above all else. Because the loudest, most accurate, most important voice in your life is your own, and that is woman's work.