From Turmeric Latte To Meditation: Ancient Indian Wisdom Applied To Modern NRI Living

Hello and welcome to Out of Britain with me Radhika Iyer. This special episode on NDTV is going to be extremely, extremely relevant, special and one which is very dear to me because we are going to be talking about wellness, wellness in general, happiness, spirituality and it's so relevant in a nation such as Britain because I just received a press release from England NHS which said that just in the year of 2023 and 2024 it has treated four million people in Britain for mental wellness and for mental illness. Forgive me. So four million people who have been treated but imagine the number of people who are waiting on a list just to be seen by someone and and find that help. But this is just not about mental wellness alone, this is about connecting wisdom that is very, very, very quintessential to India. I'm coming to you from the very esteemed and the very, very lovely location in central London in Mayfair in London, Nehru Centre which celebrates everything about India and with me are a bunch of stellar women who have full of, who are full of knowledge, full of smiles, full of wisdom and who are going to be sharing with us some of their expertise and I'm going to get into this conversation quickly. Firstly I want to say thank you to Anshu because Anshu who is a podcaster and a dear friend also runs various conversations and this one is upon invite where she wrote to me this afternoon and said Wellness Curated which is a platform she leads is having a discussion where women are coming together to discuss ancient Indian wisdom. Are you interested? And I said hell yes. So Anshu we'll start with introductions because each of you are accomplished women here in Britain. We'll start with you. So I founded a platform called Wellness Curated. It's a health and wellness platform and I do podcasts. Basically the idea is to empower people with health and wellness so that they can then go and empower others. Okay great, thank you. What about yourself? I'm Brahmacharini Sripriyal. I'm the resident teacher with Chinmay Mission here in the UK. We spread the message of Advaita Vedanta to people of all age groups and backgrounds. Okay, thank you. And you said you're a student of Vedanta. Yes, Vedanta and teacher of Vedanta. Okay, how does that work being a student and teacher? But I'll explore that in just a moment. I can totally tell that yes I can see wisdom reflecting. My name is Sakshi and I'm the founder of a company called Food Hack. We create food products using Ayurveda, using clinical research and making food your medicine. We also use technology to help spread food as medicine. So we have a Gen AI app on UK app stores that help you personalize nutrition for your longevity goals. Hello, hi, I'm Dr Deepa and I'm a medical doctor and an Ayurvedic doctor. I'm a yoga teacher. I also practice Vastu and Jyotish but in principle I actually run a training academy. I train people to become Ayurvedic practitioners, yoga teachers, Vastu practitioners. So that's what I do. Thank you. My name is Sneh Joshi. I'm a Vedic astrologer and it's all based on science and in today's day and age I think we all need to find out what our future holds for us and also it is all integrated with the Ayurvedas. I told you we have many stars here on the podium. Yes. Hi my name is Dr Varalakshmi. I'm a traditionally trained Ayurvedic doctor. I teach Ayurveda to modern living and how we can adapt Ayurvedic principles in this day and age. Thank you Dr Varalakshmi. I'll start with this. I'm a news journalist so forgive me for bringing out the numbers and the statistics and things which may not sound very pleasant but one in six people in Britain are suffering from mental illness. Perhaps one of those six would be treated once in three years because of the demand that there is and the NHS as medical professionals you are aware how demanding it is to be a medical professional and how much of a waiting space there is. So if you were reading such a thing which I presume you would in tomorrow's papers because this press release has just come in, the core and the DNA that you have within you of being Indian origin, of knowing so much about Ayurveda, wellness, yoga in your case, astrology in your case, so much of science and wisdom from Vedanta philosophy. How would you react to such a piece when you think of it? Of course, you know all these four or five sciences that we've talked about be it Ayurveda, Yoga, Vastu, Jyotish. The way we look into it from a Vedic point of view is that these are the four healing sciences of everyday life. So if I were to read something like that in the newspaper, the first thing that would come to my mind is yes yoga would definitely help but in coordination with Ayurveda and of course Jyotish, Vastu, it is a combination of it all and sometimes when we look into mental health illness of course on one hand they can be quite severe but it is how we approach it that is when we see real proper but permanent changes. It's not just about as we were talking earlier you know popping pills. It's all about looking at a person in a more holistic way and we all of us are very very fortunate that we come from that background and tradition where we can actually apply all these four sciences in a more holistic way. Did you ever think of something that we do most involuntarily in our everyday lives without realizing this is Ayurveda, this is Yoga, this is why I have the grit and I'm able to survive the challenges that life throws at me especially particularly I'm not living in India which is my comfort zone. I'm away from India. So what do you involuntarily think of? So it was really interesting you should mention that because there's something that actually Sakshi does which today we've organized through someone else but there are these turmeric latte shots which is haldi ka doodh. I think every Indian everywhere drinks haldi ka doodh. They have pains, they have aches, they drink haldi ka doodh. You also see a lot of people doing different forms of breath work. We call it pranayama but you know every Indian child has been taught to do some form of breath work when they're nervous, when they're tense and that helps. I mean there's a lot that we don't realize which is a part of our system. It's just there. The DNA. It's part of our DNA we've inherited. Like you find so many people doing surya namaskar to the sun you know sun salutations to the sun which again I mean when I do that it sets me up for the day. Yeah yeah sure yes of course. So I wanted to say that something so simple even I have a five-year-old son and anytime he feels a little bit cold he comes to me and say mom give me hot water. Something so simple and Ayurveda says that hot water can help to cleanse that phlegm. It actually clears out the kapha inside our respiratory system. So something warm. So this is I believe what you know all of us agree is that it is ingrained into our DNA. Something so simple, something so natural for us I believe. So I think we need it to bring it more into our language. Yeah yeah and make it also shareable knowledge for a nation such as Britain or anywhere in the west which is so welcoming and ready to receive this wisdom in our cultural background. I think that's where it all starts and when a child is born the first thing parents do is take their chart to the astrologer to figure out what are we going to name this child. So it all starts from the very beginning and that I think that's the main reason why it's so ingrained into us. Not like the westerners. They haven't got a clue and I think it's through us they learn yoga they learn why we should look at astrology, how does astrology help us. There are so many misdiagnoses in the medicine field which are not looked at but through astrology I can tell you which doshas are balanced. I can tell you what is wrong in your chart. Mental illness as well to do with is this person suicidal. We can look at all these things in Vedic astrology. There's not one particular thing that can be offered to everybody because India offers so much of wisdom. Pick what you relate to, what you like. Many are going to pick food because it's something we do every single day. It's something we wait for. It's something we aspire to sort of try. How's it going with food hack and seriously are there people who really care genuinely about what they eat and watch what they eat in a place like London? Yeah, they do. That way London's been a really good market and like you even I like numbers and statistics. So going back to your initial question of you know four million people suffering from mental health, I'll add another statistic to that. Look at the NHS budget deficits and look how they've been growing. I think there's a budget deficit of like over 55 billion dollars. At least that's the last number I read in the Financial Times. How is the NHS going to bridge that gap? I want to ask you that. Are they going to raise taxes? How much more can you raise taxes? There's only one way to actually fix it is alternative medicine, wellness, prevention. Prevention is better than cure. Whether it's through Vedanta where you're trying to find joy and happiness because what is mental health is the quest to find joy and happiness within you. Now coming to food, there's about over a thousand neurons that your gut and your brain shares and actually if you think about a country's wellness index. Wait, sorry you lost me there. There are a thousand neurons. Neurons are like the stuff that's in here, right? Like they need to be firing at the right firepower for you to function properly. There's over a thousand of them that are shared between the gut and the mind, right? So you have billions of gut microbiome bacteria, good bacteria, right? So if you feed it good stuff that results in good neurons, good neurons results in happiness. Happiness actually results in a country's wellness index. That means less war, less terrorism, less theft. So actually if you look at it from a 10,000 foot view with numbers and data and statistics, actually don't think that the Western world has a choice but to now open their eyes to all this ancient wisdom where you're looking at plants and nature and within yourselves and practices to try and prevent illnesses because the majority of the healthcare spend actually goes on chronic diseases. Chronic diseases are lifestyle related. Only 5% of these diseases are caused by genes. 95% so if someone says, oh I have it in my genes, it's not necessarily true. Only 5% are triggered by those genes that cannot be reversed with lifestyle. 95% of those genetic diseases can actually be switched off and like you said 80% of your lifestyle is food, which is why I went after it. I mean I also had a personal story just like Anshu does over here where I developed a rare liver breakdown that I managed to reverse by changing my food even though doctors said to me it can't be done and lucky for me I have a healthcare background so I go straight to the research to find out what can be done because in life you don't give up. So that's how this sort of journey of Food Act started where actually the world does deserve to get access to preventative alternative medicine. Food is medicine. I mean now you have music as medicine and so many things you know. Indian music is becoming ongoing. One thing I want to add to what Sakshi said so from all the podcasts that I've had with Indian and non-Indian practitioners, gut is a very important mental health. You sort out the gut, you're on your way to sorting mental health. It's all about that gut feeling and okay yes hold on to your thought. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take a break because Sakshi has actually given me a segue into looking within like Shri Priya suggests quite strongly and I think all of us here on this table and I want to say we are accomplished empowered women who choose to be happy, who choose to share wisdom and that's a choice we have made but we have stories to tell and we have personal stories to tell which has perhaps motivated us to lead a lifestyle such as what we represent today. So I'm going to dwell into that a little bit just after this break but we'll start with your fact because I'm a news journalist and I always will be. You will have personal stories too and I'm sure this is something that you're connecting with so stay tuned and just after this break we'll come back with more. Welcome back. How relevant is India's ancient wisdom for life today in Britain especially at a time when there is so much of mental wellness related quest and at a time when women are migrating in large numbers especially to a place such as Britain and here with me is a panel of some stellar women. Thanks so much for being and staying with us. Deepa we'll start with you. You said you have statistics to share. Yeah talking about statistics even I love those coming from a medical background and I read an article it was a medical article where it said that there are approximately 7.2 million people on a waiting list that means they have to wait for at least a year for various different illnesses and conditions even to get a blood test done or an x-ray MRI and so on and as I'm reading this article I'm thinking I wish even if not all the seven million even it was maybe a hundred thousand people knew about Ayurveda, Yoga, Vastu, Jyotish. I know I talk about Vastu also because the science of spaces actually does impact us big time and even if some of them actually looked into these other sciences whereby as you were saying food you know food is such a big thing in terms of our inner and outer well-being. So someone like just a very quick example is I remember I took my son to a dentist and he had some pain and then he was only seven or eight years old and of course he used to eat a lot of spicy and sour foods and I know Ayurvedically that you know it is not good for this bit and when we went the dentist says oh maybe he might need some antibiotics and I was okay fine that's good but what about food? His face went blank and I'm like no that is where science needs to be integrative whereby you may have these ailments and conditions but include food because food as we say food is medicine. We are what we eat be it in our mind, in our body, in our energies, in our koshas, everything. So statistics if even 7.2 million but out of that 10% of those look towards these kind of sciences I'm sure the NHS waiting list would really drop down very fast. In that big of a site we should be a center supplying I'm sure what's your story? What's my story? Why wellness curate? So wellness curated as I said earlier was started because I had a personal health situation in my family and it was just this is my debt of gratitude to the universe because I'm so grateful today that everything is okay and the therapists I met the wisdom I've had from the likes of all of you I want everyone to get access to that. So that's why the platform where people can come to listen, learn, implement thanks for doing that. Snake what's your story? Okay my story is I'm a biochemist by profession and I've done PhD in biochemistry. A biochemist by profession who's always reading the sciences? Well there you go. I was very young and of course my parents are Indian so obviously we look to astrology and I knew about astrology and when I had a few problems when I was growing up I went to a few astrologers and all I heard is somebody's done something to you can we sort it out for you and I got really fed up of that narrative. So I was having my at this stage I got married I was having my children and I wasn't working. My husband was a businessman I decided you know I'm going to look at my own chart and that's where I picked up astrology. I met all my gurus and my husband is my top guru by the way he's a he's an accountant by profession and he taught me a lot of astrology when in those days we did not have any computers. All right I'm going to be 70 this year so I'm going back 40 years literally 40 years. You've done astrology for 40 years? 40 years yeah and that's what took me onto this platform and I realized that there are a lot of charlatans in this field so you need to be very careful who you go to. Talking about food that was very interesting what Deepa said. It's about Kapha, Pitta and Vata and if you can look in your chart you can see what you're prone to and you can adjust it accordingly. So there's so much in astrology that can help you. So when I was middle honestly I was the science buff like if you bring me anything that is not related to research as Sakshi was saying earlier I was thinking to myself everything has to be research based. I used to catch cockroaches and then just dissect them. So that worked well into science and research but when I was around like maybe 12-13 years as you grow up and I start to have my you know periods and stuff I start to have a lot of hormonal imbalances and I visited like every known doctor in my in a very small town Kakinada where I come from no one could put a finger on it no one can do anything I keep struggling every month on month so then my dad took me to this Ayurvedic doctor first time and he checked my pulse he took the Nadi and then the first question he asked me was what did you eat what are you eating are you eating a lot of like I used to like a lot of pickles and stuff so he asked me what are you eating are you eating a lot of pickles and stuff that was the first time ever in my life a doctor actually cared about what I ate when it come to my health condition so that made me very very curious why does he care about what I ate what does it has anything to do with my health because up until that point my understanding of science is about taking a pill and you get better and you go on with your life so that's how I went on and I studied under him for few years and then when I came to intermediate and then reached that age I chose Ayurveda and then became Ayurvedic practitioner so thank you for sharing okay we have 30 seconds each you have stories to share yes well I'm originally from India born and brought up there and all my studies are from India people do ask me how come being a medical doctor you've moved into Ayurveda it's actually the other way around I come from a family of Ayurvedic practitioners yoga teachers my aunts and uncles have been deans and professors at university but it's a very Indian attitude I'm sure we all know that even when you're vaguely intelligent they're like why do you want to study Ayurveda you should become a medical doctor so that is how I first qualified in gastroenterology but then after that I went on to study Ayurveda again in India and then yoga vastu jyotish all of that so through that my story is that whatever that I've been taught by my professors my family members one thing that they have told me is yes Ayurveda yoga vastu jyotish these are great sciences no it's knowledge knowledge is everything it's bliss it is of no use if you can't put it into practice so through my practice through my academy everything that I do my aim is to make these sciences so practical so that people can take away and say you know what I've actually seen a difference absolutely yeah thank you go for a CV she would make not a CV each of you yeah and you so actually I studied biotech as well and first job was at and yeah then kind of moved into investing investing in life sciences where I mentioned previously the learning professionally was that by the time you get a disease it's too late you know it's all to do with lifestyle but actually the doctors don't study nutrition there's no intelligence behind food clinical research is quite noisy and it's very noisy because it's funded by a lot of these large companies that are the large lobbyists and taxpayers and they want you to get biased and you know that's why you have fad diets and stuff there is no intelligence behind it and yeah what really pushed me into creating food hack was this personal story where I reversed an illness even though doctors said no just by looking at clinical research so similar to Anshu I was like the world deserves this there needs to be a different future of food yeah you know where we all live longer but healthier happier so that's the big vision and mission lovely thank you so much for sharing your personal stories I know it takes courage and perhaps takes you back a few years and makes you nostalgic but maybe I should have told you this viewers when I asked your stories each of us must be struggling with ah the change is too much to make it'll take a lot of effort from me to make a little change but look at these stories these are stories of of women who had normal lives such as yours and mine and then who just decided that I'm going to take control of things and then I'm going to try and learn and now are experts in their own field and are helping all of us get better and get happier and if they are able to do it I can you can and and so it doesn't matter where you are in your journey in life how within you're able to look but as long as you can start from today with little things maybe like Sri Priya said pick what you relate to what you like um and what is easy for you and maybe stick to that and if you don't like it there's an alternative because that's the beauty of India right it adds so much to offer in terms of wisdom and knowledge and spread it because that's the beauty of being also in a city such as London which is such a voice in the world that when we speak from here I think it's a bit louder if you agree compared to from many other places so happy with those final thoughts is that a good summary okay great thank you ever so much if you have comments or if you want to reach out to any of our lovely panelists here please pop in a comment and we will find a way to make that happen thanks ever so much indeed and wishing you all good luck great happiness Radhika Iyer signing off