BIRTHFIT Episode 118 featuring Dr. Deb Kern of Austin, TX

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:00:00] If you don’t have a baby or a toddler or a dish in your hand would you stand up. I knew it was risky. I knew it was risky. You know I just want to–hold on–I want to see you guys better so hold on. See if I can do. I didn’t think about this part. Wait. OK. Good. Now okay. When you’re standing so I’d like to greet you this way. This is a universal peace greeting that was taught to me by Umbali Umschlaba who is a poet and a social activist. And if you’ll just follow the hand motions with me and then I’ll teach you the words. So it goes like this. I offer you peace. I offer you friendship. I offer you love. I hear your needs. I feel your feelings. I see your beauty. My wisdom comes from a higher source and I honor that source in you. Let us work together. We’ll do it again and this time I’ll say it once, you repeat the words. I offer you peace. I offer your friendship. I offer you love. I hear your needs. I feel your feelings. I see your beauty. My wisdom comes from a higher source and I honor that source in you. Let us work together since this is a universal peace greeting it’s done without words. So now we’ll greet each other and we’ll know what we’re doing. Ready? Thank you. It’s a great way to start the day. Stay standing.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:02:23] So I’m going to call click this light in a minute, but it’s too much to get down and back so don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you the words in a minute. Oh yeah. Maybe that be great. I’ll get out of the way of the screen after I do this part but–OK. You can read that. You see the top word “Ayurveda”?. How many of you all know ayurveda pretty well? Fantastic. Yeah it’s ok. I mean you know ayurveda at all? You heard the word ayurveda? Put your hands down. How many of you know if I were to say you know your prakriti and you know you’re vikruti. How many would know the prakriti/vikruti? Fabulous. OK. Take a nap. Just kidding. Just kidding. OK. So I’m going to start this way because I have just a little under an hour to teach you something that’s a five thousand year old science and how it might be practical and useful to you and the people you serve. How about that? We can do it. Stand with your legs close together. Bring your arms up like this. Stand very narrow and then shake your hands like that. Just shake shake shake shake. Good. Now step your feet hip width apart, soften your knees, bring your elbows back like this and make fists. So your knees are soft. You can take your right fist, turn it over and push it out. The left elbow draws back. Take a breath in. As you exhale turn both fists, punch your left one out. Yeah. Take a breath in.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:03:46] Now throw a punch. Excellent. I know you could do it. Widen your stance. All right. Now imagine you have a kangaroo tail and you’re going to sit back on your kangaroo tail. There you go. And then take your tail and sweep the floor. Very good. And then take your hands over ocean waves like this. Fantastic back to position number one. Narrow, narrow; arms like this. You’re gonna shake your hands I’m going to repeat these words: Quick, light, dry. Ready? Quick! Light! Dry! Excellent. Elbows by your waist. Feet hip-width apart. Soften your knees. Draw both elbows back. You’re going to throw three punches. Before each punch you’re gonna take a breath and when you take a punch you’re going to yell a word and the words are going to be: hot, sharp, driven. Take a breath. Hot, hot. Take a breath. Sharp, sharp. Take a breath. Driven, driven. Excellent. Widen your stance. Soften your knees. Sit on your kangaroo tail. You’re going to sweep and you’re going to have the oceans and you’re gonna repeat the words: slow, steady, strong. Slow, steady, strong. Great. Have a seat. We’re done. Thank you. So everybody take a really big breath in and hold your breath. Hold your breath. Take a little more air in. Hold it and let your breath go. I also taught seventh and eighth grade, I know how to quiet a crowd. So in case you ever wonder you have a lot of kids, get them to hold their breath. It works every time. Did you notice?

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:05:28] So I’m also here because I’m also a mom. I have a 30 year old stepson and a 20 year old birth son. And I think there’s so much oxytocin and prolactin in this room I almost started to have a let down. I’m like oh my God it’s been so many years but I know that feeling like what’s happening to me. I mean honest to gosh I have never felt the sea of that hormone like I did walking in here, it’s amazing. So I don’t know what the other guests in this hotel are probably going ‘what’s going on here’. So I’m here to talk to you about ayurveda because I love it so much and because it’s helped me be a healthier person. Help me be a way more intuitive mom and a business owner. And so I just want to give you the overview and I want to have you relax your minds already because I know we’re on day three and day three you’re probably so full of so much information. I want you to know that the card on your chair is my website and I’m going to at the end I’ll give it now. If you put forward slash free book you’re going to have everything I’m saying today including the questionnaire including a fleshed out chapters for free so you can relax let yourself–My request would be for you to take in this teaching today more censorialy and story like story time and just know that you’ll have the details later. So then you can just relax OK. So we’re all in agreement.

[00:07:06] Ayurveda is in Sanskrit means the science of life and it’s 5000 years old and it’s the healing system from India which kind of parallels traditional Chinese medicine where there is an understanding that there are energy meridians in the body in ayurveda we would call these “Nadis” and that there are points which we would call Marma points. Same same. Also the understanding is that we are all made up of elements of the universe. So here comes story time. So I want you to switch into the heart of your brain that here is metaphor in story and doesn’t try to analyse. According to Ayurveda elements of the universe swirl together and they come out as you and there are no two people ever alike. The five elements are: Space like the ethers outer space, Air like the air we breathe, Earth, Fire and Water. Five elements. And those five elements swirl around to become three mind body types. In Sanskrit we call them “Doshas”. I’m just gonna say mind body type for us and those three doshas we just worked out in our bodies. We just did them. One of them is called “Vata” and so I’m going to start moving into em quickly. So Vata you see–Can you guys read the word well enough? Vata is the elements: Air and Space and everybody has some Vata. Or you’d be dead. You have some of all of them but our recipes are different. How they represent in our bodies, our minds, our hair, our eye color. There are so many permutations and combinations that according to ayurveda there are no two exactly alike. What’s important in ayurveda is to understand. Who are you? What is your natural gift? What are you made of? What were you born to express? And then do your best to keep yourself somewhat in balance to yourself. But in our culture what we do–I started in nursing from nursing I got a PhD in health sciences and for the bulk of all of my education, All I learned was how to teach people to be a certain way like to the norm. Height-weight tables or like if I were to say I know you guys know better, but if you were just the average person in this country and if I were to say how many meals a day should you eat. You would say?

Audience: [00:09:36] Five.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:09:36] And how many hours a night should you sleep?

Audience: [00:09:39] Eight.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:09:39] See what I mean and how many times a week should you, should you, should you. And we have these prescriptions from the fitness world and the nutrition world and then we all know that they don’t work for everybody but we don’t know exactly what to do about it. So we stay in the state of total dietary schizophrenia and exercised confusion because we were trying to match somebody else’s norm. Ayurveda gives us a really good understanding of ourselves and if we can keep ourselves close to in balance to ourselves in other words tuning yourself to yourself. I don’t try to match you. You don’t try to match me because either one of us will get sick if you try to match me or I try to match you. Does that make sense? So here’s how this morning’s going to roll with me. I want to tell you what is it like when Vata is in balance.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:10:27] Some of you are going to really resonate with that going ‘I got a lot of that’ some of you are gonna say ‘I have a little of that’. Everyone’s going to have some. I’ll go through each of the three and show you what’s it like when they’re in balance and start to just notice for yourself because you are women you will already be thinking of people you love. That’s OK. Just put yourself first. Think of yourself first and then you’re gonna start going ‘Oh my gosh. That explains that thing that just happened’. So we’re gonna go what’s it like when I’m in balance and then we’re going to look at what happens when you go out of balance and how to bring yourself back. That’s our morning. You with me on the ride. Here we go. So you already did it. You stood up you brought your arms together. So when Vata expresses in the physical body, Vata would be looking like the ectomorph: the thinner smaller bones. That’s how it comes out because air in space is kind of not very big, it’s thin. So if it comes in the bones would be like that and air and space are quick, light, dry. Yes? So this gives you just in that one description what is Vata like. It’s quick, light, and dry because air is quick, Space is light, and it’s all very dry. So you have quick, light, and dry meaning quick mind or quick movements. They’re the ones who are like shaking their feet, getting up and down, they can’t sit still.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:11:52] This is Vata energy running quick mind means they learn things quickly like right now the Vata people goes ‘Oh my gosh this is so exciting’, but by lunch they’ve forgotten. So it’s a very quick mind. They pick it up really quickly and then it’s like gone. ‘So exciting but I don’t know what it was’. So and this is a gift by the way so I just wanna make sure you understand that. So they tend to have more dryness in their skin, dryness in their body. They are imaginative and creative because that’s the gift when the mind is quick they’re really able to create and imagine all kinds of things. They tend to get exhilarated easily. They’re very spontaneous and changeable just like the weather. Like air moving the weather: spontaneous and changeable. They’re sensitive. This is a gift. Take a breath. Being sensitive is a gift. When it’s in balance they have quick energy which I mentioned already and because their energy runs and this is an important key especially those of you you’re teaching fitness. Someone with Vata energy their energy naturally runs in spurts and that’s what their nature is like that. So they do best if they wake up in the morning eat a little, bit do a little, bit rest a little bit, eat a little bit, do a little bit, rest a little bit, eat a little bit. They’re the ones for whom five to six small meals a day works perfectly and they don’t do so great with super hard push-long endurance things, they’re just not built for it. And they get sick if– they break things or sprain things or if they do that and they tend to get cold. So how many of you have–you can recognize you’ve got a good bit of Vata in your nature. Okay fabulous. Me too. OK “Pitta”! Pitta is fire and water. So Pitta in the body would show up as medium mesomorph if that’s how it’s showing up. That’s why had you stand with your feet medium width the part and Pitta being fire is. Do you remember the words? Hot, it’s hot and then sharp and driven. Because the story in Ayurveda is the fire is hot. Duh. And then the fire heats up the water until the water is boiling and when water boils it makes steam and that’s what drives the engine. So any drive that you have is Pitta. Some of us have more drive than others, just naturally. Now there’s nature versus nurture. So like I’m the oldest daughter of a German Lutheran family. It looks like I have a lot of pitta because I mean, you know you don’t get born in that situation without some drive. But I don’t really have a lot of Pitta. I’d be pretty fine on an island, you know doing nothing but not with my parents and my upbringing and all those years of practice being Pitta. Am I making sense? OK good. So Pitta: hot, sharp, driven. Sharp refers to the intellect. So they have a sharp intellect so start to feel and sense the subtle difference between quick, a quick mind and a sharp mind. Can you feel it? Yeah. Sharp, sharp intellect, hot, driven. Because of the sharp intellect, they’re very articulate. They choose perfect words. They make great writers and great speakers.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:15:17] They have a good sense of judgment and good critical thinking skills. That’s just their nature. So when they go on vacation they don’t even have to try. They walk into the hotel room and they automatically go ‘Yeah, no. This needs to go here’. And then they hang up all their clothes like long sleeves then short sleeves, buttons to the right and then they– This is just their nature to do this kind of organization. They’re very decisive, they’re organized, and efficient and so they say oh look Disney World opens at 9:00 so we should be on the shuttle by 8:30 which means we should be down to breakfast by 8:00 which we–they just naturally do Purt flowcharts in their brain like this. It just flows out of them. That’s their nature. Some– I see you recognizing yourselves. I already said medium build. If if it showing up in your build it shows up as this. And what color do you think hot Sharr what do you color fire? You think of red, right? So they tend to have a reddish color in their skin. They’re the ones who get really flushed when they exercise or they have reddish color in their hair, lots of freckles or they get early grey or early balding, for the men. And the story behind– I know you take off your cap if you want. The story behind this is that the fire either turns their hair red or it burns the color right out of it or it burns it right off of their head. So how many of you have a good bit of pitta right. So it’s so smart that you fed them because they have a very strong appetite as well. So in terms of in terms of Pitta fire governs digestion we say digestive fire. Right? So someone with a lot of Pitta they need three square meals a day. And if it’s time to eat, get out of their way. Just because that fire if there’s nothing left to burn it’ll just burn whoever is there. OK. How are we doing? OK? All right. OK. So Kapha is the third one. So Kapha-I had you step wider so that would be the endomorph. So I’m an example of a Kapha body: taller, larger. You know I was taller than all the boys in like kindergarten right. Kapha that’s us. Usually we have cheeks like this. So wider stance I had you stand. And then I had you say slow, steady, strong. Remember that? Because Kapha is earth and water earth and water. So Vata what kind of mind was Vata? Quick mind. What kind of mine is Pitta? Sharp. Kapha is slow, but not slow like stupid. It’s slow like wise. And for those of you who are raising Kapha-minded children or you might have thought you might have Kapha mind yourself. You did not like school if you went to school in a western-type school because our school system does not honor this learning style. This is– I can also put it in the category. This would be the kinesthetic learners. So Pitta would be visual learners which is why I was really pushing to get slides up ear because I know the Pittas want to see it. Voters are auditory they wouldn’t have cared, but I could see it breakfast there were a lot of Pittas here and I’m like ‘We need to get slide’s up here for these people’. You following me? Kapha is kinesthetic and so what it means is when a Kapha person is learning they learn the same way the earth soaks up the rain. So it’s like this. It takes a while. And if you’re in school and there’s a pop quiz on Friday, it’s only like to here. It didn’t come all the way in. So it can’t come out onto the quiz. And so even though you’re getting it probably better than everyone else in the classroom you’re going to flunk the quiz. Too quick. Makes sense? I hope it eases some of your minds and also help you see your children in another way. I have all kinds of reading resources for you so that you can understand this is really helpful to understand how to help someone with that because did you hear me say: this is wisdom. What our education system is doing is it’s wiping out the wisdom keepers because they think they’re stupid. Who’s going to–‘Information? What Good is information if we can’t embody it. If we can’t turn it on its side and understand if’– that’s what these people do. So I’ll go off my soapbox. But sometimes you know when you live in the West you have to really name something the way it is. So slow, steady, strong.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:19:59] So the gift of Kapha are they have a very long memory. So you ask that first grader who flunked the quiz ask him in second grade. They remember everything about it. Ask the other kids. They don’t Remember they’re on to the next thing. So long memory. They tend to be strong, heavier, firm. Build great muscles. They have great ligaments. Childbirth is easier if it’s a Kapha type body because their ligaments just can go and come back and they’re like all fine that way. They tend– The gift is to be compassionate and forgiving. Everybody has some of this. Some of us have more than others. These are the ones you want as your midwives. These the ones you want teaching you something you want some amount of compassion and forgiveness already in them that they don’t have to work hard for it. Right? That gives us the gift of being calm and patient and loyal and steady and Kapha stores energy. So let me just give it to you like this: Vata energy is like puppies. It’s like ‘play, play, play, take a nap, play, play, play, take a nap. Like that. That’s how Vatas are and Pittas are more medium, this kind of medium energy, Kapha is sort of like a big log on the fireplace: slow to get going and it just goes and it goes and it goes. So those of you who have Kapha like I’m a Kapha, I haven’t had breakfast yet. I’m going to be fine until probably one. I really I could go walk five miles and do this talk and I’m like so fine.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:21:31] We have to know ourselves and all those people who try to shove breakfast down my throat all my life, I’m not hungry yet. It takes a while for the fires to get going. Make sense? How many of you have a good bit of Kapha? Some not alot yeah. There’s never as many because they’re all in bed still. It’s just the way it is. But I’m here representing with you all. OK. So it’s interesting to learn what your nature is, but what–it’s not all that helpful because what you really need to know is how to detect when you’re going out of balance. And according to Ayurveda we go out of balance in the subtle realms first and if you can notice it when it’s subtle and take care of it, you’re less likely to get sick. Because it goes from subtle to emotional mental emotional to then physical. And once it’s physical, it’s just harder to undo. Like anything. So let’s look at what happens when Vata goes out of balance. What do you think? It’s like this. It’s too much of a good thing. The gift. What was the gift? In fact stand up. I’ll just give it to you this way. Stand up, this is for the Kapha because remember this stand up put your legs together, arms up. This is Vata position number one. Very narrow ectomorph. So now we’re going to do Vata out of balance. Are you ready? It goes like this the breath, instead of going exhaling, you’re going to inhale and go [breaths in]. You got it. Elbows by your waist. This is Pitta feet hip width apart. Take a breath. With both fists go ‘uhhh’. You got it.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:23:15] Widen your stance. Take a breath in. And as much as you exhale go ‘Oh’. Have a seat. So it’s too much of a good thing. So the gift of Vata is a quick mind. Spontaneous, exhilarated, changeable, but when there’s too much Vata, the mind starts spinning just can’t even focus and then–‘Wait, did you see my keys? I had my keys. I got to go. I mean I can’t find my keys’. This is a Vata out of balance. Then when the mind won’t stop but the body is tired, they have insomnia and then they generally this is where it gets–It starts out subtle; mind is spinning. This is going to get becomes a little bit more part of you. When you generally feel worried, anxious, and fearful. Like you wake up in the morning and you already feel worried, anxious, and fearful. You say to yourself: ‘Vata is out of balance. I need to bring it back’. Got it. OK. And then we even have words in English that indicate too much air in space. I’m so spacey. You know they get really lightheaded especially if they didn’t eat anything and ‘Light headed’. And too much air in the body then becomes constipation gas. All of the IBS all of the intestinal things in Ayurveda. This is Vata that has been out of balance for quite awhile. So and they get like all shaky. You know. How many you guys–I go out of bounds like I’m Kapha/Vata so I can cop to this what many of you go out of balance like this at all? Any of you? Great. It’s just good to know yourself. All right. Take a breath in, hot breath out, because I’m going to give you solutions so I’m not gonna leave you hanging but I am gonna go to Pitta next because Pitta I think you’re gonna guess this one. Sharp intellect, hot, driven. I know I see your face already. So what happens is that sharp intellect becomes a sharp tongue and the good sense of judgment becomes judgmental. And the good critical thinking skills becomes just straight up critical I got a snort laugh, I love that. And then they just they don’t wake up worried they wake up pissed just like you know like ‘I told him not to put socks on the floor’. So this is this is what happens to the Pitta out of balance. Their nature is not to wake up–Their nature is not to be frustrated and irritated. They weren’t born on this planet to bring the gift of being pissed off. They were born to bring the gifts of sharp intellect critical thinking. Tell us. You guys are the ones to tell us what’s the best time to do this. What’s the best direction to go. Because you’ve got that natural ability but don’t be pissed at us. It doesn’t help us. Speaking for myself. All right, so then they’re good sense of organization becomes perfectionistic. They become overachievers they can’t stop it’s never enough. Then there’s the next thing and then we remodel the kitchen. But now look at the bathroom so they can be–they can they will be overly competitive if they’re out of balance.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:26:31] They make the best. This is the competitive edge you have to have Pitta to even compete because Pitta want to win and that’s what competition is. I don’t care. Like if I play tennis with you and if it goes into duece more than twice I lose on purpose because I’m just bored like I didn’t care. I don’t care. So how many of you recognize that–Yes. Thank you very much. Yes. All right. So Kapha out of balance. So here’s the deal. You’re in a family situation and you know how it is. This is God’s funny joke. You’ll marry the opposite. And if you didn’t marry the opposite you will give birth to the opposite. Just so the Angels have something to laugh at. Like I think they just I think they just sit up there and say ‘Watch this. Watch this. Watch them organize the kitchen’. So so here’s the here’s the family and and a big stress happens someone loses a job or a parent is ill and you know or you just traveled and crossed time zones some kind of stress happens. You got too big of a visa bill. Any stress will push everybody out of balance. So the Vata out of balance is going ‘Oh my God we’re going to know. I know what we’ll do: we’ll sell the house we’ll move in with your parents no I know what we’ll do’. They’re thinking of a million ideas and spinning out of control and the Pitta are like slamming their computer shut, peeling out of the parking lot. ‘Those idiots’. And what are the Kaphas doing? Exactly.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:28:05] You can’t even find them there somewhere there somewhere asleep and they have an empty bag of M&Ms and chocolates just like drooling out. Because when we get stressed we appear to be calm. No no we’re not calm we’re like so like oh my. So we get dull. Other people get all fiery we just get dull. Like I am Kapha I feel like the Pillsbury Doughboy just hit me like boom. So then we get heavy because of the M&Ms. That’s a whole other thing. And then we get lethargic because the EMS and we get depressed because of the M&Ms which is a whole other lecture about sugar and serotonin. But it happens to us fast faster than everybody else. The Pittas can manage they can burn it off, the Vata spin it, off but we like suck it down. So we get stuck. We hold onto stuff fluids a stress hits and I can’t get my rings off. I haven’t even changed anything. It’s the darndest thing. You can see a Kapha who’s stressed. Just look at their house. There’s like stuff, they can’t figure out what to do with it. It’s just stuff piling up. Sticky notes around the face of their computer. They just can’t figure out. So just he can recognize it. Oh sorry. How many of you ever do that? Kapha out of balance. So okay great. So how do you know if you’re in balance or not?

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:29:44] Well you can see a Ayurvedic practitioner and it would take it would take pulse diagnosis and it would take looking at your tongue and a questionnaire or you could simply ask yourself these questions which I made up. This is not scientifically valid or reliable. But I find it works pretty great. So here here are the questions. Ask yourself Do I eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full? Do I have plenty of energy for the day? Do I sleep well at night? Are my relationships good? Like all of them? Is my elimination good? You know. Are you are you pooping properly for you? Because Pittas poop three times a day. They’re like Play-doh machines. Am I generally peaceful and joyous? Generally, not pollyanna like ‘Everything’s perfect’ but like generally are you peaceful and joyous. And if you say yes to all of those things, you’re probably in balance. And when you’re in balance–I don’t know what my next slide is–Oh yeah I don’t have it. So and when you’re in balance do the thing that you’re craving. When you’re in balance your body’s wisdom is perfect. So if you’re hungry for a steak, eat a steak. If you want to take a nap, take a nap. If you need to go for a run in the heat, go for a run in the heat because your body knows what you’re needing. But if you’re not in balance the very thing you’re craving will make it worse. Everytime. Corollary, I made this up too, but the corollary is the thing that will help you the most is the last thing you want to do when you’re out of balance. So how do you bring Vata back into balance?

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:31:26] It’s just common sense y’all, if you have too much air what do you think just metaphorically–if you’re spinning up here what needs to happen? You need to be grounded. Right. So you know what to do. I mean you could pick up a good housekeeping magazine and find out how to get grounded. That part is out there. It’s just that you need to know you’re the one that needs it. Because the people asleep on the sofa with M&M’s they don’t need more grounding. Trust me. We’ll get there in a minute. But this is how this works. The Vata you need more grounding and the most important thing is calming the mind because vato has a quick mind and it’s the thing that sets off the whole ball of wax. So for a Vata a person a regular meditation practice is like breathing. You’ve got to do it and when you’re out of balance you’ve got to calm it down. Having regular habits. You might want to put on your mind as a mom also here because when you’re kids–what do we call Vata out of balance to for children what’s the diagnosis we give them? A.D.H.D OK. So according to Ayurveda A.D.H.D is Vato out of balance. And so one of the most helpful things is regular habits. Put your keys in the same place. Get up at the same time. Sit in the same chair at the table. Believe it or not even having same place at the table everything same as much same, same, same. Better for the Vata people. They need quiet. Remember their auditory learners. They’re also auditory stimulated.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:32:51] So that’ll push them further out of balance. They need rest, so you more than anyone else do need to rest during the day. You need it. They need warmth. I see some of you all wrapped up in shawls is perfect. They need steady nourishment I already mentioned this. Have snacks always have bags of food for yourself. Y’all really need that. Because Vata does not have strong digestion. Pretty weak digestion. So they need to eat many little times rather than some big time doesn’t work so great for them. Does that make sense? They’re simple but they’re really really helpful and there’s way more than this, but this is what I wanted to give you. How do you restore balance for Pitta? OK. All Pitta eyes to the screen and just know that the first thing that I show has the most impact. And the first thing I show has the most impact will be the last thing you want to do when you’re feeling Pitta out of balance. And here it is. When you feel frustrated or irritated, the most important thing is to let go of the need to have things go the way you think they should go. You’re welcome. I know it’s the–it’s a life practice. For every one of us, the thing that’s our biggest thing, is our life practice. So your meditation practice is going to be around letting go. That’s going to be your meditation practice is letting go and surrender. Surrender and let it go. And I know there’s a talk today about surrender, so I won’t go any further because it’s going to be just so great.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:34:26] There’s dominant Pitta in the room so it’s a perfect topic. Cool off which means basically don’t go jogging in Austin at noon in August or you’re just going to be so irritated. Have timely meals: I already mentioned it, but you guys need to make sure if it’s lunchtime you can eat. Do non-competitive activities please when you’re out of balance because you’re just mean. You know. When you’re in balance you’re great, but it’s when you’re out of balance that you’re the ones you know don’t if ya’ll remember Andre Agassi but he was like throwing brake tennis rackets and he was bald you know Pitta He’s a pit to guy. So I practiced being non-judgemental and just a word about non-judgemental it doesn’t mean you don’t use your gift. So for example here’s a great example. This would never bother me, but a Pitta would not have been able to do this talk with that chord there because see Pittas the Pittas have been noticing it. But you know so if you could see it in your Pitta you would have done something because it would’ve bothered you. For me, I just feel like jumping around it and it’ll be fun because I have a Vata mind. But the Pitta will be bothered. So here’s the difference. Between discernment and judgmental: please keep your discernment. So the discernment would be ‘Hey that doesn’t belong there that could be a danger’. Thank you very much. The judgment would be ‘What idiot left that there?’. Do you see the difference? Discerning does not hurt your health. It doesn’t. You say ‘Oh that shouldn’t be there. I can do an action about that. I can move it’. Judgementalism hurts your health. When you think ‘That idiot’ it goes into you as hormones. Okay that’s when I say ‘I don’t even care. Like I’m gonna jump rope with it’. Okay so and then practice not comparing. That’s the other piece of that. And you guys are the ones for whom you need to have–You have to actually plan to have unplanned time. You have to actually plan to have no structured time. You have to structure in the unstructured time. You know who I’m talking to. Okay. Last one Kapha. So I think you’re going to know the answer. The air in space people they need to ground, the fiery people need to cool off, and what about the ones asleep on the sofa with the M&Ms? What’s the most important thing for them to do? You got it, get moving. Just a word to the wise don’t use the e word for them. It’s just too big of a leap from where they are. So you might do something like ‘Hey let’s walk down to the ice cream store and then take 5 laps around blocks before you get to the ice cream store that happens to be closed when you get there’. That would be the ideal. Just get moving. But truly rhythmic movement for Kapha helps lift them up. Get out and socialize. Just even talking to other people because they go down when they get isolated. Regular exercise would be preventive of course. Seeking variety; meaning in general. So let’s look at a work day.

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:37:44] So a Vata person who has a lot of your own business owners you’re doing your own thing. So the Vata would wake up go ‘A little this, a little this, a little this’ and never finish anything. And so we would say to a Vata style person. Set a timer. Make yourself sit there for an hour and do it. Opposite for Kapha because Kapha they sit down to do one thing and like oh and they never move. They also don’t finish. But they never move. So they need to set a timer. I say play with it. But no more than 30 minutes usually have it go off, have two or three projects that you’re rotating through. So you’d go project A, ding, project B, ding, project C, back to project a and you get them done because it keeps their energy moving. Super helpful for Kapha. A sad thing for us. We have to reduce sweet heavy foods and dairy products. Good for everybody, but especially for Kapha and routinely cleaning out clutter. Interestingly our environment affects us always, but in particular Kapha, the clutter just makes them go down. And that’s the last slide. So I wanted to be quick so I get it all in. Do you guys have questions for me? Yes.

Audience: [00:39:13] So when you feel yourself pull out of balance, do you correct the one that’s specifically out of balance not the ones that’re most dominant?

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:39:14] Yes. This Is the question. Thank you for asking it. So most of us are too dominant in my– I’ve been doing this since 1992 so I’ve seen lots of people lots of things I say about 70 percent of people have two that are pretty dominant. And then about 15 percent have one and then another 15 percent are kind of even across the board. There’s no better or worse. Pay attention to what’s out of balance and treat that one first. So if you–Vata is usually the first one to go. But like dominoes it knocks another one out. So you can start feeling pissed or depressed. That’s why anxiety and depression is the number one most common, because anxiety whacked out whatever the person has that’s Kapha or anxiety and anger. So you treat what’s showing up. Always calming the mind is a good thing. And then the food things, which are going to be in the book that you’re going to download so don’t worry about that, but the food part is–for example you know Vata needs warm moist heavy foods to ground them. Pitta, when Pittas out of balance all they want is Mexican food/Margueritas with salt around the rim and is going to make them it’s going to make them hotter. I know I know you guys. And so they need to not eat that so you could be Vata/Pitta. You could need to calm your mind and eat some pretty bland food. Example or some–Oh I know I told you, I told you. Thank you for that question. Yes.

Audience: [00:40:43] So you said partners will tend to come together like Pitta/Kapha. So do you find that partners tend to throw themselves out of balance together?

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:40:57] So Sarah has a great question. I love questions about love and partnership because I do. This is generally the love story. Not always, but generally the love story is opposites attract not always, but in general that’s the case. So for instance a Vata woman meets a man who’s more Pitta/Kapha an example. And so he tells his friends ‘Oh my god she’s so exciting, I feel so alive when I’m with her’, and she tells her friends ‘Oh I feel so safe and secure he knows what he wants and it’s so good you know’. And then they get married. Now listen to this it’s really important. Open your ears to this: when you are in balance no matter what your mind body type is when you are in balance, you are a joy to be with. No matter what you are. When we are dating or courting there’s a whole cocktail of dopamine and all kinds of beautiful hormones that make us feel in love and they also tend to bring us into balance. So when we’re dating we’re we’re actually dating the in balance version of the person and that’s what we love. Then we get married and life happens and what happens now. We go out of balance. So what you’re seeing in front of you is not their true nature. It’s their out of balance self. So as a as the lover or the beloved or the wife or the husband or whatever you love this person and you can say to yourself ‘Wow their Kapha’s really out of bounds their Pitta’s really out of balance they’re really raging. Pitta’s out of balance’. So you can do some things. I mean there’s all kinds of things but I’ve got all that. But in terms of Ayurveda, you can organize the house make sure all the countertops are clean there’s no clutter. You can make sure that there’s cool environment. That the food is proper. That there they’re fed on time. You can pay attention to the Ayurveda pieces. And it’s interesting how when people come back into balance you go oh what. That’s the one I fell in love with. There’s way more than that. But does that give you the idea? So that’s why that’s why we fall in love and then later we go ‘What the heck?’. It’s because afterwards some stresses happen because life is stressful. That’s a good–thank you for that question. Anybody else. One more question Ok I don’t wanna go over time. I’ll take this one. Yes.

Audience: [00:43:13] So across the three different types, do you find that one tends to do better with one-on-one time and others vs. a group setting or the relationships with other people around?

Dr. Deb Kern: [00:43:24] I have not seen–I actually have not seen a correlation between introvert, extrovert, and the doshas. I haven’t seen a correlation. I’ve seen everything every kind of–I don’t see a correlation between that at all. No, that’s a great question though. But in reflecting, I don’t see a correlation between those two. OK. So did I say put free book? DR. DEB Kern forward slash “free book”. Oh and the other thing is I totally forgot this but I want to tell it to you. I do. Every summer I do a camp an online camp and mine starts this Wednesday. When you go to my Web site you’re going to see it. It’s called “Bliss Camp”. And just the first two weeks of bliss camp or all of this only and with all the food and everything and all the oils and if you wanted to do it I made it. I had my admin person made a 75 dollar discount for y’all just put ‘BirthFit’ as the promo code. And so I just last night I went ‘Oh my god’. I mean you guys kno. You’re business owners. I was just excited to come. I was excited to meet Lindsay. I got to see Jill Miller I like worship Jill Miller‘s work. So I forgot I had a business to run to. So you want to get more of this just in a nutshell, week one is this fleshed out week two are the practices so getting your own personal morning and evening routines, your food and then I put everybody on a pleasure diet. We do a whole week of sensuality which includes pelvic floor and sexy dancing and other stuff. And what’s the other one, I forgot the third–Oh I have had a long practice of yoga and tantra. So we have a week I’ve created your divine feminine blueprint. So you learn different aspects of Shakti or the goddesses and decide maybe you want to invoke more of one or another and what practices would help that. So that’s what Bliss Camp is. Use “BirthFit” as your discount. And I’m done.