The Liz Moody Podcast - Tiny Ways To Infuse Your Life With Joy with Radhi Devlukia-Shetty

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Radhi Devlukia-Shetty sits down for a conversation about joy, energy, love, relationships, meditation, Ayurvedic practices, and more. How to set better boundaries with people trying to take advantage of you How to build a meditation routine from the ground up and exactly why it’s so helpful for finding joy and peace The genius trick to keeping up your healthy habits Why Radhi cut out TV out & how she unwinds instead Simple tips for getting more energy throughout the day Radhi’s top 2 rules for love  Exactly what Ayurveda is and how it can help you live a more joyful life How to bring more play into your life Tricks to combat stress, combat jealousy, and cultivate self love And so much more! For more from Radhi, you can find her on Instagram @radhidevlukia or her website www.radhidevlukia.com. JoyFull: Cook Effortlessly, Eat Freely, Live Radiantly is available where books are sold. To join The Liz Moody Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelizmoodypodcast. Ready to uplevel every part of your life? Order my new book 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success now!  This episode is sponsored by: Great Lakes Wellness: use code LIZMOODY for 25% off your first purchase at greatlakeswellness.com. Branch Basics: save 15% and get free shipping on your Starter Kit when you use code LIZMOODY at www.branchbasics.com. Seed: go to seed.com/lizmoody and use code LIZMOODY for 25% off your first month. ZocDoc: go to ZocDoc.com/LizMoody and download the Zocdoc app for FREE and book a top-rated doctor today. Shopify: sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/lizm. Previous episodes referred to in this episode: The Secret To Finding Your People, Having More Meaningful Gatherings, & Creating A Community You Love with Priya Parker Ask The Doctor: Epigenetics Edition—How To Hack Your Genes To Increase Lifespan, Reverse Cellular Damage, & Fight Disease with Dr. Lucia Aronica Solving All Of Your Sleep Problems with Insomnia Expert Dr. Jade Wu The Liz Moody Podcast cover art by Zack. The Liz Moody Podcast music by Alex Ruimy. Formerly the Healthier Together Podcast.  This podcast and website represents the opinions of Liz Moody and her guests to the show. The content here should not be taken as medical advice. The content here is for information purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Liz Moody podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a best-selling author and long-time journalist. This podcast is all about helping you live your healthiest, happiest life, whether we're talking about how to have more meaningful gatherings, learning how we can change our genes, yes, change our genes to change our health, or solving all of our sleep problems with an insomnia expert. And yes, those are all real episodes and they are linked in the show notes if you want to listen. Today, I am so excited to welcome Roddy DiVlucia Shetty to the podcast.

Roddy is a trained dietitian and she is a nutritionist who brings a modern approach to Ayurvedic wisdom. You might be familiar if you're one of the millions of people who follows her online. Roddy and her husband Jay are also the founders of Junie, which is a delicious sparkling tea that's made with adaptogens and utropics. And her cookbook, joyful, cook effortlessly, eat freely, live radiantly, just came out like this week, and it is so beautiful. In addition to her recipe, she shares her daily wellness practices. There are tons of tips on all the different pages. There's Ayurbetic wisdom. It's just a

really beautiful, wonderful, delicious book. I absolutely love it. Her book is also very aptly named because Roddy is genuinely one of the most effervescent people that I have ever met. Like she oozes a warmth and sparkle that is just so lovely. And I was like, how do I get some of this? So I decided to ask her and the results of that are the conversation that you are about to listen to, which is all about cultivating joy on a daily basis in little moments and big so that we can all have a taste of that effervescence. So we can all have that ease and sense of play and sense of fun in our lives, which I know that personally at least I have been desperate. this episode is going to cover both ways that we can overcome the hurdles, overcome the

obstacles that are getting in the way of our joy, and tiny new ways to infuse our lives with joy. We're going to get into how to set better boundaries with people who might be trying to take advantage of you, how to build a meditation routine from the ground up, and exactly why it is so helpful for finding joy and peace. The genius trick to keeping up your healthy habits even when you fall off. Why Roddy cut out TV and how she unwinds instead. Simple tips for getting more energy throughout the day. Not having enough energy is one of the biggest things that's getting in the way of us having the space to even tap into that joy. So we do a very deep dive on this. Roddy's top two rules for love, exactly what Ierveda is and how it can help you live a more joyful life, how to bring

more play into your life on a daily basis, tricks to eliminate. stress, combat jealousy, and cultivate self-love, and so much more. As always, we would both love to hear your thoughts as you're listening. So definitely screenshot and tag us on Instagram. I am at Liz Moody and Roddy is at Roddy DiVlucia. I absolutely love this conversation. It just made me so happy and I cannot wait to hear what you think. Welcome so much to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks. I'm so excited to be here. I loved your book. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. Oh, thanks. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I spent two and a half years pouring everything I possibly have into it. And it's so incredible when you get to see it in your hand. Like it's such a weird feeling. But it's really exciting. And it's the first time I've done something like that. So I'm excited. I just complete it to be honest. It's something I find difficult to do.

Yeah. The process of writing a book is a lot. And I don't think we talk enough about how hard it is, which is unfortunate because then people feel like when they're going after a big dream, when they're going after a big project. And it's hard that something's wrong with it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I feel like we're so used to seeing the end result of everything without seeing the process. It's a lot. There's so much that goes into it, especially a cookbook, because I saw my husband Jay do a written book, but a cookbook has even more steps to it. You have to do the photography, the recipes. I then include a lot of wellness into it. So then there's the writing portion. Everything has to get tested by a recipe tester. Then you do the photography. Then you do all the edits. It's just, yeah, two and a half years. And apparently that's normal for a lot of cookbooks. What was your favorite part? What was my favorite part? The creating.

I spent four to five months in London where I was just creating recipes. I created 190 recipes during that time. It was meant to be 100, but I pushed them to let me do 125 because I was like, come on, these are my babies. I've spent so long doing them. I need these in there. And so, yeah, I did 190 recipes. And I think the creating part to actually just think about flavors and visuals and so much of it, I enjoy the creating part of everything I do so much more than everything else that it was nice to be able to have full focus on that. And what was your least favorite part? Oh gosh, the least favorite part was the fear of, we kept getting edits back over and over again, but the fear of missing something through the editing process for me was really

not enjoyable. I would wake up and be like, wait, you check this recipe. I need to check this recipe. And then I feel like when people start testing the recipes and if they happen to not go well, which I'm sure they'll go great. But if it doesn't, you feel bad about it because you want everyone to get the same experience as you did when creating it. I feel like my nerves around my last cookbook did not go away completely until people were telling me their feedback on the recipes. Because even though I was like, I tested them so much, I saw the food stylist on set, test them,

like all these things. Like you have to hear from real people. You do. I'm actually excited about that. I have a glimpse of that from my website where people try recipes out. They'll tag me and I'm like, oh my God, thank God it turned out the right way. Thank God that it looks like that. So, yeah, it's a nice feeling.

And then the name is joyful. And everything about your personality, at least from what I can perceive online, feels so full of joy. Work in progress, for sure. Yeah, do you feel like it was ever tougher for you to find that sense of joy and happiness or is this just your personality? No, I feel like I have to like try to find it on a daily basis. basis and I definitely grew up being the person who always wanted to be the one bringing jokes

or, you know, trying to line up the mood in my family. But I think as I've grown older, I realized that that came from a place of wanting to find value in my relationship. So I was always the easygoing one. I was always the one who was trying to, you know, make sure everybody was okay. And actually, when it was back then, I think it stemmed from me wanting to make sure I had value in every relationship I had. And that was how I knew. was, oh, let me just be the easygoing one and be someone who's really fun. But as time's gone on, I think I've changed that to rather than it being something where people just like me, it's me doing work daily to find gratitude in my life so that I am able to pull that into other

people. And so even if I'm having a really bad day, I'm so grateful that I have such an incredible support system that I know I can show up for other people who don't because I have what I have. And so it's definitely not a constant. I don't think joy is ever a constant. I think to believe that would be putting yourself in a position to just be disappointed. But I think you can have a mindset where you can keep coming back to joy through the process of finding gratitude every single day. In your childhood, if you were like, I need to be joyful, I need to be happy, I need to do this so I have value to other people. What allowed you to shift away from that and find it inherently? I don't think I've fully shifted away from it, honestly. If I think about it, I still feel

my value is that. However, I think I see it from a point of view. If I am able to do this for people, then it makes me appreciate being a vessel for that versus, oh my gosh, the only thing that someone's going to like me for is that. And so I have to be that in that person's life. So I think I'm still doing that, but from a different perspective and less attachment to whether the other person likes me for that reason or not. But honestly, that's a good question. I still feel like I find value in myself for that. And so I'm learning how to create boundaries with people.

I'm learning how to say no to things. I'm learning how to be firm without worrying that they're going to think, oh, she's become a bit aggressive now. Or she's not as nice as we thought she used to be when really I was just a push over who wanted to be liked. And so I'd say work in progress. Still getting there. Is there any advice that you would give to somebody who's listening

and they're like, oh, that's me. I'm the pushover who really wants to be liked. I think what I realized was when I'm getting to the point where I'm giving to people and then coming back from it, feeling resentful, upset with myself, or walked all over, that's a sign that I am at max capacity or overdoing it. Because when you give and when you're doing it from a place of love and actual joy, there is no sense of feeling being taken advantage of or coming back saying, I wish I hadn't done that much for that person. And so I've had to start seeing my capacities by that in myself. So whenever I come away from it and I have a bitter or negative mindset towards the whatever

I've given to someone, then I know I have to either take a step back and know for next time that this is my capacity here. And as soon as I pass that, that's on me because that's not making me feel good. So it's seeing your responses to things and actually observing yourself from almost like an external point of view to see how you're actually feeling when you're doing those things. And do you credit meditation for being the thing that lets you kind of get that zoom out perspective? Meditation has literally changed the person that I am in so many different ways from the perspective I get. So I feel like my meditation practice, even though I commit to it and I'm there every day,

it ebbs and flows depending on my focus, my attention, how tired I am. You know, naturally those things are going to change. But what I do notice is when I recommit to my practice and I'm actually present with it, everything from how I see other people, the negative self-talk I have for myself, how I think or see other people, the interactions I have with people feel more meaningful. There's just so much you get from having presence with yourself. It makes me more present. That's just the baseline of it is that it makes me more present.

On top of all of that, I feel like it connects me deeper to myself and to nature and the world and universe around me, which allows me to be. just ground and I guess it's also another aspect of being present where I'm present with myself too. So the more I can tune into myself and understand who I am, I'm able to connect deeper to someone's core versus their surface. And I really noticed that when I've had a really strong practice, it really shifts the dynamic. Can you tell me about your meditation journey? Like, when did you start meditating? I saw my mom meditate from, I mean, from the moment I can even remember my life. My mom has always had a morning prayer practice. So I saw,

her doing that. So it's familiar to me, but it wasn't something I did. I'd say about 10 years ago, is when I started my meditation practice. And at that time, I went full into it. It was one of those things where I was like, okay, if this is really going to make a difference, I'm going to go fully into it. I'm going to practice it properly and I want to see the effect that it has. And so I actually started meditating properly when my mom had started helping at the temple that was near my house and she recommended that I go to it. I went to it and it happened to be this really special month, which is going on right now actually, but it happened to be the special month where you recommit to your spiritual practices and it's a beautiful month and you really reflect and you

just pour a lot more into them than you normally would. So at that temple, they start off the morning meditations at 4.30am. And at that time I was working in a hospital as a dietitian and I was like, you know what, I'm going to commit to doing this just for a week. I'm going to go there every single morning before work. I'm going to meditate with the monks here and I'm just going to see how it feels. I started doing that. I would go to sleep by 9 p.m. I'd wake up at like 3.34, get to the temple. It was only like 15 minutes from me. And I was there from 4.30 till 7.30. Go back home, shower, get ready for work and go to work. Did it for the week. And I was like, oh, I really love this. I did it for another week. I was like, oh, I really like this. Ended up doing it for pretty much a year,

even after the month was over because I was just seeing such a shift in my happiness. I was noticing so much peace and a joy that I never felt before because I never spent that time to connect with myself. And from that point on, I was like, I don't think I can ever let go of this practice. And so now I meditate in the mornings for about an hour and a half. It's something just like my workouts and my calls to my mom, like those are things that non-negotiables in the same way. My meditation practice is definitely that for me.

now. What are you doing for that full hour and a half? So I do mantra meditation and man means mantra is to transcend. And so mantras, I mean, there are so many words that have been spoken for thousands and thousands of years and every single word carries energy. And so these mantras are said to not only carry the energy that you're using when speaking it, but that millions of people have poured into that word through saying it for thousands of years. I have tried so many meditations throughout the years, but mantra meditation was the only one that helped me keep my focus. And so my meditation practice entails saying the mantra over and over again, but I also have beads. They're almost like rosary beads. And they have 108 beads on them. And you go around each one

and as you say, each mantra, you move the bead. And what I've noticed is because we're so used to using our senses throughout the day, to a high extent, we're always using our hands, we're always looking at things. Everything is so stimulating. So when you get to your meditation practice and it's just silence. It's so difficult to function and to actually focus. And so having beads in your hands helps you to find something that you can hold and touch just like you're using your phone in the same way. I usually have incense sticks, which has a sandal with smell. And I know that is the smell for my meditation area. That's the smell for when I am waking up and I'm trying to be in a meditative state. That is a smell I associate with it. I play music. I usually put either flute

music or I'll put specific sounds that I only play during that time, just like you have work out music. And then you can either look, I love looking out into the sunrise, but I also have an altar where I have different things that help me to connect. And then the mantra is the speaking or you're utilizing your mouth as you're practicing as well. Are you speaking it out loud? I say out loud, yeah.

You can also say it in your mind, but there's something about sound vibrations. Like, you know, we talk about all the different frequencies and how they have effect on our mind. in the same way when you are saying something out loud, there's something really powerful about sound vibrations going through your body. And so when you're repeating a sound over and over again, it just helps your mind continuously come back to being present. And the hour and a half, I think, is what's scary to a lot of people. How did we get to an hour and a half? Little by little. But like, why is that the number?

Oh, because I decided to have a committed practice of a certain amount. So it's more to do with the amount of rounds I take on those rosary. Some people go a bit slower, some people go a bit faster. So for me, it takes around an hour and a half. But honestly, I think it's more about how long can I stay focused for? And for me, it's a practice where, like I said, even if I'm showing up and I'm not feeling it and I'm distracted most of the time, if I just keep coming back, that for me is my commitment. Because, yeah, some days it's difficult. Like, we have to show up to our job. Someday we're not going to end up wanting to go. Someday we're going to hate the people at our work. Someday we're going to go there and our mind's going to be completely somewhere else and we're going to be on our phone, but we still commit and

we still show up. And so in the same way for me, I appreciate the commitment because I think if I know that this is making me better, even if I show up and I'm only half there, let me be half there. But I don't want to stop the practice. In the decade that you've done it, have you ever fallen off? Yeah, my God, of course I have. It's just I've fallen off and it's been days of, you know what it is, you end up feeling guilty. You're like, oh, I missed it today. And that means I'm a terrible person and I shouldn't even go back into that room where I practice my meditation because I'm not worth it. But what happens is your mind tricks you because the point is there should be no guilt attached to spirit. Like I don't believe that a spiritual practice

should ever have guilt attached to it because the soul is so pure. Like when you're connecting to yourself, there should be no judgment and I feel like there's no room for guilt. So I've trained my mind. So whenever my mind tricks me and saying, you know what, you don't want to practice yesterday, you skipped it yesterday, you weren't even present yesterday, what's the point? I'm like, be quiet because I know this is what I need and I know this is what's good for me. And so that period has shortened where before I would just ignore it for a while or weeks on end and I would start really feeling it. And I'd be like, I wonder why I feel so lost and I wonder why I feel so disoriented in my

life right now. I wonder why all these people are really annoying me right now. And it ends up being a reflection of my internal state because I am in chaos internally. And so I've recognized that every time I feel lost, and I'll say this to my husband, sometimes I'm like, I just really feel like I'm so lost. Everything feels like it's just all over the place. I don't even know why I'm doing this. I feel like I'm so lost in my purpose.

And then always asks me, so how's your meditation going? And I'm like, it's been so bad. It's just my North Star. Like I know that that is what changes everything for me. And it gives everything meaning and purpose in my life. Do you have any advice? Do you think it's just recognizing that? this is how I'm feeling and this is the why of it that gets you back on the horse?

Or do you have any other advice for like if you've fallen off of a habit, how do you get back into it? Yeah. For me, it's this feeling of lostness and that's the only way I can really describe it. But I think to get back on track, I do a number of things. One, I will tell myself that even if I show up, if I'm not present, it doesn't matter. And that really helps because you put less pressure on yourself where it doesn't have to be a perfect practice. It just has to be a practice of some sort.

So ease back into it. If you want to start with five minutes where you decide you're going to just show up, and you may not even do the meditation, show up in that space to start creating that muscle memory of being there. And then I recommend breathwork. Breathwork has changed not just my meditation practice, but my anxiety throughout the day. It's changed the way that I'm able to self-soothe and calm myself in really difficult moments. It's changed the way I express emotion.

And so breathwork is really powerful. In yoga, it says that your breath is the anchor between your mind and your body. And so every time you want to become present and bring your mind back into your body, using your breath can really help you to anchor. And I love that. I love the idea that you also have this ability just through your breath to bring yourself back, to self-soothe and bring yourself back into the state. And so I use breathwork every time my mind wonders or every time I feel overwhelmed in my practice, I'll just stop and I'll take a few seconds and I'll just take deep breaths. It doesn't have to be a complicated breathwork. most of us don't even breathe properly during the day. We take such shallow breaths. And so to take

like a full breath, even now, I'm talking quite fast and I'm like, I just need a breath and just taking a really deep breath, slows everything down, including your mind. And so breath work for me has been a beautiful way to keep coming back to the practice. And then I'd say your association, like, who are you speaking to? What are you doing? I don't know who says this, but it's not about those one and a half hours or those 15 minutes or whatever your practices, it's not about that time that you're spending in the moment. What are you doing the rest of the time? What are you doing the rest of your day? Because what you're doing the rest of the day is going to affect how your mind state is in those two hours or those 15 minutes. I then take account of what is influencing

those one and a half hours for me that's not allowing me to sit in a stable, focus state. And then I think about what am I watching? What am I speaking to people? about? Am I gossiping about people too much? Am I hearing, you know, things about people or the world that's really agitating my mind? Are my conversations full of growth and something that uplifts me or are they bringing me down? Are the things I'm watching, scaring me and causing my mind to feel more anxiety? Because it's impossible. You can't expect yourself to be high anxiety, high everything throughout the 22 hours of your day and expect for yourself for two hours to completely shut down and be silent. And so I reflect on that. I take a look at everything else that I'm doing

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I always encourage people to incorporate like micro moments of restoration, micro moments of calm throughout their day. Yeah. Because I do think that sometimes we like get to the evening and we're like, why can I come down? Why can't I relax? Why am I so stressed out? And we're trying to meditate. We're trying to do these practices. But we've been in this high cortisol stay all day long.

Exactly. You said a few months ago that you stopped watching TV and you're saying what you're watching, like you're making sure what you're watching isn't scaring you. Are you still not watching TV? I don't watch anything scary. But you fully quit TV for a little bit, right? I did for a long time. And even now, I wouldn't say it's something I watch every single night. I'd say it's something that when I think about a show that I want to catch up on

or it's not part of my practice every day. And I think that's what I had to realize that to wind down doesn't mean to sit in front of the TV. I remember I cut it out completely at a time where I think, what was I watching at the time that was really getting to me? Oh, I was watching. what's that show where everyone just starts dying? They're living in the middle of nowhere. The Ozarks.

The Ozarks, yes, yes. The Adirondacks, like the chair. Oh, my God, I was watching Ozark, and I was watching a show called Power where people just die every single episode and everyone's in high anxiety mode in the show. It was affecting my sleep. It was affecting the way that I wake up. It was affecting what I was thinking about. And I was like, this is just too overstimulating.

After that, of going through that kind of. of PTSD of watching shows that were just so stimulating for me. I was like, let me just cut it out because I need to see. Sometimes I think, let me experiment with myself. If I cut it out, let's see how my mind shifts. And within a week, my mind was so much calmer. I was waking up and anxiety about my family passing away in London and me not being there. And there was just so much that was coming up in me. And I was like, this is not a state I'm used to being in. And it was really upsetting me. So I just cut out. And now, if I do watch stuff, it's things that just make me a little bit happier or, you know, I prefer even watching if I have to do like reality TV

because there's nothing too scary or anxiety producing in it. It's just you're watching people do their day-to-day stuff or I'll watch something that actually makes me happy. What actually makes you happy? What actually makes me happy? You know what makes me happy? Old school shows from when I was like a teenager. Like nostalgia. Oh yeah. Yeah. Watching friends. I said watching Gossip Girl again. Sounds contradictory to what I'm saying. However, it has nostalgia for me and I just used to love watching the characters and it brings me back. So not scary. No.

Modern family. So funny. There's been studies that talk about how if you're watching something that you know the ending of, you're literally in a different physiological state than if you don't know the ending. So it's why we love rewatching shows is like a comfort thing because you know the ending so your nervous system literally calms down. And I have a habit of like fast forwarding things because you know what's coming.

So I always like a one hour show 10 into 15 minutes when I've seen it because I'm skipping to the parts of the characters that I like. But yeah. So that and then I like. watching nature programs. I find they're just so fun to watch animals doing really funny things. Have you seen wild babies on Netflix? No. Oh, it's a nature show of baby animals. We have a cat and my cat loves it. My cat's just like obsessed with it, which is really cute to do. Like, animals don't get to watch TV about themselves. Like it's so unfair, actually. It's so unfair. They're always side characters at best.

What do you do then? I feel like everybody is wondering to wind down and too relaxed and restored at the end of the day if it's not TV. Reading? You will notice that we'll notice that we're When you start reading at night, you will fall asleep so much faster. And it's not because it's boring because I love the books that I read, but it's because your mind is slowly shutting down and winding down and it's not overstimulated and trying to stay awake. So I really enjoy reading. Another thing is I've started listening to things.

So even if my eyes are tired and I don't feel like looking at words, I've started listening to either podcasts or spiritual books that I enjoy or even just like mantra meditation music and I just will wind down and just lay and listen to it. Oh, sometimes I'll write because I find at the end of the day, my mind can be quite full of a lot of things. And so even if it's on my phone, some people write it down, I usually always have my phone with me. So I find it easier to get into the mode of just writing if I use it. So my note section on my phone is full of just either rambling or things I don't want to forget, but I'm keeping in my mind unnecessarily. And that really helps me to go to sleep with a clear mind. As soon as my head hits the pillow, I'm asleep. And I think it's

because I've just tried to release a lot of things before I even get into my bed space to then get into bed. And I've thought about everything. I've closed off everything for the day and then I can, you know, get to bed. I love going for walks before I go to sleep. I find that is so lovely to just go outside and just even if it's for 10 minutes after you've eaten, to just walk about and get some fresh air, see the sunset if you can. There's so much. much information out there or studies that have shown where when you are actually looking at the sunset and you're looking at the sunrise, it can completely change the way that your body functions throughout the day. And I've noticed that. I feel like the sunset and sunrise call me outside.

Like I really get so much energy in the morning from the sunrise and I get so much peace from looking at the moon and the sunset at night. I think we kind of take that for granted sometimes and we don't push ourselves to do it, but it really makes a difference. There's a quote from a book that I love It's like how many more times are you going to see a full moon rise in your life? Like it's just a handful, but we think that it's infinite. And I think it's such a beautiful thing to sort of reflect on these things that we think we have so much of. We actually just have a few moments and to be grateful for those. Yeah.

That's so true. I love that. You've mentioned a few things that I think are harder in the moment, but they bear greater rewards. But they're hard to make yourself do in the moment. Like, it's hard to wake up at 4.30 and make yourself meditate. It's much easier to flip on the television than it is to take the energy and the effort and the focus of getting into a book at the end of a long day. I'm curious if you have any advice for people who are like, yeah, I want to do that, but I'm tired and it's hard.

I get it. I do that too. There are so many times where I do end up just sitting and watching something. And that's also okay. Like for those days where you just need that, totally switch off. But then also there's so much training that happens. if we've been sitting in front of the TV every single night for six years, seven years, 10 years, 20 years, it's hard to break habits.

There is an element of training and seeing it as you're training yourself out of something. And so it may feel like work at the beginning. And sometimes it's not easy. And sometimes there's not going to be an easy shift for you to do. This is actually what I did to train myself out of it. This was really good for me. So I'd say, okay, instead of watching three episodes, I'm going to watch one episode and I'm going to switch it off and read. or I'm going to read first and then I'm going to watch an episode of something.

And so you're not cutting off completely. What you're doing is you're saying, oh, okay, let's ration now. So instead of eating a whole bar of chocolate, I'm going to eat a piece of chocolate every single night. And so that was great for me because I don't like going cold turkey for anything too fast. I think it's an unrealistic goal and it makes you feel like you're missing out on something. Whereas say to yourself, hey, I'm not there yet and maybe I won't ever be there, but let me incorporate something that is beneficial with something that maybe isn't as good for me. So I actually balance in that.

I'm like, let me have a salad and a pizza, you know? Let's just create some balance. Add in. Yeah. I love the idea of adding instead of depriving yourself. Exactly. Same. I always think that.

And I remember someone at the beginning of my practice told me this. They were like, when you end up feeling a higher taste for something and you end up experiencing your elevated consciousness or even something that makes you feel better, how it feels in you, naturally the rest of the things will fall away. And so that's what I think. When I started noticing how I felt from reading and how it changed my mind and what it made me think about, it made me want to spend a little bit more time reading and a bit less time watching. And so you end up losing your taste and your desire for the lower vibrational things in

your life when you end up feeling the benefits of the higher vibrational things. And I think you're right. It's adding. Like add those things in and naturally the rest will hopefully fall away. I also think even the words that you use zoning out are so interesting because I think it's almost incredibly sad that our little bit of time that we're taking for ourselves. Often we're even framing it in the like zoning out. Like I don't even want to be there. Yeah, it's away from ourselves.

And that's the only time we're allowing ourselves to do something quote unquote for ourselves in our entirety of our day. You're so right. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's almost we want to separate from ourselves during that moment and we see that as peace. but again, I don't think it is piece out because watching TV doesn't actually, if you think about when you're tired and you end up switching off in that way, you don't actually get energized or less tired from it. And so if you think about it in that way, if I'm tired, I want something that gives me

energy or helps me to relax. But if those things are actually making us more tired, which actually they are and they're depleting us of energy, then they can't be the things that are coming in when we want to find energy or when we want to find relaxation. And so it's actually seeing the reality of what we're doing. Fine, if I'm going to watch TV, just know what it's actually doing to me. And so if we're aware and actually find a second to become aware of what all these individual things in our lives do to us, then I think we'd be more inclined to shift or change them. And I really appreciated when I learned about the different vibrations of things and how they affect my energy. And so it ends up being really simple. Does this deplete me or does this

energize me. And by energy, I don't mean I want to be really energetic and I want to go out and I want to go for a run. I mean energy in terms of refueling, renourishing, re-energizing. It's a different way of thinking about it as, oh, I want to relax. But relaxing also means re-energizing. And it also means refueling and re-nourishing your body. And so I just see in those two ways. Is it depleting me or is it giving me energy? Wait, so what energizes you? I honestly think that not having enough is one of the biggest things that gets in the way of people feeling the joy that they want to feel in their life. I feel like not having enough energy is like what people are suffering from all the time. We feel too tired.

We feel energy less. And I think there are so many things you have to think about when it comes to draining energy. I think about it from everything from the conversations I'm having to the people in my life. And look, there are going to be people in your life who don't necessarily drain energy but require energy and take energy. And that's not a bad thing. as long as you have those people in your life who are also fueling you. You always have to think about it as a network and we're all connected in different ways. And we're always going to have those people in our life who require it,

just like if you have a child, it's going to be a 90% giving than it is going to be receiving. But then do you have a partner that's supporting you through that? Do you have parents that are fueling you? Do you have a network of people who are also giving to you as you're giving to them? Because the reason we become depleted is because our proportions are off. And so if you're not getting it from people, then you have to think about, am I getting it from my environment? And by environment, I mean whether it's the workouts we're doing, whether it's the things that we're listening to, the things we're watching. I think break down our lives into all these different areas and see, am I getting more things that are depleting or am I getting more things that are energizing?

And if you notice that there's a big difference in the two, at least you should be at 50-50. I think what fuels me, obviously, except for my meditation practice in the morning, is movement. Movement for me is so necessary movement in mind, movement in body, running and working out and getting outside and getting fresher. I think movement is so important. And I was thinking about this the other day, actually, I was like, you know, whenever I tell people I need to work out every single day, they're like, don't you take a break on Saturday or Sunday?

I'm like, no, why? It's movement for my body. Like, I don't need to take a break from moving my body because if you think about it, even if you spent two hours moving your body a day, the rest of the 22 hours, we are sitting on our butt or lying down. And so we think that because we live such a sedentary life, we think that if you're working out for an hour in the morning and working out for an hour in the evening, that it's such a big deal. But it's actually not. We need to move at least two hours of the day. It's crazy that we don't. And so movement for me really energizes me. But then so does

like, I love talking to my mom and talking to my mom throughout the day and my grandma throughout the day is something that fuels me. I think we live so much through screens and so much through devices and we forget that we are humans and we thrive of human connection. We thrive of human interaction and eye contact and physical touch and going to our friend's house and actually sitting down with them and talking to them rather than picking up the phone. And so when you are able to have positive human connection, that can be such beautiful feel for you. I'd say nature fuels me humans and then I think knowledge fuels me too it really nourishes me I feel comforted and energized when I understand something better because it takes away my anxiety and I think what I mean

by that is I think anxiety comes from the unknown or something that you're not familiar with and that's usually where my anxiety comes from and so if I feel that way I have to educate myself or find information about those things to reduce my anxiety and therefore it ends up fueling me. I love that. Is your family still in England? Yeah, they're all in London. I hear from so many people all the time who want to move away because they feel like living somewhere different will feed their happiness, feed their soul, feed their career, feed their relationships, anything like that, but they really don't want to leave their family. How do you navigate that? So if it was just me, I probably would have never ever left my family. I chose to have a home that was

my mom, my sister, my grandma, all their houses are within walking distance from each other. And so when I got married, I said to my husband, I was like, my only thing is I want a house that's walking distance from my mom, my sister and my grandma. And we got that house and we were living there for a full three weeks. And then he got an incredible job offer that. Like we just couldn't say no to because it was just so exciting for him. And so we moved to New York and then we moved after a couple of years to L.A. I've never had the desire to move away from home.

I don't think my work would have ever taken me anywhere else. But I definitely struggle with it. I miss my family all the time. I miss them every time I have an event or I'm doing something, I'm like, why? I really want them to be here for it. Or if I'm traveling, I'm like, they would love this phase. You know, I was grown up in that way. And so for me, it's still difficult, even seven years down the line.

But I just try and get back as much as possible. And what it's taught me is whenever I miss someone or whenever I, feel that feeling of homesickness, whatever that feeling is, I turned it into action now. So during the pandemic, I was going crazy, obviously like everyone else, going crazy that you couldn't see your family. And it was making me so worried because my grandma was getting older. And you know, you get all those thoughts and feelings during that time. And what I ended up doing was turning into action. So I started collecting all the pictures and videos I had of her and making sure that they were saved. And then for my nieces and nephews, I started planning what I wanted

to do for their birthdays or when I wasn't there, I would start sending things. And so for me, turning my worry and my feelings and emotions into action was really useful. I still do that now. So I plan our Christmas getaways every single year. I surprise my niece and nephew every single time I go home, which by the way is like at least four to five times a year, they never know I'm coming and I'll do a different surprise every single time. So tomorrow I'm going home and I have a full blow-up unicorn costume because my niece loves unicorns. I'm going to basically, run around like outside of their house until they notice that there's a blow up unicorn that's running around. So I just try and find action in emotion because otherwise you can get really

stagnant with emotion and it can really bring you down. And I think doing always helps you to feel a bit better. I love that. I love that so much. I would like to see a picture of you in the video. I tried it on yesterday. I tried on the app for yesterday. Okay, so relationships are obviously a huge part of finding joy in our life. Jay has his eight rules of love. I'm curious. if you have like one or two rules of love you could share for you. One or two rules of love. I don't know whether this is one of his rules of love. I can't remember.

But one of them for me would be, you have to be okay with the fact that every single year, every five years, every 10 years, you're probably going to be married or dating a completely different person in that relationship. The thing of you're not that same person or you've changed and it being a negative, you know, seen as a negative,

way we need to really release that because naturally we are literally different people every second. Our cells change every single second of the day. Our mindset changes through every single thing that we come into contact with, through every single person we interact with. It's sad when you get into a relationship and five years down the line, you don't realize that this person has changed, but you haven't accepted that. And so grow together and be okay and observe the changes that are happening so it doesn't end up as a shock to you, five years. years down the line or 10 years down the line and be accepting of that. I know that this person may be a completely different person in 15 years because that's just how life goes. Do you have any advice for

growing and evolving together instead of growing and evolving apart? Yeah, observing. I think we don't observe sometimes. I think about them with my parents sometimes where I spent so many years with them, but I always saw them as my parents and I wasn't seeing them as human individuals. Of course they were changing and of course they were, you know, adapting and they were growing and learning too, but I wasn't observing them changing or what their needs were or what was shifting because I was one taking from them so much. And so I think in a partnership and in a relationship, it's really being an observer. And I think paying attention and being attentive is 90% of it. Observing really helps to grow together versus falling apart.

There's a tip in my book from Susan David, who's a Harvard psychologist, and she talks. about letting people become who they are in front of you, essentially. So always checking in because we know that we're changing and evolving and growing all the time. But then we're still like, oh, my partner likes the same shows. He likes the same breakfast. They have the same opinions on all these things. They're going to fight with me about the same things. And those things might not be true anymore, but we don't check in.

So she talks about always like asking. Like, are you interested in coming to my book club? Are you interested in going for a walk, et cetera, et cetera. I need to get better at that. Jay's really good at that. He always checks in, which I think is really wonderful. And I think we end up, because we're so scared of change, because there's so much comfort in things staying the same, that we don't want to see shifts and changes. And that scares us to even like the check-in is almost a scary place to get to where- That's such a good point. You know, it's like, oh, do I want to know the answer to this? Like, do I want to see the shifts that are happening?

And I think it's because change feels so uncomfortable because it's the unknown and to stay stagnant and the same feels more comfortable. Even though it's unrealistic, for some reason, it feels more comfortable. The mattress that you sleep on is one of the highest exposures that you have. Like, if it's off gassing, you're breathing that in for basically a third of your life. And most conventional mattresses are loaded with synthetic foams. flame retardants, microplastics, and more. Plus, if it's not comfy, you're going to be tossing and turning, you're going to be really hot, and sleep is the foundation of health.

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I am not making it just look younger. I am making it actually younger. One Skin has four peer-reviewed clinical studies and over 10,000 five-star reviews. The data backs everything up. For a limited time, get 15% off with code Liz at oneskin.co slash Liz. Again, that's 15% off at oneskin.co with code Liz. That's so interesting. It's such a good point. And so then by that notion, then one of the best things that you could do for your relationship would be developing a comfort with the idea of change and lack of certainty. Yeah. Yeah, that's really interesting. Do you have any other rules of love? Oh, another rule is I'm actually getting really bad at it is just having times without your phone together. I think as my life has gotten busier, I don't realize that I'm just on it and I'm like checking one email and then checking another email and then we're in the car together and I'm on my phone and I'm using it. And I'm like, oh, I have.

I haven't messaged this person. I always think of things at the wrong time and it's always when I'm trying to spend quality time with people. And so I've started to try and just put my phone away because it really does suck the life out of interactions with people. And I didn't realize it to recently. And I was like, wow, I'm spending all the time that we're in the car. I'm just on my phone. That's a time where you can connect and a time where you can spend time together. And obviously there's time for when you need to do your work and stuff. But having those moments with people without it is so important. Yeah, it really is. And it's hard because our phones are literally addictive. Everything. Oh, I need Google Maps phone. And then suddenly I'm on Google Maps and then

I'm scrolling Instagram again. Oh, crap. I've been on it for half an hour. Do you feel pressure because of your job and Jay's job to be like we have this all figured out as a couple? Well, I don't. I'm like, you wrote the book on Love. I did not. So I definitely don't have things figured out. But yes, I definitely felt, by the way, he's obviously phenomenal. And what I love about him is that everything you see is what he is online, offline, and he's always lived with such integrity. And I really value that. But it does scare me because I'm like, I'm not there yet.

And I'm really stubborn in relationship. There's so much I need to shift and change, whereas he's someone who's really worked on himself. And so I'm playing catch up in our relationship, which he never makes me feel like, but I see it because I see how evolved he is. I definitely felt that at the beginning, which is why I don't really like sharing so much about our relationship. and I prefer not to because I get suffocated by the labels of, oh my gosh, this couple is this or this couple is this. And I'm like, no, we're not. And the thing is we talk about it a lot on our podcast.

And we do share it. If he wants to do an interview together, we'll do it. But people only see little glimpses. And I don't like giving little glimpses. You put up a picture of you too happy. And then it's like, oh, suddenly none of the other difficulties that you've been through matter to the people watching you. It gives such a limited view of someone.

And I also think like relationships. I used to share so much about my grandma and my parents and my relationships with other people or friends. And I'm like, actually, they're so sacred and they're so complex that some parts are unnecessary. I think at the beginning when I started social media, it felt like we have to share everything and everything needs to be out in the public. And actually, I don't believe that. Even my meditation practice, only I think recently have I started showing glimpses of my altar and where I meditate because I'm like, do I really want that? judged by people when it's something that's so special to me, no, I really don't. And so I think there's a beauty in keeping things that are meaningful and that you're truly happy with just

to yourself sometimes. And I've really learned that over time. I also think that you can say till the end of time, like we're a real couple, we have arguments, whatever, but it's really hard to internalize that. And it's also a very hard thing to actually share in any sort of way that's respectful and not actually having a negative impact on the relationship. You're not going to whip out your phone in the middle of an argument, you know. And then if you're coming on later and saying, oh, we had an argument, but this is how we worked out, well, that's still giving a different impression of things. It's almost impossible.

And you don't want to air your laundry either. Exactly. It's also not healthy to share intimate details of your relationships with so many people. Because everybody's weighing in. But then I do think it is tricky. I think the biggest thing is for people on the other side to internalize that you are just getting the tiny, as tiny, tiniest, tiny as close. Exactly.

And I also get that when people are like, oh, but this couple was so happy. And now they're, you know, you see the celebrity couples and they're like really happy. Suddenly they're not happy and people get really upset by that. And I'm like, it's difficult because for them also, it's like, oh, well, they only showed us the happy parts of their life. But to the people whose relationship is, they're like, oh, we need to figure this out before we end up sharing with people. So I think I've seen that with so many of my friends who've been together and then

broken up in a public way. And I'm like, wow, it's difficult. And so I just think sometimes just keeping it to yourself. And it's just, when things are special, I read, what was it? It was like a real I saw where it was like, if you're getting a new job, keep your mouth quiet. If you're having a baby, keep your mouth shut. If you're having this, keep your mouth shut. Because the energy that people also have, even if it's sweet energy, there's just so much coming towards you.

And there's this thing in our culture called evil eye. And it doesn't even mean that people are looking at you with ill intention. You could even be a mother and be loving on your child so much. because there's so much attention and so much emphasis on that person, it can turn something sour. And so sometimes too much love and too much care, too much of anything is not great. And so I think sometimes too much attention is not the best way to live. A hundred percent. There's that quote that also if you believe your own hype, you have to believe your own criticism too.

Exactly. That's what I believe. So I always think about that too. I'm like, if I'm choosing to be out there, build a community, ask for people to buy my book, ask for people to listen to my podcast. I also have to be okay with that community also telling me, when they're not happy with things. And if they want to criticize me,

if I'm here for all the glory, I need to be here for all the criticism too. So you can't pick and choose that. If you choose to be in the public eye, you are also choosing to be criticized because you can't just say, okay, you guys can only love me, but then when you guys start cussing me out,

I'm going to be really offended because you've chosen that life. Like you're choosing to be in front of people. And I struggle with that too because there's so much of me every single month. I'm like, I think I'm just going to shut down my Instagram now and I'm just going to go

invisible and just, you know, recluse into my little hole again and just live that life. But then it's a difficult balance. I think I still haven't figured that out either. No, no, are I. How does Ayurveda fit into the idea of a joyful life? Ira means life and Vader means knowledge. Iirveda is a beautiful, holistic health science that has existed for, actually, it's known to be the oldest health science. And the thing I love about it, for anybody who doesn't know, it's a very individual practice. It's a very individual health science. So not one person is the same and what one person eats, drinks, the lifestyle practices, everything is so specific to the person. And I really appreciate that because Western medicine is a little bit different. It's very one size fits all. And so how do I think

it fits into joyful life? Because it is individual. Because joy is so individual. What makes you happy may not make me happy. We're so used to everybody telling us we're the same thing. Look, the same way, have the same butt, have the same face, whatever it is. You know, we're so used to everything being made to become like robots that are all the same, where when Iveda teaches us that our mind, our bodies, our essence is just so different and to embrace it and how to live optimally according to our own nature, that is when we're the most joyful. And to have everything aligned and our body's feeling as well as possible and our mind's feeling as well as possible for our own nature, that is pure joy.

That is when we are at our best and our optimal and our fullest. And so, yeah, I think that's how it probably links. As a love in the book that you're like, if this is making your life worse, if you're being rigid and really intense and criticizing yourself about it, that you're beating the point of what we're trying to do here. Yes, exactly. And I think sometimes with holistic health sciences, you can get a bit worried because there's so many rules and regulations. and in this day and age it's really difficult to stick to a lot of the stuff. And so I just believe that do the things that bring you joy, do the things that make you happy. And to do those things, do it a little bit at a time.

And if it doesn't feel right, let it go and try something else. We've got so many things in the world that we can try. It doesn't have to be, again, what makes you happy, that makes me happy. And so I think we get really stuck with that. I remember when I was trying to figure out what workouts works for me, I would see this person online saying Pilates, literally changed my whole body. It changed everything for me. So we're like, okay, cool, I have to do Pilates. Next thing I see someone boxing and they're like, this is the best workout ever. And I'm like, okay, so I have to do boxing. So then I was boxing in the morning, Pilates at night. The next day I was doing

weight training, the next day I was doing hot yoga. And I was like, oh my God, like I'm literally doing everything that everybody else is telling me, what does my body need? What do I actually feel happy doing. And so I think we look outwards for what we need when actually this is sounds very obvious, but we have to listen to our own body to know what we need. Wait, so what did your body need? What's your workout? For me, my workouts are weight training. I love weight training. I love lifting heavy, slower workouts. I used to love boxing and running a lot and I used to love high intensity. You know the high intensity where you end up feeling sick afterwards. I was like, oh, that means I've worked really hard. But I've slowed down my workouts now. And I, and I, and I,

I can notice my body and my mind just feeling so much better for it. Isn't it such a practice of becoming an adult realizing that you don't need to be feeling awful to be making progress? Yes. That's so true. It's just something of like I feel like the older I've gotten, the more I've been like, I don't need to actually feel like I'm dying for this to be working. Yeah, exactly.

Health doesn't have to be unenjoyable. Yeah. Health doesn't have to feel like crap, depending on how you shift your perspective and what you're doing. It should be making you feel good. That's the point. I always say that like above all we're trying to suffer less here. So if we're doing things that are making us suffer more in the name of suffering less,

it's kind of beating the point of all of it. That's a really good line. Do you have any favorite Ayurveda practices or foods that you feel like have changed your life the most? Yeah, one practice I love doing in the evening is Abyanga. Abyanga is the practice of self-massage with medicated oils or just with warm oils. And the reason I love it is because as soon as you start, you know, scrolling on Instagram or even look at yourself in the mirror. We usually have a lot of negative self-talk. And I know there's lots of self-love practices, but I find when you like touch your own

body, when you're able to reconnect back with your own skin, it's a really wonderful way of saying, you know what, I love you and I care for you and it soothes your nervous system, you know, hot oils as soon as you use them on your body, it penetrates through your skin and it almost coats your nervous system or your nerves to actually feel soothed and comforted. And so I find that practice, even if you can just do your feet, your feet have all the nerve endings to your entire body. And so you're just warming up oil? You can warm up oil. There are lots of, if you look online, there are lots of oils that are called up younger oils. And they usually are have lots of herbs infused into them that are good for sleep or, you know, whatever your body needs. And so you can

pick the oils with herbs in it. You warm it up a little bit. And then you can honestly just, you know, get your feet bare and massage your feet. And if you're doing your whole body, it's strokes. towards your heart for your arms and your legs. And then when you get to the joints, you do circular motions. And it can be a two-minute practice or it can be a 15-minute practice. And you can do it for however long you want. But that's something I really appreciate. I feel like it's telling my body that, you know, I've got you. I love you. I love that. You say in the book that Jay said your relationship works well because you bring the playful and he brings the profound. And I feel like play is such an important part of joy. And it's so hard to actually.

as an adult. So I would love any advice you had about how to like bring a sense of play into our lives. I'll tell you what's really helped me because I went through a phase where I felt like the play was missing. I picked something that I've watched someone or that I've always wanted to do and attach no result to it. That for me has been the best way to play. So if I want to learn salsa, it's not about going into a competition. It's not about how I'm looking, doing it. I'm just going to go and I'm going to have so much fun. I'm going to do it effortlessly and with no concept of getting better at it or worse it. Like, it just is. And so I did that. During the pandemic was my time to experiment in things. I tried roller skating. Wasn't great here, but I really enjoyed it.

And we tried pickleball recently. And I really love it. I'm not as good as Jay, but he loves it. And that's his, you know, way of playing. I think just doing things with no result because we are so used to doing everything in our life with so much result and people watching and having to be really good at it. And if you're not good at it, you don't share it. So that's kept me feeling playful. And then, yeah, I'm trying to think of what else. I try to always just see the brightest side of life or make fun of myself. I find that always helps. And it helps other people become more playful too.

But if you're able to not take yourself too seriously, it helps other people let their guards down too. And so I just try to not take myself so seriously. I love that. Okay. We're going to do a little speed round. Okay. It's going to be like the first thing you do for things. What's the first thing that you do when you get stressed or anxious?

First thing I do when I get stressed or anxious. Cry is probably the end point. And you know what? Honestly, I think that's important too because people can look at you and be like, oh, she's just going to the good thing. But you're saying like, no, sometimes I cry. I hide in the bathroom and then I go to this other thing. I love crying.

I think crying is one of the best feelings in the world. I literally cry about everything and it's my release for everything. So yes, after you've cried and hidden in the toilet, I recommend And breath work. That's always my go-toe when I'm anxious. Going on to stage, coming on a podcast, going in a meeting, getting overwhelmed. Breathwork is my go-to. And is that just deep breathing?

I have deep breath and then there's this, I'll give a quick one. It's called Brahmi in my language. You put your hands over your eyes, you put your thumbs on your ears and you do, hmm. And the sound, wow, it's amazing. And the sound vibrations, because you're blocking basically the sound going through your body. It literally you feel the vibrations going from the top of your head all the way down to your feet. One, it energizes you, but at the same time, it suddenly just like your whole body just slows down.

So I really recommend that one. I love that. Okay. What's the first thing you do and also maybe your best tip for when you feel sad or down? I cry. I really do. I find so much release in crying. And then if not that, I try to self-soothe before I turn to people.

And so I usually will, yeah, have time to cry. and then I will go outside in nature because it makes me feel part of something. And there's something about nature that just makes me feel held. I love that. What's your favorite way to combat jealousy? I went through that and I used to write the thoughts that came into my head about that person, whether it was in person when I was seeing them. And I was like, oh, you look so beautiful in my mind.

And I was like, oh, my God, I hate you. I wish I was her. I started observing my jealous tendencies. I used to write them down, write down what my mind went to and then what I wanted it to go to, like what I actually wanted my mind to be thinking or feeling. And slowly that helped in terms of the talk. But in terms of the actual feelings of jealousy, it was, you only feel jealous when you're not comfortable or happy with yourself. And that's what I realized. Actually, I wasn't jealous of what they were doing. I wasn't jealous of who they were. I was sad because I didn't

feel that way about myself. And so that means I had to reconnect to myself, find what I loved about myself and that's obviously a long process and it's a daily practice that you have to keep reminding yourself what you like about yourself but the more you like yourself the less you're going to want someone else's life do you actually do a daily practice around self-love at all oh yeah I do because I realize I had so much negative self-talk and I was like I have to spend so much time with my own mind and my own mind really doesn't like me so what I've learned to do is even if you can't go straight to a positive thought because sometimes you just can't it's not what comes to your mind straight away if I look in the mirror and I say something horrible to myself at least I'll balance it out so I'll be like oh my gosh

gosh, I really don't like my legs on this right now. But I really appreciate them for letting me walk today. You know, like something that gets me to a point of gratitude for it. And then hopefully from gratitude will come love. Do you have a gratitude practice? Honestly, I feel like I practice gratitude throughout the day. And it usually comes from when I'm not feeling great about things or when a negative thought comes, I try and switch into gratitude mode.

So if I'm like, oh, you know what? I feel really sad today about this. I think, oh my gosh, well, I have my mom who I can call and talk about it. Like, how amazing is that? that I even have that. And so I definitely shift myself constantly. So I'm ebbing and flowing between the two. But my gratitude practice I try to do just throughout the day.

Can you leave us with just one homework assignment? One thing that we can do as soon as we turn off this podcast to start bringing more joy into our lives. Set a timer for three minutes and just spend it alone. Like that's what I would recommend. Start with three minutes. Take three minutes just by yourself with no noise, no phone, no nothing and just deep breathe and hear what your mind is telling you. I love that.

Can you tell us a little bit in your own words about your beautiful book? My book is called Joyful, and it is a mixture of 125 plant-based recipes, as well as a wellness guide to take you through your day from morning to evening, and also a guide to spices and how they can heal your body, but also bring so much joy and flavor to your dish and your life. What's your favorite spice? God, I can't pick one. But right now, I'd say, you know what, cinnamon?

And favorite way to use it? Oh, in baked goods. Yeah. Yeah, I love cinnamon. And also cardamomom, which I feel like is like the underutilized cinnamon, you know? Cardamums use a lot in Indian sweets and Indian flavors, so I'm used to cardamom a lot. I love it.

In milk at night. Oh, by the way, cardam is really incredible for sleep. It has a sedative effect. And so if you put cardamom pods into milk at night, it really helps with sleep. It's hardomom and nutmeg. Both of them, it's basically like an evening night. cup. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. This was absolutely wonderful. Thank you. She is just so lovely. This conversation single-handedly inspired me to get back on my meditation

practice and I have been doing it. I'm proud to say consistently since we spoke and I find that it makes the biggest difference in my mindset. So I highly recommend doing at least that. But I'm so curious what else you took away, what you're going to change, if you're changing anything, if there's any shifts you've had in perspective from listening. Also, if you have any friends or family members or coworkers who you think could use a little dose of joy in their lives, I feel like that is all of us, please send them a link to the episode. It is the best way to support the podcast, and it is so, so appreciated. If someone shared a link with you and you are new to the podcast, welcome. I am so glad that you're here. Make sure that you are following the podcast on whatever

platform you like to listen on. All you have to do is go to the main podcast page. That's the one that lists all of the Liz Moody podcast episodes and you'll see the word follow under the logo on Spotify. And then there's a little follow with a plus sign button on the top right of that same page on Apple podcasts. There was also a recent Apple update that's changed things up a bit. So if you follow the podcast there, even if you have been following it, go to that little button in the top right of the main podcast page of the one that lists all the Lismudy podcast episodes and click turn on automatic downloads so the pod keeps showing up in your feed. This way you will not miss out on any new episodes. They'll appear right in your feed every single Wednesday and now every other Monday, which is

so, so exciting. This way you will not miss out on any new episodes that will appear right in your feed every single Wednesday. And I'm very excited to say now every other Monday to the Monday episodes are a little bit more chatty, their solo episodes, their advice episodes, and then the Wednesday ones are going to be our expert interviews, same as always. And you do not want to miss out because we have some very exciting ones coming up, including an episode all about how to travel like an expert, and another one entering all of your top dating questions with one of the world's leading dating experts. Okay, I love you, and I'll see you next Wednesday for the next episode of the Liz Moody podcast. The number one rule of habits is to make the things that you want easier and the things that you don't want harder.

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