Welcome, Deepak.
Thank you.
Thank you for being here.
It's always great to be with you.
First question I'm going to ask
is about health and wellness.
How do you feel like we're doing these days?
And what do you see in the next five or ten years?
By and large, there's a great movement
on well-being, health, wellness.
Wellness and well-being, two separate things,
but in any case, there's a lot of interest.
It's the number one trend in the world.
At the same time we have a whole backlash
that's causing a lot of
global ill-health.
From climate change, to eco destruction,
to weaponized death,
to extinction of species
to risking our own extinction,
so I think we're at a crossroads.
Five years, I don't know, but ten years from now
either we'll be in very perilous times,
or we will have moved into a new paradigm.
How can health coaches play a role in this process?
I think health coaches need to be,
and they are, by and large,
the change that they want to see in others.
And they have to be good examples of what they're teaching.
And by and large, health coaches are like that
because they've either had issues in the past themselves,
they've struggled with addictions,
or had chronic illness, recovered,
so, they have a story.
And that story is very important.
They should always start with that.
"What is Happening in My Life",
"How I Changed",
and "This is Available Now to Everyone."
One of the things I talk about is that
given half a chance, the body will heal itself by itself.
Mhm.
In your own words, how would you explain that?
Well, healing is the return of
the of the memory of wholeness.
That's what the word means.
Healing, health, wholeness, holy.
It's all one thing.
Healing is the sacred response
of just existence.
Healing is the sacred response of just being.
Which, biologically, would be called "homeostasis."
Self-regulation, self-correction.
That is an intrinsic aspect of consciousness.
So, you know, consciousness on this ground state
is just that: homeostasis.
The other extreme
is when consciousness is totally lost
and is overshadowed by
every experience that you have,
and the interpretation of every experience
that you have, too.
So that other extreme is inflammation.
Today we know that, and it's an interesting word,
"inflammation," to ignite.
To be on fire.
So, the world is on fire, from climate change,
to war, to terrorism, to individual conflict,
to conflict with your own self.
So, most people are somewhere in-between,
and you can start to incorporate healing
in your life by just understanding that one thing.
Because low-grade inflammation is
the common factor in all disease.
Alzheimer's, cancer-- you name it.
Cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome,
diabetes type II.
And there are lots of things you can do
once you get to that homeostasis.
Obviously, nutrition becomes very important now
because of all the understanding of
the human microbiome, which is lining your gut,
and it's 99% of the genetic inflammation in your body.
Only one percent of the genetic inflammation
in your body is human.
The rest is microbial genes which are
the ecosystem of our planet.
The more diverse your diet is
in plant-based foods,
the more close it is to nature,
and not to a factory.
The less refined, processed, manufactured,
polluted your diet is,
it'll immediately change the genetic population
which contributes to, as I've said,
99% of the inflammation in your body.
I didn't know this, or anybody knew this,
when we were in training in medical school.
So when people said, "I changed my diet
and my asthma went away," or "My arthritis went away,"
or "I went into a remission," I never believed them.
Because I didn't understand how changing your diet
could reverse a disease, but now,
all the science is showing that it's possible.
And then there's the role of emotions.
No, I don't use the word "mind-body" anymore.
Body-mind is one unit just like space-time
is one unit, or mass-energy is one entity,
or wave particle is one entity.
Body-mind is the entire universe, actually.
Thank you.
Sometimes I call the body like a bio-computer.
Yeah, that's a good metaphor.
It maintains 98.6.
Yeah, it does.
The eyes is kind of get tighter
when the lights are bright.
Body is the bio-computer's printout.
The software is the mind,
and that which organizes the software is consciousness.
That's beautiful.
In terms of meditation and being meditative,
sometimes people have a meditation practice,
but then they're out in their life,
and they lose the ability to be
meditative and being present.
Can you talk about that for a moment?
Just to be aware that you're not present
is to be present.
That is my favorite way of being present,
"Am I aware?"
and then become aware of anything
that's happening right now.
Sensation,
breath,
a sensory experience,
a thought.
One can live in a domain
which is independent of mind, body,
and situations and circumstances.
In spiritual traditions,
that's called the witnessing awareness
in which all experience happens.
To be a non-judgemental witness
of your own self is the highest intelligence.
How would you describe the relationship between meditation
and what people call a "Runner's High?"
A Runner's High is a very specific response to
the generation of opiates in the body,
and that feeling of intoxication that people get
when they do any form of intense exercise.
Meditation does that,
but it also triggers release of serotonin,
and dopamine,
and oxytocin,
and probably a lot of other peptides.
There's a new one that people are talking about
called Anandamide,
which is the peptide of inner bliss.
So, meditation is much more holistic in its response.
Thanks for watching.
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