Ep #220: Why Ayurveda with Katelyn Sonnier

 

Featured on the Show:

• Join me in the More Than Mindset Facebook group!
• Check out my YouTube channel!
• Follow me on Instagram!
• Self-Healing Masters
• IIN https://www.integrativenutrition.com

 

How to Connect with Katelyn:

• Katelyn on her YouTube Channel
• Take her Dosha Quiz
• How to set up a Discovery Call with Katelyn 
• Follow Katelyn on Instagram 

 

Full Episode Transcript:

Ep #220: Why Ayurveda with Katelyn Sonnier

Welcome to More Than Mindset, the only podcast that bridges the gap between spirituality and success. Go beyond the mind with clarity and confidence coach, Kim Guillory, and learn how to integrate your passion to serve with your skills and experience to create a business you love. Let’s get started.

Welcome back to More Than Mindset. I have a guest today and we are talking about the Ayurveda lifestyle. Katelyn is a specialist. She’s been practicing Ayurveda for how many years, Katelyn?

Katelyn: Going on 16.

Kim: 16 years, and Katelyn is part of Self-Healing Masters, which is a community that supports a self-healing model. Five steps to heal your life. And she’s doing a cleanse right now, and I asked her to come on and be my guest and talk about why did you choose this to be your nutritional plan or your holistic lifestyle? Because you’ve done other things, right?

Katelyn: Yeah, so I would say that Ayurveda completely changed my life. I was dealing with a bunch of health issues to name a couple— fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis at the age of 21, and I was not willing to buy those diagnoses, so I went on a holistic path and followed like more of the naturopath holistic route, and that helped. But as you may know, whenever you start dealing with health, you heal the body, but then there’s like the next layer.

And so the next layer was Ayurveda for me. I did my yoga teacher training and one of my teachers was an Ayurveda  practitioner, and when she talked about it, it was a visceral response for me. It was like, this is what you need to try on, so I worked with her for a couple years and my life changed.

Then I dabbled with other things because I have to experience other things to know if that’s where I need to go. So I kind of stopped practicing Ayurveda, went back on like a holistic diet. I was clean eating whole food, plant based. I did some vegan stuff and then I got sick again. And so I went back into Ayurveda and then I just studied it. So it doesn’t ever leave me. Now it is my day-to-day life. I live it.

Kim: So can I ask you a couple of questions about what I’ve heard from people so that this conversation can help maybe clear up their perception? I first heard about Ayurveda; I think it was my health coach certification at IIN.

And then I did my yoga teacher training. I can’t remember which one of those came first. And so it was introduced in my yoga teacher training. So that was my first two contacts with it. And now in IIN we did a hundred diet theories. So it was just one, you know, but it was kind of like the base of a lot of the stuff that we were learning, and it was really big.

I was like, wow, it’s really vast. I don’t know, but I was super interested. I was called to it. I started tongue scraping. I started a few of the, the pieces of it and I kind of backed away from it. Kind of like with Human Design , it’s like fascinating. And then woo. And then back in. And then it’s like we need the contrast breaking away from it to realize just how special it was.

And I was talking to some friends because you’re currently doing a cleanse right now, which you do twice a year about it. And she says, I’ve been watching your client, Katelyn, and I’m interested. I just don’t know if I have the bandwidth. And I was like, oh, there it is again. So I would love for you to clear that up for, because we’re in overwhelm.

We’re trying to recover from the covid shutdown. We’ve been in isolation. we have a lot of negative effects from isolation, which is weight gain, anxiety, and there’s a lot of PTSD that people are experiencing. And I think Ayurveda could be a beautiful path back home to themselves in a different way.

So I’d like to clear up some of those objections about it’s too vast. I don’t know if I have the bandwidth. I’m in so many other programs. What could you tell them?

Katelyn: Yeah. And that was interesting because  one of the clients is doing the cleanse. It’s like they’re trying to understand with their mind.

Ayurveda is really more of like a, try it on and see how it feels. And I know people do like a lot of research and try to see like what Ayurveda is and they’re overwhelmed with all of the information because there is a lot of information whenever you’re trying to study it and understand it.

But to practice Ayurveda, you don’t have to understand with the mind, you have to feel with the body. And so it is an invitation to come back to the body, understand the symptoms, because  symptoms are just communication with the body. So understanding the symptoms and giving them language. And then figuring out what that means by looking at the qualities of the symptoms.

So like you have dry skin, you have eczema, right? What are the qualities of eczema? It’s red and inflamed. It’s itchy. So those qualities are fire and heat. You know, it’s heat and dryness. So we got to target those. So like my invitation whenever I get those questions is don’t try to learn it and understand it with your mind.

Just try on the practices, like you said, tongue scrape. See how that makes you feel. Drink warm lemon water. See how that makes you feel. Dry brush. See how that makes you feel. Take out a certain specific thing from your diet whenever you’re like, wow, every time I eat tomatoes, I get heartburn. Stop eating tomatoes and see how you feel.

Try it on, and I know like Ayurveda and just like Human Design , like they have generalities of what this dosha is or what that Human Design  sign is. But really and truly it goes beyond that because your dosha shifts and change changes. So all of these practices that Ayurveda offers is an invitation to come back to the body.

So your practices can change whenever your symptoms or your needs of the body change.

Kim: So releasing the mind and embodying the practice. And then see what, what fits what doesn’t. Because in my experience, the first time it’s a little janky. Like some things didn’t work and some things, you know, it’s like when there’s a time where I got off a caffeine and it did weird stuff and then it doesn’t do it anymore.

And there was a time where there’s certain, like I couldn’t handle geranium oil, and it’s because I had a lot of emotional stuff and then now I love it.

So, I think that’s where the unpacking and experience happens, that if we take that first, I can’t do that or I can’t eat that. That actually, it could be something that you could do on the fifth time.

Katelyn and I are both Human Design lovers and she’s a one three, I’m a six two. And you, you just, you said a couple of things that relate to our Human Design , and to bring in that, so how do you see. It like Human Design  and Ayurveda  being the same as far as test it out, see if it works, try it, fill it with your body.

Katelyn: In some ways I can kind of see some parallels, but in other things, like, just like Human Design, it goes so deep because  I know there’s like a specific way that, you’re supposed to eat based on your, your chart and that’s been interesting looking a those things because I need warm foods, like in my Human Design and according to my Ayurveda, I need warm cooked foods as well. So I’m kind of like playing around with those two. So there are some parallels, that are going hand in hand, which have been interesting to see.

Kim: Yeah, I see it more on the way of here’s new information for you to go and play with, not for you to learn.

Like Ayurveda  is like that too. Like when you said it, it brought me back to how I see a lot of people become the victim of their Human Design and begin to make it a labeling system. And we’re just so used to following rules that they like make it the new rules. And I’m wondering if that happens with Ayurveda.

Katelyn: Conditioning definitely. And I tell all my clients, I’m like, don’t get married to your dosha because it’s going to change. Because I mean like every season has a dosha, there’s doshas in the times of day. So your dosha is going to ebb and flow with the foods that you’re giving your body, the environment that you live in, the activities that you do in the times of day, like it’s going to change.

So, I always speak to the qualities, like notice how you’re feeling in your body and then reach the opposites to balance that. So if you wake up in the morning and you’re feeling like really cold, like you’re not going to go and drink an ice-cold water, like you’re going to go and drink something warm.

So paying attention to what you’re feeling and then reaching for the opposite, but not, I’m, I’m a Vatta dosha, so I have to eat dosha balancing foods all the time because you’re not Vatta all the time, right? That’s just like the dosha is your “fault line.” And if you imagine like fault lines of the earth, that’s where you’re going to get the volcanoes and the earthquakes.

So your dosha is your fault line, that that’s where you will experience most of your imbalances. And that’s all that means that’s the only reason why you need to know your dosha.

Kim: That’s it. I love that. It’s exactly with Human Design, like your design is, how’d you say that? The fault line, it’s like kind of the default where you just go and then there’s a shadow side and there’s a light side.

So how can you transmute and you’re saying the same exact thing. Then we can bring it into even the law of attraction. You need the contrast to find balance, not where I wanted this conversation to, but that’s where, where it’s at. So, your intention, in life, like your intention is to feed the people back to health.

Like how they can, bring foods in to create the life that they want, basically, like how can they come to optimal health through understanding what food is doing in the body. Is that correct? So how would you say that to them? Like how what’s your language? For those people who are suffering, who have imbalance, who have illness and disease, who have discord with themselves, like soul versus body, like we have a body suit and there’s discord showing up in the body, showing up in a lack of health, and as well as you, fibromyalgia chronic conditions, for over 20 years.

So how would you, like if you see someone who’s suffering from imbalance, from anxiety, from even imbalance of hormones, how would you speak to them about what Ayurveda could do?

Katelyn: Yeah. Well, I first say that all disease or imbalances in the body is because the body and the soul are not in alignment. They’re not at ease. And so what Ayurveda says is that you have a soul that’s inside of a human body, and your soul is here to live in a specific way and is here on a specific mission, but your body and you’re conditioning, and your patterns keep your soul from expressing itself. And that’s where the disease comes into play.

So we look at it as just as an energy imbalance, and all of the foods that you are feeding it are either feeding the imbalance, are feeding, wellness, and feeding health. And so we look at the foods that have the same qualities. So if you have, fibromyalgia, anything to do with inflammation, like you have a lot of fire in the body.

And so if you’re eating foods that contain a lot of heat and fire, then that is only going to increase the inflammation, right? So I speak to it as more of like a dis just a, a general dise of the mind of the body and the soul and what we can do to get back to get those two to connect again because  it is just disconnect.

and that’s what I discovered with my, with myself, like that was the missing link. And that’s what got me to Ayurveda was like, my body’s good, but my soul was not connected to my body. My body was not connected to my soul and I wasn’t on the path that my soul needed me to be on.

Kim: So, where do they start? I’m just going to ask the question for that person who’s like, that’s a big word. I don’t know how to spell it. It’s fascinating that it could be a path of healing. Do I buy a book? Do I contact you? Can I come to the More Than Mindset Facebook group, Katelyn is there and if you want to work with us personally, then you can come, she can do private coaching, you can do, Self-Healing Masters where you can learn about this nutritional plan of a holistic lifestyle. Where would, someone hearing this for the very first time, they’ve been following the podcast and they’re like, you know, I saw her before. I heard about that before. Tell me what to do first?

Katelyn: Yeah, so I mean, if you’re someone who’s like, I’m ready to go, I’m ready to dive in, I have a quiz available.

You can take the quiz, you can figure out your “fault line,” your dosha, and it’ll take you through the process of how you can learn more to start implementing some things. Now, if you’re someone who’s like, no, I need some more information and I need to learn more on what this is, I’ve got a YouTube Channel that has podcasts. It has, webinars that I’ve done in the past. It’s got, self-healing tutorials that you can try on, like how to dry brush, how to tongue scrape so you can start trying on some of the practices that we do to see how you feel and how it feels on your body, or you can book a discovery call to talk to me about it.

I can tell you more of what Ayurveda is and how I use it with my clients, or if you’re ready, you’re just like, no, I’ve got these health issues and I need a consultation. Then you can have a consultation.

Kim: So we will put the links below here. What’s the name of the YouTube channel? Is it your name? And what would you suggest if it’s brand new that they do to the quiz first?

Katelyn: Yeah, the quiz.

Kim: The quiz would help for them to know that before coming to a discovery call, right?

Katelyn: To be able to apply it to themselves.

Kim: Yeah. So let’s just do the call to action as we’re going to put the link below to take the quiz.

So if you are brand new to Ayurveda  and want to know a little bit more, take the quiz and then book a discovery call or go to her channel if you’re not ready to have a conversation.

So tell me, give me an example of a before and after of someone that you’ve worked with so they can relate.

Katelyn: So this has been a really big one. This, one client came to me and she’s a diabetic and automatically I know like diabetes, that’s a cough imbalance. So I’m already going there. And so she did a discovery call. Then she took the quiz. She did the discovery call and the consultation.

And during the consultation I gave her all of the things that she needs to do. And on the, the follow up call that we did, her sugars went down 73 points. And it was just basic stuff. Like I switched up her diet a little bit, told her to eat at some different times. recommended a few herbs and a few self-care practices and it went down 73 points, and they continue to decrease.

Kim: What is your favorite thing about Ayurveda ? Like, oh my God, I can never let this habit go, or this new thing like dry brushing.  

Katelyn: Dry brushing is my favorite thing.because  it’s like one of those things for me that like, because  I have energy that leaves my body and I stay like connected to all the things.

My energy’s always pulled out. But as soon as that brush touches my skin, it’s like, here I am. And I’m like, I’m back into my body immediately. I love dry

Kim: brushing. Could you talk a little bit about the benefits

Katelyn: of dry brushing? Oh yeah. so dry brushing will decrease cellulite, increase circulation. and what I love the most about it because I am a kapha and what it does, is it stimulates the lymphatic system.

So, if there is too much energy in the body, it grounds it in. If there is not enough energy in the body, it stimulates it. So, Ayurveda  teaches that whenever you were in utero and you were developing, your intestines were developing the same time that your skin was developing. So whenever you are brushing your skin or anything you put on your skin, it’s going directly into the intestinal tract.

So, it’s basically like I am massaging and stimulating my intestines whenever I am, brushing my skin. So in saying that is to let you know that it will help you become regular with your BMs.

Kim: Do you mind if I keep asking questions? So for someone who has no physical conditions, they’re like, I’m not sick, I don’t have any diagnosis, why would I need to look into Ayurveda?

Katelyn: Yeah, because you discover more about yourself, like it’s a path of self-discovery, and I always joke around. I’m like, if you think there is nothing wrong, then start practicing Ayurveda and you’ll realize like, whoa, like still nothing is wrong, but I didn’t realize that I could even be this much better.

Kim: You’re looking to optimize health.

Katelyn: So Ayurveda is the pathway to live in a body that’s free of pain and aligned with the soul. Even if like your vessel is totally fine and you have no issues with it, then you just more, more soul alignment.

Kim: Love that. What would you say, because  it’s so natural, like everything about it is so natural, but what prevents people from being close to it? Like, in other words, why are we as humans on this planet so far away from our bodies and our health?

Katelyn: Because we don’t love our bodies. We don’t appreciate what they do for us. We think they, that they are here to serve us, and we are not here to serve them. But whenever you take care of your body, your body will serve you. so we’re, do we just live in a culture where, we just use and dispose of things.

And so we kind of treat our bodies in that way. And then whenever it’s not working in the way that we need to, we need it to work, we get mad at it. and so we, we just disconnected from our bodies and asking people to actually take the time to love and care for their bodies is taboo. because we live in a culture and a society where taking care of yourself is selfish and so in the practice of Ayurveda, you do spend a lot of time taking care of what’s housing your soul. You take care of your body, and you listen to it, and you allow it to lead you and you allow it to guide you and you learn what it sounds like. You learn what the symptoms mean because  they’re different for everybody.

Yeah. And so I think that’s the biggest resistance that I get is I won’t have time to do all these practices. And what I say is, start doing the practices.

Kim: Two more questions. Hope you guys like the Q&A. I am watching the time. One is, how is the diet industry affecting our health?

Like when you compare the diet industry and Ayurveda, because  some people will think just from hearing this, they will think it’s a diet. They will think it’s a way to lose weight. They will think it’s because that’s what we’ve heard. So what would you say about that, just for awareness of what has the diet industry contributed to our lack of health?

Katelyn: Yeah. I, I think it’s, the diet industry is very restrictive. and the diet industry does not help you stay connected with your body and to get in touch with your body. It’s, you have to do this because the diet says you have to do this, and Ayurveda is, do this because your body’s telling you it needs it.

Kim: And the last question is, you are currently hosting a cleanse, which you do twice a year. What would you, what is the intention of that? You know, what does it look like for someone? Because if you’re in it, doing it right now, but if they wanted to join the next one. Could you talk a little bit about why, why do you host this?

Katelyn: Yeah. So Ayurveda says to cleanse twice a year and they say to cleanse twice a year because through the winter, we pack on and we hang on to all the things that we need to stay grounded, and then to be able to transition into summer, we need to grow into something new. And then during the summertime we hang on to a lot of heat.

And then to go into the fall, we need to release that excess heat so we can start grounding down. so it’s done twice a year and people come into the cleanse with different intentions, but my intention for the cleanse is to come back home to the body to come back home to taking care of yourself and nourishing yourself.

Because  I can speak for myself. This is the 36 cleanses that I do. And every time I come back to the practices because some of them slip, I give up on some of them. I keep my favorites, but I don’t do all of them for the whole time. Like, it just happens. Life happens, but it’s, it’s like a moment to check in and get reconnected with what my intention is, and that is to care for my body.

And so there’s so much that goes into the cleanse that you do what you need to do, and then when the cleanse is over, you can either continue doing it or you can go on and start bringing all the things back in. So it’s a reset.

Kim: I hear so many of the questions when I talk about it, so I’m sure that there are people who are listening the difference between cleanse and detox, the way that it’s presented in the dietary world.

Katelyn: Yeah. So like a, a detox in the dietary world that you hear is very depleting and very stripping.

So, it’s like you take all of these things out of your diet and you’re just going to drink these juices or these smoothies for a few days while you strip everything out of your body. And what this cleanse does is you stay completely nourished, like you take some inflammatory foods out of your diet, but you stay completely nourished with whole foods.

Nourishing foods you’re eating the whole time and then you drink some herbal tonics and you do some of the self-care practices that go in and like surround the toxins and slowly usher them out of your body, so it’s very gentle. And it’s very sweet. I always imagine like these, the cleaners, the vacuums like go in and like, hey guys, like we’re going to leave now.

Like, it’s the party’s over, let’s go. And they just usher out of the body. It’s very sweet and it’s very gentle and it’s really just a time to reflect on what is serving your body and your life and what is not beautiful.

Kim: Thank you for your time, for your expertise, for sharing and the inspiration to do it, because  it is very inspiring.

If anyone is listening to this and you want to connect with Katelyn, we will put her information and the test, the quiz. Below that you can click on and do. Otherwise, we will be in the more than mindset Facebook group. Katelyn will be doing lives in there, offering value, talking about Ayurveda, especially from an introductory standpoint, but also making herself available to answer questions if anyone has questions about it.

If you want to do the personal work, then like I’m kind of looking at it. Where is everyone coming from? I think it took some time of introductory. How about like for you? Did you have to kind of like explore and see?

So we want to offer that is in the More the Mindset Facebook group. We’re you’re going to see more of Katelyn. She is part of the community. We have partnered, with some things. So, this show will host several of the coaches moving forward. So I would love to hear from you if you want to send an email on. What else do you want to know about? What questions do you have?

We would love to see your beautiful face if you come into the More Than Mindset group and say, I heard Katelyn on the podcast and I want to know more. Just come in and find her. It’s a little home where we hang out and you can practice being your future self. Do you have anything you want to add before we hop off?

Katelyn: No, I’m just really excited to bring Ayurveda to more people. It is a magical thing.

Kim: Yeah. It’s, I wonder if it would be a standalone without yoga. It’s such a part of yoga.

Katelyn: It is like, I mean, if you practice Ayurveda, then you’ll eventually practice yoga, and if you practice yoga, you probably eventually practice Ayurveda .

Kim: I agree. And that’s what brings that, that holistic love of body and really em embracing like from a soul’s perspective, embracing the material world in a whole new way.

Thanks for listening to this episode of More Than Mindset.