Healing Through Breath and Seasons: Ayurveda with Brett Aldrich

Today I have with me Brett Aldrich, who is an Ayurvedic counselor, breathwork practitioner and founder of Seed the Spirit right here in Maine. And I'm really looking forward to talking to you about where we are kind of seasonally and how we can help ourselves using some ancient practices that have been, it sounds like, become very important to your life. So welcome today. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for having me. Ayurvedic. As a doctor who has practiced acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine for many years, I mean, I know that I love the healing system that I practice. Well, both of them actually. Ayurvedic work is som ething I don't have that much background in, but it seems very, there are some similarities I think to There are many similarities I feel the little bit that I do know about, that there are seasons and each season has their own characteristic and their own elements. So we go based upon our elemental bank of most things. So we have fire, earth, water, air, and ether, all of those five elements. What I understand is a little similar to our practices and our daily practices in our life. And those elements have characteristics and those characteristics we work with internally. And we see the external as well, and we try to balance the both to feel healthy and wow. So it doesn't sound like you have wood. Wood is not an element that we deal with Well, talk to me about Ayurveda and it's 5,000 years old, at least that we know of. So talk to me about what this is and why this should matter to us. Yes. How does it matter now? Right. That's the question I get a lot. Often due to the fact that it is such an ancient practice and it's a practice from a different part of the world, and how do we place it into here? Here in New England, here in the state, it is very different but similar in many ways it is 5,000 years old. It's a practice that is the study of life. So the study of life really is of anything is possible, everything matters. And no matter whether it was 5,000 years ago or present day, the categories and the rules still sort of apply. So there is still the elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether, and are we going to apply it to our lives today? And that's usually how I present it to people and try to apply it. And I say we befriend, we try to make friends with the past, with the present, and that's kind of how we start and that's where we become more balanced within our bodies. Sometimes we also need to start shifting, making some changes in our lives that we've become accustomed to doing that sometimes don't always work well with our internal body and our internal clock. So that's kind of how I kind of bring it all together. And if people feel comfortable with that process in the beginning stages of that, we start from there and do one thing at a time with people. So we try to make sure it's a slow process, a sustainable process, and in some cases affordable and useful for them for their day to day. And that's kind of how it goes. To begin anyhow. My understanding of Ayurveda, similar to traditional Chinese medicine and other healing systems is that food is very important and what we eat and when we eat it and how we eat it in relationship to the seasons can have, I don't want to say detrimental, but certainly we can do it in a way that's additive. We can do it so that it actually is in alignment with where our bodies are and where the earth is at any given time. Yes, absolutely. Seasonal eating is very useful for us. When there is food that is in abundance, when there is food that is in at its top, nutritive availability was when it's in season and that's when we usually imbibe in that type of food. How we cook it is also essential to our overall wellbeing and health. I always feel, and I say this as usual in your home is usually where your most medicine is. So where your medicine is in your kitchen, where you do on a daily basis is your medicine and what you eat, how you treat it and how you cook it and how you take care of yourself is basically all there right at our fingertips. And so what we try to do is educate people on what is in season, what is available right now, what spices can you use to better assimilate this food for it to be better, more nutritive for you, how you can absorb it. So that's usually how we prescribe our clients. We put in a plan that seasonal eating is a piece of it and it also balances out the internal. So when we have a time of year where things are colder or more mobile, like say windy, say for example, we try to eat foods that are more stable and sturdy. And usually we look at the season and it's usually what's being grown, what's available to us. So wintertime, we usually have root vegetables, warmer foods, more fluid foods, some more soups, things like that. So we do the best we can to provide that information to anyone that has interest. And the biggest pieces, your medicine cabinet is your kitchen, and that's where we go from. You talked about three different elements that are integral to the time of year and the way that we interface with what's going on outside of us. And I know I'm going to get them wrong, but let's see. Pitta, Vata, Kapha. So where are we now that we're around the solstice, it's December. Where are we as far as that is concerned? Yes, wintertime is, well, there's the Pitta, there's the Kapha and there's the Vata. We're at the wintertime is the stage of Vata stage. So Vata stage is cold, rough. So the description and characteristics of Vata, which is also air and ether combined. So the description of that are characteristics are cold, mobile, unstable, rough. So when you have that characteristic and the elements are around you, what we do is we try to do the opposite, choose the opposite action in order to balance that out to have internal health and also it allows you to support your immune system, your digestion, things like that. Winter time is a time to be inside more often. That is a time of self-reflection. So there's another side, not just what we eat and how we treat our body, but it's also how we treat our mind and our soul. And a lot of this time is interestingly enough, December is usually when we're out busy spending time with family. It's around a season that many people are outside of the home. So what we try to do is advise people to spend more time inward, spend more time calming themselves down, creating practices in the home to allow themselves to go out into the world. That's basically what we do this time of year with the solstice is the time of darkness, a time of quiet, a time of self-reflection. Wanted to switch gears a little bit because I'm intrigued by how you got to this place and founding Seed the Spirit and doing the study of Ayurveda because you have a very richly textured background, you've done a lot of different things all which seem interrelated, but it sounds like 2020 was kind of a pivotal time for you. Absolutely, With that sort of lead in, how did you decide that Ayurveda is something that you wanted to put your attention toward at this point in your life? Yes, there were a lot of life changes that occurred during 2020, and I feel a lot of us can feel similar. I had the ability to receive this education before 2020, however, that was the moment of all of our lives where we were like, what am I going to do next? Things are so different now. And also I'm growing older. Prior to 2020, I did triathlons. I was an athlete, I was very active. My lifestyle was very aggressive in nature just by what I was doing physically. And it was a period of time where I was raising my children and I was home full time and I knew there was something out there, but I wasn't quite sure what it is. So I just naturally felt that I had this education of Ayurveda, I knew what yoga was, breath work was just the next thing that just added and really supported what I was doing. And I just thought to myself, why not? This is an opportunity to support others through a process of change as well. I think myself and many other people are going through change and it takes this toll sometimes mentally and physically to go through big change. And when I worked for an office that was very serious in nature, I had a very serious job a long time ago, and it's another way to support people just in a new way, just in a kinder way, a softer way. And I just felt it was offered to me during my process of change and I just felt called to do it again for someone else that might be going something through something similar. Yeah, I love the quality of it. I love that it's kind and I love that it's soft in nature and supportive and that is basically kind of how it went. Changes make more change and that's where it kind of went. So I was fortunate to be able to take this time to develop something like this, something completely new and different. So every day is different for me and I'm always asking for information and help along the way. However, the Ayurvedic and this foundation that I've learned has been a deep progressive foundation for me for how I can serve others. You are a 200 hour certified yoga instructor. You have this took place back in 2011, so this has been quite a while that you have that background. You have all of this work that you've done. It looks like spiral dance, breath work, which I want to hear more about because I'm fascinated by what that actually is. And you're part of the global professional breath work alliance. So it sounds to me like you are continuing to expand what you have to offer to people and be there wherever they are in their change journey and say, okay, you want to do this. Well, here's some information I have. Maybe this would be useful to you as you were deciding what to study and when was there an alignment with where you were in your life to the choices that you made? Yes, absolutely. There was alignment. There were a lot of interesting coincidences. I can say that originally the practice of yoga was just because I was injured. I had injuries or I had children. And yoga was a great alternative to what I was doing to support my body as I was growing older, as things were changing, as my children were growing older, Ayurveda was an education for me personally. My daughter was born and she was allergic to everything. And it was when I began to read the labels of food and say, what is in here? What can she eat? What can be provided for her? And I ended up having to make everything. So when I came to that realization that everything that my daughter could eat, I had to create over time, it started to develop into not only, it was wonderful, but it was also a personal stressor. I was like, how am I going to provide for my child if I have to make everything? And so over time too, in my life, the Ayurveda was a real great support. The breath work was actually just how to bring it all together. For me, it was about integration. So how am I going to integrate all of this information and how am I going to move forward with this process? Because breath work is wonderful for taking the barriers away. Breath work is wonderful of opening up the body and the mind breath work is also helpful to expand yourself. And sometimes if there's stuck emotion or something in the body that's holding me back or even in my mind itself, there would be just something I'm like, why can't I remember this? Or What's holding me here? What's stopping me? And it usually was just myself. So breath work was so helpful to kind of get through those barriers and let go of some of this stuck energy that might be in my body, whatever that might be, and it just allowed me to keep moving forward. The lessons were wonderful. It was deep work getting through this certification and this education as well. And there's so many organizations out there that feel breathwork is a large piece of wellness and good health. So Breathwork with Feel was just another piece to the whole puzzle that just brought it all together and helps it integrate. So Spiral dance and the Global Professional Alliance was a great resource for me to just add to the greatness of all of it together. So as you're talking about breath work and spiral dance breathwork in particular, talk to me about some of the differences and similarities. I mean breathing, we all think, oh, I can breathe, no problem. But it sounds like what you're saying is there are actually different techniques that maybe could be applied differently and spiral dance might be one of them. Yes. Spiral dance breathwork is a particular kind of breathing. So there's the yogic breathing, there's controlled breathing, which I was taught through the yoga practice. And Ayurveda spiral dance itself is more of a cyclical breath. It's in the mouth, out of the mouth, one after the other, so it kind of brings and builds in oxygen within to the body. It kind of over oxygenates your body, so it creates an expansion internally. We can look at it biologically or spiritually or energetically. All three of them creates a consistent movement internally from the external. And as you breathe over time, it starts just letting go of any blockages in the body. If there's any emotions held in the body, it's just another way of getting to the source of what's going on, just on top of just getting through the layers through the body. And that this particular breathwork, I think has become pretty popular. A lot of people are starting to do this practice and it's just another piece and another tool for someone to use through their process of life, transition change or just a piece of breath work that is new and kind of experiential. It's a very experiential type of practice. Every time you breathe like this, every time you do it, it's different. There's really no expectations. And I think sometimes that's a nice thing too, with this kind of breath work. The result of this kind of breath work is different every single time and it really is about just growing and changing and feeling better within yourself. And it's been really a great transition in my life anyhow, and hopefully, and it has been for many others. Well, it's interesting as I think about it, because when we talk about holding one's breath, you have to hold your breath if you're underwater or sometimes you hold your breath if you're scared, but when you hold your breath, you're actually, you are kind of refusing to interact with the outside environment and it's for whatever reason, if it's because you're scared or because you're underwater. But we think of air as being, oh, it's just air. It's air, but it's representative of what's going on around us and outside us. And so the way we interact with this very important and vital substance is probably a lot more significant than we give thought to Air and ether as well. So it's moving consciousness or moving air in and out of the body. I like to say that when you say for example, breathe in and then breathe out all at once, it creates a openness in the body itself. So the diaphragm, right? So sometimes, like you said, holding your breath is because we just don't want to interact with what's going on outside and it allows you to relax into the body so you're active, right? This breath work, you're active in the world. However, at the same time, there is a level of relaxation that comes with it. So what you're trying to do is interact with the external world, but also at the same time be relaxed in that moment. And the breath work itself is that just not be afraid of what's going on in the world, but also just know how to breathe through it and interact with it the best that you can. Many of us hold our breath. Many of us only breathe through our chest. Many of us only do belly breath and a lot of us can have constrictive breathing. And so this is a way to have a full life experience using breath, and we may not be okay with what's going on. However, at the same time, we're able to be awake and aware with what is happening and be relaxed in the situation, be able to take action with a clear mind and in a clear body. And that's kind of how we try to teach people when we do breath work like this in particular. Another thing that's coming up for me as we're talking is you talked about 2020 as being, there's a little bit of a dividing line in your life. 2020 is the beginning of a very interesting dividing line that we've had globally. And so much of that was about breath and the lack of it. And even those of us in an effort to stay healthy, we masked our breath and we didn't interact with the outside world. And to have that restriction and that fear around something that we absolutely have to happen have to have, there's something very metaphorical about that in a way that we had these traumatic world events that happened before 2020, right before 2020 comes along and now all of a sudden we're all trying to figure out how to navigate, how to interface and what that looks like for us as a society, but also as individuals. As somebody who's done breath work for years, I am assuming that this is something that's probably occurred to you. Oh yes, absolutely. How metaphorical was it when all of these things were happening and I was training in breath work and getting into that space of learning how the breath operates and how it expands our lives or internally and externally. Same thing with Ayurveda. So whatever's going on with the external or the internal, we try to do the opposite to find balance. And when we were asked to stay isolated and not be with our community, right? There was a lot of us that had a community where we were unable to be part of for some time, and we were spent within our own energy or our own space for a very long time, and it's our own breath that we had to work with without someone else's. And finding that internal time, although it was very challenging for so many of us, for me, I can say that the breath work was a place where I could be in my own energy, take care of my own body, whatever, what was going on, I couldn't change it. There were a lot of things we couldn't change. However, for me, I was able to breathe and connect with that understanding and the knowing in that moment and hopefully over time provide this for other people that felt the same. So it's a tool to share. When we were able to see people again, I was able to share it with others, and that was a piece of it as well the training. And actually the interesting thing, the training did happen during that period of time in 2020. And my education was during that period of time, and I feel like it was a preparation so I could provide it to others that were ready to be part of this and take on this practice or this tool to feel better in the world because we've come to realize there's a lot happening and there's not much we can, there's some things we can do, but some things we cannot. And taking care of yourself is priority, I feel putting yourself on the list of to-dos and to take care of, and this was a piece of it. I didn't realize at the time what it was really doing. And I didn't realize at the time of how important it was or poignant it was in my own life until I reflect back and I realized, I'm like, oh, wow, that is true, that it was, what a moment that was to be able to learn something like this during that kind of time. So I was grateful for it. And hopefully people see the results in themselves when they do do this practice when we guide them through those moments. You have a background of using trauma sensitive approaches in your work. And having spoken a couple months ago on Radio Maine with Mike Keeley, who is an army veteran who is also a yoga instructor and his language, and he deals with veterans and he deals with people who have had a lot of trauma and even something that seems as simple as the language around trauma and how we interact with individuals and sort of the invitation to have them come into a space where they want to engage with these tools can be really life changing, but also their choice. And I'm wondering with your background as an advocate in your other life, your background as an advocate and your interface with people who have experienced trauma, was there something about wanting to create this healing space and really perpetuate this that kind of pushed you along the path to do this training and education? Yes. My previous world, my world before children, working with survivors of trauma and witnesses as well, I felt back then I did my job, but I didn't see what happened down the road. I was there in the moment during an emergency in crisis. However, I never saw, very fortunately I probably saw a couple people after many years later on how they were doing. Now it's just another way. It's just another way to do similar work. However, down the road, no longer in crisis, but still working towards feeling better, still working towards health, still working towards a space in place where they consistently and constantly feel safe in their bodies on a daily basis. That is something that I sometimes feel people have conversation with me about. I say, oh gosh, I really think I worked. I thought I worked through this. I thought I got through this and I'm on the other side, but I'm still dealing with some old stuff. I'm still working on something right now that I didn't think I'd have to. And these are also just another way, another layer of working with someone who has been through something and empowering them into taking tools and using them for themselves. A lot of what I do is education. A lot of what I do is just talk information. Use this to your best knowledge, use this for you, decide when you want to use this. These are tools for you to have for your own betterment and your own healing and your own process. And I let go of it too as well. This is for you to have and take it how you need and come back to me when you feel best or when you want to. And that's really what it is, is just empowering people to have this understanding and self-awareness so they can over time just continue to get better. So when they wake up one day and something happens, they can do it. They can do it for themselves that day. And that is such a great thing to hear and see is that you work with me, but I hope not forever. And that's the thing too that I think is wonderful is like, this is for now, but hopefully you don't have to see me over time. And that way I think is what I feel is really important is knowing that I can take part in the process again with someone in a different way, in a softer way. Again, when there's no crisis, but there's still more work to do and supporting people when they come to that realization, wow, I've got more work to do. And being there for them and supporting 'em in that space as well. So it's just a progression. I also think it might be my age. I'm just really enjoying this time in my life and meeting people again on the other side in another way. So it's been really beneficial and really wonderful. Brett, what is your Maine connection? Oh gosh. I grew up here. I was born here, yes, I grew up in Maine and interestingly enough, I didn't go very far I'm still in my hometown. I left to get my education, my college education. I left Maine for that. However, I did return. I was living in the city for quite some time, and after my daughter was born, I decided to move back to Maine. I felt it was a great place to raise children. I just really, I don't know that many people that have not enjoyed Maine. I think most of us love it here. And yeah, I grew up here and born on the water and I can't seem to leave. It's always been this way In Portland? I've been in the Portland area. Yes, I grew up on the mainland during the winters, but in the summertime I actually spent some time on an island off the coast here as well. So I was able to have the island life too, as part of my world. So it's been a really beautiful part of my world. So there's always something beautiful to be part of or look at or be around or immerse myself in around here. So I've always been grateful for the state of Maine, to be honest. Well, and I grew up in Maine and came back and now here I am in the same place that I grew up. And I think I enjoy it in a different way Given my life experiences. I interface with it in a different way. And as much as I, I'll say this, and my husband will remind me of this later, I love the seasons, he'll remind me, but why do you want to go somewhere where it's warm in the winter if you love the seasons so much? I think you could both, you could say I love it, appreciate the seasons. And also it's a little bit cold. I would like to leave now. Thank you. So I think there is something really wonderful about having an in the moment relationship with a place like Maine where there's just so much fluidity to the weather and to nature around you, but also a longitudinal relationship. And particularly if you have an island background like both of us do. And it kind of brings us back to this whole conversation around seasonality and around change and around, because that's just what the world is. The world that we live in, it's always changing. Absolutely. Dare I say, the consistency of the inconsistency in this area has always been in our world. And we used to joke too, that as long as you had good gear, as long as you knew what was coming up, you could be prepared in some way. And these practices that I have in my life is just another layer of preparation that I know what I could probably do in this situation for myself. And growing up here in Maine or even also we enjoy going to the warmer climates as well to take a little break. There are those moments come like March where we're just like, okay, I think we're going to need to take a moment out of here for a little bit. And being able to have that opportunity is so lovely. And I do know a lot of people from Maine, especially family members of mine, I think we've all grown accustomed to taking a little break. We absolutely have done that. And so grateful to be able to get that opportunity because the ocean being by the water by then is definitely a little harsh. And knowing the harshness and understanding the harshness and being able to take that moment to take care of ourselves and in those moments has been a blessing as well. But yes, I can relate absolutely to all of that. It's a good way to look at it. It's our way to counterbalance we can love Maine and also need to go away for a little while. Yes, I totally understand that. Yes, thank you. I appreciate it. Yes, I will be out and about also as well. I'll be at the South Portland Public Library talking about what I'm doing. And you can see me at my website, it's seed the spirit.com, and I now have a lovely new location in South Portland on E Street 85 E Street in South Portland. And that's my office space and the location where I'm working currently with other healers and practitioners. So yes, anytime. I love talking about this, so if you just have questions, please reach out. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions that people have. I can't talk about it enough. Absolutely. Wonderful. Very good. Thank you for coming in today. Alright, thank you so much, Lisa. I appreciate it. Today I've been speaking with Brett Aldrich, who is an Ayurvedic counselor, breathwork practitioner, and founder of Seed the Spirit. She's provided you with information on how to get in touch, and I do encourage you to do this. I think anytime that we can care for ourselves, especially as we move into the next season, that's a little bit less hospitable to humans here up in the northeast. It's a wonderful way to engage in self-care. So find out more about Brett on her website or in reaching out to her. And again, thanks so much for coming in. Thank you so much, Lisa.