The Conscious Diva Tatyanna Wright

Dr. Sweta Vikram is joining me in this episode of the Conscious Diva Podcast. Sweta is an Ayurvedic doctor and an international speaker. She has written multiple award-winning books and is a trusted source on health and wellness, frequently appearing on NBC. 

Today, we are chatting about her latest book, The Loss That Binds Us. It is the first book to use the principles of Ayurveda to heal grief. Sweta shares how Ayurveda and grief work together. She explains what grief is and how it shows up differently for everyone, which has a lot to do with our Ayurvedic constitution - our predisposed characteristics. 

Her book offers 108 practical tips to help navigate the multitude of emotions brought on by loss, as well as helping you identify what you are experiencing so you can acknowledge, understand, and accept.

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone navigating the challenging journey of healing after the loss of a loved one, a beloved pet, job loss, or a breakup. I hope you enjoy this episode on conscious grieving. 



HIGHLIGHTS:


Sweta explains what Ayurveda is and its purpose.
Sweta explains the doshas, Ayurvedic constitution/body types made up of the five elements: water, air, space, fire, and earth. 
How Ayurveda and grief work together.
How grief shows up differently for people.
How we can use her 108 tips to support the five stages of grief.



ABOUT Sweta Srivastava Vikram: Featured by Asian Fusion as “One of the most influential Asians of our time,” is a best-selling author of 14 books, a mindfulness writing coach, a headstand-devotee, and a certified yoga & Ayurveda counselor who helps people lead creative, productive, and healthier lives. Born in India, Sweta spent her formative years between the Indian Himalayas, North Africa, and the United States collecting and sharing stories. She writes about women, multiculturalism, wellness, and identity. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, amongst other publications, across nine countries on three continents, is an award-winning writer and graduate of Columbia University. She lives in New York City with her husband and in her spare time, teaches yoga to female survivors of rape and domestic violence.  

You can find her in these online spaces: X (@swetavikram), Instagram (@swetavikram), and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/Words.By.Sweta

Renowned Dream expert Theresa Cheung joins me in this episode of The Conscious Diva podcast.

We talk about…dreams! In her newly revised and updated The Dream Dictionary: Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams, you will discover the secrets of your dreamlife. 

This is the best reference book on dream interpretation I have read in years. Her book helps you decipher what's possibly going on in your unconscious and offers insights to cross-reference how your dreams might impact your waking life.  

Theresa Cheung gives you everything you need to dream bigger and better. Whatever your dream symbol or experience, you will find a treasure trove of thousands of interpretations in her new Dream Dictionary.

Theresa has written over 150 books, and she is a regular media commentator on dream decoding, spirituality, the afterlife, astrology, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this deep dive into dream interpretation. 



HIGHLIGHTS:



Learn how to discover the secrets of your dream life. And find out what dreamscaping is.


What kind of dreamer are you? A daydreamer, an adventurer, or another type?


How dream work can heal trauma by rescripting our past into a positive experience.


How waking life might be a dream and our sleeping world reality. In the Hindu tradition, this is known as Lila, the play of life and Maya, the illusion.


The classic teeth falling our dream - Why has this been a symbol for death?


And I share one of my epic dreams.






About Theresa:

Theresa Cheung is a modern mystic and Sunday Times bestselling dreams, spiritual, and paranormal author. Since leaving King’s College, Cambridge University, with a degree in Theology and English, she has written numerous bestselling books and encyclopedias which have been translated into dozens of different languages. She has appeared regularly on ITV This Morning as their Dreams and spiritual expert as well as BBC Radio 2 with Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 4 Beyond Belief, BBC Radio 5 Live Sounds podcast Different with Nicky Campbell, Capital Radio with Ronan Kemp, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, Gaia TV with Regina Meredith as well as appearances on Channel 4, ITV GMB, Today extra, Good Day Chicago, KTLA, This Morning Virginia, among others. She has appeared on celebrity podcasts such as Megan Trainer's Workin On It, Top 100 podcasts such as Sean Mike Kelly's Digital Social Hour and written many features or been quoted in publications such as Bustle, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, InStyle, Heat, Refinery 29. Her mission and passion are to make spirituality and the paranormal more credible, engaging, and mainstream.



LINKS:

https://www.theresacheung.com

https://www.instagram.com/thetheresacheung/

Joining me in this episode is Lama Rod Owens. Known as the Black Buddhist Southern Queen, he is a highly sought-after Buddhist minister, author, activist, and yoga instructor, an authorized Lama in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, and an international influencer. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School, focusing on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. He's an all-around amazing guy.

Here, we talk about his latest book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors. Lama Rod has broken down some key aspects from the Buddhist traditions he has practiced and put them into his own words so the reader can tangibly apply these wisdom teachings. This is a jam packed episode not to be missed.



In this episode, we talk about:


What it means to be a disruptor.
How and why the struggle truly is real.


Modern takes on the four yogas and the Four Immeasurables, in Buddhism that he calls the Four Sweet Liberations.


We also talk about Mother Harriet Tubman as a saint, ancestor, a guide, and a guardian.
We discuss unseen beings and Rod's personal relationship to spirits.
Werk vs Work.
Working with fire and wrathful deities.



MORE ABOUT LAMA ROAD OWENS

Lama Rod co-founded Bhumisparsha, a spiritual community with a mission of making tantra accessible and inclusive for North American practitioners. He’s also the co-founder of Dharma Queens, a series of conversations on Instagram Live with sister sadada, to help people get freer faster. His teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care.

https://www.lamarod.com

The Spirit Underground Podcast with Lama Rod & Spring Washam

https://beherenownetwork.com/category/spirit-underground/

Joining me in the episode to discuss her new book - The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis - is Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network, International, known as WECAN. 

In this hopeful book, Osprey asserts that the dominant worldview—described as capitalist, colonialist, patriarchal, and extractive—is the main culprit for environmental destruction. 

Osprey skillfully weaves history, mythology, anthropology, climate and earth science, sociology, and spirituality to illustrate the central message: Capitalism and colonialism have gotten us on this path of catastrophic climate change but, as she shares in her book, they can be tranformed. Osprey shows how people all over the world are rising to defend Earth. Her book includes the memory and knowledge of how we can live in balance with nature, which still lives on in Indigenous communities.



HIGHLIGHTS:

- Origin stories are Spiritual healing for our planet. 

- What is WECAN

- Explain the concept of “Mother Law”

- What is the LANDBACK movement?

- The dominant cultural worldview.



MORE ABOUT OSPREY:

http://www.ospreyoriellelake.info

https://www.wecaninternational.org/who-we-are



Osprey Orielle Lake is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). She works nationally and internationally with grassroots and business leaders, policy-makers and scientists to promote resilient communities, foster a post-carbon energy future, while also addressing societal transformation. Osprey is Co-chair of International Advocacy for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and the visionary behind the International Women's Earth and Climate Summit, which brought together 100 women leaders from around the world to draft and implement a Women's Climate Action Agenda. She teaches WECAN’s international climate trainings and directs WECAN’s advocacy work in areas such as Women for Forests program, Rights of Nature and UN Forums. Osprey is the author of the award-winning book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature. 

This episode is all about awe and how we can use awe to heighten our awareness in only a few seconds. Joining me is author Jake Eagle to discuss his latest book, The Power of Awe.  Jake and his co-author Michael Amster, have developed a simple, clinically proven practice to reduce inflammation, stress, loneliness, and burnout while improving overall well-being. The method takes less than a minute. The authors call it “microdosing mindfulness”. 



With that, I invite you to experience a little bit of awe in your life today. If you felt inspired by this episode, please write a review and share this episode. Thanks for listening.



Highlights:

* What is the emotion of awe? 

* Why mindful practices feel challenging or inaccessible for some people.

* How the AWE practice is a shortcut to experiencing transcendence, turning ordinary moments into awe-inducing experiences within a matter of seconds.

* Understanding the 3LC: Heart consciousness. Spacious consciousness. Safety consciousness.  

* How can experiencing awe be a healing experience, and how can we use this technique in times of global crisis and chaos?



Websites:

https://thepowerofawe.com/practices/

https://liveconscious.com



About the authors:

Jake Eagle, LPC, is a psychotherapist, mindfulness instructor, fellow member trainer of the International Association of Neuro‑Linguistic Programming, and cofounder of Live Conscious. After thirty years in private practice, Jake now works part-time as a meta-therapist, working with people who want to go beyond the bounds of traditional therapy. Together, he and his wife, Hannah, lead life-changing small group retreats at awe-inspiring locations around the world.

Michael Amster, MD, is a physician and faculty member at Touro School of Medicine. With twenty years as a pain management specialist, he is currently the founding director of the pain management department at Santa Cruz Community Health. A practitioner of meditation for over thirty years, he is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher. He splits his time between clinical work, research on awe, teaching mindfulness, and leading awe-inspiring retreats around the world.

I always feel like Christmas is a magical time of the year – but I never thought about why. Joining me is author and master herbalist Ellen Evert Hopman, who is sharing her latest magical book, The Sacred Herbs of Yule and Christmas: Remedies, Recipes, Magic, and Brews for the Winter Season.    

Ellen takes us on an around-the-world tour of ancient Christmas celebrations, Pagan Solstice customs, and magical seasonal plants. She also shares the origins of the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, holiday spirits, Yuletide animals, and why we honor the darkest days of the year. 

Plus, how to perform Winter Solstice divinations and make traditional foods and drinks. This is not just a Holiday book; it is a manual explaining the in-depth medicinal and magical properties of the many herbs and plants associated with the Christmas and Yuletide season, like Frankincense, Myrrh, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Hibiscus, Pine, and many more.

This episode is a mystical journey through this most magical time of year, I hope you enjoy the wonders of the winter season wherever you may be with an extra sprinkling of magic.  Thank you for listening. 

 

About Ellen:

Ellen is a master herbalist and lay homeopath who has been a Druidic initiate since 1984. She is a founding member of the Order of the White Oak, the Archdruidess and founder of Tribe of the Oak, a former professor at the Grey School of Wizardry, and a member of the Grey Council of Mages and Sages. She is the author of Celtic herbals and Druid novels, including Secret Medicines from Your Garden, The Sacred Herbs of Samhain, and Once Around the Sun: Stories, Crafts, and Recipes to Celebrate the Sacred Earth Year. She lives in Massachusetts.

https://elleneverthopman.com