Jody Vassallo returns to the podcast for part 2 of 3 wonderful conversations. Jody is a cookbook author, publisher, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Counsellor, Yoga Teacher, Cleaner and Tilba Chai maker.
Jody lives in dreamy Tilba, home of River Cottage on the Far South Coast of NSW. Jody has spent a large chunk of her career as a cookbook author and food stylist and once owned her own publishing company which failed and left her in heap on the floor but led her to discovering Ayurveda.
Jody helps women of ages rekindle their passion for food and themselves through nourishing recipes, yoga, honest conversation, vulnerability and laughter. Jody is passionate about sharing the healing power of ghee, routine, rest and living a life that changes with the seasons with the world.
Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, Google Podcast and more. But be sure to listen to Part 1 here first.
Broadcast: January 20, 2023
Duration: 55:37
Here is a snippet of our conversation…
The importance of conversation.
You know, the conversation between women who are in this mid lifetime needs to be encouraged, because in the past I've witnessed women just shut up shop and go inside and kind of just have to feel like they've got to bear it alone and get through it alone, and they're too much in their family. Whereas Ayurveda says that the health of the woman determines the health of the family. So, you know, if we as women, ageing women, can make our focus understanding this changing time, and not just our focus for ourselves, but for our children, for our friends, it's a wonderful opportunity for us all to become more educated about a very important phase in a woman's life. You know, we don't ignore women when they're pregnant, so why should we ignore women when they're going through menopause?
Moving through menopause can be a very challenging time..
But there's also an increase in fear, things become very frightening that may not have felt frightening. People may lose their balance physically and feel like they have issues with their ears and hearing, vertigo. They may feel that they have the inability to balance their life in a healthy way. They're either working really hard or they're exhausted, or they just can't seem to get a routine happening, they're just all over the shop. And then they've got the memory stuff and the memory stuff can feel very frightening because the things that people would easily remember just slip through so, you know, it seems things go in one ear and out the other, you are constantly forgetting things.
The importance of slowing down..
I think when you get used to the fact that it's not about stopping totally, it's about being able to wisely select what is the best choice for you to make, which can only come if you slow down enough and give yourself some rest and space .. because vata rules the ears so it gives you the ability to listen to yourself, to listen to if you believe in higher power, if you believe in God, guides, or angels or whatever you believe in, but for me, the most important thing is the listening to oneself because, you know, society has dampened down the power of women's intuition. They had to, you know, we’re powerful and we're incredible when it comes to knowing deep within ourselves, the right things to do. The problem is we have not actually come back to that deep knowing ourselves. So this is the gift of menopause is when you hook in and really connect with your intuition.
Anxiety as a symptom of a vata imbalance.
So, anxiety comes about when we are not in the present moment where either in the future worried about what's going to happen or where in the past worried about what has happened. But in the present moment, if we can just be here and breathe and quieten the mind down, we can quieten the anxiety. So the anxiety is racing thoughts, racing heartbeat, things moving too quickly in the body. So it's the Vata, the Vata is up, up, up, up and we need to bring it down. The taste for Vata is sweet so that is why most people who suffer from anxiety have a pre secret sweet addiction.
