I recorded this episode while in Bali, thinking about the juxtaposition between doing and being and how my mind is constantly battling between the two.. and how both are essential for our growth.

The doing creates the momentum—it’s the Pitta, action, fire.

The being allows the insight—it’s the Kapha, rest, Earth.

The Vata is the dance between the two.

Dive into this episode and rethink your relationship with doing and being.

Let’s take the discussion further in the Mind-Body Balancers FB group: www.facebook.com/groups/1213662491998309/

Discover Your Dosha (Mind-Body Type) with my free quiz: iamsahararose.com

Connect with me for daily Ayurvedic and modern spiritual wisdom at Instagram: @iamsahararose Facebook.com/iamsahararose Twitter.com/iamsahararose

Intro + Outro Music: Silent Ganges by Maneesh de Moor Pre-order my new book Eat Feel Fresh: A Contemporary Plant-Based Ayurvedic Cookbook: eatfeelfresh.com/book/ and receive a signed book plate, inspirational card and 10 bonus recipes

Join my Awaken Your Powers Masterclass to become a leader in the new paradigm with Shaman Durek: www.iamsahararose.com/awaken-your-powers

 

Episode 115 – The Dance Between Doing and Being with Sahara Rose

By Sahara Rose

Namaste. It’s Sahara Rose, and welcome back to the “Highest Self” podcast. A place where we discuss what makes you your soul’s highest evolvement. Before we hop into this episode, I want to share with you that my new book, “Eat Feel Fresh,” is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold. It is a plant-based, contemporary Ayurvedic cookbook, and so much more than a cookbook it teaches you how to eat according for your doshic constitution, as well as how to prepare foods for your family when you’re all of different doshas. So I share how to cook tri-doshically, what that means, how to create a six-taste bowl, how to customize each meal according to your dosha to make Ayurvedic cooking so much more approachable and work for today’s world.

I am also offering a signed bookplate, which I will mail to you, a beautiful little oracle card, which I’ll also send in the mail to you, as well as ten bonus recipes that I will e-mail to you as my gratitude for pre-ordering the book. If you don’t know about pre-ordering, it really helps for the author because publishers decide how many books they’re going to publish based off of how many pre-orders there are. So if you’ve ever been to a bookstore and you want to order a book, and they’re like, “Oh, it’s not gonna be available for four to six weeks.” That’s because they weren’t aware of how many people would have wanted the book, so there weren’t enough in print. And I don’t want that to happen to anyone, I want the book to be available.

So by pre-ordering the book that’s going to allow them to print more copies of the book and have it be available to more people. And I would be so grateful for you. It’s the same cost, you can do it on Amazon, wherever you buy your books. And as my gift, I will send you my signed bookplate, signed with my very own hands, my card to you, as well as ten bonus recipes. So head over to my website, iamsahararose.com, and that’s where you will submit your receipt.

I am sitting here in my beautiful room in Bali overlooking this cliff. I’ve been here on my own for the past week, and I’ve had a lot of time to just sit and contemplate, which is something that I and many of you guys listening have just been way too busy for. So I’ve been having a time to just you know, take a sacred pause, and just kind of look at things from the broader perspective, and just really re-evaluate where is it that I want to go, what do I want to do next, what are my goals, et cetera. And I’m back in Ubud, which is where I used to live four years ago; beautiful rice village in the middle of Bali. And I’m seeing a lot of people that I knew from four years ago, and people who I didn’t know personally, but arevery similar to the type of people I met four years ago. And Bali has such wonderful people, lots of beautiful ex-pats doing amazing things, doing online businesses, and really creative and really spiritually in touch. And it has a really wonderful community.

But it also, just like anywhere in the world, is gonna have different types of people. It also has this community of people who really just escaped from whatever it is that they used to live in, or their families, or their jobs, responsibilities, et cetera. And they kind of just, you know, came to Bali, saw what a beautiful life it is here, and are living for just going to dance classes and yoga, and drinking coconuts, and taking psychedelics, and just really hanging out. And I have no problem with that, no judgment at all. But when I start talking to them, I realize that all of them having amazing ideas, amazing dreams, and visions that they have for themselves, but zero idea how to do it. And the reason why they have zero idea is because they haven’t really researched it.

So I’m seeing these people who are, you know, teachers of, “Oh, you just have to be, focus on being, be one, don’t be so active, be more observant.” And which are wonderful teachings, but then when you look in their lives and you speak with them, they’re like, “Oh my god, I wish I could create a retreat center, I would I could write a book, I wish I could start a business, I wish I could this, I wish could do that.” And a lot of them are really unhappy. They are living in this legit paradise, but they feel unfulfilled. And this is part of the reason why I left four years ago because we really become who we spend our time with, and you know, a lot of the people that I was around, they had beautiful ambitions, but they weren’t ambitious. And it’s really important to surround yourself with people who have the equal amount of drive as you do, if not more, because that really motivates you to step up you’re a-game

So I was thinking more about this being, and this doing, and this dance between the two, and you know, it’s the constant conversation how can we be, how can we be in stillness, how can we do less. But then at the same time, we have all of these dreams and visions, and dharmas that we want to, and need to, and won’t feel complete without until we do them. So what is this dance between the doing and the being, the doing and the being?

So I was just sitting outside, I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna practice being.” I’m very bad at just being, you know. I’m always doing. And I sat down and then immediately I start, you know, thinking about this, and oh, the doing and being, and then all these thoughts. I was like, “Oh, I should record a podcast,” and I quickly ran up to record a podcast, and then I shamed myself. I was like, “Sahara, why are you so bad at just being? Like why do you need to just do things? Why do you need to be productive all the time?” And I started shaming myself about it, and like, “No, just make yourself sit down. Make yourself just not react on this urge that you want to create something.”

And then I realized just how stupid that is. And how when you are in that being, that is how you naturally want to do. And doing has different shapes and forms. So I think what people need to clarify when they say, “Oh, we’re doing, doing, doing too much.” Is doing tasks that are not bringing you towards your dharma. This is working a job that you don’t like, having friends that don’t fulfill you, you know, all these mundane, daily tasks that you could really outsource if you worked harder and were able to hire people for it. But really what it comes down to when I really thought about, okay, well, why are we working these jobs we don’t like? Why do we have these same friends? Why are we doing these mundane tasks? Like we all do them, but why?

And really what it came down to was money. It comes down to, “I don’t have the money to afford someone to clean my house. I don’t have the money to, you know, whatever it is.” And then what that comes down to even deeper is I’m not willing to take the risk in creating money doing something else because I am so comfortable and reliant on the way that I’m making my money now. So let’s break that down.

So let’s say Stephanie has a job that doesn’t fulfill her, 9:00 to 5:00 corporate job. She knows it’s not what she was born on this planet to do, but it pays well, has health benefits like she doesn’t absolutely hate it, it’s manageable. So Stephanie comes back to work form work every day, and she’s exhausted, she can’t cook so she orders take out. And then, you know, on the weekends she just wants to like, you know, get her mind off work so she goes to brunch with her friends, and they end up spending like $60 each because they got drinks. And then she’ll go on these trips with her girlfriends and end up spending all this money that she really didn’t want to spend because like other people wanted to do things that she may not have wanted to do. And they were ordering drinks, so she felt like she had to, and da da da…

So her expenses are high, and she knows that if she quits her job she’s not going to be able to maintain the same style of living that she is. So her only solution that she sees is to remain in this job because it pays for the bills that I already have and the expenses that I’m already making. But when you really take a look and this look can only come when you leave the doing and you enter the being. Now when you leave the doing of just doing things cause you’re used to them, you’re on this hamster wheel that’s ever-turning, and it feels like it’s like one fire after next, and you need to keep up, and then your car broke down, and then the insurance company did this, and there’s all these expenses. And you literally don’t know how you’re going to make ends meet, so the last thing on your mind is to quit your corporate job, but it’s still eating you alive.

So this is when the being comes in. This is when you have to enter in the kapha, the earth energy, the earth dosha. This is when you have to take walks every day without your phone, to spend Saturdays—Silent Saturdays. You know, I’ve decided here in Bali from now on I’m practicing Silent Saturdays. If anyone’s with me, the only rule is you’re just freaking silent. So she starts doing Silent Saturdays, and she saves $60 a week from not going to brunch with her friends. And in this inward introspection she starts evaluating, you know, why am I, you know, shopping at this expensive online boutique? Do I really need these clothes? Why do I feel like every time a new iPhone comes out I need to get an upgrade? Why do I feel like I need every single type of essential oil? Why can’t I just be happy with the ones I already have? Why do I need to go to this $30 a day yoga class? Why can’t I just do my own practice at home?

And she starts to re-evaluate. And she’s not re-evaluating in this super masculine way of like, okay, here’s the spreadsheet. It’s like the pitta comes in, like “These are the expenses. Where are you gonna cut?” It’s not in that way at all. When you enter the kapha you enter the introspection. Naturally the things that are no longer serving you come to light to either be chosen or be let go of.

So I’m sure everyone listening, I mean if you listen to “Highest Self” podcast you definitely have gone through this. You’ve gone through, you know, looking through your closet and realizing all you see are thousands of dollars of hanged up stuff that you don’t even want to wear. Or you look back at your month’s expenses and you just have no idea where your paycheck went. Or your friends want to go out, and meet for drinks, or go to the club, or go to the bar, and you genuinely just don’t want to go. So you may be in that phase of just realizing that, and just beginning to make that decision.Or this may have been like 30 years ago for you, you’re like, “Honey, you’re preaching to the choir here.” Either way, we’ve all had to go through this re-evaluation in order to spiritually grow.

Because spiritual growth takes space, it takes moments of silence, it takes pauses, inhale, exhale, expand, contract. And it’s in that space that you begin to remember. And this is where the sacred pause comes in. This is when you have to stop listening to podcasts and start listening to yourself. This is when you have to put down your books and bring out your journal. This is when you have to go for a run without headphones in your ears and just listen to the sound of your breath. This is when after work instead of calling your friend, you’re calling your mom. You sit in silence and just listen to your thoughts.

Now this is what people are missing. This is what leads to finding yourself on a path that is so far from where you envisioned yourself because the pauses didn’t feel valuable enough at the time. The pause is where you grow, the pause is where you download, the pause is where the idea, the vata springs to life. But it’s only in these nestles of pauses between breaths, and words, and thoughts, and time, and space, and ripples of water that we begin to understand why we are here. We fear the pauses because we’re afraid of what will come out. We fear that if we truly listen to our thoughts, they’ll be too overbearing, or scary, or traumatic to handle. We fear that if we aren’t taking in someone else’s information that we are wasting our time. We lack trust in our inner voice, and instead listen to the voices of authors, and friends, and parents, and YouTubers. When truly, the greatest book you’ll ever read is in your mind.

You know, I catch myself doing this sometimes too. The moment that I have a sacred pause I can go on my yoga mat, et cetera. I sometimes run to turn on a podcast or listen to an audiobook. I’m not saying these are bad things, like hello, this is a podcast here. But then I ask myself, “Am I doing this to escape what is going on in my mind right now? Have I given myself a chance to think today? Am I doing this because I genuinely want to hear what I’m about to—by listening to this podcast or audiobook Or am I doing it out of habit? Out of feeling like there’s probably something more important than what’s going on in my mind if I listen to that, so might as well listen.”

We can find great value in podcasts and audiobooks, don’t get me wrong, I definitely still stand by them. But I still think you’ll find more value if you just sit in silence for that hour. And I mean I am in the information-giving industry, and I’m constantly asked what are the most influential books you read? What are the quotes that changed your life? And honestly, I can’t name any because the books and the quotes that have changed my life are those that I am writing in my mind.

When you silence the every day thoughts—the to-do list, the tasks, et cetera—you go deeper. You go deeper to another level of your individuality. People—especially on my “Doshas and Dharma” program tell me, “How do I stand out in a saturated market?” So they way you stand out is by being radically yourself. And most people don’t know who they are even minimally, let alone radically. And the way you find out who you are, what you like, what you don’t like, what are your qualities is through this introspection.

I mean here I’ve been by myself for the past week and already just learning so much about myself and realizing things that were bothering me that I didn’t realize were bothering me. And then getting down to the root of it and setting up, you know, for my future what are the things that I want to change. And I wouldn’t have gotten these realizations if I hadn’t taken that step back. So we see now why the being is very important. We cannot debate this. This is a universally known thing from the vedas, to Buddhism, to Shamanism, to Daoism. All ancient cultures honor and revere the act of sitting in meditation or contemplation. Now, let’s talk about why the doing isn’t so bad either.

So when you sit really in that being you take time for yourself, you remove yourself form your friends, and your constant day-to-day tasks, and you—it doesn’t have to look like a week away, it could be moments away each day waking up in the morning, staying up a little bit at night to journal, things like that to just go deeper inside of yourself. Thoughts begin to emerge, you naturally begin to start dancing with ideas, and perspectives, and you begin, you know, having debates in your mind. And this is because when you’ve entered into the kapha, the vata emerges. When you go into the earth, the air starts to come to life, precipitation, you know.

So as this vata comes to life, you are receiving from source energy the exact information that you need to be taking action on. So if every time you take a walk or you take a bath, or you just sit in a chair and think, your mind starts going to that same place. And I’m not talking about the traumas and this and that because that is the lower self and the shadow self. I’m talking about when the highest self comes through. So it may look like for you I’m really envisioning this sacred retreat center that is nestled in the mountains, and does beautiful Ayurvedic treatments with essential oils, and different types of healing modalities, and they treat all forms of mental illnesses, and physical ailments. You know, this fantasy begins merging in your mind, but then you tell yourself, “Oh man, I could never do that.” Or you tell yourself, “Oh, I’m supposed to be meditating, I shouldn’t be thinking about that right now,” and then the judgment starts.

I remember just, you know—not I remember, this just happened like 20 minutes ago, sitting in that chair and thinking, “I’m just going to practice being right now.” And then I start having this debate in my mind of the doing and being, and then wanting to record the podcast on it, and then getting mad at myself about not being able to sit for seven seconds, and then deciding I’m just gonna go do it, and then still shaming myself about it.

But the reason why those thoughts came into my mind were because I needed to be taking action on it. By me instead of having this conversation in my mind, but just saying it out loud to the trees that I’m staring at while putting this microphone on my head, it is improving your lives too—at least I hope so. So instead of shaming ourselves, and sometimes we shame other people. “Oh, they’re always doing, always doing.” If it is in alignment with their highest selves, there’s no problem in doing. In fact, that is where source is supposed to guide you. We were not born to just sit and do nothing our whole lives. Like I know we’re human beings, not human doings, but we’re also not human complacence.

Now there are people in society that sit in sadhana meditation for their lives who take a monk path or a priest path. So if that’s what you want to do, all the power to you, but even those people are still doing forms of service that is embedded in any spiritual path. So we were not meant to just do, we were not meant to lounge and hang out, which is the reason why a lot of the people that I met here in Bali who thought, oh, I figured out life, I’m gonna leave my job and just ecstatic dance every day for eternity. When you talk to them, they’re unhappy because they’re leaving out a major part of themselves. Human want to do, we were designed to create. We have this intrinsic capability to make things that have never existed.

I mean, think if humans were like, “We’re just gonna sit and chill out right now,” there would be no Pyramids of Giza, no Machu Picchu, no Great Wall of China, now Persepolis. None of these things would exist, there would be no temples, no artifacts, no tools. There would be no buildings, no hotels, no skyscrapers. There would be no schools, hospitals, there would be nothing. We would all just still be in the jungle, totally separated, warring with each other because we don’t understand each other, but still feeling like we’re superior because we’re just sitting and being and not doing, you know?

We were given desires because we were meant to act on them. And that doesn’t detract over the importance of being. Like I spent like a good 20 minutes telling you how important it is to be, and I meant every ounce of that, and I could spend 20 hours talking about it. And I could also spend equal amount on how important it is to do because it is a dance. If you have one without another you will not be happy. If you just sit and be and think that is the key to enlightenment, you’re gonna see in a month or two that you feel empty and purposeless, and that’s so many people I see here. And if all you do is just do, do, do, do, do, and you never take a moment to reflect and ask why, then you’re definitely gonna be unhappy. And that is 99% of the population, just go to New York.

So we need to have both, we need the shiva and the Shakti, we need the two to merge together, we need the vata to move into the pitta to move into the kapha. This is the natural cycle of life and destiny. So we talked about what doing looks like when you’re not on track. Well, let’s talk about what healthy doing looks like. Healthy doing looks like taking action that is bringing you to the goal that the universe has assigned for you. So what does that mean? I believe—and maybe you do too—it is a more spiritual belief that we were all born with divine purposes.

And the reason that we were each given unique gifts is because we were meant to share those gifts. That is why I was born with the gift of speaking, and storytelling, and it’s something I’ve always loved to do because I’m meant to do it. It comes naturally for me, this is a gift that the universe gave to me, and the desire to help people and want to share positive messages and social justice. And I am just the conduit of source energy moving through me.

And there are other people like my boyfriend who were born with the gift of music. And music just flows through him, he’s always thinking of beats, and melodies, and if he listens to a song he’s like, “Oh, the bass line is like this, and the drum line.” Like things that I straight up cannot hear. And the way that he becomes his highest self is to sit in his music studio and just create different sound vibrations. And through these sound vibrations he is performing alchemy, healing others through the modality of sound and music.

And there are other people who are incredible with the power of touch. They are very kinetic, and they can touch people’s bodies and know instantly where they’re holding pain and tension. They almost can scan a body and see exactly where it needs work. And some of them are very into the muscle tissues and the fascia, and the go into massage, or physical therapy, or rolfing. And others can scan a body and sense where it’s out of balance in a health way. And they can tell if there’s a hormonal imbalance, or thyroid, or kidneys off. And they go more into becoming medical intuitives, or Daoist medical practitioners, et cetera.

And there are some people who are great at sales. Like they are wonderful at selling things to people, and that’s not a bad thing. Nothing is wrong with sales, guys. Sales can be—not always is—can be giving someone something that they don’t know that they need, you know? Offering that perspective to you. Sometimes we don’t know that we need an organic mattress. We don’t know the value of it. So by someone really educating us on that, and then we make the purchase, our lives are enhanced. So we can do another podcast about sales and how it’s kind of gotten this bad rep because of a lot of just really sleazy and not aligned sales people. But some people are just naturally born with that gift, like from the time they were kids they were like selling lemonade, like reselling this, selling that. And that’s something that comes very naturally to them, and a gift that they were born with.

Some people are great at setting up arguments of like looking at both sides, and you know, looking at all of the material, and not getting emotionally attached to it, and they would make great lawyers. And some people are great at just listening to people, and just sitting down, and just asking the right questions to get them deeper into themselves, and holding that level of space, and they become coaches and therapists.So there are so many spectrums of talents and gifts that we were each born with, and we were meant to act on them.

You know, source did not give you these strengths because it just thought it would be cool for you to like do it as a party trick. It gave you these strengths so you could move forward and heal the world with your unique magic. So if you just say, “I’m just gonna sit and be forever,” you are honestly—and I’m gonna be real here—you are offending source energy. You are saying, “You know, I don’t trust the strengths that you put in me. I don’t trust that they can manifest into something, so I’m not gonna act on them.” You may think that you are being super spiritual by just sitting, and being, and doing nothing, but you’re actually doing nothing for the planet. And in fact, you’d be taking resources from the planet because being alive we take food, and water, and energy, and electricity. And if you’re not giving back in some way, you are leaving a footprint far bigger than you are contributing to fill.

And all of us, all of our dharmas, is to—if we’re not going to at least keep our footprint neutral to make it even better, to make this world a better place than when we got here. Not just use up all the resources, and hang out, and it could look like you’re just chilling or could look like you’re just buying all of these expensive things, and doing all the stuff, and smoking cigarettes, and wasting plastic. Because that’s another form of denying source energy.

So the two—the hippie and the New York stock broker—are like both scolding their eyes or whatever each other, and thinking you got it all wrong, I know what’s right. But both of them, if you’re not really contributing in a meaningful way, both sides are dangerous. So doing can look like taking action on that download, that source energy, move through you in your moments of stillness and utilizing your gifts, and your innate strengths, and acting upon your curiosity to harness them, and gain more, and refine the tools that you were born with, but to take them to that next level.

And this is how you do and you be in a beautiful way. And this is to be a conscious human, or a conscious entrepreneur, a conscious parent, and just a conscious civilian on this planet. It’s to not shame yourself for always thinking of ideas. There’s nothing wrong with always thinking of ideas. That just means you have a lot of vata moving through you, but take one of those ideas that you really believe you can execute and start putting in the work. Start researching, start Googling, start looking up other people who’ve done similar things and seen how they did it before. You know, we’re all incarnated here at the time of the internet for a reason. Because we were meant to use the internet to fulfill our dharma paths.

There’s really no business out there that you can’t figure out how to create with the internet. I’m not saying 100% rely on the internet, you should still go ask people who are in the field, do your own market research, get on the ground. But start Googling that, don’t feel paralyzed, don’t wait for the messiah to come down and give you the action plan. You need to put in the work. Spirit gives you the idea, and spirit gives you the strength. But the rest comes to you, you are the spirit, you are source energy in creation and action. You are gifted this human body, and brain, and formidable thumbs, or whatever they’re called because we were meant to utilize them.

If we ere just meant to sit and do nothing, then we would just be born as little blobs. The fact that we are capable of so much and actually only using—they say about 3% of our fully capability is what we’re using—shows that we are just at the very beginning of what humans are really capable of. And I’m not saying that means we’re gonna become all sci-fi like the movie “Her” and have like apps as girlfriends. But I think that we are so capable that we are going to figure out a way to bring back the trees, and back the moments of stillness, and back the tribe, and the dance, and the laughter, and the medicine. We have to use our creativity, we have to channel our vata, pitta, and kapha. We have to be so we can know exactly what to do. It is only through honoring both that we will be able to bring heaven on earth again.

So I invite you to just take a few moments after this podcast to be in stillness. If you’re driving in the car, just don’t listen to another podcast right after this, don’t call someone, don’t play music, just sit in your car in silence for the rest of the drive. If you’re on a walk, just listen to the birds, if you’re in the bath, just listen to your breath. And don’t think, “Oh, now I need, you know, some angel to come whisper in my ear and tell me what to do.” No, you are that angel. Just start practicing the conversation with your highest self. That which speaks in whispers, and emotions, and excitement. Just begin that conversation, the silent conversation. And trust me, through that, you’ll learn exactly what it is that you were meant to do. Namaste.

If you loved this episode and want to dive deeper into Ayurveda, be sure to check out my new book “Eat Feel Fresh,” which is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold. As a free gift for pre-ordering my book, I will be sending you in the mail a signed bookplate, as well as a beautiful tarot card I created for you, and I will be e-mailing you an additional ten bonus recipes. So this book is for you if  you are interested in eating Ayurvedically, but want to make it more modern, more approachable, make it work for today’s busy day and time. I’ve taken the best of Ayurveda, as well as ingredients from blue zones around the world. I’m talking Costa Rica, Vietnam, Japan, everywhere in between because I believe that Ayurveda is a guideline that can be practiced with any sort of eating.

So we look at food from an Ayurvedic perspective, as well as from today’s modern lens. So be sure to check it out, “Eat Feel Fresh,” a contemporary plant-based cookbook, send your receipt over to me on my website, iamsahararose.com, or eatfeelfresh.com, and you will be able to receive all my pre-order bonuses, signed bookplate, bonus recipes, and so much more as my gratitude and thank you for pre-ordering the book. Also be sure to check out my sacred self-care and Ayurvedic nutrition e-course over on dailyom.com. The links to both of those are over on the podcast show notes. Namaste.

Episode 115 – The Dance Between Doing and Being with Sahara Rose