Denise 0:07
Myth, Magic, Medicine, and everything in between - two doctors talking. Hello, and welcome to Myth, Magic, Medicine. I'm joined today by Dr. Namita Kansal in San Francisco at the moment, where she practices geriatrics. She also runs the Facebook community group, Embrace Your Inner Cook. So today she is going to tell me all about her passion for life and in particular for food. Hi, Namita great to talk to you again. Can you explain to us quite how you found this part of your journey.
Namita 0:41
Over the years, I think what I have recognized as something I've enjoyed is how to bring some of the flavors that I've enjoyed outside to the house and, create a love for that and be interested and be curious about it and just sort of try my hand and see what I can remember because our brains are so amazing. I mean, if we really put our minds to it, I think we are able to remember what we ate, the flavors of and then try to you know, bring it up, bring it up, as you probably know,
Denise 1:14
And the sense of smell is so important in that and your memory is so hooked into that. That's that's a really interesting virtual screen disappeared into the cup. It was like you were you were drinking the northern lights.
so, so you founded that Facebook group a little while ago, which is really popular, although most of us scroll and don't, you know, I forget to take pictures of when I'm cooking and I forget to put it u, ike yesterday, when you had to cancel on me. I said, 'Oh, good. I can go cook'.
So I wentout I picked okra from my back garden, which I'm collecting, I'm only got a few at a time. So I'm collecting them freezing it so I can make a meal, but I picked fresh peppers to put in the beans that were already so it was just wonderful. I'm thinking I should take picture. And then it was you know, eaten and I forgot.
Namita 2:12
But you know what, actually, you could do though, what you could actually do is you could you could share a memory of what you ate and what you did and what what got you started? I think it's hardest for people to start, you know, because they find it so complicated. You know, we make it all so complicated. And we want to make it a certain perfect way that we just stop ourselves from actually putting it forward. It has to look right and in a picture it has to be presented right. So there's so many barriers of perfection I think that stop us from doing what we love doing and what have you.
Denise 2:49
And never mind the pictures, actually cooking. I'm not a Michelin Star so I'm... Singing, you know, now because we've been recording people singing for ages, only people who really can sing, oh, I can't sing. I can't, you know, we really have handicapped ourselves in some ways.
Namita 3:07
Exactly. full expression of who you are, or can be, you know, I think is, is sort of where I'm aspiring to be, be it in my kitchen or in my life per se. You know,
Denise 3:39
One, one you will improve with practice. And there's about seven or 8 billion people everybody's you know, you got to be somewhere in that scale.
Yeah, so what drew you to it? Did you start I mean, you will probably always cooked your mother probably taught you. But But did it become a passion when you had children? Or Or were you always fascinated by it?
I love I love the pictures of your little kids. And then in the kitchen, that's just adorable.
Namita 4:15
Thank you. Thank you. I think the crazy experimentation part of it, I think started with the kids because they they really challenged me with food. It was hard to feed them and it was hard to feed them
healthy, or whatever I thought was a balanced sort of meal, from the time they were ready to eat, say from five months onward. And instead of just doing the traditional pureed food version of things. I mean, that's where I wanted to just do a little bit of a little bit more, you know, incorporate more of real food. Yes, I may puree some of that real food to make it more, you know, safe for them. But
it was more about experimentation more with the food I liked eating and what else I could add to, you know, as I was learning things, I think all of us are just absorbing things from from our environment as in 'Oh, quinoa is very good' 'incorporate a little bit of buckwheat once in a while' 'Oh, you should eat more tofu' 'Oh yeah, you should do do this and that'. And so as I was doing more of that I didn't want them to be like typecast or stereotyped into eating just a pureed, you know, peas and carrots, and whatever else was generally, you know, the sort of thing. And so I think that's when that happened. But I've been cooking all my I mean, for most of my adult life, I would say and, but I think what happened, what heightened would would brought about Embrace Your Inner Cook was really, Mama's passing away in December 2018. And that was perhaps just about a year before the pandemic. And this was maybe a way of me honoring her memory. But also, I was feeling very, very hollow. And I was feeling a vacuum in my own life, and I wanted more of her in my life, and maybe, maybe cooking being one of one of her many facets of brilliance, I would just say she was a brilliant cook. And I think the way she nurtured and connected us as a family, you know, there was so many amazing conversations that always happened at the food table there, I remember really nice insights with her in the kitchen while she's busily doing 100 things and then we were able to connect in a way that where I didn't feel judged, where I felt connected, where she would be herself despite the busyness and, and there was always "I'm always there for you and here's something for you to eat". You know, to make sure such Yeah, so I think it was a little bit of like connection with my mom, it was a way of honoring her memory. It was it was also you know, sharing a passion that I had in my own heart and something that I was already doing with the world. And, and also, I think there was so much illness around and I you know, food and wellness go together and happiness and food. Right. And so I think it was a way of cheering myself up, it's a way of connecting with people finding other people, maybe honoring my mama and talking about her once in a while it is a little bit of just about everything and coming more into my own, you know, expressing more of who I was in the culinary space, like in just like as a person who liked food, you know, out out to the world, you know, I'm known as the as a physician and such and, you know, in my, my husband's family and such and they know I like to cook, but I think they don't know, the extent of the passion with which I sometimes take to food it's not always there. Like right now in the last month or two. I've not been able to, but as much you know, with as much enthusiasm and focus but it's my home cooking continues you know, when you
Denise 7:55
feed the children that's good. That's a very good idea. But yeah, one of the things I think that yeah, every so often we're reminded and it's it's true of all cultures. Food is so... everybody eats, everybody has to eat, and and it is a gathering places we It's comfort but it's also breaking bread when you're when you're first make friends with people you meet and over a meal you have them to your house. It's not to show them your wallpaper. It's it is that here I'm feeding you something I'm not poisoning you it's it's a connection that we make and it's really important I think it's really important that children have that you're not you know, sit and eat a frozen meal, recently the frosted meal was that learn basic table manners, learn how to have a conversation. There's all of those things are connected.
Namita 8:54
Absolutely. I agree with that. I think I want the children and especially in our world where you know, from the in when you go to the grocery stores, everything looks very clean, polished, even cut up for you and chopped up and food is transformed. Like from how you know you don't even know where it came from. I think it's important for children to know how it grows, you know that bugs may be good, butterflies and bees also coexist in the same area where food might also exist. So you know, find your way to carefully pick your cherries but don't bother the bugs. So it's just about being more ecologically aware and being present with your environment and what you're eating
Denise 9:34
right and actually making food choices.
Namita 9:36
Yeah, you're making food choices but you're also showing respect to food you're also showing respect to the environment and and you're enjoying, you're savoring how everything stays different each time it's nuanced. It's not like a plum tastes exactly the same one plum from the next plum is going to be different in texture and taste and color. You know in its juiciness, in its flavor profile. I mean, everything is so different, to be able to embrace diversity at the level of the food and also having that full-ish experience when you go out into the marketplace, you know, sniff everything out, feel it with all your senses. You know, it's, it's, it's about being alive. I mean, food is such an integral part of us. Yes. And it's also it reminds you of aliveness, of diversity of, of just beauty and grandeur of this world. I mean, there's that the colors of food, I mean, could be amazing. I mean, yes, you need the opposite. When you when you cut it, and you you cook it, you whatever, you poach it, you bake it, but just food in general, I mean, just look at the colors. And each time I look at produce, I'm just, I'm blown away. I mean, look at look at flowers, I look at nature. And I also find abundance in nature. I mean, each time I look at food, and I say God has been feeding us, you know, for billions of years, and there hasn't been a shortage, but look at the scarcity that we have in our hearts. You know, we hold ourselves back. I mean, scarcity, yes, we don't have enough, we won't have enough. And we're not enough as human beings, but look at look at the abundance and food for example equals abundance, for me. It's, I feel like, long after you and I are dead and and many, many generations after us, there will still be food on this planet. Yes. And we will be provided for if we continue to look for it in the right way, use it the right way. But there is abundance. I mean, God did create that. So keep that that kind of idea.
And it also when, it's it's another aspect of, of when when you're with your children, being able to to talk. Remember the "you must eat - there are children starving in Africa", but But you know, to realize that, that we should be sharing this abundance with the whole world because there are places where food is scarce. And where people are so, so desperate, they're feeding their children mud. So to assuage the hunger, and yet, you know, we'd be grudge sending extra, we have so much we should be more, more mindful of what we have, and be more willing to share it with our human family.
Yes, yes. Yes, our children actually, they are happiest when they actually as soon as they have outgrown clothes, or if they have an extra pair of something. They come to me first and they say "we want to share this because somebody else might be able to use it right now. Oh, I have an extra pair of socks Mum. I don't think I need it right now. Do you think you have somebody you can share it with" because I'm part of other groups where I am, you know, passing stuff off. And sometimes I get things there, from there too. And so it's more about just that I love the community that is created, you know, if you if you open your hearts, including,, you know, I think it's it's something that translates to every facet of life. And I think they're very happy when they when they take home-cooked meals to their schools now. And then they get to share it too. There is a little bit more pride, the younger boy, no, not as much. He's still a little bit all over the place but I think the older girl gets the idea but more more mature too. But she takes pride in what she what she takes with her. There was always there was I think there was this. She was almost she not embarrassed. But she was she was uncertain of why she was sometimes taking food to her preschool for a long time and then even into her kindergarten. And I just said I think first of all, I think you would enjoy some of this you're welcome to leave some of it if you don't want to and finish up the rest. Never waste food. But it would be an good supplement to what you're getting in school because now they have free meals during the pandemic. And so she would take that with greater pride and she was accepting of it you know that I may have different food Yes, I carry lentils sometimes. And people don't eat lentils during lunch at this they eat it only as a salad or they do it in a different way. But it's okay for me to eat it this way because my heritage you know introduced me that to this idea and this way of cooking so she's not so closed up into it that you know, it has to be mac and cheese and macaroni cannot be cannot be eaten otherwise, you know it can be done in different ways. So it's it's like that. Yeah, I think it's about opening their minds to at this age, you know that food can be eaten in so many different ways. You just have to experiment in your eyes, you know, and now you have the internet you know, go go searching, go looking or just try something and nothing is off the table. I always tell them
Denise 14:44
Unless you're actually allergic to it and if you're actually allergic to it, that's because children textures, particularly with children. Yeah for forever about textures really. That's that's why you see as extraordinary faces on little babies as you try to feed them things. That's not what I expected, rather as I respond when I think I'm going to drink tea, and it turns out to be coffee as it hits my mouth, and it just it's a I like both of those things, but it really throws me when it's the wrong, the wrong information coming in.
Namita 15:15
Yes, I think and having a variety of textures actually makes it entertaining. I mean, if they are mindful, but if they're doing it mechanically, nothing would matter. You know, if people are just using food as a means to an end as an you know, I need fuel to get this body moving and to get me awake, then nothing would matter what you put in, textures, colors, flavors, nothing matters. But I think it's the mindfulness of when you're doing this, and trying to be more present. And the whole activity, which I think gets that connection, going, where a certain food could bring a certain kind of pleasure or a certain kind of feeling in your body. You know, I think that is important. A lot of us are eating mechanically, when Yes, most of our our attention is on the screens. And yes, and on the side is this thing going on mechanically back and forth. It doesn't matter what's in there. Sometimes the portions get, you know, forgotten in terms of how much is okay to eat at one given time. And then you're not also paying attention to what your stomach is saying. Okay. You may be already satiated. What a long time ago stop feeding me. You're burping already. Okay. You're not looking good. Right now. You bloated now? No, but that thing goes on, you know. So, yeah, I think that
Denise 16:33
Just a nod again, at your speed your specialty. You work with the older populations, your inpatient or outpatient,
Namita 16:40
inpatient?
Denise 16:41
Yeah. How can you speak to the importance of food as as part of their cultural memories of how, how do you feel the hospital is able to support the older patients and what they need.
Namita 16:58
So although you know, we are in a, in a controversial time right now with my work, because we are the largest city, city owned SNIF in the country. And so you but despite that, so we're not a private for profit enterprise. But despite that, there has been
Denise 17:20
Just one moment. This is, although it's a tiny audience, it is an international audience. So when you use acronyms, they don't necessarily understand you. Would you mind explaining? SNIF?
Namita 17:29
Oh, yes, of course. Yes, so, so I work for a city owned, skilled nursing facility, which, which, where we see patients post acutely, which means when they have been in, in an hospital for something very severe, you know, acute enough to be, you know, hospitalized where they need attention by, by physicians and other specialists and nurses and such for about three, four days, and after which they're not deemed fit enough to go back home straightaway, but they need to still receive some level of care in the same manner. That's the kind of environment I work in and, and even though I would say that we're not a for profit, like a private entity, I have to say that our care for our patients is very, very informed, and respectful to their cultural backgrounds, because we understand how important food can be. So at least in our hospital, we have we have different floors where we have ethnically informed like a presence so it's it is we have Chinese floors, we have Hispanic floors, we have of course palliative hospice floors, we have dementia floors, but every time we do offer cuisine, we definitely take into account what their cultural background is and try to offer them food. So if we can we place them in an environment, which does recreational activities, which would be more meaningful to them, and you know, in their language, and sort of and we create a little milieu that actually represents, you know, snippets of their culture or maybe reminiscent to them of what it would mean for them culturally. Then we do try to give them food and we try to give them programming even in their own rooms, which would be very, which would be perhaps better for them and make them feel more comfortable and at home. Because as we get older, I think we tend to go back to where our life began and back to our cultural roots. It is just the common it
Denise 19:38
is it is a comfort thing. Some comfort food tends to get a bad reputation particularly in in an Anglican, Anglican ! Anglicized system because comfort food is mac'n'cheese and mashed potatoes and french fries and it's all that the heavy starch stuff. But but really it's it's it's allowing you to think back to when you felt safe? Yeah. When somebody was looking after you and yeah,
Namita 20:06
Absolutely. You're so right. And comfort food, say I can talk to you from my Indian perspective, right? For us, it's like , Daal Chawal, which is basically lentils and rice, there's nothing bad about the food. I mean, yes, there is some starchiness to both the foods. But ultimately, it's, it's that feeling of, of, of when you were feeling wholesome, happy, connected, and you were thriving in a loving environment, loving and nurturing environment and, and how you were made to feel when you were eating that maybe repeatedly at different times. So we could all have our connections with certain types of foods, because we go back in time to, to where what that brought to us. And I think comfort food also is oftentimes simple. Sometimes when we you know, and it has less components of example, mashed potato, you're talking, there's not much to it, right? I would say in terms of the different ingredients that you're putting into it. But it's the it's the emotion it invokes and the memories it invokes and the associations that you have, perhaps during a time when life was simpler, and perhaps when you had some bonded, some bonding with somebody,
Denise 21:19
Right? Yeah, probably life wasn't any simpler for the grown-ups but for, for the younger people, it seemed simpler at the time.
Namita 21:26
For sure, for sure. Yes, it's truly I think it's the emotion. And also, I think there has to be something to say about the flavors. You know, what, what that invokes in you? Does it feel wholesome? I mean, do you feel really full and happy when you're eating something like that? You know, I think for in our homes, I think if my children were to grow up, I think 20 years, you know, if I was to fast forward 20 years, I think they would say that pico de Gallo, so salsa, with beans and rice, even though it's not my ethnic cuisine would become their comfort food with maybe some chips and guacamole. I think they would really love it.
Denise 22:06
But why not? If you I'm I don't know very much about India, other than because I'm English, I had to learn some things, but I'm not very good at the geography really. I know that Kerala is down there and Goa sort of over here. Is that heavily, heavily influenced by Portuguese cooking, isn't it Goa?
Namita 22:27
Go boys go? Yeah, yes. As the coastal town. Yes. That's where the Portuguese arrived. Yes.
Denise 22:33
Yeah. And so that's what I love about that, which is I'm, I have a lot of, actually, because I'm a doctor I know a lot of Indians, but I also know a lot of Persians because I'm a Baha'i, and Persian cuisine and Indian cuisine have a lot of similarities. They're the spice, well, the heat profile is very different. But there are a lot of similarities and that I absolutely love it. And I still can't cook rice, having spent 50 years trying to master rice, I still cook it like an English person, sort of squishy and rather sad. Think I must expect it to look like mashed potato. It's not what I'm aiming for. But it's what I wind up with.
Namita 23:20
You know, I had Can I can I can I say something, I don't know why
Denise 23:24
Can you teach me to cook rice?
Namita 23:28
I can share what I know. See, the whole idea about Embracing Your Inner Cook is to accept yourself where you are, and keep and keep an eye on getting better. And maybe by tuning what you already know. Or can learn. Or maybe can tweak and transform. So when you say master something, I often wonder about that. That used to be my language. And now I just say I want to make it a little different. I want to make it better than I made it last time. And so that makes gives me a sense of 'OK, I can achieve it' when I say mastery that I'm here and the sky is here. And so I can never reach. Take me years of practice, or reading and research and oh my goodness, so it feels less tangible. But when I say I can do it better than my last time, and I can tweak it a bit, I can you know, pick up a few tips. i It makes me feel like I'll get to it and I will do it when I say mastery it had attached to just this and
Denise 24:23
I think that's a great part for us to end on, honestly, because that is probably excellent advice for life. Everything we do, we can get it just a little bit better the next time.
Namita 24:36
Yes, yes. And be happy with it, applaud yourself. Enjoy the accomplishment of making it a slightly better than what you did last time better for yourself what is in your metric, the better version, right? It may be not as good for anybody else -who cares. It's for me. I'm trying to better my own skills. I got it better, good for me. Oh and and celebrators. stuff. So that's what I tend to do. And then I've seen it gets me farther in life in general, like, as you said, it's something that applies to multiple facets in life.
So rice, you know, I grew up, rice, I grew up eating rice in the traditional way where we had it starch in and everything. And it was always just, you know, one type of rice. So, you know, we have so many varietals of rice in India, my gosh, what a rice eating country like many other tropics, tropical countries. And so my father was in the military. And so we lived in so many different parts of the of the country, like every year, year and a half he was he was transferred. And so we went from this side to that side as you're just adapting and adapting and adapting. But Mama never made a rice which had like different grains in it. But I think ever since my children came along and then for me nutrition and wholesomeness, and my own personal health, and all of this, you know, and just just growing up in life, and you know, trying to be just feeling like I was eating more flavors and getting more crunch and everything in every single bite, I think I was just trying to make everything happen all at once. I decided that I would do a medley of grains, but how I have learned to cook. What I've been doing recently, at least with rice is the Persian way of cooking, which is really like I think Indians do it too. But I think it's called dump cooking, which is basically cooking rice with the starch removed on a low key cupboard and covering it with a cloth so that it doesn't become mushy. Yes, yes. And so Persians do it, too. So I have to give credit most recently, I mean, I've seen it growing up, but I never took to it. I think credit is deserved and, and rightly rightly accredited to a person when you start practicing what they told you. And so for me, my Persian friends recently in the last, I would say 10-12 years, one person actually had come home and they said, You like eating TahDig, which is which is their version of the of the rice, right, which has, which has a crusty bottom, and it has oil and it's, got a crunch to it. And so it's very special. But TahDig I like, but I think what I what really, really got to me was how fluffy that arises, you know, and how separate the grain is. And I grew up with some of that, but the way I remember it from from home was it used to be a bit oilier. The Persian version of the rice turns out to be fluffy yet not oily. So that was a good one for me. I said, Okay, I don't have to deal with as much oil as I saw growing up to get that version. So I'm going to do the Persian way. And lo and behold, I've managed to incorporate it with different grains. So I have buckwheat quinoa, I have wheat. I have Itell you I have oats, I have farro. So I do different versions of wheat. Sometimes I do different varieties of rice itself. So I wouldn't want wild rice blend. Or I would do brown rice, I would do a long range, short grain. So I do a medley of different grain combined. And then I make my rice. That's my that's what our rice fluff is every day.
Denise 28:09
That would that would make me very nervous. Because there are different cooking times. There are different cooking times. And it works. I will try it. And I will post it on Facebook. Before we go for the listeners, you have a Facebook group, which is great. Yeah, Embrace Your Inner Cook. And it's open to the world. Right? If you eat food, and you enjoy food, please join the Facebook group. It's really a friendly place. Yes,
Namita 28:38
Yes. And as I am practicing, non-judgement in my life, which is a big part of what I'm trying to shun and get rid of, you know, take away my core identity and you know, being stuck in that identity and not expanding. I want to have I want to have it's it's a place of no doubt no judgement. Would you agree?
Absolutely. No, right.
Denise 29:00
Yeah, the judging is is internal, you know, oh, I can put this picture on because it didn't look like the last person's incredible picture. But nobody disses anybody's work.
Namita 29:13
Yeah, yes, yes. So it's a place of no judgment, but it's because it's a private group. So you have to be either friends with somebody on the group or you have to find me and then request to be approved. And then that's how you get in. Because I really want to keep, you know, just spammers out of that community. Used to be a nurturing, nurturing place where, at least I know a little bit about some of the members in the group and just just that, but it's it's welcome to all comers. I mean, it started off in the physician's community because that's where the idea was born, and that's who I knew at the time. And I think it's just being that more physicians right now, but all comers, all genders, all ages, all everything.
Denise 29:59
I know and all abilities in the kitchen
Namita 30:02
that is fair amount. Thank you for saying that, yes, all abilities. If you can boil water can't even do that but you want to want to you want to be there. You don't just come there just to be excited about food, perhaps, you know. And I think and, you know, I think I sometimes misuse my privilege as an administrator, because I put in a little bit of the spiritual stuff that I'm learning or reading about. And so I added Yes, so I just said, and, you know, I encourage everybody else, you know, whoever wants to share anything at all about life, because I think everything ultimately is interconnected. You know, nothing really stands discreetly, we have we have compartment, compartmentalize our lives and in so many different ways, you know, in terms of, you know, our ethnicities, our languages, our culture, our jobs, our, you know, this and that, and you name it, I mean, you can just cut yourselves up in like, a million pieces. But ultimately, I think it's the whole that that jives, well, that feels good, you know, so I think if we, if we incorporate all aspects of our lives, and bring it all together, you know, very, very appropriate of course, you're not going to be like completely off kilter. But you know, as long as it feels like it's a part of the human experience. I think it's, it's very much welcome. So yes, I miss-use as my privilege. But I welcome everybody in the group to actually share as much of what they're learning, you know, be it in food or otherwise, or however it informs your your human experience and makes it better makes you feel enlightened and feeling alive, aliveness, food, aliveness and life? I mean, those are my things.
Denise 31:53
Yeah, thank you so much. And of course, preparing food doesn't necessarily mean it has to be cooked on the alive from it, all that raw food, raw food is conjoined into and show their wonderful salads and all the other things that they can make
Namita 32:04
Absolutely. I mean, look at look at look at the magic of dates, I mean, it's great. And you eat a draw, and you can make it into roles that look like they're cooked, but they're actually not, you know, with coconut, you know, the desiccated coconut or fresh coconut, you just combine the two ingredients. I mean, God created such bounty in our lives, it's for us to, to combine and, and, and appreciate it and use it in a way that that feels amazing that you know, that that creates, you know, joy and wants us creates a liveness but also, I think empowers us to do more of what we came to do in this world. I think food is fuel ultimately to right. I mean, if you eat the wrong kind of food, it weighs you down. If you eat food that is alive, well prepared, wholesome, healthier, you know, with healthier profiles. I think it gives you a sense of wellness and aliveness that, that that informs your power informs your energy, your vibration, and also your energy levels in terms of what you're able to do in this world. And which would also mean connection. So I think food has its own place. But it's not everything, but it has its vital role to play since a part it's a it's a part of life that cannot be removed, you know, And so if it is if it is to be that way, let's make it let's make it personable. Let's make it wholesome. Let's experiment with it. Let's have fun and
Denise 33:42
part of community. It's it's part of community. Yeah, yes.
Namita 33:47
Sharing, sharing caring food, you know, our children teach us so many wonderful things in life. I mean, my children have been talking about sharing is caring from, I think when they were two years old, and it's something that now really rings true to me as, as a 40 something year old person here somewhere in that in the space of time, it did not become as important because it was all about me, me me and how do I make myself special and stand out there but sharing is caring and sharing and bonding is so important in life you know, it brings back to where we were we were would be we would be happiest and calmest and most peaceful I think those are the virtues that I care for the most in my life today. The bond, the bond with this universe with every, everything around me,less judgment, less fear, more confidence, and and wholesomeness, whatever that is you, food or otherwise,
Denise 34:46
And knowing that there is an abundant world, but don't have to you don't have to stash you don't have to hoard Yes, absolutely. So much of that. The baby formula thing is still an issue because people are still hoarding formula, you sort of understand the fear. But yeah, it's really sad that people feel that. And I think that it's part of educating your children is also if they can sit around the table and realize that this is part of an experience, it's not the only thing and they don't have to shovel it in their mouths and run off and do other stuff, but it's part of their, their tiny community, as part of the larger community.
Namita 35:29
Yes, yes. And also, I feel like yes, sometimes less is enough. Sometimes when we have less of something at a certain point in life, that is enough to that's okay. And we will we will make it we will survive, perhaps we will be deficient in certain things for a little period of our lives. But you know, because we hurt ourselves as we are deficient you know, as in when we have we go with that scarcity mindset, we hurt ourselves and we go into a place of big negative emotions, where we are trying less we are, we're more stressed, we're not putting out our best in the world, because we are, we constrict ourselves as as human beings to, you know, the scarcity has has repercussions where we become less as, as the beautiful humans that we are, because we are not performing at our at our optimal best. So I think accepting less for periods of time, and then embracing more when it comes in appreciating it that way, too. I think that balance of being able to go back and forth, and that also is important, you know, and thinking of life as perfect as it comes to you. I mean, for me, embracing life completely on its own terms is so important. When I say Embrace Your Inner Cook, it also means embrace whatever it is that your cooking is about, but what life is about too
Denise 36:55
Thank you so much.
Namita 36:56
Yeah, of course. Thank you.
Denise 36:59
Thank you for joining us at Myth, Magic, Medicine. If you have found this episode useful, you can apply for free CME credit through the link provided in the transcript. If you're not a medical professional, please remember, while we're physicians, we're not your physicians, so please consult with your own health care professional if you think something you have heard might apply to you or a loved one. Until next time, bye bye
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