Welcome to Everyday People, a show featuring the admirable people all around us. Here are your timestamps:
00:00 What’s new with you, TxU?
01:22 Everyday People w. Dr Anoosha
56:00 Mailbag
59:00 Letters to Myself
Write in to the show: https://forms.gle/MCZZic3h6vTDXriF8
What’s new with you, TxU?
This week’s blog:
Bonus podcast:
Everyday People — Dr. Anoosha N Shastry
Dr. Anoosha is an ayurvedic doctor from Bangalore, currently residing in Munich. She is also a professional Bharatnatyam dancer with 25 years of experience and a Masters degree.
Her research deals with integrating holistic sciences like ayurveda, yoga, and dance in pain management, especially in post-surgical recovery.
Quotes from the conversation:
Why she chose pain management for her research:
There is no person who doesn’t have pain - physical, mental, emotional - some or the other pain will always be there. I chose pain management because of personal experience.
I’ve been connected to dance and yoga since I was six. I met with an accident and had pain and it kept me away from everything I loved. Fortunately at that time, I was in the final year of an internship, and I asked, “why not look at it from a medical perspective?”
On her relationship with the stage:
I love being on stage! With dance and performance, I went on stage at a very young age. I’ve been the MC for the Ministry of Ayush and hosting global wellness meets, and so on. Theatre, dance, and MCing - it’s wonderful.
I drive my energy from the butterflies in my stomach, and once they’re resolved, it’s meditative to be on stage.
On principles she wants to follow for yourself:
Staying true to yourself, believing in yourself, and handling bad situations gracefully. My father once told me [the last one]. To accept every situation is something that is a huge principle for me.
You do not need to mask yourself to achieve things. The same sun that hardens clay, melts ice - [situations are different for different people].
On her mental health:
Ups and downs with mental health is something everybody goes through and I’m not exception. Especially with a lot of changes - professionally, personally, change in country, in work. To handle all these situations [was stressful]. That’s when those principles I mentioned helped.
Now that I look back, I don’t think I handled it very neatly… but I don’t have a lot of regrets. The struggle is still real, but I’m in a better place now.
Dr. Anoosha’s recs:
Mailbag
Send your letters for the show by commenting below, or by emailing vaibhavguptawho@substack.com.
Abhilash - What, if any, is the impact and importance of literary fiction on designing one's life?
I think it’s paramount. As we go through life, it is important for us to travel and engage with different cultures so that we can see how many of our rules are made up and so that we can overcome some of our cultural biases and conservatisms.
Not everybody can travel though, and reading is a cheap and comprehensive way to travel. When you read non-fiction, you read accounts from people all over the world and learn new things.
And when you read fiction, you read what is possible and how creators put their hopes and dreams into new worlds where the problems of this one don’t exist. What does a world like that look like? What can we learn from it. This sort of input is helps us overcome our shortsightedness and expand our horizons.
Letters to Myself
Hello Vaibhav,
I’ve been unwell. I don’t know if it’s an illness, or if it’s just fatigue. I find myself coasting through days, working or playing or creating, without much attachment to any of it.
On one hand, that’s good! Dispassion is a friend of consistency, and to have been able to be consistent (up to a reasonable standard, not my insane one) has filled me with some joy and some pride in myself. This is what I’ve wanted for all of this year.
On the other hand, dispassion is not a lifestyle I want to live. I want to enjoy everything I’m doing, and that’s really hard if I’m doing a lot. Finding true balance still remains an unachieved goal. I wonder what balance is, because it sounds really boring.
I am going to sleep a lot this week, because sometimes sleep is the best reset. Remember that. As much as possible, sleep. Recover. From there, you will find a foundation to not just chase achievements, but to actually enjoy them.
Zombie walking through time,
Vaibhav.
Dr Anoosha N Shastry | Everyday People 115