5000 Years of Glow: Decoding Ayurveda With Sahajan's Lisa Mattam and Practitioner Ananta Ripa Ajmera

17:33Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And Lisa, your entire skincare range is dedicated to Ayurvedic's principles. And you, though, I feel like what's brilliant about your products is that you've taken sort of like the clinical side of what your past gigs were, your past lives, and brought it to Ayurveda. Because I think you understand, like in North America, often we are just like, what are the before and after?

17:57Ananta Ripa Ajmera:It's like people want to see you like the before and after. They want to see like the dark circle gone or whatever. So how did you sort of balance the Ayurvedic principles when you were like creating your skincare line? Absolutely. So I fundamentally, when I started the brand, it was based on a couple of things. One, I wanted to go clean with my beauty. I recognize, you know, I've always been on a wellness journey and I recognize the importance of whether you want to say it's like low toxin, but also actually what I love in clean beauty is the transparency of ingredients because when you go clean, it also forces you into a much smaller box of sort of, whether it's plant-based actives, but really, it just forces you into a transparency that I love.

18:38Ananta Ripa Ajmera:But I asked myself, like, why had it taken me so long to get here? Because I've always been on this journey. I was a fitness instructor in grad school, early in my career. I was an early adopter to yoga. It's the only thing I'm ever an early adopter to. And so I was like, why had it and Carrie bought it for results first. Yeah. I was walking into stores saying like, I want something that says like anti-wrinkle, anti-fatigue, turn back the hands of time. And so when I thought about the line, I thought I want to create a line that will, you know, people intuitively believe in clean, but I want to show them that they can get the same results as any conventional brand.

19:17Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And the only way I could do that was with Ayurveda, which I fundamentally believed in, but I knew we had to do clinicals from the start. So even the first five formulations, So before Ananta and I met, we worked with Ayurvedic doctors in India, but I actually hired a chemist, a former chemist from GlaxoSmithKline. And I wanted it to have the rigor of what we would consider like medical grade skincare or whatever terminology you like to use. And then we were one of the first clean brands to ever do clinicals, cosmetic clinicals, but clinicals, because I exactly wanted to be able to confidently say, you can take home this serum or you can take home this, you know, one of our best sellers, the creme riche, and you will get the same result, if not better than some of the things you're buying that's conventional.

19:59Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Right. And I want to demonstrate that to you. And so it wasn't that I had to trade one for the other, but it was in fact, we followed the rigor of Ayurveda. So no matter who we're working with on formulations and now, you know, we've progressed to working with Ananta in our NPD process. What we do is we say we want to create X and this is what we want it to do. And this is the result we want it to deliver. We then go and create the product. But before we launch it, we put it through the clinical process. So it's not that they're competitive or like two processes running separately. it's that we confidently start with Ayurveda and we do all the initial research on the ingredients and all of those types of things.

20:35Ananta Ripa Ajmera:But then prior to launching, we then say, OK, it's time for the clinical piece. Yeah, I love that. I honestly, I can't stand the duality that we have right now in society where it's like, this is science, this is nature, clean or whatever word that you want to use. I just think that I hate the infighting that happens on Instagram where it's like, oh, but there's no data behind that. So therefore, let's ignore it all. And I think that's so unfair to, let's say, Ayurveda that has been around for 5000 years or indigenous practices or anything where there is anecdotal evidence. And just because we haven't studied it yet, it doesn't mean that hundreds of thousands of people can't speak to these results, whether it's, you know, for kind of first aid or for skincare or what have you.

21:28Ananta Ripa Ajmera:So that's why I love that we're having this conversation. And that's why I love what you do, Lisa. And I have so much respect for your line because it kind of shows like, see, we have been onto something for 5 ,000 years, you know? So I think it's the other, it's the other fundamental thing, because I do consider myself, you know, I have a science degree. We laugh at home. My husband has a PhD in neuropharmacology. So we're, my husband's always like, this is a home of science. But one of the things I've often said to the kids is that what refutes science is better science. And so we're sometimes, if we think of a practice like oil pulling, which is fundamental to Ayurveda, there isn't a lot of data on it.

22:08Ananta Ripa Ajmera:But the lack of data doesn't mean that it doesn't work. To your point, what it means is that there's a lack of data and probably whether it's less resources or less fundamental need to research it, right? And so it's interesting because oil pulling is a great example of there is some early data that shows that actually oil pulling, which is squishing oil through your mouth as part of your dental hygiene practice, does reduce the bacteria load. So that early data is there. But who's going to invest in the next set of data to go say where it's going to go. So if you go to your dentist, and as you as you should, and most people who oil pull still brush your teeth, they're still going to tell you, you know, your dentist is going to say this is not a replacement for brushing or flossing is in fact is an additional step.

22:52Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And what I think of when I think of the Ayurvedic practice of oil pulling to your point is that there's 5000 years of practice in science we would think of as like evidence based support. Now what we need is but until one of the big dental companies, one of the big toothpaste companies find their white space, no one's going to be researching that. And so I think the two aren't in opposition to each other, but we have to see them for what they are. And I love what you said earlier, Ananta, both and. And I think that's such a great, that's how I see, you know, anecdotal evidence and rituals is that don't stop going to your dentist, but don't come at me if I want to oil pull as well.

23:34Ananta Ripa Ajmera:You know, you got to be responsible. It's common sense. Let's talk about this pretty product we have here. This is the Sahajan Sacred Flower Face Oil. I have not tried this yet. Came out earlier this year. What I want to talk about is how you work together. What is the process of how you consult in how that comes into this little bottle? This is a cool one. I love that we're talking about this product particularly because Anant has helped us with many products, but this is a cool one. I wanted to create a face oil that we knew could help to target dark spots that we knew could help with brightening that could, you know, have an ability on hydration fine lines.

24:15Ananta Ripa Ajmera:But actually what I fundamentally wanted to do, and I look back and three years ago, I wrote this on a piece of paper that in 2026, we would launch a kumkumari oil. And in Ayurveda, kumkumari means, kumkum is saffron. And so it means saffron on more. and it is a very traditional Ayurvedic preparation. If you go to India, if you go to Sri Lanka, if you go to anywhere in South Asia, you will find tons of brands and even brands that we're probably all familiar with that are now moving across the globe all have this very traditional formulation. And so the ask of Ananta was, I want to create a Kumkumadi oil and maybe you can take it from there.

24:57Lisa Mattam:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I did some research just on the traditional formulation, but then also different ways that different people have put it together. Because this kind of product you can find a lot of different beauty brands have made a version of. And I've tried some just to kind of test out what the other ones were like. And so I found that what's really nice about how this one came together was that it's a lot less sticky. Like a lot of the kumkumari oils like are really difficult to apply on your face. They don't like glide onto your skin like this one does. And I felt like the scent was also very important and to really bring the floral aspect into it.

25:37Lisa Mattam:Because flowers are actually a huge source of healing medicine, both in terms of their physical attributes, but then even their spiritual qualities. And I feel like so much of the ancient wisdom is rooted and so much of Ayurveda is rooted in deep spiritual principles. and the flowers really encapsulate that. So I love that we have like the lotus flower as a part of this particular formulation for your skin because the lotus is the ultimate spiritual symbol of awakening from the mud and the difficulties of life. And I feel like that's in a sense what we're bringing to our skin is that our skin may have been through a lot, right?

26:18Lisa Mattam:Just going through pollution, going through traffic, going through the ups and downs of life and how life hits us, right? But then here is this rejuvenating opportunity to take in something that, first of all, smells really nice. And then it glides right on easily. So it's not another difficult thing to incorporate into your day. But then like even just having a little bit of knowledge of the meaning of it. And that's why I love that we went with the name Sacred Flower Oil. Just brings that ritual. Yeah, ritual and the transformative power of the flower into our daily existence. And it's really like bringing a really beautiful aspect of nature into our skin.

27:03Lisa Mattam:And I feel that as women in particular, we connect so much with flowers because they're so similar to us. They go through cycles. They go through, you know, phases. You plant a seed. It takes some time for it to grow, right? And so even with the beauty rituals, it's not always an overnight thing, right? It's something where you want to be consistent with it. You want to do it regularly. You want to actually like give yourself that opportunity to grow. So it's a blossoming.

27:30Ananta Ripa Ajmera:So do you think that when you're creating formulas, like if you, is it sort of a process where you might say, okay, we want to achieve X goal. And you would say, well, going back into my Ayurvedic encyclopedia, I think that saffron or lotus or whatnot would have an impact on this result. Is that how it goes? So typically, so when we did our first formulations, it was like very specific. So I want something that's going to impact fine lines. I want something that's going to support collagen or something. And so we would get the exact ingredients, go put trifla, go put gotu cola, you know, and the data around a gotu cola, for example, shows that it stimulates collagen.

28:14Ananta Ripa Ajmera:So it was perfect. Sacred flower, I think the reason that I'm so excited about it is it's as much about the ingredients. So Ananta shared, you know, traditionally we needed saffron, we needed mangista, we needed turmeric. Ananta hand in this formula is also the sacred, is the lotus flower because a lot of cum cummati oils have lotus but not necessarily in the depth that we do. But what with this formula which was unique was because a lot of our formulas are serums and creams they're made in like a very traditional how you'd make a serum and cream in a lab this was made in the way you'd make a cum cummati oil so it takes us days to make this because we take often petals, herbs, all of these things.

28:58Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And they, if you can imagine, like if you're using a bodum for a coffee or if you're steeping a tea, all of those steep in a jojoba and sesame-based oil over days. And then what we do is we sieve and sieve and sieve and sieve until we get this golden oil that's just the richness of all these ingredients. I spent a lot of time reading about this oil and it used to be an oil that was reserved for the royals are only for sacred rituals because of how long it took to make and because of how expensive it is, saffron being so expensive. This one was so special because it was, I think, fundamentally true of Ayurveda, if I can say it that way.

29:37Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Whereas, you know, when I think of the next product that's coming out, it was, can we talk new products? Yeah, whatever you want. Oh, okay. We love scoop. You love scoop? Yes. So, you know, we're right now working on an exfoliator. And so this is, you know, when we went to Ananta and it was a little bit more traditional. It was like, we want an exfoliator.

29:59Lisa Mattam:Keep it simple. Yeah.

30:00Ananta Ripa Ajmera:We wanted to obviously to be able to exfoliate what material should we use. We want it to be gentle. And so we were very specific in terms of the gentleness of the exfoliation. We were, we told her why our customers wanted an exfoliator, because we do have a mask that is an exfoliating mask, but people wanted something they could use daily. They wanted the tactile formulation. They wanted to be able to address dull skin. They wanted to be able to address, you know, again, hyperpigmentation and exfoliation, resurfacing. And, you know, we had a couple of other things. And then so we then go and sit with Ananta and then she says, put this ingredient in at this rate and this ingredient in this rate.

30:36Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And then what we do is build a house around her base almost. So that is the more sort of traditional collaboration, I would say, of products. And when can we expect to get our hands on that? Yeah. Well, if it's part, if you're thinking new year, new you, I can guarantee you'll be able to pick it up in the month of January. I love that. Exciting. By the way, everybody, if you're listening and you haven't tried the Sahajan Golden Eye Balm, it is amazing, especially for the winter. it gives you like this hint under the eye of like glowy but also like it's just so comforting and amazing is that your number one bestseller it isn't but it does have ghee in it so we've been talking a lot about ghee and ghee and ayurveda has been known to target dark circles and that was the fundamental of that product and also viral tiktok yeah but like for context it was the number one eye product at sephora canada last year for three months like this is yeah I believe it.

31:31Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And that to me is like, it warms my heart because it's like Ayurveda works. Yes, it does. Yes, exactly. It does. Exactly. What is the number one bestseller? Oh, it's our Radiant Serum. Oh, yeah. Day in and day out, it's our Radiant Serum. The Golden Glow Eye Bomb goes viral like every six months. Oh, that's amazing. Go ahead.

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35:23Ananta Ripa Ajmera:So Ananta, you actually offer this online course. It's called Creating an Ayurvedic home skin spa. So what are the steps? Can we get a crash course on this?

35:35Lisa Mattam:Yeah. Yeah. It really is all about the oil. Lathering your body with oil. So Hajin has amazing oils for three different aspects of your being. So literally your whole body, your hair and your face. And what we recommend for the body oil is to just warm it up. I use a small crock pot to warm up the oil. I put a little bowl inside of it and then keep the oil in there and just plug it in. It's a lunch size crock pot and it'll be warm in two seconds. And you just dip your fingers in and then you apply this oil all over your body. You don't put it on like moisturizer. You want to really like put some vigor into it, like really like go up and down on the long parts of your body and then go in a circular motion around your joints.

36:23Lisa Mattam:And this is really great to do before you take a shower on an empty stomach, ideally in the morning. We also recommend oiling your feet and your ears and the top of your head with a little bit of oil before you go to sleep. This helps you sleep really well every night. And then after you take your shower, you can go ahead and use some of the sacred flower oil and just put this onto your face and it will make you feel so good for the day ahead. If it's a hair washing day, which we don't recommend washing our hair every day in Ayurveda because it damages the hair to overdo it. But when it is a day to wash your hair, then we recommend just taking some of the hair oil and then really getting into your scalp to massage your whole head.

37:09Lisa Mattam:And that's really helpful for if you have headaches and things like that as well. And what this whole thing does is it really rejuvenates your skin. And in Ayurveda, And sneha is the word for to oil. Sneha also means to love. So you're really like giving love to all parts of your body and your being. And that has a great psychological impact on you as you go through the day ahead as well. And you can do it literally every day and it doesn't take more than 10 minutes.

37:42Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And so why do you recommend warm in particular, warming the oil?

37:47Lisa Mattam:We recommend warming the oil because the warmth of the oil allows it to penetrate more deeply into the layers of your skin. So it goes deeper into your body and then delivers a more profound benefit that way. Do you say any like mantras while you're doing this? Ideally, yeah. What do you say? Yeah, I mean, it's supposed to be like a meditative experience.

38:12Ananta Ripa Ajmera:I see, yeah.

38:13Lisa Mattam:You know, so just even just I love myself unconditionally. is a great one. I have Sanskrit mantras, so I like to have those. But just anything that gives you a pause and that boost of positivity, because again, the mind and the skin are so related that the skin is a reflection of our mind and our thoughts. So thinking consciously uplifting thoughts as you're applying the oils really makes a difference.

38:41Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And what about oiling the ears and oiling the feet? Now, is that just to have them moisturized or is there a significance?

38:51Lisa Mattam:Yeah, there's a significance to it. It's recommended in the traditional Ayurveda texts to oil these three parts of yourself, the top of your head, like the crown of your head, your ears. You can just do the outside of your ears, you know, and then the feet. And these three areas are where the vata dosha lives. And vata dosha is responsible for movement. It's also responsible for the most number of imbalances in the mind and the body. So if we keep this one in balance, regardless of what our own natural constitution is, we're pretty good to go through the day. And it traditionally is recommended for quality sleep at night.

39:31Lisa Mattam:And it's just one of those relaxing ways to go to sleep. It's also noted that just oiling these three target areas of the body gives you the same benefit as oiling your whole body in the morning before you take a shower. So especially if you're time pressed, this is a really good way to do that. And I've taught a lot of probation staff members, and they're really busy and really stressed working with high risk individuals day and night. and they found this so helpful that we did a before and after survey and they found that they were sleeping 46 percent better on average and having 47 percent less aches and pains so the oiling practice also really really really reduces pain and especially when you make the oil warm because warmth in general will calm the air and space which makes up vata and vata dosha is always responsible for pain.

40:26Lisa Mattam:So anytime you have pain, you know, you've got too much vata dosha going on and oil is one of the best ways to relieve it.

40:34Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Ananta, isn't it? Just because I think about it in relationship to my life, isn't vata dosha also associated to like angsty, anxiety? Oh yeah. Yeah. So because I remember, so for context, Ananta is also my Ayurvedic practitioner, But I remember her bringing these practices into my life. And I mean, I really encourage, I don't know if you want to do it like while you're having the podcast, but like massage the back of your ears and you would be surprised at the pain. Yeah, I've done the ear seeding, which is traditional Chinese medicine. And everybody pretty much gets that puts the ear seeds in.

41:14Ananta Ripa Ajmera:It's like first reaction, ow. because it's like, no, we don't really give that area any attention. Yeah, there is a lot there for sure. I actually had a lovely facial yesterday at Rescue Spa here in New York and they did a really good massage in my ear with oil. It was lovely because you don't always have that in facials. No, they don't usually touch your ear. They don't usually touch your ear. Oh, no, she was really, you know, giving love to my ears, which was lovely. What about navel oiling? This is something we've seen on TikTok. Is there, tell us what that is about.

41:51Lisa Mattam:Well, the navel is very important in Ayurveda because it's where digestion is happening, right? So anything you do to stimulate the digestion directly like that is very powerful. So if people are having chronic digestion issues and things like that, it just gives an additional boost to the digestive fire.

42:11Ananta Ripa Ajmera:It's not an idea that it's going to bring you more like balance elsewhere in the body, is it?

42:19Lisa Mattam:It will, just because whenever we correct the digestion, it gives profound impact on all different areas of the body and the mind. So it's really just anything that's for the digestion will impact you in so many ways, because the gut is like the second brain, right? Like now they're finding that out in modern science as well about the microbiome and the mind-brain-gut connection. And so we just wanna always, no matter what a person presents with in IRV that asks, how's your gut? And we know that, but how are you eliminating? Are you eliminating, right? Like every day and all of those kinds of unglamorous questions that we find really important to look at and work with.

43:04Lisa Mattam:And then once that's corrected, it's amazing how other things just automatically disappear on their own.

43:11Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Absolutely.

43:12Lisa Mattam:Does it matter what kind of oil? For the...

43:16Ananta Ripa Ajmera:For navel oiling or your feet and your ears and that?

43:21Lisa Mattam:So if you have a lot of pain in your body, then sesame oil is really great. If you have a lot of heat and inflammation, then coconut oil is the traditional recommendation. So usually Ayurveda texts would say to go more sesame oil in the winter seasons and then coconut oil in the hot seasons. And then like Sahajan's oil is a blend of different kinds of oils. And so if you're ever in doubt, just have a blend of that.

43:50Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Yeah, ours is sesame and coconut. You can't go wrong at any time of the year.

43:54Lisa Mattam:And then you just can use that. And I think you have almond also. We have almond also. Which is a really, really nice oil. That's like something that is also pretty expensive to get normally, but they make it really affordable with how Sahajan has it all together. And it also smells really nice. And so, yeah, like in the in-between or just when you don't know or you want both, like say you have pain and inflammation, then you should just, you know, literally do that. But warm it up.

44:20Ananta Ripa Ajmera:When I started to go on this journey, I read the sentence that I love sharing, which is that in Ayurveda, there's no greater act of self-care than anointing oneself with oil from head to toe. And so if you think about it, and I think about the experiences that I've had, there's a treatment in Ayurveda, which I highly recommend, and I will find you a place to do it, called a shirodhara treatment, where they take warm oil and they initially start by pouring it into your third eye. And it is such a powerful experience. One, it's actually, I found it a little at first, like kind of, it was almost.

44:57Ananta Ripa Ajmera:You're like, it was hair wash day. It can never be hair wash day. I think I had it and I was wearing contact lenses. I was like, no. You have to be ready to be like a cycling pig. But when you do it, there's like the profound experience. But again, being a hyper nerd, like I go and look and see what the benefit is. And there's so much benefit to oiling, lymphatic drainage, being able to work out tension and rituals in and of themselves. And I think this is why I've gravitated towards Ayurveda having worked in corporate. I think what we've learned is how these rituals do fundamentally help us with our health.

45:35Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Now, have either of you tried a Kansa, am I saying it right? Kansa wand? Kansa wand, yeah. Yeah. Tell us about that because it's sort of being compared to a Gua Sha online. So tell us about that.

45:48Lisa Mattam:Interesting. I actually don't have experience with it. Oh, yeah.

45:51Ananta Ripa Ajmera:I can speak to it. Yeah, for sure. So we have done, like when we've done pop-ups or, you know, sometimes we've done events where we've incorporated the Kansa wand. It is a beautiful tool. So it's typically like a wooden wand and it has a copper top to it. And it's a traditional tool. It's different from a Gua Sha though. So I appreciate the comparison. I actually think we're doing both a disservice by comparing them because what I think Gua Sha allows you to do is sometimes like, you know, you'll often see like someone who's really skilled at Gua Sha get into the fine like smile lines or get into specific lines.

46:26Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And I feel like it addresses what Kansa does is it helps beautifully with lymphatic drainage. It's this beautiful wand and we used it. We don't carry one, but I've used it many times and we've used it with activations. And we've used it when introducing people through pop-ups to Ayurveda to experience the full experience. And what we see is when people do it, now people are going for buccal massages and those types of things. It's ability to help with like immediate inflammation on the face, lymphatic drainage. There's a specific protocol. So you don't want the Kansa to leave the face. It's like long, deep strokes.

47:04Ananta Ripa Ajmera:That's why it's different from a Guasha. But the copper, maybe you could speak so that for context, the top is copper and copper is very significant in Ayurveda. So if you want a real Kansa wand, you want to be able to get one that has copper as part of it. And I don't know if you want to speak to copper in terms of because also in Ayurveda, you know, it's recommended to drink from a copper cup. But people who, it's interesting. So I'm going to say this, that I haven't done the science on this one, so I'm very careful. But when you use Kansa, oftentimes people will see like a grayness come out of form.

47:38Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And it's believed to be part of the detoxing process. But I want to be clear that I haven't. Anecdotal. Anecdotal. Or like maybe or definitely experienced because I've seen it. Yeah. I've seen it. Yeah, I've absolutely seen it. I've seen it online. I've seen it in person. but I don't know why that is. The belief system is detoxing but I don't know that for certain but it is a really beautiful practice and I think if you are able to get a facial that does one. That sounds lovely. It's incredible. You know when you see sometimes the before and after from like a lymphatic drainage massage imagine someone doing that to your face with this beautiful wand and they're moving oils around your face and it's like they're sculpting your face.

48:22Ananta Ripa Ajmera:So I feel like gouache has this incredible ability to sculpt but target. This is like overall sculpting, lymphatic drainage. It's beautiful. And I know that earmuffs, Lisa, Ranavat carries one in their mind. Yes, they do. And we can link to that until Sahajan potentially comes out with one. Tell us the significance of copper.

48:46Lisa Mattam:Copper is one of those digestion-promoting substances. So we do actually have a traditional ritual that involves filling a copper vessel with water before you go to sleep at night. And then we actually will pour this to the sun in the morning just as a way to honor the sun as a symbol of the soul, as a symbol of health, as a symbol of abundance, creativity, knowledge, willpower, etc. And it connects you to the five great elements because you are pouring water to the sun into the earth with air and space all around. And then it's recommended you can also instead of pouring it to the earth, you can drink this.

49:27Lisa Mattam:And it's very good for your immunity and for just promoting a great digestive fire. So everything that we talk about in Ayurveda is just really through this lens.

49:38Ananta Ripa Ajmera:I think it's what we see. It's, you know, use in Ayurveda. As Ananta said, everything comes back to digestion. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I think that's my, it's funny, people sometimes ask me like on a whim, like, what's the one thing you would teach me about Ayurveda? And I always answer like digestion is everything. Yeah. I remember when we first met, and I hope it's okay that I'm telling this anecdotal story. I met Ananta and I went to see her because I had reflux and I was trying to work that out. And when she was asking me about my habits, I was like, I'm super healthy. Like I eat a salad every day.

50:14Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And she, one, stopped me there because in Ayurveda, warm cooked vegetables are, you know, much easier to digest. And there's a whole long story that I could tell you, you know, that she told me. but the other thing she told me is like you have to remember like it we commonly think of like you are what you eat but in ayurvedic you are what you digest and so if you take that fundamental and you apply it to your food and you look at like does it matter how many salads you eat like are you actually digesting that salad are you eliminating are you doing all of those things nutrition and then we go and take that to the skin like all of that stuff if you know we're so obsessed now.

50:50Ananta Ripa Ajmera:There's this like zeitgeisty thing around gut health. It makes sense. Yeah. Right. I want to get back to the bath thing though, because I understand I was looking at your website and you have sort of a tutorial on how to create your own sacred ritual bath. Yes. So tell us what's the best way to create your own sacred ritual bath at home.

51:11Lisa Mattam:So a really easy way to have a great ritual bath is even just to get some rose petals

51:17Ananta Ripa Ajmera:and put them into your bath. I've seen that in movies.

51:21Lisa Mattam:Yeah. Yeah. And actually we've created a bath soak together. Soaked together. And that's really nice because it has jasmine and it has nutmeg. And those things also help you sleep well. So if you wanted to do that in the evening, that's a really nice wind down ritual. But in general, florals like marigold is really great for people who have inflammation or after giving birth. It's a really nice way to heal the whole body. And just like reduce all of that heat and intensity from your system. But in general, yeah, scented flowers are the way to go.

51:57Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Okay, so our final question, what would be a couple of tips that you would give our listeners who want to glow from the inside and out?

52:07Lisa Mattam:I would say eat warm cooked foods, take care of your mind and emotions and honor the sun as a symbol of your own soul.

52:18Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Okay, wonderful. Lisa? I'm very practical. Let's do it. That is lamp. I would say I made the shift to warm water and I can't go back. Like I drink almost exclusively warm water. And the parallel I would give to you is like, let's say you got like, I don't know, like greasy takeout and you're washing your plate. Do you use hot water or cold water to wash your plate? Yeah. And so if you think about, I always use that parallel and I just, now I crave it because I feel like it feels good inside, but it's supporting digestion. And remember that digestion is fundamental to skin. I would say that. That would be my number one.

52:58Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Number two would be work on sleep, which is advice I need to take for myself. But in Ayurveda, sleep is the mother goddess. She rejuvenates, she restores. It's very hard to have good skin if you don't sleep. And I think the third thing, and this is as an acolyte of Ananta, I would say, look to see where you can incorporate certain spices. So one easy one would be, it's called a CCFT. So cumin, coriander, fennel. You can make this at home. You put the spices together. whether you can seep them in hot water. I'm not a huge fan of the taste. I'm not going to lie, but I'm also not going to lie what it does for both my skin and my digestion is off the charts.

53:37Ananta Ripa Ajmera:And like you can get, yeah, you can Google a recipe or I can give you one to add, but it's so easy. So you drink it. So you drink it. It's just like a homemade tea. You can also buy, like stores have them, but there's no reason you couldn't. CCFT. CCFT. If you Googled CCFT, but it's cumin, coriander, fennel, really good for your health and digestion. And there's so much good data on the impact to your microbiome of the biodiversity of spices. So highly, I would highly recommend that for your skin. Thank you both so much. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for sharing all of these amazing insights.

54:10Ananta Ripa Ajmera:We appreciate you both. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. You can find details on every product mentioned in today's episode, along with our exclusive promo codes on our blog at breakingbeautypodcast.com. While you're there, be sure to sign up for our newsletter. Every episode will be delivered directly to your inbox so you won't miss a single thing. And get social with us. Let us know what you think of the episode. You can follow us on Instagram at Breaking Beauty Podcast. And did you know we also have a private Facebook group? Just search Breaking Beauty Podcast chat room. You can even leave us a voicemail at any time with questions or feedback at 1-844-227-0302.

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55:25Ananta Ripa Ajmera:Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.