David: G’day and here we are for another podcast, today we’re talking with a good friend of mine Anand Bhatt, who is an Indian and into natural therapy. Can you explain to us where you were born in India? Anand: sure David, thanks for having me today, I was born in the capital city of India, called New Delhi David: can you talk to us about your childhood a little bit and what spurred you on your interest in natural therapies? Anand: I come from a traditional family in India, where natural therapies was part of our lives since we were little, my dad was always more inclined into natural therapies than anything else if we had an injury or anything like that, we would always try to get help naturally first. If we could manage and we could actually manage a lot of it with natural therapies. He was always a believer in yoga and mind over matter’s type of therapies, back home we always say that our kitchen is our pharmacy, so all the ingredients we use in our kitchen like our herbs and spices. Those are very therapeutic in nature so since childhood, I was exposed to all the natural therapies and even in the school system at that time during our study we had yoga as part of our curriculum which was really good so all those things kind of got me more interested in building my confidence in natural therapies. David: I know that yoga is certainly becoming more into the western way of thinking that was always the way that the Indians thought was it. Anand: yes, and mostly, that was how we grew up in most houses, and in most houses, we would use grandmas recipes for things when it comes to healings and body in mind. A big factor. Also was the government and the NGOs and non-profit organisations taking interest providing grants to natural therapy clinics back in India. It is quite fascinating that we have 500 bed hospitals, which are based on natural therapies, it’s just like a normal hospital where there is a general ward, a deluxe, ward and people can choose according to their financial position and these treatments from morning to evening. There’s a fasting group, meditation every day, there’s yoga every day, acupuncture and there’s not only one there’s hundreds of Hospitals working like that and indoor facilities where people come for a week or two or three stay there get the body cleansed and in a lot of cases they would come with a bunch of medicines and when they’re finished, a lot of them no longer need their medications so in a way, trying to cooperate with the wider body, potential and opportunity to heal itself. David: so you went to university to get your qualifications in acupuncture what other qualifications have you got? Anand: when I completed my grade 12, it was in science trained, and it was my father’s vision that I do something in natural therapies, my elder brother he did a doctors degree and a physicians degree so my dad had a vision that I should probably do some holistic studies, and that would be a good combination, so I joined a college and I did a degree that was called a bachelors of naturopathy therapy and yogic sciences. It was a full-time five year doctors degree in natural therapies. Currently in India there are over 40 colleges, offering this doctors degree in natural therapies and that’s where I got my vision and what was fascinating was we studied everything as a medical student will study like human anatomy, Physiology, pathology, microbiology, obstetrics, gynaecology, modern diagnosis as well, but when it comes to treatment and even diagnostic parts, we had slight variations where we could do diagnosis by pulse mapping, traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, looking at your tongue and see what you can diagnose through the eyes and facial diagnosis. The ideology was part of that as well , the great blend between the Western and the eastern system we learned was really good because we can get the patient to have a blood test done, and we could also look at the external features to see where the morbid matter and toxins are accumulating and then our treatment modalities were in the end totally different because we used mud like a mud bath or a partial mud application, used hydrotherapy is using water to heal, we use Reiki energy, healing acupuncture exercise therapies, yoga therapies, herbal blend. We made some herbal concoctions as well for the patience to have so we had like a proper clinic posting in India in different hospitals when we were doing our internship, so we got good exposure , we worked in like sanatoriums we worked in hospitals community centres and even mobile clinics to get a good exposure of a variety of patients and we did hundreds of camps like health camps 10 days, 21 days of health camps in different locations to really get a good exposure about Diseases and disease management. David: the integration of your Indian beliefs into western medicine is quite apparent. I think we can certainly learn a lot. I’ve certainly benefited a lot from yoga and a few of the things that you’ve suggested, I also believe that the physical exercise therapy is Very beneficial. I read that you taught yoga in North Africa and I believe you spent some time in the US can you tell us a little bit about that? Anand: upon completion of my course, I was ready for a clinical practice, for the first three years, I spent around India, working at different hospitals, I was working as a medical officer I was working with the faculty to teach young students in these years. I gain some really good confidence about the natural system of healing and then I was ready to spread my wings from there and an opportunity came where I was offered a position at a corporate set up in North Africa , the office was in Libya, Tripoli and my job was a consultant there and this was a construction company with over 1500 employees, and my job was to teach yoga and wellness to their core team of 50 people who were managing these employees, I was ready to explore more so I took the step I’m going to go and have an experience and that gave me a great insight further I took the data before or when I started there where someone had asthma or someone had thyroid issues or someone had a weight or cholesterol issues. I had taken all the data before and then six months later. There was a marked difference to an extent where one of the guys that did the yoga with me he had lost 45 kg of weight in six months just with connecting with the yoga and this gave me more boost to say this was great, and the system really works well, but I had to move further. I had to learn further more so I had decided to go to America and I started an MBA in health problems in university in Virginia Washington DC and alongside I also did my advanced yoga teachers training program which was more therapeutic focus. It was 1200 hours of therapeutic yoga and these two I did parallel when I was in Washington DC. I spent approximately five years in the states in learning cultures getting better at communication and kind of blending the eastern and western as well when it comes to yoga and I got good exposure they’re good learning there I’ve lived in Washington DC and lived in Maryland. I also was running and organic spa in Maryland at one stage where everything there was organic and it was again a great exposure. I also lived in Michigan Detroit as well. I spent some time in the Virgin Islands, the British virgin islands, and Saint Thomas as well, running spas Part of the holistic industrial health industry. David: how long have you been in Australia? Anand: it’s been over 12 years now. David: and what brought you here? Anand: my older brother was already here, and in Michigan my wife was a physiotherapist there. I was working where she was working and Michigan is a very cold place, very heavy snow and blizzards and my passion of yoga and natural therapies was not being accomplished there. So my brother, who is a physician here he said Australia is a very good place and people are very open to natural therapies And I could try getting here and which I did once I did what I loved is the relaxed laid-back environment here and I’m really loving it and I made a very good decision. David: that’s good, and we are glad to have you in Australia and what are your spiritual beliefs and how does that impact on your yoga therapy Anand: I come from a very spiritual background. My family is very spiritual as well. I like the fact that the spirit is with in all of us, and we have all different belief systems, but yoga is something that connects us, even though we are so diverse, we become one when we are in yoga , so the inner spirit can help us to guide us to become a better version of ourselves, and when we can visualise things, we have more totality in the mind, because as you know these days, stress and anxieties is in our lives, and we somehow lose being in the present moment, so the spiritual part so the spiritual part of us can try and awaken it more and try and guide us further in the right direction. David: I’ve certainly benefited a lot from your yoga sessions, and also I’ve done a bit of research into the Hindu religion and it talks about being optimistic, I’ve done a bit of research into that. I’ve discovered if you’re optimistic your brain will go to positive areas and it’s my belief that you’re more likely to get things done if you’re optimistic, can you talk about that? Anand: yes, I believe that the mindset is a key to everything, because if you’re thinking constantly about fear, worries, anger that can only make it worse, but if you look at positives in our lives And there are a lot of positives in our life, so we often ignore or don’t look at that can reflect on our well-being and reflect who we are so positive thinking positive mindset is a basis of every being and if we are on a healing journey which we all are in our own ways This positive thinking belief really can take us to the next level otherwise live long carrying the baggage from the past will make our journey forward very difficult. I think positive thinking and optimism is really valuable tool for us. David: thank you Anand and have you got any final words for us? Anand: Thank you for having me David it’s been a pleasure. The most important message is your health. Your body is your temple so really keep it clean. Keep it healthy. Keep your mind empty of any pollutants, these days talking about alkaline bodies and now the next level is alkaline mind because everything starts from the mind affecting the body so keep your temple clean, so the spirit can live in it freely and enjoy your life. Enjoy being in the present moment and have moments of joy and happiness. Go along long way. Thank you David. David: yes, if you don’t have your Health, you don’t have anything Anand: we have money and material possessions, but if you don’t have your health, you’re very poor. David: it’s been great talking to you today Anand thank you. Anand: thank you David thank you everyone have a lovely day.