Ayurveda Explained — How Ancient Wisdom Connects Mind, Skin & Immune Health with Elisha Reverby

Jennifer Norman:
There's a quiet exhaustion many ambitious women carry, the kind that comes from doing everything right and still feeling stuck. More effort, more discipline, more self-improvement, and yet something still feels off. What if the missing piece isn't more doing, but deeper listening? Today's conversation is about slowing down without losing momentum, about beauty not as correction, but as communication, and about what happens when we stop overriding our inner Intelligence and start trusting it instead. My guest today is Elisha Reverby, a licensed esthetician, Ayurvedic wellness educator, and the founder of Alik Organics. With over 20 years of experience, Elisha blends spa science, skin nutrition, and Ayurvedic principles to address inflammation, stress-related skin issues, and skin barrier repair, working with the body, not against it. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Allure, and CNN. But what matters most is how she sees herself. First as an educator and a stepping stone for others, especially ambitious women of color who've hit invisible ceilings and are quietly wondering why effort alone hasn't been enough.

Jennifer Norman:
In this episode, we explore how mindset shapes daily outcomes, why skin is deeply connected to immune health, and how ancient wisdom like Ayurveda may already be woven into your modern life, whether you realize it or not. If you've been craving a more intentional, grounded, self-trusting way of living and caring for yourself, this conversation is for you. But let's welcome Elisha to the stage. Hi, Elisha. How is it going?

Elisha Reverby:
Hi, Jennifer. It's wonderful. Thank you. How are you doing?

Jennifer Norman:
Everything is just so beautiful today. Yeah. I'm so delighted that we're together and we can have this conversation. I've been such an avid fan of Ayurveda for many years, but I also know that you can never know too much about it. It's something that the more you know, the more there is to know.

Elisha Reverby:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
And I think that there's so much wisdom in those lessons and those teachings and in some of the practices. And I know that going to get into that. But first off, to start off and to ground our conversation in intention, I would love to know, what do you hope most that listeners will walk away from this episode?

Elisha Reverby:
My hope that listeners will walk away with is that they will have a better understanding to be empowered with their inner voice and start listening more, and to maybe have some tools from what we're going to share today to find the pathway, find the way to start to do that. I think that women, we are trained just by being women in society to not trust ourselves and not listen to ourselves and not put ourselves first and put others first. And all of these things that we're rushing around helping and working and helping the kids and helping the boyfriend and helping the husband and doing things out of us, we don't even know how to recognize and stop to tend to ourselves. And I hope that in this episode, whomever is listening is inspired to really start to just kind of slow down, take a breath, prioritize yourself a little bit more, and just to understand that this is a journey. You're not going to do it all tomorrow. Yeah, because I think that's part of what— part of the challenge and part of what gets us caught up is because we do do it all and we can do it all, women and we do it all really well, right? We think we just kind of move in that direction. And I'd rather us, and especially like Ayurveda really encourages this and is rooted in this, in these slow, meaningful, intentional routines and practices and the progress, like celebrating that slow progress and recognizing it and looking at it and seeing it. So that's what I hope.

Elisha Reverby:
We're gonna slow down a little bit. We're going to listen a little bit more. We're going to give ourselves a little bit of time to do that in the day. There's so many times throughout the day that we can really milk, as busy as we are. You could have 10 kids. I'm the queen of like how you can milk your day to give yourself that inner peace, that grounding, that quiet, so you can actually hear what's going on with you.

Jennifer Norman:
That's such a beautiful intention for this show, and it's one that is aligned with Ayurveda and also the way that you have been brought up, because some people are new to Ayurveda, such as myself. I didn't know about it until later in life when I was far into adulthood. And even so, it's something that I know is out there, and there are certain things that probably I do practice. But with you, I mean, your mom and the whole idea of food as medicine, the whole idea of intention, and the whole idea of ritual and eating for your body, living more mindfully, listening to that intuition. So let's talk a little bit about that because because certainly you put it exactly right. I think that modern living really causes us to think about all of the responsibilities that we have and all of the caretaking and all of the things that we need to accomplish before the day is over. And very often we forget about our own health and wellbeing. We forget about our own sanity.

Jennifer Norman:
We forget about those things. And sometimes when we think about them, then we just look for those quick fixes or those hacks, those things that can be just, okay, well, how can I put a Band-Aid on this and make it go away rather than actually getting down to a root laws or really reshaping all of the things that we're consuming within our nutrition as well as in the environment. So let us get grounded in Ayurveda and some of the initial easy-to-digest learnings that people can kind of walk away with and say, ah, this is what it is. I was always so surprised when people said, I have never even heard of that word before. So I wouldn't be surprised if people are listening to this podcast like, what is it? I've never even heard of it before. Could you share?

Elisha Reverby:
Yes. And I wanna preface and say that my journey with Ayurveda, how it started with my mom, not as Ayurveda. When I started to learn about Ayurveda, I realized that a lot of what she was teaching me was Ayurveda, but I am not of Indian descent. The principle of preventative medicine and using food as healing is one part of Ayurveda, but there are a few others that she did not really tap into that I learned later. So Ayurveda translates to the science of life in Sanskrit, and that is a— and it is a complete science of medicine with 8 branches of medicine. So you have geriatrics and pediatrics, you have obstetrics and gynecology, you have psychiatry, you have toxicology, internal medicine, surgery. This is a complete science of medicine that is rooted in practice and rooted in science and outcome. And at the core of Ayurveda is routines and rituals because you have three biological elements that Ayurveda says governs your entire body, your mind, your physical body, and your spiritual health, right? And so that's Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

Elisha Reverby:
And these three elements are responsible for every movement, every breath, every action, every digestive action, every cellular action, every energy that is going on with you. These three doshas are responsible in their own way for specific areas of your body, and they have their own seasons as well. And I'm going to try to, because like you said in the beginning, Ayurveda goes very deep. Like even in this very basic discussion, I'm gonna do my best to keep it very simple to digest because Ayurveda does not miss a beat. It does not miss a detail. And that's what makes it so beautiful. And you find when you start learning about Ayurveda, you're nodding a lot. You resonate with it.

Elisha Reverby:
And that is an intuitive knowing, right? When someone talks to you and you're nodding, there's something in you that is connecting to that, and that's something to listen to. So I always say, like, if you go to your doctor, let's say you have a doctor's appointment, you go to your doctor, you're sitting in a room in the doctor's office, and then you're just kind of feeling like the doctor's maybe not listening to you, or the energy's off, and he or she is prescribing something to you and giving that to you, and you're like, I don't really know if I want to take that. You're already having a response that is not conducive to your healing. That even before you even take a pill, even before you start your routine at home, even before any of that, if you are already not sure, you're like looking, you're like, ah, no, but you're doing it because, and uh-uh, that is blocking your healing. Like immediately it is because that is a response of your body that you are not resonating. If you find yourself, however, in a situation, whether it's Ayurveda or with another practitioner, and you are resonating, you're nodding, you're feeling very positive about this prescription, this routine, these rituals that they are asking you to do, this lifestyle change or dietary change, and you are resonating, that is something to listen to, that this is a path that perhaps is right for you because you're already feeling that. So with Ayurveda, I find when I was in school, I just found myself, and I always found myself when I, because I was self-taught for so long because of how I was raised, and then finding a book by Dr. Pratima Rae Schurer, who has a line called Pratima Skincare, and she had a spa in New York forever called Pratima.

Elisha Reverby:
And her book Absolute Beauty is the first book that I ever picked up on Ayurveda, and reading it was enlightening. So I was like, oh my God, my mom has been teaching me Ayurveda without it being called Ayurveda, but also other tenets and qualities of Ayurveda that I did not learn from my mom. I just found myself just like resonating and nodding to that. And Ayurveda has a way of doing that. It has a way of really touching people because there is something just very, very true about how you respond and how you live in your environment and with what is going on around you and how you can navigate that and live a healthy life. Doesn't mean you're going to live to be 100, but while you're living, you are grounded. Your Vata dosha, which is the dosha that will make you or break view of your 3 doshas, they all are crucial, right? Because again, they all govern very important roles within your body. But Vata is the dosha that is responsible for all movement.

Elisha Reverby:
So any cellular movement, any elimination of movement, any walking and talking and blinking and swallowing, right? Any kind of movement in your body is Vata. So Vata can become very dry with all of that movement. It's very subtle. It can go into deep recesses of your body because it is air and space. We have 5 earthly elements, and Vata is air and space, so it can go very deep into these very little crevices. So when there's an imbalance, or there is inflammation in the body, or there is disease forming, there's a pathological sequence happening, and this is like at the beginning stages of disease, Vata might find a very vulnerable area in the body to go and disrupt. With Pitta. It might grab Pitta, it might grab Kapha, and start to really cause disease in the body.

Elisha Reverby:
So in Ayurveda, we want to make sure from the get-go that Vata is grounded. We want to ground Vata before the day starts, because when the day starts, you're in Vata. You're moving, you're out there, you're engaging, you're talking, you're working, you're with your kids, you're doing all of these things. So we want to start routines in the morning. And how I do it, and how I think your audience can do some very simple things that aren't necessarily Ayurvedic, but they are in nature. They might not be written in the Vedic texts, but they're things that I do with my busy life because Ayurveda might tell you to do Abhyanga massage, which is a self-massage with warm oils. And that is honestly one of the most profound, powerful healing rituals that you can do. However, we don't always have time to do that.

Elisha Reverby:
We don't always have time to do a full body massage and warm oils, especially if we do have 10 kids or 2 kids or 5 dogs you gotta walk or whatever it is. So what can we do? When I wake up in the morning, before I even get out of bed, when I'm still in bed and I'm still in that alpha state of just waking up but my eyes aren't open, I start to get my mind right with really beautiful thoughts. Gratitude, thank you, blessing the day, blessing who I'm going to meet on that day. So this morning I thought of you, I thought of this podcast, I thought of experience that I was going to have. I thought of just how blessed that I am to wake up and my little dog right next to me and having that. This is again milking these moments because none of— we could easily say I don't have time to do any of that, but if you milk these moments that you have, you're still in bed, you haven't even opened your eyes, okay? So even if you have a partner in bed with you, you don't have to open your eyes yet and engage. You could just lie there before you start engaging. Good morning.

Elisha Reverby:
And just take some breaths and say thank you and think about your day, your You may not love it, but say thank you for my job. Have this kind of conversation going on. And then another thing that I do from the time I get out of bed, after I have that moment— again, this is grounding that Vata that is going to take you air and space flying through the day and becoming dry and brittle and then fatigued. Vata's fatigued easily, okay, because of this movement. So that's why we do oil massage, because oil has heft to it. It will weigh you down. So when I wake up in the morning, after I get out of bed again, how am I going to ground? I don't turn on any lights. I keep things naturally lit.

Elisha Reverby:
I don't want lights on. I don't look at my phone. I have a rule where I don't look at my phone until after I walk my dog. I don't really do anything until after I walk her. So when I get up, I have about 30 to 45 minutes. Til I walk my dog. And within those 30 and 45 minutes, I will either put on really beautiful soft music from a playlist that I have, or I have some— the music that I like, or sometimes nothing. I don't have lights on.

Elisha Reverby:
I wash up. I'm still going through affirmations in my head. Affirmations are rooted in Ayurveda and also rooted in metaphysical mindset work, right? It's like we're using these affirmations to really start to retrain our subconscious beliefs. We have to go really deep, and the way to do that is with repetitive thoughts. For me and for someone else, if that resonates with you, affirmations have always resonated with me, always, since as far back as I can remember. So that's the route I take. For someone else, it might be something else that really resonates with you. So I get up, I don't have lights on.

Elisha Reverby:
It's something we can all do, like don't start the day so quickly, keep the lights dim. Open up the blinds, get some natural sunlight, and keep it quiet. Just keep it quiet. Go throughout your day, make your water, make your tea, brush your teeth, wash up. If you want to do a little hand massage, all of these things are very grounding. You're setting the tone for the day, right? You're connecting with yourself before you go out there, because once you go out there, you're not in control. We think we're in control, but we're not. Many of us are not because we're not trained in our mind.

Elisha Reverby:
So we are very vulnerable out there. If you are not trained in your mind or rooted in some kind of faith or rooted in this grounding, you're vulnerable out there. Everything is coming at you and you're reacting, right? We're reacting. And this is a way to allow you to respond, right? To take a breath, to not freak out with the guy on the road or gal on the road or To not freak out when someone says something to you at work and you take it so personally. And I say this from my own experience. I'm not judging. I'm the queen of taking things personally when I was younger and up until recently in my experience and feeling that sense, being very sensitive. So I've had to do a lot of work on myself and Ayurveda has helped me with the routines.

Elisha Reverby:
So how does it enter your modern day life? Morning routines. That's rooted in Ayurveda. We talk about morning routines in our modern world. That is core in Ayurveda, core in Ayurveda. So yes.

Jennifer Norman:
Tell me about the other doshas because you did explain Vata very beautifully about being very air-oriented and then how it works within the body. Tell us about Kapha and Pitta.

Elisha Reverby:
Perfect. So Pitta is fire. It is your digestive fire, ultimately that agni that burns within us, the warmth. Off balance, it could be an ulcer. Right? It could be acidity taste in the mouth. It could be your skin is a site of Pitta. So when you see inflammation on the skin, especially around the cheek area, that can be Pitta. Irritability, off balance, not stabilized, impatience.

Elisha Reverby:
In balance is someone who is quite ambitious, driven. Your drive is Pitta. Each dosha has a period of time in your life. When it is at its height. So when you're in your 30s, right, your late 20s into your late 30s, when you are very driven, very career-oriented, like moving fast on goals, goal-oriented, that is a very Pitta energy. And yeah, Pitta is like heat and fire, and we want to temper it. It's fire and water. So we're like, well, how do fire and water— so we have those 5 earthly elements, Vata's air and space, Pitta is fire and water.

Elisha Reverby:
Well, because the water helps to temper that heat. That's when Pitta is in balance. They work together to keep each other at bay, right? So too much Pitta can be too much water. We're flooding our body, we're flooding our systems with like too much of this hot water element, if that makes sense. And that can show up in some of the ways we talked about, ulcers, acidity and disease like liver diseases, acidity in the mouth, taste of acidity, your skin hyperpigmentation, a lot of inflammation on the skin. And then Kapha is your— if you think of your immunity, Kapha is earth and water. It's nourishment. It is your ojas in Ayurveda, your immune system.

Elisha Reverby:
If you think of it that way, it is your— the stability, the structure of your body, the fat of your body, the bones, what is holding your body together. And it is joyful. Kapha people are the most pleasant people. They can go with the flow. They're always happy. Their skin is always luminous with a lot of hair and healthy skin. Kapha build is a bigger build, a stronger build. Pretty much like if you wonder like, oh, what dosha am I? We are all the doshas, but in our lives and who we are inherently, one or two doshas, usually two, will reign supreme.

Elisha Reverby:
So how do you know if Kapha is one of your primary doshas? Have you your entire life had a bigger build, a stronger build? You don't lose weight. You're not— you're never gonna be the skinny guy or the skinny gal, and that's okay. You're you, right? This is Kapha. This is health. This is— you're the person that is going to age with all that elasticity. You're always going to have like that beautiful elasticity and that luminous skin into your elder golden years of life. Kapha sites of the body are the respiratory, the head, the chest, the upper body fluid. Think of lymphatic fluid as Kapha.

Elisha Reverby:
Cystic breakouts, hormonal breakouts. When you have skin issues, Ayurveda says all your doshas are off. They're all off when you start having like really severe symptoms— eczema, psoriasis, like severe inflammation, dermatitis, things like conditions like these, there is an imbalance in all your doshas, but how do you target? What dosha do you target first? Then you have to go a little bit deeper. So are you having cystic pus-filled breakouts? We might wanna, without too much inflammation, well, we might wanna look at Kapha. Are you having severe redness or is your skin just itchy and dry? Then it might be more, we're targeting Kapha Vata first. So, So that is Kapha. And yeah, those are your three doshas.

Jennifer Norman:
I had heard that, I think I was listening to Deepak Chopra speak about the doshas and identifying body types and saying that, yeah, a larger build, like a more muscular or a, like a heavier set build would be more Kapha. Somebody who is probably more on the middle kind of normal range might be more Pitta. And then somebody who's very lithe and thin and maybe frail might be more Vata oriented. And that was just like an easy way to bucket.

Elisha Reverby:
It's an easy one.

Jennifer Norman:
How, yeah, it's just like, and of course that's just speaking very generalized in terms of body types and just like looking at people and thinking, okay, what might they be leaning towards in terms of their constitution? And then to your point, there are all these different aspects within Ayurveda that says, okay, well, if there is something about your nature where you might be very flighty or you might be just a little bit scattered, you know, maybe you're more airspace and how to bring that back. There are certain ways within your routine, as you were saying, to ground and to get yourself more level level set for the day. What are some of the ways that somebody who might be leaning more Pitta might want to begin their day in order to maintain the best balance? And then again, also for Kapha.

Elisha Reverby:
Yes, Pitta, because of that drive, when you catch yourself like just going, going, going, going, and you can really just burn out from exhaustion. So diet is always a way for all the doshas to get back grounded and centered. So for Pitta, you can think of like some cooling foods and not cold foods. In Ayurveda, we eat warm foods that are cooked foods, but like more cooling foods. So we can think of things like hibiscus or cucumber or herbs can be quite cooling and nourishing. Pitta also needs nourishment because of that heat and our digestive. When we're going with this, like going, going, going, going, that digestive fire can just be exacerbated. So we want to help to balance that digestive fire and kindle it without it being overstimulated.

Elisha Reverby:
So eating more nourishing foods that don't demand so much, sipping on room temperature water, especially if you're feeling very hot. So not iced water, but just some room temperature water and being mindful. You have to be mindful when you're going at this pace. That's where the mindfulness comes in, this intention of slow down. Key timeframes for Pitta are like lunchtime, which is very interesting. For Pitta, it is really important if you find that you are just going, going, going, you're on this mission, you have all these goals, you have all this drive, and you need to like rein that Pitta in. It's really important to listen, pay attention, slow down, take a beat, eat to keep this Agni kindled. Because what ends up happening is we're not— the water now is taking over.

Elisha Reverby:
The water element, the fire element is now been dampened. We're not eating. So you have this very barely there digestive fire, very important for Pitta because Pitta is driven, ambitious, goal-oriented. And again, we, all these doshas are within us. So you might be Vata, but you're in a very Pitta lifestyle right now.

Jennifer Norman:
You're very— you got a deadline or something happening. Yes.

Elisha Reverby:
Yes. And you're just going, going, going, going. You're not eating, which is something that Pitta, it's really important for Pitta to eat. Eat, especially between 10 and 2, which is prime Pitta time, which is interesting. That's also lunchtime. That's also in Ayurveda. That's when you eat your biggest meal of the day.

Jennifer Norman:
Not at— for those people who are working through lunch, there's like, I don't have time to take lunch.

Elisha Reverby:
That's right. That's right. And then we're not kindling our digestive fire. That Agni is not burning the way we need it to burn to give us the fuel and the energy that we need for that gut-brain connection. For our entire body, for the warmth of our body, for flow to happen in our body. So eating is very important for Pitta during this prime time, and eating a healthy breakfast is really important for Pitta, just to that metabolism, just again, making sure that agni is fired, is kindled. When you're very high Pitta, there are foods you want to be very mindful of, very sour foods. Or sour foods.

Elisha Reverby:
It's one of the tastes, amla, in Ayurveda, which can really aggravate Pitta. So apart from fermented foods, alcohol is considered sour. So if we are in this way of being and we're just like going, going, going and go, go, go, we're feeling depleted as it is, but we're just kind of pushing through it and we're finding ourselves pushing through it and we're not eating. And then after our day, we're drinking wine because you're with friends or you're at home and you open a bottle of wine and you're still not eating but you're drinking wine, that's really going to aggravate your Pitta. And you're going to feel that. You're going to feel the heat. You're going to feel the irritability. You're going to feel the even anger, just like fueling up that kind of that energy of Pitta.

Elisha Reverby:
And salty foods, a lot of salt, fried foods. Pitta needs nourishment And it needs that kindle. It needs those sips of water. It needs that, those bites of food throughout the day to give you the energy. So Pitta is really good for like having little bites even throughout the day, not fasting. Hmm.

Jennifer Norman:
Interesting.

Elisha Reverby:
Yes. Eating very hot spicy foods. If you're already finding yourself irritable and going, going, going, and you even maybe have like that taste in your mouth, maybe like a little acidic taste in your mouth, you really want to do your best to avoid hot spicy foods, jalapeños and chili peppers, and a lot of garlic. Pungent in Ayurveda, that this would be our pungent taste. The foods that nourish Pitta are your madura, your sweet, which is nourishing, and your astringent will also help to nourish, like Kapha, your Pitta. So those are your two tastes that you wanna be mindful of. Rice is sweet. When we say sweet, we're not thinking of sugar.

Elisha Reverby:
We're thinking of things like sweet potato or some dairy is nourishing and sweet and our cooked foods.

Jennifer Norman:
And how about for Kapha?

Elisha Reverby:
Kapha's going to want less of the nourishing and sweet because it already is nourishment and it already has that water earth quality. It's going to want more warm. Think of the moon as Kapha, that mother element. Kapha's cold, Vata's cold. They're very similar, but they're complete opposites. So you work with them differently. Vata and Kapha, they're polar opposites. So Kapha wants astringent because of this unctuousness and this water element and this heaviness that Kapha can, when it's not in balance, can feel very heavy and lethargic and tired.

Elisha Reverby:
So where Vata cannot have astringent, Vata's already— Vata needs nourishment. It doesn't want you Sucking anything from Vata. So Kapha can do with the pungent and the bitter. The bitter is purifying and detoxifying and cleansing and can allow for movement and purification, which Kapha can use because Kapha builds up. Kapha tends to build up, and especially if we're not tending to Kapha, and again, we start to feel very heavy and very lethargic. And the warming foods, like Kapha can take the chili peppers and these foods that bring some warmth because Kapha is cold. And Kapha can do some more astringent foods. So like beans are astringent.

Elisha Reverby:
We talked about some raw foods. Ayurveda is not a proponent of raw foods, but Kapha can take some of the raw foods, the raw apple, a raw green perhaps, even though Ayurveda, again, we cook our foods. But if someone is gonna do it, it's gonna be Kapha. And not all the time, cuz again, Ayurveda is really about being mindful and listening. Every day your body is changing, you're having a different mood Perhaps you're feeling a different way, so you just want to be very mindful of what you're eating. I like to tell my clients when they're like, well, what should I be eating? I, I like to look first at what we're not eating. What's missing from your diet? What nutrients are actually missing? And also, what do you find that you say to people, I eat a lot of blank? Like, oh, I'm always eating this, I eat a lot of this. In Ayurveda, too much of the same is a causative factor for disease.

Elisha Reverby:
So you eat like a chicken caesar every single day. You eat the same thing every day. That is, you're, you're missing other nutrients and you're getting an overload of those nutrients and there's nothing in between. So that's another aspect of Ayurveda when it comes to your doshas and how to eat. So like the beans and apple and some greens can be great and the pungent can be great for Kapha, but we have to remember we're also Pitta and Vata. So while you might do some chili peppers over here, be mindful. Is your Pitta really aggravated or do you feel in balance? And you can have a little bit of the black pepper, a little bit of the chili pepper, a little bit of salt for lubrication for Vata and for cleansing. So that's why we have the 6 tastes.

Elisha Reverby:
And a great way to do it is just, just try to have a little bit of each taste in every meal. In our American diet, we don't really have, we don't really eat bitter food. We eat a lot of salty foods. We eat our sweets, but not our good sweets. We're— we don't eat fruits. We're not eating really grains. A lot of people are like grain-free, so we're missing out on some of this nourishment and grounding. And in Ayurveda, ghee, the dairy element that is like the nectar of life, which is clarified butter— and we can make our own ghee by cooking butter down very slowly and skimming off the top until you don't get any more of that whey and fluid on the top, and that's your ghee, which we just put a little bit of that in every meal to get that lubrication that Vata needs and that nourishment, that grounding.

Jennifer Norman:
And I appreciate that very much because I think it can seem a bit overwhelming. It's like, oh my gosh, first I need to know my dosha, I need to know which one, and then I have to be careful about what I'm eating and what I'm not. But ultimately, as you're saying, let's not override our intuition and let's not override what you think that you might be wanting at any given time. Though certainly I think a lot of us have been trained, oh, it's Friday, it's burger and fry night, then, you know, so that, I mean, that's another thing, but starting to get into those healthy habits again, Deepak Chopra used to say, just make sure that you've got the rainbow on your plate and you'll be fine. Eat lots of colorful foods. You'll be off to a great start. Just make sure it's not all like white and beige food on your plate.

Elisha Reverby:
So actually, you know, cause again, Ayurveda, we could go into, it just keeps going. It goes into so much detail. For the people listening, let's get back to the basics, right? We always want to jump ahead, I feel like, as human beings. Like, we want to, like, do the big, big, big thing, but we haven't even mastered the very basics. Waking up and saying thank you, eating breakfast, taking a breath— these are all the basics. This is like the very— saying thank you, we learned that as a little kid, like, say thank you, but we don't even— we don't do that. We lose that throughout...

Jennifer Norman:
To ourselves. Particularly, we forget to thank our bodies.

Elisha Reverby:
That's right. That's right.

Jennifer Norman:
Instead, we criticize our body.

Elisha Reverby:
When you criticize, know... And to your point about listening to ourselves, in Ayurveda, prajnapada is when you do not listen to that inner voice, and that is a causative factor to disease. So we ignore this intuition, and we do it over time. Okay, that one time, maybe we don't eat that burger, but we're gonna eat the burger. Ayurveda, we can't be so rigid either. So if you have the burger and fries and the cocktails on Friday because during the week you pretty much keep it healthy, right? You're cooking at home, you're eating your breakfast, you're drinking your warm teas. So that having that Friday is, as far as I see it, a healthy way to be because you're— there's no guilt attached to it. But if we are eating a burger all the time and our intuition is telling us as we're eating it, I really shouldn't be eating this, like, I shouldn't, and we're doing it anyway, right? And we do that repeatedly, like, Oh, I really shouldn't go to that place for lunch, but you go anyway because it's habit.

Elisha Reverby:
That is when that builds up in our body, that disease builds up. And even with our social experiences, like you have someone in your life, maybe that's very toxic, but you spend time with them because of nostalgia or you've known them forever or whatever it is. But your intuition always says, I really don't want to spend time with that person. Or every time I'm with that person, I don't feel good. Or, and you keep doing it. For whatever reason, whatever reason, these patterns, again, we're not honoring what our intuition, who we are, is telling us. And if we're not going to listen to ourselves, it's very easy for someone else to come out and take us, and we'll for some reason listen to them, but we won't listen to ourselves.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, we start living lives for others. That's really profound. I mean, it's these simple, small things that create healthier habits, more meaningful and mindful habits. That can give you a life that is richer in every single moment rather than rushing and mindlessly getting on to the next thing because your habits were taking you there otherwise. This way, your healthy habits build a healthy life over time. And so that's really what this is about. It's about, you know, taking this wisdom, which is really inherently about natural science and natural elements and seeing how they incorporate and are associated with our bodies because sometimes we forget that we are nature. We are a part of all that we are living and breathing and ingesting and all of that.

Elisha Reverby:
That's right.

Jennifer Norman:
And so listening to your body, being able to slow down enough to get into those quiet spaces to be able to recognize if something's off or if something's telling you this isn't really going to be the best thing for me long term to eat another— this is my third burger this week or what have you. We've all been there, you know, no shame. It's just like, okay, you know, going forward, yeah, yeah, try to make a bit more healthy choices because we all want to be as healthy and live as long as possible. And I think that when it comes to Ayurveda, and we'll talk about skin in a moment, there are these cues, there are these signs that things might be off, whether it's your mood, whether it's the bloating, those sorts of things. These are signals that something is not quite right. And so it's important not to try to override those or ignore them or suppress them, but listen to them and see, well, what am I doing that might be causing this? What do I need to potentially adjust? To make sure that I'm as optimized in this healthy way as possible. And so let's talk about skin because this is such a big part of what you're doing now in terms of aesthetics and in terms of your skincare and really looking at these symptoms of what might be going on, whether it be signs of inflammation, cystic acne, eczema, psoriasis, redness, flakiness, all of that, that might be showing up on our skin, how they might be associated with maybe the food that we're eating or something else that we might be doing, frankly, and what you typically like to do to address those things.

Elisha Reverby:
Yes. Apart from the food, I just wanted to make another point also about Ayurveda. So we're listening to ourselves, but as you mentioned, we are— and Ayurveda says this— we are the universe. We are connected to our environment, right? So another thing you can also look at is if there's a rainy season,, right? There's a lot of movement and water elements. So you have a lot of Pitta and you have a lot of, you have Vata. If there are winds, Vata, right? You can look, if it feels very hot and dry out, it's very dry. So what would we think is the opposite, right? We want the opposite quality. We don't wanna eat drying foods.

Elisha Reverby:
If it's very dry, we don't wanna eat like breads and crackers and pastas and chips. Chips and things like that. When popcorn— when we have a dry element, we want something unctuous, and that's going to soften the tissues and that's going to nourish the tissues. We want to bring that element in. If there's a lot of rain, we might want a little dryness to come in or a little warmth to come in. If there's a lot of wind, all that Vata, again, that unctuousness, the healthy fats on that seat during that season, right? So I just want to also kind of like touch on that.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, and a lot of the country right now, because it's absolutely freezing and there's all of these blizzards and storms, all the cold and the ice all along the eastern corridor as well as down in the southeast as well, it is a very drying time as well as just cold.

Elisha Reverby:
It's cold and it's drying, and we're also going into Kapha season in the spring. But as far as the weather goes, what I will tell anyone just to keep it simple, in inconsistent weather, which is what we have now— one day it's freezing and the next day it's 80 degrees— that inconsistency is Vata. We live in a Vata world. The constant movement, the never stopping, the anxiety. Vata's anxious. Kapha will get depressed and will isolate. Vata might be social with people because Vata's move, move, move, talk, talk, talk, but a lot of anxiety, restlessness, can't stop, right? So this is the world we live in. Can't stop. Instagram, phone, looking, talking, multitasking is Vata.

Elisha Reverby:
Staying up very late and like working and doing things and high, high creative but really getting nothing done is a Vata off balance. So this inconsistent weather and what we're experiencing in our world is all Vata. It's really all Vata off-kilter, okay? Not grounded. There's no one's encouraging anyone to take a breath out here. They're encouraging you to just keep going and be more scattered and do more of the same. So for anyone that really wants to just kind of like tap in easily, I would say ground your Vata. Get grounded with Vata first before anything. So that's really important.

Elisha Reverby:
And how can you ground Vata? Like I said, very easily with some slowing down in the morning, even rubbing some oil on your hands, putting a little bit of oil on your fingertips and putting that inside your ears. And maybe around your nose to protect from the winds is a way that you can protect against Vata. So yes, that is, that was something I wanted to mention. And then we can definitely talk about skin, but I wanted to mention that because it's just a really accessible, like, okay, let me just start with my Vata. Let me get nourished. Let me start my day right. Let me have some routines, which in Ayurveda are for Vata. That's why these routines in the morning exist to start the day off with Vata, to ground Vata.

Elisha Reverby:
So starting there is a really good place for anyone with Ayurveda during these very hot times that we're living in. When it comes to skin and beauty, my mom always taught me that preventative medicine, using food to prevent disease, and, and it worked because we weren't sick kids and we rarely ever went to the doctor. And so I believed very much in the ability and the power of nutrition. And then I thought, well, well then, if we can use food internally, well, shouldn't we be able to use food topically? As I started to read about barrier disruption and the products disrupting our barrier, couldn't we use food topically to start to strengthen the barrier and to nourish the barrier? What beautiful oils can we use? What kind of emollients, things that are going to soften the skin or draw moisture to the skin, humectants, can we use on the skin that are foods? And that's how I started to create my brand, was it was always going to be a food-based brand, which in 1991, up until very recently, and it's just now hitting the sort of scene in the past few years of skin foods and skin nutrition and barrier repair, right? But for a long time, I was sort of doing this and having to figure a lot out on my own. And through Ayurveda, through that book Absolute Beauty by Dr. Pratima Reishi, and ingredients that she was using on the skin, you know, certain whole that dairy for the lactic acid, the honey for the polyhydroxy acid, the ability to exfoliate very gently. Okay, we talk about alpha hydroxy acids and beta hydroxy acids, but we forget— we don't even know, no one's ever taught us about the polyhydroxy acids, which are great for most people because most people have sensitive skin, right? If you were in a room with 100 people and you asked them, how many of you have sensitive skin, raise your hands, I mean, probably 90% of the people would raise their right? But we're using really harsh products still. But polyhydroxy acid, which honey is— the acid that is in honey that can help to exfoliate, but very gently.

Elisha Reverby:
I like to say very sweetly. The molecule is very big. It's not penetrating like an alpha hydroxy or a beta hydroxy and kind of going fast and furious. It is surface exfoliation, removing dirt and debris and dead skin cells very gently. So that's how I started to put these pieces together with using food, using, you know, the honey, the certain clays, certain teas. I do a lot with teas and I have for my entire career. So if someone comes to me with inflammation and why is there inflammation, what's going on with the inflammation, what's going on with you? Is there some digestive disharmony with your digestion? Is there a lot of stress? So you're releasing a lot of these stress hormones and that's going on with you. Are you on also medications? Are you not sleeping? I mean, you have to ask a lot of questions.

Elisha Reverby:
That's part of it. You have to like really kind of— Ayurveda asks and probes, probing, probing, probing. So then how are we gonna, how are we gonna like build your immunity in a way that is also going to, you know, help with the digestion and sleep? So maybe some lemon balm and some lemon verbena and some chamomile and a little bit of turmeric, which might aggravate if you're very, very sensitive, but can go deep. In Ayurveda, it is, it's gonna go and deep nourish. Deep recesses of the body and to build and strengthen in that way and to clear and purify and detoxify where that ama in Ayurveda, that, that the toxicity that's in the body. So what teas can we help with if there is, if you tend, if you're female and you're breaking out from during your period, during your cycle, and there's usually that is heightened androgen hormones. So like let's do some spearmint tea and there's a lot of science of Spirament helping to block the androgens. So sipping on Spirament and cooling.

Elisha Reverby:
And, and then your classic digestives, which everyone I think benefits from, because if you get that gut and that Agni in a really healthy state, then everything else kind of starts to flow from there, right? Everything will start to temper and calm. So your classic Ayurveda digestive is your cumin, coriander, and fennel, your CCFT. And we can add a little ginger to that if you need a little bit of extra warmth or, or you need that, or a little bit of turmeric to that. So that is a really wonderful blend. But teas are something I work with for skin health. Honey is something that I work with for skin health. I do not, when I go into treatments, I'm not picking and prodding at people's skin. I, it's something I just don't do.

Elisha Reverby:
If you have a lot of congestion or blackheads, we'll clear that out. But as far as like when it comes to redness or inflammation, I do things like palming the face and doing like slow lymphatic drainage. Classic lymphatic drainage is like this, like you barely see it.

Jennifer Norman:
So people can do this on their own as...

Elisha Reverby:
You can do this on your own.

Jennifer Norman:
Well like if you're feeling congestion in your skin? Or what would be a reason why somebody would palm their face like that?

Elisha Reverby:
To really help to just, one, to, well, there's 3 reasons why you're going to palm your face. So if you have inflammation and you're really red and you want to palm your face, first of all, if you can take a breath, your skin will take a breath. So this— and, and it's true, I mean, I've been doing this for so— it's amazing how these simple rituals work if you are consistent with them, but even immediately. So if you have a lot of inflammation and your hands are clean, of course, you can run them under some cool water after washing them, get all that residue of soap off your hands, run your hands under, and just stand and palm your face. You can do this like throughout the day when you run to the ladies' room, You're at work. You have a lot of redness. Take some time and do that. You'll start to that.

Elisha Reverby:
And then the other reason is the touch. Touch is healing. It's our first sensory experience being brought into this life is touch going through the uterine wall and, and being born. The touch of that experience being held by the doctor and then passed to mother or the midwife or whoever is in that process with you to mother. So touch is very healing. So touching your face, we're taught not to, but we should be doing more of that. We should be touching our skin with, again, clean hands.

Jennifer Norman:
So that's— No, you're not really recommending doing it with like cold compresses or ice packs or anything. It's really about your hands and the concept of using your hands.

Elisha Reverby:
Well, right now we're talking about hands with palming. That is one, one routine. If you want to talk about a really simple signature routine, we do compress with warm, a nice thick warm washcloth. For all of my clients, we walk through this routine and we always start with the warm compressing with a washcloth, and we go through this routine of loosening up debris. It's a way to use less product and to allow your skin to cleanse and purify on its own. So the palming and the cool of the hands is for that inflammation and that healing and calming and soothing and taking a breath so your nervous system relaxes, so your skin can relax. The inflammation you will see will go down That touch will help to stimulate the lymphatic system, which is right below the surface of your skin, and that interstitial fluid, you will allow that to move and flow. So we're going to modulate our, you know, inflammation and boost immunity.

Elisha Reverby:
The warm compressing is part of everyday routine for cleansing before you go in with your product. We can start with a warm compress and holding that warm compress to remove surface debris, and we do that 3 times in my routine. We hold for 10 seconds, we wipe when we remove, and we go through that, and then we go in with our cleanser. And in the morning, you might not even want a cleanser. You might feel like, oh, my skin is cleansed. You did your nighttime routine. So in Ayurveda, and in my— and how I approach skin, it's always less is more. It's always less is more.

Elisha Reverby:
It's listen to your skin. Your skin will tell you if you have a routine, and every time you do your routine and your skin is screaming at meaning red, it's not happy. It's not just because, oh, this is how my skin is. You hear people say all the time, well, this is how my skin is. My skin is, my skin is always sensitive, or my skin is always red. Well, that doesn't mean that's how it has to be. Like, let's bring some balance. Let's strengthen that sensitive skin.

Elisha Reverby:
Let's strengthen that barrier. Let's quell some of that redness. Let's bring that down. Your skin does not have to be like that. But the more you're doing can actually be doing if it's, you know, it's— it could be doing more harm if we're not intentional and we're not thoughtful and we're not slowing down and we're not taking a breath and we're not having this ritual. And again, another way to milk some time. Again, back to that initial part, how can we milk time to take a breath and take a beat? Well, in our skincare routine, we all wash our face, we all take a shower, we all have that private time without our kids, right? Our kids aren't following us necessarily. Sometimes they are, but not all the time.

Elisha Reverby:
Into our routine. Well, that 5 minutes right there that you can slow down, look in the mirror. I have clients that say they don't even look at their face. They— so they don't even know what's going on. They literally don't, because women don't want to look at their face as they age. They like, you know, they're— they're— they, they, you know, we call ourselves really awful names. We're ugly, we're old, I can't look at myself. But if we don't look at ourselves, we don't know what's going on.

Elisha Reverby:
We don't know what's getting better. Better even, right? It's not even like looking at the inflammation, it's like looking at the progress that's happening, or looking to see if that product you just bought and spent all that money on, is it working? It's been, you know, 3 months now. Do you notice any results or no? And that's really important to know because we buy the stuff and we're not noticing, is, is the product working? So I'll ask my clients, you know, what about their routine? And do you— one of the questions on the intake is, after I go through the routine, is any of this working for you? Are you noticing that you're having results? And often it's like, oh, I don't know, or, you No, maybe I'm not really sure. So again, that's being disconnected. We're not looking to be, because if you were being mindful, you would know if you're having results because you bought that product for a reason. There was something that you're looking to clear up, whether it's your acne, your dry skin, your disrupted barrier, your inflammation. So is that prescription your doctor gave you, that really harsh active, is it working? Because if it's not, maybe don't do it. It's harsh.

Elisha Reverby:
You know, people are taking retinols and I ask them why. Is it for hyperpigmentation? Is it for acne? Why are you doing Is it for premature aging and wrinkles? Because whatever you're using it for should be a different prescription. But they don't, you know, a lot of people don't know, like, oh, I don't know. My doctor just said I should take it. So it's up to us to probe. We'll ask your doctor why, and ask your doctor what kind of results should I expect in the next 3 months, and ask your doctor questions that are intuitive to you. Not the questions I'm telling you to ask. When you're in that room, you have questions, but again, we're taught to— women aren't taught, because if we ask, then we are, you know, nagging, or we're not being polite, or we're being confrontational.

Elisha Reverby:
But we're just asking questions. And we should.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, if somebody like a professional or an expert is saying, okay, this is what you need, then they don't question it. They just go along with it. And they're not really even— they might have told them why, but they might not have been listening as to the— as to the why and know what they're even supposed to be looking for to see the result. That is really, really interesting.

Elisha Reverby:
Yeah. And what is the why that they told you? Does that relate to you, or are they just selling their beef towel? You know, could too. it be that It's like, why, you know, why? Yeah. Like, let's, let's customize. I'm talking to this person. This is for you. Right.

Jennifer Norman:
So if somebody were to stop and they're, they're listening to this and they're like, yeah, I wanna tap into my intuition more. I wanna be able to be more empowered. I wanna be able to take more time for myself to mind myself so that I can better be better for my family, be better for other people in my life. What do you think that that looks and feels like. For those that have never done this before and it's new stuff and they're like, well, I, you know, I don't even know how to, to do this and if it's uncomfortable or if it feels like I'm just being selfish with my time, what do you expect that the process or the progress would be once somebody finally does start taking control of their own mindset and what those outcomes could be?

Elisha Reverby:
I have like a big giant smile on my my face because, um, I'm gonna say something, but you're gonna— everyone that's listening, just give me a beat before like, ah. But I am gonna say to meditate, but this is what I'm gonna say. When people tell people to meditate, my biggest pet peeve is they— it's like telling someone who eats McDonald's every day to be a vegan. Okay, we have to know our audience, right? You have to slow— if you want to do what you just said, you want to start to hear yourself and listen to yourself and trust yourself and listen to— you don't even know what you're thinking. What's going on up here? I don't even know. I'm just like going through the day. Well, you're not going to know unless you're quiet and you slow down. So when I say to meditate, this is for me, for anyone out here listening who does not want to meditate, who believes that meditating means sitting in a cross-legged position for 20 minutes or even 10 minutes.

Elisha Reverby:
How is someone going to do that who's never meditated? Okay, That's, I think that's an unfair request of a person to give them that job to do when they're probably not going to do it. Okay. So let's talk about what meditation can look like. Cause just uh, um, like, there, there are many ways that you can meditate because you have to slow down and be still and be quiet to hear what is going on with you, to feel what's going on with you. The pain may be in your tummy. Cause if we're going fast, we're not even feeling that till way after the fact when it's really painful. Painful, right? It's like, oh my God, like now I have an ulcer. But leading up to that ulcer, we didn't even— we weren't even paying attention.

Elisha Reverby:
We didn't even know that that was coming. You have to slow down. So let's meditate like this. How about when you're in the morning routine and you're brushing your teeth, you are taking some very thoughtful— as you're brushing, listening to the brushing of the brush on teeth. You know, you are in that moment. You are in that moment of brush. That's meditative. You are not thinking about what's coming next or what you have to do after you brush your teeth.

Elisha Reverby:
You're not rushing through the process of brushing your teeth. You are in the moment of brushing your teeth. And if you can't do that very basic thing of being in the moment of brushing your teeth, which is maybe 20 seconds, then you're not gonna be able to go to— like, again, we kind of talked about it earlier, like, if you can't do the very, very basics, how are we gonna get to the big job at hand? Because if we can't control our thoughts in our mind and we have no idea what's going on up here and we're just going on default, we're gonna be unhappy. We're gonna live an unhappy life because we are— we all have a story and none of us come from, with the exception of maybe very few of us, are just born into this joyful bliss. We have— you have to work at that. It's a choice. It's a choice to live that kind of a life where you do have inner peace and you can be happy and you are choosing to be your best self. Otherwise, we're in default.

Elisha Reverby:
So while you're brushing your teeth, while you're sipping your water, taste the water, look at the glass. Again, it's quiet. Hopefully you didn't turn all the lights on, you didn't look at your phone the first thing. If you look at the phone, if you're looking at your phone the first thing you do in the morning, you're done. I'm telling you, I'm telling your entire audience, you're done for the day. You're not going to meditate. You're not going to have a grounding routine. You're not going to.

Elisha Reverby:
And how do I know this? Because I look at my phone throughout the day, not first thing in the morning, but throughout the day. And I know when I look at my phone, I'm caught up in all that no matter what time it is. Like, I am. There are times I'll go on Instagram to look for someone and like, oh, I need to send that, and I never get around to it because I've been on there for like— and I'm like, oh my God, I went on there to do— yeah. Something, and I never got it done because I got caught up. So if anyone wants to do this work where you want to slow down, you want to find that inner peace within yourself, you want to be— it's not about changing yourself to be some, to do more. It's about being present. And you cannot do that if the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is look outside of yourself.

Elisha Reverby:
You can't do it. It's not going happen. It will not happen. But here's the other thing. This is the other— this is the, the good news, right? If you are doing that, but there's a— you still want to get to this place that we're talking about, but you still are not able to break this habit that you have, okay? And this is where people will be like, oh, you know, maybe that's bad. You're bad. You're looking at your phone. That you're, you're, you know, bad and good, right? There's so much in between bad and good.

Elisha Reverby:
What's between bad and good? The willingness. Okay, the willingness. You are willing to be more of who you are. That's the most important thing. You might not be ready to forgive someone, but you're willing to. You might not be ready to get off the phone, but you're willing. You want that. And sometimes it doesn't happen right away because this is a habit that we've been doing, waking up and looking at our phone.

Elisha Reverby:
Now I'm going to tell you to not do that tomorrow? I mean, come on, right? We have to meet our audience. We have to know our audience. And it is part of something out there in the world of experts and influencers that just drives me mad because we're not— we're making people feel worse about themselves because they're not meeting these unattainable goals that we're putting on them, you know, of again the bad and the good. And we're not explaining that there's all of this in between. So I just say self-compassion is everything. Love on yourself. You can say to yourself when you wake up and you didn't do the routine, you listen to this podcast, you're like, I'm gonna try tomorrow, I'm gonna try to at least do something tomorrow, but you didn't. Well, then don't beat yourself up.

Elisha Reverby:
You will— you had an intention to do that. You're partway there. Timing is everything, you know. It took me, I don't know, most of my life to finally do the hardest work I've ever had to do in my life to be more of who I am. I stay very comfortable. It might not be looking at phones because I'm not that morning person that looks at phones, but I've had other places, right? And other default thinking patterns that I had to push myself to, um, move past or, or rise above rather than stay in that. So if you're willing, give yourself grace. If you're mindful and you do want this, it will come.

Elisha Reverby:
It will come. You have to make the effort. I mean, it's not like, oh, you're willing every day and you keep doing this. The time will come when you get sick of it enough that you're like, you know what, I, I really— I don't want to do this anymore. If you're really willing and you give some self-compassion. So take a breath, breathe, try to have some quiet time so you can actually hear and listen to your thoughts. Because once you listen to what's going on up there, you're going to be like, what? I've been telling myself this, this whole time? Like, this is what's going on? And this is my inner dialogue? Wow, I had no idea that I was so jealous or so angry or so critical of others and myself and so impatient. I had no idea.

Elisha Reverby:
Someone came up to you and you're already like feeling in your body like the, uh, that person, just like that.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, yeah. What great, great words of wisdom, Elisha. Thank you so much. And at this moment, I want to invite the listeners to just pause and reflect on some of the things that you've just said, so that the listeners can take this moment now to really think about like where in their life do they feel like things are getting like that runaway train, that maybe you do have a habit, whether it might be doom scrolling or whether it's not with the smartphone, it might be mentally doom scrolling. If you're brushing your teeth and you're thinking about all of the millions of things that you have going on for the rest of the day, and you're creating this anxiousness in your head, where can you catch yourself and notice when you're not being present? When can you, if you've got kids or a loved one, catch yourself that if they're asking you a question or talking to you, are you not really listening? Are you paying attention? Is your mind down here on the phone or is it someplace else on something else that you have to do or on something that you want to tell them without necessarily listening to what they have to say? These are little small cues about ways that we can come back to ourselves. And it's an invitation to be more present. It's an invitation to, yes, slow down. And not that you have to be that guru on the mountaintop, but, you know, cross-legged and, you know, or do tree pose every day.

Jennifer Norman:
It's really about just those small breaths, those quiet moments where you can just build into your day pauses, and that will help you to notice those voices inside you more loudly than, than before, because they are speaking to you. They are saying things to you, but a lot of times there's so much internal noise and external noise that drowns out those voices of what our bodies really need, of what our lives are really calling for so that we can be our best selves for ourselves. For others. What do you think is one small intentional practice that you want to try this week? What is something after hearing this conversation that you believe that you're ready to question? What are some new beliefs that you feel might be worth exploring? I think that this is really great food for thought. We don't have to boil the ocean in, in one day. It's really all about what is that one thing that you might be able to do to invite yourself to be a little bit more present, present, to remember your relationship with nature, and to think about how you can be more harmonious with nature and with yourself. So I think Elisha gave us so much wonderful food for thought here, pun intended. So Elisha, as we close, I always ask 3 constant questions of my guests.

Jennifer Norman:
These are reminders of what holds true for us—our beauty, our humanity, and the truth that we live by. What, in your opinion, makes you beautiful?

Elisha Reverby:
I think what makes me beautiful is my— since I was a young girl, my desire to always just be more of myself and self-growth. I've always been someone who has wanted to grow and wanted to learn and to be more, and I didn't always know how, but I think just that, again, the desire was always there, and then I learned. And I'm, and I'm quite brave, and, um, I will do the work. Because this work that we're talking about, it's hard work. And especially once you start, like, it's very brave.

Jennifer Norman:
I don't know if you can see my tattoo. It says brave.

Elisha Reverby:
Oh, I think I saw that when we were chatting and at the event. Yeah, being really just brave, I think, is what makes me beautiful and what I want to inspire for other women, because we are without us even believing it. Now, women, just who we are, are brave and courageous and strong. But so we just need to be empowered with that, you know, like just get empowered with that knowing.

Jennifer Norman:
And yeah, I love that answer. What do you think that it means to be human?

Elisha Reverby:
I think what it means to be human is to love nature, love others, engage with others. We have to remember like, it's so interesting, like, like a really, a really easy way to remember how connected we all are. Like, no matter where we are in the world, right? All the atrocities happening maybe in the Middle East and in Africa and all of that, how we can connect with those people is air flows and we breathe it and we exhale it and someone else breathes it and exhales it and someone else breathes it and exhales it. We're all breathing the same air. Air. We are all made of the same element as the other person, just from the air that we're breathing. We're all connected in that way. And I think that is— by being human, it's really just having a love for all of life, you know, all of life, whether it's a person, an animal, a tree, and nature, and, and being a part of it, just being a part of it.

Elisha Reverby:
When we're isolated and we're, we're not connecting, or we're afraid, or we're losing some of our humanity because we're disconnected, right? So the more we can connect, the more we can remember our humanity. The more we're in fear, or we, we, we, we kind of succumb to the noise that is a lot of darkness and fear that is part of also the human experience of our life here. You know, there's a lot happening now in the world, but what's happening now has been happening since the beginning of time, right? So it's like our— it's like, how can we find our, like, true— that love for others and that love for nature and that respect for nature. And, you know, and even if you don't love other people every day, can you respect them and just be right? And I've had to learn that too. Like, none of us are perfect, you know. I'm very Pitta and off balance for a lot of my life, like, not stable. So irritable and impatient and angry, like, that's all, like, high Pitta, like, not checked. You know, so, but ultimately always in me was love for nature and for people.

Elisha Reverby:
Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, love that. And my final question is, what is one truth that you live by?

Elisha Reverby:
What is one truth that I live by? I no longer criticize myself. No more self-criticism. Just, that's one, you know, no more self-criticism. 'Cause you know, if we all stop and listen to our thoughts, we're criticizing ourselves all the time. Like, oh, that was so stupid. We're like, oh, I was just joking. There's no joke left. Feel like that.

Elisha Reverby:
That comes from somewhere, right? That comes from something deep in us. We were called stupid when we were younger. We were called, and, oh, I'm such a nag. No, you're not. So like, those are, those are criticisms, right? So no more, um, criticizing myself. And that leads you to not criticize others, because when you're critical of yourself, you're easily critical at others, because it's like that, it's the cycle. It just is. So yeah, I think that is my one truth.

Elisha Reverby:
Like, no more criticizing myself.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, that's a great one. Oh, beautiful humans, as we come to a close, I do want to offer everybody this gentle reminder. I don't think anything in today's conversation asked us to become anything new, someone new. It really is all about just asking us to remember who we are. I think that Elisha reminds us beautifully that effort isn't the missing ingredient, but awareness is. Our body and our skin isn't something that we need to fix or fight because it's so intelligent, it's responsive, and deeply worthy of being listened to. And so when we slow down even just a little, we begin to notice how our thoughts shape our beliefs and how those beliefs guide our behaviors. If we're being self-critical or not, it's going to impact our world.

Jennifer Norman:
How over time these are going to create these outcomes that we live inside of every day. So we're not talking about perfection. It's really all about intention. About us choosing practices that can help calm inflammation instead of creating more physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And perhaps most importantly, I think that our inner voices already know. The work is learning how to hear it again and trusting what it is telling you. So I want to thank you, Elisha, so much for reminding us that healing doesn't have to be loud and that living beautifully begins with living consciously. I think that's— this is a great time for us to end our conversation.

Jennifer Norman:
So until next time, I hope everybody here takes care of their inner worlds. It shapes everything. Thank you so much for being my guest. Thank you everybody for joining us today on the podcast. See you next time.

Jennifer Norman:
Thank you for listening to the Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to follow, rate, and review us wherever you stream podcasts. The Human Beauty Movement is a community-based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media, and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.