Dare to Dream Physician Travel Podcast

Ep 27: Moving from Activity into Stillness with Dr. Rashmi Schramm

November 11, 2021 Episode 27
Dare to Dream Physician Travel Podcast
Ep 27: Moving from Activity into Stillness with Dr. Rashmi Schramm
Show Notes Transcript

This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation with Dr. Rashmi Schramm, MD who is a board certified family physician, integrative health coach and  meditation teacher. She is also the founder of Optimal Wellness.

Dr. Schramm shares:


  • What is meditation and how to let go of stress and make room for what physicians value in their lives.


  • What is mindfulness and how physicians can incorporate it in everyday life.


  • How meditation can cultivate joy, even for physicians who are so stressed they find that word annoying.


So much to unpack, don’t miss a minute!


Dare to Dream Physician Resources:

Dare to Dream Physician, Life Planning for Physicians
 https://daretodreamphysician.com

Dare to Dream Physician on Facebook
 https://www.facebook.com/daretodreamphysician/

DreamPhysician on Instagram
 https://www.instagram.com/dreamphysician/

 

Resources for Dr. Rashmi Schramm, MD:

Fall Meditation Series with Dr. Rashmi Schramm

https://OptimalWellnessMD.org/meditation

(Live weekly meditations every Tuesday evening until 2022. Use the code PEACE50 to get $50 off the $249)

Dr. Rashmi Schramm Youtube Channel with many free meditations

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrRashmiSchrammOptimalWellness

 
On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Dr.RashmiSchramm

On Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/dr.rashmischramm/



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Note this document may have human or computer-generated errors in transcription. Refer to the audio file for the actual conversation.


Dr. Weili Gray, Host 00:00

This is the Dare to Dream Physician Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Weili Gray. Many physicians today are feeling overwhelmed and unfulfilled living a busy life based on someone else's terms and expectations. My mission is to help physicians figure out what they really want out of life, and how to make their dream life come true sooner than they ever imagined. My fellow physicians, your time to live your only life now. Become a dare to dream physician. Great things are going to happen. Make sure you hit subscribe and share this podcast with another physician you care about. 

[00:00:48] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Welcome back to another episode of the Dare To Dream Physician Podcast. I'm so excited for interviewing with our guest today. Her name is Dr. Rashmi Schram and she is a board certified family physician, a board certified integrative health coach and a certified meditation teacher. And she is the founder of Optimal Wellness.

So I'm just, I there's so many things. I actually recently just attended a retreat with Dr. Rushmi, and it was such a pleasure to meet her in person. And now I get to talk to her for the whole podcast interview. So I'm so excited to have her and I am ecstatic to just learn everything about meditation from her. So, welcome. Welcome. 

[00:01:36] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Grateful to be here. Thank you so much. 

[00:01:38] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Yeah. So I guess to start, can you tell us a little bit about your background? And I think, we're busy enough as physicians and when you, when I saw that you're also a certified meditation teacher, to me that I'm just really curious how you got there.

[00:01:55] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Yeah, absolutely. So I was actually born in India and lived there until I was 12. And I lived with a very large extended family. And there I was exposed to meditation and just spirituality in general, but not necessarily. It wasn't like I was sitting down to meditate or anything when I was a kid, but it was around me.

And then we met, we actually immigrated to a very small rural coal mining town in Southwestern, Virginia. And so puberty and beyond forgot about meditation. It literally didn't cross my mind really trying to fit in, that pubertal period of time. And then, in college, I actually reentered a little bit of meditation in that I was exposed to a teacher as well as a group. And I was meditating very secretively, actually. It was sort of like this, like, like I was in the closet. I was a closet mediator because I was so afraid of what other people might say. If I was like, oh, I'm going to meditate because I wanted to go to medical school.

And I just didn't know how those two melded together. And so I started medical school. I was lucky and completely again, lost touch with meditation residency, same thing. And life gets busy, right? We start having kids. Practicing as attendings and then the complexities add on, and so it wasn't until, my kids were little, they were, my husband was working a lot and there was just really no outlet for me for stress relief that was healthy.

And so I found myself in a good deal of burnout and a good deal of mental, emotional, as well as physical illnesses and ailments. And so I had a lot of anxiety. I had trouble sleeping. I had a lot of irritability, it showed up for me as that. And so of course that was affecting my relationships and it was ultimately my physical issues that ended up me going, Gosh, maybe I should retry meditation because I've done really, it did really well with it over the years. And so I would meditate almost like a crisis meditator, like just when I needed to, and it would work. It would get rid of, whether it was my GI distress or my migraines, or help me sleep better for a while.

And then I would forget about it. And then I would go on into my crazy life and that all turns out it's okay. It works okay during those periods of time, but it's really when we have a daily habit that it starts to really blossom and cultivate and give us so much of this sort of mindful living back towards us.

So it was not at all, as a straight route, it was very circuitous. And then about eight years ago, I just got really curious because I started to just, very sort of on a daily basis. I said, okay, I'm just going to try this for like five minutes every day. And I started to see the difference. And ultimately I then said, let me just go get this teaching certification.

And I ended up, I have several under my belt only because each was more fascinating than the next and part of the reason wasn't because I thought I was ever going to teach, but because I thought, oh, I really want the in-depth information. I want to learn with these teachers here. And it was really because they were melding science with spirituality.

All of my teachers were physicians and it was very attractive to me for that reason. And so that is the story of how I ended up being a meditation teacher. 

[00:05:08] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Oh, wow. Thanks for taking us through a hundred foot view of what happened. And as you're saying, those things that so many questions popped into my mind.

So at one point I, I want to hear about what is your definition of meditation, but before that, as you're relaying your life, especially when you, I like the word complex, when you said, oh, life got complex and that's so true, because when you think about who we were as five-year-olds, life was really simple, you just had to get food, you got clothes, you play and you hung out with your family and other kids.

And then, and, and as we added more layers in our adulting life, it does become more complex. And you had mentioned that you became really stressed out like this anxious person. I'm curious about that, because was that how you were, when you were a kid, and you had described some of the things like, you're anxious, you're irritable. Did you have an awareness that, this person that you became is, was that you, or was that, like a different version of you? 

[00:06:08] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: So I am prone to a couple of things is what I've learned about myself. Right? So within Ayurveda there are different kinds of dosha’s or mind body types. And so what comes up for me is Pitta and Vata.

And so both of those, when we're out of balance, we can, it's, it's literally like fiery, like just fiery. And so when I'm overdoing ,overworking, not really slowing down or flipping into any kind of restful stage. I literally am a ball of fire. I think we all can identify with that. And then along with that, there's also just an airiness that can turn up to be anxiety.

And so it's really when I'm imbalanced, I am that way. And so the idea is when I bring myself back into balance, I become my most authentic self. And of course, while I was in it, I do not think that I think that if you talk to my absolute, very best friends and my partner, they would say, oh yeah, she was a little irritable, but I, I'm, I'm creating a picture that certainly my patients never saw.

The people that I worked with never saw it was how I felt. Right. It was more than like I was irritated with myself. I was anxious. I was worried. It wasn't so much that I was, I didn't have like road rage or, I didn't have those things, but I also, there was no real peace in my mind, which I think was why I was having trouble sleeping as well.

[00:07:26] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Hmm.Well, that's so interesting. And you had mentioned if you asked your patients, they wouldn't have known, and I really identify with that because I feel, and I feel this way for myself. And my suspicion is it's very common to physicians is that's the last sacred piece that goes. And at least for me, patient care and what I did as a physician was the thing that I, the rest of my life, fell apart.

I'm still going to hold that together. And I don't know, that's probably not healthy, but, yeah, so I don't think my patients usually know, my life is falling apart and I'm irritable and anxious and not able to fall asleep, but I, I think that's so interesting just as you're describing that evolution of how, you weren't, you were in this state that I think a lot of physicians can identify.

[00:08:13] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've seen physicians go straight from clinic to get a cabbage, right? I mean, it's like, we just have to kill it all together until we literally can't anymore. And so that's absolutely true. I think what's, uh, on the surface is certainly not what can be on the inside. And so for me, it became increasingly important to match sort of the inside with the outside, if that makes sense.

[00:08:40] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Hmm. hmm.Was there a certain moment or wake up call when you thought, maybe this isn't, this isn't right?

[00:08:47] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: This is a great question. Cause I, I don't know why nobody asked me this before, but, so there was a moment when there was a day when I was just having a lot of abdominal and back pain in my office and I refused to not be there or not see my patients.

And at one point the pain was so bad. Like I just remember I had like tears streaming down my face and they were still complaining about their big toe pain or whatever it was. And so I literally finished up, and my office manager and I had to go lay down. Like I literally laid down in the next room.. So my office manager just took me straight to the ER.

She was like, you're going, there's something wrong. And so it turned out I had an obstructive kidney stone. I was like a 32 year old woman with a kidney stone. And it was because I was drinking Diet Coke, not drinking water. I mean, we know exactly why I had kidney stones, but I was like, I've got to do something else.

This is not working out, me like downing a gallon of coffee or, whatever, a Diet Coke and just pretending like everything is great and moving on, it's just not working out. So I need to just look at what else might work for me.. 

[00:09:49] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Mm. And you had mentioned that you said that there you're doing certain things that maybe weren't healthy to cope, before you started going back to meditation. So it sounds like drinking Diet Coke was one of them.

[00:10:03] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest:  Which I was able to give up. Thankfully. Yes. drinking Diet Coke, drinking a lot of coffee. Certainly. I think I was drinking alcohol on the weekends. I was not staying up. So there's that whole I'm sure. I was overshopping. There was definitely ways of distraction and numbing that I was using that I think I can still revert back to unless I'm very, very careful.

So I'm very careful if I am, I popped onto an online shopping, whatever I'm like, well, why am I here? Is it because I don't want to deal with this other thing or even social media, for example, like, do I just want mindless distraction or is this is what is, what is it here? So it's more just becoming aware without necessarily judgment that I brought in.

[00:10:44] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Hmm.Oh, I love that. Yeah. Cause I, I, I wonder, how, how did you become aware that some of these things that you were just doing, which, are habits, a lot of physicians have where maybe unhealthy coping mechanisms.

[00:10:57] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Yeah, and it, and it wasn't like, it was an aha moment by the way. And I still catch myself doing some of those things, but it's a process.

And if I just stay with the process and I just stay curious, then I think I will begin to see things that once I accept them, then I can change it. But if I don't even accept that I'm scrolling social media for X amount of time, because I don't, I don't want to go to bed cause I don't want to hear the thoughts in my head or something like that.

Then perhaps I need to look at what other alternatives there might be. Do I need to just do some breathing exercises for a little while? Do I need to go take a bath? Do I need to do a little bit of yoga? What else can I do so that I get into bed in a more receptive state for sleep and rest. 

[00:11:39] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Hmm.Yeah. And as a sleep Doc, now, I'm really curious to hear about your insomnia symptoms. Cause you, you had mentioned that, was that what was, did you have trouble sleeping when you were growing up or was this a new problem? 

[00:11:52] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Oh, it was definitely a new problem. And I joked that it was once I had kids and, just, uh, it was just a high level of alertness that I didn't seem to ever understand how to dial down.

And by the way, they're complete teenagers. And so this was when they were way past the time when they would ever need me. So like ages four and six or three and whatever it was, they did not need me in the middle of the night. And I was still like, What if something happens? And so a lot of it was also just carried out by a variety of unhealthy sleep.

Well, just sleep hygiene in general. I wasn't getting to bed till one o'clock in the morning I was waking up, like I literally wouldn't leave myself enough time to rest so that's of course a reason not to sleep as if you're not in the bed. For me back then, I actually don't think I had trouble falling asleep. I think it was the 2:00 AM awakenings. 

[00:12:46] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: It was waking up in the middle of the night. Yeah. That's very distressing. I think that is something that people struggle with. 

[00:12:54] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Absolutely. Absolutely. And now I help people who have the same issues.

And so we use all these different tools that have gathered over the years. So it's really fun to be like, you know what? It's not like I grew up in an Ashram. I didn't grow up meditating my whole life. Or even in the last 20 years, I've not had this perfect mind, body, spiritual well being, but over the last few years, I've really cultivated it.And I'm nowhere near done. And I may be a few steps ahead. So let's see if you're open, let's have a conversation about it. 

[00:13:22] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Hmm. Okay. Well, great. That's a great segue to my questions about all these terms that people throw out. Cause I, personally, I try not to use jargon. And I realized that in our everyday vocabulary, especially a physician's, we use a lot of these fancy terms and people may not know what they mean.

Like patients, for example, may not know what's even insomnia. They're like, well, what is that? I, I heard I have insomnia. Oh my gosh, it's the worst thing in the world. And I said, well, actually, that just means you have difficulty sleeping. That's what you've been telling me this whole time. The one thing I love to hear your definition of is what is meditation? It sounds all fancy and out there. What is it?

[00:14:02] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest:  It does a meditation has a lot of connotations. And so I usually like to define meditation as well as mindfulness, if that's okay. And so meditation is incredibly simple.

It is literally just moving from activity into stillness and meditation is a formal way of practicing mindfulness. And so mindfulness can be defined in a multitude of different ways, but at its core, everyone usually agrees that mindfulness is the act of deliberately paying attention to this present moment without judgment and with curiosity.

 And there's a whole host of other things that come to mind as well. Sometimes we think about acceptance or detachment and trust and those sorts of things as a mindful way of living, but meditation just helps us live more mindfully. And so it's really about integrating the meditative practice into our daily lives, rather than the meditation itself being sort of a force on its own.

Now, sometimes it can be, it can be, just that inner inner journey. We can use that as a personal spiritual growth. And certainly that's the case for a lot of my students, but a lot of them were really just looking to see, how can we integrate this into your life? How can you know, here's this, this, and this, this quality of life that you really want for yourself and for your family, how can we integrate a meditation practice or a breath work practice to, to help you get there?

[00:15:23] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Okay, so I was taking notes as you were talking. So you were saying that meditation is moving from activity into stillness. That's right. And then meditation is one way of getting into mindfulness. 

[00:15:38] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: That's right. It's a formal mindfulness practice.  

[00:15:41] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Okay, so it’s a practice of mindfulness, but there could be other ways of getting mindfulness.

[00:15:45] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: That's right. We can use mindful awareness in everyday life. Right? We can take a mindful walk. We can eat mindfully. We can have this conversation mindfully and all of those things continue to strengthen our ability to stay in this present moment. And meditation can strengthen some of that for us. 

[00:16:02] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Okay, so meditation is something that I think, you're, I love that definition because I could picture it, So I think I got that, but mindfulness. Oh wow. Like I loved your definition. It was so deep. And I don't think I wrote down the whole thing. Couldn't take notes fast enough, but I think you said deliberately paying attention to the present moment.

Is that okay? So that's so deep. I mean, and I would say. That it's perhaps a habit that I could maybe develop, but it's certainly not something that I do right now. So I want to just learn more about that. What does that mean to be paying attention to the present moment? Because, I mean, yeah, like we're living in the present right now, like you and I were talking in real time. So are we in the present? 

[00:16:50] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: You and I we're definitely practicing mindfulness right now. Absolutely. But perhaps if you were talking to a patient earlier today and you were really like, oh God, I got to get this note done. And you were actually thinking of the prescription, but whether it went or not, but yet you were still having this conversation with the patient.

It doesn't mean you were a bad person. You were just automating some things and there's nothing wrong with that, but it isn't necessarily mindfulness. Right? Or perhaps we are, maybe you're sitting at like your kid's show and you are texting or you're emailing and, or you're worried about this conversation that you had with somebody just the, the day before, or you're worried about a presentation the next day, or you're thinking about what, what you're going to go get at the grocery store or you're ordering takeout, right?

Like you are there, are you at your kid's show? Yes. But are you actually paying attention to that present moment? Are you watching the show? And it doesn't mean we have to be mindful all the time. Certainly not. We cannot really be mindful all the time. There are some things that need to be on autopilot.

Like whether, that's what gives us the ability to have a conversation while we're driving. That's what gives us the ability to send a prescription and still be talking to someone, or a myriad of other things. But what we know is. When we are actually being mindful, that's when we're really most joyful, because think about, your kids are young, mine are, a little bit older, but we are naturally authentically, always mindful when we're little, we don't have to try.

So I joke sometimes, I'm like, if you really want to know how to be mindful, go talk to a three year old, they don't need any training. They were, they came like that. Right? So they are really in this present moment, they're just curious and they have no judgment and we lose some part of that, we don't actually even lose it.There just, it's like layers, layers of stress and conditioning. Add on, add on, add on. And so for kids, it's actually really easy to be mindful because they haven't had as much conditioning as you or I have.

[00:18:51] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: So fascinating. And some of these examples that you give, I have an understanding of that because even as I was like a teenager, I would say, I always wanted to keep the curiosity that I had when I was a child.

And also that sense of wonder, like when you see a child or if you remember you as a child, looking at your first snow storm, looking out the window, seeing the first crystal snowflake, and how amazing that is. And you're really just you have this heightened sensation of, of the moment.

And I guess I will, again, try not to use the moment because I also feel like that's a little bit of a jargon, but you're using your senses to take in what's around you right then and there, and you don't have to worry about, oh, what, the thing that happened, five minutes ago or the thing that's about to happen in an hour, it's free of worry.

[00:19:45] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: It's free of worry, but even more than that, it actually, we know, and we know this from studies is when we are more mindful, we're actually much more resilient to stress. And when we cultivate that compassion, for others, but also for ourselves, we actually become more resilient. And so we actually are able to take more action that's more meaningful for us when we bring ourselves back to the present moment, which you would think would be the exact opposite in a certain way. 

[00:20:13] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Huh? Well, I think there's an observation that, when you have pediatric patients that go through a traumatic medical journey like cancer, that oftentimes the adults around them would say, wow, I'm learning so much from how this child is handling this. That's certainly an example of the resiliency that kids have. 

[00:20:35] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: That's it.  That’s it. Yeah. And part of that is because they're closer to that, really that moment to moment, which I know we're trying not to use, but we're going to use it anyway. That that really is, it's so simple, right? It is profoundly simple, but it is not easy.

It really takes a lot of practice because we have to retrain and redo the way that we're doing, whether it's every day, every week, it doesn't matter, but it is profoundly simple, but it is not easy. 

[00:21:04] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Hmm. And you mentioned a few words that to me, I'm still trying to better understand how it relates to mindfulness and being in the present and being in the moment, which is joy and compassion, how do those relate to this.

[00:21:17] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: Yes. So what we do in my meditation practice is when we let go of a lot of the stress, then we have space, we have a little bit more expansion, and then we ask ourselves, what do we want to bring in? What are the qualities that we value in our lives? And so that's literally when we can bring in, what do you want more abundance?

Let's just, let's just sit with some abundance. Let's sit with some gratitude. And we know gratitude practices certainly bring us to states of mindfulness and vice versa as well. And then joy, ultimately joy is technically where we're all headed. I mean, we're all here to be happy. And I don't mean to have the perfect house and the perfect house and the perfect cars and all of that, so that we can be happy.

But really, I am talking about this inner contentment because that is a place from where we give. And when we give from that place, we start to make a bigger and bigger impact to those around us. And we actually start to be able to reach our highest sort of probability, potential vision, all of those things. And so in a way, you're right, being mindful, you might not think of how does joy come into play because you think of just, as that being maybe a place of peace, but peace is like the midway point to get to joy in a certain way.

And then joy is like, ultimately that place of contentment enjoined, by the way, we should not be happy and joyful all the time. No, but we should have some access to it that is not connected to the outside in a way that we can enjoy what's coming to us, but also be able to withstand whatever isn't coming to us and still have compassion for ourselves and for others around us. And it is again, it's we have to cultivate it, right? We really have to cultivate that. 

[00:23:04] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: Okay. So actually I have several questions as I'm listening to this. So, you're using a lot of emotions, as you're sort of describing this experience. So I'm curious, is this an emotional experience because, I observed like different members of my family, I have a couple of kids who are super emotional kids and I have another kid who's the typical engineer. Who's always asking questions and always really curious. And, if you ask him how he feels like people, like, I don't know, but Hey, I want to know about this. And so it is meditation for everybody, even people who are not natural feelers and is this the same emotion that we're talking about people who are just, always feeling things or is this a different kind of thing?

[00:23:44] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest: So first is meditation for everybody. And the question is, it depends. It depends on what somebody is looking for, right? So if somebody is looking for a way to practice mindfulness, that's really easy and effortless.

That's what I teach. If somebody is looking for a way to begin a self healing journey, whether that is mental or physical, then that's really what I teach. And that can be a starting point to reach other things as well. And so the emotion behind it, right? So I think of emotions as just, thoughts that have a feeling associated with it in our bodies.

And so therefore, we call them feelings and most of our actions, it turns out, really do come from our emotions. And not from our thoughts, we think that they do, but they really come from our emotions. And so the question is, do we have to feel a certain way or do we want to have to feel a certain way for us to meditate?

And it really just depends. What does somebody looking for is if somebody is feeling stressed, if somebody is feeling like they just don't even understand the word joy, because it's annoying when they hear it, which is how I was. I was like, that is so irritating to stop using that word because, I went to a couple of retreats and, and the teacher was like, well, what do you guys want?

And, I raised my hand and I, and I was like, I want, I just want peace. I just want peace. I want peace. Well, that is, that's it. And I'm like, yeah, that's so hard to get. Yeah. He's like, well, what about joy? What about happiness? And I'm like, that's absurd. That is completely absurd. I would be happy with peace.

So I just wanted to get to a neutral point. And so sometimes we have to aim for just that neutral point of being able to withstand whether it is emotional pain or anything else. And so to answer your question, emotions are the same as our thoughts, right? So one thing that we begin to realize when we meditate is we're not our thoughts.We are not our emotions, right? And we're not our feelings and we're not the sensations. We are separate from all of that. We are the ones who are feeling that we are the witness. And so if you want to, just, if you're curious about that, and if you want to just explore that a little bit more than meditation might be right for you, but it isn't everybody needs to sit down right now in Lotus position with their eyes closed and use a mantra.No, some people just aren’t ready. So when somebody is ready, I am there for them.

[00:25:56] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: And so you're saying, also that you don't have to have a certain disposition, like, you don't have to be a strong feeler to meditate. you could have an engineering type of mind and not necessarily think about feelings, but you could still meditate.and perhaps experience feelings as a result of the meditation.

[00:26:14] Dr. Rashmi Schramm, Guest:  Yeah, that's right. And one of the things that we find, actually, we find, we found a lot of different things with meditation, as far as the benefits go. And it isn't just the emotional ones that I'm talking about now. So we begin to see when we, and even beginner meditators really can shift from that.Go go, go sympathetic chronic stress response, which I think most of us are living in, unless we're doing something else about that. Right? And we were already living there before the pandemic hit. And so with the pandemic and the extra stress really there's, there's just a go, go, go attitude, which we know can also lead to chronic inflammation.

And so when we meditate, we are literally dialing that down and we're turning on that parasympathetic rest and restore response. And by the way, this just gets stronger and stronger. The more times one meditates. And you can imagine just some of the physiological effects that you see right away or what you would expect in the parasympathetic response, which are lowered heart rate, lower respiratory rate, as well as we start to see different blood flow through whether it's the limbic system and the brain.

And I'll come back to that. Or we start to see better blood flow within the endocrine system within, actually the reproductive system, as well as the GI tract. And all of that you can imagine, can begin to help us feel better right away. But, within the brain, there are lots of immediate changes, as well as long-term changes that begin to happen.

And some of the first changes that happen. And you actually, you're going to like some of this. So within yoga nidra, within usually the first 10 minutes or so, even in first time, meditators, we go into alpha wave activity, which as is incredibly healing and resetting and rejuvenating, but we've also in lots and lots of yoga nidra studies.We see folks within delta waves as well as theta waves and they are. Following a guidance and they can tell you when they come out exactly what all happened. And so it's really a fascinating thing that we start to see of this restful awareness response. And what happens in the brain is right off the bat,we start to see less blood flow within the limbic system and that's that amygdala and the fight or flight. 

And we see increased blood flow within the prefrontal cortex, which gives us that access to higher cortical centers to focus, to concentration, to creativity, and then over the long-term, we actually rewire our brain that way so that we have like the meditate, like a meditator brain 10,000 hours, plus it looks nothing like your brain or my brain, the prefrontal cortex is so much bigger.

There's so much, there's a much, much bigger, massive pre, of gray matter within the prefrontal cortex. And there's also. They even, uh, have better firing and wiring between the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. And that's just the beginning, that's just the tiniest bit of it. We start to see epigenetic changes that are really impressive as well.

And all of these things begin to add up, uh, and there's, there's no upper limit. They haven't really seen an upper limit for like here's, here's where all your benefits stop. And so we start to see these physiological changes. We see changes in mental, emotional, physical wellbeing, as well as some of the other things that I was telling you about just emotionally, if you're tired of feeling stressed out all the time, if you just want peace, it will take you there, but it can also take you to a way different places as well, because my teacher would say, can a Learjet take you to the grocery store? Yeah, sure. Let's go. Right? But you can also take you to Japan in a, in a few hours, if you'd like. 

 

[00:29:40] Dr. Weili Gray, Host: That was part one of a two part conversation with Dr. Rashmi Schram on meditation. Dr. Rashmi is the first meditation teacher on the podcast, but this is not the first episode of the podcast, where we talked about meditation. If you remember back to episode 18 facing the discomfort of silence with Dr. Liz Aguirre, she also shares her meditation practice that was also transformative in her life. And what I love as I speak to more and more individuals who meditate is that there is such a wide range in styles and techniques and even in the length of time that one does it. And what I really appreciate about Dr. Rashmi is the way that she teaches meditation. She's really embodying what she was talking about, through meditation, allowed her to let go of judgment, and be more curious and be more present. to be compassionate, to be joyful. so You can reach Dr. Rashmi through her website, optimalwellnessmd.org

I will tell you that Dr. Rashmi has inspired me to start meditating. I, um, just starting with five minutes, five minutes a day. For a couple of weeks. And now I am up to five minutes, twice a day.

 Until next week stay well, try some meditation to see if you can go from activity into stillness. And don't miss next week's episode where we'll be sharing even more gems about meditation.

Dr. Weili Gray, Host 

Thanks for listening. Make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss another episode. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and give us a five star review so we can help more physicians dare to dream and create their most abundant lives. There's also exciting news at the Dare to Dream Physician. For those of you who wish to get clarity on your own why and get energized as you explore, envision and create your dream life. I'm so excited to announce that I'm taking on a limited number of one on one clients for life planning. To get the complete details and sign up for an exploration meeting. Go to my website, daretodreamphysician.com. I really look forward to working with you. And it would be such an honor and privilege for me to be able to help you create your life plan. I truly believe that life planning will transform your life and will give you that energy to pursue your dream life sooner than you ever imagine. See you next week