The Shadow & The Light w davidji & Elizabeth Winkler

Send us a text to let us know how this episode impacted you. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2317811/open_sms] What if health isn’t the absence of disease, but the presence of balance you can actually feel? We dive into Ayurveda’s timeless map of the five elements—space, air, fire, water, earth—and show how they shape your unique constitution, or dosha: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. With stories, humor, and real-life examples, we connect ancient insights to everyday choices like travel routines, sleep timing, and how you build the right team at work and at home. You’ll learn how each element shows up inside your body and all around you, why your baseline nature doesn’t change but your balance does, and how to use opposites to steady yourself. Vata gets grounded with warmth, rhythm, and hydration, especially on planes. Pitta cools down with less competition, more space in the schedule, and soothing foods like watermelon. Kapha wakes up with invigorating movement and lighter meals. We also unpack Agni, the inner fire that digests both food and feelings, and explain why 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. is prime time for emotional repair and deep sleep. The payoff is ojas—sweet vital nectar—rather than ama, the sticky residue of undigested experiences. Along the way we share a powerful mantra, Agni Mile Purohitam, and simple guardrails for breathwork and hot practices so fiery types don’t “scorch the village.” We frame “elemental diversity” as a secret advantage in teams and relationships: Vata brings creativity and connection, Pitta brings drive and clarity, Kapha brings steadiness and trust. Put them together with care and you’ve got a dream team. Ready to identify your type and build rituals that actually fit your nature? Listen now, take the dosha quiz in the notes, and tell us what you’ll try this week. If this conversation helps you see yourself more clearly, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find us. We explore Ayurveda’s core idea that health is balance, not just the absence of disease, and show how the five elements shape your dosha and daily choices. We share practical tools for travel, sleep, work, and relationships, plus a mantra to strengthen your inner fire. • five elements as the basis of body and mind • doshas explained with traits and imbalances • inner and outer expressions of space, air, fire, water, earth • practical balance tips for vata, pitta, kapha • travel strategies to calm vata and stay present • agni, ojas, ama and emotional digestion • sleep timing from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. for deep rest • elemental diversity for teams, families and creativity • mantra and breathwork guidance with cautions • self-audit question: what did I leave behind Take the quiz, it's gonna be in the notes right here, and find out what's my basic nature ATTENTION: Elizabeth is coming to Ireland! Click this link [https://www.elizabethwinkler.com/groups/heart-resonance-retreat/?v=1] to join the retreat! We transform the world by transforming ourselves. Share this podcast with your friends, loved ones, and workmates. Visit davidji.com & elizabethwinkler.com for additional healing resources. Big shoutout to the amazing Jamar Rogers for creating such powerful music and lyrics for the official song of The Shadow & The Light Podcast!

Send us a text to let us know how this episode impacted you. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2317811/open_sms] A sunrise canoe in Hawaii cracked something open for us. A guide looked a boat full of strangers in the eye and said, “Use your shit,” and it landed like a bell. From that moment, we trace how pretending to be fine starves our growth, why shame hoards our evolution, and how vulnerability becomes the bridge from isolation to intimacy. We name the quiet performances we all run to protect what hurts and offer a clear framework to shift choices in real time: fear, love, or habit. Together we unpack the difference between authenticity and truth in emotions, and why fear can feel real in the body even when the story is false. We talk about the “personality of pretending,” imposter feelings, and the subtle ways we hide in everyday moments—at the store, at dinner, in quick greetings—because keeping an image intact seems safer than being seen. Instead of burying discomfort, we invite you to use it as fertilizer. Small, simple practices—breath, a brief pause, a line in a journal, a mantra like “maybe, maybe not”—become pattern interrupts that rebuild capacity and help you respond, not react. We also explore the convergence that makes change stick: message, messenger, and timing. You can’t force receptivity, but you can prepare the soil. Self-compassion tools like a hand on the heart and “I’m here” reconnect the inner child you once abandoned. Working the low-hanging fruit—traffic, a tense email, a changed plan—trains your nervous system for bigger moments. The payoff is tangible: cleaner energy, deeper bonds, and choices aligned with love over habit. If you’re ready to own your impact and grow something honest from the mud, press play and join us. If this conversation resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so others can find the show. We explore how pretending to be fine keeps us stuck and how vulnerability turns pain into growth. A sunrise canoe in Hawaii sparks a practical framework—fear, love, or habit—to help us own our impact and use our “fertilizer” wisely. • releasing the personality of pretending • shame, secrecy, and using pain as fertilizer • choosing between fear, love, or habit • authenticity versus truth in emotions • inner child care with breath and self-compassion • simple practices that build capacity • small wins as pattern interrupts • message, messenger, and timing for change • owning your impact in relationships and habits ATTENTION: Elizabeth is coming to Ireland! Click this link [https://www.elizabethwinkler.com/groups/heart-resonance-retreat/?v=1] to join the retreat! We transform the world by transforming ourselves. Share this podcast with your friends, loved ones, and workmates. Visit davidji.com & elizabethwinkler.com for additional healing resources. Big shoutout to the amazing Jamar Rogers for creating such powerful music and lyrics for the official song of The Shadow & The Light Podcast!

Send us a text to let us know how this episode impacted you. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2317811/open_sms] What if the bravest kind of love is the one that knows how it ends—and chooses it anyway? We open our hearts to the animals who share our homes and our inner lives, asking why we invite a goodbye into the story and discovering how pets return the favor by teaching presence, trust, and unconditional love. From Peaches, the seventeen‑year‑old “Buddha princess,” to a campus‑famous therapy dog named Ralph, this conversation moves through aging, anticipatory grief, and the quiet rituals that turn care into connection. We share the small pivots that matter as pets grow older—less ocean play, more soft blankets and ujayi breath hummed against a ribcage so they can feel the calm they can no longer hear. We talk about meditating with animals, ignoring dogma in favor of dogs, and how energy entrainment makes the whole room softer. There’s honest talk about responsibility and timing, especially for anyone who’s not ready yet, and a clear call for ethical guardianship: adopt when you can truly commit, train with kindness, and let animals be the animals they are. Cats hunt. Dogs sniff. Both sense our moods better than most people. Along the way, we explore how animals reopen the door to trust after loss, how a cat’s routine can anchor someone’s healing, and why our pets may be the little bodhisattvas of our busy modern lives. If you’ve ever checked for a sleeping pet’s breath in the night, whispered a secret into fur, or felt your nervous system settle when a warm weight leaned against your leg, you’ll find yourself here. If this resonated, share it with a fellow animal lover, subscribe for more conversations at the edge of shadow and light, and leave a review to help others find the show. Tell us your pet’s name and the greatest lesson they’ve taught you—we’re listening. We explore why we choose pets knowing we will say goodbye, and how impermanence, presence and unconditional love shape the way we care, grieve and grow. From meditating with animals to elder care for Peaches, we share stories that turn responsibility into reverence. • choosing pets despite impermanence • daily care shifting to palliative comfort • a non‑owner’s perspective on bandwidth and regret • trust, memory and living in the present • cats as nature’s lesson in instinct • animals as healers in times of loss • meditating with pets and energy entrainment • stewardship, adoption and ethical guardianship • therapy dog co‑regulation and anxiety relief • Peaches teaches: presence over projection Adopt your next pet Visit our website, the Shadow and The Light Podcast.com, follow us on Instagram, the Shadow and the Light Podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcasts on the planet ATTENTION: Elizabeth is coming to Ireland! Click this link [https://www.elizabethwinkler.com/groups/heart-resonance-retreat/?v=1] to join the retreat! We transform the world by transforming ourselves. Share this podcast with your friends, loved ones, and workmates. Visit davidji.com & elizabethwinkler.com for additional healing resources. Big shoutout to the amazing Jamar Rogers for creating such powerful music and lyrics for the official song of The Shadow & The Light Podcast!

Send us a text to let us know how this episode impacted you. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2317811/open_sms] Have you ever caught yourself thinking that people never really change? Or perhaps you're convinced that transformation is not only possible but inevitable? This fascinating tension between fixed and growth mindsets forms the heart of our exploration into personal transformation. davidji and Elizabeth dive deep into what makes genuine change possible, revealing that the first step isn't focusing on others but turning inward. "Put down the magnifying glass and hold up the mirror," Elizabeth suggests, offering a powerful metaphor for where true transformation begins.  We unpack the cycle of change - from believing it's possible, to willingness, to taking courageous action, to celebrating small wins - and how this process creates lasting transformation rather than temporary change. But perhaps most illuminating is our discussion of how many of us live trapped in reward/punishment cycles, postponing joy while waiting for weekends, vacations, or some future moment to truly live. Drawing from Eckhart Tolle's wisdom, we explore how to transmute ordinary waiting periods into moments of presence and enjoyment. Those five years we collectively spend waiting in lines throughout our lives? They can become portals to mindfulness rather than sources of frustration. By anchoring in our bodies, connecting with nature, or simply noticing what's around us, we reclaim these "wasted" moments and infuse them with meaning. For anyone feeling stuck in patterns that no longer serve them, we offer practical techniques, including a beautiful meditation practice: "Hello, eternal loving presence." This simple phrase can interrupt negative patterns and invite connection with your deeper self, especially during difficult times. Whether you're crawling through metaphorical glass or quicksand in your own journey, we remind you that honoring where you are without judgment is the first step toward freedom. And while transformation doesn't guarantee happiness, it does lead to something perhaps more valuable—peace and a profound connection to something larger than ourselves. Join us in this episode to discover how the journey itself, not some distant destination, is where life's richness truly resides. davidji and Elizabeth explore whether people can truly change, examining how our focus on changing others distracts us from the internal transformation that matters most. • People constantly change on a cellular level, but psychological transformation requires specific conditions • True change requires belief in the possibility of change, willingness to change, and readiness to do difficult things • Breaking free from reward/punishment cycles helps us experience joy in the present moment • Waiting periods (like lines or traffic) can become opportunities for mindfulness rather than frustration • The Buddhist concept of kleshas (obstacles) explains what prevents us from experiencing our true nature • Transformation doesn't guarantee happiness but leads to peace and connection with something larger • Simple practices like saying "Hello, eternal loving presence" can interrupt negative patterns • Using the bo ATTENTION: Elizabeth is coming to Ireland! Click this link [https://www.elizabethwinkler.com/groups/heart-resonance-retreat/?v=1] to join the retreat! We transform the world by transforming ourselves. Share this podcast with your friends, loved ones, and workmates. Visit davidji.com & elizabethwinkler.com for additional healing resources. Big shoutout to the amazing Jamar Rogers for creating such powerful music and lyrics for the official song of The Shadow & The Light Podcast!

Send us a text to let us know how this episode impacted you. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2317811/open_sms] Feeling triggered, stressed, or carrying that proverbial chip on your shoulder? You might be experiencing what meditation teacher davidji and psychotherapist Elizabeth Winkler reveal as "emotional fight-flight" – a modern evolution of our ancient survival mechanism that's wreaking havoc on our health and happiness. This eye-opening exploration takes you deep into the physiology of stress, explaining how everyday emotional reactions trigger the same hormonal cascade as life-threatening dangers. When someone comments on your appearance or questions your choices, your body responds as if facing a predator – perspiring, breathing shallowly, increasing heart rate, and even preparing your blood to clot before you're injured. The consequences of repeatedly activating this response are far more serious than momentary discomfort. davidji and Elizabeth share their most powerful "stress hacks" for instantly regulating your nervous system, including the "Fill Her Up, Top It Off" breathing technique that signals safety to your heart's natural pacemaker, and the "16-Second Reset" that breaks thought patterns and brings you back to the present moment. For those with trauma histories, they offer grounding practices that create safety before meditation, emphasizing the importance of options and awareness of your surroundings. Beyond formal techniques, discover how simple lifestyle adjustments – spending time in nature, taking walks, incorporating even five minutes of yoga daily, and maintaining a consistent meditation practice – can create what David calls "a parachuted life." Experience the immediate relief of Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) and the powerful energy release of the "Ah" mantra as demonstrated live in the episode. Ready to transform those reactive moments into opportunities for presence and connection? These accessible practices don't just protect your health – they create the foundation for experiencing life with greater joy, clarity, and authenticity. Try them today and notice how quickly your perspective shifts from threat to possibility. Our nervous system's fight-flight response evolved from physical dangers to emotional triggers, causing the same harmful physiological changes and potentially leading to health issues when repeatedly activated. • Evolution of fight-flight response from physical to emotional triggers • Physiological changes during fight-flight: perspiration, shallow breathing, increased heart rate • Suppression of non-essential functions like immune system and digestion during stress • Emotional triggers can cause the same hormonal cascade as physical threats • "Fill Her Up, Top It Off" breathing technique to instantly reset your nervous system • The "16-Second Reset" technique to break thought patterns and return to present moment • Trauma-informed meditation approaches that create safety through grounding • Importance of giving options when guiding others through mindfulness practices • Simple lifestyle changes: nature time, walking, yoga, and consistent meditation • Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) for balance and calm • The "Ah" ATTENTION: Elizabeth is coming to Ireland! Click this link [https://www.elizabethwinkler.com/groups/heart-resonance-retreat/?v=1] to join the retreat! We transform the world by transforming ourselves. Share this podcast with your friends, loved ones, and workmates. Visit davidji.com & elizabethwinkler.com for additional healing resources. Big shoutout to the amazing Jamar Rogers for creating such powerful music and lyrics for the official song of The Shadow & The Light Podcast!