Episode 441 Ananta Ripa Ajmera Becoming the Hero of Your Journey Transcript

This transcript is from episode 441 with guest Ananta Ripa Ajmera.

Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everyone. Welcome to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and today my guest is Ananta Ripa Ajmera. She’s a spiritual teacher, a 10 time award-winning and bestselling author and co-founder of the Ancient Way. Her programs are grounded in Ayurveda, yoga, and Vedanta philosophy, and you might, recognized her from various appearances in different media outlets such as Forbes, Vogue, and Good Day New York, or from her show, the True To Yourself Podcast. Um, but today we’re going to talk about, uh, becoming the hero of your own [00:01:00] story.

And we’ll have more on some of the other stuff that she does in a future episode. So, uh, stay tuned and subscribe for that. But, uh, we’re going to be talking about becoming the hero of your own story and exploring how you can transform your life by embracing your inner power and authenticity. Um, uh, first off, uh, Ananta, I want to welcome you to the show.

Thanks for being here.

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: so much for having me.

Scott DeLuzio: Absolutely. Um, so I mentioned, we’re going to be talking about the, uh, discussing, uh, becoming the hero of our own stories. Um, what does that mean to you? Uh, I know this is kind of a topic that, that, uh, You had to come up with, but what does that mean to you? And how can listeners kind of start this journey?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Becoming the hero of your own journey, to me, means being able and willing to learn from every experience of life. In such a way that we act then on what we’ve learned [00:02:00] from those experiences, so that we are really taking responsibility for shaping our own destiny.

Scott DeLuzio: Okay. And so, you know, we’ve all experienced so many things in our lives, um, from the everyday mundane, uh, type thing to big, impactful, It could be, uh, an impactful doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative thing. It could be, you know, uh, uh, a marriage, or it could be the birth of a child, or it could be, um, or it could be something more negative, maybe a traumatic event or something like that.

Um, and so how does that all fit together? How does that fit together? You know, with, um, you know, becoming the hero of this, this story or, or, or the journey,

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Becoming the hero of your own journey is really about Dealing with the adverse situations in our lives, the [00:03:00] traumas that we go through, the things that are big changes in our lives, whether they’re changes that we’ve made because they’re necessary, such as perhaps ending a marriage or moving from one location to another or changing jobs, or changes that are coming upon us, such as when a disease sets in or some kind of, you know, abuse happens in our lives and we have to stand up for ourselves in the face of that.

And what becoming the hero of our own journey means is not automatically going into a reactive, victimized state of mind around those traumas and around those adversities, but instead really being able to look difficulty in the eye and ask, what is it that I’m supposed to learn from this trauma? And then taking [00:04:00] action towards really doing something aligned with that learning.

So for example, if we’ve gone through an abusive relationship, which I’ve written about in my book, The Way of the Goddess, based on my own lived experiences, then when I asked that question, what am I supposed to learn from this? The answer is very insightful. Well, one thing I’m supposed to learn is never to abuse another.

But the more insightful thing, actually, was to stop internalizing that abuse towards myself. Because I realized that if I’m still in this situation with someone who is abusing their power with me, then somewhere Some part of me, maybe not all of me, agrees with this, or is being complicit in this, and [00:05:00] so becoming the hero of my own journey meant to It meant no longer allowing myself to internalize that abuse towards myself.

It meant really learning to radically love myself more than I ever have before because the reason I understood I got into this situation was looking for love in all the wrong places. So it takes a lot of tenacity and discipline and willpower to really, first of all, own that because it’s tough to swallow that initially, but then to actually keep doing those actions that really care for myself and that really reflect that I am having a relationship now with myself more than ever before, getting to know myself and being able to love myself.

Scott DeLuzio: you know, it’s interesting as you’re, you’re talking about that, because I’ve talked [00:06:00] to other people who have, uh, you know, survived cancer, um, you know, other, you know, Uh, diseases that like you said earlier, those things were kind of brought upon them that they didn’t do anything. It’s just, you know, they went to the doctor because, hey, this thing kind of feels a little weird on, on my body.

And, and uh, you know, what’s going on with that? And the doctor’s, oh, well, you have cancer and, um, it’s like, okay, well, what do I do with this? And, you know, they, um, they. They, they came out of the experience saying that getting the cancer, not getting sick from it itself, but getting the cancer was one of the best things that could have happened to them because, um, because it changed their outlook on life.

It gave them a, a different perspective. And for anyone who hasn’t. Experience something like that. And I, I haven’t personally had any major illnesses like that myself. Uh, and I’m thankful that [00:07:00] I haven’t, I’m not up there like, Hey, bring it on. Give me, give me all those illnesses, you know, but for people who haven’t, um, it sounds kind of weird, like, why, why would you say cancer of all things or the heart attack that you had or the some other near death experience that you’ve had?

How could you possibly say that that was one of the best things that’s ever happened to you? Um, you almost died. And it’s like, well, sure, but the way I was living before wasn’t really living. And now it kind of opened up my eyes to a whole new way of seeing the world. Seeing these negative things that happen in a different light and being able to take control of it, take the power away from an abusive relationship or, uh, you know, some other traumatic event that might’ve, uh, happened.

And now I take that power back and now I’m the [00:08:00] one who controls what that outcome looks like. Right. Is that, that kind of, you know, going along with what you’re, you’re talking about?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Yeah, totally, totally. And a metaphor that I love of this is that you go from being an actor in someone else’s script To actually writing the script of your own life, wherein you are the hero, right, like you imagine yourself in the most empowered and strongest light possible, and then you actually create that script, right, and first of all, you create it internally.

So it is so much about that internal shift of perspective and being able to see and appreciate things about difficulties that we may never have thought would actually be blessings, right? So a lot of times what they say in the ancient wisdom traditions, like the deep yogis, the one who’s the ones who studied in the Himalayas and risked their lives to learn this knowledge and [00:09:00] are talking about it as much more than physical exercises but as uniting with our true self.

We’ll always say that they wait for these difficulties in life because it’s through difficulties that we are given the opportunity. To discover all of who we are, to discover our true power, to discover our greatest strength and our deepest courage in the face of these difficulties. When we just get constantly blessed by good things after good things after good things, then we may feel very happy and that’s wonderful, but that happiness is real.

It’s probably based on what’s coming to us and not the happiness that comes from knowing that your true nature is happiness. That kind of discovery only comes from when you’re faced with the difficulty and you have to overcome it yourself. And that’s when you [00:10:00] realize your strength. So in the Vedic spiritual tradition, we have all these gods and goddesses.

It’s not a polytheistic tradition, but rather the ancient sages who studied in the Himalayas and gave us this knowledge from India had spent lifetimes simply observing nature and what we can. Learn from nature. And then they created all these gods and goddesses as role models or representations of the divine that we can learn from as human beings.

So in a sense, they took that script writing ability and they wrote character descriptions, right, for all different ways that Human beings can relate to something beyond, you know, just being who we are, but really being our full expanded self. And so one of these gods is called Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles.

He’s the elephant [00:11:00] headed remover of obstacles, but he’s also the giver of obstacles. And the reason that he gives us the obstacles to remove is because that process of removing them is so deeply rewarding when we are armed with some kind of knowledge of the value of life and of some spiritual values, right?

That we then apply. We don’t take theoretically and say, Oh, courage is a good thing. No, we actually practice courage. We actually practice love. We practice what we learn. And then that practice transforms us. And then we are actually that hero of our own journey. We’re no longer this person looking to be rescued by some external force or some god out there who we’re looking to save us.

But we realize that, wow, I have within me the power to be for myself exactly what I need. And there’s [00:12:00] nothing quite like that feeling. But it’s only one that you know when you’ve gone through it. Yeah,

Scott DeLuzio: you get the obstacles and then he has to take them away and you know, that, that, that’s why he provides the, the obstacles to you is, is to keep a job. Right. If you took all the obstacles away, you wouldn’t have a job, but that’s some poor humor.

I appreciate the pity laugh on that. Um, but. So I was talking about something similar to what you’re just talking about, uh, the other day with, with one of my kids and, um, he was talking about how, how great it would be if you can always have your favorite meal or, you know, favorite, you know, whatever, with no consequences and you could just always have the favorite thing all the time.

It was always just good food, good food, good food, good food all the time. And never, you’ve never had anything bad. You know, the, the, The meal didn’t get burnt. It didn’t have too much spices or not enough spices. It didn’t, [00:13:00] everything was just perfect all the time. And I said, well, how would you know how good it was if it was always just perfect?

And he was like, well, it would just be perfect. You would just know. Well, but would you though, right? Because if. If there was, there was no, uh, variation to that, there’s no good, there’s no bad. It’s just, even as great as perfection can be, that would just kind of be average, middle of the road, uh, you know, is, is maybe the way you might approach it is that’s your attitude towards it.

And so I was trying to get that point across that, um, sometimes you need to have a little bit of the, uh, the negative, the bad, the, uh, the good. You know, whatever, to appreciate the, the struggle or appreciate the, um, the good things that that can come. Right. And, and so [00:14:00] to your point, um, you know, where there are those obstacles and we’re all going to have obstacles in our life and it, and it could be, again, it could be the small little things or they can be real big things.

Um, But there’s some satisfaction in overcoming those obstacles, uh, in our lives, right? And so, if we never had any obstacles and everything was just handed to us as perfection, um, we wouldn’t know how to appreciate the struggle to get to that perfection, right?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: totally, totally. Yeah. Contrast creates clarity. And also, I am reminded of how there is this article in one of the business related publications that had said, are you bored? Are you depressed? Are you rich? [00:15:00] And it was a really interesting article about how among the world’s wealthiest people, who literally can have everything when they want it, as they want it, in a material sense, there can be an experience of neutralization, where having more and more and more, It just does not feed you anymore, and you just get so sick and tired of it, and then the same thing that was giving the great pleasure to begin with actually becomes like something you’re totally indifferent to, so you just don’t even really care, and you don’t enjoy it anymore.

And it’s very similar to how, you know, when people love a certain kind of food especially, and you have the first taste of it. Ice cream cone, for example. And say you’ve been waiting to have that ice cream cone for all, you know, month long or something or more, and then you finally have it, the kind of satisfaction [00:16:00] it gives is so high, and, but then if you sit there and you’re like, so good, I want another one, you have that second one.

Satisfaction goes down a little bit, right? And then you have a third, and then a fourth, and then a fifth, and you’re like, I do not like ice cream anymore.

Scott DeLuzio: Right. Right. And, and that’s, uh, in, in economics, I’m, I’m forgetting the name of it, but I know in one of my economics classes in college, we talked about something similar to that where if you, if you just finished running a marathon and you didn’t have anything to drink throughout that entire race, the, the entire, uh, thing, as soon as you cross that finish line, you can’t get enough water.

And it’s like, give me that water and I’m going to drink, drink, drink, drink, drink. Yeah. That first glass of water, that’s going to be like heaven. It’s going to be wonderful. Uh, the second one, it’s going to be great, but it may be not as good as the first and the third, still okay. But you know, the other two are better.

And by, by the time you get to like the 10th [00:17:00] glass of water, like, I don’t even want water. I’m good. Like we’re, we don’t need to overdo it here. Um, you know, same idea. Um, and so, you know, with, With all of this stuff, um, you know, we, we have to, I guess, look at things kind of in, in moderation. Uh, you know, you want, you want some of the good stuff, obviously, but if everything was all rainbows and unicorns and everything was perfect, um, you know, all the time, um, it’s not, you’re not going to appreciate it, uh, as much.

And so I, I think there might be some difficulties for some people, maybe some, Some obstacles, if you will, uh, that people might face in their own path to discovering this. In within themselves, um, you know, maybe they’ve, uh, experienced some traumatic event or, uh, you know, a traumatic relationship or, um, [00:18:00] you know, a lot of the listeners of the show or, uh, combat veterans that maybe they’ve experienced some combat related trauma.

Um, and nobody wants to say, Oh, it’s a good thing that you experienced that. That bomb that blew up and you know, exploded and injured you and all these things. Uh, it’s obviously, that’s not a good thing, right? But how you handle that I think is where you start to learn a little bit more about yourself. Um, you know, we’re not, not saying, yeah, go, Go and, uh, you know, be reckless around the bombs and, and see what happens, you know, uh, to, to experience those kind of things.

We’re, we’re saying what you do next is what’s going to be important, right? So how would you talk to somebody like that who’s maybe like, I, I just can’t see how this could possibly be a good thing?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Yeah, I mean, I think initially it’s totally a good thing to acknowledge that it [00:19:00] doesn’t feel good. And we should always be real with ourselves. We should always be honest and acknowledgement is a really powerful way of practicing acceptance. Then, you know, I accept that this is so uncomfortable. I accept that this is excruciatingly painful.

We might cry if we need to. It’s really important not to suppress our emotions. On the path of spiritual healing and growth and empowerment, part of becoming that hero of your own journey is to be fully authentic and to experience all of the range of what we’re meant to experience as human beings. It’s only when we really accept that.

That yes, this is difficult. Yes, this is painful. That we can then begin that process of also churning it for everything it has to offer us and really being able to learn from it. If we just go straight to the learning part, but we don’t really feel the pain or feel [00:20:00] the discomfort, there’s an, opportunity or a chance that we might kind of what they call spiritually bypass that situation and just look at the positive side, which is kind of a toxic positivity situation.

So I feel like it’s really important to be in that space of like, yeah, how could this possibly be good and feel the yuckiness of it or feel the awfulness of it and, and just be with it, right? But what we also learn about in spirituality is that we have within us the presence of a sort of witness consciousness.

So while one part of us is going through all the reactions that we may have as a person, there’s another part of us that we can get awakened to, that is actually watching as we experience these things. So that we’re able to have whatever kind of natural reaction that we have to it, [00:21:00] but then we know that we’re progressing.

on our path when that reaction gets less intense and happens for less time and is less, you know, impactful overall. But for someone who’s really wondering how could this I think it’s great to sit with that question and just experience how bad it is for some time in order to define what is the problem now, right?

Like, what has this caused? And when we know and we’ve really defined a problem well, then what we believe is that the solution is contained within the problem itself. And when we really know what we’re facing and we’ve been able to diagnose it and we’ve been able to understand it, then we can start the process of healing and we can start the process of learning what it is this illness is.

This situation has to offer us that [00:22:00] may take us even beyond where we were before. There’s this wonderful expression that’s come up in Western psychology now, which is called post traumatic growth. Instead of just talking about post traumatic stress disorder, we actually have this totally opposite parallel that’s not even saying, bounce back to what you used to be.

I think that is Okay, but I love this idea and what I like to focus on with being the hero of your own journey is that you go way beyond anything that you were before and you actually, through this pain, through this difficulty, you learn that And in that learning process, you act in accordance with whatever is needed, based on the problem that you’ve well defined, and then you become something beyond what you could have [00:23:00] even imagined.

And you can really experience the power of that post traumatic growth. And so the opportunity that you have, only if you set the right intention for it over time is to allow this trauma, allow this difficulty to be your fire of transformation and your catalyst to become an even more evolved, even more empowered, even more enlightened and compassionate and giving and wise version of yourself.

Scott DeLuzio: It’s interesting because as you were talking about that, uh, the, the visual, uh, came into my mind of a farmer, uh, farming their field and they want their, their crops to grow. Obviously they, they, they’re starting off with a barren dirt field and there’s, there’s nothing there, uh, and, and they want them to, the, the crops to grow.

And so they fertilize it with [00:24:00] manure. And think that’s a pretty good, uh, reference to what you’re referring to is if you’re going through crap, um, it’s gonna, you can use that to, uh, use that as fuel to grow from whatever that situation is. And, you know, in, in that case, uh, had the farmer not put that manure down, um, the, the plants, maybe they would have come up to whatever they Would have come up to, but they wouldn’t grow as big as they might have with the, the, uh, the fertilizer from it, you know, from the, the, the manure there.

So, um, that, that was kind of the visual that, that came up in my head. Um, you know, just thinking if you’re, if you’re going to go through it anyways, you might as well, uh, take something away from it. Right. Um, and you might as well grow from it. No, nobody wants to go through those negative situations, but.

Once when you do, you, [00:25:00] you can use that as a kind of catalyst to, uh, to grow, right?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: totally. Yeah, I like that metaphor.

Scott DeLuzio: Um, now you mentioned before, uh, that the solution oftentimes is, is contained in the problem. Um, and I know when you’re in the weeds of it and you’re in the middle of whatever that problem is, it’s sometimes hard to see it for what it is, see it for that purpose. The fact that there might be a solution there, or there might be some silver lining, something good to, to walk away from, uh, you know, with this, how do you How do you get people to kind of come around to that mindset?

I’m sure it’s, it’s not like a, uh, you know, a one or two sentence phrase that you might, you might say, and all of a sudden the light bulb goes on. But, um, you know, is it something that people need to practice over time, over, you know, like smaller things [00:26:00] that kind of help build up that, that, um, natural ability to, to figure that out?

Or is there some other way that you can, you can help people get to that point?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: I actually run a program to help people with this that’s based on my book and it takes you through the nine steps of the spiritual hero’s journey of the goddess and developing nine different powers within your nine chakras to really be able to Transform difficulties into blessings. And it’s a process.

It’s such a journey, you know, like even my own journey of writing the book itself has transformed me so many times that I keep going through that journey. Every day, you know, like focusing on just cultivating one of these powers, [00:27:00] doing certain practices that will allow me to experience the power of stability is today, for example, tomorrow, I will hone in on the power of creativity and there’s so much.

Practices for that, which I’ve developed from my learning of ancient spirituality over time, and it’s really grounding and really helpful to have that framework because it takes you in order step by step to really cultivate different. qualities of your own self within these layers of the mind, which are known as the chakras.

And I find that to be a really holistic way to uncover hidden superpowers and to, you know, focus more on the ones that really need that emphasis. So for me, after having gone through the abusive relationships, I had to really [00:28:00] work on the power of intuition because I got gaslit so much that it was really difficult for me to trust myself and I had to really stay with that power especially to really focus in on how can I honor my inner voice, how can I own my reality, how can I practice validating what I know to be true in the face of other people discarding it or disregarding it.

Mm

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, so you You know, had that challenge of just being able to trust yourself, right? And, and that’s in, in one instance, what you had, right? But other people might feel that they can’t trust themselves in another area of their life. And, and so there’s, um, There’s just that lack of trust. It’s like, I should be Superman or Superwoman or, you [00:29:00] know, whatever, I should be able to handle all these things, but I, maybe I can’t.

Maybe I’m falling short in certain areas. Um, so maybe I need to, to focus on those areas. Maybe I need to do a little bit more work on, like in your case, uh, intuition or, you know, other, other areas. Um, so, you know, we, we need to, um, Pick up the pieces and say, well, I know I’m not perfect. I know nobody is right where we all, um, you know, lack in one way or another.

Um, and that’s okay. Uh, I, I’m okay with that. It doesn’t mean I’m just going to accept that, you know, I’m just imperfect forever. And, and, oh, well, I guess I, I just suck and I’m just not going to be good at anything. You know, you’re, you’re going to say, okay, well, what can I do about that? Um, I can get better.

I may never get to perfection, right? I don’t think anyone will ever get to perfection, but I can work on getting better in certain areas instead of just [00:30:00] letting whatever that situation just bulldoze you over time after time after time. Right?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Exactly. Yeah, it’s often about learning new things. I feel like I’m constantly learning new things and growing in that way, like even having an online business in 2024. It’s so full of learning curves constantly to be able to create something that will create lifelong value for people and really meet them where they’re at.

It’s just You have to be committed to knowing that you don’t know everything and also being willing to ask for help. So the first part of the hero’s journey is really about developing the power of practice itself. And for that, we have to really be brave to acknowledge what we’re experiencing, to acknowledge what is the problem that we’re having, and then to also ask for help.

From the appropriate person at the [00:31:00] correct time in the best way possible. And that makes a really big difference too, because before we are our own hero, we may need some support to bring that out of us. And it’s important at that time that you find a kind of teacher or guide. Who is committed to supporting the teacher or guide already living within you, because that can be a huge source of abuse of power, which I have experienced, you know, being on the student end of, and it’s, it’s something that we have to practice a lot of discernment around.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, it’s probably a humbling experience to, to be able to reach out for help from somebody. Um, when, especially when you might be. Used to being the person who maybe is in charge or is, uh, you know, the strong one or the, you know, whatever. Sometimes you’d need help. [00:32:00] Um, and I’ve said this before on this show, um, Specifically regarding mental health, uh, type things, because traditionally, especially talking to a lot of military folks, um, traditionally, we don’t want to reach out for help that seen as a sign of weakness or whatever.

Um, but the way I look at it is, okay, so you have this problem, you don’t have the tool set to solve this problem. And so you’re just going to let it be. And hopefully it gets better on its own. Right. So let’s take, take that into another situation. Like I’m not a car mechanic. If my car starts making this weird squeaky noise, I don’t know how to fix that.

So I’m going to take my car to the mechanic and I don’t think anyone would look at me like, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you took your car to a mechanic. Like, what a, what a loser you are. Okay. I don’t know how to do it. [00:33:00] Right. And, and we all. Go to specialists for something. You know, you, if you don’t know how to do your taxes, you go to an accountant.

It’s like, Oh my gosh, you don’t know how to do your taxes. Why don’t you know how to do your taxes? You should know how to do this by now. You know, like no one, no one’s like going to braid you for something like that. Like it’s not. That, that kind of thing. Um, so yeah, lean into somebody who might be able to help you along your way.

And it’s, you know, I think who that person is and what, what it is that they have to offer might be different depending on each circumstance, but there might be some just more in general, um, you know, things that you might need some help with. And so there, there are people out there. who are ready, willing and able to help.

Um, it really doesn’t make sense to struggle on your own unnecessarily. If, if you’re so far down in that pit that there, you can barely even see the light at the other end of that pit, you might need [00:34:00] some help, someone to lower the ladder down at least. Right.

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And we can be open to exploring, initially, who that help comes from. You can take child classes, you can do child sessions, research people, see, like, who do you feel comfortable with, and honor your own self, you know? And, like, trust yourself with who you go to, and make sure you do some research and homework so that you’re Protecting yourself, but I feel, yeah, that’s, it’s a brave thing to do, to ask for help when we’re in a position of authority or being the strong one, and that’s why the first step is the hardest of all.

Scott DeLuzio: It is, it is. Um, um, you know, from my own personal experience and other people I’ve spoken to, uh, when you. are initially making that, that first call to somebody to get help. It’s like, I [00:35:00] know I can’t do this on my own. I know I need help. I know I need some sort of guidance or assistance. Someone to, uh, at least just get the ball rolling.

Um, sometimes it’s scary because, uh, it’s like, I don’t, I don’t know what I’m walking into with, with this type of thing. Am I, am I signing, Signing up for this life changing experience in a way that maybe I’m not ready for, or is it something else? I don’t know what any of this is. And sometimes it can be scary to walk into the unknown, right?

But it’s also requires some courage. And it, it’s a very courageous thing to reach out and ask somebody for help, not necessarily knowing what you’re going to get

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Yeah.

Scott DeLuzio: the other end. Right? Um, and like, to your point, not everyone and everything that they have to offer is going to be right for everybody. Um, you know, I, I might come to, uh, one person, I [00:36:00] might sit down for, you know, an hour or two with this person and, and realize, Hey, they’re not the right one for me.

And Hey, no, no harm, no foul. We’re just going to go our separate ways and you know, best of luck to you. Best of luck to me. And, and we’ll, we’ll go find somebody else. But I think the important thing is to keep looking. Uh, if, if what you’ve tried before hasn’t worked, uh, doesn’t mean that nothing ever will, that you’re a lost cause and that all hope is lost and that you you’ll never be the hero of your own journey.

You’ll, you’ll, you’re just going to be this, uh, This victim who has no possible future or no, no way of seeing anything better in your life. Um, that, that’s not the case at all. It’s just you haven’t found that right thing for you yet. Um, you know, and so that’s, that’s why I like having folks like you come on the show, someone who maybe has a different perspective than, than what maybe traditionally is.

is, uh, thought of in, in a lot of, uh, you know, maybe a trauma [00:37:00] situation where someone is trying to, uh, you know, maybe they, they go to traditional talk therapy or, you know, anything like that, uh, that doesn’t work for everybody. It doesn’t It’s good for, for, you know, certain people and it, and it works for them.

And that’s wonderful. I’m glad that it does, but sometimes it’s not for everybody. And so, you know, someone who has, you know, uh, you know, between your books and, and the, the courses and teaching and stuff that you do, um, it’s good. There might be something there and it might resonate with somebody and that’s why I like having, uh, you know, people like you on the show to, uh, just open up people’s minds to other options that they may not even recognize or, or realize that these options exist.

And, uh, And so when they, they’re exposed to them, it’s like, okay, well, I, I haven’t tried that. So I know I haven’t tried everything, so let’s try that one now and let’s see how that works for me. And, you know, hopefully it does, you know, and that’s, that’s what we were trying to do with this show.[00:38:00]

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Yeah, yeah, no, it’s wonderful. It’s a wonderful service that you have. And I feel like there’s a lot of wisdom and value to be found in the ancient wisdom traditions and the ancient healing traditions, because they are so holistic and they are so nature based, they don’t create dependencies, they really go to the root cause of why we are suffering in whatever way we may be suffering, and address that.

And I find that there’s so much relief that comes from that. I myself had tried the traditional talk therapy and all the things, right? Like all different kinds of diets. And I tried, um, going on online help forums and just so many things to diagnose myself, reading books about it, try to understand eating disorders when I was growing up and everything like yoga classes, even they gave partial relief.

For sure, but [00:39:00] it didn’t show me the whole picture of body, mind, soul. And the first thing that I really resonated with in the spiritual practices of Ayurveda, yoga, and Vedanta is how they identify you as a soul, first and foremost. And when you are connected to who you are as a spiritual being beyond this body, beyond the mind, it gives you so much more power to be able to change things at the level of your mind and your body, because the body especially takes the longest time to experience The changes, you know, the mind can quickly start to change, but the body will take more time to catch up.

And so if we just identify with the state of our body, it’s going to be hard. If we identify with the mind, the mind is constantly changing. So what is that part of us that is [00:40:00] never changing and always constant and eternal? And that is really the definition of a soul. And when we really connect with that, I feel that itself unlocks tremendous healing and so much liberation from within.

So I know for my own self, this was what unlocked everything for me and did it in a systematic and gentle way.

Scott DeLuzio: For the listeners who want to find out more information about You and your programs and stuff that you do, where can people go to find out more information?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Yeah, sure. So people can visit my website, Ananta, A N A N T as in tiger, dot one, all spelled out, O N E, . Or you can visit my organization’s website, theancientway. co. We have a lot of information about our different programs that are happening, and we will be launching [00:41:00] some free community programs as well that you can tune into.

Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. And I’ll have those links in the show notes for anyone who’s interested in finding out more information and getting in touch and seeing if this might be the thing that unlocks that whatever is keeping you back and unlocks that for you. So, uh, again, the links will be in the show notes. Uh, Ananta, I’m.

Uh, appreciative that you took the time to come on. Uh, I really do appreciate all the, uh, the background and information that you had to offer, uh, and hopefully this, this helps some folks out, so thank you again.

Ananta Ripa Ajmera: Thank you so much!

Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to support the show, please check out Scott’s book, Surviving Son on Amazon. All of the sales from that book go directly back into this podcast and work to help veterans in need. You can also follow the Drive On Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and [00:42:00] wherever you listen to podcasts.