Women Over 50: Restore Energy & Calm with Ayurveda

If you’re a woman over 50 feeling tired, anxious, and craving calm, this episode could be the solution you’ve been looking for. In this conversation with Ayurvedic practitioner Jonathan Glass, we’ll explore how the 5,000-year-old system of Ayurveda understands the unique needs of women in midlife, and how simple daily shifts can help you build stress resilience, steady your nervous system, and restore your energy without pushing harder.

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This interview is for the woman who’s spent decades caring for others, and is finally hearing the inner nudge that it’s time to come to herself. We explore Ayurveda as a whole-life healing system, (not just a “diet” or body-type trend), and why honoring your unique nature matters more now than ever. Jonathan shares the five universal goals every human being is striving for, and how understanding them can help you design the next chapter of your life with clarity and self-compassion.

Tune in to discover:

• How changing hormones naturally redirect your focus from others to yourself, and why that’s not selfish — it’s sacred.
• Ayurveda’s five goals of life and how understanding these principles can guide your next chapter decisions.
• How to spot your personal “out of balance” patterns so you can respond earlier and more lovingly.
• Why supporting your nervous system and glands through diet, herbs, and lifestyle can make the next 20 to 40 years more vibrant.

Read the Transcript

About my guest:
Jonathan Glass is a naturopathic doctor and Ayurvedic practitioner who helps people restore health through integrative, nature-based medicine. He’s the co-founder of Healing Essence Center and author of Total Life Cleanse, a 28-day Ayurvedic-inspired program supporting detoxification and renewal.

Connect with Jonathan:
Website: HealingEssenceCenter.com
Instagram: @jonathanglassnd
Email: healingessencectr (at) gmail.com
Book: The Total Life Cleanse – available on Amazon or Jonathan’s website

Resources & links mentioned:
Be Here Now by Ram Dass – The book that first introduced Jonathan to meditation as a teenager
Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss – Classic naturopathy guide that changed Jonathan’s relationship with food
Adaptogens – Herbal supplements that support adrenal health and hormone balance during midlife transitions
The five goals of life: Dharma (purpose), Artha (economic security), Kama (pleasure), Moksha (freedom), Prema (love)

Design Your Life, Your Way – next steps:

If this episode spoke to you, leave us a review.
Follow/subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.
Share this with a friend who’s navigating transition, reinvention, or a fresh start after 50.
Connect with me on LinkedIn @GloriaGraceRand to continue the conversation about midlife, meaning, and living on purpose.

TRANSCRIPT – Women Over 50: Restore Energy & Calm with Ayurveda

Welcome and Introduction to Ayurveda

Joining us today is Jonathan Glass. He is a naturopathic doctor and Ayurvedic practitioner and natural health educator, among other things. And he has trained extensively in Ayurveda, yoga and meditation while living in India and through the American Institute of Vedic Studies and the Dharma Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda. And, and I’m really looking forward to our conversation and learning a little bit more about Ayurveda, so, because that’s the main reason I wanted him on the show today. So without further ado, I am going to bring him on and welcome you, Jonathan, to Design your Life your Way.

Oh, wait a minute, I muted you accidentally. I’m sorry, go ahead, say that again. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Yeah, I, I, and it’s interesting, you know, I’ve been doing, I’ve been podcasting for over six years now and I never had anybody on the show to talk about this before. So you are the first and wonderful. Yeah, I’m, I’m, I’ve looked into this over the years because especially when I was dealing with my, my love hate relationship with my body over the years I’m where, where I would have a little bit too much weight on me than I would desire. And so I knew, exploring that a little bit. But I, I, I thought the way we could start the interview today would be to see if you can give our audience sort of a broad, broad overview of what Ayurveda is and then, and then also kind of what, what drew you to become a practitioner in it.

What Is Ayurveda? An Ancient System for Modern Life

Okay, sure, happy to. So yeah, I, Ayurveda is the system of medicine from the east, from India. And Veda means knowledge, I use, or Ayur means life. So it’s really the knowledge of life and it’s a very broad concept. But Ayurveda is an amazing system that really integrates diet, nutrition, herbs, medicine, lifestyle, yoga, mantras, astrology.

You know, it really integrates so many things, all with the vision of supporting naturally, supporting based on laws of nature, based on cycles, based on personal qualities, both, you could say, challenging and gifts. And oftentimes our challenging qualities are those very things that become our gifts. So it’s a very comprehensive system. Ayurveda was actually the first known system of medicine, actually to include even surgery. So sometimes people think it’s just a diet or a body type system, but it’s a very amazing medicine form of medicine and healing.

Ayurveda Honors Your Whole Person and Uniqueness

But one thing that’s unique about it is that it really starts from the very beginning to acknowledge the whole person and the importance of really acknowledging the uniqueness of each person, their own individual nature and limitations. And even the limitations are honored as, as, as gifts that can become strengths. So. And it’s, it aligns with sort of the deeper essence of a person and, and even the, what I would, would call the goals of life. The goals of what almost all human beings, or you could say all human beings are really striving for in one way or another in this life.

So it’s, it goes very well with the yoga system too. The yoga system is all about connecting body, mind and spirit. So it’s a form of medicine that is very harmonious with that reality as well, as opposed to some types of medicine. And I’m not at all trashing Western medicine because there’s a, there’s a use for it at times, but it doesn’t tend to acknowledge as much the whole person where Ayurveda is very focused on the whole person and the deeper aspects of a person and their inner vision and goals and desires in life.

The Mind-Body Connection and Chronic Disease

Yeah, I think, I think that’s so important. And, and I agree with you, Western medicine is really great at even fixing specific problems, let’s say, you know, especially if you, you know, if you break a leg, you know, really great at that. But so many of the things. And I think, I think they are starting to become more aware of this mind body connection and how important it is that. I mean, because you read anywhere, it’s like a lot of these chronic diseases that people have, it stems from stress and that’s a. You know, usually, I mean, yes, your body can be stressed, but it’s also because of probably either outer or even inner things that we’re not dealing with.

So, so how did you then get interested? And then we’re going to get back. I want to talk about those five goals that. Sure. Or the goals you were talking about.

Jonathan’s Journey: From Allergies to Ayurvedic Healing

But how did you get in briefly? I, I was, I think it started out very young. I was. Had horrible allergies as a kid and I was hospitalized twice as an infant, you know, an oxygen tense, not being able to breathe. And so I struggled with allergies a lot throughout my life and, and that would lead often to bronchial infections probably the first 18 years of my life.

I was on antibiotics twice a year. And I was also an athlete. And at some point sometime in high school, I read the famous book Be Here now with a friend of mine up at summer camp. And that whole summer we committed to meditation, even though we were Just teenagers, we had the freedom to do that.

How Meditation Transformed Performance and Anxiety

We explored it. And I realized very quickly that, wow, when I change my internal physiology, not only am I less anxious, more clear, but I could also play sports better. I could play soccer better, I could play hockey better, play baseball, which was way very important to me at the time. And I was less anxious with people socially, you know, so that was really important. But I also began to recognize something deeper inside, like, wow, there’s a whole universe inside me that I really had no idea existed.

The Life-Changing Power of Diet: Giving Up Dairy

And around simultaneously, around that time, I went to a health food store near the college that I was living in and played soccer. And I was struggling with some lung issues still. And the guy gave me a book called Back to Eden, which is a old naturopathy book, and you could look up symptoms and would give you remedies. And for me, it said, you know, give up dairy 100%. So I did that, and my whole life changed.

Now, I’m not saying dairy is bad for everybody, but for me, it was. It was pretty. I was very sensitive to it, and it created a lot of mucus and phlegm, and I had no idea. And it was one of those things where I was practicing meditation. And then I realized that diet had an impact, a very significant impact.

And really my whole life changed because all of a sudden my breathing got better. I wasn’t coughing all the time on the soccer field. And so somewhere inside myself, I was like, wow, this is really meaningful. And I became very interested in it. So I became kind of voracious about reading different books and then went on to.

Ended up going to India and studying some in India. And I got into acupuncture and got into the whole holistic arena. You know, naturopathy, Ayurveda, and acupuncture, my main areas of focus. Yeah, love it. Love it.

My Experience with Alternative Healing: Beyond Pills

Yeah, they’re all. I’ve. I’ve experienced acupuncture a little bit and in my life and. And it definitely. It helped for.

I don’t even remember why I went for a while, but I know it definitely helped my symptoms at the time. So, yeah, it’s. There’s so much out there that. Different ways to be able to help help you that, you know, rather than relying on a pill, I, I. My mom, God rest her soul, was on so many different medications when.

When I was younger and, and, you know, and even up and into her 60s and, and I, you know, and then 70s and. And she passed at 78. And I. Seeing that was something that really stuck with me that I was like, I don’t want to be that way. I want to figure out how I can take care of myself and not have to rely on medication.

And so, so far, so good. I’ve been able to do that. And I’m in my early 60s now, and. And the doctors are always surprised when I say, so what medications are you on? I’m like, none of.

That’s fantastic. Yeah, no, that’s fantastic. And that’s. I have the same experience. We don’t really have your records. We don’t see any medications that you’re on. Like. Well, not on any. Yeah, exactly.

The Five Goals of Life: Ancient Wisdom for Midlife Women

So I would love to have you talk a little bit more about. You mentioned these goals, and I’m wondering if how they work into, and particularly say, empowering women over 50, like. Like to. To be able to, you know, design a life that is going to be empowering for them and. And is going to help them, you know, moving forward and. And continuing to be. To live a long, long time and in a healthy mind, body, spirit way.

Great. So, yeah, I’ll talk about the five goals, and I’ll weave that in. And so basically, the idea is that all human beings have five primary goals of life. This is according to Ayurveda and Ayurveda. It’s a beautiful map. You know, some. It’s a beautiful map of a lens through which, you know, we can see life and also trigger some thoughts of our own.

And it’s really common sense. It’s nothing that, you know, those fancy Sanskrit words which have some deep meanings, but it’s also common sense, you know, so the first one is, is Dharma. And dharma is sort of your. Relates to your life purpose. And it also means the quality in us that’s inherent.

Goal #1: Dharma (Living Your True Purpose)

So the Dharma, for example, of fire is heat and light, which means you can’t separate heat and light from fire. Or the dharma of water is liquidity. You can’t separate liquidity from water itself. Now, you can freeze it or you can heat it and steam it, but that’s considered an unnatural state. The natural state of water is liquid.

So we all have. The idea in Ayurveda is that we all have our internal nature. And so it’s understood that one of the goals of the human being is to live from our nature, our true nature, and internally and externally. That may mean, you know, your dharma and work can be a certain thing. Like right now you’re doing these beautiful podcasts, so you could say, that’s your dharma.

You know, it gives you great Satisfaction, it’s very natural for you. It’s a gift. So that’s what you’re doing. So you’re fulfilling that aspect of your dharma.

Goal #2: Artha (Economic Security and Shelter)

And then artha means economic security. So we all have different degrees of economic needs. So it means every. Every human being, whether they’re satisfied with the, you know, a tin roof on the side of a beach or the side of a highway, you know, or which is common, or a mansion. But we all. We all have that need for shelter, for food, for water, for clothing, for having our basic needs met.

Goal #3: Kama (Pleasure Aligned with Purpose)

And kama is a fourth goal means pleasure. So it’s described that all creatures in the universe, including humans, we all want pleasure. We all want happiness. And so again, it can be, you know, we can satisfy ourselves in so many ways. But it’s understood that a healthy pleasure is meant to be in alignment with your dharma.

So this is a, you know, how can I. And one analogy is, you know, if you are a mother or a father and you have a family, so the dharma would be to enjoy within that context. Now, I’m not making any social judgments, but if somebody is going outside of the marriage, not telling their partner, that would be called adharmic against dharma because it’s going to cause some kind of internal strife and struggle and conflict. And it will just cause disturbance, you know, unless it’s an open communication thing. But.

Right. You know, but in generally speaking, it’s. It will cause some inner disturbance. So that would be a dharmic against Dharma.

Goal #4: Moksha (Freedom on All Levels)

And then the last one, or the fourth one is called moksha. Moksha means freedom. So the idea is that all beings want freedom, whether it’s physical, mental, emotional freedom, social freedom. You know, there’s some countries that are more oppressed than others, but ultimately it indicates spiritual freedom. So really feeling connected to your true self, being authentic, and then even realizing in the yoga system what’s called the. The atma, or the deeper self, the inner self, and also our relationship with the universe.

Goal #5: Prema (Love and Connection)

So this is called moksha. And the fifth goal is prema, which means love, that all living beings are looking for love. And, you know, whether it’s a dog or a cow or a human, everyone’s looking for affection in this world. And you know that song, looking for love in all the wrong places? So, yeah, sometimes we look for love in the wrong places or places that aren’t so great.

But it doesn’t take away from the fact that, you know, even a gang member that’s causing harm to others, on some level, they’re looking for love. Maybe it’s the, you know, they’re looking for that approval within the group so it can come out in negative ways. But ultimately we’re all looking for that. So those five goals are there.

The Natural Shift for Women Over 50: From Caretaking to Self-Focus

And when I think of, you know, women that are going through the different cycles of life and, you know, many women go through many different stages and have different dharmas in this life. Some women have children, some women don’t. Some women have family. Some women, you know, are a mother and they have a job. So there’s many different varieties.

How Hormones Shape a Woman’s Caregiving Instinct

But typically it’s interesting from an Ayurvedic perspective and from a western medicine or Western scientific perspective, it’s understood that the hormones that a woman experiences prior to, you know, 45, 50 years old typically encourage the woman’s physiology to encourage being, caring for others.

It’s a, it’s a natural thing. Just like a mother instinctively knows how to take care of the children, you know, she instinctively knows how to breastfeed. She instinctively has a caring attitude. And sometimes what happens is that, I mean, that’s, that’s biological. It’s, it’s necessary for their survival.

I mean, if a mother looked at a baby and said, oh, you know, it can, it can eat, tomorrow I’m going on vacation, you know, that’s not going to work very well, right? So, you know, we’re wired. We are wired. That’s part of a mother’s dharma when she has a child, is to nurture and take care of the child. Now, yes, there can be stress and challenges with all that, especially these days when, you know, we see oftentimes a mother who has a full time job and she’s taking care of the children, and even more so if a single mother, who might even be even more stressed because of that.

The Change in Doshas: A Natural Biological Shift After 50

But as a woman gets a little bit older, there’s a natural change in cycle. We call that the change in doshas or the change in elemental nature of a person. It happens for men to some degree too, but sometimes with women, they become less focused on others and more focused on themselves. And this is a natural thing. And really it should be in one sense celebrated and honored and respected. And because it’s a phase of life, okay, even timeline wise, generally the children are older.

Either they’re self sufficient or they’re in the process of that, or they’re much more independent. So that now it’s time for a woman to start focusing on the other dharmas of her life, the other gifts that she has, the other interests that she has. And for many women there’s so many sacrifices that may have been made around take, you know, personal self care, exercise, yoga, diet, you know, so much that has been other oriented. And there’s a natural shift toward the self.

It’s Not Selfish—It’s a Sacred Phase of Life

And in a society that doesn’t acknowledge those natural cycles, sometimes that can be seen as being selfish, but it’s, it’s not selfish. I mean, I guess it can manifest as selfish. If a woman doesn’t understand that, that it’s normal, natural and healthy, she might even think I’m being selfish. What’s wrong with me? I don’t feel the same way I used to. Yeah.

So it’s really good to get that confusion out of the way and know that actually it’s a gift that at this phase in my life it doesn’t mean I can’t still love my children or love my partner or love my family or love my parents or whatever. It just means you’re going to love in a little bit different way. It’s going to be more like I’m going to check in with myself first. Do I need to do this? Because so much in the early years it’s, I need to do this.

It’s a have to. Yeah, my darn. I have no choice. Yeah. You know, it feels like no choice, but at this point there’s, there’s choice.

Embracing Choice: What Do You Really Want Now?

Yeah. And it’s a beautiful moment really to acknowledge, wow, I have choice here. And it’s really important and it’s an important phase because to mindfully approach that change in phase of life is really beautiful because if you, you know, whether you write about it or meditate about it, or when you’re going for a walk or a jog, start letting yourself think, what are some new things I’d like to do? And it is a bit in, a bit of a change in identity. So that’s sometimes women, and I say women and I, you know, it can be there for men too in different ways.

But I would say in some ways more for women because again, this is a generalization, but there is that caretaking necessity that tends to be there more earlier in life when a woman can start to acknowledge that, oh this I’m entering a different phase of life, I actually have a little more space and time. How do I want to use it? How do I, you know, what are some things that would really give me satisfaction in this phase of my life? So it’s really important to acknowledge it, acknowledge that it’s normal and natural and healthy. And again, it’s not about necessarily pulling back from those you love.

Navigating Relationship Changes During Midlife Transition

In your life. But it may mean changing some relationships, and sometimes couples go through strain at that time because all of a sudden, say, the partner’s like, wow, it used to be, you know, focused on me all the time. What happened? You know, so that would mean some conversations, honest conversations about this transition. Yeah.

So that’s. That’s kind of how I think about it, how the acknowledging those goals and how those goals can change or how they. How they manifest can change throughout our life.

Reclaiming Freedom While Caring for Aging Parents

Yeah, I love that. And. And I think it’s also important for folks to realize, you know, is that it’s. This is an opportunity where you really have some more freedom, this freedom to choose what you want to do. And I also think it really requires now a level of enrolling people in what you want to do now. Because I feel that as much as it is great that, you know, you get to this point in life and when you have kids that, you know, hopefully have become independent and then are living their own lives at the same time, there’s also where we have a lot of now, parents are having to care for their own parents.

The Sandwich Generation: Asking for Help

And so now we’ve got this. Just when you think that it’s time for you to start focusing in on yourself, maybe you can’t, because you’re going to be dealing with that. So that’s where, you know, I think you need to start saying, I’m not going to shoulder this burden all by myself anymore. I need some help. And I think it’s so important for us to remember to ask for help. You know, men and women, you don’t have to do everything on your own.

There are resources out there, and I think that’s so important. What do you say. Yeah. About this? And especially.

And also in going over these goals, I imagine that sometimes things can be out of whack. And so in one area, maybe that’s out of balance. And what do you think about that? And how can people maybe be mindful of that?

Being Mindful Instead of Reactive with Aging Parents

Yeah, well, the first point you made is really true. I mean, I certainly saw it with my wife where, you know, the kids were getting older, and then she was caretaking her mother. And there’s something. It’s. It’s. And again, because it’s kind of funny in a strange. In a way where just when you’re coming out of this even biological phase of, you know, so focused on caretaking. Yeah. And then you do have to. You don’t have to. But, you know, many people will choose to be present for a parent, you know, but from that perspective, But I think the challenge there is to like you said, enroll support and to really be mindful and thoughtful about how can I give my parents support in a way that they need, but not coming from it as much as we may have in the past from a knee jerk reaction of automatic I’m just going to do it no matter what.

Like how can I offer support, how can I be present and also be cultivating my own life to some degree and fulfill. You know, it’s really important to acknowledge I’m not in the same phase as I used to be as just sort of knee jerk reaction of I’m just there no matter what. Yeah. You know, and, and to really be mindful about that. It’s a, it’s a stage of.

There’s a stage before you really enter into that stage of being mindful, using your common sense, using your intelligence, using your intuition, connecting to yourself enough to know what you know, how you want the next few years to be and what kinds of things you want to focus on. So that’s, that is really important because the parents, you know, they can become like kids at that point. So, so that, that’s, that’s number one.

Understanding Your Doshas: Working With Your Fault Tendencies

And so yeah, in terms of the goals of life, I think part of it is to, in Ayurveda, so much of it is about healthy periodic introspection and re evaluating what is, what are my gifts, what are my challenges. Even in Ayurveda, the word dosha, which most people think of body type.

Right. You know, based on the five elements of how many elements? The combination of the five elements in a person. But what it really means is fault tendency, which is kind of interesting. It’s like how do we individually go out of balance?

Your Limitations Aren’t Flaws—They’re Patterns to Understand

What is my individual version of going out of balance? And when we acknowledge our limitations, it can be really, really helpful because if we’re honest with ourselves about I tend to, you know, get anxious in that situation or I tend to, you know, want to drink or I tend to, you want to escape or whatever it may be. I tend to get irritable when blood, you know, whatever might happens. Rather than thinking, oh I wish I wasn’t like that. I wish I was like, you know my friend Jane who’s always so cool headed, you know, it’s better just to kind of acknowledge that from an Ayurvedic perspective.

Better to acknowledge it, that’s a limit. And then work with it, you know, then, then by acknowledging being honest and just knowing that’s my tendency, that’s my, that’s where I tend to go out of balance, then I can work with it honestly, without self judgment. Because it’s not about judging ourselves, it’s really about getting to know ourselves and accept the fact that yeah, we all, I mean, that’s one of the things that’s beautiful about Ayurveda is that it starts with, you’re a beautiful, perfect, divine being, but you have these doshas, you have these fault tendencies that are there.

The Fire Analogy: Managing Your Temperature

So it’s a nice combination of yeah, on some level I’m perfect, but on another level I have these ways that I tend to go out of balance. So let me acknowledge those things. Just like fire can be wonderful, but it can also burn down a house. It can cook a great pot of soup or the fire can go out, you know, so you want, you want to kindle that fire at the right temperature as much as possible. But maybe sometimes it gets too hot too quickly. So, okay, let me learn how to keep the temperature down rather than I escalate to a 10 and then I’m out of control. Oh, I’m noticing I’m at a 2 or 3.

I’m starting to escalate. Yeah. And if you get to know yourself, you just know, okay, I tend to do that. Let me chill out a little bit, let me go out for a walk, let me drink some cold water, whatever it may be, so that I can chill out. That’s, you know, that’s just a simple example.

The Power of Introspection: Getting to Know Yourself

So I think one is allowing ourselves to be a little bit introspective. Time to time doesn’t mean all the time, but you know, whether it’s once a week or when you’re, you know, have some kind of meditation practice or, or an Ayurveda is called internal practice or internal exercise where you take some time. It can be meditation, it could be journaling, it could be just going for a walk and letting yourself consciously think about, you know, the things in your life that are working, the things that aren’t working so well. You know, what are the qualities in me that are, that I really, you know, love? What are the qualities in me that I find challenging?

And then be honest with it and keep working with it and find resources and support if necessary and not feel bad about that, you know, that’s. Yeah, we want to get to a point where we actually feel good about it because we’re, we’re growing and we’re working and we’re healing and we’re learning and that can be actually quite exciting if there’s a healthy level of self acceptance. And that’s one of the things about Ayurveda, which is it, it includes that self acceptance. Even though it’s funny, it uses strong words like, yes, this person becomes deranged in this certain way, you know, but at the same time, you’re perfect, you’re perfect. So, so yeah, we all get deranged in our own unique ways.

And better to acknowledge that. And then, you know, then it, we can become deranged.

Finding Balance: Money, Beliefs, and Fulfilling Your Needs

For example, with, you know, economic development. I mean, some people, you know, they struggle with not enough. And it may be, they may have, you know, maybe conditions that are there, but sometimes we have to work with belief systems that we may have or maybe our parents didn’t have enough. And there’s an unconscious thing that tells us we can’t go beyond that. That’s a possibility. And some people have so, so much and they always want more, more, more, more, more, as if there’s no, they need so much more.

The Ayurvedic Approach to Wealth: Enough, But Not Distraction

From an Ayurvedic perspective, it said, ideally, have enough to fulfill your needs, but not so much that you become distracted. And also, and also have enough. And don’t think that having less than is better too because I mean, I do know some people on a spiritual path who are struggling financially so much that even though they’re doing it because they want to become detached from material things, they end up being an anxiety about paying their bills. So that’s not very good for meditation either. So, you know, having that balance of having enough but not overly striving for more, more, more, because that more memora can cause one to go off of their fulfilling their dharma also, you know.

Heart-Centered Practitioners: Charging What You’re Worth

Yeah, yeah. And I can definitely relate to talking about other, like the money issue with especially wonderful heart centered spiritual practitioners in particular because they want to give so much. But we forget that we also need to be able to take care of our own needs. And, and people will value you more if you do take care of your needs. And that means, you know, charging appropriately, for instance, for, for your services and not just feeling that you have to give everything away because that creates its own imbalance. So yeah, I’m glad, I’m glad that you, you brought that up. It’s so important.

Designing Your Life at 65: What Would You Change?

You know, if you were, if you were going to actually design your life your way today, what, if anything, would you change or would you myself at this point? Yeah, for yourself? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m going through some big changes right now actually, and I’ve had some big openings happen up, happen for me. And so at this point I’m I’m 65 and which, by the way, is not that old.

And. But, you know, for me now, it’s kind of like, okay, at this phase in my life, I’m really, you know, my. My family role is less. I mean, I’m still very connected to my boys, but, you know, they’re. I still help them, I still listen to them, I still talk to them regularly and offer support, but it’s a little bit more like, okay, what is it?

Following Your Heart’s Desires in Later Life

What are those desires and ambitions and hopes and dreams that I’ve really had inside my heart my entire life? And, you know, how do I want to, you know, relate with others? But, you know, in my work itself, and I do a lot of teaching, and so I’m in a phase of expanding my teaching and more traveling, leading courses and things that I’ve wanted to really expand over the years that I haven’t had as much time to really focus on because I’ve been very involved in the family. So I’m really. That’s what I’m doing now. And.

And I’m. I’m giving myself the freedom and the permission to do that. And I’m. And I’m thinking about it and I’m acknowledging internally what those desires, what those visions that I’ve had for a long time. I’m letting myself kind of say to myself, where before, it’s kind of like, yeah, yeah, I. I want that, but I have to do this, this and this.

Right now, it’s a little bit more like, yeah, no, this is really what I’m going to be focusing on. This last, you know, phase of life, you know, however many years it is, whether it’s 10 years or whether it’s 40 years, you know. Exactly. Yeah. I love that.

What Are You Curious About Right Now?

So one other thing I’d love to be able to ask my guests is what are you curious about right now? What am I curious about? So interesting. Well, I mean, the first thing that comes to me, I’m curious about what’s next because I. There’s so much happening right now and so many unknowns, and I am just in a place of.

It’s like one. Waiting for the next natural event to occur, and they are occurring to see where life leads. It’s. It’s a very. Actually very, I would say, quite exciting time because there’s so many new things happening.

And, you know, I have my. My vision and my. In my dreams, and I’m just waiting, wait. Taking actions, but also waiting to see how life creates opportunities for those things to occur. And.

And they Are so. Yeah, so I’m very, I’m very curious in general also about, you know, human and spiritual development and that’s something that has been always been very important to me and I’ve been doing a lot more teaching in that area and I feel like I’m going to be stepping into that territory more and more, you know, in an, in an authentic way because I’ve lived, I’ve lived it. I’m not proclaiming I’m an expert, you know, without. I’m not proclaiming I’m an expert anyway. But you know, I put in a lot of time in one sense I’ve been on this path for, since my early 20s and I feel like now is the time to not, not hold back, not be shy about what it is I’m here to share.

Midlife as an Opportunity for Exploration

So I love that. Yeah, yeah, it’s. I think that’s the, that’s the interesting thing about where we are I guess even in hard generation is, you know, different from previous generations where you know, 65 was the typical retirement age and things like that. And I think now it’s for so many. I think it’s an opportunity to really explore and see what do I want to do next.

You know, and it could be even, you know, maybe you continue working or maybe it’s working in some, something different or exploring some, some. Yeah, some old passion maybe that you had that you weren’t able to do before when family, you know, obligations and, and, and enjoyment happen because yeah, there’s a lot of that as well. It’s not just an obligation. I mean it’s a, it’s a, it was, you know, something hopefully you chose to do and you enjoy it. Absolutely.

Getting Started with Ayurveda: First Steps for Women Over 50

One last thing I want to ask you about before I also invite you to share where people can learn more about you. But if someone is interested now in the exploring ayurvedic, what would be like the first step? What would you recommend someone do if they’re, they want to learn a little bit more about this or yeah, go down that path. What would you say to them?

Finding an Ayurvedic Practitioner and Resources

Yeah, I mean there’s gosh, there’s, I mean if, if one wanted to explore it personally and probably the best way is to find a practitioner who works with it and have a one on one interview and find out if it’s something or you know, it’s always good to find out if the person you’re might be working with you resonate with and if you have particular identify what goals you have or why you would want to explore that.

But There’s a lot of great Ayurvedic books and of course there’s so much online now about Ayurveda. And I’ll do a little pitch for my book, the Total Life Cleanse, which has a lot of Ayurveda in it. So yeah, I would say do some reading about it. I mean that’s how I started. I just became a voracious reader about Ayurveda and then I ended up studying it.

So yeah, read, read some information about it, go to some talks, get some podcasts about Ayurveda and then if you want to take it further, it’s great to have a practitioner that you can work with and they can help hone, hone your identify what are some, you know, ways that you can eat better, live better, exercise better, more designed for your, for your body type.

Supporting Your Glands and Hormones After 50

One of the things I will just say that I, that I wanted to mention just as a tip for women going into their know, 50s, 60s that supporting the glands of the body is really important because as the hormones production decreases, it puts more burden on the, the kidneys and the thyroid and the, all the different glands of the body and nourishing the body with reasonably healthy food.

Adaptogens: Herbs That Support Your Adrenals

And there’s some wonderful Ayurvedic Chinese, Western herbs that are very supportive to the adrenal glands. We call them adaptogens, which are just help the adrenals become stronger, secrete hormones more efficiently so that the burden, so that if the adrenals are tired and we’ve been pushing for many years, then the hormonal situation tends to decline more as a woman gets older, especially women because, you know, there so much involvement with different hormones throughout life.

Nourishing Your Nervous System for the Next 50 Years

So it’s really important to support the nervous system, the glandular system of the body. And there’s different ways to do that. So you know, whether you do your own research. But again, it’s always good to work with somebody who can tune into how to really support on that way so that the next number of years rather than go into fatigue and feeling depleted in many ways, which can happen especially these days, to really nourish yourself with healthy diet, healthy healthy herbs and some healthy lifestyle practices, whether it’s meditation or yoga or Tai chi or different, you know, swimming, something that’s really good for the nervous system to carry us forward in the next, you know, 50 years.

I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I think that is so important and, and that is, I think the, the key is to be able to, you know, taking care of ourselves doesn’t have to be that complicated.

Eating Real Food: Simple Nutrition for Midlife Health

There’s so many, you know, that, you know, you do any kind of reading on the Internet or whatever, and it’s just, you know, oh, this diet and that diet. And, you know, it’s like, it’s just overcomplicated. If you just go back to healthy food, you know, which is basically what, real food, not the packaged, processed stuff, but, you know, fruits and vegetables. Go to your local farmer’s market.

Go find a good. If you’re into meat, find a good butcher, you know, but there’s. There’s ways that you can eat healthy, and it’s going to help you out a lot. And. But I like the idea of looking into herbs and other.

Herbs Are Food: Understanding Potent Natural Remedies

Other things, so I haven’t. I haven’t done that, so I might have to consider that myself. Most people think of herbs. Herbs are food, you know, they’re just another type of food. And they have.

They just have potent properties, different directions. Yeah. And if you find the right, you know, herbal remedies that go along with a good diet. Yeah. And we’re not talking perfection, but I mean, understanding, like you said, that eating whole foods makes a huge difference, and removing the junk food and removing too much sugar and alcohol, things like that, you know, we can get away with stuff when we’re younger, but as we get older, the body just generally speaking, doesn’t tolerate it as well.

Listening to Your Body’s Feedback

Oh, absolutely. And I know I. I know for me, when I do, you know, have occasionally, like, indulged a little bit too much, my body lets me know right away, knock it off. Right. And I start. I, you know, have pain, and it’s like, knock it off.

So it’s like, okay, I’m sorry, body, I’m sorry. Yes, I will treat you better now, starting right now. And it’s important to. This is like, to acknowledge that that’s true. I mean, sometimes people have a hard time.

Well, I don’t think it had anything to do with what I was eating the last week. Well, it probably did, you know, so the more we can kind of go, okay, and be tuned into. I was feeling really good on Tuesday, on Wednesday, ate like crap, and Thursday and Friday, I felt like crap. Okay, maybe there’s a connection. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s amazing. Oh, you know, it’s basic, but you’re right, it is. A lot of it is common sense.

It’s not complicated. Yeah, it’s not complicated. It doesn’t have to be complicated. That’s true. Absolutely.

Connect with Jonathan Glass

All right, well, if someone would like to learn more about you and because I think you did mention you’ve got courses and things like that where, where can people go? Yeah. So probably the best way is my website, healingessencecenter.com and email healingessence c-t-r at gmail.com healing essence and CTR, short for Center Gmail is a good way to connect. We have under the events tab, we have some cleanses that are coming up. We’re going to India in March.

I’m teaching some energy healing, so that’s all there. And or if you want to do an individual consultation, I work with people all over the country, so that would be fine too. All right, excellent. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate it and I know I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure our audience did, too.

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Yes. And thank you for joining us today. And yeah, I look forward to speaking with you again soon.