EP: 121 The Power Of Rituals: Mastering Your Day With Intentional Rituals With Tamara Castelo

 

I recently read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you haven’t read that book, definitely check it out. As I was finishing up this book, I was introduced to my guest today, Tamara Castelo. Tamara has written several books, but it’s her most recent work, The Power of Rituals, that caught my eye.

When I think of rituals, I originally thought of witchy or woo-woo. That was a bit closed-minded. And I was wrong. My conversation taught me that rituals are simply habits with intention. There is a mindfulness behind the habit. I wanted to have Tamara on to share that we can and will show up better at work with selecting the right rituals for us. All of a sudden, that cup of coffee you have each morning becomes part of the way you take care of yourself. You feel better prepared to tackle your day and are more productive as a result. And it all started with how you drank your cup of coffee a bit differently that morning. You did it with intention. Maybe you journal a bit. Maybe you took a few deep breaths. Whatever you do, these small rituals can make a difference.

During our conversation, Tamara and I also discussed:

1. Why are rituals important in our lives and at work?
2. What led Tamara to study Chinese Medicine. She also clarified it’s more than acupuncture.
3. What the three Ayurvedic body types are – vata, pitta, and kapha and the main characteristics of each.
4. How all of these ties into better health and as a result, a more powerful existence, both personally and professionally.
5. And I even asked Tamara for some help on where to travel when I go to Portugal. I haven’t gone yet, but Lisbon and Porto are definitely on my list.

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Listen to the podcast here

 

The Power Of Rituals: Mastering Your Day With Intentional Rituals With Tamara Castelo

I’m so glad you’re here. Everyone, how are you doing out there? I reread the book, Atomic Habits, by James Clear. If you haven’t read that book, check it out. I’m putting it on the recommended book list. I was thinking of maybe putting together a recommended book list. If anyone has an interest in that, DM me on social media. I would love to put together something like that for you.

As I was finishing up Atomic Habits, I was introduced to my guest now, Tamara Castelo. Tamara has written several books, but it’s her most recent work, The Power of Rituals that caught my eye. We know that the book I read talks about habits. When I think about rituals, I thought it was a little witchy, woo-woo, or something like that.

I will admit, that was close-minded and I was wrong. My conversation with Tamara taught me that the word ritual simply means habits with intention. We’re always practicing rituals, whether it’s taking a shower, brushing our teeth, or having our morning coffee or tea. The thing that differentiates a ritual and a habit is that there’s that mindfulness behind the habit. I wanted to have Tamara on to share that we can and will show up better at work by selecting the right rituals for us.

We talked about a cup of coffee, for example. All of a sudden, that cup of coffee that you have each morning becomes part of the way that you take care of yourself. You may feel better prepared to tackle your day. You’re more productive as a result. It all started with how you drank your cup of coffee a bit differently that morning. You did it with intention. Maybe you journaled a bit during that cup of coffee. Maybe you took a few deep breaths. You wrote some things in a gratitude journal. Whatever you did, these small rituals can make a difference.

During my discussion with Tamara, we chatted about why rituals are important in our lives and at work, and what led Tamara to study Chinese medicine. She also instructed me about what it is and what it isn’t. She also clarified that it’s more than acupuncture. I immediately went to acupuncture and she rightly corrected me and said, “It’s more than acupuncture.”

We then went on to talk about the three Ayurvedic body types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, and the main characteristics of each. She weaves in many different types of medical holistic and Western medicine practices in her practice in Lisbon, and how all of this ties into our better health and as a result, a more powerful existence both personally and professionally.

I love to travel if you don’t know that about me. I asked Tamara for some help on where to travel. I’m going to say when I go to Portugal. I haven’t gone there yet but we’re being positive. Lisbon and Porto are on my list. She told me and all of you that you have to go and see the beautiful sunshine and the sea. It sounded lovely.

Here’s more about Tamara. Tamara Castelo is a specialist in Chinese traditional medicine and the CEO of Tamara Castelo Clinic, both in Lisbon and Porto, TMC Health, TMC Holistic, and TMC Jewellery. At her clinic, Tamara treats sleep disorders, thyroid disorders, intestinal diseases, anxiety, migraines, and hormonal problems, and takes a holistic approach to healing. She is the author of Healing Without Medication, Eating Without Guilt, Full Balance, and her newest book that we’re going to talk about, The Power of Rituals. The first three I mentioned were winners of the Gourmand Awards. She lives in Lisbon.

Before we get started, if you’re enjoying Brave Women at Work, please make sure to leave that rating and review in Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It takes a minute and it means so much in having the show gain traction and grow. If you’ve already left a rating and review, I thank you so much. I’m going to start sharing the reviews as they come in to encourage you all and hopefully, give you some motivation to pick up that phone or that tablet or go on the computer and leave that review. If you’ve already done it, your support means the absolute world to me. Thank you.

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Tamara, welcome to Brave Women at Work. How are you?

I’m good. Thank you, and you?

I am good. For everyone, you are our first guest from Portugal. I’m excited to invite someone and to have someone on from anywhere in the world. Once I saw you’re from Portugal, I’m like, “I’ve got some questions for her.” Do you mind if we get started with me asking you a couple of questions about Portugal?

You can start wherever you want. Portugal is beautiful, so let’s do it.

I have never been to Portugal, but I hear that it is a beautiful place. If you are going to recommend like, “Jen, you’ve never been there before,” where would I start? Any thoughts on that quick itinerary for me?

Come to Lisbon. I have clinics in Lisbon and in Porto, which are the most beautiful cities for me in Portugal. They’re beautiful and amazing. The weather in Lisbon is completely awesome. Lisbon and Porto, one and the other are completely unforgettable. You have to come and visit. The architectures are beautiful and they are the cities that are here for a long time now. We have a lot of history and modern too. Those are two beautiful cities.

In Lisbon, there is a lot to see at this point. Everybody is in Lisbon these days, so it’s crazy. In Porto, we have big rivers that cross the city. They are beautiful because of that. We have the water and we have the beach real close. You have the river and you have the sea in the same city, which is beautiful in terms of light because it’s not natural or normal. You have the sea and you have a massive river in Lisbon. It’s crazy. You’re in the river and ten minutes later, you can dive into the ocean. You have a beach.

It’s incredible because I have a lot of friends who are doctors like me. At 4:30 in the afternoon, we go and take a swim. It’s a privilege and it’s beautiful. The weather is amazing almost every month of the year. It’s mostly sunny. I never got an umbrella in my life. It’s important to say that. The food is amazing. You have to see the river. You have to see the monuments that are connected 500 years ago when we are in the discovering time. They’re beautiful and they’re old.

We have a lot of churches that are beautiful. Even if you’re not Catholic, that’s not a point. The point is they are amazing. You have some of the buildings that are destroyed in the big earthquake that we have. It’s beautiful because they left it like that so we can remember. There’s a lot of ancient history here. I can give you a perfect itinerary, but you have so much to see. It’s crazy.

Let’s stay in touch because it’s on my list. I was like, “I need the itinerary.”

Also, Porto. Porto is a magnificent city because they are old cities and they are crossed by rivers. It’s beautiful because you have a lot of things to see and you have the power of water there. That’s amazing.

Thank you again for being on. I love to start with each of my guests. I love women’s stories. It’s one of the main reasons that I do this show. Why don’t you tell the audience a little bit about your backstory and how you’ve gotten to where you are?

I have two big clinics. I do traditional Chinese medicine and I have a Master’s in Oncology. In my clinics, I’m the Chief Director of the two clinics. I have 30 doctors working with me. It’s a beautiful crew, all in different areas. I do Integrative Medicine and I got here with a lot of studies. While I was going to med school, I started to fall in love with all of the holistic parts. I started when I was eighteen years old.

I had thyroid issues and allergies. She’s strong at that age. My mom always drives me to doctors since I was seven years old because of a lot of allergies, bowel problems, and things with my health. She was not satisfied. My mom is a persistent person, and then I was not cured, but treated with integrative medicine since I’m fourteen years old. It was my call with my own health.

Through the work that you’ve done, everyone has health issues or bouts from time to time. Are you in much better health now in your adult years?

For sure. I’m much healthier now than I was many years ago. It’s not a question. I change a lot of my habits and the way that I deal with my emotions and also with my life, including time to sleep, time to wake up, the food I’m eating, the type of exercise I do, and the type of meditation. I have a lot of work as you imagine but I’m trying to keep a good balance.

Not everyone knows about Chinese medicine. In the States, we have acupuncturists or things like that.

It’s a bit different. I study in China and acupuncture is a way of doing traditional Chinese medicine, but it’s only a tool. That’s important to acknowledge. I’m a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. I don’t need to put acupuncture in anybody. I work with my brain. I deal with the diagnosis. That’s my function at this point. I do clinical diagnosis, so I integrate conventional medicine and non-traditional medicine. That’s my work. Acupuncture is only a tool.

It’s important because people always refer to traditional Chinese medicine as acupuncture. I almost don’t do acupuncture. I do functional medicine. That’s my core business. My specialty at this point is oncology because I see a lot of patients with cancer. I do autoimmune diseases and everything. I almost don’t deal with the tools of acupuncture. In my clinic, you have acupuncture and I find it helpful but it’s only a tool to boost your work. It’s not the core of traditional Chinese medicine, not even close. You have acupuncturists and then you have traditional Chinese medicine. It’s difficult. It’s different things.

Acupuncture is not the core of traditional Chinese medicine. It’s only a tool. Click To Tweet

The traditional Chinese medicine doctor has to have pharmacology and fetal therapy and has to deal with herbs, toxicology, and a lot of things. An acupuncturist is another type of practice. Traditional Chinese medicine doctor does everything together. I can see blood tests, X-rays, and everything. It’s a bit different.

I would say it’s very different. Lots of people, me included, over-doctored Western medicine. I think there’s a place for Western medicine and Eastern medicine in between. That’s why I was so attracted to your work. What would you say the big differences are between traditional Chinese medicine and more traditional Western medicine?

Traditional Chinese medicine is my basic background. At this point, it has been fifteen years. I did a lot of work. I have a post-graduation. I have a Master’s. I don’t do pure traditional Chinese medicine at this point. I do functional medicine. In my crew of doctors, I have Western doctors too. That’s not a problem. That’s the point of my job. It’s to bring it together.

The most beautiful thing that traditional Chinese medicine has is you can see your body as a whole. It’s almost like Ayurvedic medicine. You put your emotions on the line of your diseases. It’s a thing that we talk about these days so much like stress, anxiety, insomnia, and bowel issues. You connect it to your state of mind too. It’s not only your body but your mind.

That’s a major difference. You can connect insomnia to a problem in your bowel, to a problem with your legs that are swollen in the afternoon, or to a problem with your anxiety. Everything is connected. The beautiful thing about traditional Chinese medicine is you can connect all the dots and it’s easier. Even the Western doctors that I work with in my clinic love it because they can connect the dots as well when you explain to them the function from our point of view. That’s the main difference.

We are not so focused on the disease itself, but on the completely random syndromes that you have to make a disease appear. It’s a bit different. Our approach is for the person, not for the disease. Western medicine is approaching the disease itself. This is a big difference because when you allow yourself to look at a patient and not only the disease, you can prevent further diseases. For me, the main goal of all medicine is to not focus on the disease but focus on the prevention of the disease. That’s the main difference as it is. In my crew, Western doctors are completely connected to the patient these days, not the diseases. We can do a lot of great work for the patients. They are what matters the most. It’s not us, it’s the person.

The main goal of all medicine is to not focus on the disease but focus on the prevention of the disease. Click To Tweet

I didn’t originally ask you this, but I want to ask you. We talked and laughed about you being in beautiful Portugal, Lisbon area. Do you treat people all over the world?

I do it online all the time. I have people from all over the world. You send the test and we see it together and we work as a team. It’s beautiful. We do a lot of online.

I wanted to transition because I want to talk about your book. I was attracted to your book called The Power of Rituals. I wanted to start by asking what that word means because I can only go from my own experience. Ritual is not a word that I use often. What does that mean to you?

When we say the word ritual here in Europe, everybody connects it to some religion or something like this but it has nothing to do with it. It’s not an esoteric thing or something crazy. It’s just putting an intention into habits. It’s the difference. We do habits every day. If you stop for five minutes and imagine your day, you’ll find out that you have a lot of things that you do exactly the same every single day of your life for the past twenty years maybe.

The difference between that habit and ritual is intention. An intention puts you connected and puts a stop on time. You then feel more connected to yourself. Your anxiety lowers. Your level of stress lowers because you’re connected to one movement. Your brain is connected to drinking that cup of coffee in a certain way just like this. It’s not something crazy. It’s just the power of, “I’m doing this right now. I’m going to breathe three times. I’m going to drink it slowly. As I drink it, I will imagine how my day will go. What is the word for my day? What do I want to do?” It’s this difference between having yourself a cup of coffee, drinking it, and doing five things at the same time, or drinking it and thinking about your intention for the day. That’s a ritual for me.

That’s a great example. I’m not a coffee drinker but it doesn’t matter.

Me neither.

It’s a good example. I’m hoping that everyone brushes their teeth on a daily basis or at least twice a day. With brushing your teeth, you can be completely multitasking, not focusing, or mentally not there. You could be saying a prayer and it doesn’t have to be religious. You could be making your intention for the day. That’s the difference.

You cannot have an intention. You’re brushing your teeth. Close your eyes and think about your body. Feel where it’s tight, where it’s not tight, if it hurts, or if it’s not hurting. Connect to yourself just to see, “Am I tight in my waist? Am I tight on my shoulders? Where does it hurt? Did I have a big day? Was it stressful? Are my legs good? Are they feeling tension? Are they not feeling tension?” These are rituals too.

Connect with yourself when you’re brushing your teeth or when you’re showering. I hope everybody showers. When you’re with hot water, it’s a beautiful time to make a moment for yourself, acknowledge your body, and see if anything is hurting. Put your hands on your shoulder and understand if it’s blocked or if it’s not blocked. What can you do for yourself today?

How do you believe that incorporating rituals? I want people to understand. They don’t have to be large. You talked about the shower or brushing your teeth. They can be small. How do they influence how we feel, how we live, and how we work?

It’s about your emotional state, but also about your biochemical state. Everybody has a bit of stress. That’s natural. That’s normal. It’s a difficult world. When you are at a stress level, your nervous system has a way to defend itself. That way is to push adrenaline in your body and put your cortisol at a higher level for your state to become more aware of the surroundings.

This is cool, but this is stressful at the same time. Stress provokes stress in your blood cells, bloodstream, brain, and everywhere. One way that rituals can help you is when you are connected and you are breathing. You’re invoking your parasympathetic system, which is a system that you’re not connected to directly. It’s our subconscious system that puts your brain to work and your lungs to breathe. You’re not connecting that.

Every time you breathe, you are not like, “Breath in, breath out.” You do it unconsciously. It’s something that your body does. You don’t have to tell it to do. When you are connecting to your breathing and to yourself, you stop for a minute, and you’re not multitasking, what you’re doing is lowering your cortisol and adrenaline levels because you’re pushing your parasympathetic nervous system to go active.

On a biochemical level, you are lowering your stress by breathing, connecting, and stopping. This is amazing because you can do that without medication or anything, just with your brain. You focus and breathe. You have different kinds of rituals. You can find all of them in my book. They are not more than five minutes. It’s like biohacking your system to lower your levels of stress and anxiety, pushing yourself to sleep better, and putting you more focused because your brain loves to connect with 30,000 things at the same time. It loves discretion. It loves chaos. When you focus, you lower immediately your levels of stress biochemically and emotionally. It’s a big help.

I could use this.

Go and use it. That’s why I wrote it. Use it for free. I have a lot of free things on my website. Use it. That’s the point.

Everybody, let’s all do this. Doesn’t that sound lovely? Let’s go back to the habits. Let’s go back to the shower or brush our teeth because we all get into those ruts. Let’s say that I have it as a ritual, but then it becomes more of a habit. My brain goes off somewhere and I’m not fully executing that ritual. How do we change our habits so they become rituals?

When I’m doing this to my patient, I always tell them to put a vision board on. For a month, don’t complicate yourself. For this month, what do I want to achieve for myself? I do 3 or 5 words or photos of what the words mean. If it’s peaceful, you find a peaceful environment for you or something that connects with yourself. Otherwise, it’s strange. You put your vision boards near you on the laptop. I have mine in my bathroom because I brush my teeth. I have a year vision board but you can do it monthly. That’s more cool if you’re starting. I look at it three times a day and every time I look at it, I get focused.

I remind myself, “What are my goals for today?” It makes it easy for me when I’m doing some ritual that my mind doesn’t go away. I’m constantly reminding myself what I want, what my goals are, what I want to achieve, and how I want to feel at the end of the day. That’s a choice. I want to feel at peace. I want to feel calm. I want to feel centered.

Your brain is not that bright. My brain is not that bright because if you give it instructions, they are going to follow the instructions. It’s an organ. You are supposed to control it, not the other way around. You can order it to do something. You just have to do it a lot of times. I want to feel peace. What is peace to me? You have to make a vision board to understand what it is to you. The word means different things to everybody. Anxiety is completely different for me and for you. I feel anxiety in one way. You feel the other way. Peace for me is one way. Peace for you is another way. The vision board is important for you to understand what the words mean for yourself.

Words mean different things to everybody. That’s why making a vision board is important because it helps you understand what the words mean for yourself. Click To Tweet

I totally understand. I’m marinating on it right now. This is what attracted me to your work. I’m pro-functional medicine. That’s another thing. The women in this show are very ambitious, strivers, and perfectionists. I share on the show that I’m recovering from burnout and I never want women to get there. I know you feel the same. There’s no need for that.

Burnout is almost like an invisible wall. When you hit it, then you’re like, “What about all these things that led up to that?” You have to own those things. What about that addiction to stress? What about the addiction to being busy? How do we balance that? It’s one thing to say that we’ve got the rituals, but that pull of stress, addiction, and achievement is very strong. Do you have any thoughts on that as relating to making changes?

You have to understand where it comes from. All of the addictions come from somewhere. It’s always from the same place normally. Addiction is a big disease and it’s terrible. You have to understand what is the pattern behind it. That’s a lot of work. The rituals will help you to get centered and know yourself. It will allow you to do something that addiction doesn’t allow. You have to create space in your brain.

Addictive behavior is a behavior that’s always consuming something. The brain is always working. It’s always functioning. You cannot stop it. It’s like a train. It’s going and going. This is an addiction movement. Your emotions are protecting themselves because you’re not going to the root problem. Normally, the root problem is always the same as our buddy Freud always said. It’s the pattern between mother, father, and childhood, and patterns of perfectionism and achievement. It’s like you’re going to get vitalization from outside. This is important.

I have two clinics. I have four books. I understand this very well and I like it. I like to be a brave woman and a woman that works. That’s perfect but we have to know when to draw a line. You have to understand when stress is a good thing and pushes you forward to do things that no one else can do, and when it’s completely toxic where it’s pushing you beyond your limits. To do so, you have to know yourself and your patterns. Know if you’re doing it for yourself or you’re doing it for others.

You have to do it for yourself not because you want to get your father’s approval or your mother’s approval, not in a direct sense but as a figure. We can have a lot of father figures in our lives. It’s not one father. Maybe it’s our boss, peers, friends, husbands, or wives. That’s not important but we have to focus on ourselves.

That’s why I always ask my patients who are in burnout, “Where are you going with this? What was the deal? What was the breakthrough? What do you want to achieve by doing this? How do you want to feel at the end of the line? Do you want to feel like the most perfect person to do this? What was your brain telling you? It’s a lie. At the end of the day, it’s an obsession.”

You have to understand the core of the problem. Maybe you have to look at your emotional patterns, your blanks, and your voice. Rituals can do that for you because they allow you to have space to look inside and see yourself. Why are you craving so much for achieving this and that goal? Is it my goal or the goal of my mother? Is this my goal or the goal of my father? Is this my goal or somebody made me believe it’s my goal?

 

A lot of women tend to go from 40 to 45 with a big crisis. They came to my office and say, “I don’t know what I want to do. I hate my job. I thought I love it but at this point, I don’t know. I don’t know what I like. I don’t know what I love. Maybe I don’t feel connected to this anymore. I don’t know what’s happening. Maybe I’m with depression.” No, you’re not with depression. You’re waking up. We do a lot of things that we are pushed to do by society, by our families, or by ourselves. Some of the things are connected to us. Some of them are not. Burnout mostly comes from two things. That’s completely obsessive behavior and normally fulfills a void. That’s nothing about work.

I totally agree with that. I will say this vulnerably here, which I have shared before. There’s nothing new to the audience that tunes in to this show regularly. I overworked to fill the void because I didn’t want to feel. What you said is valuable. We’re not going to solve this in this episode but going back to find out what your core motivations are. As you said, create space with your rituals so you can have space to tap into your body. You can have space to tap into your thoughts and what your heart wants rather than following some rule book or what you think you should be doing.

That’s important. The thing that you should be doing or the thing you want to be doing. Sometimes you have such a conflict of interest in your brain, in your emotions, and in your heart because it’s like you are two different persons. One wants to go to that side and the other one wants to go to that side. This is conflictive and difficult for people because if you’re succeeding, it’s worse because the pressure is bigger, higher, and terrible. You want to do it and you don’t feel like doing it. As with any addiction, you do it not to feel. Eventually, you will feel much more.

I wanted to go back to your book quickly on the rituals. I’ve studied this before, but I’m excited to talk with you about it. You mentioned three biotypes. Not everyone knows what a biotype is. Can you please share what that is and how can we figure out where we are?

Traditional Chinese medicine is connected to Ayurvedic medicine. It’s all connected. I love to study the connections between all medicines. That’s one of my hobbies. The three biotypes are always similar to the three doshas of Ayurvedic medicine. There is Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. There are big civilizations like the Chinese and Indians that have a lot of time to study because they’re so old. They start to understand that people are all the same, but we are divided into some types.

You can understand people and you can have connections. People who tend to accumulate more fat in the belly tend to have constipation, bloated legs, and difficulty digesting. They tend to be more sleepy than other people. You can aggregate them into three big body and mind types, which is beautiful. We all have three body types, but one is more predominant. That’s our body type.

You can do a quick questionnaire to understand which one is yours. With that information, you can understand a lot about yourself and how your mind works. It’s not 100% but it gives you a lot of hints about the way your body and mind function. It’s beautiful because I have the questionnaire and when they do the questionnaire, people say, “I’m like this. This is amazing.”

The Indians and the Chinese are particular in the symptoms and the people feel related to symptoms. When I’m okay, I’m loving. When I’m not okay, I’m hurtful and angry. You can connect the emotions to the state of mind, to the body function and you can divide it into three big pieces. It’s beautiful because people can connect themselves to their body types. With that information, you can have a lot of rituals, food, and ways of leaving that can connect with yourself and improve your health, and give you more balance. At the end of the day, that’s what we need.

Can you give a couple of points so they understand?

Pitta is the movement. The elements of the nature of Pitta are fire and water. It’s a heavy type. They have a good metabolism, good circulation, good muscles, strong people, and medium height. Normally, they are intelligent and perceptive. They are quick when you are working with them. They are sneaky in a good way. They are balanced and okay, but they have a lot of migraines and headaches. They tend to have acne and a lot of nausea. Sometimes the digestion is not so good. They tend to be a bit aggressive when they’re imbalanced. They are a bit manipulating and proud of themselves. They tend to have ulcers in their stomach. Do you remember somebody like this in your life?

I might be this.

You’ve noticed. Normally, people have 1 predominant, but they can have 2 and it’s perfectly natural. This is Pitta. It’s a heavy person with a strong head and mind, and with a strong focus. When in balance, it is amazing because it works amazingly. When it’s not in balance, it can get hard, aggressive, and difficult.

Vata is beautiful. It’s air, movement, creative, dancing, and adaptable. It has good communication and good spirit and is creative. Some actors and singers can be like this. Normally, they are thin but they have good circulation in their bodies and work well. They are fearful and decisive when they’re imbalanced, agitated, and anxious. They have a lot of crises with anxiety and bipolar states like, “I’m completely sure. I’m not sure at all.” They are fluctuating with humor. It’s difficult sometimes. They have heavy menses, PMS, and heavy constipation. The nails are not so good. The hair is not so good. It tends to break and brittle nails. Do you know somebody like this?

Vata is beautiful. It's air, movement, creative, dancing, and adaptable. It has good communication and good spirit and is creative. Click To Tweet

I know of each type, but yes. This is my secondary type. I’m more like Pitta-Vata.

Normally, when I was studying this, I connect with friends of mine that are completely the types for me to understand which one. It’s beautiful. The Kapha is earth and water. It’s structured. The energy is the energy of structure because of the earth. When they’re balanced, they’re loving, patient, peaceful, forgiving, and calm. They tend to have a bit of extra weight on them because the spleen doesn’t work so well.

They have a bit of accumulation of liquids around the eyes. They’re a bit fluffy all over. With muscles, they’re a bit fluffy. When they’re a bit balanced, they can tend to be controlling and insecure but not in a good way. It’s not in a way like Vata because Vata is insecure and gets anxious and needs somebody to give them a bit of a tender kiss.

Kapha is a bit harder because it is more controlling and gets lethargic. It has a lot of tendency to depression, but a lot of pathetic. You don’t do anything. It gets insensitive in a way and attached to people when they are a bit in balance. They tend to have a bit of obesity, and a lot of allergies, sinus problems, and mucus problems.

All of the liquids are not doing well when they are unbalanced because of the water in the earth. They are not moving the energy. As Vata has air and ether, it’s always moving and the energy of Vata is movement. The energy of Pitta is transformation because you have fire and water. Kapha is more difficult because it’s earth and water. It’s too dense. All of the liquids are stuck. I don’t know if you have doubts or anything.

I have some relatives. My father may have been more Kapha.

They tend to sleep a lot too.

I appreciate you sharing that because now people can start connecting the dots. I still want them to go to your book and do their own research. Thank you for sharing that. In your book, you have a quiz so they can find out their own biotype.

Yes, it’s easier. For each biotype, I have the rituals, food, oils, stones, crystals, and everything.

I am going to go deeper into this. I did a brief review, but now I’m going to go and do a deep dive.

You WhatsApp me to tell me.

I’ll be, “This is what’s happening.” Let’s say that we have put some rituals into place after reading your book. We find that they’re maybe not working or they’re not exactly right. Do you do some ritual audits periodically or do you make changes to your rituals by season? Tell me about that.

By season, for sure. I’m completely connected to seasons. For sure in summer, you do rituals that you don’t do in winter. Winter is more energy to be with yourself, more lethargic, more inwards, and not so outwards. Normally, I adapt my rituals to the state of the year. If it’s spring, I do something. If it’s winter, I do other things. Normally in winter and then autumn, I tend to do rituals that involve more like a candle ritual.

I put a candle on. I put the beads. I do some specific breathing. They’re in the book. If you want me to share something, I will. I do some specific breathing to put my energy flow a bit higher because, in winter and autumn, the energy is a bit lower. I tend to use my rituals to put me a bit in the higher energy position. I do something like yoga, you can do a Bhastrika. It’s special breathing through your nose, but fast breathing for 1 minute or 2 to bring your energy together and put you more focused.

Winter and autumn are difficult to focus on because you’re tired. The energy is lower. If you do this heavy breathing, it’s better because all your body activates and all your energy goes up. It’s easier to work and it’s easier to be with more energy to get up in the morning. I adapt my rituals to the moment of the year. If it’s not working for you, normally, it depends on your state of mind. If you’re in a moment with stress and anxiety, your brain has a much more difficult moment to relax. You have to give them something to chew o, like gum. You can use your breathing to do that.

If you focus on your breathing, normally it helps. It doesn’t have to be special breathing. You just have to focus on breathing. If you count, it’s easier like 5 in, 5 out, 5 in, 5 out, and then do it for 30 seconds before the ritual. Your brain is in a much better position to do it. When you feel like you’re not connecting to the ritual, you have to maybe have five minutes before the ritual to put yourself together and to calm down for the day.

You put your brain in a much quieter zone. You then try the ritual. Sometimes it’s not a ritual that is off. It’s our energy when we come from work. We are too tired or we are not eating well and our mind is not focused enough. You have to give it five minutes to be with yourself, to breathe, to get a bit of focus. You then try the ritual. Normally, I’ll do that first before changing rituals.

That’s good input and direction there. Let’s address this because I’m sure there will be people that will be the naysayers. Let’s have fun with this one. The naysayers say, “This is a bunch of hooey.” What results have you seen from people that have incorporated these rituals into their life? How has it impacted their health, their work, and how they show up in their lives?

The person connected is another person. They are completely confident about themselves. They know what they want. You cannot compete with that. It’s impossible. If somebody is in their center, did their homework, is sleeping well, and doing the rituals connected to themself, you cannot win. They’re a monster completely. It’s incredible.

It’s impossible because it’s not confidence. I don’t know. It’s like yourself. You are completely in yourself. When you are completely in yourself, you know yourself. It doesn’t matter what people say. You are completely sure. It’s a different state of mind. It’s better for work, better for a relationship, better for the kids, better for our parents, and better for everybody.

When you are completely in yourself, you know yourself. It doesn't matter what people say. Click To Tweet

It’s a blessing. Nobody has doubts when they do it. I can assure you that. They do it and it’s life-changing but you cannot have rituals if you’re sleeping five hours a day and expecting miracles. You have to sleep. That’s the most important thing. I always tell to my patients, “You can put the rituals that you want. If you don’t sleep and if you eat crap, it’s impossible. You cannot do anything.”

That is the baseline for everyone. You have to eat nutritious food and you have to sleep. The waters are in there too. You have to hydrate.

It’s the basics because then you can do whatever you want. If you don’t have the basics, you cannot build anything without a foundation. It’s impossible. The foundation is sleep, eating good food, drinking good water, and being aware of your mind. Those are three things that are the most important. You have to be aware of your thoughts and be always aware of your feelings to be connected and to be centered. You can add the rituals and then you’ll become amazing because you’re happy and at peace. You will be okay. No matter what comes your way, you understand yourself. If you are good with yourself, that’s all you can do. That’s your responsibility.

I just had a thought. I’m doing this completely ad hoc. If you’re open to it, maybe we’ll have you again in 2024 or later this 2023. I’ll be everyone’s Guinea pig. I’m going to do a deep dive into your book. I’ll pick up a couple of rituals and we can talk about it. What do you think?

It’s beautiful. I love it because I know what’s going to happen. I’m smiling. If you are seeing me, I love it. I love a good challenge and I love when people challenge themselves, “I will do this for 30 days.” I said, “Do it, then you tell me.” It’s beautiful.

Don’t forget, I’ll reach out to you again.

Of course, I’m here. For me, it’s beautiful when a shift happens. The most beautiful thing is people have their own tools to do it.

I love that. This conversation’s motivating me. I can’t believe we’re almost out of time.

I talk a lot. Sorry.

It’s totally fine because I’m passionate about it and it’s lovely to see how passionate you are. You are truly doing your calling. You are truly in your work. I love to hear it. Before we go, I wanted to ask you, what are 1 to 2 ways that you believe women can be braver at work?

These days, we have a lot of masculine energy at work. With women too because women have strong masculine energy. The world is building in that direction to be assertive, disciplined, analytical, and directive. At work, it can be beneficial to try to bring some intuition, empathic movement, supportive movement, collaborative movement, and creative movement, and bring some of the feminine energy on again. To bring the work more balance in a way because we lack intuition, nurturing, and collaborative state at work these days. That’s the most powerful tool that women can be bigger and stronger at work.

I love the idea of balancing the male and the feminine energy. It’s something I’ve been working on for the last several years, so that is very wise. Thank you for sharing that. I wanted to reiterate where women can find you and your work online.

Online is Tamara__Castelo, and on my website, TamaraCastelo.com. It’s all in English. You can google me and Spotify as well.

I love the fact that you do work for women and all people all over the world. In the US we have our Western medicine but I love that you’re doing all of the integrative medicine with Chinese medicine, and all of the other things that you are pursuing and helping people heal themselves. I encourage you if you have any interests or need for Tamara and her services, they are out there and available.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tamara, for being here.

—

That’s a wrap of my conversation with Tamara. I hope you found our discussion both valuable and inspiring. I finished Tamara’s book as this is going to air and it has been informative in my life. I highly recommend that you check it out. At a minimum, use the book or find a quiz on finding your dosha or body type. Again, those doshas are Pitta, Vata, and Kapha.

You can learn how to optimize your health and well-being. By doing so, you’ll show up stronger at work and in all other areas of your life. As a reminder, please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The show is also available on Google Podcasts and Stitcher. Until next time, show up, find rituals that work for you, and be brave.

 

iMPORTANT lINKS

• Atomic Habits
• Tamara Castelo
• Tamara Castelo Clinic
• TMC Health
• TMC Holistic
• TMC Jewellery
• The Power of Rituals – Wook
• Healing Without Medication – Wook
• Eating Without Guilt – Wook
• Full Balance – Wook
• Apple Podcasts – Brave Women at Work
• Spotify – Brave Women at Work
• Brave Women at Work – Facebook
• Tamara__Castelo – Instagram
• Spotify – Tamarismo
• Google Podcasts – Brave Women at Work
• Stitcher – Brave Women at Work

 

aBOUT tAMARA cASTELO

TÂMARA CASTELO is a specialist in Chinese Traditional Medicine and the CEO of Tâmara Castelo Clinic (Lisbon and Porto), TMC Health, TMC Holistic and TMC Jewellery. At her clinic, Tâmara treats sleep disorders, thyroid disorders, intestine diseases, anxiety, migraines, and hormonal problems, and takes a holistic approach to healing. She is the author of Healing Without Medicine, Eating Without Guilt, and Full Balance—all winners of Gourmand awards. She lives in Lisbon.