Transcript of Living a Stress-Free Life

Lucien Gauthier (LG): Pedram, you’re going to be joining us at the Women’s Wellness Conference™ coming up October 9th through the 11th, so this is less than two weeks away. We’ve got about a week and a half. You are the late addition to our lineup, and people are really excited after hearing you speak at our last Longevity Now Conference®.

What are the things that you’ve been honing in on?

What are the things that you’ve been drilling down on in your practice, in your field, in your expertise?

What’s the latest and greatest in your world?

Pedram Shojai (PS): The thinking has really been cooking like a nice stew in my head about, ‘What are the differences between the life I lived as a monk and the life all the people and my patients, thousands of patients, and all of my students over the years, live here in society?’

The challenge is trying to bridge that gap between the aesthetic and the householder. You know, we all feel guilty for not getting to yoga. We all feel guilty for not doing our meditation. Because we’re busy, and we’re running around trying to take care of ourselves, our families, our health, our kids, and all of it. And there’s precious little time left for us, and we believe that we have to fit that time, or draw from some time, that has to feel like an hour-and-a-half yoga class or a weekend over at some spa.

It’s just not attainable for many people in our culture, so the question becomes, as a householder, as a person who has bills and responsibilities, ‘How do you find peace and balance and stop running for the hills?’

‘How do you find that place within your life, standing in line at the grocery store or at the bank, or waiting for the kids’ soccer to be done?’

I mean, we have times where we can stop, but we don’t identify them accordingly, so we sit there and stress about not having time to do this other thing, which usually doesn’t come around.

So, it’s been a real fun process for me, helping identify this, really helping our students and my patients, find time in the little nooks and crannies throughout their day to, what I call, ‘Drink from infinity,’ to really tap into that timeless place where there is infinite energy and peace and tranquility.

LG: How do you see this sort of dilemma affecting peoples’ health? I know that when people are sort of running the rat race, there are a lot of health things that start to creep in that are being caused by this kind of way of living, way of life, or this lifestyle dilemma.

What are some of the health issues that you see creeping in, and what are some of the main things to watch out for?

PS: Yeah, well you know, we all borrow from energy to get through today.

So, what happens is if I need to get it done, if I need to get through X, Y, or Z, and I don’t feel it, I don’t have the energy, I’m just going to drink some coffee, or I’m going to borrow energy from tomorrow to push through today, because the show must go on.

That works until your thirties, for most people, and then that system starts to crash. You start to hit your overdraft limits, and the body’s not happy with it.

So, one of the fundamental premises of the ‘urban monk’ work that I’ve been doing is finding how to change your diet so that you can keep your blood sugar stable, so you don’t need to take stimulants all the time. And then, hack your day so that you’re not sitting around anytime, and you’re constantly moving, because, you know what? I get more than an hour of exercise every day at the office just by building that in, instead of thinking I’m going to get to the gym at the end of the day when my kids are hungry, and, you know, time’s already crunching.

So, really looking at how to build movement and blood sugar stability into the day, so stress doesn’t overwhelm you.

LG: That’s a great angle.

Have you noticed significant differences in how you approach both men and women? Because at the Women’s Wellness Conference™, obviously we’re going to have a majority of women there, and you deal with both men and women.

What are some of the differences that you see there and some of the key things to hone in on when it comes to women’s health and the psychology of a woman to approach her day?

PS: Yeah, great question.

So, men will keep banging until their hearts stop, or someone will tell them that they’re going to die, and then they kind of fall apart. But they, in my experience, haven’t been as good at multitasking. They’re very single-track, laser-like, and yet a little too much that way.

You know, I gotta say, women are miraculous, miraculous beings. They are so good at multitasking. They’re so good at handling everything, because the buck stops with them. And yet, still having to take care of, you know, things on the home front or the work front, relationships, and all of it.

So, I think that, especially for a woman, because men will come home and oftentimes somehow get some downtime, whereas Mom never gets downtime. Women usually don’t get as much downtime, with all of the competing pressures, the way that the economy has changed and the home works.

So, actually, 70% of our students are women, because they feel the pressure and they understand that they are different when they’re operating under stress. They don’t like who they are under the pressure cooker. They might snap at their kids. They might say something they don’t mean.

They get that they’re not in that life, that wonderful, beautiful, delicious sacred feminine, when they’re squeezing and they’re falling apart. So, that innate wisdom kind of triggers it. Then it’s just about giving them the right tools, giving them the right practices from thousands of years of monastery training to say, “Look, try this and do this when this happens, instead of panicking, freaking out, and losing your way.”

I found it to be really helpful. I found it to be a significant improvement in peoples’ lives, and our students agree.

PS: You’re going to be taking the stage with David Wolfe. We’ve got Marianne Williamson, Vani Hari, Robyn O’Brien, Dr. Alan Christianson, Dr. Sara Gottfried. We’ve got quite an amazing lineup. We’re very, very psyched to have you joining our lineup.

What’s the message that you’re going to share with our audience? What are some of the things that you’re going to hit upon?

PS: Well, we’re going to get at some real practical steps on how to stop and drink from that fountain here and now because it’s one thing to talk about stress management, another thing to learn it right there on the spot.

So, I’m going to roll up my sleeves and actually show the audience what to do and how to do it right there in the moment.

Then we’re going to talk about how to shift the philosophical alignment so that you understand as a human being that you have an opportunity to cultivate and build your chi, your vital essence, and just nourish and get better in those down moments, instead of letting them waste. That way you have that time to invest into hanging out with your family and hanging out with your friends.

The time is precious, and our ability to maximize our health and our psychological impact with the time that we have in the in-between notes is really where it’s at.

So, that’s what we’re going to go over.

A lot of these people are very good friends of mine. I’m happy to share a stage with them. It’s always a good time.

LG: All right. Awesome. We look forward to hearing you and seeing you October 9th to the 11th. If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet, there are still tickets available. We are approaching sell-out capacity, so visit Womens’ Wellness Conference™ website: www.womenswellnessconference.com.

Pick up your ticket today. Join host David Wolfe.

Pedram Shojai, this has been an amazing conversation. We really look forward to hearing your message at the upcoming conference.

PS: I’m excited. Looking forward to it.

Come join us this October and make the commitment to take your health to the next level. The Women’s Wellness Conference™ is fast approaching. Get your early bird ticket here before prices go up again! We look forward to seeing you in Costa Mesa!