Victoria Moran - Age Like a Yogi

Buckle up, Victoria Moran is bringing the aging well advice! She talks about her latest book, Age Like a Yogi: A Heavenly Path to a Dazzling Third Act and all the enjoyment this part of life can bring. Victoria shares her insights on aging gracefully, advocating for one’s self, the importance of self-care, and the power of connection. She discusses her journey as a vegan advocate, the significance of understanding one's dosha in Ayurveda, and the role of yoga in maintaining a balanced life. She also shares some great stories about her brushes with some famous people!

https://victoriamoran.com/

https://mainstreetvegan.com/

Age Like a Yogi

Send receipt for Age Like a Yogi to assist@victoriamoran.com

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Discount code MAINSTREET for 10% off

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https://www.banyanbotanicals.com/pages/dosha-quiz

Transcript

Everyone keeps telling me that I have to interview Victoria Moran for Aged Like a Badass Mother. I say, I know, I have. When Lisa Rice, my co -host from season one and I talked about who embodies Aging Like a Badass Mother and who our first guest should be, we both talked about it and agreed. It has to be Victoria Moran.

She's the OG vegan and an example of someone to whom we aspire to be in 20 years. We definitely didn't wanna focus on looks because that's the narrative we've been fed for our whole lives. But when I talk to real women about what they wanna hear with regards to aging, it's menopause, reinvention, and the fear of looking different than we did as our younger selves. So although I don't want our conversation around aging to focus on our looks,

I'd be remiss if I pretended it wasn't a concern. And Victoria is someone who radiates beauty the way I hope we all do, from the inside out. She's absolutely stunning at 74, but that's just the beginning. She's still doing interesting things, creative things. She's written 13 books about wellbeing, spirituality, and vegan living. Her 14th book, Age Like a Yogi,

A Heavenly Path to a Dazzling Third Act will be published in January of 2025, but don't worry, you can pre -order it now. I'll have information in the show notes. Victoria embodies grace and supportiveness. When I said that I've already interviewed her for this podcast, I was lying because I've actually interviewed her twice. She was our first guest, but we were nervous and we didn't do a great interview.

Victoria Moran (04:40.151)
you

Lauren Bernick (04:52.656)
so we threw it away the way you do with your first pancake. For season two, I asked Victoria again to be a guest and she agreed. For some reason, her audio track didn't record. You can imagine how much my stomach hurt to tell her that our second interview was a bust. But someone who is aging like a badass mother doesn't make you feel small. They buoy you up and say something beautiful like,

Victoria Moran (04:53.104)
the hell?

Lauren Bernick (05:19.258)
That wasn't meant to be our conversation or the third time's a charm. This woman has been on Oprah twice. She has been inducted into the Vegan Hall of Fame. She could be a little bit guarded with her time, but instead she is generous and beautiful on the inside. Victoria runs Main Street Vegan Academy, training vegan coaches, educators, and entrepreneurs.

She hosts the Main Street Vegan podcast as well as a live stream on Unchained TV called the Main Street Vegan Salon. And she's working with her husband William Melton and Farm Sanctuary President Jean Bauer on bringing a feature film into being called Miss Liberty. It's about a cow who escapes from a slaughterhouse. Her favorite story is that she had a $1 press card from Teen Life Magazine. She took it seriously and got into her first Beatles press conference at age 14.

When she was 17, Paul McCartney bought her a drink. She famously said to herself, you have to keep up with this writing thing. It makes miracles happen. So please welcome for the third time, the wise, accomplished, vivacious, inspiring, and gracious and generous Victoria Moran. Welcome.

Victoria Moran (06:24.144)
Yeah.

Victoria Moran (06:33.69)
Well, thank you, Lauren. And whenever I'm feeling ordinary, I'm going to have to play back your intro. I love introductions because they take the very best things that have happened to us and encapsulate them and all the other minutes and hours and years and decades that maybe weren't so hot, kind of gets swept aside and we bring the...

the great stuff. In fact, maybe everybody should have an introduction. Maybe we should all craft an introduction for ourselves of, this is all the best stuff I've ever done. And a good introduction is only a minute or a minute and a half. So we've all got glory.

Lauren Bernick (07:10.565)
Yes!

Lauren Bernick (07:17.596)
Yes, that is such a good exercise. Everybody do that. Write yourself an introduction. my God, we're onto something. So I mentioned you're 74. What is the best surprise for you at this age?

Victoria Moran (07:31.216)
Wow, the best surprise of 74 is that it's kind of like 37. There are definite changes in the body. There's absolutely no question. And I know that sometimes people in the plant -based world really like to paint the way we eat and live as a panacea. And I know that for certain conditions, coronary heart disease, for example, it really does seem to be just that.

But the fact is this is planet Earth. Things happen, bodies break down, people get injured, people get sick. And certainly when you get to a certain age, you know that at some point in the foreseeable future, something will befall you that will exit you out of this life. And not to be morbid, but it's just the way it is. So I think that the thing that's different for me in my 70s than in any of the previous decades

is you really got to seriously get busy on what you want to do with what's left of this life because your days are numbered as are everybody's. It's just, you know, some people's numbers are going to be longer. Sometimes I think it would be so cool if we knew our expiration date, but we don't. And so we live each day as if something magical could happen. And if nothing seems to be happening from the outside, then we have to

Lauren Bernick (08:50.928)
Yes!

Victoria Moran (08:58.864)
push it along and make some magic ourselves.

Lauren Bernick (09:05.468)
I love that. feel, yeah, I feel that too. Just being in my, I just turned 56 and I feel that too. Like if I don't do these things now or if I don't start on the projects that I want to be doing, you know, towards the end of my life, like I'm planting the seeds now, like I have to get going. I feel that too. And I love it because I feel like probably,

you know, for the first time in a long time, have time to myself where I don't have kids and other people and things like that. So kind of, kind of loving this part of my life.

Victoria Moran (09:39.952)
well, you know, every time of life has its own kind of glistening parts. For me, my 60s were my favorite decade. I mean, they were better than than any of my other personal decades. I did so many amazing things. wrote. Well, my book, Creating a Charmed Life came earlier. That was a big book for me. But in my 60s, I wrote Main Street Vegan.

Lauren Bernick (09:51.514)
Yes.

Really.

Victoria Moran (10:08.848)
I founded Main Street Vegan Academy. I started Main Street Vegan Productions. We did a beautiful documentary, A Prayer for Compassion. The Main Street Vegan podcast started and we've been going now for 12 years. And so it was just such a vital, vibrant, wonderful time. But the way life works on earth...

Lauren Bernick (10:09.222)
Yeah.

Victoria Moran (10:30.998)
is that you have your of up -dances and your down -faces. People that are into astrology, whether you believe in it or not, they do have this beautiful way of looking at, you've always got some planets going for glory and some others that are kind of like, boy, this is going to be tough. And whether it's planets or whether it's just the way life works, that is the way it is. So for me,

I turned 70 just as New York City was getting locked down for the pandemic. My birthday is March 21st, so my 70th birthday was right there in March of 2020. And I remember that since I couldn't go anywhere for my birthday, since I had to cancel my lovely plan of gathering a lot of beautiful women at a lovely restaurant here in New York City, it's actually a French restaurant that's all vegan.

And we were going to go there, Delice and Saracen and just have our, you know, vegan Coco Van and our vegan escargot. But instead we didn't, we were all locked up. And so I did still have to walk my dog. And as I was walking out of the building garage, the garage attendant was playing salsa music. And I just stopped and there with my dog, just dance some salsa for turning 70.

and went on about my business, but I didn't know that that was going to be the beginning of some really difficult times for me. My husband had been in a serious accident just a couple of weeks before that, and he had other fallout from that later over a period of years. So my life changed a lot in those ways. Main Street Vegan Academy had been in person in our apartment, and of course it went on to Zoom for the pandemic.

But because of my husband's situation, it's never going to be in my apartment again. So it is on zoom now and it's wonderful on zoom and we can have more instructors than ever and more practice time and more class hours, but it's a change. And I think that's the big deal that humans do not like change regardless of what age we are. And something that nobody tells you is more of it happens the older you get.

Victoria Moran (12:49.248)
So hang on, it's a wild ride, but it's the one we've got.

Lauren Bernick (12:56.696)
It's, is that the hardest part? Like, what's the hardest part about aging?

Victoria Moran (12:57.976)
God. Well, you know, I think it's just surprise and lots of things happen. I can only speak for myself. I don't know how other people age. I know there are outliers and I think that outliers are very inspiring and it's wonderful that we have them to see what is possible. But just because there are outliers doesn't mean that that exact thing is going to be possible for us. Example.

We've got like somebody who's a genius at math. You've got an Einstein. That is possible. Am I ever gonna be even proficient at math? Not to mention genius. No, I'm not wired that way. And if I could have been trained to change that early in life, it didn't happen. And I think it's the same with some of this, know, longevity and all that. My first yoga teacher, Stella Cherfus,

Lauren Bernick (13:45.318)
Same. Right.

Victoria Moran (13:55.6)
is 99 years of age. She lives in a third floor walk up. She teaches a yoga class every week and she also hosts a women's cell all every Sunday morning in her flat, which means she has to clean up afterwards. The woman is 99 and I'm not sure that I'll have that much energy at, I don't know, 80, 77. I don't know. I'm not there yet.

Lauren Bernick (14:17.201)
my gosh.

Victoria Moran (14:25.028)
I just know that I do have to take better care of myself than ever. And we always say to people, take care of yourself. It's just kind of a greeting. But when you get to be a certain age, it is absolutely essential because we become more sensitive physiologically. You feel more things. You don't have some of those hormonal protectors that you had earlier on. So it's just.

really important to be there for yourself. And then what makes it complicated is very often life makes it more difficult to take care of yourself than before, because maybe you are in the position of being a caretaker, very stressful, very difficult. Maybe you didn't save enough money. And what a lot of people don't tell you, the idea is, when you're old, you don't need so much money. Well, they haven't been old lately because

You need a lot of money, especially if you're not going to go with your standard kind of healthcare. So for example, in the United States, we have Medicare. Then we have this thing called Medicare Advantage, which if you watch television, you will see Joe Namath and all kinds of people up there saying how fabulous it is. In my humble opinion, it is not fabulous at all. Maybe it's fabulous for the insurance companies.

but it means that you're restricted in the people that you can choose to work with. It also means that the amount of services you get, such as physical therapy, after being hospitalized, that kind of thing, is determined not solely by your need, but by some parameters put in touch earlier by an insurance company. So if you have, yeah.

Lauren Bernick (15:52.23)
Yes.

Lauren Bernick (16:15.482)
Yeah, I've heard it's not good. I've heard by medical professionals, don't do it. Yeah.

Victoria Moran (16:17.7)
Yeah, but if you're on a very tight budget, you may have to do it. So if you're younger and you're listening to this, save more money, seriously. Yeah, more than you think you do. And the other thing is if you are at all interested in either what we used to call alternative, or guess now we say complementary healthcare, if you're interested in adding to your healthcare repertoire, acupuncture,

Lauren Bernick (16:26.182)
Okay.

Lauren Bernick (16:30.716)
Save some money.

Victoria Moran (16:46.466)
energy work, some of these other kinds of things that are not accepted as the Western medical norm, you're paying for those out of pocket and there's no reimbursement coming from anywhere. The same is true if you're someone who wants to do any cosmetic tweaking. And some people say, that's terrible. Why would you want to do that? Some people want to do it. Just know you have to pay for it. So these are some of the kinds of things, you know,

It's interesting in life, we always like to tell younger people what they can expect in the next phase. So we're doing a very good job in recent years of preparing young girls for puberty. And we have these parties and these coming of age parties and all these kinds of things. And it's much less this horrible thing that, my God, someday when I'm 13, this awful thing is gonna happen, but I don't really know what it is.

No, girls know what it is now. We talk to them. I don't think we talk nearly as much to women about what's going to happen at midlife and what's going to happen in later life. And things happen. And obviously, the healthier you are, the more upbeat you are, the more positive you are, the better it's all going to be. But you still need a little bit of a guidebook for what you're going to be meeting.

Lauren Bernick (18:12.676)
Yeah, well speaking of, so tell us some of the things that you've done to age as well as you have. You be our guidebook. You tell us.

Victoria Moran (18:18.448)
well, you know, I actually think I, picked good parents and there is something to be said for that. I remember on my wedding day, when I was 27, my mother looked better than me and I didn't feel jealous. I didn't feel bad about it. Cause I was used to it. My mom just, she was a beautiful woman. She knew how to, comport herself. She knew how to dress and, and she was just lovely. mean, I remember when she was.

Lauren Bernick (18:27.942)
Yes.

Victoria Moran (18:48.112)
in the hospital for the last time in her late 80s. Her hair was done, her nails were done, and that was just who she was. So I think certainly having been vegan since 1983 and having been vegetarian since 1969 is a really good plan. And I am lucky that I found that when I did. Now,

I am very proud to use the V word and a lot of people I think in the plant -based world think, well vegan that means you eat junk food. No doesn't. It means that you don't eat animal foods and what foods you choose to eat are of your own decision. So when I went vegan back in the early 1980s, there wasn't a lot of vegan processed foods. I mean there was some super junk food. We had Coca -Cola, we had potato chips.

But certainly anybody with an interest in going vegan, certainly at that time, was not gonna reach out for those kinds of foods. mean, obviously, if you're stuck in a very small airport and it's been 18 hours and the potato chips are all that's left to eat, you know, we'd eat them. But basically, we ate fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Your basic...

what I call the five fitness food groups. And if anybody's listening who's not familiar with this way of eating, it sounds so bland and dry and ordinary, but what you can do with those foods is stunning in terms of cuisine and joy and all that. So I would say that that's the main thing. And I think the other thing is that I have always identified with my inner self that doesn't age.

Lauren Bernick (20:30.5)
It's miraculous.

Victoria Moran (20:40.976)
So from the time I was really little, I had the idea of a soul, the idea of the continuation of life, the idea that I had been somewhere before I was here. And even at whatever age you are listening to this now, think about yourself at 10 years old. It was still you. You look different, but it was you. And then think about yourself at 30, still you look different.

And now, wherever you are in your life journey, that's where you are. And 20 years from now, you'll be somewhere else. And so if you can relate to that inner essence, this is why I've written Age Like a Yogi, because I think for people to get that concept, there is a part of you, which I happen to believe is the real and eternal part of you, and it doesn't age. And the more you can relate to that part,

the more the outer is going to reflect youthfulness, vitality, health, peace and joy.

Lauren Bernick (21:49.34)
You know, I think you're so spot on with that. I was actually just thinking about this same thought. I don't know why. Maybe because we were going to have this conversation, who knows? But the truth is I was thinking about why I love doing this podcast so much. And, you know, aside from just talking to all the wonderful people and spreading the word about aging well, is that I feel more myself.

than I ever have. And I feel like I've been getting to know myself all these years and know the different parts of myself. And like you mentioned math before, like I used to feel like a real dummy because I couldn't do math, but I could do other things. I could talk to people. could, you know, and I just feel like as we age, you're so right about we are the same person, but we know that person and we're not afraid to fully be that.

person. And that's what it is, I feel like, to come into yourself to fully integrate yourself, all these little parts that you've been getting to know all these years. And that is so beautiful. So you think so, you know, you say you're kind of a mystic in the making, and you've alluded to a little bit here and there. What what do mean by that?

Victoria Moran (23:08.378)
Mystic by definition is a person who has had an experience of the oneness of life. It's sometimes called a spiritual experience or in Catholicism, I believe it's referred to as beatific vision. But lots of people have had this and some of them are saints and holy people in all traditions and other people are just ordinary folks. think of lots of poets, Walt Whitman, a very

materialistic guy. If we were living now, we would say he's, you know, man about town, doing all these cool hip things in New York City. And yet he had that experience so many people did of coming to know that they are part of all that is. And I've only had glimpses, but I've had enough of them that I know that's the way it is.

Sometimes I'll be sitting around a table with a lot of my girlfriends and they'll just be so stunningly beautiful. It's like, what? I didn't know I was gathering, you know, former pageant queens. And it's because I was seeing their soul. Every now and then I've been in the subway in New York City where everybody looks so different and you've got people, you know, some of them going through a lot of difficult things in life and yet...

Every now and then I'll see that subway car, it's like full of light. It's like each one of those people is a manifestation of the divine. And so I've always wanted to have that brush with ultimate reality. And when I was even a kid, I remember my Beatles fan club, Pen Pal, asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I said, I want to be a mystic.

And she said, well, maybe you should just be a progressive lady theologian because you could study for that in college. So I did actually get a degree in comparative religions. didn't make me a progressive lady theologian, but it's a great for me. And I know many people have absolutely fabulous, splendid, healthy, important, empowered lives, and they live in a completely secular way.

Victoria Moran (25:33.048)
It's like, do not talk to me about any of the woo woo stuff. It's here and now it's what you can see and touch and feel. And science tells us all we want to know and what it hasn't told us yet. will tell us later. End of story. Perfectly valid, perfectly fabulous way to live. And in some, sometimes I actually envy people like that because I know that if you believe that this is it, you're going to put all yourself into it.

And I'm one of those people who believes, this is just, there's a beautiful book called A Parenthesis in Eternity. The author is Joel Goldsmith, but I've always loved that title, A Parenthesis in Eternity. And that's how I see this life. You know, I've got this long whatever eternity thing, and this is a parenthesis and I wanna make it sparkly and I wanna make it beautiful. And yet sometimes that can lead to, gosh.

You know, I'm not, it's cold, it's dark. I don't really have to go to that event when I think that if I really thought, no, this is it, I would probably have gone to the event. So, you know, there's something good about however we see the world and because nobody can really know the big picture. think it's absolutely ridiculous when somebody criticizes someone for having a different one. But I find that for myself and in terms of aging, this idea that I am a

Lauren Bernick (26:35.42)
Ehh

Victoria Moran (27:01.8)
soul, I am an eternal spirit, having a physical experience helps me go through it being maybe a little bit less touched by the passage of time.

Lauren Bernick (27:19.26)
Hmm, yeah, that sounds, it's really wise. And I've had that experience too where maybe not in a subway, dear God, if you could see the humanity and the beautifulness of everybody in the subway. But where I do, I'm in a crowd and I look around and I'm overcome by just my love for everyone, just knowing all the experiences that they've been through and hard things and great things and all the shared things.

just hope that people can do that a little more now because we're so, feels a little divided, a little. And then I hope that we can do that a little more to see each other as these souls. If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently?

Victoria Moran (28:05.076)
good heavens. Probably lots and lots. But on the other hand, anything that I did differently would change the positive outcomes too. So, you know, I could certainly look at the past and say, gosh, wish I hadn't done that. And yet that put me on a path that lead me, led me to something else. So I don't think that's a place for me to meddle.

Lauren Bernick (28:38.108)
That's exactly. You know, one of the things that I've learned from doing this podcast and talking to so many really inspiring people is that advocating for oneself is like a big topic that keeps coming up time and time again. And I would just love for you to tell the story about when you were naming your seminal book, Main Street Vegan.

Victoria Moran (29:01.05)
Hehehehe

Lauren Bernick (29:04.282)
I love this story so much. Talk about advocating for oneself. Can you tell us that story?

Victoria Moran (29:05.852)
Well, you know, I got some help from the universe on that one. I really believe that this is the time when the ideas of living more gently and compassionately on the world, which includes a vegan diet and lifestyle, this is the time and it's getting some help. And so when you're really trying to advocate for that, I believe that

you sometimes get some help that you would never expect. So I was working on a book that I wanted to be called Main Street Vegan, but when it got a publisher, and it got a good publisher, Penguin Random House, and I spoke to my editor for the first time, and she said, we're so happy to have you, we're so happy to have this book, but we hate Main Street. You're gonna have to change that. So they had bought the book from a proposal, which is what you do with nonfiction.

And I was writing and willing to change the title because when you have a publisher, they buy it. So it's theirs. And if they want a different title, you give it a different title. But I couldn't come up with one. So I had one of these, I call them vegan miracles. My husband and I were walking up Broadway and there we saw somebody so famous that you could recognize him from the back. And that was Michael Moore, the filmmaker.

Now, I know some people love him, some people despise him. Doesn't matter which, because in this context, we're not talking politics, we're talking vegan miracles. So he had enjoyed a book that I had written, a weight loss book called Fit From Within, and he had reviewed it in Oprah's Magazine. So I thought, well, let me just give my card to this woman that's with him and say hello. I wasn't gonna stand there and be a groupie. There were a lot of people around him.

And she handed him the card. And then I hear my name being called. And he and this woman who turns out to be his sister are following us up Broadway. And he's saying, Victoria. And after we exchanged pleasantries, he says, we need to talk. We need to talk about food. So we sit down at the bus stop and I'm talking to Michael Moore about food. My husband's talking to his sister about

Victoria Moran (31:30.776)
something else. I don't know what. And at the end of this short conversation, Michael Moore says, I'm going away for a month and when I come back, I'll call you. And I thought, of course you will. Academy Award winners call me so often, it is getting to be a nuisance. But lo and behold, a month later, he called. So we did start talking about food. And on one of these food calls,

I mentioned that the book that I was writing was supposed to be called Main Street Vegan. Publisher didn't like that. He said, let me talk to them. So we had a three -way call and it happened that my editor was a fan. So he convinced her, she convinced the higher -ups. And as soon as I knew that Main Street Vegan was the name of the book, I started getting all of these ideas bubbling up. There ought to be a Main Street Vegan podcast.

Lauren Bernick (32:08.827)
Wow.

Victoria Moran (32:26.49)
There ought to be a Main Street Vegan Production Company. There ought to be Main Street Vegan Academy training and certifying vegan lifestyle coaches. And all this was just popping and it all came into being in a very short period of time.

Lauren Bernick (32:48.284)
Yeah, usually when something's meant to be like that, it just flows and it just comes to you. Did you read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert? I think that was the name of the book. Yeah, it's such a good book. It's just like how, well, you've written 14 books, so you might be able to attest to this. Just, she talks about like, it's almost like when the thing is right, it's like downloaded to you.

Victoria Moran (32:50.574)
Yeah. Yeah.

Victoria Moran (32:55.512)
No, did not. How was it?

Lauren Bernick (33:15.024)
Not that it's effortless, but some things are a struggle and some things are like you're just typing and listening and taking the notes, you know, right? When it, yeah.

Victoria Moran (33:19.44)
Yeah, I've totally had that experience, especially with so many books and the ones that just did okay and the ones that did really well. And I knew before they were ever published, which were which.

Lauren Bernick (33:35.92)
Right. And did you find that the ones that did really well were the ones that were just, just came to you, right? They were.

Victoria Moran (33:38.114)
Yeah, they're the ones that there's a phrase this actually comes from the musical Ragtime, wonderful, wonderful musical. And I think there was a book prior to that. And they described a family as being touched with an extra light. And I think that these experiences, these creative projects, these little meetings that we have are sometimes touched with an extra light.

And I don't think we should poo poo that kind of thing. I think we should really pay attention to it because regardless of your worldview, there does seem to be the reality that the universe speaks to us. And certainly the quantum physics people would support that contention. So when something just seems like, yeah, this is it. I think we're supposed to follow that.

Lauren Bernick (34:09.745)
Mm.

Lauren Bernick (34:38.008)
I agree completely. yeah, that's how you sort of know when you're on your right path, right? Things just line up for you like with Michael Moore. And you're like, my gosh, all these coincidences, but they're not really coincidences. They're the things that are meant to be.

Victoria Moran (34:42.969)
Exactly.

Yeah.

Victoria Moran (34:54.913)
And you know, the other thing that's interesting, and I can say this, you know, from the having lived a while perspective is that sometimes you'll plant a seed and you're not going to see the result of that for a really long time. So for example, we're doing a Main Street Vegan Academy cohort on Zoom right now. It's our 35th.

And at the beginning, when everybody introduces themselves, they always say how they heard about the Academy. And one woman said, Michael Moore talked about it on CNN. That was in 2012. Unless he's done it since. I think that was in 2012. And here we are 2024. And this woman, the time came to be right in her life for getting this certification.

Lauren Bernick (35:37.36)
Wow.

Victoria Moran (35:47.408)
but she held onto that information for 12 years. So if ever you're out there trying to accomplish something, or maybe you're just trying to get people around you to have more respect for or interest in the way you eat, the way you live, and maybe they're teasing you, or maybe they're criticizing or whatever, but just know that that seed is planted and you don't know what's gonna happen later. So.

I think we just have to have this expectant attitude that there could be some good in whatever we're seeing. You know, it might not look good now. What do they say? It's not over till it's over. And if it's not solved yet, it means it's not over.

Lauren Bernick (36:19.194)
Mm -hmm. That's incredible.

Yes!

Lauren Bernick (36:30.564)
I love that.

That's right.

Lauren Bernick (36:42.017)
You're giving some good advice today. See, we were supposed to do this three times. So one of your books, and you mentioned it, Creating a Charmed Life, Sensible Spiritual Secrets Every Woman Should Know. What's something from that book that we should know?

Victoria Moran (36:56.112)
well, it's a blessed book. Somebody wrote that to me. She said, I love all your books, but that creating a charmed life, that's a blessed book. And it really is. And I hope people will want to read it. It's an oldie but goodie. There was a sequel called Living a Charmed Life, but that's not the one you want. You want creating a charmed life. has a beach umbrella on the cover. So I think, well, there's a lot in there. It's 75 little essays. But the one that I think I

Lauren Bernick (37:17.509)
Okay, creating.

Victoria Moran (37:26.202)
get the most response from is a concept that I had called play your free square. And I take that from the game of bingo. And if you've ever played bingo, you know that when you get your bingo card in the middle, there's a free square. You get to put your little button there. You didn't have to do anything to earn it. You didn't have to know anybody. You didn't have to be extra smart. You didn't have to be sitting in the front row. If you've got a bingo card, you get a free square.

If you've got a life on earth, you've got a free square. So what your free square is in life is something that just comes incredibly easy to you so that you could even overlook it. And when we think about free squares, a lot of people want to look at their gifts and talents and that's good too. mean, certainly it's great to recognize if you have, for example,

Mathematical ability, which you and I both said we don't have that somebody else does. So that's all great. The free square is a little bit more subtle. It's not so much as what you do for a living as what makes your life. So for me, my free square is running into people. So we talked about the Michael Moore incident. I mean, that morning, my husband and I had gone to a movie and then for.

Maybe the second time in our 30 years together, I went to another movie with him. We went to two movies in a row. We finished one. We came out. We said, that movie's starting. We want to see that too. Let's go back through the ticket line. We'll see that movie. So we weren't even supposed to be walking up Broadway at the time that we did. We saw a second movie. And so.

These things are interesting to me, but my free square is meeting people. So you talked about the beetle thing. I am a nerdy overweight, acne plagued girl from Kansas city, but I got into that Beatles press conference when I was 14, when all of the pretty cool girls were across the street behind a rope because meeting people.

Victoria Moran (39:49.046)
is my thing. And sometimes it's just the right person at the right time. It's not always famous people, but it's that connection gene. So that's mine. So what's yours?

Lauren Bernick (40:02.544)
Yeah.

Victoria Moran (40:06.499)
Okay.

Lauren Bernick (40:06.62)
I actually think I have the same one as you. I really do. And a lot of times when I meditate, I actually will hold the thought, please bring the people to me that I am supposed to know. And it does, it happens for me all the time. And I'm aware of it, that I meet the people that I'm supposed to know.

Victoria Moran (40:27.568)
It's lovely. And there are others. Let's give some other examples so people get more of an idea of what this is. So I was talking with someone the other day and I knew she had crafted her own career, but just looking at like a bio, I didn't quite understand it. And I said, so exactly what is it that you do? She said, I find money for people. I thought, what a lovely thing to be able to say and make everybody lovely, love you. Like, find some for me.

Lauren Bernick (40:32.4)
crazy. Yeah, that's true.

Lauren Bernick (40:52.944)
Huh, that's a good one.

Victoria Moran (40:57.204)
so she finds money for people and that's just a kind of how many people feel that they could do that. So many people have the idea that money doesn't like them and that finding it for anybody would be very difficult. But in her case, it's like, no, you know, money and I are friends. Or I can like with children, for example, you know, some people there, you've, we've heard of dog whispers. That's a.

free square for some people, but there's also the child whisperer. It's somebody who can understand these new, fresh little beings that are just trying out life on earth for the first time or after many times, depending on your belief system, but they're new and fresh this time. And that scares some people. Some people just, you know, I don't know how to talk to that small being, but you can.

Lauren Bernick (41:40.89)
Mm -hmm. Right?

Victoria Moran (41:51.01)
So, and if you don't know what your free square is, if you don't know what this special kind of magical, it's almost like a, a, a card that a password or something that gets you in where other people can't go, yes, ask those around you. And they'll, they've seen it and they'll tell you, cause sometimes we'll say, that, that's nothing. that, no, that, that's your thing. That's going to take you places. Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (42:06.563)
superpower.

Lauren Bernick (42:11.662)
Yeah, they'll tell you. My -

Lauren Bernick (42:19.166)
yeah, yeah, that is something. Mm -hmm, yeah. Go ahead.

Victoria Moran (42:20.376)
And like for, for me, my, my gift and talent is words. It's the only one I have. can write and I can speak and I can't really do anything else, but shoring that up is this thing about meeting people. So, yeah, look at your free square and have some fun with it.

Lauren Bernick (42:43.388)
That's another great thing of advice. So let's talk about yoga because I want to get to your book. And I think you've been doing yoga for what, 56 years? Is that right? What has it done for you? How has it made a difference in your life?

Victoria Moran (42:55.312)
And I think that's about right, yeah.

Victoria Moran (43:01.36)
Well, first, I need to be really clear what I mean when we say do yoga. And I would more say study yoga or I have been a student of yoga because in the Western world at this time, when we say yoga, we think of somebody standing on their head or doing a downward facing dog or since the vinyasa flow thing is so big now doing a whole sort of series of exercises, which when I got into yoga would have been the

furthest thing from yoga. Yoga was about a posture that you hold, Hatha yoga, physical. But the physical part of yoga is a tiny, tiny little part of this yogic lifestyle. So in age like a yogi, there aren't pictures of doing postures. There's only really one chapter out of 40 specifically about postures because yoga is a way of life that is

Lauren Bernick (43:39.984)
Yes.

Victoria Moran (43:58.592)
striving for union, it's striving for connection, all your parts, all beings, and you and the divine. And so as you embark on a life like this, you're looking for balance, you're looking for calm, you're looking to still the fluctuations of the mind and Patanjali's yoga sutras, he says that's the definition of yoga.

Yoga is to still the fluctuations of the mind. Now that's very surprising to people who think that it's to go on Instagram and do some really impressive physical contortion. So it's kind of been misunderstood and it all can be embraced. can all be part of it. But when I think about aging like a Yogi, it's what we talked about earlier. It's knowing that we have this inner core.

that doesn't age. And then it's practicing yoga's spiritual, mental, and physical disciplines. And then I also bring in yoga's sister science of Ayurveda, which translates as science of life or sometimes science of long life, which is all about physical health and vitality. Wonderful tips, wonderful adjunct to a Whole Foods plant -based diet to really help you

customize your self -care and look and feel the best you can for as long as you can.

Lauren Bernick (45:33.998)
Yeah. I have heard you speak about Ayurveda often and it's fascinating to me because can you talk a little bit about the dosha types and where we could take the quiz and kind of your routine a little bit?

Victoria Moran (45:46.328)
haha

Sure. Well, the doshas in Ayurveda as they relate to physical people are the three body types, vata, pitta and kapha. And everybody has all three of these energies, but some people have a lot of one or quite a bit of a couple, not much of the third one.

A few people have almost equal amounts. They're called tri -dosha. And what's important when you learn about your dosha is you're not trying to balance them out. You're not trying to have 33 and a third percent of each one. What you're trying to do is be perfectly yourself. Your dosha makeup was determined at the moment of conception and exactly the way it was is perfect.

So I know that if this is new to you, you don't yet know what these mean, but let's just say that you are 75 % Vata and you are 10 % Pitta and you are 15 % Kaffa. So that's absolutely perfect. So to be out of balance would mean your Vata gets up around 80 or 85, but then your neighbor,

their natural dosha makeup was their 85 % vata and their 10 % pitta and their only 5 % kaffa. And so for them being 85 % vata is not out of balance, it's just right. So what is really cool about this before I even explain what these dosha's are is you are perfect. And

Victoria Moran (47:36.592)
For all these years, think women have been told, it's easing up now, it's not as bad as it was, but it was always, you ought to be thinner, have more muscle, look like your sister. All these things we were told, but Ayurveda has been saying for four to 5 ,000 years, no, you're just perfect. Your job is to stay in your own doshaic makeup and not let anything get.

out of hand. So what's a dosha? It's an energy. So vata is very light and playful, creative, very mobile. Vata people tend to be thin. They tend to be the kind of dancer type. So a pure vata would be an Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Cicely Tyson, that kind of look. Then pitta,

is grounded, muscular, great executive ability, very good at rationality, figuring things out. They build muscle easily. On the downside, they can be very aggressive. They can get angry easily. They can get inflammatory kinds of conditions. And so

pitas that we might know about, or some of the wonderful athletes like Serena Williams, these kinds of people that are strong and making things happen on earth. And kapha is just the sweetest people. Now, Deepak Chopra has actually said that in the Western world, in the US, we have a shortage of kapha energy.

I think he's right about that because when I'm working with people and they do these dosha quizzes and find out their dosha's, almost everybody is predominantly Pitta or Vata. Kaffa people tend to be a little bit rounder, a little bit not so thin, like to maintain a thin body back 20 years ago when we were still thinking everybody had to be thin.

Lauren Bernick (49:34.723)
Hmm.

Lauren Bernick (49:48.347)
Mm -hmm.

Victoria Moran (49:59.216)
For a kafa to do that, they would have to be on a diet all the time, which was why they just couldn't do it. So they're gonna have a little bit of a bigger body size. They're very generous. They're very slow moving. They enjoy the seated pastimes, but because it's a slow moving dosha, they're very slow to get sick. So other than kind of respiratory conditions or maybe some obesity,

related complications if they do sit too much. They're going to be healthy for the longest time. So Deepak Chopra himself is a Kapha body type. Oprah is a Kapha body type. And we've seen her gain and lose a lot of weight. But her general type, as observed by Ayurvedic doctors, would be Kapha. So you find out what your

delineation is, ideally by seeing an Ayurvedic practitioner, because they give you a very detailed test. And then they take your pulses, but not just like we take the pulses in the West where, yeah, your pulses, 68 beats a minute. No, not like that. They take three different pulses, your kapha, your vata, and your pitta to figure it out. They look at your eyes. They look at your tongue. They look at your nails. It's a...

little bit of the same kind of diagnostics that you might have experienced had you gone to a traditional Chinese medical doctor. But the other way that you can find out your dosha is to take a quiz. And there are a couple online that I like. One is Deepak Chopras. And all you have to do is Google Chopra dosha quiz and you'll find it. And there's also an online store called Banyan Botanicals, BanyanBotanicals .com.

And they have a really good docia quiz. And again, it's a store, but you don't have to buy anything to do the docia quiz. And don't do both of them and compare. Don't make yourself crazy. And when you're answering these questions, just do the first answer that comes to your mind, because we try to overthink things. And an interesting thing with aging and these docias is that regardless of your particular makeup, as you get older,

Victoria Moran (52:22.928)
you're going to attend Vata. So you'll still be yourself. Maybe you'll be Pitta or Kapha dominant, and that will not change. But Vata is going to try to elevate. So some of the Vata characteristics, these can be natural when we're over 55 or 60, or you can develop them earlier if you've let Vata get...

Out of balance with too much travel, too many late nights, too many cold foods, iced beverages, things that are upsetting to Vata, which is a little bit delicate. You'll find yourself with digestive variability is commonly used to describe Vata. So when we talk about irritable bowel syndrome, which is obviously an actual Western pathology,

intermittent constipation and diarrhea. So that really describes like a veritable digestion, although vata tends more toward constipation, but cramping, just the ability, ooh, ooh, you know, I used to be able to eat that, now I can't eat that anymore. You'll find that losing the collagen and looking thinner, being able to see the bones and the veins in your hand, all these things in vata. And if you can keep vata

It doesn't mean that you'll never get old. It doesn't mean that you'll be 90 years old and somebody will mistake you for your grandchild. We're not talking about that. But we're talking about that the negative aspects that we relate to growing older can be lessened and can slow down.

Well, you take good care of your Vata. And that's really such an important part of my book, Age Like a Yogi, because nobody has ever really looked at Ayurveda and said, guys, for this whole thing about aging, if you can manage Vata, you can manage aging. You're not going to prevent it, but you're going to manage it.

Lauren Bernick (54:14.086)
How do you do that? How do you keep Vata pacified?

Victoria Moran (54:35.244)
So the ways to take care of vata dosha, if it's prominent in you, or if you're noticing some of these out of balance vata things happening in your post -menopausal years, then vata is pacified by comfort. So just think for a minute, what makes me feel just as comfortable as can be? So the first thing that comes to mind for me is being in bed or on the couch all wrapped up in covers.

Just now you can't spend your life that way, but whenever you need it to just give yourself that warmth and that embrace, that's just going to bring all of that kind of sympathetic nervous system, that stuff, which is also very Vata just down to a manageable level. So warm baths, lovely music, being with people you absolutely adore warm and hot beverages.

Lauren Bernick (55:08.038)
Same.

Victoria Moran (55:33.432)
So I love something like a golden milk, almond milk with turmeric or ginger tea. Ginger is a specific for Vata. And there are certain foods that Vata really like. So ginger being one, blanched almonds are nice, sweet potatoes, also soups, anything that's just kind of like...

warm grounding, porridge, that kind of thing. So it's basically rejuvenation through comfort. And so as you get on in years, especially post -menopausal, and you know you're getting more into the Vata stuff, really pay attention to your body and what it wants. Because so often, and I see very often in the health world, there's this idea of

forcing your body to do what somebody says you ought to be doing. But if it doesn't feel right for your body, then maybe you shouldn't ought to be doing it anymore. So in yoga, for example, in the physical aspects of yoga, maybe you've always done some kind of power yoga. Maybe you've always done hot yoga and it was great and you loved it. But then maybe you get to a point where it's just not feeling good anymore.

And so our first response is likely to be, I'm so lazy. what's wrong with me? I used to do this. Why don't I love it anymore? I'm going to force myself to go there and love it. And then maybe you force yourself so much that you get injured. So it's really important to pay attention to where your body is right now and give it what it needs right now. I don't know if people listening had these experiences in childhood, but I'll bet you did.

of finding something from earlier childhood that you really loved and thinking it's going to make you really happy because it did. But then when you find it later, it doesn't. So I remember finding my pacifier from when I was a baby, when I was like four years old and thinking, wow, this would be really good. I stick the thing in my mouth and it's like, what? What did I ever get out of this? This is just a nasty piece of rubber.

Victoria Moran (57:56.898)
And later, I think it was sixth grade, I was a school crossing guard and I can remember the pride of having this orange sash that I wore and this little pin on it and I lost it. And then maybe, I don't know, ninth grade or something, I found it again and I put it on thinking it would give me that wonderful sense of confidence and self -esteem that it had once given me. And it's like,

Lauren Bernick (58:10.384)
Yep.

Victoria Moran (58:25.808)
You're wearing a thing for a sixth grader. And it's like that as we get older, some of these things that were like, my gosh, I'm so good at that. love that. Like my current, my first yoga teacher who's, who's 99, she does chair yoga now. And I remember when she first told me that I was maybe, I don't know, 68 or something. I remember thinking, well, I'll never do that. I will.

always be able to get down on the floor. Well, as of today, that's true. I still get down on the floor, but I'm open to the fact that at some point in the future, chair yoga may be more appropriate. And I need to look at that as look at me. am continuing with my yoga and I will continue with it for my entire life, but I don't have to like impress somebody on Instagram with it.

Lauren Bernick (59:28.336)
Yes, mm -hmm. I was having that experience at yoga the other day, because I did injure myself and everybody was doing full wheel, which is like a full back bend and I've always done that. And I was like, I'm just gonna do bridge. I could force myself up into full wheel, but why? Because I'm gonna injure myself more. It's not good for my wrist right now. That was an ego driven thing and...

felt pretty good about just being in Bridge. I was like, this is good. You're doing the right thing for your body. There was part of me that was looking around going, I should be in full wheel. But I really did feel good about it. I was like, I think you're maturing. I think you're doing the right thing for yourself. You're finally growing up. man.

I have already pre -ordered Age Like a Yogi and I'll have all the information, of course. And anyone who pre -orders it is going to receive the companion Age Like a Yogi e -cookbook and be invited to attend an exclusive Age Like a Yogi Zoom Summit on January 12th. And you'll record it for people who can't attend. So I'll put all that in the show notes.

Victoria Moran (01:00:23.226)
Thank you.

Victoria Moran (01:00:44.666)
Yes, people do need to send their, you can buy the book anywhere, but you need to send your receipt to assist at victoriamoran .com because otherwise we won't know you pre -ordered and we can't send you the perks.

Lauren Bernick (01:01:01.338)
Yes, okay. Assist at victoriamoran .com. Receipt, I'm making a note so I can put in the show notes. Okay, of course. All right, I just wanna ask you a couple quick little questions that I ask everybody. Well, you've already given the best advice for aging well, I won't ask you that. Do you have a best piece of advice, doesn't have to be age related that you've ever received?

Victoria Moran (01:01:06.997)
Thank you.

Victoria Moran (01:01:23.536)
you know, I have been so lucky to be around so many really brilliant people, but I'm going to give you one that I actually borrowed for the book that we talked about creating a charmed life. Lovely, lovely woman back in Kansas City, Crystal, that I worked with. And she said, you have to find places to recognize yourself.

And that has been so valuable to me because we so often think we're supposed to be on somebody else's timeline, on somebody else's vision, and we need to be able to adapt and certainly to a degree, all that is true. But where we're really able to go, is in those places where we recognize ourselves.

So this could be physical places like maybe out in the woods or in a cafe or, you know, whatever floats your boat. It can also be mental places. Like, do you really feel like you're recognizing yourself when you meditate? Do you really feel that you're recognizing yourself when you go to a movie in a theater and those lights go down and you know, you're just going to be wrapped up in this incredible story? So any of these things where you

recognize yourself and can be without any extra energy, your self. That gives you just so much depth to go out in the world where you sometimes have to be on somebody else's schedule.

Lauren Bernick (01:03:14.437)
that's good. You're coming up with some good nuggets today. We probably really were destined to have this third conversation, I think. I already know the answer to this, but I'm gonna ask you anyway. What's your favorite concert you've ever been to?

Victoria Moran (01:03:26.704)
Well, it had to be that very first Beatles conference, actually Beatles concert in Kansas City. I had been to a Beatles concert in Denver a couple of weeks prior. This was 1964. This was the first year that the Beatles toured the states. They were not supposed to come to Kansas City, but it was added on at the end by a rather colorful character called Charlie Finley.

who owned the Kansas City baseball team at that time. He ultimately moved them to Oakland where they were the Oakland A's. But he was kind of a character and he wanted people to love him. And he knew that if he could get the Beatles to Kansas City, a lot of people would love him. So he paid them what he had at that time was an extraordinary amount of money. Now it seems like a pittance. And so.

Lauren Bernick (01:04:16.004)
You're still talking about him.

Victoria Moran (01:04:22.48)
So I was there and it was cool, but I do want to tell you the follow -up on that just to close. Years later, I mean, 35 years later, 40 years later, I don't know, long time after that, I was watching TV and just kind of scrolling through the big channels. And I noticed on one of the sports channels, they were doing a retrospective about the life of this man, Charlie Finley.

And one of the baseball players who had worked with him said, you know, Mr. Finley just had this ability that he could look you up and down and see your soul. And if he liked what he saw, he would go to bat for you. And that was so meaningful for me because that day of the Beatles press conference, which was in the afternoon, the concert was in the evening.

I was in the hotel lobby, I had all my documents, I had a letter from the editor of Teen Life magazine, I had an invitation to the press conference, I had my press card, but the police officer had been told no teenagers on the elevators. So I was trying to make phone calls and do what I could do to get where I knew I was supposed to be. And in comes Mr. Finley with a Playboy bunny on his arm.

And I explained to him that I was supposed to be there. Here's my letter. Here's my card. And he did just what that man said. He looked me up and down. And then he looked me in the eye and he said, okay, just don't say anything. Well, I wouldn't have said anything anyway, because I was speechless by the time I saw all four Beatles six feet away from me. So bunny on one arm, teenager on the other, up we go. And the rest is history.

Lauren Bernick (01:06:16.112)
Gosh.

Victoria Moran (01:06:19.588)
But we're writing these incredible biographies, all of us. And if you're thinking, well, I don't know, my biography doesn't seem all that amazing. Just say yes. Say yes to the possibilities. Say yes to life. And when you know that something is meant for you, like I knew I was supposed to be in that press conference, just don't take no for an answer. And I believe at least that you'll get some guidance, you'll get some help.

and you'll find yourself wherever you are meant to be.

Lauren Bernick (01:06:55.852)
man, you just, that's exactly right. And that's your superpower, like you were talking about, meeting people. You just tied it back to that, because look what you did. man, we're gonna end on that because you brought it today after three times. Thank you, Victoria.

Victoria Moran (01:07:09.008)
Bless you, Lauren. Thank you for doing such a lively and positive podcast on this topic, because it's just, it's not all about surgery and worrying. It's about living and doing amazing things for other people, other beings on the planet.

Lauren Bernick (01:07:21.958)
Thank

Lauren Bernick (01:07:32.74)
Yes. thank you, Victoria. And you, you keep on shining your light too. I don't have to tell you, I know you already are. So thank you so much. You take care. Bye bye.