Women In Wellness: Bridge Ochoa of Bridge Ayurveda On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Prioritize your mental, physical, and spiritual health above all else in your life. The best thing you can do for yourself is to make YOU your #1 priority and start behaving like it. It’s okay to say no to others. Trust me, it is.

As a part of our series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bridge Ochoa.

Bridge Ochoa is an Ayurvedic Practitioner, Occupational Therapist, and founder of Bridge Ayurveda; where she has been helping business owners naturally and holistically recover from weight issues, digestive issues, fatigue, and hair loss. Bridge helps clients get results at an over 90% success rate via Ayurvedic courses, workshops, retreats, and 1:1 programs. Bridge Ayurveda serves CEOs whose busy lifestyle has played a significant role in their physical, emotional, and mental health so they can run their business without killing themselves in the process.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

Sure! I graduated with my Masters Degree in Occupational Therapy in 2017. From there, I went into travel therapy and contract therapy and worked in several different settings across the US. I quickly became disheartened by how our Western medical system was run. I loved what I learned in school, but I didn’t want to work for a system that did not align with my values. After a year of trying a variety of different settings in several states, I bought a 1-way ticket to Bali without knowing anyone or having a plan. I was sick of what society says you should be doing as an Occupational Therapist or the American healthcare system controlling my life. I ended up traveling, solo, from 2018 to 2019 working in retreat centers, doing work trades, getting yoga certified, and learning from chefs. In May 2019, I had a near-death experience that changed the trajectory of my life, my priorities, and my perspective in general. From then on, I decided to never settle for anything less than the best. Ayurveda had been on my mind for a while and was always something that I knew I “should” have done instead of OT but was too scared to do it. That fear left my body with my NDE and I decided to invest in Ayurvedic education and start my own business.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

In early 2022 I had about 12 high-complexity clients on my caseload and was only making about 1–2k a month. Ayurveda is a holistic medicine system and requires a lot of comprehensive care for each individual client. Thus, 12 clients is a lot for one person. I am also an empath. To be honest, I find the word “empath” is used a lot to avoid taking responsibility and having poor boundaries. But, the reality is that the energies of others do affect us. After my NDE, my sensitivities to other energies amplified. I am always trying to find a way to navigate that, still am. In March 2022, I reached my breaking point because I was burnt out, broke, and on the verge of a mental breakdown. That is when I learned the value of saying “no’’ to potential clients who did not align with my business, the importance of raising my prices to reflect the amount of time I am committing and the transformation someone was receiving, and to NOT take on the responsibility of healing someone else — people heal themselves, I just give them the tools. I started my medical career like anyone else — I wanted to help people. But, the BIG lesson here is that you help people by helping yourself. It is so important to respect yourself and the work you do enough to create these types of boundaries especially if you are spiritually sensitive.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The biggest mistake I made when I first started was 2 fold: not charging enough for my services and seeking my self-worth in the results that my clients got.

So many healers make the mistake of not charging enough for their services because we have adopted the belief that money is bad, charging for your services is selfish, and we should practice selfless service and work trades. Yes, Karma Yoga (selfless service) is a beautiful thing. But, clinging to selfless service “above all else” has the potential to set you up for exploitation, poor boundaries, and a horrible relationship with money. I believe there is a balance. I used to feel guilty for charging more than a couple hundred dollars for my services because I felt like lower-income people should be able to have access to this type of work. Until I found out how much of a toll that took on my own physical and mental health. It’s just not worth it. If someone is doing a program that enables them to get off of medications, play with their kids again, enjoy life without fear of food, save hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical bills in a matter of months, and that program costs as much as a week away at an Airbnb, there is something wrong with that. It is time we start respecting ourselves as healers and give more respect to profound medicines like Ayurveda.

The other mistake I made was seeking my self-worth in the results my clients got. If a client did well and had a huge transformation, I would feel great about myself. Most clients experience 180 transformations like that, but not all of them. When a client didn’t get the results, I would feel guilty, rack my brain as to why, blame myself, and question myself as a practitioner. I learned to re-evaluate the reason WHY I do this work. Am I doing this work for validation, to know that I am good enough? Am I working hard as a practitioner because I am scared of failing? We tell ourselves “Of course I am not doing this for validation” and then something like a client not getting better happens and we are faced with our deeper insecurities. I needed to re-evaluate my intention and ensure that it was not for validation. I had to let go of the insecurity of “I am not good enough, so I need to prove myself to other people.” My real reason WHY is that I love Ayurveda, I love what I do, I love people and the human body, and getting to the root of things and using my intuition to guide me. Seeing things for what they are and explaining that to people, so they know the truth behind their illness. That is the intention behind every client and their case.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

Thousands of people graduate from top Ayurvedic educational programs every year. A very small percentage of those people practice Ayurveda as a living after graduating. Since 1910, holistic and natural medicines such as Ayurveda have been looked down upon even though they are backed by thousands of years of evidence, practice, and divinity (Ayurveda is said to be a medical practice from the divine). The number of hospitals and clinics hiring Ayurvedic practitioners in the US is slim to none — I know I have never come across one. This leaves one option for these graduates which is to start their own practice and that takes a lot of guts. I refuse to let a medical practice that’s as life-changing and divine as Ayurveda die because of imposter syndrome, low confidence, big pharma, and the Flexner Report of 1910 which stopped the teachings of homeopathy and vitalism in medical schools and made the Western medical system into what we see today. The world needs Ayurveda especially now with stress and gut issues being the main causes of disease in our modern world. Ancient sages were not given this medical information for it to go to waste. Mother nature is stronger than any medicine known to man and deserves way more respect than what it has been given in the last 100 years. That is why the world needs more Ayurvedic practitioners (including myself) to bring Ayurveda to the masses.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Take out the trash — processed foods, refined grains, refined sugars and start consuming whole foods. If you just take out processed foods (anything out of a box, bag, can, anything frozen, or anything altered beyond its natural state) you will notice an immediate improvement in digestion and energy. After removing this from your diet, start consuming whole foods. Whole foods are whole grains, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole nuts & seeds. Make sure to COOK these grains and vegetables instead of consuming them raw. Most people who eat a standard American diet have weak digestion because of the food they eat. This will lead to food sensitivities, digestive issues, and a myriad of chronic diseases. Cooked food is easier to digest than raw food. This is why cooking your food is more beneficial for those who have weakened digestive systems and digestive issues. But, first and foremost, take out the trash — processed foods!
2. Open your world up to different whole grains. We are used to using rice, oats, and quinoa as whole grains in our diet. While these are great grains, there are a ton of other grains that are less heavy and better for those with food sensitivities such as hulled barley, buckwheat groats, and millet. We are also used to consuming wheat in the form of breads and pastas. The reason why there is a rise in gluten sensitivities is not from gluten itself but from refined wheat found in breads, pastas, and pastries. When a grain is refined into flour, it is stripped of the bran and germ and left with the endosperm which is a heavy, difficult to digest carbohydrate causing malabsorption and food sensitivities. This refinement process is typically done to prolong the shelf-life of these products. Those with gluten sensitivities tend to have an easier time digesting the whole-grain version of gluten-filled grains such as farro and wheat berries. Having the whole version of this grain is much more digestible and helps to quell anxiety, insomnia, ulcers, colitis, and stress. There are so many great grains out there, it just takes an understanding of each grain, their tastes and qualities, and how to cook them to optimally implement them into your life. I highly recommend a cookbook by Joshua McFadden called “Grains For Every Season” to enlighten yourself to new grains.
3. Open your world up to mung beans. For many metabolic types, beans are difficult to digest and will lead to gas and bloating. But this depends on the type of beans, how they are cooked, how often you eat them, and the strength of digestion. Chickpeas, white beans, navy beans, and fava beans are among the most gas-forming beans while mung beans and red lentils are among the least gas-forming beans. Mung beans are not only incredibly rich in nutrients, good for all body types, and easy to digest, but they are also helpful in cases of detoxing, liver disorders, infections, inflammation, edema, heavy metal toxicity, high blood pressure, and more. A note on cooking beans: It is always best to soak beans before cooking as that increases the digestibility of the beans. It is also best to cook beans with turmeric powder as this helps to reduce any gas-forming qualities and ease the digestion of the protein within beans. A singular food such as beans is not the cause of your digestive problems. The digestibility of a food depends on how it is eaten, the person eating it, how it is cooked, and what it is combined with. Beans are no different.
4. Start cooking with more spices. We use spices to antidote heavy and difficult to digest foods in Ayurveda. They are nature’s digestive enzymes used to strengthen digestion. A recent study has shown that a single dose of spices has the power to change the gut microbiome in 24–48 hours — no probiotic required (A single serving of mixed spices alters gut microflora composition: a dose–response randomized trial | Scientific Reports (nature.com)) These are common kitchen spices including ginger, cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric, cinnamon, etc. Our standard American diet is bland, heavy, and poorly combined making the “healthy” food we are eating incredibly difficult to digest. A note on cooking with spices: The spices we typically use in American cooking are onion powder, garlic powder, and the occasional chili powder. These spices along with spice mixtures we buy in the supermarket are DEAD. Spices lose their medicinal potency after 30 days of grinding. The key is to start with the seeds of spices when you can find them (cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cardamom seeds, etc.) and grind them fresh to get the most medicinal action out of them. You will notice a BIG difference in your digestion if you do this.
5. Prioritize your mental, physical, and spiritual health above all else in your life. We all say that our health is the top priority, but is it really? We power through workdays when we are sick or mentally unwell. We work over 8-hour days and well into the night some nights and have difficulty sleeping and high cortisol. We go through traumatic events in our lives and take limited time off. We spend more time working and taking care of others than we do ourselves. If health was really our priority, we would spend more time taking care of ourselves than anything else. That includes cooking healthy food, meditating, exercising, waking up early to do a morning routine, cleaning our environment, and minding our own business. The best thing you can do for yourself is to make YOU your #1 priority and start behaving like it. It’s okay to say no to others. Trust me, it is.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

If everyone in the world knew what their dosha was, it would be a much better place with much less health issues. Healthcare would be more about the prevention of disease than the treatment of disease. Aging gracefully would be the norm. The number of people suffering from a chronic or degenerative disease would be slim to none. Ayurvedic practitioners and health counselors would be in every hospital, clinic, and medical school. The mind-body-soul connection would be the cornerstone of every treatment. But, getting to know your dosha does NOT include taking a dosha quiz online. That is like plugging your symptoms into WebMD and expecting an accurate diagnosis. The quizzes out there may introduce you to the idea of a dosha and provide insight, but they are very generic and not entirely accurate. Ayurveda is anything but generic and inaccurate. Truly getting to know your dosha involves sitting down with an Ayurvedic Practitioner, answering questions, and an examination of the pulse, tongue, fingernails, palm, and body. This is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your health for years to come.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Working for yourself means you are your own boss…and that’s not always a good thing. I didn’t realize this before, but I am my toughest critic, which makes me the toughest boss. It has always been hard for me to take a day off. It took me a while and I am still a work in progress but I have learned how to prioritize my time and be the best boss on earth since starting my own business. This came down to making my business work around the life I want to live and not vice versa. No one else will value you or your life if you don’t value yours first.
2. Not everyone is “your people.” Some people are not ready for the incredible transformation that Ayurveda provides. Some people are not even open to it. Some people are so indoctrinated in their own way of thinking that they don’t want to hear anything or learn anything else. It takes openness and responsibility for one’s health to be successful with Ayurveda, and that isn’t everyone. You cannot be a successful business owner and a people pleaser at the same time. It is a lovely intention to go into every relationship wanting to bring happiness and ease to someone’s life. But, you cannot MAKE someone happy. ESPECIALLY at the cost of your own happiness. If you continue to prioritize pleasing people and then feel guilty when they can’t afford something, fail, or have a bad day, you will create a draining co-dependent relationship and your business will fail. The only person you are responsible for is yourself. Let go of everything else.
3. People will want to work with you for being exactly who you are, you don’t need anything else. When I first started, I thought I had to pack a program with all these features and benefits that was a “great deal” for someone to buy from me. I also thought I needed loads of certifications and degrees for someone to think I was smart enough to treat them. That could not be further from the truth. Of course, education and features are helpful, but it is not what makes my practice successful. I am what makes my practice successful. I have found that the more I am myself and the less I try to be “all-knowing” and “always providing value,” the more people come to my business.
4. You need to focus on your OWN health before everyone else’s. This is for all the other healers out there, including Western medicine healthcare workers. I used to think that giving someone or something your all meant that even if you are sick or tired or not feeling great, you should keep going. You are the healer. There is no healing without you. YOU are the biggest part of the whole equation. Thus, saving yourself also means saving hundreds of other people.
5. You can turn your failures and rejections into GOLD. As a business owner, you are faced with a lot of rejection and failures. That includes possible clients, publications, speaking engagements, posting content, and more. I used to think that whenever I got a “no” or got “ghosted” that I just wasted my time. I have since found that there is no such thing as a waste of time. I gain so much from every failure and “no.” It enables me to learn more about people and what they are looking for so I can spread Ayurveda better. To be honest, I make it into content for social media. The content I have made off of a rejection ALWAYS performs better than any of my other content. A business coach of mine used to say, “Fail fast.” I get that now.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Mental health. We experience life through our perception. If our perception is off, then our mental health is off and vice versa. In Ayurveda, they say that 80% of all chronic disease begins in the gut. I always say that 100% of disease starts in the mind. It is a trickle-down effect from the cosmos, to our soul, to our mind, and then to our body and organs. This is from Samkhya which is the cosmology of Ayurveda. Samkhya is my favorite part of Ayurveda. It is the basis of life and the mind-body-soul connection. A perfectly imperfect mess of what it means to be human. We can experience heaven or hell here on earth through our mental health, and disease or rejuvenation will follow. The choice is yours.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Follow me on Instagram at @bridgeayurveda or Facebook at Bridge Ochoa. I have a free 3-day Ayurveda challenge which you can sign up for on my website at www.bridgeayurveda.com.

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.