Unlearning everything you know to learn about your true self and to connect as a couple | with Karan and Kerry Bajaj (TLBP #24)

Friends, today I have the honor to introduce you to one of the most enlightened pair of people I have met, Karan and Kerry Bajaj. Karan is the number one best selling Indian novelist with his latest book being “The Yoga of Max’s Discontent” based upon his own experiences he will share with us today of having an emotional urgency after his mother’s death from cancer to unpeel the layers of what it meant to be human, to unlearn everything he had known and to be spontaneous while spending a one year sabbatical from his executive New York City job to traveling from Europe to India with his wife Kerry, health coach and mentor in functional medicine, traveling with no possessions, just a backpack and no timeline or stress of goals, just a few anchor events, including studying yoga and meditation in Karan’s birthplace in the Himalayas of India and to practice willful poverty. They communicate the intention of such a unstructured journey and the realizations they experienced a long the way, including the benefits of emotional and physical hardship on a couple. They share how they have implemented their experiences into their life upon returning home, including how to slow down from consumption to evaluate and discuss what you are learning as well as being more in tune with each other when their relationship begins to become off balance. Karan share some refreshing insights on parenting and how to not let your dreams die after having children and Kerry shares how she had a much smoother recovery after having her second baby which led to her addressing it as the fourth trimester. You will look at life with new eyes after listening to the insights of this incredible couple.

Want to know if this episode it for you? This episode is perfect for someone who is looking for some peace in the busyness of life, for someone who may have an emotional urgency to step outside of their normal life to understand who their true self is, for someone looking for a way to connect as a couple, for someone who does not want to give up on their dreams after having kids. It is wonderful for someone wanting to understand the benefits of silence, meditation, and sabbaticals.

What is this episode about? In this episode you will learn about:

Karan and Kerry’s individual backgrounds
what motivated Karan to pursue the idea of taking a year long sabbatical
how Kerry viewed Karan’s idea at first
what was traveling on the road like
what were the intentions of their journey
what were the anchor events of their sabbatical
why Kerry felt that she was more in tune with her true self
how silence benefited Karan as he felt a tension between outward facing self and inner self
how they experienced synchronicity along the way
what were the benefits of limiting consumption
the benefits of experiencing difficulty on a couple
what they learned about each other along the way
Karan and Kerry’s recommendation for couples wanting to increase connections but unable to do a sabbatical
what were some of the events that imprinted on them during their trip
why Karan was able to see the Himalayas where he grew up in a new way
whether or not they wanted to return and why
how they were able to take what they learned and implement it in their relationships when they returned
why it was jarring to come home
what advice Kerry’s father in law gave her that helped her bridge her sabbatical and her life in New York
Karan’s insights on how to not let your dreams die after having children
what has liberated Karan to live his life after having kids
what is the one thing Karan wants his children to have
what does living life in a big way mean to Karan
what has Kerry and Karan learned to not be afraid of
what are their next plans and why they chose it
why having children is a very rare experience in which you are completely dissolved as a person
how to determine if there is too much separation between you and your spouse or you and your children
why Kerry’s recovery after her second baby was so different than her first
what the fourth trimester means