The metaphysical roots of healing often reveal themselves long before we have the language to name them. This conversation began in one of those quiet, unexpected moments, a time when pain became a messenger, alignment felt emotional as much as physical, and my body was speaking a truth I could no longer ignore. My injury forced a kind of listening I had avoided, and Daniel Castro was one of the teachers who helped illuminate what lived beneath the surface.
We’ve created a yin practice guided by Daniel that reflects the same principles held in this conversation. It’s a quiet space to land, to listen, and to let the body reveal what it’s been carrying.
Watch the full yin practice created by Open Heart here: https://youtu.be/gRhvHTBulU8
Key Moments
00:00 Opening reflections on injury and intuition
01:04 Yoga as a catalyst for inner shift
01:53 Daniel’s early path into teaching
08:20 The quiet healing power of yin
11:45 The metaphysical layer of disease
17:23 Energy, consciousness, and the body
24:17 Fascia, trauma, and stored memory
26:47 Emotion, tension, and physiology
28:10 Rolfing and release work
30:03 Family constellations and lineage
32:03 Soul patterns and lessons
33:09 Karma and the roots of yoga
36:24 Surfing, flow, and surrender
41:18 Vulnerability and softening fear
45:16 Living with an open heart
47:32 Closing reflections
We first met in Costa Rica, long before I understood the deeper layers of my own healing. Daniel’s approach to yoga, grounded, anatomical, intuitive, opened my eyes to the metaphysical roots of healing in a way I had not encountered before. Through fascia, breath, yin yoga, and subtle alignment, he revealed how the body, mind, and emotional landscape are always in conversation. His teaching felt like ancient wisdom with modern clarity, a reminder of how deeply consciousness lives in the body.
In this episode, we explore how injury can become insight, how tension often carries meaning, and how stillness through yin yoga can reveal the metaphysical roots of healing that shape our physical experience. Daniel’s understanding of the body is woven from decades of teaching, meditation, bodywork, story, and deep observation. He speaks with precision and presence, guiding us into the truths beneath pain, the layers we often overlook.
For those inside medicine — physicians, nurses, trainees — who are navigating burnout, emotional fatigue, or the quiet spiritual dissonance that accumulates inside a system built on endurance, this space was created with you in mind. The heart holds what the schedule, the protocols, and the pager never ask about. Open Heart exists to name that unspoken reality and offer a place where healing feels honest, embodied, and allowed.
As a physician, I have often witnessed the gap between physical healing and emotional truth. I have seen arteries open yet patients remain unwell. I have felt intuitive signals arise long before any test result. This conversation lives in that intersection where modern medicine meets spirituality, where science meets soul, and where the metaphysical roots of healing become part of the story rather than something dismissed. It is where integrative healing, consciousness, and the heart mind connection finally meet.
Connect with Daniel Castro:
Email: nilahastayoga@gmail.com
Instagram: @nilahasta
Recommended Reading:
Your Body’s Telling You: Love Yourself! by Lise Bourbeau
Paperback (Amazon):
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Bodys-Telling-You-Yourself/dp/2920932437
Author’s Foundation (Bio and resources):
https://lisbourbeau.com/en
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Paperback (Penguin Random House):
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/314588/the-body-keeps-the-score-by-bessel-van-der-kolk-md/
Amazon (Paperback):
https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748
© 2025 Priya Rao Media LLC. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THIS YIN YOGA SERIESThis Yin Yoga series was created to help you soften into the deeper layers of your body, fascia, and energy system. Each practice is organized by energy center (chakra), offering a gentle way to work with the physical, emotional, and subtle spaces that are asking for attention. We move through 15 postures, each with variations so you can meet yourself exactly as you are — without force, without striving.This practice is part of a wider conversation with yoga instructor Daniel Castro on Open Heart, where we explore the body as a living memory field and the ways stillness can unlock healing, intuition, and emotional release. You can watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/axlQ-p3OdlsRather than following a rigid sequence, this series invites intuition. Your body already carries its own intelligence. Trust it.⸻HOW TO USE THIS SERIES1. Choose 4–6 posturesLet your intuition lead.You can:• Select one posture per chakra for a full-system resetor• Stay with one energy center if something feels tender, activated, or simply presentThere is no right way — only what feels true in your body today.2. Hold each posture long enough to reach the fascia• Beginners: 1–2 minutes (fascia release begins around 90 seconds)• Traditional Yin: 3–5 minutesSoften into the hold. Let the effort fall away. Give your fascia space to unwind at its own pace.3. Repeat on both sidesFor unilateral shapes (twists, hip openers, side-body work), repeat on the opposite side to restore balance.4. Listen closely to your bodyYin is a quiet conversation.Find the place where sensation is present but your nervous system remains steady — the space between ease and effort, where healing can happen without strain.5. Expect more than a physical releaseAs fascia unwinds, you may notice:• Emotions rising• Old memories surfacing• Energy shifting• Waves of relief or opening⸻00:00 Opening / Settle In00:04:44 Toe Stretch00:05:56 Ankle Stretch00:07:38 Squat00:11:16 Frog Pose00:14:34 Dragon Pose00:18:29 Swan Pose00:20:44 Shoelace00:22:46 Square / Double Pigeon00:26:15 Angel Wings00:27:50 Sphinx Pose00:30:43 Supported Half Bridge00:33:12 Fish Pose00:35:19 Open Wing Pose00:40:56 Bananasana⸻Fascia is a living, sensory matrix — a held archive of tension, stress patterns, and the emotional residue we never had words for. When the body softens and the fascia begins to release, those imprints can surface. This is normal. Often, it’s deeply healing, a quiet invitation into integrative healing and consciousness-awareness.To explore how fascia, emotion, and energy intersect, you can listen to the companion Open Heart conversation with Priya Rao, MD — where science meets soul and the subtle body meets modern medicine.⸻You can return to this series 1–2 times per week, depending on what your body and energy system need. Yin is gentle but profound. With consistency, it supports long-term fascial, emotional, and energetic release. Even a single posture a day can shift your nervous system.Above all, let intuition guide you:If your body feels tight, tender, emotionally heavy, or energetically stagnant, it may be asking for Yin.If you feel overstretched, depleted, or tired, rest is the wiser choice.⸻CONNECTYoga Instructor — Daniel CastroIG: @nilahastaEmail: nilahastayoga@gmail.comPodcast Host — Priya Rao, MDIG: @dr.kothapalliPodcast IG: @openheartthepodWebsite: openheartpodcast.com⸻MEDICAL DISCLAIMERThis video is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician before beginning any new exercise practice. Move at your own pace and adapt based on your personal health.
There are moments in medicine when a single phrase carries the weight of a lifetime. "Open heart" is one of those phrases. For many, it calls up the image of open heart surgery, the intensity of coronary artery bypass grafting, chest opened, a surgical team leaning into precision and trust. Chapters00:00:00 - Introduction and Guest Introduction00:01:20 - Dr. Mel Thacker's Personal Journey00:01:59 - Dr. Mel Thacker's Background00:05:44 - Overcoming Personal Struggles00:11:41 - The Impact of Medical Training00:12:30 - The Importance of Self-Care in Medicine00:15:13 - The Detrimental Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Medicine00:17:04 - Challenging the Norms and Overcoming the Fear of Being Judged00:17:31 - The Role of Gender in Medicine00:20:37 - Understanding and Trusting Clinical Intuition00:26:05 - Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment in Medicine00:28:15 - The Joy and Satisfaction of Teamwork in Medicine00:30:46 - Detachment from Professional Identity and Diversifying Interests00:38:26 - Final Thoughts and Messages00:39:49 - Closing RemarksIn this conversation, Priya Rao, an interventional cardiologist and heart doctor, sits with Dr. Mel Thacker, a female surgeon who has walked through the fire of medical training and come out with a deeper understanding of what authentic healing requires. Together they explore the lived experience of women in medicine, the layers of pressure placed on a female physician, and the way those pressures can shape identity, intuition, and self worth. Nothing here is abstract. These stories are rooted in real hallways, real operating rooms, and the quiet exhaustion that so often hides behind the title of surgeon or doctor.Dr. Thacker opens her world with honesty, revealing the emotional cost of modern training, the long calls, the normalization of sleep deprivation, and the subtle culture that pushes clinicians to ignore their own bodies. Her voice echoes a reality many clinicians know well, the creeping weight of physician burnout and hospital burnout that affects even the strongest among us. These reflections touch on the wider mental health crisis within medicine, including the unspoken fear many carry when the topic of physician suicide is quietly mentioned in staff rooms and whispered among colleagues. Without dramatizing or sensationalizing, this conversation recognizes the landscape as it truly is, while also naming the possibility for something more human.Priya and Mel explore what it means to step outside the rigid expectations placed on surgeons, especially women in surgery who often feel watched, evaluated, or pressured to hold everything together without ever breaking. They discuss the fear of being judged, the courage required to challenge norms, and the liberation that comes from allowing oneself to be seen beyond a professional identity. Detaching from that single identity and returning to the full self becomes part of conscious medicine and heart centered leadership, not separate from it.They also speak to the importance of creating genuinely inclusive and safe environments, places where clinicians can voice burnout, grief, or uncertainty without fear. Teamwork becomes another form of healing, a reminder that none of us are meant to carry this work alone and that joy in medicine often returns through community, not productivity.If this resonates with you, stay close. Allow your own experiences to be part of the field we are building here. Connect with Dr. Mel ThackerInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_surgeon_coach?igsh=dTNkNWpwZzhteWp5&utm_source=qrTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_surgeon_coach?_r=1&_t=ZT-91On6ZbCMsIFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BbLHQ1qXR/?mibextid=wwXIfrWebsite: https://www.melthackercoaching.com/Watch the podcast on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@openheartthepod© 2025 Priya Rao Media LLC. All rights reserved.
In this solo episode, Priya shares the real story behind Open Heart. Open Heart is a movement where science meets soul, bringing together thought leaders, healers, innovators, and storytellers from around the world. Through raw, unfiltered conversations, we explore the deeper layers of healing, weaving together modern medicine, ancient wisdom, creativity, and human connection. It is an invitation to reimagine what it means to live, lead, and heal with authenticity and heart. Learn more at https://openheartpodcast.com/00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:32 - The Journey Begins00:04:35 - The Birth of OpenHeart00:08:44 - Exploring Energy Medicine00:15:14 - Vision for OpenHeart00:16:09 - The Power of Openness and Curiosity00:17:14 - The Meaning Behind OpenHeart00:18:47 - Embracing Authenticity00:24:45 - The Role of Intuition in Medicine00:25:49 - The Journey of Self-Discovery and Alignment00:31:47 - Exploring Different Cultures and Traditions00:34:58 - Living with an Open HeartPriya is an interventional cardiologist and the founder of Open Heart, a podcast and creative platform where science meets soul. Her journey spans from her family’s roots in rural India to the precision of modern medicine, embodying both rigor and intuition. In the catheterization lab, amid high stakes procedures, she experienced moments of profound stillness where intuitive insights reshaped her understanding of healing. These experiences, equal parts technical mastery and meditative presence, opened the path to exploring new paradigms of healing.Today, Priya approaches evidence based medicine and ancient traditions with equal curiosity. She fosters dialogue with doctors, healers, and wisdom keepers across the globe. She shows up fully as a physician, yoga teacher, model, and host of Open Heart, inviting listeners into courageous conversations and the rediscovery that true health embraces all of our dimensions, the physical and beyond.This episode traces how Open Heart began. Priya speaks to leaving the perfectly planned, linear path and choosing alignment. She reflects on what modern medicine offers and where curiosity asks us to look further. Energy, intuition, presence, and the spaces we create for one another are part of the same conversation as data and devices. In the cath lab, teamwork can feel like a beautiful dance and intuition often arrives before language. Learning about the electromagnetic field of the heart gave words to what many clinicians call gut feeling. None of this rejects science. It expands it.We also explore what healing means now. It is not one size fits all. It is a practice of coherence, mind, heart, spirit, and body in honest relationship. Open Heart as a title carries a clinical weight and a human invitation. It honors the gravity of care while calling us to show up with authenticity. PThe roots of Open Heart are personal. Priya’s father, also an interventional cardiologist, modeled openness to the unexplainable. Patients who sensed things before they happened. The art inside the science. His example shaped how she listens and how she practices. It also shaped her conviction that safe spaces and unfiltered stories can change lives, because stories make people feel. When we feel, we move.If you are new here, expect conversations that move between procedure rooms and living rooms, journals and yoga mats, hospital corridors and creative studios. Expect candor. Expect curiosity. Take what resonates and leave the rest. Bring your own perspective. Share it in a safe, welcoming space. Together we can learn, grow, and remember our shared humanity.If this episode resonates, share it with someone who will meet it with an open mind and an open heart.
Then visit the home base for more: https://openheartpodcast.com/
When a heart doctor meets a psychic intuitive, the conversation does not stay on the surface. It opens a doorway between science and soul.
In this exchange, Dr. Priya Rao, interventional cardiologist and founder of Open Heart, sits down with Stephanie Yonan (@full_circle2024), a former corporate executive turned psychic intuitive who reads energy and channels messages from the higher self. Together they explore what it means to live, heal, and serve from alignment.
✨ Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction and Personal Transformation
00:01:56 Understanding Psychic Intuition
00:03:44 Connecting with Inner Knowing
00:07:10 Stephanie's Journey to Becoming a Psychic Intuitive
00:10:46 Fill Your Own Cup: Self-Care for Healers
00:12:35 The Struggles of the Medical System
00:16:17 Tips for Energy Regulation and Protection
00:26:10 The Importance of Self-Care for Healers
00:30:36 Exploring Multidimensionality and Personal Interests
00:39:21 Closing Thoughts and Reflections
This is not a story about medicine versus mysticism. It is about what happens when the two finally begin to listen to each other. What begins as curiosity becomes revelation. The unseen intelligence guiding the heartbeat may be the same force guiding intuition itself.
Through their dialogue, Priya and Stephanie trace the heart and mind connection, the hidden costs of burnout, and the quiet wisdom that appears when we finally slow down enough to hear it. They explore how doctors, healers, and caregivers can restore their own energy through laughter, stillness, boundaries, and self trust, and why so many of us forget to fill our own cup while trying to save others.
Stephanie shares how she discovered her intuitive abilities as a child, why she once hid them, and how reclaiming them changed her life. Priya opens up about the moral injury and exhaustion that pushed her to question modern medicine’s definition of healing. Together they reimagine what integrative healing could look like when humanity, consciousness, and authentic presence become part of the treatment plan.
You will hear stories that bridge holistic cardiology and spirituality.
You will learn how intuition shows up in the catheterization lab, why a peaceful mind is a strong mind, and how energy regulation and alignment are as vital as any prescription. Both women remind us that healing the body without tending to the soul is only half the work, and that every act of authenticity creates ripples far beyond what we can measure.
Throughout this conversation, Priya’s perspective as a heart doctor keeps the dialogue grounded in physiology and presence, while Stephanie’s intuitive clarity lifts it into the unseen layers of consciousness. It becomes a meeting place for skeptics and believers alike, a reminder that medicine can be both evidence based and heart based, that data and intuition are not opposites but different frequencies of truth.
This dialogue invites anyone, whether doctor, healer, patient, or seeker, to remember that true healing begins in coherence, when the heart and mind speak the same language. It is for those standing at the intersection of burnout and breakthrough, logic and knowing, wondering if there might be another way.
Access a custom short breathwork and meditation practice for all listeners:
www.openheartpodcast.com
Stephanie's Details:
Website: https://fullcircleintuitivecoaching.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/full_circle2024/?hl=en
Listen to the Podcast
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1J5SdNU03lYNesL2ItsHEb?si=QkVlb6juSMa-gFnWQyqFgA
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-heart-podcast/id1847489871
Arrive with an open mind and an open heart. Take what resonates. Share it forward.
Together we are redefining what it means to heal, through story, science, and soul.
© 2025 Priya Rao Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Welcome to the episode 2 of the Open Heart Podcast.What does safety really mean to a cardiologist?
Not the checklist kind. Not the kind written into a policy binder or measured in quarterly metrics. The kind that lives between people — in trust, rhythm, and the unspoken knowing that happens when a team moves as one. In this episode of Open Heart, host Dr. Priya Rao, an interventional cardiologist and founder of the Open Heart movement, sits with fellow cardiologist Dr. Jay Widmer, MD, PhD, to explore how presence becomes leadership, how safety becomes culture, and why remembering what’s human might be the most radical act in modern medicine.⏱ Chapters00:00 — The story behind “sacred space”02:18 — What safety feels like in the cath lab06:45 — Trust as the real protocol11:20 — The hidden energy of leadership16:42 — When medicine forgets the human22:03 — How slowing down makes teams stronger27:15 — Healing the healer: lessons from burnout32:48 — Redefining excellence without ego39:12 — The sacred space of the cath lab44:55 — What “science meets soul” means nowMedicine trains us to act quickly, to perfect the technique, to move with certainty. But what happens when certainty costs connection? When we forget that healing is more than the procedure — it’s the tone of the room, the heartbeat of a team, the trust that allows people to breathe again.That’s where this conversation begins.Dr. Widmer, a cardiologist, researcher, and educator, opens up about how the culture of medicine shapes the way we lead and the way we hurt. Together, he and Dr. Rao explore the hidden side of safety — the part no one teaches — where psychological safety and presence are inseparable. They talk about the unseen leadership that happens before any incision: the eye contact across the table, the shared silence before a high-stakes case, the simple act of pausing long enough to feel human again.They unpack what happens when heart doctors feel safe enough to fail — and how that very permission becomes the foundation for innovation, humility, and healing. From stories of burnout and moral injury to moments of reconnection inside the cath lab, this dialogue cuts straight to what’s missing in modern medicine: soul.By the end, the cath lab itself becomes a metaphor: a sacred space where science meets soul, where consciousness meets craft. Through candid reflection, both doctors remind us that healing isn’t something we deliver — it’s something we practice, together. The episode reveals that the reset medicine needs isn’t technological or procedural. It’s human. It’s a return to presence, empathy, and the quiet power of an open heart.Open Heart is a podcast and creative platform created by Dr. Priya Rao — interventional cardiologist, healer, and storyteller — dedicated to reimagining medicine as a practice of connection, consciousness, and care. Each conversation brings together doctors, healers, and innovators from around the world to explore what happens when science and soul meet in the same room.If this conversation resonates, share it with a colleague, a friend in medicine, or anyone who’s ever wondered what healing looks like from the inside out.
Subscribe to Open Heart for more raw, real, and reflective dialogues on cardiology, consciousness, and the wisdom of the heart.Because sometimes, the most advanced medicine is still the simplest one: listening, breathing, and remembering we’re human.Where science meets soul — and where the heart always leads first.✨ Subscribe to Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD to hear more conversations where modern medicine and spirituality meet — where we remember that healing is as much about consciousness as it is about care.Thank you to our sponsor, Don’t Miss a Beat, for supporting this episode: https://linktr.ee/dontmissabeat Follow Priya & Open Heart:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openheartthepod/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-heart-podcast/about/
Welcome to the 1st episode of the Open Heart Podcast.
Inside this episode:
00:00:00 - Introduction and Early Memories
00:01:15 - Family Background and Community
00:02:55 - Childhood and Adversity
00:03:39 - Shift in Societal Values
00:05:23 - Journey to Becoming a Cardiologist
00:06:50 - Commitment to Community and Patients
00:10:01 - The Cath Lab and Saving Lives
00:11:51 - Choosing the Path of Medicine
00:13:33 - The Wall of Fame
00:15:20 - Learning from Patients and Their Wisdom
00:17:08 - Patient Intuition and Medical Mysteries
00:18:07 - The Importance of Listening to Patients
00:21:16 - The Miracles and Mysteries of Medicine
00:27:48 - Exploring Alternative Healing Practices
00:30:36 - Exploring Energy and Healing
00:30:56 - The Role of Medicine and Humility
00:31:22 - The Power of Food and Cooking
00:32:31 - Understanding Energy and Consciousness
00:38:23 - Serving the Community and Career Advice
00:40:35 - Self-Care and Wellness
00:41:07 - The Joy of Cooking and Family
00:42:01 - Living with an Open Heart
00:42:34 - Reflections on Career Choices and Yoga
00:43:40 - Women in Cardiology
00:45:10 - Closing Thoughts and Reflections
Dr. Priya Rao sits across from her father, the man who first brought her into the cath lab as a child, where she watched the quiet choreography of human hands saving a life. Decades later, she returns to that same sacred space — not as a daughter peering through glass, but as a cardiologist walking beside him.
Their conversation moves between science and soul, precision and presence. Together they trace a lineage: from a farming village in India marked by early loss, to the fluorescent hum of American hospitals where intuition whispers louder than machines. It’s a rare exchange between two healers who’ve lived at the edge of the known — resuscitating hearts, witnessing near-death experiences, listening when patients say, “God is calling me.”
Here, they speak of what modern medicine often overlooks: the moments that defy explanation yet feel unmistakably real. The heart-mind connection. The way intuition guides a surgeon’s hands. The humility that grows when saving lives reveals mysteries logic can’t hold.
You’ll hear Dr. Rao’s father reflect on decades of service — caring for rural communities, mentoring young doctors to listen before they diagnose, and building a “Wall of Fame” honoring patients who’ve lived into their hundreds. You’ll hear Priya question what true healing means when the body recovers but the soul is still searching.
It’s a story of legacy, resilience, and returning to where purpose was first planted. A reminder that modern cardiology, at its best, is not just about arteries and stents but empathy, connection, and consciousness.
Through stories of loss, miracles, and laughter, Open Heart reminds us that medicine is not separate from spirit — it is an extension of it. Every beat carries wisdom, every scar a lesson, every act of care a thread in the tapestry of humanity.
If you’ve ever wondered where science meets soul, or what happens when a healer looks inward, this conversation will stay with you long after it ends.
✨ Subscribe to Open Heart Podcast with Dr. Priya Rao to hear more conversations where modern medicine and spirituality meet — where we remember that healing is as much about consciousness as it is about care.
Follow Priya & Open Heart:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openheartthepod/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-heart-podcast/about/