Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD

Do Science and the Sacred Belong Together? [S1 Trailer]

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:01:24 +0000

I'm an interventional cardiologist. I work on the heart when people are closest to death. I've spent years in the cath lab doing procedures that can change someone's life in seconds.

And somewhere along the way, something happened in my own life that medicine couldn't measure. I felt something shift that I couldn't explain and couldn't ignore.

I followed every rule we're taught to follow. I trained hard, showed up fully, and believed deeply in the science I practice. But I started to wonder — with openness and curiosity — whether there is more to healing than what our current tools can measure. Not instead of medicine. Alongside it.

This season, we sit with the questions conventional medicine hasn't learned to ask yet. Why did science and soul become so disconnected in the first place? What happens when a physician follows every protocol and still feels something essential is missing? How are practicing doctors quietly using intuition, ancient healing traditions, and tools that don't show up in a textbook — and why does it work?

Open Heart is where those questions live. Honest, grounded conversations about healing — what medicine gets right, what it misses, and what opens up when we stop pretending those two things can't coexist.

If you've ever had a moment — in a hospital room, in the middle of the night, or somewhere completely ordinary — where something shifted and you couldn't explain it, this is for you. If you've ever sensed that medicine had the diagnosis right but still missed something essential, this is for you. I'm learning to ask these questions right alongside you.

This is Open Heart.

If this resonated, subscribe on YouTube or wherever you're listening. And become part of this growing circle.

Follow Priya Rao, MD Website: https://www.openheartpodcast.com

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#openheart #openheartpodcast #PriyaRaoMD #sciencemeetsoul #healingpodcast #physicianwellness #spiritualawakening #integrativemedicine #medicine #cardiology #mindbodysoul #doctorpodcast #intuition #medicalstories #holistichealth

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Behind the Scenes of My Spiritual Healing Session

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:22:44 +0000

In this episode of Open Heart, Priya Rao, MD spends time with Fran Bell inside her office, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how integrative healing unfolds in real time. Rather than a conceptual conversation, this episode centers on observation, presence, and what it looks like to work with the body when symptoms, emotions, and life context are addressed together.

In this conversation, they explore:

■ What it looks like to enter a healing session

■ How the nervous system, physical tension, and emotional patterns are assessed through direct engagement with the body

■ The role of touch, attention, and pacing in creating a sense of safety and participation

■ How physical symptoms are explored alongside life stressors, decision-making, and fatigue

■ Why healing work often focuses on restoring responsiveness rather than fixing a specific problem

■ How gratitude, rest, and nourishment are discussed as lived practices rather than prescriptions

■ The tension between wanting clear answers and allowing the body to guide the process

■ What it means to participate in healing without certainty about outcomes

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and connecting with the body

01:10 Observing the nervous system and physical responsiveness

01:55 Evaluating tension and fatigue patterns

03:00 Beginning physical adjustments

09:08 The role of gratitude in the session

12:48 Discussing nutritional support and deficiency

15:16 Emotional and energetic patterns

21:15 Thyroid and antibody concerns

22:14 Exploring flow and responsiveness

22:52 Changes in lifestyle and awareness

24:08 Fatigue, rest, and self-care

26:31 What it means to hold the role of a healer

28:58 Grief, loss, and integration

32:50 Integrity in healing work

41:29 Connection with nature and grounding

43:05 Healing with horses

Follow Fran Bell

Website: https://franbell.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franbell_integratedhealing

Hosted by Priya Rao, MD

Website: https://www.openheartpodcast.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priyaraomd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyaraomd

Subscribe to Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD for grounded conversations with people who are curious about intuition, meaning, and different ways of understanding healing and human experience.

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When Your Intuition Whispers, Do You Listen?

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 20:14:29 +0000

In this episode of Open Heart, Priya Rao, MD sits down with Fran Bell, an intuitive healer and former competitive athlete whose work bridges physical injury, lived experience, and forms of knowing that don’t fit neatly inside conventional systems.

Together, they explore what it means to trust intuition in a world that asks for proof, and how healing often begins before we have language for it.

In this conversation, they explore:

■ How a childhood injury disrupted Fran’s life and quietly reshaped how she understood the body and healing

■ What intuition actually feels like in lived experience, not as a concept or belief

■ How people are trained out of sensing and into over-reliance on cognition and control

■ Why many capable, rational people struggle to trust what they feel if it can’t be measured

■ The tension between evidence-based medicine and forms of healing that require participation rather than certainty

■ How physical symptoms, emotional patterns, and life direction often intersect

■ What integration can look like when medicine and intuition are allowed to work side by side

■ Why healing does not always mean “feeling better,” and how meaning, purpose, and wholeness can show up in unexpected ways

Fran Bell works with people whose symptoms, pain, or sense of disconnection have not been fully explained by conventional approaches alone. Her perspective is grounded in lived experience with injury, athletics, and years of working directly with the body. In this conversation, she offers language for experiences many people sense but hesitate to trust, especially when those experiences fall outside familiar systems of validation.

Follow Fran Bell

Website: https://franbell.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franbell_integratedhealing

Top Moments

00:00 Introduction to Fran Bell: Intuitive Healer

01:25 Fran's Childhood and Awakening of Gifts

03:52 Developing and Trusting Intuition

08:41 Integrating Physical and Spiritual Healing

11:14 Synergy Between Intuitive Healing and Medicine

17:17 Commitment to a Spirit-Led Life

33:16 Gratitude Practice and Its Impact

37:40 Embracing the Path of Healing

38:41 The Journey of Channeling

40:27 Understanding Channeling

41:38 The Role of Trust in Healing

45:30 Integrity in Healing Practices

52:44 The Courage to Heal

55:47 The Deeper Purpose of Healing

01:01:33 Concluding Thoughts on Healing

Hosted by Priya Rao, MD

https://www.openheartpodcast.com

https://www.instagram.com/priyaraomd

https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyaraomd

Our Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting this episode:

Don’t Miss a Beat: https://linktr.ee/dontmissabeat

Summit Wealth Financial Advisors: https://www.summitwealthgroup.com/

Subscribe to Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD for grounded conversations with people who are curious about intuition, meaning, and different ways of understanding healing and human experience.

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Unlock Your Erotic Essence and feel ALIVE again

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Open Heart, Priya Rao, MD sits down with Pavla Haluskova, a yoga teacher and intimacy guide whose work focuses on nervous system safety, embodiment, and honest self-expression.

Together, they explore why intimacy feels harder than it should, even for people who are competent, accomplished, and deeply self-aware.

In this conversation, they explore:

■ Why so many people feel disconnected from their own desires, even in close relationships

■ How professional training and high-pressure environments can quietly shape how we relate to our bodies

■ The ways people learn to make themselves smaller to stay safe, wanted, or accepted

■ How intimacy breaks down when the nervous system is overwhelmed or on guard

■ What it can feel like to lose access to aliveness without realizing it

■ Why talking about intimacy often brings up shame, fear, or avoidance rather than clarity

■ How slowing down and paying attention to the body can surface needs we did not know we had

Pavla Haluskova works at the intersection of body awareness, nervous system regulation, and relational honesty. Her perspective is grounded in lived experience with people who feel outwardly capable but inwardly disconnected. In this conversation, she offers language for experiences many people recognize but rarely articulate, especially around intimacy, safety, and self-expression.

Follow Pavla Haluskova

Website: https://www.pavlayoga.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashthefeminine_pavla

Top Moments

00:00 Introduction to Sacred Sexuality

01:37 The Power of Voice and Embodiment

05:52 Challenges of Women in Hyper-Masculine Fields

08:01 Understanding Masculine and Feminine Energies

14:58 Nervous System and Trauma Work

20:01 The Role of Safety in Intimacy

27:16 Transcending Relationship with Emotions

28:33 Differentiating Wants and Desires

30:43 Reclaiming Sexuality and Soul Calling

34:18 Intimacy and Childhood Conditioning

38:48 Opening to Sensuality and Presence

40:51 Living with an Open Heart

44:48 Connecting with Ancestral Wisdom

47:31 Embracing Purpose and Sharing

Hosted by Priya Rao, MD

Website: https://www.openheartpodcast.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/priyaraomd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyaraomd

Open Heart is a space for grounded conversations about where systems, training, and conventional frameworks fall short of lived human experience. The show explores what happens when logic, competence, and achievement no longer explain everything we feel.

Many people sense that something is missing in how they relate to themselves and others, but they do not have clear language for it. This conversation does not offer fixes or formulas. It offers recognition. It sits with the tension between capability and disconnection, and invites curiosity about what intimacy might require when safety, presence, and honesty are brought back into the room.

Subscribe to Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD for grounded conversations with people who are curious about intuition, meaning, and different ways of understanding healing and human experience.

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Surviving Cancer as a Doctor: The Story She Was Ready to Share

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Hosted by Priya Rao, MD, this episode features Dr. Kerri Glasner, a gastroenterologist diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and often fatal bile duct cancer.

They examine what it means to face a life-threatening cancer diagnosis as a physician and how surviving a liver transplant reshaped how she practices medicine, understands pain, and lives her life.

What’s Covered in This Episode:

◼️ Being diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma as a young physician

◼️ Understanding your own cancer prognosis through medical training

◼️ Chemotherapy, radiation, and qualifying for a liver transplant

◼️ ICU complications, extreme pain, and not being believed

◼️ Loss of control and vulnerability after becoming the patient

◼️ Returning to clinical work before being ready

◼️ Medical PTSD and avoidance after critical illness

◼️ Leaving an academic role after surviving cancer

◼️ Reprioritizing family, time, and work after facing mortality

◼️ How surviving cancer changed how she practices medicine

Jump to Key Moments

00:00 — Diagnosing bile duct cancer as a physician

03:00 — Prognosis and treatment decisions

11:40 — Chemotherapy, radiation, and transplant eligibility

16:50 — ICU trauma and loss of control

22:15 — Severe pain and not being believed

27:45 — How illness changed her medical practice

31:00 — Leaving an academic role after trauma

36:15 — Returning to work too soon

41:30 — Belief, survival, and meaning

45:45 — What living with an open heart means now

In this conversation, Kerri shares what it was like to receive that diagnosis as a physician and new mother, fully understanding the prognosis from her medical training. She walks through undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, qualifying for a liver transplant that most patients with cholangiocarcinoma never reach, and surviving a complex surgery that included a liver transplant and a Whipple procedure.

Kerri describes the complications that followed, including liver necrosis, pancreatic leaks, prolonged ICU care, and severe postoperative pain. She speaks candidly about being told her pain was “out of proportion,” the loss of control that comes with critical illness, and how different the patient experience feels when you are on the other side of the bed.

The conversation also explores what happens after survival. Returning to clinical work before fully recovering. The quiet pressure physicians feel to function as if nothing happened. Medical trauma and avoidance after time in the ICU. Why going back to the same institution where the trauma occurred can be destabilizing. How becoming a patient changed the way she listens to pain, intuition, and fear in her own patients.

Kerri also shares the life changes she made after surviving cancer, including leaving an academic role, moving closer to family, working fewer days, and redefining what matters most. She reflects on faith, uncertainty, intuition, and what it means to live with an open heart after facing mortality.

This is the first time Kerri has shared her story publicly.

Hosted by Priya Rao, MD.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openheartthepod/

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A Healthcare Founder’s Path Through Intuition and Flow | Michael Gratch

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

EECP is one of the most evidence-backed therapies in cardiology that many physicians still don’t fully understand, and even fewer feel confident explaining to patients.

Guest & Resources:

Michael Gratch - Founder & CEO, Flow Therapy

Website: https://flowtherapy.com/about-us/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gratch-8557266/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/flow-therapy-eecp/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/flowtherapyeecp/

https://www.instagram.com/mbgratch/

X (Twitter): https://x.com/FlowTherapyEECP

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlowTherapyEECP/

YouTube: @TrinityHeartCare

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 Introduction to Flow Therapy

01:18 Michael Atch's Personal Journey

03:06 Founding Flow Therapy

07:12 Challenges and Triumphs

21:51 The Technology Behind Flow Therapy

26:29 Flow in Life and Medicine

26:59 Exploring Healing Modalities and Rural Medicine

27:31 Incorporating Flow State into Therapy

28:50 Biofeedback and Patient Experience

30:39 The Interrelationship of Focus and Behavior

32:36 Challenges in the Healthcare System

34:51 The Role of Food and Parenting in Health

37:15 The Impact of Stress and Emotional Health

39:41 The Influence of Technology on Society

49:13 Advice for Navigating Life's Challenges

51:56 Living with an Open Heart

In this conversation, I sit down with Michael Gratch, Founder and President of Flow Therapy, to talk about what it actually takes to build a healthcare company centered on EECP, or enhanced external counterpulsation, inside a complex medical system. Michael’s journey began with one patient, his grandfather, who had undergone multiple bypass surgeries, stents, and had no remaining revascularization options. Quality of life mattered, and there were few answers being offered.

EECP is not alternative medicine. It is a noninvasive cardiovascular therapy supported by decades of research, offered at major academic centers, and covered by Medicare. And yet, access remains limited, adoption uneven, and understanding incomplete. Michael shares how that gap between evidence and availability became the catalyst for building what is now Flow Therapy.

If you are a doctor who has ever struggled to explain EECP to a patient, questioned why effective therapies remain underutilized, or felt the strain of practicing inside a system resistant to change, this conversation will resonate.

✨ 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.

Follow Priya & Open Heart:

Instagram: Instagram.com/openheartthepod

Website: https://openheartpodcast.com/

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When a Plastic Surgeon Says 'You Don't Need This'

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 12:01:00 +0000

What if the most powerful thing a plastic surgeon could say is no?

In a world that rewards more, more procedures, more perfection, more transformation, restraint feels almost radical. Especially in medicine. Especially in plastic surgery. And especially when your livelihood is built on being able to change the human face.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Deepak Duggar

01:51 Journey into Rhinoplasty

05:56 Emotional Intelligence in Plastic Surgery

11:40 Balancing Professional and Personal Life

19:11 Acts of Kindness and Service

29:22 Gender Disparities in Plastic Surgery

29:54 The Demands and Expectations of Medical Professionals

30:52 Underserved Communities and the Importance of Medical Presence

32:05 The Emotional Impact of Plastic Surgery

34:39 The Power of Positive Change and Patient Testimonials

37:45 Energy, Intuition, and Patient Relationships

40:47 The Importance of Therapy and Self-Reflection

43:23 Balancing Professional and Personal Life

49:45 Final Thoughts and Reflections

In this episode of Open Heart, Priya Rao, MD, interventional cardiologist and host of the Open Heart Podcast, sits down with Deepak Dugar, MD, a world-renowned Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon whose reputation has been built not only on extraordinary technical skill, but on something far rarer: ethical clarity, humility, and the courage to refuse surgery when it is not truly needed.

Dr. Dugar specializes exclusively in rhinoplasty, one of the most complex and psychologically charged procedures in all of medicine. He spent nearly a decade training under elite mentors, studying anatomy obsessively, shadowing cases while others vacationed, and committing himself fully to mastery. Yet what ultimately distinguishes him is not just what he can do with a scalpel. It is when he chooses not to use one.

Guest Links: Deepak Dugar, MD

Website: https://www.scarlessnose.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrDeepakDugar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deepakdugarmd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-dugar-05a16059

📘 Deepak’s Book: Be You To Full, So Beautiful

Purchase here: https://a.co/d/9LO2KIP

Follow Priya & Open Heart on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openheartthepod

Instagram: Instagram.com/openheartthepod

Website: https://openheartpodcast.com/

Priya Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.kothapalli

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkothapallimd/

Thank you to our sponsor, Don’t Miss a Beat, for supporting this episode:

https://linktr.ee/dontmissabeat

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Why Ignoring Intuition Is Hurting Clinicians (and Patients)

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

There’s a moment every physician and clinician knows.

If you’ve spent time in a cath lab, an ICU, an OR, or making high-stakes decisions under pressure, you’ve felt it. A tightening in the chest. A quiet pause at the table. A sense that something isn’t right, even when the vitals look stable and the protocol says proceed.

And too often, we override it.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Sam Propper

01:13 Sam's Journey and Career Pivots

03:57 Navigating Challenges and Doubts

05:06 The Cath Lab Experience

12:08 Becoming an Educator

18:18 Creativity and Intuition in Medicine

24:47 Magical Synergy in the Cath Lab

26:00 The Importance of Intuition and Gut Checks

26:52 Creating Educational Resources for Medical Training

27:25 Overcoming Fear and Embracing Creativity

28:22 Challenges and Rewards of Teaching

29:01 The Impact of Visual Learning

30:55 Balancing Compassion and Professionalism

32:46 Navigating the Medical Field with Intuition

38:29 Encouraging Change and Self-Trust

41:03 Personal Stories and Emotional Connections

44:23 Living with an Open Heart

45:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In modern medicine, clinical intuition is rarely named, rarely taught, and often dismissed. Training rewards certainty, speed, and control. But intuition quietly informs some of the most consequential decisions we make as physicians and clinicians. Ignoring it doesn’t just cost alignment. It can cost safety, creativity, and connection to the patient in front of us.

In this conversation, I sit down with Samantha Propper, a cath lab technologist turned award-winning educator and entrepreneur, and one of the earliest supporters of Open Heart. Sam’s path didn’t follow a straight line, and that’s the point. From years at the cath lab table to the classroom to founding Don’t Miss a Beat, her work has shaped how cardiac teams are trained, how they communicate, and how they advocate for patients.

At its core, this is a reminder for those of us practicing medicine today. Healing is not purely mechanical. It is relational. It is embodied.

If you are a physician, cardiologist, nurse, technologist, or clinician who has ever felt that quiet inner pull during patient care and wondered whether it belonged in medicine at all, this conversation is for you.

Connect with Samantha Propper and Don’t Miss a Beat

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dontmissabeat.youtube

Website and Textbooks: https://dontmissabeat.store

Instagram: https://instagram.com/dontmissabeat

Facebook: https://facebook.com/dontmissabeat

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/dontmissabeat/posts/?feedView=all

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Your Midlife Crisis Isn’t Random (It’s Predictable)

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000

At some point, the life you carefully constructed starts to feel misaligned.The work that once energized you now drains you. The relationships that felt stable suddenly feel tight. The version of yourself you have spent decades becoming no longer fits the shape of your days. And when that unraveling begins, we are quick to label it a midlife crisis, as if something has gone wrong or something needs to be fixed.But what if nothing is wrong at all?In this conversation, astrologer and spiritual teacher Liv Toepfer reframes what so many people experience in midlife not as a breakdown, but as a predictable point of awakening. A moment written into the architecture of the soul. One that arrives whether you are ready for it or not, often quietly at first, and then all at once.Liv explains how astrology reveals specific life thresholds, times when the psyche, nervous system, and soul begin asking deeper questions. Chief among them is what many astrologers refer to as Neptune meets Neptune, also known as the Neptune square Neptune. This midlife astrology transit often occurs in the early 40s and is associated with spiritual awakening, identity dissolution, and a reorientation toward meaning and truth. Illusions fall away. Careers shift. Relationships strain or end. Old coping strategies stop working. The external markers of success no longer satisfy the internal call.This is not chaos. It is initiation.Astrology, as Liv shares, is not about prediction or bypassing responsibility. It is a language. A way of understanding why now and how to work with change instead of fighting it. From Saturn return in early adulthood to North Node purpose and nodal cycles in midlife, astrology transits offer a broader context for growth that many people feel but cannot yet name.#astrology #podcast #doctor #healer #spiritual We also explore how the body participates in these awakenings. The nervous system responds before the mind has language. Energy shifts show up as fatigue, restlessness, emotional sensitivity, or the sense that something wants to move but you do not yet know what. Breath, presence, and self trust become anchors when certainty dissolves.From the perspective of Priya Rao, MD, a cardiologist and physician working at the intersection of medicine and consciousness, this conversation bridges astrology, nervous system regulation, and healing beyond symptoms. It reflects the Open Heart lens where modern medicine and spirituality are not opposing forces, but complementary ways of understanding the human experience.If you have ever wondered why everything seems to be shifting at once, why success suddenly feels empty, or why your inner voice is getting louder, this may not be a crisis. It may be your soul asking you to listen more closely.About our guest:Liv Toepfer is an astrologer, spiritual teacher, and guide for conscious transition. After more than two decades as a high level event producer, burnout became the doorway that led her into yoga, meditation, astrology, and energy work. Today, she supports others through life’s pivotal thresholds with grounded wisdom, clarity, and deep respect for the intelligence of the body and soul.Connect with Liv:Email: liv@itsavibe.earthWebsite: www.itsavibe.earthInstagram: @thevibetribetxInstagram: @livbydesign✨ 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.Follow Priya & Open Heart:Instagram: Instagram.com/openheartthepodWebsite: https://openheartpodcast.com/Priya Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.kothapalliLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pkothapallimd/© 2025 Priya Rao Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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She’s a Psychiatrist… and Also an Astrologer

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0000

There are moments in medicine that don’t fit inside the chart. Moments where a patient’s suffering can’t be explained by labs or imaging, and the usual tools fall quiet. For some physicians, that silence becomes the beginning of a different kind of listening. Today, psychiatrist Dr. Judy Tsafrir sits with me to explore what happens when astrology, intuition, and clinical practice begin to speak to one another — not in contradiction, but in a deeper coherence. This conversation moves slowly and honestly through the questions physicians aren’t trained to ask, yet inevitably face: What is a soul wound? What makes a crisis arrive on time? And what does healing require when the mind isn’t the only thing in pain?00:00 Introduction to Sacred Psychiatry01:04 A Life-Changing Consultation with an Astrologer02:39 Embracing Astrology and Esoteric Practices05:48 The Journey of Self-Discovery and Healing07:54 Integrating Spirituality into Medical Practice14:37 The Importance of Energy and Diet in Healing30:39 Astrological Shifts and Spiritual Awakening38:49 Introduction to Chiron in Astrology39:11 The Myth of Chiron41:17 Chiron's Wound and Prometheus43:40 Chiron Return and Life Transitions44:52 Astrological Cycles and Midlife Crisis45:38 The Power of Authenticity48:37 Spiritual Practices in Medicine52:09 The Shift to Air Signs and Quantum Reality55:05 Physician Suicide and Mental Health59:15 Life After Death and Spiritual Experiences01:01:56 Living with an Open Heart01:07:02 Final Thoughts and ReflectionsJudy speaks from a place few clinicians are willing to name: the recognition that a patient’s suffering is often entangled with spiritual injury, archetypal patterns, and timing that feels strangely precise. She describes the moment astrology found her — during a season of profound personal crisis — and how the natal chart, the Chiron wound, and midlife transits became a map she couldn’t dismiss. Not because they were mystical, but because they were useful. Because they helped her make sense of what medicine alone couldn’t reach.But this conversation is not abstract. It’s grounded in the real costs of being a physician today — the moral injury, the exhaustion, the quiet grief of watching the system fracture while trying to remain human inside of it. Judy speaks with clarity about physician suicide, about the inner split that comes from abandoning one’s own truth for the illusion of safety, and why authenticity becomes a survival skill rather than a spiritual luxury.We explore diet, energy, intuition, trauma, spiritual awakening, consciousness, and the long arc of healing that moves through the body as much as the psyche. Judy shares how she weaves astrology into her clinical work without losing scientific integrity, and why the future of medicine may require a shift toward an “air sign consciousness” — one that values subtlety, resonance, and quantum patterns as essential dimensions of health.If the ideas in this episode move something in you, stay with it. Let it breathe. These are the kinds of truths that don’t demand belief — only curiosity. And if you find resonance here, subscribe, share, or join us for the next conversation inside Open Heart, where science meets soul and the interior life is taken seriously.🔗 CONNECT WITH JUDY TSAFRIR, MDWebsite: https://www.judytsafrirmd.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_psychiatry/reels/?hl=am-et@sacred_psychiatryTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sacred_psychiatry@sacred_psychiatryLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judytsafrirmd/Book — Sacred Psychiatry:https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Psychiatry-Transpersonal-Transform-Consciousness/dp/B0CB9G8699Subscribe 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.Follow Priya & Open Heart:Instagram.co...

She’s a Critical Care Cardiologist – Here’s What No One Tells You

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:30:00 +0000

There are places in medicine where the stakes are unmistakable, where a single decision or breath becomes the turning point in a story still unfolding. The cardiac ICU is one of those places. It asks for precision, intuition, and a level of humanity that is rarely taught. This conversation opens that world with honesty and depth through someone who carries both clinical mastery and grounded purpose.

Chapters

00:00 The Hidden World of Critical Care Cardiology
01:52 Inside the CICU: Teamwork and Humanity
03:40 Systems Change and the Deferred Dream
05:35 Courage, Identity, and Trusting Yourself
07:21 Vulnerability as Power in Medicine
10:48 The Immigrant Story and Human Truths
12:04 Lessons from Cardiac Arrest and Resilience
14:17 Team Harmony and Leadership in Crisis
17:59 Breaking Groupthink in Medicine
19:31 Women in Cardiology and Belonging
21:24 Psychological Safety in the Cath Lab
24:17 Creating Energetic Safety in Clinical Spaces
26:36 The Power of Intention and Positive Words
29:40 Patients and the Second Lease on Life
32:59 Compassion, Guilt, and Caring for the Healer
41:45 Purpose, Self Promotion, and Finding Your Path
43:46 Trust, Energy, and the Unseen Layers of Connection
55:26 Final Reflections and Finding Your People

Dr. Rosy Thachil, MD, MBA, FACC is a critical care cardiologist and healthcare leader whose work reflects the complexity of modern cardiac care. She understands that healing is clinical, emotional, and deeply human. Her lens invites us to look at medicine not only as a system but as a place where presence and authenticity truly matter.

Rosy shares what it means to care for the sickest cardiac patients and how trust forms among interdisciplinary teams during the most intense moments. She describes how the CICU reveals both the strength and fragility of being human. Her experiences highlight the connection between technical skill and compassionate care, a balance that defines true holistic cardiology.

She also speaks about her deferred dream of earning an MBA and how stepping outside the expected path gave her a new language for leadership and systems change. Her journey shows how courage grows when we let go of groupthink and develop confidence in our own direction. Rosy reflects on vulnerability as an essential part of connection and how it can soften even the most difficult clinical conversations.

Her immigrant story adds another layer to this reflection. Rosy speaks about belonging, identity, and the early messages that shape how many of us learn to protect our deeper truths. Together, we discuss mentorship, representation, and the experience of women in cardiology where visibility still matters. Priya shares her own path as a structural interventional cardiologist and the resilience required to walk into rooms where few women stand.

This conversation lives where medicine and humanity meet, where the heart is understood through both physiology and connection. It is a reminder that healing is a blend of knowledge, intuition, emotional intelligence, and presence. For anyone in healthcare or anyone seeking clarity in their own life, this dialogue offers grounding and a return to what is real.

Guest
Rosy Thachil, MD, MBA, FACC
Website: https://ThachilMD.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosythachilmd

Subscribe to Open Heart with Priya Rao, MD to explore conversations where science meets soul and healing is understood as both consciousness and care.

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The Truth My Body Was Trying to Tell Me

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000

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

A Fascia-Focused Yin Yoga Session for Deep Release | Open Heart Series

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 11:59:00 +0000

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.

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When Success as a Physician Costs You Yourself

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000

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:

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Why I Left the “Safe Path” to Start Open Heart

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000

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/

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When a Heart Doctor Meets a Psychic Intuitive

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000

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.co...

What Safety Really Means to a Cardiologist

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 14:05:04 +0000

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/openheartthe...

2 Heart Doctors: The Questions Medicine Still Can’t Answer

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 22:33:49 +0000

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/

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