Healing from the Need to Heal: Ayurveda, Orthorexia & Yoga with Konstanze Weiser

What happens when healing becomes another form of harm? When the search for purity, wellness, and relief becomes a maze of restriction, shame, and exhaustion? In this quietly radical conversation, Konstanze Weiser joins us to speak not as an expert, but as someone who lived it from childhood illness to orthorexia, Panchakarma to spiritual burnout.

We explore the parts of wellness culture we don’t often talk about: the obsession with food, the spiritualization of suffering, the silent shame around digestion and embodiment. Konstanze shares what it took to finally stop outsourcing authority, soften her grip, and listen to her own body. What emerged wasn’t a protocol, but a practice. Not control, but connection.

This is not a story of being healed. It’s a story of no longer needing to be.

Subjects Explored

Orthorexia and the glorification of “clean” eating

When Ayurveda becomes another system to get right

Panchakarma, shame, and the desire to purge pain

Digestive distress, embodiment, and feminine silence

Yoga practice as participation, not perfection

Letting go of healing as a project

Food, feeling, and the return to simplicity

Key Phrases or Quotes

“It wasn’t the food. It was the shame.”

“I believed my body couldn’t heal unless I followed all the rules.”

“At some point, I didn’t even have the capacity for shame anymore.”

“I don’t use food to compensate as much anymore—because I don’t need to.”

“Healing isn’t about fixing. It’s about not betraying yourself.”

“My practice is non-negotiable. But it’s not because I’m trying to improve. It’s because it brings me back.”

Key Takeaways

Orthorexia is often hidden in wellness culture – When food becomes a moral issue, restriction masquerades as discipline.

Systems are not saviors – Ayurveda, yoga, or detox can become prisons when driven by fear or perfectionism.

Digestion and shame are deeply linked – It wasn’t the food causing distress. It was the silence, the hiding, the internalized shame.

Embodiment is not a theory – Real practice means listening to the body, not overriding it with ideals.

Simplicity is a form of intelligence – Healing came not from doing more, but from letting go.

The body already knows – The role of practice is to help us trust it again.

Resources Mentioned

• Konstanze Weiser on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/konstanze.weiser

• The Period Repair Manual by Lara Briden: https://www.larabriden.com/period-repair-manual

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Introduction from Mexico and today’s theme
[00:02:00] Konstanze’s early health struggles and the roots of obsession
[00:05:00] Orthorexia and the quiet pain of trying to eat “perfectly”
[00:08:00] When Ayurveda becomes another form of control
[00:13:00] First Panchakarma: detox, intensity, and unexpected peace
[00:17:00] Returning to Germany and feeling alive for the first time
[00:23:00] Digestive shame and the false image of the perfect woman
[00:28:00] The trap of spiritual protocols and chasing purity
[00:36:00] Second Panchakarma: heartbreak, collapse, and exhaustion
[00:42:00] Yoga as non-negotiable—not for performance, but for sanity
[00:48:00] Breaking the rules and finding freedom in food
[00:54:00] Reframing sickness as a message, not a malfunction
[01:00:00] Breath, simplicity, and the intelligence of the body
[01:01:00] Final reflections and invitation to return to trust

Your body is not broken.
You are not behind.
You are not a problem to be solved.

Practice is not a fix. It’s a homecoming.

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