David Telfer McConaghay
aka Veda Dave provides wise guidance and friendly mentorship for seekers of holistic health, ethical wealth and spiritual self-awareness.
​
He has been a Division 1 athlete, music journalist, global nomad and national sales & marketing manager in the natural foods industry. He has lived and studied full-time in ashram environments for 7 of the past 14 years.
​
2023 marks his seventh year serving on the board of directors of the Colorado Ayurvedic Medical Association. He is certified by the National Ayurvedic Medical Association as an Ayurvedic Doctor, having completed more than 4,000 hours of class and clinic time.
​
He is an English major with a Master’s degree in Metaphysics currently working on a Doctorate in Divinity. He is a natural teacher, offering classes and courses online and in person.
​
Weaving together Ayurveda, Vedic Astrology, Internal Family Systems, eco-psychology and sacred economics, Veda Dave is available for consultations online or at his Denver office.
​
Academic
2004
South High School, Minneapolis, MN
Suffield Academy, Connecticut
2008
B.A. English & Creative Writing
George Washington University
2018
Master of Metaphysics
University of Metaphysical Sciences
Thesis: The Periodic Table of Ayurvedic Elements
2018
Ministerial Ordination
Wisdom of the Heart Church
2020
Doctor of Divinity
University of Metaphysical Sciences
*All But Dissertation
2021
"IFS-Informed" Certification
Internal Family Systems Institute
Fun fact about my academic career: on both my high school and college transcripts, you can find at least one of every grade possible, from A+ to D- including F and Incomplete.
​
I love to read, write, learn and teach, but I have my own way of doing it. True to my Montessori education, I am deeply self-led. I trust my curiosity and love to follow trails of information wherever they may lead. I am suspicious of "required" assignments and artificial due dates.
​
This shows up in my teaching style too — I offer an endless supply of learning opportunities, but always in the form of an invitation. In my experience, it is easiest to learn in a state of play, in the spirit of experimentation, awe and wonder.
ADHD etc
I have experienced existential anxiety and debilitating depression intermittently ever since I can remember.
​
My earliest memories are of recurring nightmares. I was six years old when I first considered suicide.
​
As a teen, I was diagnosed ADHD and self-medicated with alcohol, marijuana and psychedelics.
​
As an adult, I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2, which I experience as weeks-long waves flowing between hypomanic upswings and usually-mild depressive downswings, all of which is punctuated by intense emotions and hypersensitivity to my bio-psycho-social environment.
​
My search for peace and productivity inspires me to study, practice and apply the holistic approaches to mental health encoded into Ayurveda, Astrology, the form of nature-based psychotherapy practiced at the Animas Institute and the approach to parts work known as Internal Family Systems.
​
All the intensity and sensitivity that defines my particular expression of neuro-diversity serves as a superpower sometimes, kryptonite at others. It makes me a genius. It makes me messy. I am wildly intuitive and hyper attuned and often off in the world of my own deep imagination.
​
Some of these features are easy to love, while others are more difficult to live with. Learning to love all my weird, messy genius while also performing "normal" socio-economic functions is the great, ongoing adventure of my life.
Adventure
Born a nomad, I was but a bump in Momma's belly when our family moved from Toronto to North Carolina.
We lived in Washington D.C. and Tokyo, Japan before landing in Minneapolis, Minnesota when I was eight.
​
I finished high school in Connecticut (2004), graduated college back in D.C (2008), then lived in Wisconsin, California, Maine, Mexico and spent most of 2010 in South America, including 7 months in Bogota, Colombia before landing in Colorado at the start of 2011.
​
COVID caught me on the Isle of Erraid, where my one-month trip to Scotland became a six-month quarantine with the Findhorn Foundation. The summer of 2020 found me wandering through France into Spain and finally Portugal, where I lived for almost a year before returning to Denver in mid-2021.
​
Wherever I am, I like to summit mountains, disappear into deep forests, cry in dark caves, swim in frigid rivers, sprint or tip-toe through desert canyons, be mesmerized by ocean waves and generally just wander in wild places. This is where I feel most at home as a human born on planet Earth.
​
Animals
I identify as a Golden Retriever. Hear me out:
​
-
Golden fur grows all over me.
-
I will gladly chase a ball across an open field for hours.
-
I get anxious if I don't get enough exercise.
-
I will sit politely in exchange for food.
-
Sometimes I make a mess because I'm a bit too enthusiastic.
-
I am a gullible guard dog; I generally just wag my tail and want to be friends.
This is a soul-level imprint that, silly as it may sound, I take quite seriously. Dogs tend to recognize me as one of their own, and I take pride in my pack.
​
Also: to retrieve the soul-gold lost in the swirl of survival is the essence of my personal and professional work.
Athletics
I'm told that I was a fussy, restless baby until I learned to walk. Once I could walk, I could run and jump and climb, which apparently was fun for me but not my mom.
​
I am blessed to have been born with the capacity and inclination to perform many athletic feats with relative ease. As a kid, I played soccer, baseball, tennis, hockey, basketball, (pickup) football and ran cross country.
​
In high school, I earned Varsity letters in soccer, basketball, lacrosse and baseball. I captained the soccer team and went on to play three years at Division 1 George Washington University. To this day, I play with Harpo's FC most Sunday mornings.
​
Beyond the embodied joy I receive from these expressions of play, I have learned innumerable invaluable life lessons from sport. Preparation, performance, perseverance, leadership, discipline, humility, courage, communication and respect are just a few of the qualities I have cultivated through my devotion to athletics, not to mention many lifelong bonds of mentorship, brotherhood and friendship.
Ashrama
I have lived a total of nearly two years at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, California, and devoted more than four years of full-time study and service at Alandi Ashram in Boulder, Colorado.
​
These two places, the teachers that lead and the communities that surround them have been of pivotal importance to my evolution as a human.
These sanctuaries are where I learned to meditate, sing mantra, cook, clean, garden, live in community, wake up before dawn and devote my life to something other than my own survival.
​
Though I no longer associate with the organization as a whole, the Sivananda ashram beckoned to me in my dreams at a time when I was quite lost after college. Initially, I intended to stay for just four weeks, but I was there for nearly six months as my 22-year old self had his mind totally blown by Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology.
​
Then, Alakananda Ma and Sadanandaji of Alandi Ashram served as a second home from 2014-2018. Sitting with them in ceremony, in clinic, at lunch, in the garden are some of the sweetest and most profound experiences I carry within my memory.
​
I must also mention here The Findhorn Foundation, which is not exactly an ashram but close enough. Findhorn is a spiritual eco-village on the north shore of Scotland. I spent a serendipitous several months in the Spring and Summer of 2020 with their community on the Isle of Erraid, receiving irreplaceable life lessons at that vital time.
Hands in the dirt, herding sheep, butchering chickens, chopping wood, swimming in the North Atlantic, spending three days and nights alone in a secret cave — in the context of COVID lockdowns and self-exile, these experiences accelerated my evolution into true adulthood.
Astrology
More words arriving soon.
Ayurveda
More words arriving soon.
