How to Simplify Life with Ayurveda (no joke!)

A few weeks ago I was chatting to a fellow yoga teacher and mentioned that I love Ayurveda because it has really simplified my life. I think he literally snorted, possibly rolled his eyes and said something like, “Ayurveda and simple, never heard those two words in a sentence together.”

To be honest, I would have made a very similar comment only a few years ago and scoffed at the notion of simplifying Ayurveda, the traditional medicine system of India (considered one of the oldest in the world) and sister science to Yoga.

It wasn’t for lack of studying Ayurveda that I would have scoffed in the past. In fact, my first job after graduating massage school in 2003 was at an Ayurvedic clinic and wellness spa. I did the constitution tests, got consultations, read David Frawley’s famous books, and learned all of the traditional Ayurvedic bodywork treatments like abhyanga, swedana, garshana, bastis and shirodhara. 

I learned more about Ayurveda in my yoga teacher training in India, even dedicated my final project to Yogic and Ayurvedic understanding of digestive health, and then went and experienced first hand the powerful Ayurvedic cleansing and detoxing process know as Panchakarma. Which was probably one of the most challenging experiences I’ve had, but at the end left me feeling clean as a new born baby. My eyeballs literally looked white as snow and I felt like my skin was radiating.

I did my best over the years to stick to my constitution food lists, exercise regimes and herbs, but always felt a bit confused about what I should be eating, doing or taking something and why. That is until I started studying with my amazing Ayurveda teacher Cate Stillman who totally transformed my life and understanding of Ayurveda with her 9 month Living Ayurveda course.

This system has now become a tool to simplify my life, and it truly can be for everybody! So I wanted share with you all my simplified understanding and how it has made a much bigger impact than all the complicated practices, recipes and lists I tried to follow previously.

First, I started to see the whole world in terms of the 5 elements and their qualities. 

Just like the Chinese medicine system, Ayurveda recognises that ALL things are comprised of the 5 elements (ether, air, fire, water and earth). Ayurveda further groups the element into three main categories, also know as humours, constitutions or doshas: Vata (ether + air), Pitta (fire + water) and Kapha (water + earth).

We all know innately what the elements feel like and what they’re qualities are; for example air feels cool, light, or changeable, fire feels hot, fast or sharp and earth feels heavy, dense or stable.

We each contain all of these elements and their qualities, as does everything around us, but simply in different ratios and this changes throughout the day, our life, or depending on season and culture.

I started to notice more when my environment had lots of fire, or my food felt more heavy and earthy, or when my thoughts were airy and changeable or my body more watery. I began to see the  elements in all parts of my life.

Second, I worried less about stories and more about the elements and their qualities. 

Have you ever had a bad day and the list of all the things that were going wrong felt endless? On top of that you have this overwhelming sense of not knowing why it’s going so poorly and analysing it just isn’t helping?

I know I have, and getting lost in the stories of who, what, why and how just doesn’t help, in fact, it often makes it worse.

Instead of going over and over in my head what happened or why I felt bad, I started to pay attention to the qualities of what happened or how I felt. For example, I’ve had too much coffee and my thoughts are scattered, lots of air qualities are showing up in my mind now. Or, I just had an argument with my partner, I’m feeling really pissed off, lots of fire is showing up in my emotions and body right now.

I stepped away from the stories and habits and simplified each experience down to what element or dosha was dominating.

Third, I focused on balancing the elements in the present moment. 

The Ayurvedic system has a deceptively simple, yet massively powerful principle that show’s up in all of the literature:

Like increases like and opposites balance. 

Our desire is to find balance in life. When we feel balanced we feel good. We function our best, feel our healthiest and live our best lives.

So when ever I felt out of balance I started to ask myself, “what element is dominant, what element is there too much of?” And then I’d ask myself, “What is the opposite, and how can I bring in the opposite to find balance.”

The beauty of this is that we stop over complicating life with trying to figure out all the things that happened leading up to that moment or how we’re going to change it all in the future. We’re simply dealing with the present and how to find balance now.

For example, just had an argument, too much fire, what can we do to bring in the opposite, cooling. It can literally be some fresh cool air, a glass of water, a few big breaths. And you start to come back to a sense of balance, which will start to change everything.

Or perhaps you’ve just gone through a loss, and feel empty, lonely the qualities of ether. How could you bring in the opposite, some earth, grounding, and nourishment?

It’s all very practical, natural and obvious, and that’s what I love about it.

Looking at the world through the Ayurvedic lens empowers us to become our own best friend, care taker and doctor. 

The western world has locked medicine and health up in the ivory towers of institutions and created a cultural paradigm of taking health out of the individuals hands. People often feel confused about their health, that it’s too complicated to know what to do for themselves or they don’t trust their own body’s instincts.

If we allow ourselves each day, with each practice and life challenge to scale it back down to the basics of elements, qualities and the intention to maintain balance, we can bring the power of health back into our own hands. As my teacher Cate once said in a lecture, “Ayurveda is the medicine of the people.” I love that!!

Making Truly Tasty Meals

by Morgan Webert

Does your food satisfy your tastebuds?

Accoding to Ayurveda, the traditional medicine system of India, the sense of taste is a natural guide map towards proper nutrition. Our tastebuds do more than just simply identify if something seems yummy or not; they open the body to receive the nutritive value of foods by providing the initial spark to the digestive process by stimulating salivation and enzyme secretion.

Ayurveda categorizes all foods into six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. The tastes, just like everything else in nature, are comprised of the five elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth. The wisdom of understanding food based on its taste comes from this elemental connection.

When we identify the taste of a food and know what elements create it, we then also know how it will effect us and we can tailor our eating to draw in the elements we need.

Ayurveda recommends two simple principles for achieving a balanced diet through the Six Tastes.

Include all 6 Tastes in each meal.

Each taste nourishes us in a different way. The brain speaks to the body when it requires nourishment in the form of food. When we incorporate all 6 Tastes into each meal, we’re making sure these signals are properly met, thus avoiding food cravings or the over consumption of certain foods.

One of the greatest nutritional issues in western society is subclinical malnutrition. This means someone may consume a large amount of food, but because the food lacks in nutritional quality their tissues are malnourished. This creates a vicious cycle of the brain signaling constant hunger because the body isn’t getting enough nutrients, stimulating cravings and overeating until the nutrients are provided.

By including all 6 Tastes we incorporate the various ways in which our body needs nutrients and thus it feels satiated.

Determine the proportion of tastes you eat based on your unique constitution.

We each have a unique constitutional make-up of the five elements. Some people are more fiery and hot, while others are more light and airy and other dense and solid.

The body often naturally desires tastes that balance it and reject tastes that aggravate it. If we observe our natural tendencies, and which elements we’re dominated by, we can choose tastes that balance our constitution rather than aggravate it.

The typical modern diet has an excess of sweet and salty tastes and lacks the balancing effects of the other four tastes. This is a primary cause for the epidemic of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease in the West.

Which tastes do you mostly eat? Which tastes do you need to eat more of?

10 Ways to Tame the Pitta Summer Flame

The heat is on! Are you ready for summer?

Here in Australia the weather has finally turned to summer and we all know it’s just the beginning of feeling the fire element and all its force every day for a few months.

Some of us may embrace this time of year, taking every chance we can to run to the beach and soak up the rays, while others of us feel flustered and overheated just thinking about the temperature gage increasing.

What is your reaction to the heat and this time of year? Does it make you feel good or not? Your answer should give you some insight into your constitution (Vata, Pitta or Kapha) and what you need to keep balanced and cool.

Summer is the Pitta time of year, so if you have a Pitta dominance you’ll want to pay extra attention to keeping yourself from overheating.

We see the doshas not just in our body, but also in the seasons. The Vata dosha, comprised of ether and air, dominates Autumn and early Winter. Kapha, composed of water and earth elements, shows up most in late Winter and Spring. While Pitta, comprised of fire and water, dominates in Summer.

The qualities (gunas) of Pitta include oily, sharp, hot, light, moving, liquid and acidic.

Remember the simple Ayurvedic law we talked about in the last blog: like increases like, while opposites create balance. As we take a closer look at the Pitta constitution, keep that principle in mind and start to notice where these qualities are in excess and your internal flame may be turned up too high or where you lack these qualities and the fire may need a little stoking.

Pitta translates to mean “that which cooks.”

Pitta is most closely related to fire, but also contains the water element which gives it a liquid nature. It is the energy of digestion and metabolism in the body and functions through substances such as organic acids, hormones, enzymes and bile. We see Pitta most in the small intestine, stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, blood, eyes and sweat.

Pitta governs all processes related to conversion and transformation–in the body as well as in the mind. Psychologically, Pitta manifests as joy, courage and willpower when balanced. When out of balance and overheated it shows up as anger, jealousy and impatience.

Pitta individuals tend to have medium builds and strong bodies with little problem losing or gaining weight. They often have bright and penetrating eyes and can tend toward delicate or oily skin prone to acne.

Due to a strong internal fire the Pitta person also has a strong metabolism and appetite (and becomes irritable when skipping meals so feed the Pittas around you lest you feel their wrath!). For this same reason these people may have problems with lose stool, heartburn, liver disorders and inflammation.

The Pitta within us all provides the radiant light of the intellect.

When we’re connected to and living our passions (no matter what our dominant constitution), our eyes light up and we radiate joy, courage and purpose.

Take a moment and think of something that brings you joy and makes your eyes sparkle. How can you bring that into your life every day?

Making joy a practice can be one of the greatest ways to stoke your internal fire. Just dedicating a portion of your day to feeling joyful can burn up the blockages within, opening the mind to new possibilities and sharpening the intellect.

We must also know how to calm the flames so we don’t get burned.

To balance Pitta think cooling, calming and moderation.

Summer recommendations to tame Pitta for all doshas:
Eat more cooling foods with high water content.
Wear light, breathable clothing.
Take cool baths and showers.
Avoid overly spicy food.
Drink more water.
Avoid exposure to the sun between noon and 3pm.
Take a short nap during the day.
Favor cooling exercises like swimming.
Take walks under the moonlight.
Use cooling body oils (coconut)

Know thy Constitution

by Morgan Webert

Recently, my Ayurvedic teacher Cate Stillman, made one of those so obvious it’s profound comments. She said, “The more we understand our constitution the more we can collaborate between what we want to do and what we’ve got to do it with.”

In the West we don’t often talk about our constitution, our intrinsic nature or the basic material we’re made up of in relation to creating our life. And yet, we wouldn’t imagine building a house without knowing what kind of material was available or best to use.

Thinking like this is very practical and very logical, and that’s one reason I love Ayurveda; it encourages us to understand the simple material we’re made up of and learn how best to use it in the process of building our lives.

And make no mistake, we are building this life, one breath and choice at a time. With a greater understanding of ourselves, especially at the most simple and subtle levels, we make more informed choices and breaths that support us in creating a vibrant and happy life.

So what are we made of?! 

Ayurveda, the traditional medicine system of India, recognizes that every living thing is comprised of the five elements: ether, air, fire, water and earth. The system also observes that as these elements manifest into form they tend to group in three particular ways called the doshas.

The fist dosha is called Vata and is a combination of ether and air. The second dosha is Pitta and is a combination of fire and water. The third dosha is Kapha and is a combination of earth and water.

Because we contain all five elements within us, all three of the doshas also show up in everyone one of us, but each person will have their own unique ratio of these elements and doshas.

This unique combination is called our prakruti or constitution. Most people have one dominant dosha and this shows up in our personality, body type, digestion and lifestyle. Knowing what is most and least dominant in you is such an important step in knowing how to build a happy and healthy life.

To continue with the house metaphor, we wouldn’t build an open air Balinese thatched roof house in Alaska lest we freeze to death. Along the same lines, a person with mostly fire in their constitution will likely end up feeling irritable, over heated or get heart burn if they eat too much chili and spend too much time in the sun.

Building a life with balance

When we feel good, most likely we’re making choices that balance our constitution, and when we don’t feel good mostly likely some aspect of our life is causing an imbalance. The imbalances are called our vikruti and it’s just as important to identify how you’re out of whack or what’s easily tipped off balance in order to change or prevent it.

Over the next few weeks in class and in this blog we’ll dive deeper into the three doshas and how they show up in our body, mind and society.

In the mean time go take a test online to find out what your constitution is. Tell us what you found out and how it’s making you think about yourself differently or if it supports what you’ve known intuitively!

Here is a quick and accurate dosha test, should only take a few minutes, but there are a bunch out there so if you have the time try a few and you’ll get even more insight into what you’ve got to work with to make the life you want.