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!!

The Mysteries of Second Winds and Sluggish Mornings

Ever wonder why you get a second wind late at night? Why you can wake up early but then feel heavy the rest of the morning? Or why you just can’t seem to stay focused in the afternoon? 

Amazingly, the traditional medicine system of India, Ayurveda, has an explanation for all of this and it’s been the topic of the free talks I’ve given over the last few months.

As mentioned in previous posts the Ayurvedic system understands that EVERYTHING is composed of the five elements — ether, air, fire, water and earth — and paying attention to the elements that dominant in and around you is a crucial part of living a healthy life.

Why? Because health is synonymous to balance and when we have an imbalance of elements in our life we have health problems.

The beauty of this system is that once we get our head around the qualities of the elements and how they show up in our food, body, personality, environment, and all things, we can easily design a life of balance and health.

It’s really simple. Just remember that like increases like and opposites balance. 

If there is too much of one element in your life, just bring in the opposite to find balance.

Ask yourself right now, what is out of balance in my life? Intuitively you might have a sense that this imbalance relates to an element — for example, too much movement (air), or stimulation (fire), a sense of emptiness (ether), lack of structure (water) or stagnation (earth).

The next step is to simply ask: What is the opposite element or quality and how can I bring that into my life to find balance?

Life is no more than an accumulation of days and moments. As such, to change our lives we’ve got to change our day to day patterns. 

One of the most practical and powerful lessons of Ayurveda is understanding how the elements show up throughout the day and then creating daily routines based on this understanding that bring balance into your life.

It’s called Dinacharya in Sanskrit, and means daily rhythms or routines.

When our daily routines align to the daily rhythms of nature we thrive — in mind, body and spirit. When we’re out of synch with these rhythms health issues start to manifest.

Sadly, our modern culture is very out of synch with the natural daily rhythm, and as a result we have an epidemic of lifestyle diseases and issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, insomnia, irritable bowl syndrome, cancers, depression, anxiety and many many more.

So what are Nature’s daily rhythms and how do we align to them? 

The day is broken down into three periods each with dominant elements (see clock graphic). This cycle happens twice in a day and is influence by sunrise, sunset and when the sun is highest in the sky or other side of the earth. Worry less about exact times and feel more into the influence of the sun on the planet.

When we know what elements dominate in each time of the day, we can be wise about how we choose to spend that time, always remembering that like increases like and opposites balance.

Element and energy dominance at each time of day:

2:00 – 6:00 – air & ether (Vata dosha) — the subtle wind energy

Before the sun rises, air and ether dominates, meaning there is a lot of lightness, movement, and connection to spirit and subtle energy. This is a perfect time to meditate, and also why some people wake up in the early hours of the morning full of thoughts.

In the afternoon these elements cycle around again creating lightness. This can sometimes cause scattered thinking in the afternoon, but if you ground yourself (opposite quality to air is earth), then it can be a fantastic time for creative thinking and projects.

6:00 – 10:00 – water and earth (Kapha dosha) — the nourishing water energy

Once the sun rises, the heavier, denser elements of water and earth dominate. This is why dew forms on the grass and why we can start to feel sluggish again even if we woke up with energy before the sun came up. This is the best time to do physical activity, bring movement (air/lightness) in for balance, and use your dense physical body. Careful not to eat too heavy of a breakfast our you’ll just bring more of that earth and water into you and get out of balance.

In the evenings water and earth elements make their appearance again, our body physiologically reacts to the darkening of the sky and we start to feel heaviness and density. Go with it, we want this in the evening so that we can wind down and get a good night sleep. Again, careful not to eat a heavy dinner or you’ll exacerbate these qualities.

10:00 – 2:00 – fire and water (Pitta dosha) — the transforming fire energy

When the sun is highest in the sky we feel the transformative heat and movement of fire and water in our bodies.  We feel stimulated mentally and physically. All primates, not just humans, produce the most bile (digestive fire) in the middle of the day. To capitalise on this fire we want to eat our biggest meal at lunch, and also be mindful not to overheat ourselves with too much sun or stimulating food and drink.

The infamous second wind kicks in usually around 10pm when the fire element makes it’s second appearance in the day. Ideally, we want to be in bed at this time so that rather than stimulating our mind this fire quality can go to stimulating tissue reparation and digestion of the day’s experiences and substances while we sleep. If we skip this and stay up too late our body really starts to suffer.

Want to start living in alignment? 

It’s well and good to think about these concepts, but making them part of your day to day life is when the real magic starts. From this blog you can already start to apply this information by paying attention to how you work with the energy of the day or exacerbate it.

If you really want to dive into this juicy material and start to see it transform your life into greater health and vitality I’ve created a 30 Day Yoga Evolution program that guides you through designing ideal daily rhythms.

This program also uses the latest habit science research to help you create new habits that you’ll actually stick to and a healthy life style that is sustainable.

The next 30 Day’s starts this Sunday, September 28th at Qi Yoga in Freshwater and part of the program includes a one month unlimited class pass. I’ve also created an online version of the program for people who can’t make it to the Sunday sessions, find out more here.

Tell us, what’s your favourite time of the day and why?

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.