Ayurveda is about healing the diseases of body and mind, with self-realization as the highest form of healing, for optimal health for the yogic quest (Ketabi, Lad, & Frawley). It’s about prana as a healing power with extraordinary vitality, and prana’s evolutionary transformations. Ayurveda, the knowledge, study and science of life, can be a remedy for the shortfalls of modern medicine.
Ayurveda’s most important principle is the underlying, unified, inner field of vital energy and intelligence governing the functioning of the body. The goal is to enliven that Atma intelligence, to wake it up, which leads to healing. The Atma is the underlying inner template of an individual given ideal health and balance. It is our unique signature frequency that permeates every cell and tissue. The goal is to enliven, balance, and manifest the Atma in daily life, with pranayama circulation of the vital energy.
There’s a tendency for one aspect to predominate and climate change is a manifestation of the disease state emerging from pitta imbalances and it needs to be balanced with vata, with better nutrition, digestion, elimination, and detoxing.
Climate Yoga seeks to prioritize helping treat people with dominant, overheated pitta disorder. Pitta governs body—and Earth's—temperature. Symptoms of pitta imbalances include inflammation (to set on fire), associated with cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and other diseases; uncomfortable heat, fevers, acid reflux, heartburn, anger, irritability, bad body odor, excessive sweating, impatience, criticism, judgment, intolerance, envy, and excessive perfectionist tendencies. These conditions are often due to diet, exposure to chemicals, too much sun, and emotional stress.
Pittas tend to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and may turn to alcohol or food to relax. Sweets are cooling but highly processed sweets cause a sugar high and crash, upset, and being unproductive. A balanced pitta manifests in leadership, being focused and present, and not letting worries cause stress.
Treatment for imbalanced pitta includes lots of fruits, vegetables, healthy carbohydrates, lots of water, and pure proteins like lentils. Balancing pitta involves a soothing diet of juicy fruits like melons and peaches, bitter/astringent herbs and vegetables like collards and kale, and digestive spices like cumin, coriander, and turmeric. Also, limit hot, spicy, salty, oily, fried foods, alcohol, and caffeine. Drink plenty of cool, fresh water for staying hydrated and flushing toxins—plus dips in natural springs, lakes, or oceans. Meditate, moon-bath, and practice soft, pacifying yoga with 80% of your usual energy, with forward folds, moon salutations, and spinal twists to purify the liver. Do meditations releasing negative thoughts, insight into mental processes, and cultivating patience and compassion for yourself and others. Meditation helps reduce blood pressure, lower cardiovascular risks, and treat numerous other diseases.
Other remedies include the herb triphala, dry brushing, regular eating and sleeping patterns, cold or lukewarm showers, daily massage (abhyanga), and sweet friendships and company.
Similarly, the Chinese medical perspective of the climate crisis advises: embrace a cooler lifestyle, a less inflammatory diet, and see the assumptions that shape your life: what we value, how we define success, and the stores we tell and listen to. Science and policy assumes that climate change is happening outside us. What is happening in the environment around us is also happening within us. We are a hologram of the macrocosm. We are the planet itself (The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis).
Severe storms, floods, and droughts are our internal condition—our stress, anxiety, anger, sadness, inflammation, cancer, and heart disease. Imbalances arise from how we view the world. Things that we consider normal are pathological and destructive, like coffee, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, and meat—and continuous activity. These things heat our inner and outer environment. Western-style reasoning waits until there’s undeniable evidence—of smoking causing cancer and burning oil warming the planet. It’s a worldview based on separation, focusing on issues in isolation, unable to see patterns, and ignoring the larger picture. Sit back and rest against a tree and just be. Be rooted and stay still. Be connected. Create joy and love.
Erik Phillips-Nania, Earthling
Author, Climate Change Yoga