Day 11 - Ayurvedic Journey

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Why is all this self reflection needed?

Ayurveda is a lifestyle that looks at the whole person. The soul of the Vedic Science of Ayurveda is Dharma/Purpose. Diagnosing and treating diseases is a secondary purpose. Deviation from dharma (your purpose) is the root cause of anxiety and disease. Without dharma there cannot be any happiness. (The Dharma of an Ayurveda practitioner is to help people attain good health and happiness.)

In Ayurveda we hold space and accept grace for the journey, so we hope you can take one day at a time and celebrate each present moment of your journey.

What is in your way?

On Day 10, we reviewed our life with an exercise to check in on where we are at. What were your main concerns in your life and the main things you want to change?

Now sit quietly and ask yourself the following questions. Write down the first thoughts that come.

1. What is not serving me in my life?

2. If I could do anything I wanted, what would it be?

3. What is stopping me from moving forward?

Obstacles and Solutions

Now make a list of your obstacles interfering with your well-being (eg, I don’t have enough time). Next to each problem/obstacle jot down a simple solution.

Example:

Problem: I don’t have time in the mornings to start a self-care routine.

Solution: Get up 10 minutes earlier and start something. No more hitting snooze button! Just get up.

Set up your home | Take a look around and identify sabotage

To set up our home for spiritual success, we look to another ancient (c. 6,000 BC) science of the Vedas, the Vastu Shastra, (HERE), "The science of architecture/dwelling"; or the yoga of home design. This is similar to the Chinese feng shui, focusing on harmonizing our lives with our surroundings.

You share harmonious vibrations (including emotions) with everyone you live with (pets and plants included) and with all your guests (welcome and, even the unwelcome little critters that find their way into our home).

The main entrance has significant importance for our health. Near your main door, place a glass pot filled with water and flower petals, to keep your home and family healthy.

Designate a room or a space for meditation and yoga. Creating space for introspection and to connect to a higher power ensures spiritual growth. Face East when you meditate. Create a sacred altar with candles or incense.

Making small changes in your bedroom can enhance positive energy and improve your life. Ideally, the bed is placed in the southwest corner of the bedroom, with your head facing west. Use mood lighting and use aromatic oils to create an oasis of calm.

If you want to remove negative energy from your home, you can place small portions of sea salt around the house, which absorbs the energy. You can also add a pinch of sea salt in the water that you use to clean the floor.

Crystals:

Gemstones have an impact on one's constitution and doshas. This is part of Ayurveda (and Vedic astrology). For example, Vatas should use aquamarine, garnet, topaz, or onyx. Pitta should use emerald, aquamarine, amethyst, diamonds, moonstones, and opal. Kaphas should use ruby, garnet, blue sapphire, or cat's eye. Certain crystals are more healing for certain doshas. Ayurvedic healers can prescribe you specific stones, and where to place it or how to wear it. For example, each finger corresponds with different planets and different qualities.

Colors:

Vata: blue, black, purple, and indigo (Sky).

Pitta: yellow, red, and orange (Firey)

Kapha: white, pale yellow, green (Earthy)

Choose colors that help balance your doshas. Painting and changing your home decor can be meditative. To pacify vata, use shades of orange, yellow or green, to warm or keep you grounded. To pacify pitta with color, use a cool palate: light gray, blues, greens, and white. For balancing Kapha, use bright red, orange, yellow, blue, and/or purple.

Home Design Elements:

Vata: Pile up the bed with cozy blankets and pillows. Vatas may be sensitive to light, so maybe use dimmer switches.

Pitta: Use lightweight sheets for the beds, green plants, and luxurious touches.

Kapha: Accessorize with bright flowers and blankets. 

Clearing a path for your heart | Releasing mental and emotional obstacles

As we consider Ayurveda, we want to take a look at our lives and create our space. While a sattvic place will help us on our journey, it does not replace the ‘heart work’ we need to fully realize a liberated life.

During the worst of the pandemic, I focused on the theme of ‘heart work’ while leading morning meditations. During that time, I was becoming more aware that we were being asked (by the greater universe) to focus on what mattered. We are called human beings, but we have evolved into human doings. We have been pulled into an unhealthy and unsustainable relationship with consumption. I felt the heart tug and the call that it is time to do the ‘heart work.’

‘Heart work’ sounds a lot like ‘hard work’—doesn’t it? We typically refer to hard work to physical labor or exercise, relationships with difficult people and occasionally in terms of intellectual work. But there is another kind of work that can also be hard and that is truly deep, soul baring, healing heart work!

It’s the work we do to free us of mental and emotional obstacles. While heart work is hard work, its truly the most important work. This is the priority.

It’s hard work because our heart is presently misdirected towards various objects which offer us at best brief satisfaction, often followed by heartbreak. Why heartbreak? Because the temporary nature of everything material inevitably separates us from whatever joy or satisfaction existed.

So the hard work is when we make a decision to direct our heart towards the eternal infinite love and allow our hearts to be healed and filled with a pure goodness. For so many of us, we stop here. It may sound impossible or something you may not be worthy of or some other obstacle that blocks you from the next step to heal your heart. It is these obstacles that keep our minds in a fog and our lives burdened with the weight of consumption.

We all want to be free and well, so we need a ‘true north’—a focus that is eternally lovable and eternally loving. To redirect our love to something greater and infinite.

We call the practice bhakti-yoga, the path of devotion. The purpose/dharma of every living being is “to serve.” Yet, to be devoted to pure and greater love is hard work. Why?

• Our materially attached mind races forcefully towards objects we can touch and see.

• It’s hard to be devoted to something we cannot see in the physical, but like the wind blows through the trees we know that there is something greater there.

• Restraining it and redirecting our devotion requires constant, conscientious effort.

• Such effort brings us in alignment with Purpose/Dharma and contact with the all-pure supreme DIVINE, thereby purifying us and replacing our desire for the temporal with focus on the eternal.

• Just as physical hard work strengthens our muscles, ‘heart work’ will strengthen our devotion, ultimately making us eternally and joyfully absorbed in divine G_dly love.

Think it over:

• Why is heart work hard work?

• While doing heart work, how can we avoid being disheartened?

• How does a path of devotion make you stronger emotionally and expand your heart of love for all?

Ujayi breath - Practice for 4 minutes (see Day 10 for instructions)

What are the potential benefits?

According to the National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability, ujjayi breathing may:

• Improve your concentration

• Release tension throughout the body

• Regulate heating and cooling of the body, warming the core from the inside

• Cancer and chemotherapy treatment - A 2012 study indicated that yoga breathing may improve sleep disturbance, anxiety, and mental quality of life for people with cancer who are receiving chemotherapy.

• Treating depression - A 2017 study indicated that symptoms significantly declined for people who have major depressive disorder when participating in a yoga program including coherent breathing.

• Hypothyroidism - A small 2010 study involved training people who have hypothyroidism in yoga breathing exercises. The results showed a beneficial effect on their pulmonary functions.

  Although there’s no clinical research to support the claim, many yoga practitioners believe that practicing yoga focused on ujjayi breathing can balance the entire endocrine system, thus benefiting people with thyroid conditions.

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