Baby Steps to a Better Body and Mind
The first, most important step in Ayurveda was assessing my digestion. The metaphor often used is equating your digestion to a nice fire — not too large and hot, and not too small and cold. I naturally have a very slow digestion, and the nonstop emotional eating, high sugar intake, and long period of constant hives had slowed it down tremendously. Instead of that warm brick fireplace, I had created a drippy, leaky, pot-belly stove that would barely ignite a dry paper bag. I quickly discovered that my slow digestion explained the cause of both my hives and my weight gain.
Once we understood my digestion, diagnosing my doshas — Vata, Pitta, and Kapha — came next. Ayurveda believes that our bodies have three energy systems that need to be kept in balance. When you are born, your dosha percentages are set and if you can keep them in that original balance, while also taking your digestion into consideration, you will remain a healthy individual. When we’re kids, youth and vigor often help keep us healthy despite the imbalances. As we age, the years of abuse to our bodies begin to take their toll and our bodies speak out. We’ve learned to ignore those signs until imbalance progresses to disease.
Through Vedika Global I learned how these energetic systems are based on the five elements in nature: space, air, fire, water, and earth. As very general examples, Vata people often have a digestion that is variable and they are the skinny ones complaining of the cold, covered in blankets and sweaters in the corner of the room. Pitta people are the ones who need to eat NOW and feel angry when they don’t (that’s my husband). Kapha people are the ones who can eat one nut and it will go right to their hips. They also think exercise is about as much fun as taking a one-way trip to Siberia (that’s me.) People generally have two doshas that are prevalent in their makeup and they need an Ayurvedic doctor to be truly sure what they are.
In the clinic, I found that I have two strong doshas (Kapha and Pitta) and they share the common element of water. Therefore, my body did not need a lot of water. One of my biggest surprises was that the popular “one size fits all” rule of drinking – eight 8oz glasses of water did not fit my body at all. It was also contrary to the advice I had received from the allergist, which was to drink even more water during hive outbreaks in order to flush the system. All that water was actually helping to increase the symptoms and contributing to the inflammation, gas, and weight gain in my body.
Ayurveda teaches that water needs to be digested by the body. All the extra water (especially cold water) I was drinking was dousing the fire that my slow digestion so desperately needed to get through all the food in my stomach! By drinking less water, and then choosing hot water during recommended Ayurvedic times, I saw immediate, positive results.
I also followed another rule that was opposite of that “one size fits all” rule: always have breakfast. With my slow digestion, I didn’t need to do that. If I wasn’t hungry in the morning, I’d simply have a glass of hot water mixed with dry ginger powder to stoke my fire. That way, I found I was sufficiently hungry by lunchtime and I had much more energy in the morning than when I forced myself to eat.
By using the prescribed herbs and many other lifestyle practices specific to my dosha make up, I began to notice miraculous differences in my body. My energy was higher, I was beginning to feel hungry at the right times, and my hive outbreaks were so few and far between I was beginning to forget there was a time where my face looked like Sloth from the 80’s movie, The Goonies.
The constant inflammation lessened and my pores became smaller. My acne became negligible and people began to comment on how wonderful my skin looked, saying I seemed to be glowing from the inside. Truly I was.
The extra weight began to drop off effortlessly and at a healthy pace. I felt not just an external lightness, but an internal lightness as well. I wasn’t even following a strict exercise routine. The weight loss just happened naturally, through minding my digestion and balancing the doshas. The best part was that it was sustainable. I have tried every diet known to woman and any small amount of weight loss I was able to achieve usually came back within 6 months.
Ayurveda also focused on my mental and spiritual states. I learned how imbalanced mental states and thoughts could create an environment for my hives to escalate. The Pitta in my dosha constitution was especially susceptible to the constant stress I was under. When I finally changed jobs I quickly realized just how much of the old, stressful, habitual thoughts I brought to my new, peaceful, and balanced work environment. I could see that a part of my stress was a self-created aspect of my life. I took some stress management classes and read a lot of the self-empowerment books I was now helping to create as a designer. Later, in my Ayurveda classes, I learned the mind management concepts of rajas, tamas, and saatva that furthered my healing.
I started spiritual practices like meditation in the morning and repeating mantras at certain times to improve the positive spirit I felt I had lost in my depression. I began to create less stress in my mind and less of a state of internal panic.
I also realized that, despite my frustrations, I couldn’t completely dismiss conventional Western medicine. When the hives were escalating, shots of epinephrine or a Prednisone treatment was a must — Ayurveda does not have too many remedies that are that fast acting. The clinic relied on conventional blood tests to assure that the herbs were not creating other imbalances. Western medicine had its place, and Ayurveda had the answers. I found that they can work together in wonderful harmony.
Ayurveda believes that your true destiny is to be happy and healthy. That you should be able to take control of your own health. Western medicine has it’s place, but Ayurveda gives you the true power to be happy and healthy before you reach a level of disease to wake you up to the sad state of a neglected body, mind, or soul. I often tell people, “When you don’t have your health, nothing else really matters and it’s hard to move forward. Trust me on this one, I lived through that feeling for years.” Luckily, I have only had a small taste of what that state feels like compared to what others go through with even more debilitating diseases.
No matter what diagnoses you receive, there is always inherent health that can be nurtured. Explore your options with me online or in-person. Or take the online immersion course with Vedika Global. Give yourself the biggest reward anyone can receive. Go from a feeling of powerlessness to a state of powerfulness as you turn your soul, mind, and body back toward your truest natural state — that of joy and balanced health.
Namaste and full health to you, Tracy
TLC - Tracy Lakshmi Cunningham