Yoga Ayurveda Flow - The Elements Outside Are Inside Us Too

Let’s begin at the beginning and let’s while we are at it “think for ourselves”. Who is thinking for you? Simple question, right. But we are a product of our conditioning in life, so we might think I am in charge, of course. But who is that “I” in charge? Is it the Chairman of the Board (CofB) thinking or is it the Chief Officer (CO).

The CO might have a healthy ego but the (CofB) usually doesn’t like to be challenged and can override the CO. If this crazy metaphor sounds a little out there, it is. Why? Because they are both the same product of self and only through consciousness can we let go of this office scenario. Alas, like so much of life, the answer might be simple but the path is not. It is important also to try and not mistake the path for the destination. It takes tapas (discipline), it takes desire, it takes love.

Let’s challenge ourselves. Is your yoga practice about tapas and does the CofB take over saying you should be jumping into handstand by now, or are you letting the CO speak through your prana with love and acceptance at whatever stage you are currently at? Yes, most of us love a challenge and yes we get caught up with pictures and words of alignment but do we stop with awareness to notice the alignment of our mind. Do we stop and discern, do we stop and become mindful of the transitions.

I like to think of it less of finding a balance and more of finding a flow. Why? Because with flow there is prana, there is breath and this allows for alignment in my body, mind and spirit. An alignment in body, mind and spirit that no amount of grasping can ever achieve. A place where we might find ourselves when we learn to look beyond ourselves.

I love to teach yoga and I love to teach Ayurveda but I am always first and foremost a student of both. It is a never-ending stream of knowledge and from this knowledge I can work with many different modalities. One of my favorite things is teaching. It took a long time for me to say that out loud as the CofB was always telling me there was someone better out there. That sea of “out there” kept me on shore for a long time. It was the gift of Ayurveda that brought me out of my shell.

It is so beautiful to teach a class around the theories of this science. The asanas are the same, the pranayamas the same, the meditations the same, but the wisdom of how to use these tools in my toolbox have fine tuned my teaching. Yoga is a path for me and to share this healing with others is a gift for which I acknowledge and I am in gratitude for.

The next time you are on the mat stop and notice the elements that are playing in your practice. Can you look at the picture above and find the qualities of Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth? Can you take what you need of each element and balance it with the elements present in yourself to find the flow with your practice on the mat? Can you breathe through each movement. Can you exhale? Can you find yourself?

What is Ayurveda

Ayurveda

“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use.

When diet is right, medicine is of no need.”

Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga and originated over 5,000 years ago in India.  It is the oldest continuously practiced health care system in the world.  Ayurveda draws on the understanding of the natural rhythms of nature and the five elements.  These five elements are in nature and are in each and every one of us.  The elements are ether (space), air, fire, water, and earth.

When we as natural beings who are governed by these laws of nature learn to work with them and their divine consciousness, we can create health and well being in our bodies.  If we choose to ignore these laws then imbalance and “disease” can begin to appear.  These imbalances are the precursor to disharmony and disease in the mind and in the body.  Ayurveda understands our deepest connections with the whole universe and the influences of the energies that make up this universe.

“We are considered a Microcosm of the Macrocosm.”

Each of the five elements has inherent energies that govern their functions.  We are all made up of these energies, but each individual, each person will have slightly different proportions of the individual elements, making everyone unique, making everyone have their own constitutional makeup.

The Ayurvedic approach treats each and every one of us by taking into account unique psychological, emotional and physical conditions.  Any imbalances in the body are then looked at through the system of the elements.  

Ayurvedic medicine concentrates on prevention and understanding one’s own makeup and focuses on how the outer world and environment affect one’s daily life.  

Ayurveda is a system based on natural healing through the strengthening of the body, mind, and spirit, thereby, allowing the body to heal itself to be swastha*  (healthy).  Ayurveda teaches us to attain optimal health through the deeper knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our unique relationship in and to the world we live in.

* Swastha -  a healthy person is someone whose doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha) are all in equilibrium, the digestive fire (agni) is in a balanced state (sama), in addition to the body’s tissues (dhatus) and wastes (malas) also being in balance. The quote also states that the mind (mana) and sensory organs (indriyas) as well as a person’s spirit/soul (atma) must be also in a pleasant state (prasanna). When a person is balanced in all of those areas, he or she is considered healthy by Ayurvedic standards.

Milk, Sleep, & Ojas (Immunity)- What do they have in common Ayurvedically

Ayurveda considers milk to be an ojas (immunity) building food.   However, in today’s day and age milk has become somewhat of an enemy to many, and at the very least is a controversial subject.  So what is the problem with many of the milks we purchase in the supermarket today that makes it hard for us to digest?  The main problems stem from the fact that today’s milk is overly processed: Hormones, chemicals and antibiotics are often added, it undergoes unnecessary homogenization and the wrong type of pasteurization is done.  We need to look for milk that is vat pasteurized as this type of pasteurization doesn’t damage the milk proteins because it is a slow, safe heating process of the milk at temperatures of 135 degrees for 20 minutes.

I always recommend that you check out the milk at your health food stores and look for milk that is organic, with no added hormones, chemicals and antibiotics and that is non homogenized.  Today most of our milk will also go through an ultra homogenization process that renders it impossible for our bodies to break down.

So milk is an ojas building food and we just have to be sure that we purchase the best milk we can if we don’t have access to a trusted farm.  For more information on milk and the detrimental effects of homogenization, check out my blog from April of last year HERE.

The last component above is sleep and you might ask what does sleep have to do with milk and ojas.   When ojas is depleted because of stress, lack of sleep, and poor digestion amongst other things, our body breaks down and our ojas (immunity) will suffer.  This might show up in our systems as exhaustion, insomnia, stiff joints,  and a reduced ability to fight off colds.

We often find in modern medicine that the traditions our families have espoused have true quantitative value. It should be no surprise then that for thousands of years, milk before bed has been used to aid in sleep so that we may get the rest necessary to enhance our immune system by building our ojas.  Another example of how milk and sleep can work together harmoniously to help build ojas and heal from the inside. Look under the recipes section of my blog for a wonderful Bedtime Tumeric Milk to try before bed or click HERE.

Make The Most of Your Milk

As you know I love the unhomogenized milk we can now get at Whole Foods and I am playing with a dairy farm to try raw milk.  I like milk and always have and I know dairy gets a bad rap at times as our culture seems to love to eliminate whole food groups.  I realize some people are lacto intolerant but many of us get gas or bloating from foods and blame it on dairy without being tested or without looking at the whole picture.  I personally have had many clients switch to unhomogenized milk and it has made a big difference.I was also one of those people until recently that used skim milk just because.  During my studies I came to realize many things and one of them is that skim milk is not the best for me.  I just came across another study and wanted to share a piece of that study with you, so here goes.

 Heating wet foods above 118 degrees F destroys the naturally occurring, beneficial enzymes. As a living food, raw milk contains enzymes that assist in digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Fermenting the milk into yogurt further activates beneficial enzymes, rendering the product even more digestible.

In particular, raw milk contains the enzyme lactase which helps breakdown lactose. Additionally, an enzyme in the butterfat called lipase aids in fat digestion and assimilation of the fat-soluble vitamins.

Pasteurized milk is heated to 170 degrees and ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to 280 degrees. This prolongs the shelf-life of the milk at the cost of destroying the health-giving qualities of the milk. There are no live enzymes left in pasteurized milk… it is a dead food. As a result, the digestive system must furnish all the enzymes required to digest it. Often, if the diet consists of all cooked foods, the body’s enzymes stores are depleted and digestion is impaired.

The butterfat in raw milk separates to the top… just like butterfat should. The butterfat is primarily saturated–the most healthiest and most stable fat to consume (if you are still stuck in the utterly false mindset that saturated fat is bad for you, then get thee a copy of Nourishing Traditions immediately!). If the raw milk is from cows in pasture, this butterfat boasts anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties.

The practice of homogenization further mutilates the chemical integrity of milk. The fat globules are pressurized so that they become small enough to be in suspension throughout the milk, without separating into cream. This makes the fat and cholesterol more susceptible to rancidity and destroys the colloidal structure of the milk.

Even worse options are reduced fat, low fat and skim milk. The body requires removed butterfat to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K in the milk. These vitamins are even more unavailable to the body in low fat/skim milk. Skim milks often contain dry milk powders and additives to compensate for the loss of flavor and texture with the butterfat. The consumption of skim and 1% milk has been shown to cause more weight gain than whole milk (here’s the study).

Where your awareness goes your prana follows.

Yesterday as we began yoga class we discussed Ojas (vigor), Prana (life force) and Vata (elements of air and ether) briefly and that the greatest disturbance to Ojas comes from the mind.  Where our attention goes our Prana follows.   The key to longevity, immunity, anti-aging comes from cultivating our Ojas.  One of the ways to do this is to spend time in introspection perhaps meditating, yoga or even putting aside an hour a day for quiet time (no phones, no tv, no chatting).  Perhaps pick up a good book, or be with a craft you love.
 

Grab a journal or notebook and make this a year of some soul feeding, nourishing changes.  Keep your journal in a place where you can easily access it and write down things that draw you away, for example I spent 3 hours in front of the tv or computer.  There is a quote by Oscar Wilde that goes, "Everything in moderation including moderation."  Perhaps you can learn to say I love my quiet time instead of but I love those shows.. It is not that all TV is bad, it is just an awareness of - is it trapping me in some way that I have not been paying attention to even on purpose.   Notice what feeds your soul when you let the mind quiet down.  And if you are already doing these things, keep on keeping on.  This can be a tough task in the beginning as these external distractions can become almost hypnotic.  
 

Suggestions:  paint, write, declutter, soothing music, laugh with yourself, eat whole foods, lots of greens, play with spices, learn a musical instrument. dance.  Then notice what has been draining your energy.  Is it too much television, being on the computer, talking and texting on the phone.  Make this as I said yesterday an observation, not a judgement.  What is keeping you from how you want to be an feel and what you really would like to be doing.  Notice the distractions that you allow to happen "because".  These things sap your Ojas and the most expensive cream in the world cannot give you back the radiance and glow that Ojas gives you.  It is the best anti-ager in the world as it promotes longevity and immunity.

One of my favorite quotes from Swami Kripalu goes:  

“Before speaking consider if it is an improvement upon silence.”

Remember this is your journal so open up freely without any judgements just pure awareness. WHERE YOUR AWARENESS GOES YOUR PRANA FOLLOWS.

Hugs, hugs, hugs and thanks for listening  - Have a beautiful day, I know you will.