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Category: Healing Diet
Here’s how I use Ayurveda Everyday
There are Ayurvedic doctors who specialize in working with patients with advanced diseases. Ayurveda can certainly be utilized to heal.
I use Ayurveda, and I teach my clients to use it, everyday. It’s how I feel what’s happening in my body, and see the patterns in what’s going on around me. It’s how I integrate body, mind, and soul in day to day life. It’s how I stay sane, stay connected to what’s true, as things shift around me (because you know what they say, the only thing constant is change.)
I am an action taker. A fixer. I want to know what I can do. So Ayurveda is helpful for me, because it’s so logical. And there are plenty of action steps.
Here is how I used Ayurveda, in the last few days:
- When I woke up with a tummy ache, and realize it’s gas, I make ginger tea and I feel better. Because I know that it is now the Vata time of year, and that gas is excess of Vata. So instead of choosing cold granola and milk, I choose ginger tea and eggs for breakfast. I am soothed. I feel better.
- When I wake up at 2:30am and feel clear and wide awake, I make a mental note that I will do more abhyanga this week. Because I know that in the rhythm of the day, that is Vata time of day. And again, it’s Vata time of year. And abhyanga (self massage) will calm down that excess Vata. The next night, after doing self massage that day, I sleep through the night.
- I feel the cravings for salty and sour foods. I buy pickles and stock up on my Himalaya salt. I crave meat, and buy a whole chicken from the farm, making soup and bone broth. I remember, that the qualities of heaviness and oiliness in meat balance Vata dosha, And that my craving for pickles in the craving for sour, which also brings balance to Vata dosha. And it’s that time of year, again. I listen to my cravings, because I know the helpful from the ‘unhelpful’ from practice over the years. And I trust that what my body says I need, I do.
I feel the spacey feelings I felt over the weekend settling, and I feel truly stable. I feel so satisfied by the meals I prepare from these ingredients.
For most of us, it feels good to know ‘why’ we are doing something. And it’s easy to have faith in something when you have the experience that it works. Like, I feel better, either pretty immediately, or I see results within the next day or two. That’s going to help Ayurveda’s patterns hit home. Going to help the language land in the tangible, from the cerebral.
One of my most influential teachers always reminds me “Ayurveda takes time.” I understand this on multiple levels now. Ayurveda takes time to learn because it is a vast science, ranging from astrology to pathology. It takes time because I live in a body, and it’s learning the language of the body. It takes time, because the self healing is done so in line with the seasons, it can’t all be done or known at once, or even in one year. It takes time to travel through different stages of life, where there are different needs, where the body and mind go through different challenges, to learn how Ayurveda fits in.
I started studying yoga 10 years ago. I started studying Ayurveda 3 years after that. Sometimes I truly feel like I can see two paths that branch off from those starting points – and the one without the tools I’ve learned is truly scary to me.
- Without yoga to help me stay present in my mind and body, I might have gotten caught up in alcohol and depression after a bad breakup years ago.
- Without Ayurveda I might have severe eczema up and down my arms
- Without Ayurveda I may not have found the work and job I love
- Without Ayurveda my pregnancy and post partum might have been full of a hellish depression
- Without Ayurveda and yoga my fear and anger might have taken over my body and mind
- Without Ayurveda I might have severe constipation and digestive distress
- Without Ayurveda I might have severe seasonal allergies, joint pain, etc, etc…
Do you see that there are two paths ahead of you? Do you feel like you’re at a crossroads, and it’s time to make a choice? I totally recommend deepening your study of Ayurveda. Study with me starting September 30th, 2017.
Do you have question about your “two paths”? Email me (adena at adenaroseayurveda dot com), or Apply for this Fall’s course today.
Love,
Adena
Are you Eating Good Food? Part 3
When I was out in California at Spirit Weavers Gathering this Spring, I learned about 3 medical models. There is the ‘Wise Woman Way,’ the ‘Heroic’ model, and the ‘Scientific’ model.
These three traditions of healing have different values in relation to about 25 or so subjects – this chart explains each of them as a symbol (for example Scientific world view is linear, heroic is round, Wise Woman, a spiral), and showcases the different perspectives on the role of the healer, the body, the disease or imbalance, treatments, and many more. I have taken a photo of it, so you can see what I mean:
There are a few ways that I feel Ayurveda falls into the ‘Heroic’ category too often. For example, check out the lines “Healer says’ and ‘Disease’ and’Body view.’ Lots of cleansing, purging, viewing body as dirty. Now, I totally agree and have felt that cleansing is important to healing. So I’m not saying that is ‘wrong.’ It’s more the view, the approach. The subtle difference is how we talk about our bodies and our imbalances. What I love most about the Wise Woman approach to medicine is that it is the most empowering of the client or patient or individual.
I have felt this sort of “heroic’ energy in Ayurveda before – especially earlier on in my practice. This is also what discouraged me from thinking I could help any one – as many of us do, we undermine the knowledge we do have. I, and my colleagues, was asking ‘Who am I to heal someone?’ ‘How can I help someone with an advanced disease?’ These turned out to be the wrong questions, and all it really takes is a shift in perspective.
What I have come to realize over my first 5 years of practice is that I have adopted the Wise Woman way of sharing Ayurveda – I am not the healer, or the hero. I help people find that in themselves, by showing them the patterns in nature. The patterns that Ayurveda outlines quite nicely.
I am offering my 10 week course, The Healing Diet, for the third time now. And I am not ashamed, nor afraid, to shout it from the rooftops. Each time, I believe in this way of sharing the knowledge, the information, more and more. Each time I am able to sit even farther back, and just watch the Ayurveda, the Ayurvidya, speak and flow through my work and my words.
You’re here because you believe in natural ways of healing and well being. Do you have the tools? Are you able to practice that believe, to live it to feel what healing feels like in your body? I find that even the believers don’t have the right tools, even if they have the knowledge. And that’s who this course is for. Whether you have digestive troubles, or other aches, pains, and imbalances, or not.
And even so, if you are the lucky one who has the right tools, come in and get the incentive, the support, the guidance, in a community that shares your values. Needing support is human. Community is what makes us human.
In The Healing Diet we embody what we learn. It’s not just adding to our already full headspace. Come in. Do. Be.
I’ve extended the Early registration pricing one week because I wanted to get this out to you earlier, but alas, new baby demands more ebb and flow.
Thanks for being here. I look forward to living and learning with you this year.
PS: Judi was kind enough to share her experience in The Healing Diet – she joined us last Spring, put in good effort, and was a successful member! Thank you, Judi! See you in our THD continuum program.
Love,
Are you Eating Good Food? Part 2
I am a member of a great group of mama’s on Facebook. We all get to post questions, pictures, and victories, and sometimes women share very sad personal challenges in a supportive, intimate setting. The other day, a mama posted about how her digestion was getting so bad, she was considering a colostomy bag. She had previously had surgery to remove part of her intestines, and thought she needed more. She was reaching out to the mamas to ask if anyone had had a similar experience, and how her sex life might be after the fact…
I was (and still am, thinking about it) overwhelmed with compassion for this woman. She in in her mid-30’s, a busy mom and wife. I do not know her whole story, but I could only imagine her discomfort, and the pain she must be in daily if she felt his is her only option. In a way, I felt like I wanted to share Ayurveda…though I’ve realized through years of teaching the best way is to sometimes just offer yourself, and you must sit back and see who accepts.
Faith
I am starting to really have more faith in karma. I trust my karma brought me to learn about Ayurveda, and I trust that each of my students and clients comes to it, comes to me, because they are meant to. No forcing necessary, if it’s meant to be, it will be. And that’s the way our relationship thrives as well.
So even though I feel like Ayurveda can help this woman – not necessarily heal all the damage or trauma that has occurred to bring her to this state of imbalance, but simply help her digestion stay as balanced as possible while her physical body undergoes such a hit – she hasn’t come to me. I can make myself available in that community, as much as might be appropriate, but perhaps this time around, or at least for now, Ayurveda is not calling to her.
I decided to do a little bit of research, when I heard her story. In Ayurveda, digestion is literally the key to health and longevity. In the past 5 or 6 years, I have heard of a few people who have had to have a colostomy bag, whether for a short period of time, or permanently. And these people happened to be women, between the ages of 25 and 40. This is so YOUNG to be having such deep bowel imbalances, so deep that surgery is necessary. What’s going on?
No self blaming, please, just compassionate self inquiry
I understand that sometimes our imbalances are not simply due to the food choices we make, or have made for us. Trauma can certainly be a reason for this, whether physical trauma (like other surgeries or accidents) or emotional. In Ayurveda, there is a word we use, kavaigunya, which means ‘defective space.’ This is really like your weak spot – whether it’s due to genetics, or an energetic pattern that becomes physical, it is the place in the body where the stressors go, where the toxins build up. For so many of us it does happen to be the digestive tract, or for a lot of women, the reproductive organs. And of course, the digestive tract has to manage all the physical stuff we throw into it as well. Ayurveda gives us the tools to learn and to get to know how to take care of ourselves, starting with the gut.
In Ayurveda, it is mentioned that there seem to be 6 stages of disease. The first 3 stages are quite subtle, in fact if you went in to a western medical doctor before stage 4, there would probably be no treatment or diagnosis available. This makes it tough to really practice preventative medicine in this culture. We put up with the daily discomforts, even when they might be to the point of disrupting our daily activities, partially because we know if we go to the doctor they won’t really be able to do anything for us. Bad gas? Perhaps a prescription. Daily afternoon headaches and irritability? Take tylenol. Rashy skin? Try steroids. Easten medicine wants to work from the inside out.
And I don’t say this stuff to bash western medicine, it is incredible and life saving! It just proves that what it is best at are the deep imbalances, are the emergencies. And what Eastern medicine is best at is the smaller stuff. And getting the smaller stuff before the bigger stuff becomes necessary, like colostomies.
Don’t just accept things as they are
I spoke with one of my students yesterday, who I feel was very successful in The Healing Diet course (click the link for a video). One of the first things she says is something like, “Well, The Healing Diet is not really a diet at all, but a course about life…” And she is right on. It’s not about ‘perfect’ food choices, but about living an authentic life. About digesting this whole experience. About gaining the tools, the framework of Ayurveda to live better, and feel better, and that’s how we come into healing. We are complex beings, and healing does not happen only on one of our layers.
When I was out in California, I learned about 3 medical systems. I was a little bit disappointed where I felt Ayurveda fit in. I want to write about that next time.
When I found Ayurveda, I felt like I found the language I had been looking for most of my life. If you’re feeling the call to Ayurveda, heed it. I know I came to yoga and Ayurveda because I needed them in this lifetime to get through. Got what you need to get through?
Love,