You may be very conscious of trying to make the right choices in
your lifestyle to make it a beautiful healthy one. However in terms of looking from a yogic or
Ayurvedic point of view, some of those things you may have appreciated as being
healthy can actually be throwing you out of balance. Making some small simple changes can make a
big impact.
1. Drinking cold or too much water.
Imagine a hot stone in the sauna and then
what happens to it when you throw cold water on it – a big reaction and a lot
of steam! This is exactly how your
internal fire is within your system that fuels the digestive system, which
allows the nutrients from your food to transform to your body. So drinking cold water is aiding to
extinguish your digestive fire and hence can cause loss of nutrients and
discomfort in the stomach area. When
eating definitely avoid drinking large amounts of water or cold water. A few sips of room temperature or even warm
water will aid the digestive process instead of impairing it. Of course any other form of drink other that
water will absolutely cause an in-balance in how you digest your food. It is better to wait for about an hour after
you have eaten to drink or at least until you feel thirsty again. Drink enough to support your emotional
stability and improve every function of your body, but not whilst eating your
food.
2. Eating Raw or uncooked foods.
As I said in my last post about Aloe Vera,
all plants hold knowledge but we also need to be able to digest them well. I was surprised to know that spinach, kale,
chard or cabbage should not be eaten raw as it makes them a tough thing to be
able to digest well and get hold of all the minerals into your system. Cooking your vegetables lightly will bring the
fire element into the food and aid how you are digesting. Over-cooking will also take out all the
nutrients but light cooking is going to help you. Although we do need a little raw food with
each meal to help keep the alkaline levels correct, so foods such as cucumber,
fruits or tomatoes can be enjoyed but the rest of your delicious veg needs a
little light cooking. This is more true
if you are like me and the vata type – the air and space elements, digestion
for us is a little harder than the pita and kapha types, so give you tummy a
hand and cook those cabbages!
3.Eating a small lunch and a bigger
dinner.
Actually it was never the way that our
ancestors ate to eat your more substantial meal at night or evening. Always if eating 3 times a good breakfast, a
hearty lunch and a light super. Or it
has been said to eat breakfast as the prince, lunch as the king and dinner as
the beggar. If you think about it, it is
actually very logical, we eat to nourish ourselves and for a source of our
energy, so why take this in its largest form and then shortly after go to bed? Eating your most substantial meal at lunch
time will boost your energy throughout the day and provide you enough time to
digest properly when the digestive fire – Agni is at its most powerful,
enabling good assimilation. In the
evening Agni is low, and you will spend most of the night trying to digest
putting added pressure on your system, hence why you wake up feeling so tired
sometimes with no reason. When you have
thought you have had a good sleep and rested, you have actually spent much
energy trying to digest your pasta instead of assimilating the goodness! Turn your meals around, this may take a bit
of a change and different organization and many people say to me – how can I do
that – I haven’t got the time etc etc, yes we know we have heard it all. But it just takes a little different thinking
that is all.
4. Overexerting ourselves with too hard a
workout, or too much working out or just generally doing to much in our lives.
Taking time to rest is vital, and although
in todays society we are seemingly guided to gyms, fitness centers and all
sorts, over exerting ourselves is not recommended. It is a wonderful thing to use this body that
we have and see what we can achieve, and exercise is vital for our health as
doing nothing is also damaging. Exercise
will remove toxins from our tissues, boost immunity, prevent fatigue and help
to reduce fat that is not needed.
However too much of it is going to be in the long term damaging and
create in-balance somewhere along the line.
So be kind and gentle to yourself, do enough but not too much. I am now coming up to 46 years old, and at
present have been suffering with anemia, allergies and going generally bonkers,
largely due to me not recognizing enough my own need to rest and calming down
my asana practice a little bit. And not
having to do 3-4 hours self practice a day plus 1-2 classes plus get a walk in and
run around looking after the house, husband etc etc. As women we all know it right. And as yoga teachers there is an enormous
pressure these days as YOGA has now been thrown into every corner of the world
and pushed to all sorts of limits, extremes and goodness knows what nonsense
actually. But there is a feeling of
expectations and judgements from your students whom you may not be familiar
with, how you look etc, but by trying to do too much to achieve the radiant
Goddess we sometimes can put ourselves in the opposite state. So although it is important to do, just don’t
overdo, it will have a negative effect later on down the line and create some
problems.
So be kind to yourselves folks and give
yourselves a hug and send a warm and loving smile down to your heart. Forgive yourself for any past mistakes and
come back to peace.
Have beautiful days
Mangala / Nicky
This article was inspired by Ayurveda next
door
