Bringing Balance to the Doshas and the Body
What is Ayurveda? How do these connections between medicine, science, and spiritual beliefs create this ideology and practice? What does it mean to have balance? Coming up with many questions on this topic as I complete the prep work assigned by Ayurveda educator, Dr. Soleless Quantum.
Although I do not have any initial insight on the idea of Ayurveda, I did some research to get a sense of what it is before the beginning of the lesson. From my research, Ayurveda is known as the “Science of Life”. The etymology behind this word is that “ayur” means life and “veda” means science. According to an article on this website on mind-body medicine,
“It offers a body of wisdom designed to help people stay vibrant and healthy while realizing their full human potential. The two main guiding principles of Ayurveda are 1) the mind and the body are inextricably connected, and 2) nothing has more power to heal and transform the body than the mind. Freedom from illness depends upon expanding our own awareness, bringing it into balance, and then extending that balance to the body.”
Having these principles and purpose in mind, we can find ways in which our daily activities relate to this concept.
- Sleeping: When you sleep, your conscious mind is at rest (scientifically, the brain is never at rest for it still functions while you are asleep) leaving time for your body to rest and heal up (I mean that’s why you get rest when you feel sick!). The mind is connected to the body, for when one is at rest, the other is as well.
- Exercise: When you exercise (especially in the morning), you are arousing your body with adrenaline which keeps you on high alert. In doing so, whatever you do next in your day, you will be more alert (your mind is more alert) so that you can focus.
- Eating: When you eat, it benefits both your body and mind. Your body gets the vitamins and nutrients to function properly while your mind is nourished to improve your memory and focus.
- Meditation (can be formal or informal): When you meditate (for some it may be through prayer, through ritual, through sitting in silence and just listening to your own breath), you are setting your mind to focus on one thing which helps the body relax. Stress in the mind disrupts the functions of the body, and meditation can be used to de-stress.
One Good Deed Reflection
Today, my good deed was listening to the concerns of two of my closest friends and being a support for them as they have done for me. Like the balance of the doshas (primarily mind, body, and spirit), we have a balance between listen, give advice, and speak that creates a harmony amongst each other. The mind is nourished for them because their stresses dissipated since they were expressing how they were feeling with and gaining advice from people they trust. With a clear mind, their body feels less heavy with burdens, for they have shared what has been weighing them down with other people and released their frustrations in a healthy way. From there, internally, their spirit is detoxified by the cleansing and relieving the burdens that weighed them down. By healing the mind which is connected to the body, the spirit within becomes healthier as well. When the spirit within is cleansed, it can begin to positively impact the mind and body. It is when one of these things begins to be healthy, it helps aid in keeping the others healthy as well, for they are all directly connected to one another.
