LIFESTYLE

You needn’t be a yogi or an aesthetic to have Ayurveda be a part of your lifestyle. A modern Ayurvedic lifestyle doesn’t require you to be sober or to meditate for hours a day. True, Ayurveda hails from a very long tradition of humans cultivating and practicing these ideals. However, that was appropriate in that time and place. At the heart of Ayurveda is the understanding that a healthy lifestyle keeps you in balance and is full of joy. It is important to keep in mind those ancient yogis never had to deal with the stressors of this modern life. 

Ayurveda teaches us that we are all unique so what may work for us may not work for another. What may even work for someone very similar to us might not actually work for us either. The Ayurvedic lifestyle is one in which you are very intimately connected to yourself. It is one where you can create and maintain space in your life for this connection. You can listen to it in its truest voice and honor that voice by heeding its requests. This demands a lot of patience, quiet reflection, and honesty even when it’s opposite of what your mind is telling you it wants so badly. 

Living an Ayurvedic lifestyle also has some structure that connects you with an intimate knowledge of how the earth exists where you are and also how it moves through time. The seasons are a direct representation of the five elements and each season has its own qualities that need to be respected.

What you should eat and practice in springtime will be vastly different from what you should do during the summer months. Practices and foods that help you during winter will hinder your body's balance in the spring, therefore Ayurveda helps us to know these correct adjustments so our baseline state of health is always supported.

Where you live on this planet also deeply matters. Here in Colorado, we deal with unpredictable weather and intense dryness. What I eat here and the self-care practices I use differ greatly from when I lived in the tropics of Thailand.

An Ayurvedic lifestyle simply means a true connection to self and the ability to adapt to the Earth’s changes. One of the hardest concepts to truly understand is what balance means for you and your body, mind, and spirit. Not only is this specific to you but it also changes all the time. You will have so many experiences, go through so many growth moments, have so many unpredictable things happen to you, and you will have so many decisions to make. Your level of stress will constantly fluctuate and your level of satisfaction with your life will never stay the same.

In one period of your life you may have many key needs unfulfilled and you will experience intense emotions, and a very different period of your life may have almost everything in perfect harmony and it will be a time of peace. Ayurveda does not say to make sure you are always happy or you are always following your doshic diet to a ‘t.’ It says these changes are expected, so please take care of yourself.

It shows you how to keep adding different tools to your self-care and first-aid tool kit so that as you grow and change each transition gets easier to deal with. With Ayurveda, you will know yourself so intimately that you can see your behaviors happen before they become habits and are a detriment to your health. It allows you to eat less well during a period of increased tension because it knows once you get through that period you are going to put yourself back in balance with fresh home-cooked meals. 

True wellness is not an allowance to do whatever you want whenever you want, that is a child’s dream.

A true wellness lifestyle means that you again are respecting and honoring yourself’s truest needs. Sometimes these needs mean mac’ and cheese and a movie on the couch, which is very much a need and has its place and time.

But most of the time your true self craves what is best for you – do you need silent reflection? Do you need time with friends and connection with people? Do you need to confront the anxiety you feel and find out where it’s coming from? Do you need some invigorating movement or some slow restorative movement? Do you need a cup of hot tea to soothe your nerves? Do you really need a glass of wine every night, or do you need to talk to someone about your stress?

Lifestyle means that you have a routine and that you have an overarching understanding of how to care for yourself. Our beings crave routine, especially our bodies. It calms us and allows us to exert less energy on maintaining health because automation is already built-in with a routine.

A big key to health in Ayurveda is creating and maintaining a routine around the mundane moments of life – morning waking, meal times, exercise, and sleep. These routines care for the body of course, but also the mind so that your spirit can feel light and joyful in this state of health. 

To live an Ayurvedic lifestyle is a commitment to yourself but it creates so much beauty and empowerment. It honors all needs of self, honors the Earth, and honors the growth you will inevitably go through as life never stays the same for long. Be gracious towards yourself and others because we are all trying to figure this out in different ways!

MORE OF MY AYURVEDIC VALUES