Striking a Balance between Nature and Humanity
By Jessica.S
Have you been a little stressed out lately? Overwhelmed? Does your life feel like it’s out of control? It is clear that nature is undergoing rapid changes. The struggle of the world to deal with such unanticipated eruptions has always been a challenge due to a number of a reasons, such as the novelty of causative organisms, its unexpected virulence, delayed detection, rapid widespread, lack of treatment and many more. In these uncertain and unprecedented circumstances in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, dealing with stress and trying to find a balance is even more challenging. When that balance is lost, we end up feeling broken, and trying to find that balance seems more difficult than ever. But amidst all this, it is crucial that we try to maintain our overall well-being, and that is only possible if we strive for a balanced life.
If we look at Ayurveda, it surely has its own slow way of bringing an imbalanced lifestyle back to balance. So it is clear that Ayurveda at this point is a bit like a quick fix to managing a human body. If we really start looking at “managing” as a bigger problem in the context of humanity, it is clear that Ayurveda is great in helping an individual human while it is blind to the cause of the greater collective that we are and hence, while it solves the problem for one and now. What we need is to develop an understanding of the Ayurvedic ways of managing a human body using its own immune system by working on the overall metabolism.
Ayurveda invites conscious seekers of health to commune with Mother Nature in peace and mimic her ways.
Coping with social distancing, uncertainty, worry and isolation is creating many different physical and emotional responses in all of us. Ayurveda teaches us that we are all unique individuals based on our doshic types. The doshas are a reflection of the 5 great elements of fire, water, earth, air and space. Vata is characterised by the mobile nature of Wind (Air) energy. Pitta embodies the transformative nature of Fire energy and Kapha reflects the binding nature of Water energy. The qualities of the elements present themselves in our physical and emotional (mind) bodies.
The balance of the doshas can be influenced by changes in our environment, the seasons, our food intake, interaction with others and lifestyle (including exercise and jobs); of which have been greatly influenced by Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown. You may have noticed that people are reacting differently to the changes we are facing at the moment. Observing people in your household, yourself or when chatting to people on the phone or virtually gives us a valuable insight into understanding the dance of the doshas and what we can do to maintain mind-body balance and stay healthy.
When imbalanced or in times of stress, Vata tends towards anxiety, overthinking and erratic behaviour. The mind feels overactive, you may find it difficult to focus on individual tasks and your sleep may become disrupted. With Vata types, imbalance can occur quickly and a cycle of sleep and digestive disruption is very common. To balance the mobile, erratic nature of Vata, grounding activities are important. Gentle yoga and meditation and connecting with friends and family is important, especially now as we are all following social distancing guidelines.
Imbalanced Pitta types during this time may feel frustrated as they do not have the answers to lots of questions at the moment. They may feel that they want to find strategic solutions to situations out of their control, which can further lead to imbalance. To maintain balance in Pitta types, now is a great opportunity to try something new or use your skills to help others. It’s OK to slow down a little. Rest is as important to activity. Make sure you are getting enough sleep: 7-8 hours per night.
May feel a little more comfortable about staying at home. For short periods this is fine, but in the long term, Kapha types can become “stuck” at home. Their desire and motivation to get moving and maintaining healthy habits can diminish. Over time this can lead to imbalance in Kapha types, groundedness moves to heaviness of body and of mind, and when imbalance occurs over time they will tend to retreat emotionally, experiencing low mood, depression, lethargy and weight gain. Establish a regular routine. Do not oversleep. This will have a big impact on how you feel. You will feel heavy and sluggish for the rest of the day. Don’t be tempted to have sweet treats and snacks at home, it’s just too tempting. Connect with others as much as possible. Every day, speak to someone.
Suggestions to uplift immunity to keep balance
If everything gets too overwhelming, pause and ask yourself “how am I feeling?”. Check yourself regularly. The true happiness of a man is having clear conscience and being useful to humanity. Ayurveda has a lot of suggestions on how to uplift and maintain immunity to keep the balance between nature and humanity.
Stay hydrated
Because you aren’t getting as much physical activity chances are that you also aren’t drinking enough water. Drinking lots of water will help your mood, focus, metabolism and also hair and skin to stay less dry.
Mouth Rinse
Warm liquids and oils are used as gargles or mouth rinses to cleanse the mouth and throat thoroughly. Gargles with these medicated decoctions have demonstrated beneficial effects in dry mouth, postoperative sore throat, oral ulcers, gingivitis and bacterial growth.
Steam Inhalation
Steam inhalation and hot fomentation (with aromatic oils) provide satisfactory clinical relief in nasal and throat congestion, bronchoconstriction, headache and sinusitis. Its role in improving nasal conditioning, improving nasal mucus velocity and reducing congestion and inflammation has been reported in several clinical studies.
Herbs
Prepare an herbal tea with the ingredients including Tulsi (Basil), Dalchini (Cinnamon), Black Pepper, Dry Ginger and Raisin. Drink this once or twice every day. Make use of the spices, including Turmeric, Cumin, Coriander and Garlic, across the different recipes while cooking.
Physical Health
Invest in your physical well-being. Avoid eating junk food. Eat fruits and vegetables that will boost your immunity. Try and get as much exercise as you can indoors. Practice the yogic procedures like Yoga Asanas, Pranayama and Meditation for about 30 minutes a day.
We are all experiencing a difficult phase in our lives. It is crucial that we try to maintain our overall well-being, and that is only possible if we strive for a balanced life. The only way to get through this is staying positive. But that does not mean that you ignore your worries. Instead, you must accept them and try to think of ways in which you can cope with them. Practice self-love and be nice to people, they need you to rediscover their humanity.