Many Axis YTT students choose to experiment with taking a physical action to balance their dosha during the Ayurveda portion of the training. These include changes to diet, completing a cleanse or changing their asana practice. This student took a different approach by changing her mind set in order to find balance.

When we began discussing the experiments, I was personally feeling very overwhelmed in my life and out of balance.  I felt pulled in every direction.  I had taken on too much (again) and did not feel like I was giving enough time or effort into any of my commitments because there were just too many.  I am a wife, a high school teacher, department chair, a coach, and a sponsor of an international traveling service club (which I plan completely on my own).  I had just barely finished my Master’s degree when I began the Axis Teacher Training Program.  I felt like I did not have room to breathe and my anxiety was suffocating me.  My insomnia was in full force and I could feel myself spiraling into a depression.

I did everything Beth advised me to do and in some ways, let go of doing things.  I practiced the sesame oil massage, along with swishing with it in the morning, and scraping my tongue.  I practiced slower, restorative asana instead of my usual vigorous, challenging asana.  And at work, I delegated!  I started asking people to do things.  Instead of making the test myself, I had someone else do it.  I asked others to research the trip, I asked someone else to go to that meeting, I said I could not take on more work.  It was exactly what I needed.  My experiment was not about doing more and changing my diet, it was about letting go and changing my mindset.

Ayurveda is a completely new form of natural healing for me.  I am familiar with other types, but prior to Axis Yoga Teacher Training I had never even heard of Ayurveda.  With that said, I had a hard time deciding what parts to try for this experiment.  Ayurveda is so involved and overwhelming at first. I took two different tests that both told me my dosha is vata … extremely vata, with just the tiniest pinch of pitta and no kapha at all.  I figured if two tests say that, I must at least be mostly vata.

The almond oil smells better than the sesame, so I was pretty happy about that change. The room temperature food was not as unappealing and I managed to get it down.  After a couple of days I started eating mostly hot foods again without even noticing.  Now hot food is what I want almost all the time and it seems to be making me feel warmer. My skin is just as soft as it was with the sesame oil.

My thought on what changed in my desire for cold food is that the sesame oil was just too warming for me.  If I have more pitta than I thought, that makes sense, just like Beth and Susan said.  It’s amazing how oil on the outside of your body can change so drastically what is happening inside your body.  Though I will continue to struggle with balancing my vata and pitta, I feel like I am on the right track.  This experiment, if nothing else, helped me to better understand what my true dosha is.  One day maybe I will fell like my vata isn’t raging out of control. I’m not sure I have it totally correct yet, but baby steps are always better than no steps!