Using Ayurveda and western medicine as a guide, this Axis Yoga Teacher Training student found a path to a healthier body. This student found success in making significant dietary changes by taking it one step at a time. Healthy substitutions were made gradually rather than trying to change everything at once. The end result was a combination of both expected and unexpected accomplishment and a commitment to a healthier future.
Tag Archive for: ayurveda
My initial interest was with the pancha karma process but after my first experiment, I fully acknowledged that I have a tendency to overwhelm myself with challenges as a means of self-punishment. While this process sounds like something I would like to do in the future, I knew it was above and beyond what I was capable of at that time. Since the start of the yoga teacher training, I increasingly realized that the current state of my food intake was affecting other portions of my life. I was so removed from the intake process that I really had no idea what I was putting into my body and in what quantities. I chose to focus on my food and drink intake due to a recent visit to the doctor when a change in diet was recommended to control my mood swings and emotional sensitivity.
In recent years, I found myself loading up on a lot of processed foods and diet sodas for periods of time until I would feel awful and sluggish and then I would go through bouts of healthy eating where I would make all of my food at home with no processed or “chemical-ized” foods. This cycle would continuously repeat itself with no rhyme or reason and very little awareness on my part. I knew that this was not healthy nor was the amount of diet soda I was taking in. As my first step in this experiment, I knew I had to cut the diet soda. I had to face the fact that I was addicted to the caffeine and/or chemicals in Diet Coke. I really had no idea how much diet soda I was taking in until I said I was not going to drink it. I sure was surprised when I went through intense caffeine withdrawal. The withdrawal was so severe; I would liken it to quitting smoking. I was not pleasant to be around as friends, co-workers, and studio mates discovered.
Given that I was so agitated from quitting Diet Coke, I knew I had to include coffee and caffeine so I made quitting as many forms of caffeine as possible part of this process. I decided that this would be my second step. I only allowed myself teas and I made sure that the teas I was drinking were either “herbal infusions” that didn’t have tea caffeine or had ginger for the focused feeling I craved from caffeine. This seemed to take a bit of the edge off but the headaches and mood swings were completely unexpected. I replaced my desire for carbonation with flavored seltzer waters that seemed to curb my grumpiness a bit. I also increased my water intake to at least 50 ounces of water a day. As I am not a huge water drinker, I planned on aiming at the 50-ounce mark with the hopes of making it to 100 ounces daily in the next month.
For my third step, I decided to compare the food choices for kapha and the list that was given to me by my doctor and I made up a list of what I could eat. From there, I chose recipes that included those items and set up a diet plan I could follow. Unfortunately, I soon realized that I was rationalizing delays in implementing this new diet. I put myself back a week starting this process because of what I explained away as the agitation from quitting diet sodas and caffeine. After sabotaging this process of my experiment day after day, I decided that I needed some self-reflection to determine why I was throwing up barricades and excuses in this portion of the experiment. After some deep introspection, I realized that I had an inherent opposition to referring to this portion of the experiment as a “diet”, a word I detest. I also fostered a deep-seated justification to eating what I deemed to be comfort, “single girl” food, an interconnected relationship from mindless eating when I was in college and while I was single. I had to change my internal dialogue to view this as a meal plan, not a diet. I also had to challenge my view of processed food as comfort food and try to break the desire to maintain that interconnected relationship I had built.
After this breakthrough, I immediately went to the store to begin this portion of the experiment. While this portion of the process has proven to be the most difficult for me and I haven’t followed the meal plan to the letter, my dietary habits have improved considerably. I had an epiphany once the caffeine withdrawals had ceased that this portion of the process could be just as successful as the first two steps by selecting unhealthy items in my meal repertoire and phasing them out gradually but consciously replacing them with a healthy substitute. I found that giving myself permission to tackle one issue at a time made this experiment easier and more realistic for future maintenance.
I also began abhyanga during this process as step four. I was intrigued by the idea of a daily morning massage because my rational was who wouldn’t want to feel like they started their day with a massage. The first issue I ran into was the smell of the sesame oil that I initially purchased in the cooking oil aisle. There was a burned smell that made this process repellant the first day. I transferred over to the sesame oil in the cosmetic area. It was later suggested to me that I might try cold pressed, unrefined sesame oil but I am waiting until I am done with my current bottle of oil. I am notoriously not a morning person and my sleeping patterns varied widely on any given day. After about a week of step four, I found that I would go to bed early so I could easily get up early to complete the abhyanga and not feel rushed. I also realized that I was waking up more easily (sometimes without the aid of an alarm) and less resentfully. I looked forward each morning and was delighted to engage in this practice. There was a whole ritual of waking up, putting the kettle on, relaxing in bed until the kettle’s light whistle would start and heating the sesame oil. This process was definitely the highlight of my day.
I felt that my experiment was not as concise as I would have ideally hoped but the issues that I addressed in this experiment were items that I had long ignored. I have managed to cut caffeine out entirely of my food intake along with the chemicals I was ingesting from the Diet Coke. My withdrawal symptoms have disappeared and my agitation level has dropped drastically. My water intake has increased to about 50-75 ounces per day. The level of difficulty that I had starting the meal modification step surprised me the most. I couldn’t believe how resentful I was of this portion of the experiment. I feel like my success rate in this area was about 60%-40%. I would like to get it up to Susan’s ideal of 80%-20% and am hopeful that with continued focus, I will be able to achieve this goal. The abhyanga was a smashing success and provided the additional results of smoothing my extremely dry skin, decreasing caffeine withdrawal agitation in the morning, and made waking something to look forward to. My next goal in the continuation of this experiment is twofold. I would like to focus on eating more vegetables and fruits while reducing my bread intake. I would also like to integrate two additional self-care items into my morning routine: tongue scraping and swishing.
During the Aurveda portion of the Axis YTT program, many students make significant changes to their daily routine in order to experiment with the power of this ancient system of health. The student account below details a vata-pacifying routine that lead to very optimistic results.
My second kidney stone, this year, came to say hello or rather came to scream hello as we were beginning our Ayurvedic portion of the program. I called one of our teachers, Susan, crying in tremendous pain; and she came to bring me ayurvedic herbs that instant. I felt so grateful for level of care I received.
I already felt taken care of on deep level, deeper than physical. I felt ready to trust this ancient medicine. So, as we came up with our experiment I was willing and utterly excited to do a cleanse. My eagerness was tamed my Susan. She suggested that in my recovery I should do something more gentle, a self care practice. I decided to follow a vata-pacifying routine created through the resources provided for us: notes in our manual for asana, Susan’s suggestion of ingesting warm foods and liquids, and the structure of my morning from Vasant Lad’s book, The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies (1998). If I could not do a cleanse, I would do many little things (Note: some of these practices I had already started before the experiment, but the experiment helped me make the ritual more concrete and specific, which held me more accountable). My morning was structured as follows:
Bedtime between 10-11.
Rise between 7-7:30. Before the experiment, my sleeping patterns varied widely. I loved to be social and carefree which involved being available for people late at night. I generally went to bed between 10:30 and 1:30 with no consistency and would rise anywhere between 8 – 10. The worst part was I felt tired all day. After speaking with Beth about prakruti and vikruti, she came to the conclusion I am vata imbalanced. I agreed. A regular sleep schedule was a must. This seemed like a reasonable change. What I found was getting up at seven condensed my tiredness to the first ten minutes of the day (that part is still very difficult) but for the rest of the day I had more energy!
Prayer. I slowly and intently said the prayer in the book as if it were my own words. Some words I changed to make it be more of my own voice. This helped me to set a kind loving intention for the day.
Splash. I would splash my face with cold water, swish with cold water, massage my eyes, blink and look up, down, left, right, diagonally, and rotate my eyes clockwise and counter clockwise. This helped wash away sleepiness.
Water. I drank warm water instead of cool.
Squat. I sat on the toilet, Indian style and wiped with water. This is a bit of a challenge due to my tight calves.
Brushed. Flossed. Followed by tongue scraping. I used a spoon to perform this. I noticed a white film concentrated on the back of my tongue every morning. Also, there was scalloping more on the left edge of my tongue.
Swish with oil. I found that gargling would make me gag. I just stuck to swishing. Lots of white goo would came out with the oil.
Oiled my body. This was my favorite part, a practice I had started before the experiment. I warmed the sesame oil and lathered it on. This felt nourishing.
Oiled the nostrils. I did not notice anything significant about this exercise, but I have grown rather fond of the smell of sesame.
Bath. I would just let the water warm me up and not use soap. A yoga therapist suggested this. My skin felt very lubricated and ready to be stretched in asana.
Asana. I made up a routine for myself each morning which included the following poses in various orders: Tadasana (mountain), Uttanasana (standing forward fold), Dandasana (Staff), Paschimottanasana (seated forward fold/western stretch), Janu Sirsasana (head to knee), Upavista Konasana (open angle), Triang Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana (three limb intense stretch), Vrikshasana (Tree), Navasana (boat), Sarvangasana (shoulder stand), Halasana (plow), Apanasana (knees to chest), and Savasana (corpse). And a few vinyasas. This practice felt calming and grounding.
Pranayama. I completed Nadi Shodhana. This felt balancing.
Meditation. This was the other practice I had started before the experiment. For meditation, usually I would concentrate on my breath, specifically the sensation of movement it created in my body in the nostrils and belly. Sometimes when I did not feel up for meditating I would chat OM or a mantra to get me into a more meditative space.
Breakfast. I ate warm foods mostly. Steel cut oats with apples cooked in. Eggs. Quinoa.