While I learned a lot through the whole experiment the greatest gift has been to begin to really cultivate my sadhana practice. This was only able to happen with waking up earlier. It has been a pleasant surprise that reducing my kapha has helped balance my vata as well. I have gained a new sense of awareness which empowers me to make better decisions about how to treat myself on all levels.
Tag Archive for: ayurveda
During the beginning of the experiment I was very motivated to see if living a more pitta soothing life would make a difference for my asthma. I was lucky that week one happened during the Ayurveda section of our class. I felt very supported my classmates who were also working hard, and Beth Sanchez who was very available to help with any questions that arose. Upon reviewing Dr. Lad’s and the Ayurvedic institutes guidelines for what would help soothe pitta dosha and asthma I realized that I was going to have a very measured week ahead of me. During the week I followed the sleep wake guidelines: waking up at 5:30AM and falling asleep by 10:00PM. When I woke in the morning I did a 30 minute mediation practice focusing my pranayama practice on nadi sodhana and sitali. Following my meditation practice I did a very short, (15 minute) grounding asana practice. I had to certain that I was finished with this practice by 7:00AM so that I could eat breakfast at the appropriate time. For breakfast each day I ate oatmeal with sweet apples. I noticed on the first day how much more alert and motivated I felt when I stepped into the workplace. Asthma aside I enjoyed how I felt. For the entire week I diligently followed the eating times: 7AM for breakfast, 12PM for lunch 6PM for dinner. I ate a rather bland diet (as suggested), and cut out what seemed to be every food that I loved. In addition, each morning and night when I showered I infused the air with Eucalyptus or Cedar essential oils. I could feel the menthol of the Eucalyptus seeping into my body and almost calming my airways. By the end of the week my bronchial tubes only felt constriction very rarely. During this week I used my inhaler on average twice (2 puffs) per day. This was a drastic reduction from my normal usage.
During the second week of the experiment I lived a completely unmeasured and chaotic lifestyle, and I paid for it. I started off by paying no attention to the time I went to sleep or when I woke up. I went to bed when I was tired, sometimes this was 9:30PM and other times it was midnight. Consequently this effected my wake time as well. When I went to sleep at 9:30PM I found myself naturally waking around 7:00AM and on the nights I went to sleep at 12AM I was naturally waking closer to 8:00AM. I did not practice meditation or asana, I just simply woke, showered and went to work. I felt so groggy and cloudy when I arrived at work and noticed that it took hours before I felt fully awake. I also paid no attention to what I ate or when I ate it. I was eating pizza, cookies, and other sweets; these are items that I generally don’t even eat during my ‘normal’ life. I must admit from the gluttonous taste side these items tasted delicious, but I could feel the terror they were wreaking on my body. Before the end of the week I noticed an obvious weight gain around my abdomen, my skin was breaking out and I felt a general sense of lethargy. Although all of theses implications were negative what I was focused most on was my inhaler usage. During this week I also stopped performing the aromatherapy while I showered. There was a HUGE increase in my inhaler usage from week one to week two. As referenced above in week one I was using my inhaler an average of twice (2 puffs) per day. During week two my average inhaler usage went up to 5 times (10 puffs) per day. Although is a huge increase in inhaler usage my general sense of well-being felt compromised as well.
Overall, I felt like this experiment was very telling in many ways. What we feed our body and how we incorporate both exercise of the mind and body into our daily routine is very important. Although it is often time a ‘hassle’ to structure a day with such precision it makes the day far more enjoyable. I do not think that I will be able to live a life that follows all of the teachings of Ayurveda, but I do think that I will take some of the teachings in order to live a more mindfully aware life.
As part of Axis Yoga’s teacher training program, students are taught basic ayurvedic principles as they apply to their lifestyle, diet and yoga practice. As a component of this exercise students also take on a personal experiment to begin to implement these teachings. One of Axis Yoga’s guiding principals is that students need to embody the teachings into their lives for optimum learning to transpire. This is not to say they should accept everything we say as gospel, rather they should check it out with their own experience. The ayurvedic experiment provides the support and guidance needed to start that process.
This student removes wheat from her diet while integrating ayurvedic principles in the hopes of relieving migraines she has been suffering from for ten years. Below is an account of her experiment.
My experiment began in early-November when I began learning about Ayurveda. While I was perplexed by some of the seemingly disparate instructions, I did notice that many of the ideas presented appealed to me and that there were pieces of this philosophy I was hungering for. For my Ayurvedic experiment I added the practice of abhyanga to my morning. This practice of lovingly rubbing herbally-medicated oils all over my body was wonderful. It brought to my morning some peace and to my life, some self-love. Self-love has been a long and hard road for me; abhyanga was an easy place to start. I also practiced eating in silence and doing nothing else. Although at times challenging, if only because my mind was used to doing several things at once, I found this a wholly satisfying experience. I noted that I consumed significantly less food than I if I was multi-tasking. I also noted that I felt a much deeper sense of contentment and satisfaction, not only with my food, but with my life. These were amazing practices to bring to my existence.
Then, while discussing our Ayurvedic experiments, I overheard another student in my yoga training explaining that she had previously had terrible eczema but she had cut wheat out of her diet while completing an Ayurvedic cleanse and that her eczema had gone away completely. Later, I was reading over the material of foods not recommended for Kapha people (I am 50% Pitta and 50% Kapha). Wheat, and many things like it, was in the “avoid” column. I woke up several days later with a revelation. I believed the migraines I had been having for 10 years were caused by wheat. My hypothesis was if I removed wheat from my diet, as recommended by Ayurvedic principals, my migraine headaches would disappear.
I have had migraines almost every day for the last year or so. They varied in severity, but almost always included sensitivity to light, sound and movement. They were very drug resistant and the only way I could even reduce the pain slightly was to take 4 ibuprofen tablets, wait 30 minutes and then take 2 extra-strength acetaminophen tablets. Considering I was doing this on an almost daily basis (I tried to “tough it out” if I could), I am sure this was wrecking havoc on my stomach.
Day 1 – I ate nothing but gluten-free foods. Did not have a headache.
Day 2 – Only gluten-free foods until arriving home at 5pm. Had a minor headache. Ate leftover-pasta. Headache became very intense within five minutes of beginning to eat pasta. Headache was so painful I could not look at the computer or television. I took my usual doses of acetaminophen and ibuprofen, to no avail. Headache persisted through the night into the next day.
Days 3-7 no gluten consumed, no migraines.
Day 8 – Staff “appreciation” at my middle school. I resisted all gluten-containing items for about 4 hours. I finally decided to have one brownie, about a 1.5” square. I did not get a headache.
Days 9 – 11 – Thanksgiving holiday – did not eat wheat, did not have a headache.
Day 12 –Had pie from Thanksgiving, did not have a headache right away, but later in the day I did.
Day 13 — Woke up with headache, which dissipated as the day went on.
Day 14 — Had half a small bowl of macaroni and cheese from school cafeteria. Within an hour I had a migraine that lasted until mid-day the next day.
The data shows that my hypothesis was accurate, eliminating gluten from my diet did in fact correlate positively with a decrease in headaches. Given that this was the only change I made during this time, it is safe to conclude that this relationship is causal. Further review seems to indicate that pasta was the worst offender, causing a headache almost immediately that lasted for 1-2 days. Gluten containing baked goods also seem to have a negative effect, but with a more time-delayed reaction. This makes it harder to track when and what caused the headache, so it appears that the safest route would be to eliminate wheat altogether.
This has definitely been a bittersweet journey. I am so relieved to have figured out why my head was hurting almost all the time. Concurrently, it has been frustrating and sad. It is frustrating on several levels. There is almost no on-the-go, easy food that is gluten-free and vegetarian (I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian). I have never been one to think about meals, rather just buying what was easy and available. This hasn’t been good for my pocketbook or my physique, but it has been my way for a long time. So when I haven’t planned meals and need something on-the-go, there are very few options and it is difficult. It has also been frustrating because gluten-free foods are incredibly expensive! Gluten-free seems to be the newest fashionable craze, so markets are charging a lot for this “luxury”.
This has also been sad because it eliminates a lot of foods that I love. For Thanksgiving my mom makes rolls from my great-grandmother’s recipe. It is an important tradition in our family and, for us, is the item that “makes” Thanksgiving. I had other things that were good and I enjoyed them, but it was still sort of sad. There was the staff appreciation day where I couldn’t really have anything. Now, logically, I know that sweet food does not equal appreciation, but not being able to partake still made me feel a little not appreciated.
I think this information is bringing to light a lot of my issues around food. I like food to be easy and not think about it, which is costing me financially and health-wise. I like to eat what others are eating and I associate food with appreciation or whether or not a day/holiday was good. This new information about my health and my body is informative and will help me to move forward on my personal and yogic journeys. Overall, the things I have implemented from Ayurveda have had a very positive effect on my life; significantly increasing my sense of peace and contentment in the world. I look forward to continuing to implement other Ayurvedic principals for continued growth and continue on the path to enlightenment.
As part of Axis Yoga’s teacher training program, students are taught basic ayurvedic principals as they apply to their lifestyle, diet and yoga practice. As a component of this exercise students also take on a personal experiment to begin to implement these teachings. One of Axis Yoga’s guiding principals is that students need to embody the teachings into their lives for optimum learning to transpire. This is not to say they should accept everything we say as gospel, rather they should check it out with their own experience. The ayurvedic experiment provides the support and guidance needed to start that process.
Below you will find an example of one students exploration into ayurveda. Alexis explores how the use of Aryurvedic herbal remedies, meditation, mantras, asanas, and other practices help restore dosha balance and decrease the pain she experiences in her lower back.
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The Denver Yoga Underground began in 2003 at the request of dedicated students who wanted to study yoga as a holistic system. Over the years, a diversity of people, seeking education outside of a studio, found a welcome refuge in DYU.
Today we specialize in grassroots Pay What You Can workshops, accessible retreats and our signature yoga teacher training, for the outlier yogi.
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Denver Yoga Underground Director:
Derik Eselius ~ 720.934.6934
Training Location:
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Derik Eselius ~ 720.934.6934
Training Location:
Sixth Ave. UCC 3250 E. 6th Ave