Have you ever wondered which body types go together well in a relationship? Match making is quite an intriguing topic when you consider all the qualities that are at play between the dosha types. Infinite scenarios pop into my imagination of opposites attracting or repulsing and similarities nourishing or consuming each other’s features. Yet, I can’t ignore the fact that there is something that can overcome all differences and similarities equally. There is something quite simple about the whole ayurvedic match making scene.

I’m going to start breaking that down from the basics.

As many of you know, ayurvedically, we consider people being a combo of three body types, or doshas, called vata, pitta and kapha i.e. wind, fire and phlegm respectively… WHAT!?? That doesn’t sound very scientific nor attractive!

But is is…. If you look at these words as metaphors, you see that wind causes movement, fire creates change and phlegm is like glue. It holds us together. Our bodies, functionally, are movement, change and cohesion. We could be talking about catabolism, metabolism and anabolism but never mind, let’s get back to our topic of relationships….

The most prominent dosha expresses its presence in physique. However, physique is not as important when it comes to hooking up with each other. It is the mental part, the psyche of each that defines the best match.

Where the mind is concerned, we are compartmentalising our individual features in sattva, rajas and tamas. A bit like vata, pitta and kapha but not quite. Together called gunas, they determine what mood we are in. Rajasic mind would be that of action: thoughts run. Tamasic mind would be still, like in that replenishing sleep or in that blissful millisecond during meditation. The mind oscillates between two opposite states. Sometimes its active sometimes it isn’t. The balance keeps us healthy. Where’s the sattva then?

Sattva, referring to balance and love, is like a superimposed setting on rajas and tamas. Action and inaction need to happen in harmony and controlled from a perspective of loving kindness. Sattva is not a state of mind on its own. It is either harmonious movement (sattvic rajas) or harmonious rest (sattvic tamas). We cannot exist in between.

Sattvic control is sometimes lost. We stop being nice. When we are challenged in any way, sattvic attitude helps us to monitor and evaluate the situation with reason and react appropriately.  But when sattva is lost and we lose our cool, reactions become disproportionate and damaging.

In social engagements we tend to behave well and maintain that sattva, ‘cos we like to be nice or at least, polite. But it so happens that occasionally someone can irritate the hell out of us and the cool is lost. Each of the dosha types would then start, at least in theory, behaving like wind, fire or phlegm….

Body types tend to behave in a similar way to their metaphor. Therefore, if you are a “windy” person, you would literarily move a lot. Vata folks like to express themselves in creative movement and often end up being artists. They are adaptable, curious and excited about everything.

“Fiery” folk burn bright. They are acute in mind and analyse and process information fast. Pitta’s are on top of their game of achieving what they want.

“Phlegmy” countenance promotes strong bonds. Kaphas stick solidly with their convictions whilst they express a motherly feeling of comfort and safety.

When vata people are controlled by sattva, they are a delight to hang out with, they have a sense of humour and creativity. When sattva is lost, they become needy, anxious, twitchy, garrulous and unbearably unreliable. Sattvic kapha and pitta could balance this unsteady lover but, if they also have lost it, kapha would withdraw in passive aggressiveness and pitta would get angry and shouty. Not a great match for vata in either of the cases.

Pitta folks are witty, they take action and can get loads done very quickly. They enjoy intellectual conversation and are quite passionate. They love vata because of the creative side that balances pitta’s regimental attitudes. Kapha gives pitta some cooling time and make them calm from their intense emotions. There is, however, the dark side of pitta which makes them a bit too intense and terribly irritable when sattva leaves the room. They judge, can’t take criticism and use attack as their defence. Not a good match for fragile vata nor resentful kapha. Or worse, another pitta!

When kapha is in balance they are supporting, protective, motherly, highly empathetic and solid in their beliefs. Perfect for a volatile vata, right? Not so when kapha withdraws from the world, is unresponsive, possessive and envious. Neither vata nor pitta wants to hang out with an uninteresting and sulking kapha.

Kapha folks would most definitely benefit from the company of a determined warming pitta to get them moving as they tend to be a bit too solid and grounded. Vata also helps them to feel blood running in their veins.

But, once pitta loses control they find kapha as irritable as hell in their slow pace. Sattvic pitta instead, is clever and has made a mental analysis to starts walking slower and softer and withholds the urge to lead and compete all the time.

I could go on and analyse all doshas under every gunic influence. However, the point is that every doshic type can be of both support and destruction to each other, depending on which gunic state they are in. When sattva rules, and may it rule forever, the combination of any dosha type becomes a celebration of each other’s unique and best features. In relationships, whether friends, family or lovers, the most important and the only important thing to remember is to practice maintaining sattva in movement and in stillness, in action and in inaction.

And lastly, we remember that no one is just of one dosha type. The combinations and permutations of each type are as many as there are humans. We are all a unique mixture of wind, fire and phlegm and it would be impossible to find watertight matches based on them because their good can turn to bad and ugly whenever sattvic control is lost. Any dosha type under the influence of sattva has the potential of turning the sattva back on in the partner and create a positive feedback loop where love shines brighter and brighter.

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Last night it rained heavily. The sun showed his face in the morning but, nevertheless, it was cold and damp. Autumn has broken the summer’s neck. It felt like on Tuesday we enjoyed our last summery day in Kensal; a heavy damp heat which, for certain, is over now and we’re heading towards the cold, ethereal winds of the autumn.

The weather expresses change but, in my ayurvedic opinion, the more interesting side of the seasonal change manifests in the bodymind. What exactly are these signs become clear by being mindful of the messages we get from within in the form of cravings and aversions.

We had a long and warm summer when our cravings were marked by yearnings for cool and it showed in our choices for the drinks, the food and the side of the street we walked on. Aversion to heat was marked by less clothing, preference for cooling drinks, ice cream and ventilation. Cooling bodies express less appetite and summer salads were enough to satisfy our needs for nourishment. Now, when heat has succumbed to the cold, I personally find myself craving for warm comforts and naturally feeling aversion towards anything cold and light. The heating is on, woolly socks feel heavenly and I’ve begun eating pretty heavy pasta for lunch as carbs are on! Breakfast with a nice slice of toasted sourdough with plenty of ghee and jam on top feels extremely satisfying. As my occasional guilty pleasure of the season, I have some roasted salted nuts and seeds with a small glass of organic red wine.

I respect my cravings and aversions because I know they respond to the metabolic needs of the season. Now is the time for me to nourish and create a bit of storage for the winter.  Most importantly, I won’t feel guilty but do it with gusto. Never, however, do I compromise on timing the meals right (two to three meals a day, emphasis on lunch and little meal in the evening). Equally important is to avoid overeating, fast eating and snacks. Drinking plenty of water and taking a fair amount of healthy fats is essential in autumn. (Try a teaspoonful of organic ghee in your morning coffee or tea. Mix in a blender to create a smooth coffeehouse foam. Yummy!)

SIGNALS FOR CHANGE

Cravings and aversions are the bodymind’s way of signalling we need to make a behavioural change. The intelligence of our organism is highly sophisticated. The adjustments we need to make withing changing environment are wired in our genes. This is called self-regulation, which is a process the cells undergo within the framework of birth, death, repair andregeneration. It’s our capacity to renew after wear and tear or disease. It happens without our awareness and without much choice if it happens or not. We are built to last and in addition to unconscious self-regulation our bodymind makes us behave in a way to create conditions for comfort.

When self-regulation is not possible within the means provided the body itself, we start craving things. Cravings direct us towards conscious (and often unconscious) actions that help the body to come back to balance such as adding clothes on or turning on the heater. Running late to the corner shop for a bag of crisps is guided by an innate need to get something lacking either from the body or the mind which is either comfort or need to pacify the nerves. Salt is important in helping the nerve impulse to travel. People with cramps and anxiety often binge on crisps and other processed highly salted foods in order to balance body’s chemistry and need for comfort.

AUTUMN CRAVINGS

Salt cravings are typical of this period of autumn and coming winter but so are sweet ones. Sweet cravings usually manifest because of the need of nourishment but also for calming and grounding purposes. Both sweet and savoury tastes pacify our nerves and create a feeling of satisfaction. In autumn the appetite increases because we need to provide more nourishment to cope in winter and keep nervous system grounded as the climatic conditions irritate nerves. Cold and wind make us shake and they also dry our skin. In response to the toughening weather, the body is keen on putting weight and keeping our mucous levels high increasing the cravings for heavy hearty meals…and snacks, and bread, and chocolate, and bread, and salted nuts, and red wine, and chocolate, and sweets and chocolate… The important thing is not to get carried away. We need to accept that our cravings are directing our body to do what it needs to do in order to stay balanced and comfortable.

In order for the bodymind to feel comfortable, cravings can be anything, not necessarily healthy. Healthy or unhealthy, we are always on the lookout for safety and comfort. This need might lead us to eat and do things that are not conducive to health for example binge eating or drug abuse. They can give almost instant relief, but the catch is that the comfort they provide is not long-lasting. The craving comes back soon and the relief provided was only symptomatic. Once in a while comfort eating is ok, and an extra glass of wine is fine. On a long run, however, they have a habit of only making things worse. The point is to show that any craving or aversion, for that matter, is an attempt of the bodymind to make us do something and behave so that we feel comfortable.

MINDFUL CHOICES TO PACIFY CRAVINGS

We need to be attentive to these feelings and respect their call. Whether good or bad they are signs that we need to make a change. We can choose to do symptomatic relief by binging on biscuits but after all they rarely save the day. Instead, they make us feel guilty, leaving us without satisfaction. What our choices are, what we choose to do or eat in order to pacify a craving, is the measure of our level of awareness of what is good for us and what is not.

AVERSIONS

Aversions work the opposite way as cravings. Theoretically, we should not do or eat anything we don’t like. By and large there is a specific reason why we dislike something (if we are healthy and in a sound state of mind). Aversion creates tension and when tense we are not able to process foods or create healthy movement. Therefore, if you don’t like running, you shouldn’t do it. Instead, choose a type of exercise that during performance creates satisfaction. As for food, when eating something that doesn’t appeal to us creates problems in the digestive process such as too little saliva, the premise for proper carbohydrate digestion. Salivation is promoted by appetite and when there is little or none, there is no good digestion.

Each season brings along its typical aversions. Many feel like cutting down on chilli and coffee at this time of the year because these items irritate nerves and increase instability and anxiety. Cold drinks and cold salads, typical cravings of summer season, also might create feelings of aversion in winter for their inherent cold properties.

VATA IS HIGH

In ayurvedic terms, vata energy increases in autumn. It is especially high in the junction of the seasons. The mostly felt quality of vata is irregularity, which we can see in how the weather changes from moment to moment and how our bodies show signs of distinct changes in mood and function. Now is the time to be diligent with our routines, keep our body clocks tuned with well-timed daily activities. We should get proper nourishment, add more fats and proteins in our diets and make sure we don’t faff about like headless chickens. We need to get grounded and calm down, keep that vata energy moving smoothly and safely so that we are warm, calm and… as if by magic, get creative.

CREATIVITY IS HIGH

Dryness, lightness, cold and irregularity are qualities that irritate nerves if we are exposed to too much of them. These qualities, however, in small portions, stimulate nerves and thus serve as promoters of creativity, the best expression of vata dosha. Autumn is the time to stay cosy at home and start writing that book, drawing or painting whilst sipping a cup of warm tea like fennel, cinnamon, liquorice or cardamom, letting the mind to fly safely in the confines of our infinite creative space (yes, I love an oxymoron).

PREDICTABILTY OF CRAVINGS

Ayurveda is very mindful about what we crave and what we dislike. When we are healthy, these feelings are cues we can almost predict within the framework of days and seasons. Autumn makes us crave things that might be distasteful in spring. In summer we crave cooling things that are distasteful and uncomfortable in winter. Cravings and aversions are tightly knitted in the patterns of seasons especially as regards food cravings. When you notice you just can’t get enough of something, such as chilli in spring, check if it is your body’s message to do seasonal balancing.

The so-called unhealthy cravings are those that are not in alignment with seasonal or daily rhythms. They might have arisen simply from a habit learned in the past or created because of an overwhelming need to get comfortable and soon. The trick is not to repeat symptomatic relief but start checking, once comfortable what is causing the craving. Sometimes you might need professional help, such as coming to see me in our clinic for a consultation. We can check where cravings and aversions arise from and create a diet and lifestyle that prevent the bad ones from arising and, instead, recognising and respecting the good ones. When a craving is appropriate there’s nothing to prevent you from appeasing it with the means provided by Mother Nature.

Stay healthy!

Anu

A SNACK TIP; ROASTED NUTS AND SEEDS

Why should we roast nuts and seeds? Firstly, because it enhances the flavour of these excellent seasonal food items. Secondly, because it makes them easier to digest. They are heavy and fatty but by exposing them to heat they are processed better in our guts. The umph can be increased by adding a pinch of salt during the roasting process. I prefer to grind the salt (natural salt, such as rock or sea salt. Avoid white table salt) in a mortar to a very fine powder and sprinkle it on when starting the roasting process. That might be the most complicated part of the process as roasting really doesn’t require other than attention not to roast excessively. Choose your favourites such as walnuts, pine nuts, cobnuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. Toss the nuts and seeds regularly to avoid burning. Allow them to get slightly darker in colour. As for seeds, when they start popping, they are ready.

If you are keen on avoiding salt, maybe use tamari, soy or liquid aminos. You can also add some garden herbs and spices such as rosemary, sage and thyme. Pepper, nutmeg and any other spices of your liking can be mixed in during the roasting process.

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The climate change is real, most of us agree on that. Even many of the so-called deniers admit that the change is happening, although they may not agree on what or who has caused it. Nevertheless, the warming of our planet is a reality and we can observe it directly in many ways.

What is climate change in Ayurvedic terms? How does it translate to the ancient language of natural healing? Ayurvedic knowledge is based on how nature regulates itself, how living beings find comfort in the environment. In that context, what is the consequence of the global heat increase on the levels of comfort of organic life on the planet?

Plants and animals live through life by adjusting to the conditions around them. The species evolve as a result of the interaction with the environment. The survival is dependent on the ability to adjust to new conditions. The healthier an organism the better it tolerates changing conditions. The global warming is asking more and more tolerance due to the rising temperatures. Today and tomorrow every single living cell will be adapting to warmer and warmer surroundings, including the ones in your own body.

To speak about global warming in Ayurvedic terms we firstly need to understand that in Ayurveda nature is observed through how it feels like, not what it is made of. Feelings of hot, cold, wet, dry, heavy, light and many other attributes can be associated easily with climatic conditions. The balance and comfort are found by promoting theopposite quality if the climate feels unpleasant. You can see heat makes us sweat, cold makes us shiver. Dryness leaves us craving for water. These are a few very obvious mechanisms that regulate our bodies through feelings in order to stay in an area of comfort.

Some people are hot and some are cold by nature depending on how their blood circulates. Hot and cold can alternate in one single person from moment to moment. The ones having a hot disposition feel the effects of warming more easily. Heat becomes an unpleasant feeling. Ever heard an expression “hot and bothered”?That’s exactly how hot people usually get when they are out of their comfort zone and they are under stress. Impatience, irritability and anger are the ways they tend to respond if they cannot get cool.  Global warming is affecting everyone. It is especially having an influence on people with hot disposition and as if by magic, politicians and business people tend to be more of a hot disposition.

Why and how is world economy and politics driven by hot and bothered people? This is because the achievers are generally hot people. They often end up in positions of power. Heat is a driver for action to create change. Like fire burns wood to ash, an achiever wants to create change in a direction that is in line with his or her beliefs. When heat is controlled and balanced the driving energy is usually of a positive type and tends to be less of an ego driven action. Excess heat brings on the opposite. Impatience generates hasty decisions and with one’s own interest in mind. Good achievers become stressed out overachievers with personal interest in mind.

Global warming is playing a part in challenging our ability to cope with heat. It expresses itself through more irritability, anger and violence. You just have to look what the media, TV and social media have to offer to make that claim. The political platform is governed by right wing ideals, which lean towards more extreme expressions of fanatism and fascism. Anger and hatred dominate the language used in newspapers, TV presenters express opinions and push content that promote the current sentiment of frustration and anger, social media is abundant with fear mongering memes, global companies and large scale industrialists laugh at the faces of taxpayers and general feeling of intolerance grows and grows. I don’t even want to start on the military conflicts, the threat of war and actual wars.

Humans, like all other living forms are influenced by raised levels of heat. It is also clear that heat increases heat. Try having a glass of red wine and chew on jalapeños in a hot weather. It might make you sweat. Today we have hot people in an increasingly heating environment in a spiralling vortice that might result in a catastrophe. We’re going to be cooked, some slowly some fast. The earth is overheated on its surface and below. You just need to think about the recent forest fires in in all continents. Then there’s the threat of super volcanos erupting in Italy and California. Hurricanes are stronger because of the heat and resulting evaporation from the seas. Hot, dry and arid lands erode into the sea contributing to the desertification of the terrestrial areas.

The good and the bad of this situation is that humans have contributed greatly to the global heat increase. I’d like not to go to talk bad about people so I’m going to focus on the good. The hope lies in humanity being able to make a change. We are beings with intelligence and awareness. The only way for human race to survive is to make a great change to cool down. It’s an Ayurvedic manoeuvre to make us feel comfortable and safe again. To come together and protect our planet earth by comforting each other, slowing down, grading down, simplifying, de-globalising industries in terms of stopping overachieving. It has been proven that we can sustain ourselves better on a small scale. We need to engage in activities, politics and economics included, that arise from a cool place of patience and calm, consideration, empathy and sympathy.

The heat, however, does not come only in the form of global warming. It also presents itself in what we eat. Processed foods are highly heating i.e. inflammatory. In fact, the most pressing health issue today is chronic low-grade inflammation or in Ayurvedic words excess heat. Bad fats, especially heated oxygenated vegetable oils (cooking oil from a clear plastic bottle), are present in nearly all processed foods. White salt, sugar and wheat are now called anti-nutrients as they present no nutritional values at all. Instead, they cause inflammation.

We need cooling down our attitudes and opinions, cooling down activity, cooling our bodies and minds and slow down, stop creating all this heat in order to save our planet. The Earth is a gigantic self-regulating organism that goes through periods of cold and warmth from time to time. Our responsibility now, in order to savethe life on Earth, is to try with everything we got not to tip the balance over and escalate an adjustment on an unprecedented level by a mega-organism. Cooling down might sound naïve in the complexity of the platform of world politics and economics. If you think about it, however, it really doesn’t have to be that difficult. By the law of opposites everything has a potential of being balanced. In Ayurveda we always look at the big picture and on the world stage we find that the main problem is overheating. It is affecting not only the nature around us but also our bodies and minds. Ayurveda is great because the answers are simple. Complications are resolved by simplifying. Equally, for us to find balance and comfort again we need to chill out. The right answers to our ecological disaster come from that cool place.

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The recommendations of daily routines reflect our need to maintain synchronicity between the cosmic clocks and our biological body clocks. The rotational movements of the Earth around itself and around the Sun create the cosmic clocks. Our body clocks and related gene activity have developed over our time of our existence on Earth to make sure we feel comfortable in the changing environment.

Ayurveda has recommendation on times and rhythms of little rituals during our time of wake so that we can heal, grow and maintain our bodies at night. Timing of our activities like eating is sometimes more important that what we are eating. For example, night-time eating increases weight more than daytime eating, even if we ate the same food each time.

Correct daily routines maximise our energy efficiency and increase our metabolic flexibility. We are able to switch between fat and carb burning at opportunistic times and be slow or fast burners when needed. Efficiency and flexibility manifest their benefits especially when performance is at stake and they are equally valuable for the body and mind.

I want to share with you the two ayurvedic recommendations of daily rituals that have dramatically changed the quality of my life:

• Small intermittent fasting
• Rest after lunch / siesta

I cannot praise fasting enough. It is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to manage nearly any health issue (there’s robust research on this). I have spent time and effort taking herbs and choosing food items for healing. I have taken yoga classes and other exercise regimes to increase energy, but nothing rivals small intermittent fasting.

My main health issues revolve around overwork on both physical and mental planes. Increased levels of inflammation are something I need to manage on a daily basis. Fortunately, it is very easy. Just skipping dinner guarantees that swelling and pain are gone by the morning. Most mornings I have breakfast. Then lunch around midday and something light at around five. This way I feed myself for eight hours and fast for sixteen. If I want to step up in intensity, I only have breakfast and lunch and nothing after. I have a window of only four hours of eating and 20 fasting. The results next morning are impressive. No hunger, high energy, no pain, no puffiness or swelling and a bright mind.

Apart from lowering inflammation fasting gives me loads of energy as it increases my ability to absorb nutrients. Energy increases even more when exercising on fasted body. Morning yoga after 16 or more hours of fasting is the best way for me to burn fat and increase growth hormone levels. They guarantee a solid reserve of energy without cravings and I control my blood sugar better.

The second most powerful way to maintain energy levels and mental focus is having a nap after lunch. I know this is not an option to many and I am privileged to be able to do it. There is nothing like a little siesta after food to perk up the mind for the afternoon and avoid the 4pm slump. The fact that we feel tired after eating is a physiological message, a craving, to go and lie down. This allows the blood to come to the stomach and deliver the enzymes for digestion. 10-15 minutes is already enough, and it is best done lying on the left side. Closing the eyes and allowing the food coma to take place is second to nothing in injecting energy into our system for the afternoon. You’ll avoid unhealthy cravings and create well broken-down material for better absorption, elimination and deep level nourishment.

The most important recommendation for routines in ayurveda is to be timely. Our bodies work in relation with the surrounding environment in all its dimensions, especially with the light and dark cycle. We are energetic beings and have a potential for storing and consuming high amounts of energy. Timing our activities correctly is what guarantees maximum performance.

If you fancy being on top of your game energetically and express creativity, even after lunch, start working out on your small intermittent fasting muscle and have a small post prandial snooze. If you feel some ayurvedic daily rituals are a bit bonkers these two routines certainly aren’t. Take these on and I tell you the gained benefits outweigh the lost ones from other rituals.

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At first, I myself found this system to be complicated. But the more I studied it, the more I understood that the healing principle of nature is actually very simple. It can be applied anywhere, anytime and it can be practiced by anyone. As we are all creatures of nature, we all practice Ayurveda all the time, even without being conscious of it. We each have an innate and instinctive way of finding balance so that we can be content and thrive, and this healing dance we perform is pretty simple to understand.

My mission has become to try my best to convey the principles of Ayurveda in the simplest, most accessible way, without having to bring into conversation Sanskrit terms and deeper theory which to many might sound esoteric.

To start explaining what Ayurveda is, let’s put it in one sentence and start breaking it down for what it means in actual practice:

Ayurveda is a timeless universal system of medicine that aims to regulate digestive and metabolic activity by feeling the environment, both internal and external.

Feelings are important

I think the best way to start deciphering this is to look at the feeling aspect. By feeling the environment, living cells adjust to their environment with their sensors. The environment can be for example hot or cold, dry or moist. By sensing these qualities, the cells regulate their metabolism, they act according to what they feel.

Natural practice of medicine is the medicine of feeling, sensing the environment. Plants and animals go about their lives by perceiving how the environment feels. Their activities are determined by the amount of heat, exposure to light, dryness or humidity etc. They feel these qualities and make adjustments based on the their level of comfort. If the temperature outside the cell is too hot, then the metabolic activity is lowered to cool the cell down. If the environment is dehydrated, mechanisms to promote hydration are turned on.

Complex organic entities as animals, with collections of tens of trillions of cells, also act from this same principle. When we feel cold we naturally tend to behave consciously and/or unconsciously in a way that restores the perfect balance of body heat. When we are dehydrated and the skin is dry, we instinctively know to hydrate and moisturise more.

The aim of regulating is to find perfect balance with the environment, a feeling of ease and comfort. True healing therefore starts from feeling, and Ayurveda involves studying feelings with a high degree of sensitivity, so that we can feel qualities as accurately as possible, inside and out, and create a perfect balance of opposites.  Ayurveda operates, therefore, from the natural truth that adjustment and adaptation are the keys to survival and to thriving in the world.

Individual feelings

Ayurveda also takes into account the individual point of view, because every feeling is unique to individuals. We each perceive our environment differently. Some are sensitive to heat,  while others suffer cold easily.  Some like dry air, others prefer humidity. The regulating activities change from person to person as we all have different metabolic needs. The healing protocols therefore have to follow these individual needs.

Changing feelings

Adaptation happens through what we choose to eat and do. We need to change our diets and lifestyles from time to time because life is a process and the qualities around us change constantly. We experience different qualities between day and night and also between seasons. The qualities of these time periods determine how our cells must adapt. We need to apply different behavioural patterns so that they match the metabolic needs of these time periods. Once these needs are satisfied, we feel in balance, healthy, strong, energetic and able to digest and metabolise what we put in our bodies.

Soul is the feeler

The last thing I want to mention about feeling is that this activity happens at the soul level. When we feel we connect with the soul, we put the mind activity aside and let the qualities be experienced in a deeper level of our existence. The universal Soul, or the cosmic consciousness, is the great experiencer which gives us the understanding and intuition on what direction we have need to move in with our diet and lifestyle. The problem is that to large extent we are conditioned not to feel, to suppress our deepest guidance from our soul and instead rationalise foremost with our minds. This leads to a problem with regards to true healing because the mind is always conditioned and influenced by whatever life experiences we’ve gone through or whatever media information we are exposed to. That said, the mind can be useful in true healing as well but only if it is used to serve and reason out whatever soul level connection has  already been made.  It should never be a primary tool. Healing is feeling. The soul most accurately feels the qualities of comfort and pain.

Agni – Digestive fire

Accurate adaptations guarantee the perfect flow of our digestive and metabolic fire. In Ayurveda we call this fire agni. The fire is heat. Too much or too little heat disturbs the digestion. The digestive tract is covered with mucous. Mucous is wet and cold. Too much of these qualities increase mucous and the healthy cover of mucous becomes too thick, compromising absorption of nutrients. Too much dryness wears the mucous layer down causing irritation and consequent inflammation. An irritated digestive tract is reactive and unable to digest hard proteins like lactose and gluten. Wet, cold, thick and sticky mucous lining can be repaired by ingesting dry, warm, and light food items (e.g. fasting, spices, legumes). Dry and irritated mucous, in contrast, likes hydrating and smooth food items (e.g. smooth soups, banana, avocado).

Good agni – good adaptation

The importance given to the digestive fire in ayurveda is maybe it’s strongest point of value in comparison to allopathic mainstream medicine. Although the trend is changing slowly towards understanding that food and good digestion is medicine, there is very little emphasis in general practice in how we digest our foods. Good and bad digestion depend on degree of adjustment to the conditions around us. Conversely, how we digest determines our capacity to adjust. Nourishment naturally depends on what we eat but more importantly it depends on how we digest and especially absorb our food. If digestive capacity is low, erratic or too high then even the best foods high in every possible cancer fighting phytochemical can become toxic. This is why good digestion is the main aim of this system of natural medicine.

Adjustment happens always and everywhere

The principle of natural healing is always the same: the opposite qualities balance each other. This is a universal, scientific truth that has stood the test of time. This is the way nature balances itself. This system is not dependent on humans, it was not invented by humans and it will continue to be practiced by plants and other animals in the possible event of human extinction (if humans leave any organic life behind).

Healing naturally through Ayurveda, therefore, is essentially straightforward: we balance opposites and stay in tune with natural cycles. The medicine practiced from place to place needs to be in line with the qualities affecting the bodies and minds. The advantage we have as humans is that we can combine spontaneous natural healing with our own conscious actions, or in reverse, consciously slow down or stop the healing process. The choice is ours. By choosing a natural healing diet and lifestyle, we aim to have a long life without disease and die without pain. These are priceless gifts that Ayurveda and other natural systems of medicine allow us to enjoy.

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