August/September 2003
The
Progressive Story of America
Bill Moyers
Democratic
Leadership Council Sows Division
Robert Borosage
21st
Century Communication Plus Whole-Hearted Support Can Help Create A Strong
Candidate
Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD
Dennis
Kucininch's Grassroots Presidential Campaign Builds Momentum
The
Politics of Heroin
Derrick Jensen
Deflation
and the "D" Word
Doug Dowd
Radical
Healing Through the Conscious Practice of Ayurveda
Myrica Morningstar
Interview
With Ram Dass
John Darling
An
Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium
Alan Sasha Lithman
On
Thawing and the Energy Cycle
Peter Moore, MFCC, CGP
New
Warriors
John Darling
Cosmic
Calendar
Salina Rain
Radical Healing Through the Conscious Practice of Ayurveda
By Myrica Morningstar
Ayurveda is the Vedic science of health and longevity, a sister science to yoga. It is both a gentle and elegant healing art and a long-standing proven science. It has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is enjoying immense popularity all over the west at this time. Perhaps this is because it is so needed right now! Ayurveda is all about knowing ourselves and learning how to live in optimum balance within the scope of ones environment.
I have been reflecting lately about Ayurvedic practices as an act of conscious evolution. The practices of Ayurveda are a simple antidote to the perverse dis-ease that is painfully evident on all levels on the planet right now. Yet honest self examination and consciously changing our habits is one of the most challenging things we can undertake. It is also one of the most radical things we can do to make positive changes and move toward the world we want to create.
David Frawley, well known Ayurvedic scholar and author, explains: “There is an absolute justice in nature wherein we can only experience forces that we ourselves, individually and collectively, have previously set in motion. This law of responsibility gives us the basis for correcting any wrong action. Hence it gives freedom in which we can arrive at self mastery.”
It takes a strong and devoted person to fully embrace this idea and to embark onto the path of personal healing into wholeness as a path to planetary health. There is no universal formula for health, rather it is a dynamic balance of conditions that change over time which we can only know through heightened awareness of ourselves and our circumstances. We are all unique. We’ve had different experiences and we have different needs. Ayurveda gives us a model for discovering who we are and mapping out a an individual healing path.
Ayurveda is not a passive form of treatment. It teaches us that we create our life through our actions, karma. The path of Ayurveda is a path of understanding our essential and pure nature, where we are now that’s different than that, how we got away from our original innocence, and how to get back to it. By waking up and monitoring our experiences we have an opportunity to choose again to recreate our life in a way that serves a higher purpose. We have free will here.
Theory without practice is nothing! Let’s look at some simple ways to stay in balance during the summer season. Please keep in mind that Ayurveda offers broad strokes which can be embraced by anyone, which I will offer here, but it also offers very specific practices for very specific people and conditions. It is always of benefit to determine your personal constitution and outline a personal lifestyle program.
The element that is predominant in the summer is of course, fire, heat. So, to balance, we focus on cooling experiences.
Of all the seasons, this is the ideal time to practice a raw foods diet. The earth is sharing her summer bounty with us and we are more active, able to utilize the abundance of sugar and carbohydrates available from fruits and vegetables. The digestive fire called agni is at it’s height during the summer months and we are able to more efficiently process a more cooling diet.
Too many heat or acid producing foods should be avoided in the summer. Hot peppers, onions, garlic, cooked tomatoes, alcohol, coffee and meat are a few examples. Balance these with specific cooling foods like cucumbers, coconut, melons, lettuce, all the bitter greens, cilantro. Olive, sunflower, avocado, ghee and coconut oils are cooling (for both eating and massage to protect the skin). The cooling grains are white basmati rice and barley. Dairy products are cooling. Choose limes over lemon for dressings and drinks.
Sweet cooling and calming floral aromas can be used. Gardenia, jasmine, sandalwood, rose and ylang ylang will all help to bring about a calmly euphoric state.
Try to avoid strenuous activities in the heat of the day (whenever possible choose moonlight walks), swim, take a trip to the coast or the redwoods. Surround yourself with calm, loving, caring, people. Cultivate and practice kindness and devotion along with loving equanimity.
Colors that are cooling are blues, greens, whites, pastels, lavender, pink.
Ayurveda and yoga have specific breathing practices called pranayama that are for calming and cooling the mind. It is always a good idea to seek the guidance of a teacher when first learning pranayama as it is a very powerful practice. Nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing is very calming and shitali is a specific cooling breath practice done by rolling the tongue and inhaling, or if you cannot roll the tongue breathe in through your teeth. To calm the anger that can flare in the heat of summer first practice witnessing yourself when you feel anger rising. Take a deep breath and hold it. Release the anger with the breath. Witness, stop it, drop it!
If you are a sun worshiper (like me) worship from the shade! If you have to lie in the sun make sure to only do it in the early morning or late afternoon sun. The summer sun is too harsh on this planet right now.
Sadhana means spiritual practice. It is possible to live in such a way that all of our actions, everyday practices and activities, become our spiritual Journey. These are not separate from our life. Through our sadhanas, we become the transformation. When we become fully present, in the moment here and now, we become the witness to our experience, we are self aware on all levels, seeing, (perceiving), understanding, and not hiding, not afraid to rise up to the responsibility of the moment.
What are your sadhanas? What are your priorities? What are your daily practices? How do you spend your time? How do you think? When you talk or listen to others are you running it through a filter of fear or love? Do you feel victimized or are you the creator of your life? Be real with yourself and realize the full truth of exactly where you stand in this moment, then move towards what you want. Sadhana is taking responsibility for your life on all levels.
Personal Care: physical health, mental clarity, emotional freedom and spiritual liberation.
Relationships: Higher-self, family, friends, community, world and Earth.
Environment: inner, home, community, world.
Materiality: what do you buy? What happens to it? Is it creating clutter in your life?
Time: what are you doing? What do you everyday to nurture your self transfor-mation? Transformation of your loved ones, community, the planet?
Show up and practice. We must, even in the face of seeming hopelessness and overwhelm, because the outer world we perceive is an out picturing of our consciousness. We can do something. We can change ourselves and watch the rippling throughout our lives.
Our beliefs become our reality, whether we are conscious of it or not. Become conscious. Practice consciousness. We must remember what we’re here for. Now is the time.
Om Namaha Guru Maha Agni!
Cool as a Cucumber Raita: Mix together yogurt, cut cucumbers, whole cumin seed (dry roasted and freshly ground), chopped fresh cilantro or mint. Enjoy!
Myrica Morningstar,
Ayurvedic Sadhaka, Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, offers personal retreats
and full Ayurvedic services and treatments at the Self and Soul Retreat Sanctuary
in Talent. (541) 552-0411; myrica@ayurvedabliss.org;www.ayurvedabliss.org.
