This afternoon, I visited Yael Steinfeld, Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner/Certified Nurse Practitiner in Claremont, CA. I was quite impressed. I originally met Yael at the study group for A Course in Miracles last Wednesday at Monte Vista Unitarian Universalist Congregation. (I am a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and clearly a member of the SGI-USA religiously but I am a spiritual seeker in every way and frequently outside the box!) I have been interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine, including herbal medicine and acupuncture. However, I have been somewhat scared of needles... What interested me most about Ayurveda was that it apparently preceded and influenced Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was invited by Yael to attend todays introduction to Ayurveda class last Wednesday at Monte Vista UU. Earlier today, Yael had met with me, my wife and my four-year-old son at Starbucks in Claremont. As soon as she saw my wife, she said to me that my wife was Vata. I had no clue what the heck she was talking about. But when I attended her introduction to Ayurveda class at 4:30pm, I understood exactly what she meant by that. Yael explained to me that there are three fundamental energies that govern our inner and outer environments known in Sanskrit as Vata (wind), Pitta (fire), and Kapha (earth). If Vata is dominant in our system, we tend to be thin, light, enthusiastic, energetic, and changeable. If Pitta predominates in our nature, we tend to be intense, intelligent, and goal-oriented and we have a strong appetite for life. When Kapha prevails, we tend to be easy-going, methodical, and nurturing. Although each of us has all three forces, most people have one or two elements that predominate. For each element, there is a balanced and imbalance expression. When Vata is balanced, a person is lively and creative, but when there is too much movement in the system, a person tends to experience anxiety, insomnia, dry skin, constipation, and difficulty focusing. When Pitta is functioning in a balanced manner, a person is warm, friendly, disciplined, a good leader, and a good speaker. When Pitta is out of balance, a person tends to be compulsive and irritable and may suffer from indigestion or an inflammatory condition. When Kapha is balanced, a person is sweet, supportive, and stable but when Kapha is out of balance, a person may experience sluggishness, weight gain, and sinus congestion. An important goal of Ayurveda is to identify a person’s ideal state of balance, determine where they are out of balance, and offer interventions such as herbs, diet, heated oil massage and meditation. In Yaels class, I learned that Ayurveda or Ayurvedic medicine was a holistic system which encompassed Ancient Indian/Hindu herbal medicine, heated oil massage, yoga, meditation as well as breathing techniques known as pranayama. I also learned that we could use our body as a tool to help awaken our mind and our soul to be in balance by clearing the stresses and toxins, known in Sanskrit as ama, by balancing Vata, Pitta and Kapha, by herbs and healthy diet, panchakarma, which is five specific actions to remove ama (toxins), and by meditation, which establishes inner peace. I further learned that alignment of our thoughts and five senses are critical as our senses of hearing (sound), vision, taste, smell and touch are the input which are then converted into our various thoughts at each and every moment. Balancing Vata, Pitta and Kapha would therefore be essential to have healthy mind in Ayurvedic medicine. Yael looked at me and said to me, The connection between the brain and the heart is critical. She stated that everything around us might be a potential medicine. This statement seemed to correlate very well with my favorite Buddhist concept of changing poison into medicine. As per Yael, the energy imbalance that creates fear, agitation, nervousness and panic would be considered in Ayurvedic medicine as Vatta imbalance and may be associated with constipation, gas, bloating, dry mouth, dehydration, slender feature, emaciation, fatigue, restlessness, anxiety, fear, worry and light sleep. She also said anxiety and phobia might be related to hypoglycemia. This Vatta imbalance sounded so familiar to me! In order to balance Vata, the following were recommended: 1. Routine lifestyle of sleep & meals 2. Pranayama, meditation, peaceful yoga, hiking, swimming (not too much activity) 3. Abhyanga (heated herbal oil massage which promotes clearing of toxins and opens the energy channels), Shirodhara (flow of herbal oil on the forehead & 3rd eye promotes peace & spiritual bliss, treating anxiety, insomnia & headaches) Excess Pitta, as I learned, could lead to anger, envy and rage as well as to fever, inflammation, indigestion and diarrhea. People whose life is dominated by Pitta are said to be easily angered. Excess Kapha, as I learned, could lead to depression, sadness and despair while well-balanced kapha would make people kind, loving, affable and compassionate. At the end of the day, the description of Vata seemed to fit both my wife and myself very well. I have decided to try following the above 1 & 2. Ayurvedic medicine is obviously quite different from Western allopathic medicine, which I am trained in, but it seems like a comprehensive system, which would be well worth my time investigating much further.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 06:57:14 +0000
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