Published by Kerry Meath-Sinkin
“The one who is established in Self, who has balanced body types, balanced digestive, properly formed tissues, proper elimination, properly functioning bodily processes, and whose mind, soul, and senses are full of bliss, is called a healthy person.”
~ Su.Su 15 (Ancient Ayurvedic Text)
This is my absolute favorite Ayurvedic passage. You know why? Because to me this passage sums up why I am so darn excited about Ayurveda, and LOVE sharing it with you. Your life is meant to not just be free of disease, or major complaints, it is meant to be “full of bliss.” Think about that for a minute. In the west the whole system is set up to strive to get back to 0 or average. Ayurveda, is saying that we are supposed to strive beyond OK, that health means to live a life that is full of bliss, or vitality. The goal of everything I share is to help you live your life abundantly with as much bliss and vitality as you can, which is the life you were meant to live on this planet.
How can you do that? That is certainly a journey that everyone has to travel for themselves. But, I personally have found that understanding some basic Ayurvedic principles can be transformative. The reason why this science is so helpful is because it provides a lens to understand the effect of every relationship in your life. And I mean EVERYTHING, including the foods you eat, the job you have, environment you live, type of exercise you do, your relationships with friends and family, and all those thoughts that swim around in your head.
All of these relationships have an effect on you, and bring you further into a place of balance, or further into a place of dis-ease in your mind, body, and spirit. So what do I mean? At a basic level, every relationship can be characterized by 10 pairs of opposites. These qualities categorize all matter that exists in the universe. These qualities describe the inner workings of the energy forces on a particular object. You can think of them as the yin and yang, as they each reflect the positive and negative forces in the universe. The best part is they are basic qualities that affect all objects in physical or subtle ways. I love these qualities because they can provide a spectrum to describe the essence of your life. These qualities are: Heavy/Light, Slow/Sharp, Cold/Hot, Oily/Dry, Slimy/Rough, Dense/Liquid, Soft/Hard, Static/Mobile, Subtle/Gross, Cloudy/Clear.
On a practical level, your body, as well as the foods you eat, reflect a prevailing and shifting combination of these qualities. An underlying premise in Ayurveda is that like increases like and opposites balance each other.
For example, living in the desert (aka Arizona, or New Mexico) would be considered dry and therefore increase the dry quality in your body. Based on whether you need more dryness or hydration, this effect can either bring you further into or out of balance. How might this show up for you? You could have more dry skin, or a pesky dry cough.
Another example is a business executive who regularly travels around the world. They are literally moving on an airplane, or in a car all the time. In this situation, you are constantly on the go (aka mobile) and might start to develop too much imbalances due to excess mobility in your body. If this is you, do you feel anxious, flighty, ungrounded, or constipated? While it may not make obvious sense, constipation is a product of too much dryness and mobility in the gut.
If on the other hand, you live in a colder climate, such as Minnesota, you might notice that your body changes in the winter. The winters in Minnesota are characterized by cold and dry qualities. If you visit or live in a cold climate, do you start to get cold (aka can’t get warm), or dry (dry skin, dry hair, dry nails)?
If you like this idea, I encourage you to take a minute to reflect on your life. Take a look at the qualities above and ask yourself what are the qualities of the relationships you have in your life? Are they supporting you, if you they are, rock on and keep up the great work! If you are ready for some tweaks, I invite you to journal about the qualities that continue to show up in the relationships in your life. It can be as simple as taking out your journal before bed and reflecting on what you ate, the qualities present in your job or environment, and the qualities of anything else you may have interacted with that day. Keep in mind that you are reflecting, and not changing anything right now. The whole goal is simply to have a new lens to view your world. After taking some time for reflection, together we’ll explore some ways to start creating simple, fun, and positive shifts!
As always, thank you so much for reading! If you like this, I would so greatly appreciate if you could send it to others who may be interested.
Kerry Meath-Sinkin is a registered investment advisor and financial planner based in Minneapolis. She graduated with honors from Brown, and works with clients not only in the Twin Cities, but nationwide. Kerry believes in a holistic approach to finance. She works with her clients to develop a practical plan with their finances, while also working on their inner relationship with money. Together, these aspects allow clients to feel healthy, abundant, and free. Kerry also has a passion for healthy living, is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner, and public health educator. Click here to learn more about Kerry.
Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash
