The question of the connection between mental and physical health has been asked repetitively for centuries, and it has only been in the last several decades that Western medicine has caught up to holistic practices and began to acknowledge an interdependent relationship between the two. Mental and emotional patterns create biochemical pathways in the body, and it follows that just as the mind affects the body, so too the body can affect the mind.
Maybe you’ve heard yoga is great for your body, mind, and spirit, but you can’t get into it. Maybe you’ve been doing yoga for years, but you don’t feel as connected to your practice as you used to.
Some of us commit to a particular yoga style and never look back, but if you’re still looking for that perfect asana practice, or you want to mix things up in your current practice, you might find the remedy through the discovery of your dosha.
When we get sick, we trust the guy in the white lab coat behind the counter. Yet as we take over-the-counter prescriptions and other drugs to alleviate our symptoms, we are doing our bodies more harm than good. The chemicals that make these quick fix drugs possible are hard on organs throughout the body, leading to more serious problems in the future. Before pharmaceutical drug companies ruled the world and teamed up with doctors to push their prescriptions on us, we used nature's resources along with our body's natural responses to fight off disease.
Earlier this week, I sat in a sangha among a roomful of spiritual seekers, gathered together in pursuit of a shared goal to reset the self. Prior to coming, we were given the task to cut physical clutter from our lives. A few folks shared their experiences: various items of stagnant energy ushered into the forsaken trash - the ex’s toothbrush, the taunting pack of cigarettes, the size 4 pants that paraded in the past - or my personal favorite “an ex-boyfriend’s comforter he got from an ex-girlfriend”… folks were purging it all.