How to digest from 2019
Let’s detox and digest the past year
Another year has gone and we are about to embark not only on a new year, 2020, but also a new decade. If ever there was a time for reflections and resolutions or intentions this is the time.
There most certainly have been challenges in the past few years for many of us: personally, collectively, politically and in work too. Sometimes it is difficult to see the “positive”. I know there is almost a pressure of seeing the good in all. That it is all a sign. Being positive about it all. Especially in the more so-called “spiritual” or “yogic” communities.
But it’s a spiritual bypass
There is nothing wrong with feeling. Feeling angry, hurt, excited, passionate, joyful, content, optimistic. Feelings are what makes us act (or not act).
One of my favourite quotes is from the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras with the commentary by Swami Satyananda Saraswati who says of the Anandamaya Kosha or the blissful state:
“You are where you are, firmly rooted in your own self, but at the same time you can interact with everyone. You can even fight, but still not be affected”.
This is something I referred to in my last newsletter too. Suppressing our emotions are no good. We need to feel them, experience them and then digest them.
Digesting food + sense impressions
Just like food some of what we ingest becomes nourishment and nutrients. Other might be roughage that we may not be able to digest but is actually good for us anyway. And certain things really just need to come out because it’s just waste.
We don’t want to be constipated or suffer from diarrhoea – emotionally or in our digestion.
In Ayurveda we say we digest everything: the food we eat, all our sense impressions such as sounds, everything we hear and say, touch, taste, smells, what we see and observe through sight.
All of it goes through our various Agnis, or fires, for digestion.
We do have a choice of what we eat. We can make choices of what we choose to listen to on the radio and podcasts. What we watch on the telly, podcasts, youtube, social media and the papers. But it is easy to get sucked into things that do not nourish us at all.
Let’s detox from…
Sometimes we need a simple detox. Detox from social media. Detox from certain foods. Detox from the television. Detox from certain people.
What is in your life that doesn’t nourish you?
Is there a way to either detox from that? Or a way to limit your exposure?
If not, can you change your thoughts about how you experience these “toxic” situations or people?
Recently I have seen an ayurvedic doctor who advised me to have a grain-free day every week as well as a Kitcheri day. If you have read my blogs and social media you know I am a big fan of Kitcheri. I even created an online course on Ayurvedic Detox which is based on Kitcheri. (And you might be interested in this course as we talk about detox on all levels and learning to live more ayurvedically – and yes, it includes yoga too).
It was part of a bigger regime but I am keeping it – more or less. It’s been challenging around the holidays!!!
And that little change has indeed helped not just my digestion but my general health and wellbeing. It’s about simplicity. Allowing space for my digestive system to relax a bit. Give it a rest so it can digest what needs to be digested.
Same with our sense impressions. Sometimes we need a social media detox. A detox from watching the news. Block news updates from certain publications. Take time away from the screen, watch the horizon, hug a tree, feel the earth underneath our feet, meditate…
It’s a small thing. Yet pretty massive for a lot of us.
So what can you do today? This week to invest in your own health and wellbeing?