You are not what you eat, but what you digest
The Ayurvedic proverb ‘You are not what you eat, but what you digest’ may sound counter intuitive at first. It is easy to make a one size fit all conclusions that a person doing regular exercise at the gym and following a strict paleo diets, or one of raw foods, smoothies and supplements is healthy - and someone who binges on junk food is not. But, I want to invite you think more deeply into this.
Ayurveda and yoga asks us to look at the ‘whole picture of a person’ to determine their pathway to optimal health. Without getting too deep and technical into science of Ayurveda, a very basic understanding of how Ayurveda identifies, prevents and treats diseases in the body is through its great emphasis on a persons digestive fire and its affect on a persons body constitution or make up and vice versa.
Yoga on the other hand is a practice for non religious spiritual development, it helps us keep ‘tabs’ on the monkey mind through the practice of asana we learn more about how our mind works and observe how our thoughts impact on our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state. Yoga is a practice to elevate consciousness. Therefore, yoga and Ayurveda are complementary tools that help us find greater states of health and vitality.
In this deep dive, I want to focus on Ayurveda. In Ayurveda a persons digestive fire is Agni and is understood in Ayurveda as the ‘fire’ that governs they we metabolise not only food, but life (including everything we do/say/listen/see etc. A persons constitution is called ‘dosha’ - and I will go into more explanation about this in a minute.
Over 5,000 years old, Ayurveda is the only science that focuses on a clients unique physical, mental and spiritual constitution. It does not focus on the treatment of disease. It’s goal is not to treat or surpress symptoms of disease but to eliminate the causes of imbalance that contribute to the disease process itself. It’s system is based on the rules and laws of nature.
It draws on the universal elements and senses that compose of everything in nature, that of which manifest as physical matter in our human body as well as the body of animals and plant life - all living things. There a various layers and diversifications of these elements and senses; but simplifying we have the elemental layers of fire, water, earth, air and ether (space) and sensory layers of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell.
The universal and sensory layers are expressed within you as your bodily constitution called the Dosha’s. There are three types of Dosha’s which can express themselves in different variations within a person. Vata which is the air and space, Pitta fire and water and Kapha water and earth. All three dosha governs specific aspects of our bodily functions.
For example Vata dosha governs the movements and processes in your body and mind like blood flow, breath, elimination, movement and pace of thoughts and emotions etc. We are born with our natural dosha constitution and depending on micro and macro aspects of life, such as the seasons of the year, the time of day, the stage of life you are in and the way your life is lived - this natural constitution can become deviated from considerably causing the disease process to commence. If you are curious, take a quiz here to understand what dosha is your true nature and then what dosha state you are now in at this stage of your life. Has this changed a little or a lot?
With Agni being the seat of health, it is the most affected by these imbalance. As agni weakens, the doshas are also affected and so the cycle commences. You can see that our ability to become ‘stable’ in life becomes more and more challenging when we are making choices in life that are directly against the ‘true nature’ of our consitution.
What the causes of a weakening in Agni?
Suppression of bodily urges
Poor eating habits such as not chewing good, eating in a rush, eating when stressed, overeating, undereating, skipping meals
Poor quality food (high processed diet, food farmed with synthetic chemicals and herbicides)
Caffeine, illicit substances and alcohol
Trying to control ourselves and others
Thoughts that give us incorrect views of ourselves
Misuse of our senses such as listening to violent or loud music, movies, television, social media, overuse of electronics and computers
Putting chemicals on our skin
Sleeping late or sleeping in, lack of sleep
Choice of words/how we communicate to others and those we are in relationships with
Understanding how the doshas work inside you gives you insight into how your body functions and what it needs to find a state of balance again. It makes us realise that findin stability in life and balance in health is so much more than we eat!