What do you value most? Most people would include health and happiness at the top of their list. The healing system of ayurveda offers timeless guidance to help us nurture both of these qualities in our life. According to the ancient texts, a person seeking true health and wellbeing must:
Maintain a good balance between change and stability
Be able to digest life experiences, extracting the parts that are nourishing and releasing those aspects that are not
Make choices that generate enthusiasm in body, heart, mind, and soul
We have two sources of wisdom to help us make life supporting, health promoting choices: our minds and our bodies. When they are in agreement, we are most likely to make evolutionary choices – choices that generate health and happiness. If our minds and bodies both say “yes” to a choice and we move forward with that option, we are likely to manifest the desired outcome. Similarly, when our minds and bodies both send the signals that a possible choice is best avoided and we heed that message, we are almost certain to avoid distress.
The most challenging situations are those in which there is disagreement between your mind and body. Your body says it is tired and wants to go to bed, but your mind wants to stay up and watch Mad Men. Your body is intensely attracted to someone while your mind recognizes that a relationship with that person would almost certainly create turbulence.
In these situations, taking time to quiet the mind and body in meditation is invaluable. Recognizing that we can access a peaceful mind and a comfortable body independent of an externalized choice enables us to avoid decisions that inevitably lead to emotional upset and physical discomfort – and instead make choices that expand peace, happiness, and wellbeing in our lives.
