Slow & Steady

     Last month, I attended the first session of my Ayurveda Therapist Training. The first night my lovely teacher shared a myth called the Ocean of Awareness with us. It definitely struck a chord with me.
     The story was about a heroic Turtle named Kurma. There was so much so many lessons to be learned in that story but, what stood out to me was that the hero decided to incarnate into a turtle to save the day. Now, turtles are cute and all, but when I think heroic, they are not the first thing that comes to mind. Upon further contemplation I came to the conclusion that the turtle does have some pretty admirable traits. Their sturdy shell makes them built to last. They move mindfully so they avoid burnout & when life does get chaotic around them they are literally able to retreat from the outside world to gain more clarity. These are all excellent behaviors to avoid dis-ease and bring more harmony to life.

The Ayurveda teachings give us three causes of dis-ease or lack of harmony in the life and they are as follows:

1. Misuse of the senses (Letting your senses rule your lifestyle choices)
2. Failure of the intellect (Knowing what will bring you into harmony but not practicing it)
3. Time & motion (The faster you move the faster you age and the faster you die)

      My teacher shared with us that moving too fast or taking on to much causes stress. Stress causes dis-ease so it’s important to slow down, to turtles pace even. As a retail manager, perfectionist, and self-proclaimed expert multi-tasker, this is not the norm of what I’ve heard or how I’ve operated for most of my life. In my professional life efficiency has been king. In general, in the world of retail management, the more items you can check off the never ending daily task list while achieving the highest financial results the higher your employee value rating goes. I once worked for a company where our employee motto was “Faster, smarter, better. Driving not just results, but immediate & always growing results has always been a huge focus. Faster was better and accomplishing more was great. Pair that fiery Pitta lifestyle with my natural Vata (wind) tendencies and I was literally a fire storm waiting to happen. After years of working as a retail manager on mission to clench the coveted number one spot, I found myself literally FRIED. The excess Pitta in my system caused me to self-combust on every level. My professional and personal life figuratively went up in flames. I was left alone & feeling pretty badly burned.
     Around that time, I wandered into my first yoga class. I fell in love immediately because it gave me permission to slow down. The intentional movement helped focus my always whirling vata mind & the breath helped cool my fiery tendencies. Understanding my tendency to lack discipline (another vata trait) I signed up for Yoga Teacher training at Swan River Yoga to force myself to develop a consistent practice. The next few months were a complete transformation. My practice helped me feel more grounded, release competitive tendencies, and overall feel more balanced in my body and in my life. Today even though my full-time job is the same, I find a lot more harmony in my life.
See it’s not that Pitta Dosha tendencies are “bad” or that one Dosha is more favorable than the others. The problems arise when we become unbalanced. In Ayurveda, it is taught that we sign up to be born with a specific constitution of each of the doshas based on the lessons we are trying to learn this life time. This is called our Prakriti. It is our own unique natural state. Our task during life is to work to bring to balance to the imbalance or Vikriti caused by our lifestyle choices including our profession, relationships, habits, and tendencies.
     While the faster equals better paradigm seems to be shifting amongst businesses as more companies are adopting a more mindful & steady approach to business. Retail management or any capitalist based business will always be a Pitta provoking profession due to it nature. It’s important for me to incorporate daily practices or Chikitsa’s or rituals that will help keep me in balance. Some of the recommended Pitta/Vata pacifying Chikitsa’s I have implemented thus far have been Restorative Yoga, daily abhyanga, shirodhara & meditation. All of these practices are beneficial for calming the nervous system & feeling more grounded in your body.