← The Nourished Nervous System
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Welcome to the Nourished Nervous System, an exploration of stress, the nervous system and resilience for parents and other humans through the lens of Ayurveda, somatics, herbs, and a whole lot more. I'm your host, Kristen Timchak, an Ayurvedic health counselor, stress and resilience coach, somatic stress release practitioner, and mother of a tiny human. Please join me for information and insights, deep thoughts and small steps to help you nourish your nervous system. Hello, hello, welcome, and welcome back to the Nourished Nervous System. How are you doing out there? The world is a wild place right now, which makes it so important to really find ground and resilience and work on our nervous systems as a daily practice. And lately a couple of my questions for myself have been how do I resource myself? And how do I create community? I'll have an episode in a couple weeks exploring the concept of community more in depth. But today I wanted to talk about an aspect of Ayurveda that I've touched on in some different episodes. I haven't really fully gone into this yet, and I think this topic relates to how we resource ourselves because I think everything relates to how we resource ourselves. And although I'm not going to go into the mechanics of digestion in this episode, it's the reason why digestion and our agni is so important in Ayurvedic thought. And it's also the reason why during these times of year when we're transitioning into different seasons, why it's so important to be aware of of that and to work on pacifying any doshas that have accumulated during the previous season. I'll get more into that in a little bit. Right now in Maine, it's incredibly cold. There's a couple feet of snow on the ground. It's been windy the past couple days. It feels very dry. It really still feels very much like vata season here. It feels like we're deep in winter, but I know that we're making that subtle shift into kapha season. So we're going from that time of cold, dry, light, erratic, mobile qualities to a time of cool, moist, heavy, dull qualities. And the reason this is important is because we're coming from Vata season. We're coming from this time where in order to pacify vata, we've eaten heavier foods, we've maybe rested a lot more. There's been more stillness, if you think classic winter hibernation, that grounding slowing down, more stillness, more rest, heavier, oily, warm foods. All of the Things that we've done to pacify vata increases our kapha dosha. So we don't want to go into kapha season with our kapha dosha already high. And I'm going to get into the reasons, the really specific reasons around that in this episode, which is going to be about the six stages of disease in Ayurvedic thought. And so before I go any deeper into this, I'm going to give my disclaimer that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and should not be considered health or mental health advice. Anything said should not be taken as a replacement for medical, clinical, professional advice, diagnosis, or medical intervention. Okie dokie. So in Ayurvedic thought, the manifestation of disease is called sampdi. It can be translated as the birth of pain. And it's why in Ayurveda, we focus so much on prevention, on creating daily habits that clear the doshas, why we tune in and listen to our bodies and notice any subtle shifts or imbalances that come up, why we pay so much attention to digestion. And it's also why we pay attention to these seasonal shifts that I was just talking about, so that we know which doshas are, are more present at a certain time, which doshas are going to be more present so that we can be constantly fine tuning. And it sounds like a lot, right? It sounds like, oh my gosh, that sounds like so much work. But actually, the more that you just begin to look at the world through that lens of Ayurveda, it becomes very easy, it becomes very natural to notice these little shifts and then to notice what's happening inside your body and to be able to make those little micro adjustments so that the doshas are not accumulating too much. So all the time there's this natural flow happening that doshas accumulate. They might reach the state of provocation where they're rising and then they are pacified. So this can happen for somebody who has a lot of vata in their constitution. And they go into fall and winter, there's naturally accumulation of the vata dosha. During the vata season, that accumulation may rise, but that person is eating the warming, grounding food, doing their daily routines, doing the restorative yoga practices or yoga nidra or whatever it is that helps them to feel grounded. And they're oiling their bodies, doing all the things so that dosha is constantly being pacified. And then as we move out of vata season into kapha season, there's naturally more kapha. So that More vata person is going to have an easier time keeping their dosha pacified during that kapha season. This is happening all the time. It's like the way we talk about meditation and that the point of meditation is not to not think, it's not to stop all your thoughts. It's the same way the point of Ayurveda is not to not accumulate any doshas. It's just a natural part of life. If you're living your life, doshas are going to accumulate, but it's those little daily practices that help to skim the water off the top that help to keep the dosha from moving farther. And there are so many reasons in the world that we live in, where we are so disconnected from nature, where we are moving so much more quickly and on screens and have so much more stress than ever before, that vata and certain doshas are going to accumulate a lot more quickly all the time. So that's why I have such an emphasis on vata dosha and the nervous system is because in the world we live in, there's just so much of it. And so it's something that most people can benefit from working on, pacifying their vata dosha. And in this process of disease, there are a couple big reasons that Ayurveda says that disease happens. And the first one we talked about a little bit in the episode with Kate o' Donnell Pranya Parad. It's the crime against intelligence. And so this is the thing we were talking about. Like, if you know that eating a whole bag of potato chips is going to make you feel bad, it's going to make you feel bloated or gassy or foggy or whatever it is. And you have that intelligence and you override that intelligence and eat that bag of potato chips anyway, that's prajna pr. That's the crime against intelligence. The other cause of disease is the misuse, overuse of the senses. So I think we talked about this a little bit in the episode with Kate as well. It's the scrolling on Instagram for three hours or when you walk into a grocery store aisle where there's that strong, strong smell of the laundry detergent, whatever it is. It's like when the senses are overused, when they're misused, this can be the accumulation of that can begin to create disease. And I think about the word disease in that it's dis ease. And when we're healthy in Ayurvedic thoughts, we're in balance. Everything's imbalance there's ease, there's flow, and when we're not, there's dis ease, there's pain, there's discomfort. And so this first stage of disease is accumulation. It's what I've been talking about. And this happens in the main sites of the doshas. So the main site of vata is in the colon. The main site of pitta is in the small intestine. And the main site of kapha is in the upper part of the stomach. And this is the central channel of the body. This is where agni lives. This is the home of Agni, the fire. And this is also where digestion takes place. So that's why digestion is such a huge part of this, because it's the first stage of disease, the accumulation, especially if our digestion is off in some way, that dosha is going to accumulate more quickly, more easily. And so some of the very, very first subtle signs, you may not feel anything in this first part of accumulation, because it's happening all the time. But if you have an accumulation of a dosha that's not being pacified, you're going to notice some difficulties with digestion. If there's too much vata, there might be some gas or bloating or constipation. If there's too much pitta, there may be intense hunger or craving for sweets or heat around the belly button area, or sometimes a yellowish tint to the whites of the eyes. And if there's too much kapha accumulating, there could be a feeling of lethargy. Your stomach could feel full all the time. Your appetite could be low, your digestive fire is low. So this accumulation is happening all the time. And at this point, it's still so easy to come back into balance. Your body's intelligence is going to have you craving the opposite of what's accumulating. Your body's intelligence is going to be bringing you back into balance, if you're listening and following it. And so if you think about a bucket of water, and the bucket is the main site of the dosha, and the water filling is that dosha. The water is just accumulating at the bottom of the bucket right now. And then the next stage, the second stage is provocation, it's prakopa in Sanskrit. And this is the stage where the dosha begins to rise in its own sight. The water is beginning to fill the bucket. So a person may feel more symptoms at this stage. So excess vata may be going back and forth between constipation and loose Stools or pain in the mid back, Excess pitta might be some acid indigestion or heartburn. Excess kapha may show up as a cold, a cough, congestion. The dosha is beginning to rise. And in this stage, although the symptoms may be more noticeable, you're still in that place of the body's intelligence. There's still an inclination for balance. The body will still crave the things that will bring it back into balance. It's still very easy to pacify the dosha at this stage through your diet and your lifestyle choices. So an example of this, a person with a lot of vata, a lot of air, space, cold, mobility, erraticness in their constitution going into winter, and maybe they begin to notice a little bit of constipation or gas. And because of the current trends in our culture, they may decide to do a raw juice cleanse and cold plunge every day and go jogging, which there isn't anything wrong with any of those things. I love all of those things. And for a different person in a different season, they could be great, they could be health giving. But for that vata person, in the winter, where there's more vata, they're going to increase the vata even more. The person may begin to notice more symptoms at this point. They may start to actually crave some more warm cooked foods or maybe restorative, yoga practice or other warming, grounding activities. So if they listen to their body's intelligence and start to go in that other direction, then they're going to pacify the vata. But if they keep pushing from the mind saying that this is what's healthy, the raw juice fast, the cold plunge, the jogging, these things are healthy for me. And they ignore the body's intelligence and follow what the mind is telling them. They may move into that third stage of disease which is spreading. So this is when the water overflows the bucket and the dosha begins to spread, the doshas leave their sight and they seek other places in the body that they have an affinity with. So vata may leave the site of the colon and spread to secondary vata sites which could be the skin, ears, bones and thighs. So a person may experience dry skin, cold hands and feet, goosebumps, tingling and numbness, ringing in the ears. For pitta, they may experience heartburn, burning eyes, hives or rashes, burning sensations, things like that heat. And for a kapha, they may experience water retention, sinus congestion, lymphatic congestion, a feeling of heaviness in the head, cold, clammy skin, those kind of Cold, heavy, damp, wet qualities. And so those first two stages, the doshas, were in the main sites. They were also in the home of agni. And when the doshas are in the home of agni, they behave properly. They create cravings that bring you back into balance. But when it leaves a site, when it overflows, when it spreads and it leaves that site of agni, the dosha has a rebellious nature. And you may begin to experience cravings that bring you farther out of balance. So a little example is if you ate a bunch of ice cream in early spring, while it's still very cold and heavy and wet out, there's a lot of kapha dosha. You eat the ice cream, which is kapha to the extreme, and you just feel heavy and dull and lethargic. In the first two stages, you might crave something warm and spicy. You might crave to do some exercise or do something to move that kapha to cut through that fog. But in the third stage, you'll crave more ice cream. You'll want to just sit on the couch and scroll. It's going to bring you into the cravings that bring you farther out of balance. The fourth stage is localization. So this is when the dosha finds a place in the body where there's some type of weakness from either a genetic predisposition, a previous trauma, accumulated stress, repressed emotions, or other factors. But the dosha enters into this weakened space and it influences the actual tissues of that space. We call the tissues datus in Ayurveda. This is stage where the doshas and the datus have a little bit of a war. The dosha is trying to bring its qualities into that weakened space, into that tissue, and increase those qualities in the tissue. So if vata enters that weak space, the qualities of light, dry, cold, mobile, subtle would increase within that tissue. And this is the stage where the seeds of the actual disease are being planted. And so there's this little war happening between the dosha and the datu. The tissue and every tissue has its own agni, so its own fire. So if the agni of that tissue is really strong, the seeds will not grow. The dosha will be pacified. It will be reversed. But if the agni of that tissue is weak, then the dosha will be prevalent. The dosha will go into that space and the fifth stage will occur, which is called manifestation. And this is where you begin to notice the cardinal signs and symptoms of that particular disease. Up until now, there have been symptoms, there have been subtleties, but this is where it really becomes clear that you've entered into this place of disease. And at this stage it becomes harder to pacify the doshas. It's still possible at any stage. It can be possible to reverse depending on the person's constitution on the disease, on all the different factors, what the support they have to do it. But it gets harder at this stage. Finally, the sixth stage is differentiation of the disease or disruption. This is the stage where structural changes begin to manifest. The disease may become chronic or other organs, tissues or symptoms surrounding that spot may begin to experience complications. So it's actually beginning to change different structures in the body with the disease. And so Vasant Laud says that both health and disease are processes. And I just love that because it reinforces that the small daily acts that we make, those little choices that we make each day either support the process of health or the process of disease. For me it takes me out of a victim space like with my Hashimoto's for example. It didn't just happen to me. It wasn't that I just woke up one morning and there was Hashimoto's, it was this process. And when I look back on it now I can see a lot of the little things that contributed to that process. I was making choices even though I was really into health and into self care and into the nervous system and Ayurveda and all these things. There was still Pranayapara, there was still some of those crimes against intelligence. There was things that I was doing over working, drinking caffeine when I shouldn't have been drinking caffeine, eating more sugar than I need to be. There's all these little things that contributed to this process. But the beautiful part of this is that in the same way we can be in the process of health, we can make those little choices that not only pacify the dosha but they help us to thrive. And so this is why prevention is so huge in Ayurveda. Because if we can really work in these first two to three stages and keep things pacified, then we stay a lot healthier, it makes us a lot more resilient. And everything also really goes back to our Prakriti, to our base constitution. Because there are certain people who might have a very strong kapha constitution who can stay up late and they can drink and they can smoke and they can do all the things and it seems like they never get sick. And it's just a different constitution where someone with a much more vata or vata pitta constitution might look at something wrong and start to not feel well. So there's nothing wrong with either way. There's no moral judgment here. It's just knowing what your constitution is, knowing where your weak spots are, what your sensitivities are, and listening to your body's intelligence and not comparing yourself to what somebody else is doing or what the current trend or fad is. Because it may be right for you in your constitution, or it may not be, or it may be right for you in a different season or a different season of your life, but just really tuning in to what's actually present for you right now and what would actually bring you balance. So this time of year, we're on this brink of kapha season. Throughout the winter, throughout this vata season, we've been doing things to pacify vata more, grounding more heavy foods, all the things I was talking about earlier. And in that process we've accumulated some kapha dosha. And so now as we're in this window, we can begin to think about how to pacify that accumulation of kapha while still not putting vata out of balance while it's still so cold out. We don't want to go right into eating salads all the time over exercising or doing a juice fast right now, things like that. We want to think about how can we have both? So we can bring in more greens, but have them steamed or cooked and have a little spice in them. Drink warm ginger tea. That's going to stimulate, but it's going to be warming. So warm is key here because both vata and kapha dosha share the qualities of cool or cold. So warm can help to balance both of them. So taking a sauna, if that works for you, just bringing in more warmth, doing a little bit of exercise in the morning during that kapha time of day to get things moving a little bit without over exercising. Even though I'm not going to eat a big salad this time of year, but I'll get microgreens and start adding microgreens to my food just to give me that little bit of freshness and aliveness this time of year. So it's just walking this line between vata and kapha, finding the ways to create balance with the seasons as well as what's going on in your body right now. For your small step this week, notice your cravings, notice how you feel after you eat certain foods or do certain activities. And if your body's intelligence is craving something different from what you're doing, and if it is even just one more time than normal. Can you make that choice to bring your body into more balance, even if it's just a tiny little step, to make that step into the process of health as opposed to process of disease? I'm going to do this, too. I have some habits that have accumulated in the winter that definitely need to be looked at and shifted. So I'm right here with you in all of this. Okay, my friend. Keep on keeping on out there. I hope that you're doing okay and that you're finding some moments to pause and rest, and I hope this was helpful. Okay. Have a wonderful week and I'll be back next week. Hey there. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate you. If you weren't listening, I'd be sitting in this room talking to myself and that could get kind of weird. So I really, really do appreciate you. If you can think of anybody else that might enjoy listening, please share. And if you share on social media, please tag me. Nourished nervous system. Have a beautiful day.