A YOGI CHA BLOG

What heats you up?

Let’s look at this from a vedic perspective. We have 5 senses and we have 5 sense organs. Our body is made to transform the information we take in, use it or eliminate what is waste.

The energy that enters our body during the day will be processed during the night (between 10pm and 2 am) and the waste of it will be eliminated when we wake up in the morning. If it’s not eliminated, it will accumulate. The reason it would accumulate is if our body for some reason cannot eliminate it.

A typical example of this is of course constipation. When there is something off in our capacity to excrete faeces, it stays in the body and the longer it does, the more it will begin to affect other organs. Imagine it like taking out the trash and putting it in the backyard. If we keep them there without emptying the bin, bacteria will fester and start to affect the backyard with the foul smell. 

Another easy example is emotional heat. When someone makes you angry but you don’t let that anger go, you will feel extra energy in the body through an unsteady mind. Rumination and obsessive thinking are accumulations of this energy. 

We need energy to function and we mostly think about sleep and food intake as our sources of energy but it’s not all. And this is why we tend to get it wrong. 

Have you noticed that if you feel tired, slow and maybe even have a slight headache, going for a walk in nature tends to lighten your mood? The symptoms you experienced is the body’s way of signalling that your batteries are low. So you fill up on energy in the walk. 

When we are in love, when we are infatuated with someone, all of a sudden it’s like we need no food nor sleep. We’re on a constant high. 

But if we keep taking in energy that is heating and that is not actually nourishing the system, the body will not be able to process it the same way it does with the rest. Instead, it will react to this heat with its defences. It will try to eliminate the intruder and create inflammation. 

If the intruder isn’t eliminated and, let’s say, fed with more of the same thing, the actual inflammation will also accumulate and start to spread. We could say that it becomes systemic. When it’s systematic, it has started to affect other parts of the body and more defences are being mobilised to protect the organism. Of course, if many of our resources are occupied with fighting the fire, they are not present to do their normal job. So there will be symptoms of lack in completely different areas, unrelated to the inflamed part, such as deficiencies of vitamins and minerals. 

The body will need more and more energy to function properly which will result in a feeling in the organism of TIRED. Lack of energy, depletion. 

What tends to happen with us when we feel that? We will seek fast ways of getting energy and we might even stagnate completely because we just can’t make ourselves move.

How does that translate into modern life?

Caffeinated drinks, sugar, sugar everywhere and preferring staying on the couch with the phone or laptop instead of actually moving the body. 

But this is a very obvious way of observing chronic inflammation, a more hidden one is what I have experienced and also witnessed with people I treat. 

Accumulated HEAT that isn’t due to overeating processed food and stagnation in what seems to be a healthy lifestyle.  Yet we have symptoms of chronic inflammation.

Because let’s face it : we live in a world of overachievers.

So the typical couch potato is rarely the one who “don’t know why something is wrong ”. Instead I see anxious people who don’t trust their bodies and who are depleting themselves by always doing more. They are running on empty. Some of them might even consider that they have a really healthy diet and lifestyle. But let’s come back to the idea of energy intake and waste management. If they are experiencing some of the typical signs of chronic inflammation, the waste isn’t eliminated and the body acts as if there is an intruder to fight off.

If you are constantly heating up your body by overexercising, if you are drinking lots of caffeinated drinks to keep going and if you are constantly on your screen working (and so really not deal with some anxious emotions of resentment, worry, shame and guilt) then you are overheating without eliminating and the waste accumulates. 

We are really bad at surrendering. Surrender can only happen when acceptance has been integrated and acceptance is something we have been taught is just not good enough. 

We believe that if we accept what is, even if that “WHAT” is not what we want, it means that we are settling for less. So we never accept, this is the constantly wanting to “improve ourselves” vicious cycle we all live in. “Be the best version of yourself” is so toxic yet in the self help world and spiritual community it seems to be the mantra of the decade. What if there is only one version of yourself? 

So let’s play with the idea that a way to reverse the over heating, the chronic inflammation would be to start accepting what truly is. In that case, we can see how nature is never inflamed unless humans have been there and aggravated the heat. What if we would start taking the example of nature in order to learn how to accept what is? 

How do we do that? By synchronising with the elements. 

Live in accordance with nature instead of constantly resisting it. Ayurveda teaches us how to do this and how to become master of our own health. Simple and easy principles guide us in life and has done so for thousands of years. Chronic inflammation, leading to the chronic diseases we see in the world today were introduced when we stopped living according to the law of nature.

If you are experiencing the typical symptoms of chronic inflammation, know that this is absolutely reversible. You can take action today by joining my 8 week group program that helps you both individually and uses the benefits of group dynamic to change habits, learn to live in harmony with nature and in a sustainable way. So that you increase your quality of life forever. To know more about it, check the program landing page or get in touch directly via email at charlotte[at]yogicha.com