Emotions and physical health using Ayurveda
How often did you run into a situation where you are unable to exactly pinpoint if you are annoyed or fury, are in fear or terror or if you are experiencing disgust or remorse? Sometimes, it gets easier if you are feeling happy vs. sad but we as humans are often faced with dealing with complicated and wide range of emotions.
Emotions can be mixed as well - we can feel excited and nervous at the same time. And we may lose clarity on what exactly is the emotion. To top it all, there can be secondary emotions in response to our original emotions.
Irrespective of the type, we often spend a significant amount of time interpreting, making decisions or scheduling activities around them. And these can play a major part in our facial expressions, self-concept, presentation, choices, and overall body language.
Not all emotions are conscious, but conscious emotions are mental representations that can, in theory, be reported. Emotions can be subjective (personal perception of the experience) produced by the individual mind. Let’s take pain. Although we as individuals can identify and feel the specific components of pain, no one else can fully measure or feel our own subjective experience of pain. Hence, pain cannot be objectively or empirically measured by others.
But emotions can cause physiological reactions such as increase or decrease in heart rate, trembling lips, weakened limbs, cutaneous blood flow, sweating, and gastrointestinal motility. When emotions become chronic, they can cause inflammation, lowered immunity, or poorer physical health.
Helplessness and hopelessness can create chronic stress disrupting body’s hormonal balance. Hostility can create hypertension, cardiovascular dysfunction, asthma, and digestive disorders.
It is common that an individual identifies with the symptoms of physical health and attempts to get treatment for those symptoms, unaware of the cause of those symptoms. And when these emotions go unrecognized or not integrated into the broader framework of treatment, an all-rounded healing may not be possible.
Heal your mind, heal your body
Ayurveda considers emotions as messengers, teaching us how to recognize, address the underlying message, and bring ourselves back into a balance. This is possible by addressing emotions from the perspective of the five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether. These elements are a part of our bodies, thoughts and emotions. When any of these elements go out of balance, they can cause myriads of turbulence in our perception of emotions.
Let’s talk about fear. From an Ayurvedic perspective, fear is an emotion created by deranged air and ether elements. Since there is not much grounding to either of these elements, fear can take the shape of any feeling (since it is at the mercy of its environment), all the way to causing shivers in the spine. But air is also an element of creativity, ideas and imagination. If an individual can imagine the worst outcome of a situation, they also can craft all possible outcomes using the same mind. This is possible by guiding and redirecting the same mind to envision, create, manifest, and thus, make better use of the air and ether elements in their life.
Sadness is made of water and earth elements, anger is derived from fire, while envy is made of fire, water and earth elements. Grief is made of water and earth elements, while trust and resentment are associated with overheat caused by the fire element.
Each of these emotions, like I mentioned earlier, can remain simple or mixed, and can affect specific organs. For example, resentment is associated with spleen, anger with liver, guilt or shame with kidneys, indecision with colon, trust with gallbladder, anxiousness with small intestine, fear with stomach, grief with lungs, and attachment with heart.
Once you are familiar with these elements, it may be easier to pronounce emotions and the cause of each at the elemental level. As you become mindful and check in with your body and mind, you'll be able to intuitively discern which element may be in excess and which technique will support your needs.
At Rahgvik Holistics, we offer a holistic approach from the ground-up to health and well being, empowering you to lead your best life. We will provide insight into what element(s) may be at play and provide a course of action for your emotional and physical care.
We are here to discuss your needs and help you get answers to your questions.