Stress is an everyday human experience. While some stress is appropriate and can be productive, too much compromises our physical, mental, and emotional health. Ayurveda believes that when healthy and balanced, our level of Ojas (life force) is strong and protects the body, mind, and spirit. Stress can deplete this vital energy, affecting the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive, immune, and gastrointestinal systems.
The stress response has evolved, helping humans cope with crisis, danger, disaster, and loss. When we experience a perceived threat on any level, the Sympathetic nervous system floods the body with stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline). This initiates the “fight or flight” response, accelerating speed and response times, but can hamper many-body systems. This system serves us well as long as the crisis is followed by a period of rest, recovery, and rejuvenation.
In today’s busy and stressful world, our lives change rapidly, and stressors are everywhere and daily. Stress hormones don’t turn off. They linger in our systems, making us hyper-vigilant, putting our bodies in a challenging situation without much time to recover, reset, and regain balance. This makes us even more susceptible to stress, which can make matters worse when in a weakened state.
One of Ayurveda’s foundational principles is that like increases like and that opposites create balance. Ayurveda relies on twenty Gunas (qualities), organized into ten pairs of opposites. One group is Anabolic (building and nourishing), and the other is Catabolic, reducing and lightening. The fight and flight response is catabolic, intensely activating, energizing, motivating, and accelerating, which can be very beneficial, but this depleting pattern wears us down. These actions create light, sharp, hot, dry, and mobile qualities, which can create imbalance and deplete the body further.
The Ayurvedic antidote creates more “Anabolic” practices that are building, rejuvenative, and balancing in nature, introducing heavy, grounding, slow, nourishing, soft, and stabilizing qualities through our daily practices (Dinacharya) with diet, lifestyle, and relationships.
Ten considerations to build Ojas and balance anxiety, stress, and depletion:
1. Slow down, spend some time in nature
2. Drink non-caffeinated beverages
3. Use adaptogenic (helps the body adapt to stress) herbs/teas: (Chywanprash, Tulsi, Ashwagandha, Ginseng)
4. Practice meditation (Empty bowl)
5. Do Restorative yoga
6. Conscious breath practice (Pranayama)
5. Do daily Abhyanga “massage” daily
6. Take a bath (especially with Epsom salts if possible)
8. Proper Ayurvedic diet and hydration
10. Calming essential oils and aromatherapy (Lavender, Chamomile, Clary Sage, Rose)
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