organs of the body are functioning in a moment of time. What a blood test cannot do is tell us how we feel, how hungry we are, or what thoughts we have. A blood test cannot teach us about the actual disease processes behind a snapshot in time. Ayurveda factors in all these things, because how we think, feel, and behave is certainly connected with how the body is operating. Health is really about ensuring that energy and fluids are flowing properly; the physical flow depends on mental and emotional flow, and vice versa. We must give importance to mental states, emotions, and the physical condition of the body equally.
Most people don’t think too much about their health unless they’ve identified some sort of problem or discomfort in themselves. We also tend to think about our own health when a family member has a medical issue — we start to wonder if we will suffer the same fate due to genes, a similar diet, or a lifestyle that we have in common. Learning how to read the body on a day-to-day basis, and ultimately moment to moment, will actually help prevent health issues — even those we are predisposed to — because the cause of our imbalances can be determined sooner. This is why it’s important to observe the condition of our physical attributes and physiological functioning on a regular basis, including:
•Body form and composition
•Skin, including scalp
•Tongue
•Eyes
•Nails
•Voice
•Urine
•Feces
•Bodily secretions (including reproductive-organ fluids and menstruation)
Physical forms change according to the volume, frequency, and type of energy they receive. Identifying issues with skin, digestion, or periods early is very important, because these can signal the first stages of imbalance and the start of a disease process. However, every woman has to get to know her body type at its best to understand what a balanced state feels like. For example, what is normal digestion? When I ask clients to tell me about their bowel movements, they oftentimes respond by saying they are normal or that they don’t really look at them. This area of discussion is a bit embarrassing for a lot of people. In truth, “normal” is simply what a person is used to. It may or may not be a healthy state. Knowledge of Ayurveda helps a person identify the healthy state.
The Five Elements
To create anything, you need to know what materials you have at your fingertips.
Space, or akasha, is the first of the five elements Ayurveda uses to describe the matter we see in our bodies, in food, and in nature around us. Space provides a container for everything else, and even though we cannot see it — we know it’s there because we can see what’s in it. Our planet, the stars, and the sun are all in space. We can hear because sound travels through space. The body is essentially a collection of different types of channels (arteries, veins, organs, digestive tract, reproductive tract, bones, and so forth), and in each channel, there is a space for something to happen inside. Space exists in junction points, such as in the synapses between neurons and in joints. With too little space, congestion or inflammation happens, and with too much, things dry out or communications get dropped. Adequate space is a key to transmission — of information, nutrients, and energy. When a space suddenly opens up, a vacuum of receptivity is created. When a space is closed, transmission is blocked.
You can observe nature and see the same phenomena playing out in your own body. Sometimes just looking at a flower for a moment will tell you everything you need to know about how you feel right now. It may even help you solve a problem you’ve been working on. The space around us teaches us what is within us. This is because the atoms that make up the stars, the plants, and the ocean are the same atoms we have in our bodies. Creation, after all, is a reshuffling of matter and energy, and somewhere along the way, a new person like you or me comes into being.
Movement and change is created by air, or vayu. Like space, air is impossible to see, but we can see what it moves. We get our sense of touch from the air element, such as when we can feel the hairs on our arms move in the wind. A deficiency of air renders an organism inert, and excess can cause chaos and erosion. Air is necessary for respiration, for the wavelike movements of digestion (peristalsis), and for bodily and mental movements in general. We can have too much or too little air. Too little is lifeless; too much is degenerative.
Your Body’s Wind Currents
After watching a meteorologist present weather patterns two or three times, you can see that some wind currents are common on our planet. Your body has some wind-current patterns as well. These are called the five vayus. Air travels in five general directions in a human body:
1.In and out with the breath — prana vayu
2.From the gut to the head to facilitate thinking and communication — udana vayu
3.In a linear fashion to balance pressure and deliver energy and nutrients across membranes — samana vayu
4.Downward with gravity and out through the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts — apana vayu
5.From the heart, through the blood vessels, to the entire periphery of the body — vyana vayu
All these vayus are important in order for you to feel fully alive. Certain vayus have a more dominant force at times, such as vyana vayu when your heart is pumping during cardiovascular exercise or a startled state, or apana vayu when you have your period. In fertility, apana vayu is an important wind current to study. A woman needs to allow some pull of gravity to feel stable, safe, and secure, but she must let apana vayu take over even more when menstruation begins. This is one of the reasons why women are not advised to practice handstands or other inversions in yoga class during menstruation. It’s also a reason why women notice changes in their bowel movements around menstruation. The downward force is at play.
If a vayu becomes increased or blocked, it can affect other vayus by increasing or decreasing them. For example, a constipated person may find herself with health issues showing up in the upper part or periphery of the body, because if apana vayu has become blocked, then pressure will back up in the gut and this can push any toxicity into the blood, the lymph, and even the nerves. Also, if a person overexercises and increases energy taken in through the breath (prana), the preexisting imbalance patterns of each of the other vayus can increase even more.
Knowing that these wind currents exist, you can begin to direct energy mindfully throughout your body. You may have already noticed that some of these wind currents seem stronger than others. Your task is to seek out all the places in your body that may have become blocked so that you can let these currents flow freely — in just the right amounts for you to enjoy health and longevity.
Fire, or tejas, is responsible for transformation and provides heat, while our eyes perceive the light emitted from it. We need fire for body heat, proper digestion, and metabolism. Enzymes have fire in them to carry out their action. Too much fire element will burn (as in the case of hyperacidity or ulceration), and too little of it can cause slowness and stagnation. Extreme cases of low heat can also end up looking like burning tissues, as in frostbite, and an individual can have a burning sensation in the stomach when the body is too alkaline. The key is that the body needs a delicate balance of fire for metabolic purposes, and this balance is maintained by hunger, desire, bodily wastes, and excretions. The main fire tissues of the body are found in the liver, blood, and bile. Anemia signals an issue with an individual’s fire element, as do the colors white,
