I WROTE A BOOK! Self-publishing during the first Covid lockdown. Last week I finished writing another Ayurvedic book, and this one will be published by a publisher next spring.
Writing about Ayurveda reminds me again and again how incredibly rich this approach to our health is.
Ayurveda cured me of 15 years of IBS, in just 3 months. That's why I went on to train and, in the process, I connected ever more deeply to this beautiful world we live in. I'd always had a love of the universe, but studying this ancient approach to healthcare connected me more deeply, to the rhythms and cycles that are all around us and within us, as well as the connections between them.
The cosmos is immense in its sparkling splendour, scattering stardust over time, many billions of years. And here we are.
The Rishi’s of ancient India who brought us Ayurveda, perceived so much about existence, both visible and invisible. They explained that when we live in balance with our nature and the natural world that surrounds us, the human body constantly regenerates; albeit towards the winter of our life. They teach us that we are nature, connecting us back to the rhythms of day, night and the seasons. And they reconnect us back to the soil: that beautiful earthy substance teaming with life.
We were born from such a rich and intelligent source. If you, like me, would like to step back into the ground of resilience from which you came; Ayurveda, can hold your beautiful hand, along the way.
The Ayurvedic approach to health, which is over 5000 years old, offers us simple time-tested ways to remain well. As a preventative approach to our health, the things we need to do to get started are quite simple, and they only cost us the willingness to make some changes.
The beautiful thing about Ayurveda is that it is nature-based, and nature isn’t interested in money.
The Ayurvedic way of living doesn’t have much in common with our current Western approach to life, in which we learn to live out of balance with the flow of our biology, and the natural world around us. Where the conditions in which illness establishes itself are created, that can sometimes be hard to reverse. The beauty of Ayurveda is that it shows us how to recognise when we are creating those conditions, and explains what to do about that.
So much of Western culture works against this, with the marketing industry hypnotising us into thinking that living to life’s natural rhythms, is somehow boring. Or just not possible or needed. This, along with a work life balance that often exhausts people, perhaps leaves them endlessly stressed about how to make ends meet, and news coverage that keeps our brains in fear and flight mode; is what keeps people locked into the ways of living that create the conditions where illness can take hold, often seemingly from no-where.
Yet, when we decide to live to our own innate rhythm, and make a few changes to our life; health and happiness arrive. Just like nature, we grow back.
The first thing to do, is to start living in balance with your circadian rhythm, by getting up with the sun and going to sleep by 10 pm (the hours between 10 pm and 2 am are when your body heals, rebalances and regenerates, but only if you are asleep). The second is to eat your main meal at lunchtime.
These two things are what my clients find the hardest to do, but if you are struggling, without settling the body back into these natural biological rhythms, it is hard to create long-term wellbeing again. Often what we seem to get away with, becomes an illness seemingly out of the blue further down the line, or a daily life that starts to feel ever more stressful, a bit of a slog, not much fun anymore.
I’ll continue writing about Ayurveda in future posts. Please do ask any questions in the comments.
Here are some joy dots, and memories of my stay in the Catalan Pyrenees.
Joy dots
Pools of silence
Friendship
Nestling as night appears
Stars in the sky
Moon shining down
Blossom
Sweet juicy oranges
The smell of lemons
Orange calendula
Robin on a telegraph wire
Another fly on the window
The thing about joy dots is that it doesn’t matter if you repeat them, it only matters that what you write is something that brings you joy.
My Catalan adventures — A day out
Most of my time was spent on the mountain where the little caravan I stayed in stood, with its wide-eyed windows drinking in the vast, mountainous view. Further down the mountain there were a few dwellings where the others who lived there, slept. We lived an outdoor life. Up with the sun that, ever so gently, lit up the Pyrenees in salmon pink, laced with gold.
After breakfast I would wander the terrain looking for wild herbs, before returning to cook lunch. The silence deeper than life itself, accompanied me every where I went, taking the richness and splendour of the place deep into my heart.
One day Gerrard announced we would all go to the lake. Everyone said I was in for a real treat. And they were right. It was a silken day. Seamless. Rippling waves of everything good.
First we piled up the roof of the van with a canadian canoe and bags full of nice foods, drinks, towels; and in mine books to read and notebooks to write in. The van rolled unevenly across dirt track until reaching the nearest village — Abella de le Conca — where we stopped and everyone got out to say hello to their friends, who owned a mountain climbing retreat in the village.
I sat on an old stone wall, next to where the village spring filled a stone basin that had been carved out of the wall; gazing down into the valley and staring at the little wiggly snake of a road we would drive along. Then back we got into the van, windows down as we rattled and bumped along, past olive groves and vineyards. My new friends calling out “look over there…”, “Don't miss that!” and “Have you ever…”. Everyone's laughter broke like waves upon the great silent ocean of the Pyrenees…to be continued.
Recipe
BEAN MOZZARELLA MINT
Here’s a small plate for a sunny day which could be served with other small plates. Preferably under the sun, on a day when you can feed your heart through friendship, and your mind through a setting that fills your senses with nice things.
INGREDIENTS (for broad bean dip one serving)
2 cups broad beans
1 small clove garlic
Juice of 1/2 lime (more or less to your taste)
1/2 cup biolive natural yogurt
Rock salt to season
METHOD
Steam the broad beans and blend with the garlic, lime, natural biolive yogurt and season with mineral salt. Then serve with the cannellini & cauliflower purée (further on), mozzarella and olive oil.
CANNELLINI & CAULIFLOWER PURÉE
INGREDIENTS
1/2 roasted cauliflower
2 cups cooked cannellini beans
1/3 cup light tahini
2 cloves minced garlic
Juice 1 lime
Rock salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
METHOD
Put all the ingredients into a food processor except the rock salt and lime juice. Use these to get the seasoning to your taste at the end.
AYURVEDIC LOWDOWN
The broad bean if eaten in large quantities can unbalance vata types, so see how you feel, do you feel gassy or bloated after eating this? The thing is we have all the doshas within our constitution. I’m predominantly vata pitta type and I find I can eat broad beans fine, but would probably not feel like eating them if vata was out of balance.
Warm wishes for the rest of your week.
Till Friday,
Lucy x