Embodying Wholeness - Building Resilience & Immunity

What does it mean to be resilient in a constantly changing and demanding world? Why is it important to safeguard our immunity? This short talk sharing the wisdom of Ayurveda provides insights for living powerfully and loving yourself authentically.

Transcript

Hello,

It is Shara here and given where we are at the moment in the year and in the midst of this global pandemic,

I actually thought that it would be a good idea to talk a little bit about something that's really becoming important to all of us at the moment,

Which is how to build immunity and resilience.

So more than ever before,

Our attention is being brought to the vital importance of increasing our immunity and building our resilience for the good of our individual selves,

But also for the good of the people that we're intimately connected to and ultimately for the good of the communities that we live in.

But what is equally as important and something I really want to bring your attention to as we move through this time is that we embrace that immunity and resilience have always been important and that they always will be,

Even when our focus has shifted from the pandemic back to some version of our old ways of doing things.

And so right now is an opportunity to highlight what immunity and resilience are and how we can build and maintain them from this point forward so that they continue to serve us throughout our lives and not just when the going gets tough.

So according to Ayurveda,

Immunity and resilience are supported by a subtle framework of factors that begin with the things that we actually consume every day and how well we process and assimilate those things.

So the nourishing aspects of our food and our experiences,

They are all processed by the body-mind and they're refined to a subtle essence,

Which we call ojas.

And ojas might be a word that you've heard before.

I'm not sure if I've talked much about ojas,

But it's something that's important to begin to kind of get your head around.

So ojas is a Sanskrit word that means vigor or vitality.

And in Ayurveda,

Ojas is synonymous with immunity.

So ojas is the product of healthy digestion and it promotes mental and physical strength and endurance and stability and calm and patience and sustained concentration,

Good memory,

Contentment and bliss,

Otherwise known as vitality.

So ojas is what happens when all of our systems of digestion and all of the things that we're actually digesting are of this right quality and quantity for us as individuals.

And so how do we know when our ojas is off balance?

How do we know when our ojas is low?

And I actually really like that we have a sense for,

Or that we start to get familiar with the signs of low ojas,

Right?

Signs of,

Or some of the early symptoms of low immunity,

Because for me,

That really empowers us to make some healthy changes in our lives.

And I think that's one of the gifts that Ayurveda gives us.

So let's talk a little bit about some of the signs of low ojas.

Some of the signs of low ojas include,

And this is certainly not an exhaustive list,

Include things like sluggishness,

Feeling bloated,

Feeling sleepy or a little bit tired,

Especially after you've had a meal,

Even if you've slept,

Even if you feel like you're well rested,

Thoughts that are feeling a little bit cloudy,

Maybe feeling unable to focus or feeling generally unmotivated in life,

A sense of heaviness or lethargy,

Unexplained weight loss,

Dry skin,

Cold hands and feet,

Generalized body and joint pains or body aches,

This feeling of this sense of heaviness in the belly or in the legs or in the body as a whole,

Feeling weary or unenthusiastic,

Which I talked about before,

Anxiety,

Fatigue,

Stress,

Premature aging and a sense,

A lack of vitality,

A lack of curiosity,

A lack of passion for living.

So how is our ojas depleted?

Well,

We touched on this idea of digestion,

But let's talk a little bit about the kinds of things that we do that impact that.

So yet again,

This is not an exhaustive list,

But this will give you a good idea of some examples of how we deplete our ojas.

So stressful lifestyle,

Staying up too late,

Excessive computer and television use,

Too much screens,

Which is probably something a lot of us are dealing with right now,

Overwork and overexertion,

Lack of sleep.

So that staying up late that I mentioned at the beginning,

That points more to sleeping out of alignment with natural rhythms or circadian rhythms.

And then this lack of sleep is basically just not getting enough sleep.

Unhealthy relationships,

Unnatural lifestyle rhythms,

And that means seasonal rhythms as well as daily rhythms,

Excessive sexual activity,

Grief,

Anxiety and fear,

Loss of blood.

So that points to for women,

A monthly cycle or menstruation,

All those things have a slight impact on our ojas.

Drugs and stimulants,

Poor digestion,

Which makes sense of course,

Over fasting.

So that's for a lot of folks who are currently doing things like intermittent fasting,

Or they're doing whole fasting days,

It's just important to understand that some of those things,

If they're done to excess,

Depending upon the individual,

Can have an impact on your ojas or your immunity.

And then frequently eating processed or old food,

Food that's of low quality,

That also has an impact on your ojas or your immunity.

And so more than just a matter of susceptibility to disease,

Ayurveda sees immunity or resilience as a measure of how well we are digesting life,

How well we're digesting life,

Of how efficiently we're able to interact with ourselves and our world in order to receive and absorb the nourishing elements.

These are the elements that are the highest quality and let go of any of the aspects that weaken and destabilize us.

And this should be really familiar because I talk about this a lot.

And I haven't talked about it as much in the context of the impacts of unhealthy digestion or compromised or broken digestion on our immunity or on our ojas,

But I think that there's always been an implication kind of in the background that healthy digestion is really important.

And when our digestion is compromised,

It's bad news on a lot of levels.

So let's talk about how we can increase our ojas and how we can increase our immunity.

So there's a number of different kind of layers and levels at which I'll talk about this.

So first let's just talk about your lifestyle.

So the best way to increase your ojas or manage your ojas is by living a balanced and naturally balanced lifestyle.

And what does that mean?

Well,

That means eating seasonally,

Right?

Just eating a balanced diet of foods that are easy to digest,

That is quite important,

Especially in moments like now when our minds and bodies are trying to deal with quite a lot.

And so what we're looking to try to do is not overload our physical digestive systems by inputting lots of complicated and challenging to eat food.

So we're wanting to ensure that our diet is easy to digest and we're wanting to make sure as well that we're sufficiently hydrated.

That might not be something that you think about as being really important at the moment,

But I'm highly recommending that you pay a lot of attention to your level of hydration,

Especially now.

Next is seasonal routines and self-care.

These are all a really important part of a naturally balanced lifestyle.

So you want to ensure,

As we've said,

That you're getting enough sleep,

That you're engaging in self-care practices that are suitable for you and for the season.

Next is yoga,

Asana practice and some kind and or some kind of healthy movement.

So now is a really good time to ask yourself how well your yoga practice is serving you.

We can all tend to get into habits of practicing anything,

Whether it's exercise or movement or yoga,

And we begin to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

So we get comfortable with some of the aches and pains in our bodies and we don't see those so much as a signal to the body that perhaps our practice isn't serving us at this time.

And so the question to really ask yourself is,

Is your practice energizing you or is it depleting you?

Is it alleviating your suffering,

Your aches and your pains in your body,

Or is it contributing to them?

That is really important and making those adjustments,

Whether those adjustments be seasonally or whether they just be adjustments relative to whatever is going on in your life,

Whatever your current circumstances are,

That's really important to ensuring that your immunity and your resilience overall remain strong and that they're able to serve you.

Next meditation.

So we're looking to develop a sense of serenity and equanimity to detach from the outside world for a while and to kind of cultivate this sense of clarity and meditation is one of the best tools for helping us to do that.

Also pranayama.

So we don't think about it so much,

But breath practices are incredibly powerful.

They are powerful because they work on a number of different levels.

They work on a physical level,

Right?

And we've all felt that when you're breathing,

You can feel the body moving.

And maybe when you exhale,

You can feel the muscles relax and some of the tension kind of drain out of the body.

But you've also perhaps had that sense of the effect that breathing has on your emotions,

Right?

On a more subtle level that breathing might have on your thoughts.

And these are some of the more subtle levels that have a real deep impact on our state of OGIS and on our state of immunity and resilience.

And so simple practices like box breathing,

Like three part yogic breath,

Alternate nostril breathing,

These are all really great practices that are equalizing and that are calming and that are typically good for all doshes.

And so creating some kind of simple daily practice of breathing,

Even if it's only a few minutes and taking some time during the day to notice the quality of your breath,

That's building awareness of your mental state.

It's also building awareness of your physical state.

And it's creating a bit of space to make a healthy choice to return to stability and ease.

And so that's really an important part of all of this.

We talked about sleep.

One thing that you mightn't think as much about in normal times,

Now you might even be thinking a little bit more about it,

Particularly if you've got loved ones or friends that you're missing,

Is that love,

Joy,

And nourishing life experiences and meaningful connections are truly,

Truly key to our state of immunity,

To the quality and the levels of our OGIS.

So isolating yourself can be really easy to do in these times,

Even closing yourself off mentally and emotionally.

And so stay tuned in,

Even asking yourself if you're inadvertently isolating,

Right?

These days,

Isolation is easy.

It's what can be challenging is actually engaging and engaging with friends and finding ways to do that.

And so are you making the effort to create genuine connections with your friends and your family members right now?

That's something that's important and it's also important to think about in the context of increasing your immunity,

Not just for now,

But for the long run.

So next,

Let's talk a little bit about food.

Well,

From an Ayurvedic perspective,

When we talk about OGIS,

There are certain types of foods that are quite good for increasing OGIS.

These are foods that are fresh,

That are high quality,

And that have certain building qualities and characteristics to them.

So that includes things like dairy foods,

Dairy products,

Especially ghee and whole raw milk,

Fresh,

Sweet and ripe fruits,

Almonds,

Almond,

Olive and coconut and sesame oils.

Those are especially good of all the oils.

Almonds,

Cashew nuts,

Pumpkin seeds,

Sesame seeds,

All very good as well.

Avocados and sweet potatoes,

Dates,

Raisins and figs,

Honey,

Coconut sugar,

Maple syrup and raw sugar,

Coconut,

Coconut water and coconut milk and whole grains.

These out of all of the foods,

These foods in particular are especially good for increasing OGIS.

What's especially important,

However,

Is that we don't create a diet that is just entirely these foods,

Right?

And is that we try to work some of these foods into our diet,

Perhaps in place of something that might be processed or something that might not be particularly well suited for you in the season or relative to whatever you're experiencing at the moment individually.

So I'm just highlighting some of these foods because I wanted you to be aware of them.

And when you win and if you do have the opportunity to incorporate these into your diet,

That you take them because you have a sense of the impact that they can have on your state of immunity.

The next thing to talk about is good digestion.

So we've talked and we've kind of dotted this idea throughout this conversation.

And I think what's important is that we understand this on a couple of different levels.

Obviously there's the physical digestion and that's something that you can take the time to really tune into.

And I think that's something that I highly suggest you do.

If you're not already doing it,

Now would be especially good time to start tuning into the way that your body is digesting,

Feeling that maybe that's a sense of heaviness or a sense of lightness or a sense of hunger or fullness,

Just becoming aware of those things and taking some steps to ensure that your digestive fire is strong.

We've talked about that before in other lessons and some of the things that you can do for that in terms of spices and managing quantities and all that sort of stuff.

So that's a really important thing to focus on at the moment.

But also really,

Especially now when screens are kind of even more than before,

Our window to the world,

There are only means by which we can connect with others and we can connect with the world outside.

So we have to become really conscious of our consumption.

We have to become conscious of our consumption of information,

Social media,

Even some interactions.

So I know a lot of people that are meeting up with friends or that are joined courses online and they've got lots of those sorts of things going on.

It's just really important that we stay tuned into how much we're consuming,

Not just of food,

But also of information and social media and all the rest and interactions and experiences.

And then the last one that I'll talk about that can also help with increasing our ojas is herbs.

There's certain herbs within Ayurveda that we call rasayanas.

They're tonic herbs and these tonic herbs are very useful for increasing our ojas.

And they include things like Shilajit,

If you haven't heard of that.

It's a resin and it's quite a nice powerful resin.

It's something that you can take on a daily basis.

So you can see what you can do about finding some of that if you're interested.

Ashwagandha is quite good.

It's a rasayana as well.

Shatavari,

Also another rasayana.

I've talked about it,

Done a little video before on chalunprash.

So that's something that is really easy and easy to take every day.

And some people find that quite delicious.

And so that might be a simple one.

And then there are other rasayanas.

And I will put into the notes for this lesson,

A recipe for an ojas rasayana that's got some trifla and some honey and some ghee mixed in.

So those are some of the suggestions that I can give you for increasing for some of the things that you can do to increase your ojas.

And while these things are really powerful,

You know,

These all these things that you can do,

And they're also the kinds of things that most of us are kind of looking to get our hands on and so that we can sort of start to get active.

What's equally important is to consider the thinking that supports that doing.

The thinking that supports your doing.

So in Ayurveda,

We say that the mind leads the way,

Right?

And that disease,

All disease begins in the mind.

And if you've ever had the experience of,

You know,

Creating an intention or a plan,

Maybe at the beginning of the year or some other time of the year,

To get on the wellness wagon and to,

You know,

Change the way you eat and to maybe exercise more in different ways and to watch less television and get to sleep on time and then over time,

Your the zeal and the enthusiasm,

The motivation and the inspiration for doing that kind of falls away and with it,

The doing,

It becomes really important for you to understand or to consider how to make yourself stronger and more resilient and how your ways of thinking impact your ability to make yourself stronger and more resilient.

So let's do a little bit of thinking about,

Let's do a little,

Well,

I'll share with you a few suggestions to consider around the thinking that you engage in about yourself and your beliefs and the value of taking care of yourself.

And in my mind,

These are really vital factors to addressing the mental and the emotional approach to improving our immunity and resilience.

If you're going to do anything,

Or if you're going to engage in any aspects of what I've mentioned so far,

These ones I think are the really the keys to maintaining the mindset that's needed to engage in all the actions or any of the actions that I've mentioned before.

So let's talk about them.

There's only three.

The first is seeing yourself as whole.

And by that I mean acknowledging all the parts of you that are contributing to your wellbeing.

And that's kind of what we're doing right now.

It's really easy for us to get caught up in focusing on just the diet or how much we exercise.

But I've said this many times before,

And so it's probably not going to be new to you,

But who we are is a relationship,

Right?

Who we are is a relationship.

And that means that there are many aspects of you,

Including your environment,

Including your ways of being and thinking,

As well as more practical considerations like how you spend your day and how you relate to yourself that determine how strong and resilient you're even able to be.

And so doing the work to acknowledge that,

To acknowledge your whole self and not necessarily narrow your actions in around taking the right supplements or just eating the right diet,

But on a daily basis,

Becoming aware of who you're being as it relates to yourself,

As it relates to the folks around you,

All of these,

As it relates to other aspects of your environment.

With the knowledge that that relationship that you have with not only yourself,

But your environment is also a key part of your state of immunity and resilience.

The next is a willingness to find what works for you.

So it's important to understand,

And I hope that you're already really starting to get your head around this with all of the Ayurveda,

That you are a unique individual.

And as such,

It's very,

Very possible that the factors required to strengthen and sustain you,

May be very different to those required by others and even other members of your own family.

But you probably already knew that by now,

Or at least had an inkling about it.

This means that you need a willingness to be curious and in many ways to be dedicated to finding what works for you.

And even though that sounds really simple for a lot of us,

That can be quite challenging and perhaps even a little bit scary,

But I would like you to embrace that as an exploration,

As an adventure and as well and truly the only path to finding what's going to work for yourself,

The only path to enduring wellbeing.

And then the last,

And I actually almost consider this the most important out of all of these,

Is self-compassion or loving yourself enough to take action and continue to take action.

So you have to embrace that true wellness is really not possible unless we feel worthy and deserving of it.

I'm going to repeat that because I think it's really important.

True wellness is not possible unless we feel worthy and deserving of it.

So we have to continually cultivate the self-love and the self-compassion that's needed to take action and to keep taking action,

No matter how good or bad we feel.

No matter how right or wrong we think we are,

No matter how guilty we feel for having fallen off the wagon,

No matter how tired we are or how unmotivated we are,

We have to allow that self-love and that self-compassion to jump in the driver's seat.

And so I've just got one kind of final piece of advice,

Especially for those of us who might be a little overzealous and ever so set on getting it right.

No matter what,

No matter how much I talk about self-compassion,

There's always going to be those of us who are excited and we've got a list of things to do and we want to jump in,

But not only do we want to jump in,

We want to get it all right.

So in as much as all of these things are really useful steps to improving your resilience and your immunity,

What's really important is that you do not allow yourself to get overwhelmed.

Do not allow yourself to get overwhelmed.

Hopefully this Ayurvedic way of keeping things simple,

Of understanding that you can do one thing,

Just one thing,

And the self-love that's required just to engage in that action,

Just to resist your natural tendency to want to do it all.

That in itself is healing.

That in itself is a factor that will increase your immunity and resilience.

The other thing that you want to do,

And I've said this before,

I've just said it,

But I'm going to say it again in a slightly different way is to come from love,

To come from love.

And what that means really is just to,

As I said,

Just to let that self-compassion and that self-love drive everything.

If you find moments of weakness,

If you find moments of fogginess or cloudiness or moments where you're not sure which step to take,

Drop into that love in your heart,

Find that within and allow that to illuminate the way forward for you.

You also want to stay connected to yourself.

Stay connected to yourself.

All of these are really connected.

Not allowing yourself to get overwhelmed and coming from love and staying connected to yourself.

All of these really work together.

They dovetail together quite nicely and they support each other quite nicely.

And then the last thing is to feel your way through.

More often than not,

We are gatherers of information.

We are gatherers of to-do lists.

We are gatherers of recipes for success.

But what's really important,

Particularly when we're talking about our own individual immunity and resilience,

Is that we give ourselves permission to feel our way through.

And so our weekly challenges for this month have actually been created with some of these things in mind.

But it's really important that you take stock of how you're doing in all of these areas to get a better sense for where you're going to need the most focus.

Where you're going to need to focus your efforts more.

And remember,

As I said before,

That it's not about doing everything.

It's about tuning in to what you believe that you need.

You might already be going strong in some of these areas and maybe not so strong in others.

It's about tuning in and then feeling your way through.

And so take a moment just to consider some small steps that you can take to begin to address these areas with the understanding that with awareness and with those key factors that I've mentioned,

That you'll begin to create a strong foundation for enduring wellness and resilience in all areas of your life.

Thank you so much for listening.

And if you have questions,

You can always ask.

I will be here to answer them.

So thanks again and I wish you increased resilience and immunity and peace and love.

Namaste.