By Wendy Rosenfeldt
New Year Resolutions
At the beginning of the New Year many people make resolutions to be better, to live healthier or to give things up. While good in theory this often falls down in practice. Our resolutions originate in the mind but are often at odds with what the body wants. The mind says smoking is a disgusting habit but the body says I am craving that cigarette; the mind says getting up early and going for a jog is a great way to start the day but the body says I’d rather stay in bed; the mind says chocolate makes me feel congested and heavy but the body says yes please. Our basic nature and our imbalances contribute towards the way we make changes in our life.
Variable Vata will get excited about a new routine and attempt to change everything, follow the new diet/ lifestyle/ herbs for about a week, while telling everyone how great it is, and then drop it and want to try something new. Precise Pitta will stick religiously to their new regime often to the point of inflexibility while slow, steady Kapha will take a long time to try anything new but once they adopt something they may stick with it for life. The Ayurvedic approach to making changes in your life is to do it gradually while creating balance in the doshas and enlivening the body/mind intelligence so the decisions are easy and spontaneous.
By introducing gentle exercise, following the cycles of the day and reducing impurities in the physiology you start to feel clearer mentally and lighter in the physiology. You become much more aware of the effect of food or activities that put you out of balance and this is felt on the level of the mind and body. The better you feel, the less you crave food or stimulants that dull your intelligence and the more you feel like exercising and living a healthy lifestyle. Simply giving up things that you enjoy or enforcing a strict routine on yourself just causes a strain on the physiology and seldom lasts.
Hypnosis can be an effective way of giving up smoking, losing weight etc but it works by convincing the mind to make a change while the body can be left feeling grumpy from unfulfilled cravings. Transcendental Meditation works on the mind and body. It is a profound tool for purifying the physiology of stress and enlivening the connection between the mind and body. By increasing the wellness of the physiology Transcendental Meditation leads to increased awareness so that you spontaneously live a healthier life.
Wendy Rosenfeldt is a Maharishi Vedic Health Educator and Teacher of Transcendental Meditation. There will be an Introductory Talk on Transcendental Meditation on Wednesday the 20th of Jan at 1.30 in Maleny. Please call Wendy on 5499 9580 to book for the talk or for an Ayurvedic Consultation.
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