Why You Don't Sleep Well (beyond modern science)

Sleep is one of the major pillars of health along with nutrition and exercise.

Most of us find that it's one of the main culprits for weight gain, burn outs, unhealthy skin, feeling stressed and moody is all because we're not getting good sleep.

Many also believe sleeping more hours (Hyperinsomnia) will work but it doesn’t because good sleep is not about the number of hours - it is all about what is best for the individual. Let me come back to this a little later. 

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get 7 to 9 hours a day and their research shows that around 75% of people with depression show symptoms of some sort of sleep disorder – like insomnia or hyperinsomnia.

There is also a lot of free advice out there on how to get better sleep like: 

Having good evening routines to prepare for sleep

Taking sleeping aids

Melatonin supplements 

Using darker curtains in the bedroom to block out lights

All of this is great in some sense but it does not address the person's body that needs the sleep and how to make that happen in their current lifestyle.

So – Ayurveda talks about the 3 doshas = Vata / Pitta / Kapha

Whatever the most dominant dosha might be for an individual that is going to determine their sleep pattern. Like:

Kapha – is naturally a slower and heavier person so he does not need 9 hours of sleep. He will do best with 7 hours of sleep otherwise the more he sleeps the more he will put on weight and promote dullness and laziness. Kapha doshas need more movement and less sleep that the rest.

The Vata sleepers are light sleepers – and can do with 8 to 9 hours of sleep because they are more likely to wake up during the night.

Pitta sleepers are dreamers – so they will do better with 8 to 9 hours of sleep as well.

While this is general advice and you’re best to find out what might be the reason you’re finding it hard to get quality sleep. This will depend on what needs balancing. Still most people self-diagnose themselves with insomnia or hypersomnia and connect their emotional state with having sleeping problems.

Correcting the quality of sleep you are getting with Ayurveda can be very easy. As easy as making a few corrections like: your diet, activities and self-awareness according to what keeps your energy (dosha) balanced. You can CLICK HERE to find out your dosha to align your lifestyle choices for better quality sleep.

You might be feeling stuck in a vicious cycle of stress from lack of sleep or think it’s too late to change what has been a long term problem for you. But take it from the ancient texts and Ayurvedic physicians that sleep is a natural occurrence and your body is more intelligent than you might know. All it needs is our assistance to return to how it should be functioning. 

Like nightfall happens after the day. If you are not experiencing ease in falling asleep then it just means you have fallen out of sync with nature's cycles. All you need is find out how to move away from the struggle and get back in tune!

If after reading the general advice on your dosha is not making sense for you or you feel that you could do with a deeper look I can help you with that. Book me to get a personalized routine by CLICKING HERE. I can show you what is currently throwing your body off kilter and what you can do right away to bring it back into alignment. Ayurveda is a natural medicine that is highly effective in the preventative stages of any disorder and also a powerful complimentary medicine if you have been dealing with chronic diseases.

Signs that your gut needs a reset! Free Digestive Reset Plan included

Ayurvedic medicine believes that all disease starts with a disturbed digestive system. 

The digestive system is where our fuel is prepared for our body to have energy to grow and repair.

While most of us are familiar with the common signs of a weak digestive system like the odd stomach ache, heartburn, diarrhea and constipation what most of us don’t do are take notice of how many times it happens until we are forced to head to the pharmacist or doctors for relief.

Quick fixes like laxatives and supplements that are available at the chemists might be helpful in the short term, in this article I'll show you how to create a better pattern for the long haul so your digestive system will not get weaker with time. 

A good way to start is to notice what sort of signs you are seeing with yourself such as: First sign of digestive disturbance for Vata are cramping, bloating and constipation. Pitta are heartburn, acidity and diarrhea. Kapha are prone to feeling heavy, dull and sleepy with stools that are sticky and mucusy.

The main problem with a disturbed digestion is that the body is showing sings of producing Ama (toxicity) and Ama itself causes disturbances in digestion. So it becomes a vicious cycle, which then causes chronic illnesses like: ulcers, ulcerative colitis, IBS and even cancer in the long run.

In general disturbances in our digestive system happens from Emotional stress, alcohol, drugs, faulty dietary and daily routines. 

BUT that is exactly why we can achieve a LOT by simply shifting to a diet that is lighter in quality and quantity and attending to the basic Ayurvedic guidelines. 

Right now we are entering a new season in less than a month and soon before you know it your choices in food will also change. My advice is if you have been seeing the signs of disturbances, it would be the optimal time for you to do a digestive reset.

Some of you might even need further detoxing if you are entering a warmer season. So the reset will also prepare your body and brain for a deeper cleanse if that is what you need before the next season starts.     

CLICK HERE to do a 3 Day Ayurvedic Digestive Reset while you find out your dosha HERE

This digestive reset is suitable for all doshas and it will present you with a fresh start to eating right again. The plan is a gentle nudge toward giving your digestive system a break from having to keep working with old waste and new food consumed. You will not need to fast or make any drastic changes. It is a light detox and lasts only for 3 days which will very quickly pass. In 3 days you will feel lighter and clearer to take the next steps on your transformation journey. 

If you have any questions, please post them below. And do let us know how you found the reset plan for you. 

Best of luck  

Easy Practices for Mental Health During the Lock Down

Okay you have to be honest with yourself that you have developed new habits that you’re not too happy about and that affects your mental health daily. Feeling bad, guilty, shame and even consistent low level of anxiety are symptoms you need a routine.  

I've been talking to my clients, students, friends and family and I was relieved to hear that I am not alone in feeling slightly affected by this new lock down lifestyle. And all of us were struggling with something that feels like the Quarantine Blues. 

Does this sound like you too? 

•     You’re skipping your morning Me time. Instead you’re checking for lock down updates first thing in the morning on your mobile.
• .       You’re getting your work done like a champ, but its taking longer than it normally does. You have given up your productivity habits because you say “Whats the point? I have nowhere else to be today”
• .       You’re staying up past midnight most nights even though you want to get up at 6am. So you’re constantly feeling like you’re missing half your energy.
• .       You’re not enjoying your meals or conversing with others because you really can’t stand the monotony of everything.

5.       YOU ARE CRAVING A CHANGE BUT ALSO FEELING STUCK? 

Just to let you know – YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  BUT YOU MUST STAY ON TOP OF IT AND WE WILL DO IT TOGETHER.

If you’re frequently feeling melancholic, having food cravings that aren’t like yourself, or feeling lethargic without reason – these are all signs of mental AMA build up. In Ayurveda Ama means toxicity built up with its root in our daily habits of the way we think, do and feel about things.  

Mental toxicity shows up in our emotions and usually come from over consumption of things that make us feel dull and wasted. Consumption of food, information and even activities.

Slowly the daily build ups starts to block the space and lightness and things start to take a turn toward feelings of depression or anxiety… if we don’t learn to clear the ama regularly.

So that’s why I made this Daily Routine checklist:

DAILY ROUTINE CHECKLIST

Here is what you check for and do:

•        You need to know that from the excessive sitting or being indoors your body and mind are feeling out of sync and sluggish
•       Your senses need invigorating for you to feel and think differently
•        Resolve to judge yourself – and when you do forgive yourself for judging yourself
•        Instead of setting goals that feel like punishments make daily promises to do the things that will bring you back in alignment to your natural self. Eg: Spend 3 mins in silence every morning before doing anything else.

Okay so here is what our approach is at STA :

Instead of doing a whole hour’s worth of self-care in one part of the day – break it up in 3 small parts:

 Morning:

1. Be silent for 3 mins in seated posture

2. Connect to your emotion and do yoga poses for that area of body

3. Promise yourself the next time you will check in during the day and do it again

Throughout the day:
4. Use invigorating things like: ginger or lemon in your water. They will keep your palate clean and mind clear. You can also chew on a clove or fennel seeds to give you a fresh breath mouth throughout the day.

5. Use Incense, essential oils, or burn some aromas like Eucalyptus / Sage / Palo santo

6. Do these Standing Yoga poses throughout the day to keep your muscle active and stretched:

Morning:  Standing chest openers + Side bends

3 PM: 8 standing squats with arms up + Dead bug for abdominal activity

Evening: Downward dog + High and wide legged lunges + Pigeon pose 

If you'd like a short cheat sheet to remind you of how you could keep you mind, body, emotion in check here is a link to a FREE guide to help you along:

DAILY ROUTINE CHECKLIST

What is a healthy diet? What you need to understand about Diet and Nutrition

 

So what is a Diet? Diet is what we eat as food for the body. Such as Vegetarian, Pescetarian, Keto, Low fat, High Fat and so on.. A diet tells us a lot about the food that we consume or leave out.

Nutrition is the value or nutrient value the food we eat brings.

The western system has a guide for age and BMI and most of you have heard about the food pyramid showing exactly what foods to include more or less of from the pyramid in our daily food intake. Note: it does not refer to diet rather gives the guidance on the amounts of nutrients we need from our diet.

This pyramid is a good guide to follow for portions and caloric intake to maintain your body’s nutrition levels as per your age and weight. 

The Healthy Eating Pyramid at Nutrition Australia:

https://nutritionaustralia.org/fact-sheets/healthy-eating-pyramid/

Now, here at STA we talk a lot about Ayurvedic diet being a key pillar to support your good health. Since the birth of natural medicine - Ayurvedic diet and the western diet share a common saying by Hippocrates – “Let food be thy medicine” – so everyone that deals with the science of nutrition believes that Food is fuel for the body, it has chemical components that have the ability to harm or heal us.

Ayurvedic diet looks at prescribing foods according to the person’s individual doshas and imbalances. I’ll soon post a link to my Dosha Imbalance test for you to try. In the meantime visit this link here to find out your Dosha and the foods you should favour and avoid:

Dosha Quiz by Chopra Foundation:

https://chopra.com/dosha-quiz

Ayurvedic philosophy when it comes to diet does not believe in eliminating, rather encouraging inclusivity of foods that are compatible to the individual's dosha.

The diet is not 1 size fits all because it sees each person as a unique organism. It also points out that one could know and eat the best foods for them but if their digestion is compromised then eating even the right foods could be of no use. Most people are eating incompatible foods which then result in poor digestion. 

Doshas are made of 5 elements and are present in all things including food. These Doshas are a categorising system used to find compatibility between us and nature.

Ayurvedic nutrition categorises food in tastes because it sees that tastes have a chemical effect with the chemicals of our body. Without going too deep into the nutrition framework – basic rule is – always consume foods of the 6 tastes in your day to promote feeling satiated without needing to eat extra or less. It is a system and a holistic approach. And it is not limited to the indian culture.

This brings me to my last point:

Let's get clear about what is a cuisine? people forget that cuisines are different to diets. Cuisines have an influence of culture. Example: A vegetarian or a non vegetarian dish can be both cooked as an Indian curry, a Spanish paella, an English roasted or barbecue platter. So commonly speaking cuisines have a bigger focus on presentation and taste than nutritional value.

Ayurvedic cooking can be integrated into all cultures because it focuses on compatibility of foods being combined for the person eating it. You can use spices as what is suitable to the method of cooking. And the method of cooking is also specific to the person eating it. Example: if I am Vata dominant it is best for me to eat a more liquid, gravy or soupy dishes because it would keep the nature of my doshas balanced. Whereas if I am Kapha dominant it means I am in need of a drier kind of dish like baked or broiled so it does not aggravate the water element in me.

 Was this helpful?

Change Is Inevitable with Adaptability Built In...

Don't fear change because adaptability is also built into us.

There is a lot of talk about what life will look like after the lock down restrictions lift. A lot of people are very against the changes that are ahead of us and they want everything to go back to exactly the way they used to be pre-lock down expecting the world to hit rewind on all the growth and change it has experienced. 

The word NORMAL seems to be the new buzzword with quite a bit of tension around it.

Normal in definition: noun

1. 1.

   the usual, typical, or expected state or condition.

   
   

Try considering it this way - Life naturally is a flowing body of experiences just like a river. There is a change in its body of movement at every moment. In the Vedas this body of moving life and its experiences is called Maya. Maya means illusory and temporary. These changes shake things up and create opportunities for growth, maturity and evolution. Somewhat our next chance at correcting Karma. Because what we did not know earlier we can learn about now and can possibly change the outcomes.

Of course this requires an interest in self-empowerment. And while dying to be free from control, the mass lack of interest in self-empowerment seems be the vicious cycle of experience we are all in. So when we wish for the old normal which has passed so we can act the same way we used to shows we did not learn anything at all. See the results in the experience we all created through lack of self-empowerment.  

You know we are among the powerful and privileged if we are reading this article. It means we have access to technology, resources and choices in life to be contemplating the subject line. Unlike many others we hold the capacity to make choices. But we forget this.

At a molecular level we are always changing because with cells dying they are also regenerating. As we are natural beings made of the natural elements we are capable of changing just as fast as nature itself. While each microscopic change is not visible we still know they are happening by the way things manifest themselves into actuality. An example of how a seed grows into a plant and then tree.

There is a hell of a lot of adaptability built into the seedling's natural make up at every stage of it's growth for it to eventually grow into a sturdy tree. We humans are not devoid of the same ability.

A clairvoyant named Phil Good said "We are on a planet of Letting Go". It makes sense that if we did not let our identifications and expectations go it becomes hard to adapt in this earthly environment. 

Hope this helps someone out there.    

Yoga Prop Substitutes You Can Find At Home

Hi!

I remember not buying myself yoga props until about 10 years into my yoga journey... Why? Simply because I did not feel the need to use them and because most of my teachers did not use them for our lessons. Some of the benefits of props are though that extra assistance with tightness, a bit of extra support when we feel unstable or wobbly and also to help go deeper. I have also seen through my clients and students that yoga props are helpful for managing healing injuries by not straining them while practicing and generally provide alternative ways to practice postures that might not feel within their range for the time being.

Okay so I have added a couple of links at the end of this article for you of places we buy yoga props from. But if you are like me, you can get creative till you get them delivered to your home. Here is a list of alternatives for Yoga props commonly used in a yoga class:

#1 The Yoga Bolster - You can substitute this prop by:

- Rolling up your quilt with a couple of yoga blocks between it.

- The back cushion of your couch if it can be dettached.

- Wrap a couple of cushions within a thick blanket to make a cylindrical structure that is firm and can take some weight.


#2 Yoga Blocks - The important thing with this one is to see how much weight it can  handle:

- Full 1 litre tetra pack of anything
- Milk bottles
- Text Books
- Full Tissue Boxes
- Large Tin Cans





#3 Yoga Straps - You will want to use this mostly as extension of your arms or in tricky binds

- A long belt
- A long towel
- A strong long scarf
- A Thera band
- A Skipping Rope






#4 Yoga Blanket - If you have a couple of blankets at home that will suffice to make do for both blanket and a bolster to help you feel supported in those lovely restorative postures.

So do you think you can find these items around your home? 

We don't get endorsed by any of these companies but here are a couple of places we buy props from and are satisfied with:

www.empind.com.au 

www.iyogaprops.com.au 

Their prices are wholesale prices but the postage might add a lot more to your purchase. So what I suggest is connect with a couple of your yogi friends and make a bulk order to share the cost of postage.

Did this article help you? Do you know of any other substitutes for any of the props above? If so, please share your ideas below so our readers can benefit.

Hari Om
Supriya Roy - Yoga Teacher Trainer & Ayurveda Practitioner 

Creating a Yoga Space

Don't be surprised to hear that you are NOT the only one struggling to feel comfortable to practice at home. And for many home is a shared space with other people, so privacy, solitude and social distancing is a huge challenge. I sympathize with you and want you to know that this is all too common a challenge for an urban yogi/ni and it's just a matter of following a few steps to create the space for you.

Step#1 Know that space is both a mental and physical thing - So what you find challenging is both a physical and mental challenge. The first thing people will quickly say is "I don't have enough space to practice Yoga at home". So I suggest you start with replacing this statement with "How can I create space to practice Yoga at home?" and instead of trying to figure it all out, let the answer come to you... but the main thing here is - first be welcoming of the question and detach yourself from the statement of "not enough-ness".

Step #2 Use designated spaces - Before owning a yoga studio I had to share spaces with many others at community halls, dance studios, conference rooms, people's lounge rooms and even backyards. And we did not share the same values when it came to organisation or presentation. So the one common agreement we came up with was that we will at least keep the space clutter free and ready to use for whatever purpose. Everyone sharing the space took this responsibility to put back all items to their designated spaces after use. And this process even got us to designate spaces for various items. Having grown up in cities, physical space has always been limited so for a very long time my bedroom was a multipurpose room. And if your bedroom is your only space then look at ways to designate spaces, use boxes, drawers and zip locked bags to store your belongings away to create as much visible space as possible.

Step #3 Use a dedicated candle and some incense- Before practice light a candle and some incense to create a physical anchor as a reminder that it is time to start your practice. Only use this candle or incense when you practice and once you are finished dispose of the debris or put the candle and holder away to a place you can locate it next time.  Alternatively you can also diffuse essential oils of your choice at the time when you practice.

Step #4 Always clean up after use - Use some tea tree or eucalyptus oil and water to clean your yoga mat, or dust off dry skin / hair / dust particles off your mat, roll it up properly and put it away in its designated space. Just like you do at the studio. 

Step #5 Allow time to set up - Plan to set up to practice at least 15 minutes before you start. Just like you allow yourself time to clean and chop your food before cooking, you would do the same for practice. Allow yourself time to set up the physical space. And know that your practice starts then, when you start preparing. Start with: Scanning your space for things on the floor (put them away), Light the candle / incense / switch on the diffuser. Roll out your mat and enjoy what you can see around you, smell and hear. If your household is noisy, put on some music to keep your attention within your area of the house. Let others know in the house during this time that you are not to be disturbed and to have them get whatever they need from your room / space before you start.

Now you are ready.

Know that the fight over space is an ancient problem that gets passed on from generation to generation. If you don't manage to get the space inside your current home, you can convert even your balcony, garden or any space you can sit in or stand in to create some space to practice in. It's a matter of prioritising and honoring your personal well being. You can even change your practice slightly to be a standing practice to transition to a chair based one to suit your own needs. The practice can always be adapted to you. But most importantly to come out of a lack of space state, consider asking a question like: "How can I ......" than a statement as "I don't have enough..." and see the magic of your mind unfold on how you create space for anything you want...

The science of Ayurveda and Yoga are both derived from Rg Veda which is the ancient and original text where these sciences were prescribed for healing the mind, body and spirit. There are subjects like Rituals discussed in great detail and a branch of Ayurveda called Vastu Shastra (Indian Feng Shui) also that goes into more detail on how to position everything in our living space to create optimum energy flow. In this day and the age of Corona Virus , while we are at home, creating a good living space, that allows everyone to live harmoniously is just a big a need as is everything else. To stay mentally healthy we can all learn ways to change our habits, and create the best out of situations that might not feel so great. Once our physical space shifts it automatically shifts us mentally, so consider creating a space for whatever holds a lot of meaning for you and your personal well being right away.
 
Hari Om