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.

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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.