By: Jenna Wolf
September 21, 2017
Anxiety, by definition, is the result of spending too much mental energy on a future with an unknown outcome.
The reality is, some amount of worry and stress is normal, but what isn’t?
When your anxiety begins taking over your life, that’s not normal. If your actions and emotions are causing suffering and creating dysfunction, that’s not normal either. If your anxiety keeps you from connecting to your life and your relationships in any way, then we have an imbalance.
HOW AYURVEDA VIEWS ANXIETY
From Ayurveda's perspective, anxiety is a dosha imbalance where excess vata has accumulated in the nervous system.
Vata is the mobile element in Ayurveda. It has the same qualities of the Fall season; dry, light, rough, mobile.
Anxiety is an expression of excess vata in Mano vaha srota, the channel of the mind.
To put it plainly, it means you have a windy mind.
When it comes to bringing back to balance a dosha that is in excess, we follow the Ayurvedic principle of “like increases like, and the opposite balances.”
With anxiety we are working with having too much of vata dosha, this means we need to incorporate opposite qualities to bring the mind back to a place of balance. We need the qualities of Earth, the qualities of Kapha Dosha; juicy, heavy, sweet, soft, and static.
This is the first Ayurveda key to using the qualities we see in nature as vital healing tools.
5 WAYS TO MANAGE ANXIETY WITH AYURVEDA:
1. Keep an "impressions" journal
Often, we only attribute the process of digestion to our physical body. However, the mind too must process and digest everything it takes in through the senses. Conversations, tv shows, music, podcasts - anything we take in through our 5 senses must be sorted and assimilated or removed as waste from the mind.
Similar to how you would keep a food journal, I invite you to begin keeping an "impressions" journal. This is a daily record of what you are taking in consciously through the senses.
The word, "impression" has so many meanings - sense, view, imprint, mold, imitation - to name a few. At the end of the day, impressions are the food your senses are taking in, and when you think about it your eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands are almost always feeding.
While you may not be able to control everything about your anxiety, you can begin to elevate your awareness around what elements provoke it. Consciously keeping track of your symptoms over time gives you insight into possible triggers.
Include everything in your journal from what you ate/drank, where you were, who you were with, the time of day, what you heard and any of your physical symptoms.
