Ayurveda is not about being perfect. In fact there is no such thing as perfect. Ayurveda is the science of life that offers us some brilliant guidelines to help us make decisions as we are faced with a continual stream of choices. Ayurveda helps us to become more conscious of each decision that we make and it gives us valuable information about the world we live in and ourselves in order to help us make our decisions.
Sometimes our decisions are minor. For instance, if we are cold we might put on an extra layer or turn the heating on. Either way, we create balance by making sure that we are warm enough.
Many of our decisions require making compromises. Should I do this, or should I do that. Some decisions are moral or ethical dilemmas in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more choices and none of the outcomes seem desirable. There is no ideal world.
And so we walk the tight rope and do the best we can, and Ayurveda can offer us tools and strategies to find and keep our balance along the way.
Here are some of the ways that Ayurveda can help us to find balance.
Reducing Decision Fatigue
Exhaustion from having too many choices is a thing, it is called decision fatigue. One way way that Ayurveda suggests to reduce this fatigue is to create daily routines called dinacharya. When routines are in place, the decision of why, what, when, where and how you do so many things every day is made in advance. This means you don’t have to spend mental energy making choices about the same kinds of things over and over again. And just as small children benefit from the safety and familiarity of routines, so do older children and adults. Having an ongoing daily and weekly self-care routine creates calm, saves time and energy and creates space and stamina to use for one-off and more tricky decisions or dilemmas.
Our choices are based on all kinds of internal and external factors, and decision-making is a complex and complicated process. So in addition to creating routines, we can also make decisions in advance and then plan and prepare ahead of time. This helps us to stick to what when need and want to do.
Use Ayurvedic principles to make decisions and set out your tools in advance
For instance, if you want to try to eat more fresh food in the evenings when you get home from work, you could use Ayurvedic principles to make sure that you are successful. Ayurveda teaches us to make best use of our senses so that we are not ruled by them. Rather, we should use them to help us make good decisions. So, if you make sure that you have already decided on a recipe, have all the ingredients ready and maybe even chopped all the appropriate vegetables and stored them in the fridge ready to cook when you get home, it makes it very easy to prepare and enjoy a lovely fresh whole food meal.
Conversely, not having a plan, not having food in and coming home feeling hungry and tired can result in grabbing the nearest fast food that you see, smell or imagine. Fast food often depletes the energy even more, it can make you feel bad about yourself and you will be less likely to prepare food in advance for the next day.
The same goes for rolling out your yoga mat and setting everything out ready to practice in the morning before work.
So in addition to developing an Ayurvedic routine and planning and preparing to carry it out in advance, you can also use Ayurveda to ask yourself this question multiple times a day:
What's The Tiniest Thing I Can Do To Find More Balance Today?
Since Ayurveda is all about balance, it gives us the framework to find that balance within ourselves and with our environment.
How am I feeling? How can I bring balance?
Am I thirsty? Drink some water instead of something with caffeine or sugar which will dehydrate me more.
Am I sad? Allow myself to cry instead of pushing the feelings away with ice cream or cookies.
Am I exhausted? Rest instead of pushing through. Get enough sleep.
Am I peopled out? Take some time to myself.
Am I actually hungry right now? Yes, then eat. No, then rest my digestion.
Am I too busy? Take some time in nature.
There are so many ways we can check in with ourselves and identify what we are actually feeling and what we need. It is definitely one of the kindest and most loving questions that we can ask ourselves. And if you can identify what it is that is taking you off balance, Ayurveda almost certainly has something to offer you to get back to your centre whether it is making a simple decision to do something, sourcing an herb, enjoying some healing food, doing some meditation, yoga or exercise or taking time to yourself.
It’s so simple, but the answers really are inside. Try it for a week and see how you get on!