I am a member of a great group of mama’s on Facebook. We all get to post questions, pictures, and victories, and sometimes women share very sad personal challenges in a supportive, intimate setting. The other day, a mama posted about how her digestion was getting so bad, she was considering a colostomy bag. She had previously had surgery to remove part of her intestines, and thought she needed more. She was reaching out to the mamas to ask if anyone had had a similar experience, and how her sex life might be after the fact…
I was (and still am, thinking about it) overwhelmed with compassion for this woman. She in in her mid-30’s, a busy mom and wife. I do not know her whole story, but I could only imagine her discomfort, and the pain she must be in daily if she felt his is her only option. In a way, I felt like I wanted to share Ayurveda…though I’ve realized through years of teaching the best way is to sometimes just offer yourself, and you must sit back and see who accepts.
Faith
I am starting to really have more faith in karma. I trust my karma brought me to learn about Ayurveda, and I trust that each of my students and clients comes to it, comes to me, because they are meant to. No forcing necessary, if it’s meant to be, it will be. And that’s the way our relationship thrives as well.
So even though I feel like Ayurveda can help this woman – not necessarily heal all the damage or trauma that has occurred to bring her to this state of imbalance, but simply help her digestion stay as balanced as possible while her physical body undergoes such a hit – she hasn’t come to me. I can make myself available in that community, as much as might be appropriate, but perhaps this time around, or at least for now, Ayurveda is not calling to her.
I decided to do a little bit of research, when I heard her story. In Ayurveda, digestion is literally the key to health and longevity. In the past 5 or 6 years, I have heard of a few people who have had to have a colostomy bag, whether for a short period of time, or permanently. And these people happened to be women, between the ages of 25 and 40. This is so YOUNG to be having such deep bowel imbalances, so deep that surgery is necessary. What’s going on?
No self blaming, please, just compassionate self inquiry
I understand that sometimes our imbalances are not simply due to the food choices we make, or have made for us. Trauma can certainly be a reason for this, whether physical trauma (like other surgeries or accidents) or emotional. In Ayurveda, there is a word we use, kavaigunya, which means ‘defective space.’ This is really like your weak spot – whether it’s due to genetics, or an energetic pattern that becomes physical, it is the place in the body where the stressors go, where the toxins build up. For so many of us it does happen to be the digestive tract, or for a lot of women, the reproductive organs. And of course, the digestive tract has to manage all the physical stuff we throw into it as well. Ayurveda gives us the tools to learn and to get to know how to take care of ourselves, starting with the gut.
In Ayurveda, it is mentioned that there seem to be 6 stages of disease. The first 3 stages are quite subtle, in fact if you went in to a western medical doctor before stage 4, there would probably be no treatment or diagnosis available. This makes it tough to really practice preventative medicine in this culture. We put up with the daily discomforts, even when they might be to the point of disrupting our daily activities, partially because we know if we go to the doctor they won’t really be able to do anything for us. Bad gas? Perhaps a prescription. Daily afternoon headaches and irritability? Take tylenol. Rashy skin? Try steroids. Easten medicine wants to work from the inside out.
And I don’t say this stuff to bash western medicine, it is incredible and life saving! It just proves that what it is best at are the deep imbalances, are the emergencies. And what Eastern medicine is best at is the smaller stuff. And getting the smaller stuff before the bigger stuff becomes necessary, like colostomies.
Don’t just accept things as they are
I spoke with one of my students yesterday, who I feel was very successful in The Healing Diet course (click the link for a video). One of the first things she says is something like, “Well, The Healing Diet is not really a diet at all, but a course about life…” And she is right on. It’s not about ‘perfect’ food choices, but about living an authentic life. About digesting this whole experience. About gaining the tools, the framework of Ayurveda to live better, and feel better, and that’s how we come into healing. We are complex beings, and healing does not happen only on one of our layers.
When I was out in California, I learned about 3 medical systems. I was a little bit disappointed where I felt Ayurveda fit in. I want to write about that next time.
When I found Ayurveda, I felt like I found the language I had been looking for most of my life. If you’re feeling the call to Ayurveda, heed it. I know I came to yoga and Ayurveda because I needed them in this lifetime to get through. Got what you need to get through?
Love,