Checklist for HealthThe environment is everything that isn’t me.
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
According to Ayurveda, the environment is your extended body. Anything outside your physical body is an extension of you. Imagine that! In the West, when we speak about environment we usually refer to it as a movement of some sort. We have to be environmentally friendly — that is, reduce our carbon footprint by recycling, driving vehicles with low or zero emissions, and reusing bags and boxes. We ponder things like global warming and the melting polar ice caps. Ayurveda expands this definition to include absolutely everything outside of you. And when you stop to think about it, the Ayurvedic definition creates a greater sense of responsibility and greater awareness of how you choose to create your life.
Our environment includes our homes, cars, rooms, office space, the people we know, the places we visit, and, of course, the entire earth and universe. Some aspects of our environment we can control directly, and others we cannot. In this chapter we will explore ways you can control your various environments in order to make yourself healthier and happier.
Our sensory experience is a great part of our health. When I was on the road to healing, I read a wonderful book by Dr. Andrew Weil titled 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. In one of the exercises, he recommended buying flowers for yourself. At first this seemed absurd. I believed that flowers were something you gave to others and that others gave to you. But I followed through, and every week for eight weeks, I bought myself a bouquet of flowers. And you wouldn’t believe the effect of simply having fresh flowers in my kitchen. I was so happy every time I walked in there. It lifted my mood and made me want to clean my kitchen so that the flowers would look even prettier. Can you believe I cleaned my kitchen for a bouquet of flowers? And that is just one aspect of environment.
Through Dr. Weil’s book, I also learned about minimizing unnecessary sensory input, and to this day, fifteen years later, I’m still following that advice. Ayurveda mimics this sentiment. Be careful about what you let into your sensory perception. We are bombarded daily with sights and sounds and don’t even realize the implications for our health.
I’m referring to simple things, from watching the news to seeing continual advertising on the computer. At home we may live with the constant drone of the television or radio. And some people go to bed at night with their TV sets on and leave them on all night. We are affected by violence and negative imagery even though we may not consciously perceive them. An absence of silence can make us jittery, nervous, and unfocused. The constant flicker of a TV at night disrupts the release of the hormone melatonin, which requires complete darkness.
Maximizing Healthy Sensory Input
Healing can come when you pay close attention to each of the five senses and consciously choose stimuli that heal. Each of the five senses also corresponds to a dosha.
Taste
Choose fresh, organic, local foods. Surround yourself with fresh bowls of fruit. Make sure each plate of food is colorful and well presented, even if you’re feeding only yourself. Take time to taste your food and chew it slowly, and keep quiet while you savor each bite. Ayurveda recommends we get each of the six tastes in our meals, even if we are taking supplemental herbs. A mind-body connection is made when the body perceives taste. When we are aware of taste, we are likely to eat less. When we appreciate taste and select only desirable tastes on a conscious level, we are less apt to choose unhealthy, artificial, or greasy food. Have you ever bitten into a freshly picked apple or apricot? The sensation in the body is much different than if you truly taste something like a fast-food French fry. Try it some time. Close your eyes and taste a fresh, healthy food, and do the same with an unhealthy food. The healthier and more aware you become, the more likely you will reject the unhealthy food. I’ve done this with my kids. I’ve trained them to appreciate fine foods. Now that they are teenagers, when they taste an unhealthy food, they know the difference and reject it. Your body is an environment and the sense of taste is important to keeping your body free of toxins.
The sense of smell is closely linked to the sense of taste. Have you ever eaten something when you had a cold and then discovered you couldn’t properly taste it? Usually it’s difficult to taste anything when your nose is stuffed up. Keep your environments smelling pleasant for you. We all have neuroassociations with the sense of smell, since it’s a strong and primal sense. Find a perfume you enjoy, and others will enjoy on you too. You’ll know because people will say to you, “You smell so good!” It makes you feel good and others too. In your bedroom, find a pleasant, sleep-inducing scent. Some people like lavender, jasmine, or chamomile. Home cooking induces a sense of peace and well-being in the home. Allowing soups or stews to simmer in the winter, or having a barbecue in the summer, seems to bring about pleasant memories and create strong neuroassociations with the surrounding environment.
In my own experience, I had a blast from the past when I entered an Indian restaurant about ten years ago. At that time, I had eaten few Indian dishes. But I was with my sister and dad, and we walked into an Indian restaurant to eat. The smells took me back to my aunt’s kitchen. I couldn’t get enough of the smell. It made me feel happy, comfy, cozy, safe, and secure. Imagine a smell that can do all that! My father is from the Middle East, and what I realized was that the spices in Indian cooking are the same as the spices used in Middle Eastern cooking. To me, the smells of spices meant more than simply good food. They meant the love of family, comfort, and the roots of culture and tradition.
Think about the smells you want in your environment. Perhaps fresh flowers? A favorite bread you like to bake? A dish you’re famous for in your family? Remember, you are creating memories for everyone via the smells you choose to have around you. Make sure they’re pleasant for your family, other loved ones, and yourself.
While everyone responds well to taste and smell, Kapha types respond most strongly to them, since these senses are dominant in the Kapha mind-body type. If Kapha is your predominant dosha, pay extra attention to these two.
Hearing
Does it amaze you that you can hear a song you haven’t heard in twenty years and still sing the lyrics? Or is there a jingle from a commercial in your past that you can still sing to this day, even though it hasn’t aired in years? I will bet you answered yes to both questions. Our sense of hearing seems to have a direct imprint on our brain. What we repeatedly hear gets imprinted. As a result we need to carefully select what we listen to and let in only what’s necessary or healthy for us.
If you’ve ever said a bad word in front of a toddler who was learning to speak, you know the power of listening and recording. Usually it’s difficult to break a child from speaking a bad word you didn’t mean for him or her to hear.
Take notice of your environment throughout the day and remove any unnecessary or unpleasant noises. Is there a noise that makes you shudder? If you live in a city, maybe traffic noise is creating a disturbance in your environment. Are there too many noises in your environment? For example, there are several people who reside with me. At any given time, we could have the radio and TV going, someone playing music upstairs, and a conversation going on somewhere else. I’ve learned to turn off the unnecessary noise and advise others to be quieter so I can have my peace.
Replace environmental noise with pleasant sounds. Sounds of nature are almost always soothing. If you don’t have nature surrounding you, or it’s a cold day, play recorded music with nature sounds, such as ocean sounds, or any other pleasant musical sounds. If you live in a busy city, invest in a white-noise machine or indoor fountain so you can drown out the bustling outdoor activity. Play your soothing sounds in the office too; if you’re with colleagues, use headphones to shut out the surrounding sounds.
Try silence for a day or two. When at home alone or in the car, strive to not turn on the TV or radio. Allow silence to penetrate your home. At first, you may get anxious or annoyed, especially if you’re used to background noise. But soon you will find it pleasant and inviting. You will feel a sense of peace and serenity. And you will begin to crave the silence. Your mind will become clearer and your sense of intuition honed.
Touch
At first when we think of touch, it may be difficult to associate it with our environment. But touch surrounds us in all our environments. In addition to human touch, our environment is touching us all the time. Think about where you are sitting right now. Are you sitting in a couch or a comfy chair? Are you at a café drinking coffee or eating somewhere? Or perhaps you’re lounging on a chair by the beach? What do you feel about the place where you’re sitting while reading? Is it comfortable? Would you prefer some pillows or a blanket?
If you stop and think about it, you’ll see that our clothing touches us, our furniture touches us, and the seat in our car touches us. Think about all the things throughout the day that touch you — even the keyboard on your computer!
Go through each environment you encounter daily and notice the objects surrounding you. Make a mental note of the things you don’t like touching you, and see if you can do something about them. For example, there may be an uncomfortable couch that hurts your back and you never want to sit there. Or maybe your desk chair is causing you pain during your eight-hour workday. Make a list of all the things you can change in order to enhance your tactile environment.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HEALING TOUCH
Our environment provides us with opportunities for healing touch, which is all around us. If you have a pet, you know how good it feels to stroke your pet. It feels both amazing and therapeutic at the same time. The grass outside is nice for walking barefoot in warm weather. If you live by the beach, running barefoot in the sand provides a healing touch as it connects you to the earth. Gardening is a way to touch the earth and create something beautiful, tasty, or both. Running your hands or feet through trickling or flowing water allows your skin to be massaged effortlessly. Warming your hands by a fire or allowing its heat to penetrate your face and skin are ways to reconnect to the environmental elements, which are also a part of us.
Vata types respond best to the senses of hearing and touch. If you are predominately Vata and feeling out of balance, pay extra attention to these two senses.
Sight
With the amount of visual information we have at our disposal in the twenty-first century, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to filter out visual stimuli that doesn’t serve us. Each electronic device provides us with visuals at our fingertips. Just like the senses of smell and hearing, our sense of sight provides us with an instantaneous imprint on our memory. Attempt to erase a disturbing image from your past and you’ll recognize that it’s difficult to do. For optimal health, it’s imperative that you’re selective in the visual stimuli you allow into your being. Motivational speaker and author Dr. Wayne Dyer points out that, when you’ve heard something once, it ceases to be news. I will extend that to visual perception: when you see it once, it ceases to be news. News channels and websites tend to repeat images incessantly. A constant influx of violent and disturbing images creates stress hormones in our bodies and leaves us susceptible to illness. I made a decision long ago to no longer watch the news or movies that contain violence. When there is a choice between using my sense of sight to perceive beauty, awe, and wonder, or perceiving mental disturbance, I choose beauty. You may think it’s a naive approach to life. After all, violence does exist on the planet. If we close our eyes to reality, are we also closing our eyes to change? Let me ask you this: By watching a story about murder, rape, incest, or abuse, are you making the world a better place? By holding those images in your mind, are you stopping any of the violence? Or are you simply feeling bad and frightened that the world is such a scary place? I believe the true answer is the latter. I’ve never known war to stop because spectators watched images of war.
Surround yourself with beauty. Notice the natural beauty that exists all around you. Make a commitment to yourself to walk away from disturbing images, which are not serving you and the greater good. Your intuition will let you know how to make that choice.
Then turn curiosity into compassion. If there is an accident scene and I’m driving by, instead of gawking at the gore, I drive by and say a prayer for those involved. If I see a homeless person in the street, I make a choice to give money or food or say a silent prayer. When you see a person in need and you can help, do so. Those are ways in which you can open your eyes to love.
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not asking you to go around blindly and pretend there are not people in need or injustices in the world. You can get this information from print media or the radio. Instead of remaining mired in the misery of the world, make a decision to go out there and do something about it. The end to violence, poverty, sadness, and misery begins with each of us. Look to your own thoughts, inner dialogue, and actions first. Heal yourself first, and then you can go out and help heal the world.
Outlining the Environments in My Daily Life
Healing your sense of sight may be extended to the physical environment surrounding you at all times. Your immediate physical environment is your bedroom, kitchen, living room, car, office space, or any other place where you spend a significant amount of time. The energy in the physical objects and space around you affects your health.
Redefining the Space That Surrounds Me
Is there a space in your home you cannot enter because it gives you a sick feeling inside? Maybe it’s a table, in a particular room, piled high with clutter. Or perhaps it’s a room with ugly furniture.
In Ayurveda, akasha, one of the five great elements, not only defines the concept of space but also includes the openness necessary to allow new possibilities to come into your life. For example, have you ever filled a closet with so much stuff that when you tried to add something to it, the object didn’t fit inside? The lack of space, or akasha, meant there was no room for the new; this left only the accumulation of the old and, as a result, no more possibilities. We can regard this energy in relation to your sense of hospitality and allowing people into your life. Maybe you have had the experience of a disorderly and cluttered home and felt embarrassed to invite people over or have guests spontaneously arrive. Because of this lack of akasha, you blocked out the flow of abundance and new experiences into your life. The concept may seem far-reaching, but it makes complete sense. Have you ever cleaned and purged a closet and felt especially good afterward, as if you could breathe better?
Ideally, every space you occupy should give you a great feeling and a sense of abundance. It doesn’t cost a lot to surround yourself with beauty in your home or office space. Plants and flowers do wonders. A few candles, along with some inexpensive art or photos of loved ones and great times, create balance and a warm, cozy feeling.
Exercise: Space-Clearing Commitment
If your physical environment is not one that nourishes you each and every day, make a commitment to get rid of all the objects that no longer serve you and to create beauty in those spaces. I am aware that this can be a daunting task if you haven’t done it in a long time. A great resource I used about fifteen years ago, when I had small children at home, was FlyLady.net (www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/). Author and leader Marla Cilley is truly a genius at teaching women (and men, of course) who, whether they stay at home or work outside the home, have a difficult time managing the demands of home. What’s beautiful about Cilley’s approach is that she takes you through daily tasks in baby steps, so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
Take stock of the rooms or spaces in your home that need the greatest amount of attention, and make a commitment to clear these spaces within a set amount of time. Complete the following prompts.
I make a commitment to clearing:
I will create beauty in these spaces by:
The Dosha Response to Environment
According to your mind-body type, you will act and react to your environment a certain way. Your natural inclination to be neat or messy, to own a lot of material possessions or only a small number, may depend largely on your doshas. This can be refreshing to learn, so that you don’t feel you have to fit into a certain mold that others may cast for you.
Vata Types
Vatas are highly creative and may be a bit messy in the home and at work. Orderliness is not necessarily at the top of their priority list. A Vata type will also move or change residences often, out of boredom or the need to be constantly on the move. However, Vata types do better in an orderly environment and are less likely to go out of balance when they have some structure. To remain in balance, a Vata type needs to put down roots somewhere and create stability. She can always cater to her creative nature by painting a room a different color every few months or buying new curtains or bedsheets to keep things fresh and new.
Earthy colors such as beige, brown, and deep shades of red tend to balance Vatas.
Pitta Types
Pittas have a tendency to be a bit obsessive-compulsive with their environments. They may be accused of being neat freaks. A healthy Pitta will enjoy a clean, orderly environment where everything is in its place. A Pitta out of balance will tend toward compulsive cleanliness or perfectionism in the home or work environment. Connecting with nature or the outdoors is important for a Pitta type to help him stay in balance. Gardening is an example of an activity that connects you to the earth and allows you to get a little dirty. It will help you remember that things don’t have to be perfect all the time. If you are a Pitta living with a Vata or Kapha type, allow him a space where he can express his unique style too. Expecting a Vata to be too neat or a Kapha to get rid of all of his stuff will dissatisfy both of you.
To pacify Pitta, use cooling colors in a living or work space, such as shades of green and blue or any pastels.
Kapha Types
Since Kapha types don’t enjoy change very much, they have a tendency to accumulate clutter or may even hoard. If you move the furniture around or change decor, a Kapha will feel out of sorts and may get a little upset. The water and earth elements in a Kapha cause her to hold on to things even when the objects no longer serve a purpose. Crowding rooms with too much clutter will bog a Kapha type down. If you are a Kapha who sees this pattern, have a friend come over every couple of months to help you weed out your closets or rooms to keep the energy open and flowing.
To pacify Kapha, use vibrant colors in a space, such as red and yellow.
Reconnecting to the Outer Environment: Living outside Our Boxes
I enjoy travel, especially travel to faraway places. There is nothing more humbling than traveling to another country where spaces are smaller or there aren’t as many amenities as we have in the United States. Living out of a suitcase for a couple of weeks reminds me, when I come home, how big my house is and how fortunate and blessed I am to have so much abundance. Travel helps me get outside of my set of boxes.
When we get stuck in the rut of routine, we often have a difficult time seeing clearly and offering ourselves a bigger picture. We become absorbed into daily life and doing and seeing the same things day after day. When this happens, small, insignificant things become big. In order to enlarge our view, we need to vary our visual perspectives from time to time.
This is easier to do than you might think. Imagine your day, and think about how you can connect to your outer environment. It could be something big, such as taking a day off from work and heading to a beach, mountain, or lake to do absolutely nothing but contemplate life. It could also be something smaller, such as taking a completely different route to work and noticing the landscape around you. Get in the habit of infusing newness into your day.
Make it a point to appreciate nature and beauty around you and connect to it. When you begin to notice how perfectly orchestrated nature is as a result of seemingly little effort, your perspective shifts. You recognize how caught up you can get in trivial matters. Then you begin to realize that little things are not such a big deal.
As I noted earlier in the book, a box can be anything from our home to our office to our vehicle. It can also be the TV or computer. The biggest box, though, is the mental box that limits our beliefs and thinking.
Reaching out and reconnecting is more difficult today because of the conveniences of daily life. If you happen to be an introvert or a little on the shy side, it’s even trickier to come out to connect. While I can be very sociable, I also have a naturally timid side. Making phone calls used to be one of my greatest fears in life. And it wasn’t because I was afraid of making a call. I was always afraid of bothering people. So you can imagine how happy I was at the advent of email. But while email connects you to others, it’s also a form of disconnect. Living outside the boxes we have and the boxes we build will take us outside our comfort zone. And that’s actually okay, because that’s how we grow.
As an experiment, at the suggestion of a teacher at my son’s Montessori preschool, we did a TV-free week. There is a national campaign that used to be called TV Turn-Off Week and is now called Screen-Free Week (www.screenfree.org). When we did our TV-free week about twelve years ago, it was a difficult but enlightening task. Each day we received a handout from the school giving us a list of reasons why we should turn off the TV. One of the reasons that struck me as the most compelling was this: in today’s society, people tend to create stronger bonds with TV characters than actual people. Now we can extend this to YouTube videos, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr friends. You get the picture. Instead of going out there, living life, and creating real bonds with real people in real situations, many of us are hiding behind screens.
If you are to begin living outside your box, it will require you to step out of your comfort zone. Take a step to join an actual activity outside your home. Ask a neighbor or friend to go walking with you once or twice a week. A great way to connect to your outer environment is to volunteer your time. You can integrate an interest or hobby of yours with volunteering. Do a screen-free week on your own or with your family. Jump out of your complacency and into life. We live here, in this life, in this environment. Embrace it!
Exercise: Ways You Can Live Outside Your Boxes
In order to expand your sense of self and your environment, commit either to seeing a place once a week (or month) or to trying a new activity that doesn’t involve watching TV or surfing the Internet. Much of your personal growth will come from experiencing new things. When we do this we tend to see things differently and get stimulated creatively. Our perspective also tends to change as we see life from a different angle. In the following exercise, first list where you are stuck in your own “boxes” and then list how you can expand outside of your current environments.
These are the boxes I live in (physical, mental):
Ways in which I can start living outside my boxes:
EXAMPLES: Take one day a month and travel to a new place. Ride a bike to work once a week. Join a book club or volleyball team. Invite a neighbor over for coffee. Volunteer at an animal shelter.
Consider each of the five senses and determine how you can enhance your sensory environments.
Complete the exercise Space-Clearing Commitment.
Complete the exercise Ways You Can Live Outside Your Boxes.
List ways you can create beauty in all your environments, taking into account your dominant dosha.