and now I feel like I might vomit. galuuuuuuh (that’s the noise I just made). I think it’s possible that the tea brewed with San Pedro cactus that I drank in Perú may have ruined other less-sweet teas for me for a little while.
Sometimes it’s easy for me to forget that I’m not in Perú anymore. I’m sure everyone goes through periods like this after returning from a long time spent abroad. This is my first experience with the sensation, so it’s kind of a big deal for me. Examples: I still get a kick out of throwing paper into a public toilet and then WATCHING IT FLUSH ALL BY ITSELF and I was shocked to hear the cashier at my local Asian market speak to me in English.
Along with my mental readjustment, the past month has brought about a pretty major physical acclimation as well. As with everything else, there’s a little bitta good and a little bitta bad, but overall I’d say my body just isn’t very happy with me for taking it through so many climates, diets, and time zones in 2010, and now it’s making me PAY.
My skin has always been dry and sensitive, but now it’s worse than I can ever recall. Nowadays, my lips look like Dave Chapelle’s crack head character and I have a faint goatee of skin flakes upon my chinny chin chin. I even have dry, scaly eyelids. Eyelids! One of the oiliest parts of the human body!! My hair is abounding with split-ends, which I simply can’t tolerate as they give me that same nervous, queasy feeling some people get from seeing lotus pods (WARNING! if you’re one of those people, don’t click the link). **shudders**
What’s even worse than all that was the havoc that’s been wreaked upon my digestive system. It was just not working right, nah’mean? Additionally, due to my lack of a routine schedule, I’m frequently forgetting what day it is and letting things slip.
Something needed to be done! Being a good holistic health hippie (and alliterative to boot) I turned first to alternative medicine. I’m so hip.
During yoga training, we briefly covered the traditional Indian medical practice of Ayurveda, which means “science of life.” One of my fellow yogi classmates had even studied the art at a school in New Mexico for a year before coming to Perú. I’d never heard of it before, but the more I learn the more I dig it.
I’d already bookmarked this page and diagnosed myself as a vata-pitta dosha type as a part of a written assignment. The three doshas are vata (comprised of air and ether elements), pitta (fire and water), and kapha (water and earth). Everybody is made up of all three doshas, but in most people one or two are dominant, and manifest in certain physical and psychological characteristics. It’s a very similar concept to Sheldon’s endo/ecto/mesomorph theory that we all learned about in Intro to Psychology.
For example, I think that I’m vata because my body is long & lean, my skin is dry, and hair is frizzy. I’m an anxiety-prone space case with severe ADHD, and change my mind like I change my underwear. I make friends quickly, but overall tend to be a loner. I’m creative. I prefer warm environments.
I think I’m pitta because I’m highly irritable, intellectual, critical, and perceptive. I’m an articulate speaker and writer. I tend to be self-righteous, argumentative, and strong-willed at times, but am also a strong leader because of these things. I have a sharp memory and an even sharper tongue.
Go dosha-type yourself! It’s fun!
It became clear to me that my vata was (OK- still is) imbalanced. My pitta might be a bit out of control too, because my patience with people is waaaaaaaaaaaniiiiiiiiiiiing. The physical symptoms I was experiencing, however, were all screaming too much vata!
Furthermore, check out this excerpt taken straight from the web site:
Factors that can cause Vata dosha to increase in the physiology include a diet that contains too many dry or raw foods, over-consumption of ice-cold beverages, exposure to cold dry winds, a variable daily routine, too much travel, and mental overexertion.
Alright. Convinced.
So what do I do to help myself? I think that the most important thing is establishing some kind of routine. I’ve been setting an alarm to get me out of bed at 7:30 am even though I don’t have a job to go to or anything. Sometimes I actually get out of bed before 8:30 am. My new motivation is to meditate before Buffy the Vampire Slayer comes on at 8 am so that I can pause it and then ffwd thru commercials while I watch it during breakfast! don’t judge me.
Also, I’m trying to eat lighter in the morning and evening, with a hearty meal for lunch. Eating a lot in the evening makes me feel sick and then I can’t sleep at night. Even pasta is too heavy for me. Most of the dietary changes I’m making are things I was craving anyway: no meat, hot tea and warm water instead of cold drinks, soup, lots of spices like ginger and cinnamon, fruit and nuts.
So far, so good.
A couple of vata-balancing diet and lifestyle changes suggested by the site that are a bit more challenging for me include staying out of cold, windy weather and eating enough fat. It’s friggin winter here and I want to snowshoe, damnit! And I’ve always preferred a low-fat diet, mainly because the fat-rich foods I like the most are also high in saturated fat, like cheese and chocolate, so I try to keep that limited. However, I recall a particularly skeletal time in my life a couple of years ago. I decided to try to gain some weight the healthy way and did so by adding a Tbs of flax oil to my breakfast every day, and then snacking on walnuts every afternoon. People were actually complimenting me on the improvement in my hair, skin, and nails. Maybe I’ll try that again…
I wanted to write about more things, but I am tired and want to do some yoga. I’m bad at endings.
