Cultivating Total Awareness: An Ayurvedic Approach to Processing Emotions

Soon it will dissolve by itself. You have to be aware not only of the external thing—what your spouse or friend is saying—but at the same time you have to bring awareness to your inner self. When awareness goes both ways, outer and inner, understanding is total. This approach doesn’t put a scar on the mind.

Look at the feeling—any feeling or emotion—without labeling it or naming it. Then the observer and the observed become one. Observe with total awareness, with no division between subject and object, no separation between yourself and the feeling. Give freedom to the feeling; let it flower; let it fade away.

If the condition of aggravated vata continues, vata will move into the general circulation and into the deep connective tissue, where it will generate pathological changes. Disease will develop. Imbalance is disorder, and disorder is disease. Disease is like a child.

It has its own creation within the womb of the body, according to a process known as samprapti or pathogenesis, literally “the birth of pain.” In brief, this is how it happens: 1. ACCUMULATION Due to various causes, such as diet, weather, seasons, emotions, and others we have discussed, the doshas begin to accumulate in their respective sites: vata in the colon, pitta in the intestines, and kapha in the stomach. This is the easiest stage at which to treat any incipient health problem. A trained Ayurvedic physician can feel the imbalance in your pulse even at this stage, and you may be able to detect it yourself.

Vata accumulation may be experienced as constipation, abdominal distension, or gases in the colon. Pitta buildup may be felt as heat around the belly button area and can be observed as a slightly yellowish discoloration in the whites of the eyes, or dark yellow- colored urine. The person will be very hungry and will crave candy and sugar. Accumulated kapha leads to feelings of heaviness, lethargy, and loss of appetite.