Body, mind, and pure emotional factors make up our life as a whole. There are psychological as well as physical causes of both health and disease. Mind and emotion can be a source of illness, which can then be manifested in the body. However, the mental imbalance leads to physical imbalance. Mental disorders can also be triggered by physical disorders and imbalances. This explains why Ayurveda does not separate the mind from the body.
Emotions, thoughts, and perceptions are all biochemical events that affect the doshas and affect the cells, tissues, and organs of the body. Similarly, when the doshas are already out of balance, they may give rise to these same negative emotions, such as anger, fear, irritation, grief, hatred, envy, possessiveness, and other negative emotions.
There is an association between increased Vata and anxiety, insecurity, fear, nerves, restlessness, confusion, sadness, grief, and grief-related issues.
In a person with an increased pitta, anger, envy, hate, ambition, competition, judgment, sharp speech, perfectionism, and the need to control themselves are all associated with it.
There are numerous symptoms associated with increased Kapha including greed, attachment, possessiveness, boredom, laziness, and lethargy. A person’s emotions are associated with specific organs, including the lungs, the liver, and the gall bladder. Hearts and lungs are often the abodes of grief and sadness, while kidneys become the seat of fear.
In the colon, nervousness can be found, while in the stomach, agitation and temptation can be found, and in the spleen, attachment can be found. There are physical and psychological aspects to emotions, as we have discussed. The emotions we feel are a result of the circumstances we are in.
As we fail to understand and maintain a clear understanding of how emotions move from their emergence to their dissolution, they may adversely affect a particular organ, causing stress and weakness, as well as creating a “defective space” where future diseases may develop.
Medical experts often view stress as a consequence of a particular lifestyle, overwork, emotional trauma, etc. According to Ayurveda, stress is neither a condition nor a result, but rather a causal factor in disease. Strength and health are obtained through regular daily routines, nourishing diets, positive emotions, and loving relationships.
The body and mind are both stressed when one keeps late hours, eats foods that are aggravating to the constitution, travels a great deal, uses their minds and senses too much, represses negative emotions like anger or fear, and maintains problematic relationships.
Stressful environmental factors include toxins in food, water, pollution, excessive noise, and many others. In many diseases, stress is a major contributing factor. Allergies, asthma, herpes, and even heart conditions can be triggered by it. Depending on the constitution of each individual, stress disrupts the doshas and causes them to be unbalanced.
There is a possibility that Vata individuals could develop anxiety or fearfulness due to their Vata constitution. Individuals with Pitta constitution may become angry after experiencing stress, or they may suffer from hypertension, peptic ulcers, ulcerative colitis, and other disorders associated with Pitta. When stressed, Kapha individuals tend to eat excessively.
Using senses incorrectly, overusing them, and underusing them
As well as providing us with vital information, our senses provide us with great pleasure. Sense therapies such as aromatherapy, color therapy, mantras and other healing sounds, massage, and the tastes of herbs and foods can nourish us through our ordinary senses of taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing.
We have to remember that the senses and our perceptions are both biochemical events and experiences in consciousness, therefore, improper use of the senses can result in imbalances and damage to the body.
Our nervous system is overstressed and strained by overuse of the senses. If a person is exposed repeatedly to bright light, he or she will suffer retinal damage and strain of the optic nerve, which triggers pitta, and sooner or later, their eyesight will be affected or they will experience neuritis-like symptoms, depending on the condition. Hearing loud sounds or music can hurt and weaken our hearing apparatus; if it happens often, a person can lose their hearing.
A loud sound may also affect the systemic Vata dosha, leading to arthritis or degenerative bone changes. Skin cancer can be caused by lying in the sun because it strains the sense of touch and aggravates pitta. When senses are misused, they are used in the wrong way.
This can include reading very small letters, viewing through a microscope or telescope (which strains the eyes), or reading lying down (which changes the angle of focus and makes the eyeballs more stressed). Eventually, this will result in disorders related to pitta or vata.
Consuming excessive quantities of inflammatory, spicy, stimulating foods, such as cayenne pepper, damages the taste organ. During phone conversations and while listening to loud sounds, Vata is aggravated.
Misusing the senses also involves exposing them to the wrong input, such as watching violent movies on television. When we do not use our senses fully, we ignore what we perceive, or we do not pay full attention to what we perceive. A result of this might be an accident, for instance.
In the wintertime, people who don’t get enough sunlight experience sadness (seasonal affective disorder), a condition associated with an underused sense of sight. It is at least partly sensory deprivation that causes cabin fever, a feeling of discomfort and restlessness brought on by staying indoors for a long period of time. Fasting for long periods aggravates Vata because the taste is underused.
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