Ayurveda ebook mini series

Ayurveda & grief

I am writing a series of ebooks about Ayurveda. This is a mini series, and each short ebook will introduce you to how Ayurveda can help you heal in different situations, starting off with grief.

I’ll be explaining in each short ebook the Ayurvedic view—in this first one that is in relation to grief—then giving an overview of how you can take care of yourself with Ayurveda in relation to this.

And so, I thought it would be nice if I shared what I’m doing as I do it—you’ll get to see my books in progress, before they are published.

I’m sharing this first instalment with everyone, but future instillments will be for my paying subscribers—I’m hopefully enticing you to become a paying subscriber!

This will be a 10-15 mini ebooks in the series, and once written I will be offering a Q&A once a month for paying subscribers who would like support with Ayurveda.

And so, without further ado, here is the first piece of writing for the Ayurveda & Grief ebook.

Ayurveda & Grief

Becoming whole again

Introduction

If you have found your way to this book through losing someone close, my heartfelt care is here for you. Grief can come in many packages but one thing they all have in common, is a broken heart.

Prolonged grief can also trigger depression, anxiety, trauma, as well as impact physical health and immunity. Ayurveda, can address all of these things, and so I am writing this book to connect you with Ayurveda. This is an overview of how Ayurveda can help, and accompany you on a journey to feeling better again.

Ayurveda isn’t a quick fix, but if you follow an Ayurvedic approach to self-care, things always change for the better. If you are in a place of utter darkness, Ayurveda can hold your beautiful hand along the way to feeling whole again, through gentle, consistent self-care strategies.

Ayurveda

Ayurveda came from ancient India, a civilisation where people come together in community to support anyone moving through grief, no one is left on their own. In the West there is often a focus on individual coping, and that can block the movement of grief—we get stuck. It can be a very lonely place to find yourself. My hope is that by reading this short ebook, you will come together with others in small groups to practice Ayurveda, to support yourself and each other, to feel whole again.

If you follow these simple self-care practices, slowly getting to know them, one tiny step at a time, supported by a group of fellow travellers; I promise you things will improve. It won’t happen overnight, but there will be a turning point when you are able to hold the pain in the palm of one hand, while your heart starts to glimmer in the other. Eventually your heart will be glowing so brightly again, that the pain will no longer scare or numb you.

Let’s begin

What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is a nature-based, holistic approach to health that comes from ancient India, which explains there are different body types; with each needing slightly different approaches to food and life. Our body type defines our biological constitution. Living in balance with this and the world around us, is where health comes from, and the different constitutional balances influence reactions to loss. This means that understanding your constitutional type can help you navigate grief.

Nutrition and nourishment through food and the senses is how Ayurveda supports our physical, emotional and mental wellness.

Ayurveda has always been about more than the food we eat, it includes what we are taking in through all our senses; what we are feeding our mind through our experiences, and the environments we are part of. Food is important, it builds our body; while experiences build our mind. The Ayurvedic approach to grief builds a journey of self care that combines both.

An Ayurvedic plan includes food, exercise, sleep and lifestyle protocols, for your particular constitution, and point in life. It meets you, exactly where you are. Ayurveda is about self-care, as the basis for wellness and wellbeing.

Ayurveda & grief

Ayurveda explains that when we experience grief the connection between our heart and mind is broken. This needs to be restored through a gentle daily routine that builds trust again, at a biological as well as emotional and mental level. The three cannot be disconnected.

The Ayurvedic view of grief is that we are consuming an experience that puts us out of balance. It impacts our nervous system, our capacity to digest life, and often food too, becomes impaired and our life force, ‘ojas’ is severely knocked.

You need to take a gentle approach to addressing these things, at a time when you probably couldn’t care less about self-care.

Let Ayurveda take your hand, to support you as you move through the grieving process, perhaps in the company of others who are experiencing grief too, as you travel a gentle journey to restore your life force, regulate your nervous system, nourish your ability to digest, and return to balance.

People say this approach has restored their faith in life, in themselves, in those around them and more importantly, they no longer felt so alone all of the time.

And, it takes time.

How Ayurveda helps

Ayurveda helps you to restore your inner balance. This involves slowing down and establishing a daily restorative self-care routine that includes warming foods, abhyanga (self-massage), restorative yoga, a few other Ayurvedic therapies, breath work, and living to your natural rhythms in harmony with the rhythms of the natural world.

Self-care

Self-care is crucial to moving through grief, this short ebook is meant to be a gentle journey into how Ayurveda can help you, at whatever pace is right for you. It isn’t intended to replace grief counselling or any other help you have, rather, the ideas you will meet further on, are a supplement, to introduce you to the powerhouse of ancient healing knowledge that is Ayurveda.

There are 7 practices I will introduce you to, and it may feel like a lot, but the way I work with people and groups, allows each of these practices to seamlessly become a part of their life, and I can share that with you too.

The Practices

1. Living in balance with your biological rhythms.

2. Restoring your constitutional balance through simple food and lifestyle protocols.

3. Restoring the balance of the Gunas—subtle energies that when out of balance can lead to restlessness, anxiety, lethargy and losing the will to live and to love.

4. Taking care of digestion so that your cells can turn your food into energy to support tissue nourishment and every process in your body, including the processing of grief.

5. Restoring Ojas so that you experience the the vitality of life again.

6. Clearing any congestion in your lymphatic system which can occur if emotional trauma has become stuck.

7. Ayurvedic therapies for deep nourishment.

Before beginning

A few things to know before beginning:

• It’s okay not to be okay.

• It’s okay to begin, stop, backtrack, start again.

• It’s okay to feel whatever you’re feeling.

• It’s okay not to be feeling anything.

• It’s okay to cry.

• It’s okay not to cry.

• However it is for you, that’s okay.

Grief is not linear and their is no judgement on how you travel your journey. Grief can profoundly impact your sense of identity and, the grief of different people cannot be compared. It’s a personal journey where kindness to yourself is so important, without judgement, especially if you meet dark places. The self-care habits Ayurveda offers give your identity safe harbour, while nourishing your mind, emotions and body.

The next instalment for my paying subscribers will come in the new year, I hope you’ll feel you would like to join me on this journey into Ayurveda, as a paying subscriber, but if you don’t, I will still be writing my Slow Sundays for everyone.

Wishing you the warmest,

Lucy x