Stress, in our own hands, & a recipe

I’VE BEEN LISTENING to conversations with Dr Iain McGilchrist. He is a Psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar. My brain feels very small by comparison. But it functions in the same way, and that’s what his books talk about, how our brains function. As well as why this is important to understand, if we want to know the reason why there are so many things in our civilisation to feel stressed about.

Dr McGilchrist talks about the right and left sides of the brain, explaining that everything we thought we new about this, is wrong. Here’s a link to his YouTube channel, because I can’t begin to speak for him.

But, here is a tiny little nutshell of my very first beginnings of discovery. Dr McGilchrist explains that the left side of our brain is very good at focusing on individual things, on getting a sequence of events done; but it can’t see the whole picture and therefore gets a lot wrong, if we don’t use the right side of our brain, which does see the whole picture, to guide it.

The left side of the brain is mechanistic in it’s thinking, and this is how it attends to the world. This means that it views the natural environment and us as machines made of parts that can be manipulated. Things to have power over. And it always thinks it is right. We can know when we are functioning from the left hemisphere, because we will think we are definitely right. We will think in terms of something being right or wrong, this or that, with me or against me — the left hemisphere of the brain cannot do nuance.

The right side of the brain see’s the whole picture and attends to the world in a completely different way, viewing it as alive, animate with everything in relationship, where relationship comes first and we are not separate to one another. The right brain is very good at reflecting in a nuanced way — it’s able to see subtleties and hold diverse views. It is the intelligent part of the brain, while the left side is vital for carrying out tasks and getting things done.

In ‘The Matter with Things’ Dr McGilchrist presents us with over a thousand pages, and over 5000 references from his life of study — it took 10 years to write — that show us how the reductionist, mechanistic view of life that comes from the left hemisphere view of the world, underpins our current civilisation. And, that this is the ground for all the catastrophes that are currently playing out in our world.

He explains that the only way to address this, is to attend to the world from the right side of the brain, while using the left side to carry out the functions needed to put things right, guided by the understanding that the right side of the brain is capable of — we need to move beyond the left hemisphere of attending to the world, and the controlling, dominating activities that accompany this.

Big stuff I know. And, if I have misrepresented in any way, I apologise.

So, I’ve been thinking about the idea of ‘attending’, and how this is also an important theme in Ayurveda, which describes the energy underpinning everything in the universe through the ‘Gunas’ — Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. The gunas are ways of describing how the energy that brings life into being which is in continuous flow; expresses itself.

“We have awareness due to Sattva, change due to Rajas and structure due to Tamas. Sattva also brings balance, light, intelligence, clarity, spaciousness and harmony into existence. Rajas also brings, energy, dynamism, imbalance, activity, disturbed emotions, pain and passion into existence. Tamas which allows for material existence, brings dullness, misperception, inertia, resistance, confusion and decay to the mind, which is then mirrored in the things that mind brings into existence. We take the qualities of the gunas into our body and mind, through our senses. Our mental state moves between the gunas depending upon the sensory choices we are making moment to moment, over time.“ — an extract from my book ‘Your Peaceful Belly’: 74.

The gunas

The gunas are not separate things, they are the way the continuous flow of energy that brings life into existence expresses itself. When the rajasic expression of change is guided by the sattvic expression of balance, clarity and intelligence, good things come from this, and tamas can build in a life-sustaining way.

Ayurveda places the power back in our hands, through our choices. It explains that the more Sattvic our choices, the more intelligent, clear, in balance and spacious our thinking will be; that this is the foundation for a healthy life, which will lead to healthy communities being created.

We currently live in a very rajasic/tamasic culture — we drive ourselves (rajas) to have lots of stuff, until we burn ourselves out (tamas), taking the world and the planet along with us. This driven aspect of rajas, which underpins and is encouraged in our current Western culture, has led to societies that deplete the resources of the individual, along with the ecosystem we are all part of.

What we need now are the sattvic qualities of clarity, intelligence, ability to see the bigger picture, serenity, balance, harmony, peace and balanced relationship; to guide the expression of rajas, so that tamas does not lead to more decay, and can come back into balance.

When I first started to think about the gunas, we were coming out of the first COVID-19 lockdown here in the U.K. It was a sunny day. Bright blue sky, gentle breeze rippling through the trees. My favourite falling-down trees wood still had signs of wild garlic leaves. The little streams which cause some of the trees to fall down, were twinkling and sparkling. You would hardly have known there was so much catastrophe going on in the world.

I found myself thinking, if only we could get back to a sattvic way of living. Then rajas (movement and growth) could be guided by sattvic qualities within our minds. The thing is, none of the gunas are wrong. We just need to orchestrate the dance, from the right side of the brain.

Recipe

SALMON SQUASH TOMATO COCONUT

INGREDIENTS (per person)

• 1 salmon fillet

• 2 cups TOMATO COCONUT SAUCE (further on)

• Slices of crown prince squash or other squash

• Freshly cut coriander leaf

• Fresh lime

• Ghee

METHOD

Pop the slices of squash on an oven tray with toasted sesame oil and bake until cooked — 15 minutes in my oven on high. Saute the salmon fillet in ghee or butter or oil for a minute on each side then turn down the heat and poach for about 5 minutes depending on the size. Take the salmon out of the pan, then add the sauce (recipe further on) to the pan to heat through and stirring to get any salmon bits off the bottom of the pan. Serve with the salmon, squash, coriander leaf and lime.

TOMATO COCONUT SAUCE

I enjoy eating this bowl of food on on grey days, which is quite a lot here in the U.K.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups of tomato passata

• 2 cups coconut milk

• 1 small red onion chopped small

• 2 good sized cloves of garlic roughly chopped

• 1 red pepper chopped small

• A big handful of green leaves finely sliced

• 2 teaspoons tamari

• 1 teaspoon maple syrup

• Rock salt

• Black pepper

• 1 inch fresh turmeric root grated

• 1 tablespoon ghee or butter

METHOD

Saute the onion, garlic and pepper in the ghee/butter in a pan. Add the turmeric, tamari and green leaves. Saute for a minute then add the maple syrup, coconut milk and tomato passata. Simmer for about 10 minutes, season with black pepper and rock salt.

Ayurvedic lowdown

The tomato coconut sauce is rajasic, and the salmon is tamasic. It will wake up a kapha constitution, may exasperate a pitta type who is out of balance. And for vata types, if you are feeling calm and grounded salmon will be good for your high protein needs, but if you are feeling agitated swap out the sauce for some simple fresh lime, ghee and rock salt.

The best way to apply Ayurveda to your food choices is to lean in towards the qualities you need. When feeling ungrounded vata types need grounding so eat grounding, warm, unctuous foods with good protein levels A pitta type feeling irritable and impatient needs to avoid pungent foods like chillis. Kapha types feeling unmotivated and heavy need to lighten up their diet, a warm light meal is needed.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or to just post thoughts, I’d love to get to know you.

Till Friday, warmest wishes,

Lucy x