Namaskar - Oct 09
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Diet<br />
Yoga, Health & Your<br />
Diet<br />
Paul Dallaghan<br />
He who takes medicine<br />
and neglects to diet<br />
wastes the skill of his<br />
doctors Chinese Proverb<br />
42<br />
The intrinsic message of yoga is to<br />
create wellness. It is an holistic<br />
approach taking into account our<br />
physical, psychological, mental and spiritual<br />
state. The goal of yoga is perfect balance, all<br />
artificiality removed, our true nature shining<br />
forth, overall wellness predominating.<br />
Yoga has a complete message for Humanity. It<br />
has a message for the human body. It has a<br />
message for the human mind. It has also a<br />
message for the human soul Swami Kuvalayananda<br />
Yoga offers many techniques to achieve this<br />
balance and wellbeing. It is impossible to<br />
separate the physical from the psychological,<br />
they are always linked. Taking care of the<br />
body is integrated with control and mastery<br />
of the mind and senses.<br />
One of the key teachings in yoga is how to<br />
manage food with the advice “eat in<br />
moderation”. Never over eat nor starve<br />
yourself unnecessarily. Food has a<br />
tremendous emotional impact. Advice<br />
regarding modern nutrition is strongly<br />
focused on food for health. Both systems<br />
of yoga and modern nutrition apply<br />
techniques to maintain strength and vigor<br />
of body along with a positive mental state.<br />
In order to move further in inner growth<br />
and peace of mind, the state of the body<br />
and subsequently its diet must be looked at.<br />
In the modern world we come across so<br />
much abuse of food personally and<br />
globally. Food is wasted in one area while<br />
people go hungry elsewhere. Even in the<br />
land of the plenty the modern state of food<br />
has led to a form of under-nourishment.<br />
The quality and composition of food has<br />
vastly deteriorated and moved away from its<br />
natural state. Today we have to navigate<br />
through processed and refined foods along<br />
with chemically structured and polluted<br />
foods. With the modern lifestyle so<br />
pressured and stressed we typically opt for<br />
the simplest solution available.<br />
As a result, we feel a lack of wellness because<br />
we are stressed and improperly fed. This<br />
makes it difficult to progress internally and<br />
can leave us dissatisfied in day-to-day life.<br />
Our observation over years of teaching yoga<br />
is people’s digestion and elimination is out<br />
of balance and their intake is over active.<br />
Their consumption of food and drink is<br />
often based on habits, cravings and a lack of<br />
discipline. In the language of yoga, there is a<br />
malfunction of both prana and apana.<br />
Many people are not educated on how to<br />
breathe correctly, which foods can benefit<br />
them the most, or the quality of water they<br />
should be drinking. It is the responsibility<br />
of those in the field of yoga and wellness to<br />
inform, educate and empower. We consider<br />
it our direct duty to offer this.<br />
An initial step in yoga is cleaning out in<br />
order to build up our system. We begin<br />
with a physical practice but ultimately we<br />
progress mentally. Based on our diet and<br />
lifestyle we might need more than just a few<br />
asana practices a week. In fact, one can feel<br />
blocked and unable to make progress while<br />
doing the asanas if our system is having a<br />
hard time detoxifying. The combination of<br />
modern food leaves a residue of undigested<br />
matter, ama, as it is termed in ayurveda, in<br />
our system. We feel heavy, stiff and<br />
lethargic. We experience poor concentration<br />
and dissatisfaction with life. A yoga practice<br />
is important, and in my opinion should be<br />
supported with a focused detoxification<br />
programme. It should be supplemented<br />
with education on how to take care of<br />
yourself through diet, physical practice and<br />
maintaining mental well-being.<br />
Yoga and wellness are inevitably linked. The<br />
body is nature’s greatest gift so take care of<br />
it. By so doing, there is a natural impact on<br />
our psychological state and our peace of<br />
mind. The only way to achieve this is to<br />
work on ourselves.<br />
Paul is director of Yoga<br />
Thailand and Centered<br />
Yoga on Koh Samui. yogathailand.com<br />
/<br />
centeredyoga.com Part of<br />
Yoga Thailand, Samahita<br />
Wellness provides a<br />
combined approach to<br />
yoga and wellness.