Practicing Detachment

There is a principle in yoga, which is referred to as detachment. This principle also exists in all major religions in the form of surrender to a higher being. 

I had first read about the concept of detachment in A Course in Miracles years back. When I got to the passage explaining detachment, I was distraught and immediately stopped reading. My initial reaction was that if we are detached from our lives, our loved ones, our jobs, and our material goods, it’s as if we don’t care. In my naive view, I saw detachment as apathy. If you ever meet me, you will know that I’m the least apathetic person on the planet. I care about everything and everyone. 

At times when we shut down emotionally because we are hurt. We detach ourselves from the situation or we declare that we are detaching. In reality, this is not detachment at all. By putting a barrier between yourself, an emotional situation and your own emotions, you are actually attaching even more to the situation because you are creating a deception with an attempt to feel the hurt less. However, when the feelings of the situation resurface or another related event happens, you will see this exaggerated attachment by your own negative reaction. 

Detachment, in the yoga sense, is about letting go of control. In Christian circles, the phrase is letting go and letting God. We tend to go through life orchestrating events, planning, goal setting, working, and playing and we have this concept that we are in total control. There is a fallacy in this belief because if you are in control and I am in control and we are friends, then, who is really in control, you or me? 

Many of us also believe the cause and effect of things to a fault. You may think, “O.K., if I’m nice to this person and treat him kindly, then eventually he will turn around and be kind back.” This may or may not be true. But if you adhere to the belief that he will, in fact, be kind in return, and he isn’t, you are left disappointed, upset and discouraged. Yet, if you approach this same situation with detachment, you might say, “I will treat him with kindness because that is the core essence of who I am. He may not return to me with kindness, but that is no matter because I can’t really control the outcome.” With this approach, there is no disappointment or sad feelings, only happiness because you know you are doing what is right regardless of the outcome. 

Detachment is also synonymous with surrender. We don’t always see the grander picture at work. If you believe in a higher being, your higher power is orchestrating events and situations beyond your wildest dreams. And if you don’t believe in a higher power, know that universal energy or Mother nature is keeping the planets aligned and the seasons on time. Can you do that by yourself? 

Sometimes when I think I’ve got it all figured out, God surprises me. Oh, yeah, I would have to say, this happens most of the time. 

When you detach, you can sit back and enjoy the show. Have you ever seen the person “running the show”? That person is often harried, stressed, frazzled and downright unhappy. 

Practicing detachment is difficult for most people. I have been embracing this concept for over seven years and it still eludes me. But when you do, you will find more enjoyment out of life. You will live more fully in the present moment. You will stop worrying about the future. Because you are being taken care of. Do what you can do and then let God, spirit, mother nature or the universe do the rest. 

Wishing you peace, happiness and love.

Michelle Fondin

Author of The Wheel of Healing: An Easy Guide to an Ayurvedic Lifestyle and Secrets of The Wheel of Healing: An 8 CD Audio Program with Workbook. 

www.michellefondin.com

https://www.facebook.com/michellesfondin

Mastering the Basics Before Going in Depth

One thing I most often hear in my practice is, “What can give me the quickest results to take my practice, diet or health to the next level?” My response is, “Pay attention to simplicity. Master the basics. Learn to meditate and practice it. Start eating with awareness. Listen to your inner voice.” 

Typically this is not what people want to hear. They want a quick fix. They want to feel success right now. An Ayurvedic and yoga practice is not about “quick fix right now”. It’s about pinpointing with accuracy the change you need to make on a permanent basis to get lasting results for a lifetime. Anyone can sell quick fixes or in depth details on how to get results now. But that is not the goal of an Ayurvedic or yoga practice. 

When I was younger, I dated a high school art teacher. He was baffled at the arrogance of talented young teenage artists, who wanted to learn how to paint like the great masters, without understanding the basics of drawing. Yet, he made them go back to the basics by penciling basic sketches and shading. After parental protests he shared with me, “These students will never go on to be great artists if they don’t master basic drawing skills first.”  While I don’t know a lot about painting, I do know this; when you visit expositions on famous artists, you will always see many pencil sketchings before the great masterpieces. My daughter, who has natural talent in art, sketches for about eight to ten hours per day. 

In discussing the concept of Christianity with a friend a few weeks ago, he shared that grasping the concepts were very deep and difficult to follow. My suggestion was to start easy. I made the commentary that most people have difficulty following the life of Jesus by just being kind. Can you imagine? Kindness is a relatively simple concept. Yet, how many follow it on a regular basis? 

When the great yoga master, BKS Iyengar, was a boy in India, he got up every morning at 4 a.m. to practice yoga with his teacher for two hours before breakfast. After four years, he was tired of the basics and begged his teacher to teach him breathing techniques or pranayama. At my studio, I see yoga students who have been practicing for six months or a year who want to take their practice to the next level. When I suggest they learn to meditate or master what they have already learned, they become frustrated. What they want are more difficult yoga poses. What yoga teaches us is to want inner peace and the discovery of ourselves. 

So why do we hate the basics so much? Why do we loathe repetition and simplicity? I believe it’s because we are linear in our thinking. We see progress as a straight line. Progress should be seen more as a circle. As we develop and grow, the circle becomes bigger and wider. In our growing we don’t always see results on the exterior. But the workings are happening from the inside. 

Try grasping a simple concept for one day. For example, eat all of your meals without distraction (any) and in silence. Have your eating be a sensual experience. Taste, smell, touch, and feel your food. Make each meal a mini-meditation. You may find that this concept, as simple as it is, is difficult for you. 

Or how about mastering the concept of non-judgment?  Spend one day judging nothing or no one, including yourself. Try to stay neutral and rooted in the present moment. Drawing inferences for the future is still judging. Making assumptions is judging. It’s a simple concept, yet difficult to apply, even for a day. 

You can do this with anything and start today. Pick one simple concept and apply it for a day. Then tomorrow, pick something else and pretty soon you will realize that the road to mastery is not far away. 

Love,

Michelle

Michelle Fondin author of "The Wheel of Healing: An Easy Guide to an Ayurvedic Lifestyle"

www.michellefondin.com

Addictions: An Ayurvedic Perspective (Part 2)

In part one, we mentioned that addictions are a problem of object referral versus self-referral in an exaggerated manner. Most of us suffer from a mild form of object referral and waver between object and self-referral. But in addictions, object referral is king. The object of addiction is almost seen as a god, taking precedence over any other thing, including a spiritual connection.  

Object referral is an association of oneself with something outside of us. For example, you will hear people say, I’m a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a student. Or you might hear one say, I have three children, I am Italian, or I have a bachelor’s degree. Yet again, you might hear about someone’s possessions or net worth. I have a four-bedroom house in the country, I have $20,000 in a retirement fund or even, I’m poor and broke. While all of these statements may be true, according to Vedanta or Vedic thought, this doesn’t represent YOU as a whole. It’s a part of who you are, but it isn’t you. 

Here is the problem with object referral. If the object of my association to myself is no longer present, then I lose the sense of who I am. For example, if you say you are a bank teller and you’ve been a bank teller for 20 years, what happens if you suddenly lose your job? Most people who associate themselves with their job title or position and then lose it, find they are lost. But if you do, in fact, lose your job and have associated your sense of self and self-worth by that job, after time you will probably come to realize that you are not so bad after all, even jobless. 

However, the object referral in addictions is even stronger. There is a concept in Vedanta called pragnyaparadha, which means “mistake of the intellect”. The disconnect with your true self or higher self is so far removed that in order to feel whole, we crave the object of addiction as if it were a true need. The intellect has been tricked to believe that it needs the object of addiction to be whole. 

In object referral, we are disconnected from who we truly are. 

Self-referral is the first step away from addictions. Self-referral is the knowledge that I am perfect the way that I am. You are perfect the way you are, because the creative source that orchestrates the dance of the entire universe, including you, is pure perfection. Self-referral needs no input from the outside to feel whole. The connection to your divine essence makes you this way. Without knowledge of self-referral, we cannot begin to peel away the stickiness of addictions. 

In your uniqueness, you are connected to others. You are connected to your spirit, the collective spirit and the universal spirit. You are divinity itself. That is self-referral. You are an individuated expression of the divine who needs to remember your divinity. 

Self-referral is truth. Object referral is a lie. Self-referral leaves you whole. Object referral leaves you empty and craving more. Self-referral is healing. Object referral precipitates death. Object referral is slavery. Self-referral is the ultimate freedom. 

Remembering who you are is the essence of reconnecting to your true self. In Addictions: An Ayurvedic Perspective (Part 3) we will explore how to overcome your addictions forever. 

Wishing your perfect health always,

Michelle Fondin

Founder of The Ayurvedic Path

Vedic Master

www.theayurvedicpath.com

Yoga Sutras: Embracing Least Effort

Never before, have we led more busy and divided lives. In the West, we strive to arrive. From the time we awake until the time we crash at night, constant demands are put upon us to do more, to acquire more, accomplish more, communicate more and be more. 

It is no wonder that, according to Medco Health Solutions in 2011, one in five Americans have taken or are taking drugs for mental health. That is 20% of all Americans. Twenty percent! Can you imagine? Why can’t we cope today without medication? 

The reason is simple. Because we don’t respect the natural rhythms of nature. 

If we look at nature all around us, it unfolds with least effort day to day, minute to minute, second to second. A tree doesn’t sit around worrying all winter if it will bud in the summer. Deer, even though they are constantly driven from their homes with deforestation, simply move on and find new food and shelter. 

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a part of nature. Our bodies change according to the rhythms of day and night, the changing of the seasons, the phases of the moon. The simple cycle of day and night equal a principle of rest and activity. 

What we’ve succumbed to is a cycle of activity, activity, activity, crash.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that if you put batteries in a flashlight, keep it on 24/7, those batteries will die sooner than if you use it for a little while then turn it off. The same goes for us. 

We have a notion that if we don’t go out there and try as hard as we can to get what we want, life will slip away from us. However, when we are so out of touch with ourselves, we often waste time worrying, being ineffective or doing activities which don’t really help us get to what we want. 

Have you ever tried swimming up a river? I have. It’s pretty challenging. But if you turn around and let the current push you, you don’t have to do anything at all. You can simply enjoy the ride. 

How much are you enjoying this ride, called life? 

There is a yoga sutra, from a sacred Vedic text called The Bhagavad Gita, which is yogastah kuru karmani and translates to, “Established in being, perform action”. 

What this means is, wait until you are established in yourself, in the calm place that is connected to nature and ultimately to the universe to perform your daily duties. 

It’s no use running around ungrounded, ruffled and in a hurry if you are not established in self and connected. 

The way you can achieve this is by honoring least effort through meditation, prayer, contemplation, and/or silence daily. Take time to reconnect with nature and its rhythms. Make a vow to yourself to sit in silence some time each day. Take a class to learn meditation. Practice meditative movement like hatha yoga, Tai Chi or Qi Gong. Once you do this, then perform action, your life will be smooth sailing. Like a beautiful flower, each thing you desire will unfold effortlessly and easily. 

Wishing you peace, harmony, laughter and love. 

Namasté,

Michelle

Michelle Fondin

Founder of The Ayurvedic Path

www.theayurvedicpath.com

Ayurvedic Medicine versus Western Medicine

When I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 28, my first question to the doctor was, “Why did I get this?” And his answer was, “We simply don’t know why cancer occurs.”

Intuitively, this was not an answer for me. I knew, in my heart, that couldn’t be an answer. 

I began to do a lot of research and soul searching. When I came upon Ayurvedic medicine, it made so much sense to me. Ayurveda works on the basis of balance versus imbalance. A big part of Ayurvedic medicine is going to the root cause of illness to see where it originated. Ayurveda believes you cannot cure a disease unless you know the etiology or cause of it. 

The simple answer would be an imbalance in the doshas or Ayurvedic mind body types. An imbalance is most certainly the reason you’re experiencing symptoms or full blown illness but it’s likely that it’s not the root cause. 

The root cause goes much deeper. Sometimes it’s a weakness in the body which starts the doshic imbalance. Often it’s an unprocessed emotion or an accumulation of unprocessed food or substance in the body. 

Western or allopathic medicine works on the basis of pathology. Typically, you don’t go to the doctor unless something is wrong. You aren’t feeling yourself or you have the manifestation of symptoms. Your healthcare provider makes an assessment of your current state of health including symptoms and strives to provide you with some relief. The relief may be medication of some form, blood or urine testing to rule out various illnesses, or in the event that it’s necessary, a surgical procedure. At any rate, the idea is to rid you of symptoms so you feel normal again. At best, it’s a bandaid approach and one faceted. When you mask symptoms or force them to go away through medication, oftentimes, other symptoms or problems arise because you haven’t gone to the root cause of a problem. 

Ayurveda is a multifaceted approach. Not only does an Ayurvedic practitioner take into account the symptoms a person is experiencing, but he seeks to find which dosha is most out of balance. In advanced, stages of disease, this can be tricky. However, that is only one piece of the puzzle. The Ayurvedic practitioner will ask the client about her lifestyle, family life, job, marriage, financial situation, eating and sleeping habits, current medications, herbs and vitamin intake. He will observe the client’s mannerisms while speaking, her tone of voice, and demeanor. The Ayurvedic practitioner will gather all these clues to determine the best course of treatment for the client. Often, in taking the time to listen to the client, the Ayurvedic practitioner finds that her fear is subsided and as a consequence, so do some of the symptoms. 

Finding the etiology or cause is not always 100% foolproof. We must understand that some disease is just left up to the powers that be. 

As for my diagnosis, I went over every aspect of my life in search of the root cause. In the end, I did find it. Let’s suffice it to say that it was mostly emotional,personality and family-life based. It wasn’t easy to correct but I’ve strived to correct it ever since. And I think 14 years post diagnosis, I’ve been successful. 

And now, I’ve dedicated my life’s work to helping others discover how to live in balance with the practice of Ayurvedic medicine. 

Wishing you love and perfect health always,
Michelle

Michelle Fondin
Founder of The Ayurvedic Path
Chopra Center Vedic Master
www.theayurvedicpath.com

Understanding Your Ayurvedic Mind Body Type

In the last post, we talked about the three different of Ayurvedic mind types called  doshas. Even if you read the description of Vata dosha and found that it described you completely, there are a few things you need to know about the Ayurvedic mind body type.

First of all, we have all three doshas in our mind body constitution, but each of us has different proportions of the three. Secondly, most people have two dominant doshas with the third falling far behind. For example, a person may be a pitta-vata but their kapha score is twice as low as the pitta score. A small portion of the population is dominant in a single dosha and an even smaller portion it tridoshic, where all three doshas are more or less the same. So the possibilities for Ayurvedic mind body types are as follows:

Vata

Pitta

Kapha

Vata-Pitta

Vata-Kapha

Pitta-Vata

Pitta-Kapha

Kapha-Vata

Kapha-Pitta

Vata-Pitta-Kapha

Are you confused yet? If not, great. 

Your Ayurvedic mind body type is your genetic lot in life. It was the deck of cards you were dealt with at conception. So let’s suppose you were born with a fiery personality. You tend to have redness in the skin, are prone to breakouts, get irritated quite easily and are extremely driven. You were born with a fair amount of Pitta or fire and water in your mind body constitution. But let’s suppose you also move very fast, have difficulty gaining weight and have a racing mind. This means that you may also have a fair amount of Vata in your Ayurvedic mind body constitution. So your Ayurvedic mind body type would be Pitta-Vata.

Your natural mind body type is called your Prakruti. This is your nature. You cannot change it. Oftentimes, I get clients who say they want to be more of one dosha or another. You can only stay in balance when you are true to your prakruti. 

Now let’s suppose you read the description of the doshas and you said, “Oh yes, that’s it, I’m a Kapha type.” You have a lot of extra weight, you are tired and lethargic. You move a lot slower than before. You crave sweets. While it does sound like a kapha type (out of balance in some respects), you need to search into your past. When searching for prakruti, we look to all the years of life, since the time of birth. If in childhood, you were skinny, could eat anything, were very nervous and active, you may have been born with more Vata in you. But look at the rule above. I stressed that you cannot change your Ayurvedic mind body type. Right? 

The answer is “yes”. However, through improper diet, lifestyle, experience and life choices, we can get so out of balance that we no longer present ourselves as our true nature. That is called Vikruti or our current state. Vikruti or our state of imbalance can mask our pakruti, sometimes completely. 

So how then, you might say, do I discover my prakruti?

Self-awareness is the key. When you learn about the doshas and take a trip down memory lane, there are some consistencies about you. An Ayurvedic practitioner can also help you to discover both the prakruti and vikruti. 

In the next blog post, we’ll discuss what we can learn through our prakruti or Ayurvedic mind body type.

Wishing you perfect health always.

Love, 

Michelle Fondin, Founder of The Ayurvedic Path, Inc.

www.theayurvedicpath.com

The Basis of Ayurveda, Yoga and Meditation: Exploring the Universe Within

Silence.

When you read that word, what comes to mind? For some, it may come as a respite from a chaotic life. For others, the thought may bring about anxiety or a negative connotation such as silence in a conversation. And for many, who have never quite experienced total silence, bewilderment.

I often ask the following question to new meditators, “Have you ever, in your life, sat in silence with yourself?” The most frequent answer is “no”.

Since the moment of our birth, we are called to the outside world. And even before we are born, we are hearing sounds and responding to stimuli from the outside. Our entire existence here on earth calls us to explore everything outside of us. When we are young, we take cues from our parents and siblings, then teachers, then friends, then the media, then co-workers and bosses, then doctors or other professionals. We are constantly looking for advice, education, approval and answers from others. Even when we pray, we are often asking God for advice. Aren’t we?

Although we have such a vast amount of resources at our disposal, we are often left more confused and divided than ever. Should we consult the iPhone or the Blackberry, search it on the Internet or turn on the TV? Should we ask our doctor or do a google search? Should we turn to our pastor or priest or go to the school for that answer?

Did you know that you actually have all the answers within you?

According to the teachings of Ayurveda, as vast as the universe out there is the universe within. Through meditation we learn to explore that universe that most of us have never touched.

Can you imagine we have only really begun to touch on our universe, the one we live in, over thousands of years? In order for us to discover the universe, we need money and a lot of sophisticated scientific equipment. Even then, only a handful of scientists are able to discover it then report that information back to us. And we have barely scratched the tip of the iceberg.

But you can explore the entire universe within you by simply getting silent, closing your eyes, and embracing the state of being. When we honor this call to silence, the universe within unfolds and the miraculous happens. Your life will start to transform and so will you. By getting silent, the answers to your questions will emerge without searching, asking advice or google.

Even if you have no idea how to meditate you can find a place where you can sit in silence for 5 to 10 minutes, close your eyes and observe your breath. Notice what happens. Is your breath calmer, is your mind calmer?

Try finding 15 minutes in your day to unplug. Turn off the TV, radio, cell phone, home phone or any other device that creates noise. Sit in silence in non-doing. See what comes up.

Wishing you peace, harmony, laughter and love and moments of silence,

Michelle