Wise Effort

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One of the fundamental principles of Ayurveda is that our habits, routines, and dietary choices should vary with the seasons and balance the doshas. (“Summer Guide | Banyan Botanicals”) Any seasonal routine is aimed at fostering diet and lifestyle habits that will help prevent the over-accumulation of that season’s qualities (e.g., heat and intensity in summer) and allow you to enjoy the unique gifts that season has to offer. 

The dosha that tends to get most “out of whack” with over-doing is Pitta. Pitta embodies fire, and when in stress can be aggressive and intense, critical, and destructive. (Think of the balanced aspect as nurturing like gathering around a campfire vs. the unbalanced quality like destruction due to wildfire.) When stressed and unbalanced, Pitta tends to push intensely towards striving and perfection, and become critical of self or others. When in balance, Pitta is compassionate, wise, and determined. Pitta needs a balanced view to stay considerate and diplomatic in their actions. It is important to foster kind and wise effort. Kindness, patience, open-heartedness, clarity, letting go, and self-care are wise efforts.

Nature’s Lessons

Nature offers us many lessons of kind and wise efforts to keep ourselves in balance. For example, the sun rises and sets in the same direction every single day. We are kind and wise to ourselves to begin and end each day with a routine that brings us back to a grounded and intentional Self. We could begin each day like the birds and serenade this new day of life with gratitude, prayer, or meditation, and stating intention. We could follow the lead of animals as day ends and cease working, retreat to our dens and nestle down as the sun sets.

While Ayurveda reveres the lessons of nature, even technology can remind us of habits to that are kind and wise. Here are a few examples:

GPS – Kindness is a Choice

Recently I listened to a podcast of On Being with Krista Tippett. Krista interviewed Jewish-Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist, Sylvia Boorstein. Boorstein shared an analogy of how kindness is a choice as demonstrated by her car GPS. She revealed,

“It never gets annoyed at me. If I make a mistake, it says, ‘Recalculating.’… (So, in life) something happens, it challenges us…indignation is tremendously seductive, but — to say to yourself, ‘Wait a minute, this is not the right road. Literally, this is not the right road. There’s a fork in the road here. I could become indignant, I could flame up this flame of negativity, or I could say: Recalculating. I’ll just go back here.’”

Conventional Ovens – You Can’t rush a Process

I am hangry by days’ end, and I am craving roasted veggies. My mind is willing them to be roasted in three minutes or less, but I know that is not possible. If I raise the temperature to hurry the process, my precious veggies will be improperly prepared and wasted. Cooking requires patience and honoring the time it will take to manifest deliciousness. The same is true for goals. When we rush a process, we risk an outcome of inferior quality. We are wise to have patience with and trust the process of working towards goals instead of seeking short-cuts or attaching to expectations that are unrealistic.

Interior Doors Open from Within – A Reminder for the Heart

We lock exterior doors of a house with keys as we leave. But once inside, we lock bedroom doors from the inside. We have full control of who we let into our most sacred spaces. The same is true with our hearts. We hold an external persona that keeps our true self separate from our work and environment. But when we invite someone inside of our lives, we need to unlock that door of our heart to allow that relationship in. With wisdom, we can open our hearts to give and receive the gift of compassion in that relationship.

Unclear Intentions Can Lead to Chaos

Have you ever google searched something very vague? The Internet is full of seemingly innocent phrases that are actually code for some of the most disgusting things you will ever see. Like “lemon party.” DO NOT Google this. The outcome is scary. Like, you worry someone will be knocking at your door to investigate you scary! The lesson here is that an unclear search can lead to nonsense and life is better OFF the interwebs. In the same manner, unclear intentions can lead you to feel lost. When manifesting goals, we are wise to get truly clear and out of the head, connect with the heart, and let our gut lead us towards our calling. This may take time to allow the “snow globe to settle to still.” Clarity from within allows a clearer path.

Let Go of the Voice Messages

How many spam calls do you receive a day? I have lost count of the number of voice messages I have received for refinancing my student loan that no longer exists! When it is important, people will seek us. But most of the input received is crud. Our thoughts are similar. Thoughts are not facts. Most are false, crap, annoying input that we should just delete without giving much focused attention.

Low Power Mode Until Charge is 80% or Higher

When your iPhone or iPad is at battery power of 20% or lower, it will prompt you to turn on Low Power Mode to conserve battery life. This is a life-saving feature that turns off less essential functions. MORE interesting is that if you ignore this warning, it will automatically switch to this mode until the battery is charged to 80% or higher. Do we heed such self-care with ourselves? Or do we push with the idea of “I’ll relax next month once this project is completed.” Funny how our technology force quits until it has gained a proper charge. What would it look like if our habits and routines honored the Self in that manner? Perhaps we would touch down to the source of life in moments by listening to music, meditation, painting, loving, reading stories to our children. We are wise to heed the signal of fatigue, close our minds like tired eyes, and surrender our hearts open to be filled by source.

The lessons on wisdom are everywhere if we are open to being reminded. Kindness, patience, open-heartedness, clarity, letting go, and self-care are wise efforts that keep us in balance and allow for our best qualities to shine.