DHARMA – FOLLOW YOUR LIFE’S PATH
What is the purpose of my life?
Where am I heading?
Does what I am doing even make sense?
Most of us have times in our lives when feel down and ask ourselves those kinds of questions. By training the ability to feel yourself in the little choices of everyday life, you’re preparing yourself for the bigger decisions in life.
Every single day, we all make a variety of small choices that may seem insignificant. If you practice being more aware of your choices – even the little ones in everyday life – and feel what is good for YOU instead of doing what you usually do or what others do, then you’ll also come closer to yourself and can more easily find and follow what is YOUR life path.
WHAT IS DHARMA?
According to Ayurvedic wisdom, your life is not random. There is a greater meaning to precisely your life. You are put on the Earth for a special reason. Dharma is Sanskrit and, in an Ayurvedic context, can be translated as “way of life”.
Dharma is about why you are here; about the path you take in life and the choices you make.
According to Ayurveda, life consists of countless choices, great and small, and together they are all important for your Dharma, your life’s path. Even in the small decisions, such as what to eat for breakfast or when to go to bed, you are making a dharmic choice. This shouldn’t be taken as pressure to choose what is ‘dharmically right’ in everything you do – quite the opposite. It’s important to emphasize that there’s no such thing as “right” or “wrong”. It’s about you, through your many little choices, learning how to feel what feels good for you, there where you are. In other words, it’s about your choices becoming more and more conscious.
Dharma isn’t a final destination, but rather a journey that lasts a lifetime.
USING AYURVEDA TO FEEL YOURSELF
The great gift of integrating Ayurvedic principles into your search for meaning in your life is that nothing is right or wrong. YOU are not right or wrong. You are who you are and when you embrace all of you – your whole being – then acceptance, that encompasses an enormous amount of freedom, follows. You’ll certainly experience that you have both strengths and more vulnerable aspects. According to Ayurveda, our vulnerable sides also bear a great gift for us, and that is precisely what is incredibly liberating in a time where the tendency is for criticism and self-criticism, and where we often feel that we have to change ourselves to be “right” and to fit in.
The very fundamental principles of Ayurvedic health wisdom revolve around balance, moderation and acceptance.
If you already know your Dosha type, then you also know that each Dosha has its strengths and vulnerabilities, and that Ayurveda is all about becoming aware of them and embracing all of them. When you do, you will also see your way of life, your path, more clearly, because YOUR constitution supports you in living out your Dharma.
If you don’t know your Dosha type already, you can take a test here.
BEING CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF YOUR WAY OF LIFE, START SMALL
When you need to practice feeling what is good for you, and find your way of life, start where you feel joy and energy. Not with big changes that feel like a burden. Start wherever there is the least resistance and where it is easy to get started – your joy and energy are your guide.
The trick is to focus on what we are doing, instead of what we didn’t achieve.
It’s important to remember that we are all ordinary people who need our everyday lives to run smoothly in a modern reality. There has to be room for college or work, seeing to your home, your family and friends and maybe children. Therefore, an Ayurvedic lifestyle must also be seen as a process that is adapted to modern everyday life. Maybe you need to start with your bedtime or make a little tweak to your diet or maybe you need to be out in nature more or go for a walk every day. Some people experience a great change in their balance just by doing something as small as using a tongue scraper every morning or starting the day by drinking a glass of boiled water – your health and well-being are inextricably linked to following your life path.
YOUR BODY TELLS YOU WHEN YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT PATH
From an Ayurvedic perspective, there is a close correlation between our physical and mental well-being. If you are mentally unbalanced, then it settles as a physical imbalance, too and vice versa. And so, our health and wellness are closely linked to us following our life path, our Dharma.
If we don’t follow our life path, it can manifest as mental or physical symptoms because we aren’t in contact with our soul.
When you use Ayurvedic principles – right down to the little everyday rituals – it helps you to tune in to what is the right choice for you; Every single choice – right down to what is the right thing for you to eat, to think about and to spend your time on. All of it – yes, all of it – guides you on your way. The more you learn about yourself, the easier it will be for you to find YOUR conscious way of life, which will give you deep inner satisfaction and a sense of meaning to your life. This is where we find our health and our balance in earnest.
