How to use ‘Ahara’ or food to support your Yoga Practice
Food isn't just sustenance. It's nourishment, emotion, memory. It isn’t just about the taste. Food is connection - with people and places. There are meals we remember so vividly - where and when we ate it. Who we shared it with. The hands that made it.
Think about the last meal you ate. How did you feel afterwards? Did it make you feel heavy and sluggish? Overactive and restless? Light and fulfilled?
The right food is rich with prana - the subtle energy or lifeforce which nourishes every corner of our being. Imagine the body and mind as instruments – food or “ahara” helps tune them, so that the resulting music is bright, clear and of the purest quality.
In the yogic context, food like all matter (including our bodies and minds) are made of three attributes or gunas– sattva (purity), rajas (stimulating), tamas (inertia) - in different ratios. By choosing a more sattvic approach to eating and making food choices, our bodies and minds become lighter, healthier and more vibrant. This can change the way we move, breathe, think, sleep, "digest" our emotions.
How can you make eating a more mindful activity, that supports your yoga practice and health?
Choose foods based on your prakriti (constitution) by consulting with an ayurvedic physician
Favour fresh, local, plant-based foods over packaged/refrigerated food
Trust your gut - eat when you are hungry
Use your intuition – be aware of and observe how certain foods affect your digestion and mental state
Don’t eat when you are upset, angry or agitated- take a few minutes to relax
Today we overthink food more than anything else, when it is the most basic and most natural of human needs. It doesn’t have to be complicated. What eat can be simple and intuitive- we just need to learn to trust our gut, and understand how our diet affects our physical, mental and emotional well-being.
"Through purity of food comes purity of mind, through purity of mind comes a steady memory of Truth, and when one gets this memory one becomes free from all knots of the heart."
Chandogya Upanishad (7.26.2)
