Spring into Mindful Living: Nourish Your Ojas!
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” -Maya Angelou
Ojas literally translates as the juice of life. It is our natural, innermost vital essence which acts as the carrier of our life force. It is our vitality.
According to Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga, healthy people have abundant ojas, our essence that promotes immunity, happiness, physical and spiritual strength, and clarity of perceptions. A person who is healthy is radiant, generous, strong, supple, joyful, compassionate, and balanced. When our ojas is depleted, we are left vulnerable to illness, anxiety, restlessness, confusion, and poor digestion.
In life, health is the greatest wealth. We are of highest service to the world when we are clear and of radiant health. Yet there isn’t one set prescription for this luster.
Our well-being depends on many factors, like our faith, mindful connection, communion with nature, self-care practices and our sense of belonging. Trusting that there is an infinite Consciousness that governs all things, as well as acting as an integral part of the Divine web of life, reminds us to take care of ourselves and others.
When we honor our Divine nature, we take more time to deeply listen, to listen internally, to commune, and to hear what we truly need in each moment. What helps to balance and revitalize us changes—sometimes we need more movement, sometimes more rest—but we always need nutritious food, hydration, and spiritual and personal connection. Pratyahara, one of our experiences through the 8 limbs of yoga, teaches us this deep listening. We move from the more gross layers of the practice into the subtler through a withdrawal of our senses to become aware of sensation.
We often forget of the importance of health in our lives until there is a lack of it. Our daily habits of living, digesting, and thinking are how we most intimately effect our heath. As we are aging, becoming more in tune with subtle sensations of our habits is incredibly important.
My grandmother was a great example to me of right living, and maintaining a balanced, healthy life. She was a Southern Baptist minister’s wife, honored her connection to God, cared for her family, studied her Bible regularly, and could be found at church every Sunday.
I am reminded of her with great fondness. She lived well into her mid-80s, and had the sweetest eyes, longest eyelashes, and the softest yet strongest hands. She raised 5 children, and helped with 8 grandchildren. She cultivated and tended her own garden. In many of my childhood memories, I am out in the garden with her, picking cucumbers and radishes or shucking corn on the back porch for canning. She sewed clothes for her children, planned and cooked all the family meals (including from-scratch biscuits). All meals were eaten together at the table. All this and she still could be found in her favorite chair each afternoon for a snooze!
How did she do it all? And why do we feel like we never have time?
For one, she never had a cell phone and the television was rarely turned on before time for the evening news. She never appeared to overextend herself, or do more than one thing at a time. She held presence and had a great amount of faith and devotion.
Life before was certainly less sedentary than today. Automation and technology provides so much at our fingertips that we no longer have to go out and grow or gather food. Previously, we received a lot more of our movement, exercise, and connection to nature by tending to our gardens, yards, and the land.
Nowadays it seems we are all so busy that there is hardly any time for cultivating thought about whether we are moving, how we move, if we are growing food, making time to eat, or creating connection. Our lives have become collectively more sedentary, which means we are moving less than in generations of the past. We have more distractions (think devices, social media, advertisements), and more technological means to stay “connected” at all times, which in turn is creating more of a disconnect for many.
So we can’t turn back the clock, or do away with technology!
Spring into Mindful Living: Nourish Your Ojas!
Ojas literally translates as the juice of life. It is our natural, innermost vital essence which acts as the carrier of our life force. It is our vitality.
According to Ayurveda, the sister science to yoga, healthy people have abundant ojas, our essence that promotes immunity, happiness, physical and spiritual strength, and clarity of perceptions. A person who is healthy is radiant, generous, strong, supple, joyful, compassionate, and balanced. When our ojas is depleted, we are left vulnerable to illness, anxiety, restlessness, confusion, and poor digestion.
In life, health is the greatest wealth. We are of highest service to the world when we are clear and of radiant health. Yet there isn’t one set prescription for this luster.
Our well-being depends on many factors, like our faith, mindful connection, communion with nature, self-care practices and our sense of belonging. Trusting that there is an infinite Consciousness that governs all things, as well as acting as an integral part of the Divine web of life, reminds us to take care of ourselves and others.
When we honor our Divine nature, we take more time to deeply listen, to listen internally, to commune, and to hear what we truly need in each moment. What helps to balance and revitalize us changes—sometimes we need more movement, sometimes more rest—but we always need nutritious food, hydration, and spiritual and personal connection. Pratyahara, one of our experiences through the 8 limbs of yoga, teaches us this deep listening. We move from the more gross layers of the practice into the subtler through a withdrawal of our senses to become aware of sensation.
We often forget of the importance of health in our lives until there is a lack of it. Our daily habits of living, digesting, and thinking are how we most intimately effect our heath. As we are aging, becoming more in tune with subtle sensations of our habits is incredibly important.
My grandmother was a great example to me of right living, and maintaining a balanced, healthy life. She was a Southern Baptist minister’s wife, honored her connection to God, cared for her family, studied her Bible regularly, and could be found at church every Sunday.
I am reminded of her with great fondness. She lived well into her mid-80s, and had the sweetest eyes, longest eyelashes, and the softest yet strongest hands. She raised 5 children, and helped with 8 grandchildren. She cultivated and tended her own garden. In many of my childhood memories, I am out in the garden with her, picking cucumbers and radishes or shucking corn on the back porch for canning. She sewed clothes for her children, planned and cooked all the family meals (including from-scratch biscuits). All meals were eaten together at the table. All this and she still could be found in her favorite chair each afternoon for a snooze!
How did she do it all? And why do we feel like we never have time?
For one, she never had a cell phone and the television was rarely turned on before time for the evening news. She never appeared to overextend herself, or do more than one thing at a time. She held presence and had a great amount of faith and devotion.
Life before was certainly less sedentary than today. Automation and technology provides so much at our fingertips that we no longer have to go out and grow or gather food. Previously, we received a lot more of our movement, exercise, and connection to nature by tending to our gardens, yards, and the land.
Nowadays it seems we are all so busy that there is hardly any time for cultivating thought about whether we are moving, how we move, if we are growing food, making time to eat, or creating connection. Our lives have become collectively more sedentary, which means we are moving less than in generations of the past. We have more distractions (think devices, social media, advertisements), and more technological means to stay “connected” at all times, which in turn is creating more of a disconnect for many.
So we can’t turn back the clock, or do away with technology!
Today how can we nourish connection and regain our OJAS?
Here are some ideas as we move forward out of the revelry of Carnival and into the Spring season.
¥ Daily nutritious movement – Get on your mat and feel! Our yoga practice is a time for us to breath and move mindfully. BKS Iyengar says that the limb of yoga that is our asana practice is to cultivate ACTION versus motion. He states that motion excites the mind, and action absorbs the mind.
Through our practice, we attune to our own body and realign ourselves in the physical plane which calms the mind. Alignment and action are precious because we move prana more effectively through the body.
¥ Commune with nature – Sit under a tree. Take a walk without your phone. Ingest the sound of birds. Drink in the movement of water. Feel the sun. Smell a flower. Tune into your breath. Or, if you have the means and the space, plant a small garden. It is so rewarding to cultivate your own seeds, water and tend plants, patiently watch them grow, and enjoy the abundance of nourishment they provide in return for your care.
¥ Eat mindfully – Take time to plan your meals. Cook and sit to eat them without the distraction of devices or television.
¥ Have discipline for spiritual practices –
Yoga Sutra 2.1 – tapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni
Tapas refers to the practices that lead to acquiring radiance of body and clarity of mind; generally, it refers to austerity and undertaking practices that require the body and mind to abstain and to therefore expand our endurance. It is discipline. Discipline is required in order for us to receive (and not just take).
Svadyaya is the study of self and study of scriptures. Reading texts like the Yoga Sutras, or like my grandmother’s daily study of her Bible, are examples of svadyaya. Practicing asana can also be mindful self-study, if we take time to feel the sensations through aligned action.
Isvara Pranidhana is a complete surrender to the guiding and protecting force of life, having faith in the protecting power of the Absolute. Have faith! Your existence is Divine, established, and connected. Live from this place of remembering your place in the grand web of life, and have faith that you are held.
¥ Meditate – sit quietly each day, even for just a few minutes, to practice gratitude for the presence of health, love and life!
Ojas is built through a life of balance and life style choices to reengineer our habits. Slow down today in your life and in your yoga practice to make wise choices, to feel, and to build your vital essence.
Asana has two facets, pose and repose. BKS Iyengar describes this, assuming the asana is the “pose.” Reposing in the pose means maintaining it, reflecting in it with the penetration of intelligence and with dedication.
In the beginning, asana requires effort. Over time, one is less effortful in the body and can relax the cells of the brain to activate the cells of the vital organs and the structural and skeletal body so that consciousness spreads to all cells. This sense of effortlessness in the face of effort steeps us in the sensation of the pose.
Yoga Sutra II.47
prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam
Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached.
Give yourself sufficient time to build the pose with connection to gravity, and repose to tap into your innate intelligence, to feel, to sense. Then, the infinite being within is reached and through this connection, our juices are recharged.
At the end of practice, leave time for an extended savasana or meditation. 7-10 minutes is a good minimum for the nervous system to calm and the body to reboot.
For breath work, practice nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breath. This breath of alternating the inhale and exhale in each nostril is the balance of ida, the left side of the body and pingala, the right side. The breath brings calmness when agitated or anxious and energy when lethargic. It brings us back to center, to regain connection to the spine.
There are so many opportunities to rediscover our center, to reconnect, to nourish ourselves. With more distractions and more ways to disconnect, a true yogi has more opportunity to become imbalanced in present time and therefore, more opportunity to come back to center.
Make no excuse in the Spring season to recreate yourself, to renew habits of self care. Nourish your Ojas. Practice breath. Commune with nature. Have discipline. Devote yourself to source.
Written by Kelly Haas
March, 2017