‘when diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need.’
AYURVEDIC PROVERB
Being prudent is an artform.
It is about a way of eating that is of benefit to most people most of the time. And followed routinely will result in being well. A long-term prudent diet is applicable to all, but personal idiosyncrasy must always take precedence.
I am in food territory. There is no such thing as a good or a bad food. But there are foods which are better at a certain time and in a certain quantity for certain individuals. These are principles rich in the texts of Ayurveda.
In the big affluent universe of over choice and over thinking about choice, what is too much, what is too little, there are proponents of diet and regime. I am one of these. However, within the parameters of food choice there is the changing face of nature to consider, the laws of yin and yang, because that which helps one may harm another. And nature can be wild and wilful in all of her beauty. Ayurveda is about taking responsibility for how, when, why and what is put into the body. It is about self-nurture and parenting the Self.
With a student or client, I look at who presents, who that person wants to be. I look at their ability to take responsibility for their choice of food. Ayurveda teaches diet therapy. It looks to balance the physical part of the psyche. Diet is closely associated with self-worth and the wish to stay healthy and alive. It can be used diagnostically and predictively. Yet, there is no truth. No definitive answer. There is simple subjective interpretation of biased fluctuating data. A mere interpretation of what is felt and seen.
No practitioner or scientist can have a mortgage on the truth.
In holistic health management, the client accepts the interpretation that suits him at the time of consultation. It will most probably be the one that is most comfortable or least fearful. Later, with sincere preparation, there may be more risk and ability to tap into discomfort to fulfil a task or a dream. At that moment a fresh practitioner may be called upon. If the client is not ready to take responsibility, attachment to a particular way may follow. A new gospel to adhere to. Rather, use process to keep clarifying your own belief system.
As an Ayurvedic practitioner, I assist with process. I observe body language, ways of relating and use of language. I make no investment in a client’s condition, as this stands in the way of resolving the health difficulty that presents. Experience is our own. Medicine based on hypotheses is just that, valid in one year and disproven the next. Accepted for a small window by science they appear the only truth, maintained if need be by deposing the alternatives. Working from internal needs, another discovers something truer, as his predecessor did from his experience in relation to another. And so it goes.
It would seem that the more strident the beliefs are, the more likely that fear is in the house. Current medical practice relies on this fear of self-exposure and alternative view. Little concern for theories and practices that could keep most people free of physical and mental disease. Change and flexibility is human, yet dismissed in favour of throwing money at a flawed system of cure. One which briefly allays fear of impotence in those that claim responsibility for the health of others. When they are no longer funded by fear, they fail to survive.
The alternative is self-responsibility.
I do not write to seek approval. I yearn to advise, to care, yet somewhat perturbed by my need to care. As a mother and earth dweller, I care for others greatly. From the paradox of my feelings and the honing of my perceptions and interpretations in childhood, comes my therapy. Here, I address my self-responsibility. I cannot tell you your own truth. I can advise you on what I have found in living my life up to this point in time. I am subjective, innate to maternal femininity, and my conclusions constantly change. Therein lies their value. A value that may be useful at this time. Yet, ultimately to be discarded in favour of your own immediate truth.
I believe that those who intend in becoming well must decide for themselves. And this is a bitter pill to swallow. I have and you will writhe and moan to avoid that realisation, searching for something or someone. A hope to avoid responsibility, a fear of unworthiness from not attracting perfect love and caring hoped for as a child.
Diet is choice to take responsibility for all that you present. I give consultations in a prudent diet, how to regulate a life, how to self-correct occurring disease patterns.
I assist in tweaking personal idiosyncrasies that result in illness. I can suggest a programme of health and discovery. I am not able to say, how, when or where you do it. Ultimately, your universe is beyond me.
‘Health involves a willingness
to take responsibility for the decision to be ill.’