On today’s podcast I promote a woman from inside our Yogahealer community.

Mary Sullivan, who has walked the self healing path in full with Yogahealer and is an amazing mentor in my Living Ayurveda course,  joins me to discuss Vata and Vata imbalances. Learn what it means to have Vata imbalances and how to deal with them by coming into deeper integration in your pranic, physical, mental, emotional, and intuitive bodies.

Mary and I rap about Vata, the force of movement and rhythm in our lives. There is an excitement, a spontaneity and a limitlessness to this Vata force, but when it is out of balance, it can take up too much space and block our productivity. An out-of-whack vata dosha can show up in the form of insomnia, gas, sciatica, or a scattered mind, to name a few. When we have these issues, we are losing so much energy and are so distracted that we cannot be productive. Our natural rhythm is creativity and productivity, not pain and disease. We are here to grow and thrive; this is the nature of our being.

Tune in to this episode to learn how to listen to your body, align your vata dosha, relax, receive, and thrive.

I rap with Mary Sullivan about the Vata dosha:

• Vata as the main force of movement and rhythm in all our lives

• Experiencing the subtleties of Vata imbalances that can manifest into larger issues

• Simple, at-home remedies for Vata imbalances

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• What it means to listen to your body and notice signs of out-of-balance vata
• How to embrace structure to embrace flow in life
• How to learn to relax and receive

Links:

• Mary’s website
• Living Ayurveda course

Show Highlights:

• 8:00 – Vata moves and directs the other two doshas. Without aligned vata, we feel out of sync with our natural body rhythms.

• 9:45 – The two main forces of vata are primary downward force and secondary upward force. In order to keep yourself aligned, you need to pay attention to these subtleties of vata. If you ignore subtle feelings in your body, they can create large mental and physical issues over time.

• 15:10 – Vata can get so dry that it becomes isolated. When vata loses rhythm, it turns negative, and draws more roughness and more isolation until a person doesn’t feel connected to anyone or anything.

• 16:25 – Put structure in place to support the direction you want to go in life. When you don’t have structure and direction, you impair your ability to manifest what you want.

• 19:30 – There are lots of imbalances in our bodies- dry skin, scattered thoughts, distancing of relationships, bloating, insomnia. We need to ask ourselves how these energetic pattern arose, and how to dissolve and resolve these patterns.
• 25:00 – Learn to relax and receive…recieve your cat, your bed, the air.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Vatas love to drive the car, they just doesn’t know where to go or how fast and how much to drive.”  -Mary Sullivan
• “Embrace structure to support flow” -Mary Sullivan
• “You lose connection to our own spirit when you stop believing in your own inspiration.” -Mary Sullivan
• “Fear is like high test gasoline for Vata.”  – Mary Sullivan
• “Calm your head, and go to bed cause when you wake up, it’s a different story. You’re looking at the world from a different space.” – Mary Sullivan
• “Allow Vata to first, again, go down before the inspiration can rise up.” – Cate Stillman

BIO:

Mary Sullivan is an Ayurvedic yoga specialist, avid student of the Ayurvedic Living Course, amateur herbalist, canner, fermenter and cook. She teaches classes on meditation, self-care, health and food. She worked for over 20 years in the chemical industry as a chemist, engineer, manager and director. Her job disappeared when the company was sold; she lost her purpose and had a big hole in her identity. In early 2000 she began an odyssey of change and learning. She immersed myself in the study and practice of yoga, and became a yoga teacher in 2005. She began to study Ayurveda and yoga therapy, and became a certified yoga therapist and an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist. She now has a new respect for the impact that Ayurveda, yoga, and consistent care is having on her life and health. Mary offers cleanses, classes and workshops in Ayurveda, food and wellness care & Lyme support to share her knowledge and practical experience in building a loving relationship with yourself, building routines that support your growth goals and maintaining self care as a cornerstone of a healthy vibrant life.