You
don't have to practice yoga or follow an Ayurvedic
diet to benefit from Buddhist
ideas (but if you do, more power to you).
So
whether or not you think about balancing your
dosha, here are three powerfulelements of Buddhist
philosophy, "The Noble Truths," and how you can incorporate them into
every day. They might just change your life...
1. Dukkha: Life
is painful and causes suffering.
Many
people might say that Buddhism is pessimistic or negative. This is a common
result of learning that one of the Noble Truths is translated as "Life is
suffering." But there's more to this statement. It's not just telling us,
"Life is tough, so deal with it." So what is it telling us?
We
actually can create more suffering in our lives by trying to avoid or suppress
difficult emotions. Yes, our lives are inevitably punctuated with various
unpleasant feelings: loss, sadness, fatigue, boredom, anxiety appear and
reappear during our lives.
But
attaching or clinging to particular expectations, material items, and states of
being is often a cause for acute frustration, disappointment, and other forms
of pain. So rather than fear our suffering or seek an ultimate resolution to it
(and become frustrated by our lack of finding one), we can learn simply to
recognize our suffering.
How we
can use this belief every day: Try not to buy into the idea that you're broken. Expect that
death, aging, sickness, suffering, and loss are part of life. Practice
acceptance in the face of strife. Stop attaching to the idea that life should
be easy and pain free, both emotionally and physically. This is a misconception made
popular by the fashion,
beauty, and pharmaceutical industries.
Illness,
heartbreak, loss, disappointment, and frustration are parts of life that can be
mitigated by practicing "non-attachment." Try to embrace
imperfection, to let go of this belief that life should be a certain way. Open
your heart to uncertainty.
2. Anitya: Life
is in constant flux.
Anitya or "impermanence" means that life as we know it is in
constant flux. We can never access the moment that just passed, nor can we ever
replicate it. As each day passes, our cells are different, our thoughts develop,
the temperature and air quality shifts. Everything around us is different.
Always.
When we
are feeling especially uncomfortable, the concept of impermanence can be,
paradoxically, comforting. In other words: if
nothing is permanent, we know our pain will pass. But when we are experiencing
joy, the idea of impermanence can be incredibly fear-inducing.
If we
accept the idea of impermanence at face-value, it can be incredibly liberating.
In the West, about 100 years after the Buddha expressed this idea, Greek
philosopher Heraclitus mirrored the belief when he famously said, "You
can never step in the same river twice." All we have is the present
moment.
How we
can use it in our everyday lives: Celebrate
the idea of change. Accept that everything is constantly changing. It's kind of
amazing, when you just think about it! And even when the idea of impermanence
might feel scary, it helps us appreciate everything we are experiencing in the
present: our relationships, body, mood, health, the weather, our favorite shoes,
our jobs, our youth, our minds. So let's savor those moments we do enjoy and
know that the ones we don't enjoy will pass.
3. Anatma: The
self is always changing.
When I
ask clients what they want to get out of therapy, they commonly answer, "I
want to find myself." Our culture has led us to believe there's a
concrete, constant "self" tucked away somewhere in us. Is it between
our heart and liver? Or somewhere unknown in our brain? Who knows!
Buddhism,
however, assumes there is no fixed, stable "self." In line with Anitya (impermanence),
our cells, memories, thoughts, and personal narratives — all of the
"matter" that ultimately comprises our identities — change over time.
Sure,
we all have personalities (though they
can change over
time). We have names, and jobs, and other titles that we use to identify
ourselves, to feel a sense of "self."
But the
idea of a constant self is yet another story our culture has told us. It is a
story we can change, and thereby accept the idea that we ourselves can change —
at any time, in any place. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Thanks to impermanence, anything is
possible."
How we can use it in our everyday life: Instead of focusing on "finding ourselves," we ought
to focus on creating the self we wish to be at every moment. It's possible for
us to be, and feel, different today than we were and felt yesterday. Being
depressed today doesn't mean we'll be depressed forever. We can forgive others. We can forgive ourselves.
Once we
let go of our attachment to the idea of the constant "self," we can
rest more comfortably with the constant change present in all of life. In each
new moment, we ourselves are new.
Source : www.mindbodygreen.com