How can you create the best circumstances in your life for spiritual growth and spiritual awakening?
Most of the events in your life are predetermined by your karma. There are very few things that you can control; but the things you can control have a huge impact on your mind and body.
Let’s take a look at these things and the impact they have on you, spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally.
Table of Contents
The Yogic Diet – What is it and why should you bother with it?
Simply put, the yogic diet is a diet that is conducive to spiritual growth and self-realization.
Food has an incredible impact on who you are, how you feel day to day, the state of your mind, your behaviour, your body and your tendencies.
In fact, the Chandogya Upanishad tells us that everything we ingest is composed of 3 parts: a gross form, a less gross form and a subtle form.
- In terms of solid food, the gross form is excreted from the body, the less gross form becomes flesh and the subtle form i.e. the vibrations directly influence the mind.
- For liquids, the gross form exits the body as urine, the less gross form is used to generate blood and the subtle form influences the prana or the life force energy.
- Finally, for foods such as ghee, oil and butter, the gross form becomes the bones, the less gross forms the marrow and the subtle form becomes speech.
This tells us that the mind is formed of food, the prana of liquid and the speech of fire.
It follows that if you’re struggling with managing your mind and emotions or you feel like you’re not progressing on the spiritual path, then the culprit or weak link is your diet and routine.
The 3 Gunas – How do you know what’s good for you and what isn’t?
The ancient rishis or seers based the yogic diet on a different classification system than the one we use today.
They didn’t classify foods as proteins, fats, carbs, etc. instead, they classified foods based on the nature of the food and the effect they have on the mind-body complex.
The 3 gunas or the 3 qualities of nature are sattva, rajas and tamas. The 3 gunas are present in more than just your food. They are essential qualities of nature, meaning that everything in your life can be classified as sattvic, rajasic or tamasic.
Sattva – Harmony, lightness, purity
The yogic diet consists mainly of sattvic foods. Sattvic foods are foods that are pure. These foods bring qualities of lightness, harmony and purity to the mind and the body. When sattva is dominant in your system, you feel calm, clear, energetic and enthusiastic.
Sattvic things can seem like a burden in the present but bring you joy in the long run. For example, starting a yoga practice may seem like a bore or something that you dread every week, but in the long run, it’ll keep your mind and body healthy.
Rajas – Passion, activity, feverishness
Rajasic foods are stimulants and make it difficult to meditate. They are minimized in a yogic diet. They induce passion, activity, feverishness, excessive desire and sorrow into your life and your mind. When rajas is dominant, you feel restless, feverish, you’re easy to anger and passionate or obsessive. Rajas is the energy of movement and activity and in this state, the mind doesn’t let you rest.
Rajasic things seem to bring you immediate pleasure but in the long run they bring you misery. Examples of rajasic habits include mindless scrolling on social media, drinking alcohol and overeating. Pretty much anything that brings you instant gratification and affects your mind negatively later is considered rajasic in nature.
Tamas – darkness, lethargy, dullness
Tamasic foods are also minimized in a yogic diet. They promote inertia, dullness and lethargy in your system. When tamas is dominant, you feel very negative, unmotivated, dark and heavy.
Tamasic things are miserable throughout. They don’t bring you pleasure when you indulge and they don’t bring you pleasure afterwards. They’re toxic in nature and a prime example is drugs. Drug users don’t experience pleasure during use or afterwards. They’re miserable throughout the entire process.
While it may seem that some of the gunas are more favourable than others, all three qualities of nature are essential in life.
If tamas didn’t exist, you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night and if rajas didn’t exist, you wouldn’t be able to get going when you need to. Sattva inspires creativity, clarity and wisdom in you, however, if you only had sattva, you’d probably just meditate all day and have no inclination to do anything else.
That said, to progress on the spiritual path, you must maximize sattva in your system.
And that brings us very neatly to the next point:
Maximizing the Energy of your Food
There are general classifications for food, but this is not the only thing that goes into determining how much prana you’ll get from a certain meal.
In fact, to follow a truly yogic diet and create a sattvic meal, you must become a conscious consumer.
The yogic diet is based on the principle of ahimsa or non-violence. It has a lot to do with intention: was the food cultivated, transported, cooked and eaten with love and the intention to nourish or violently, just make to money and fill your belly?
This journey begins with cultivation.
- Where did your food come from?
- Was it planted, cared for and grown with love?
- Is it laced with chemicals?
- Is it genetically modified for uncontrollable growth?
- What type of energy are the farmers putting into it?
Then it’s important to look at the steps between the farm and your plate.
- Is your meal locally produced or has it been chemically preserved so that it can fly halfway across the world to your supermarket and still be unripe?
- What was the energy of the transport like? Was the food treated with care or just thrown about?
- How was the food stored and treated at the supermarket?
- Was it dropped on the floor, handled by angry employees and thrown about or placed with love and care on the shelf?
When the food finally makes it to your hands, there are another few things to ask yourself.
- How are you storing your food?
- When are you eating the food (unripe, ripe, overripe)?
- How are you cooking the food (roasting, deep frying, sauteing, baking, etc.)?
- What state of mind are you in when you cook your food?
- What state of mind are you in while eating?
- What environment are you eating in?
- Are you consciously eating?
- What times of day are you eating?
- How much are you eating?
There are a lot of factors that go into maximizing the prana in your diet and following the principles of ahimsa. While a lot of the factors are out of your hands, there are a lot that are in your hands as well.
The wave of conscious consumers and conscious grocery stores entering the market are a step in the right direction. This is definitely a good option to maximize the quality of your food.
To minimize any negative vibrations from before your food reaches your hands, traditionally, a prayer or blessing is said before eating.
Bless your food
There are many blessings you can say over your food to remove negative vibrations. They can be in any language as long as the intention is pure.
At the end of your blessing, it is powerful to add the mantra ‘Annadatta sukhi bhava.’ ‘Anna’ is food, ‘datta’ is giver, ‘sukhi’ is happiness and ‘bhava’ is feeling or being. This mantra, said out of gratefulness blesses the providers of your food with happiness, peace and contentment. This includes everyone who is involved in bringing your food from soil to market to plate.
Mindful Consumption
Beyond food, the yogic diet includes everything that you consume with the 5 senses. This means that all sensory information is part of your diet.
If you’re eating well but spending your free time playing violent video games, you’re counteracting the positive effects of the food you’re eating.
It’s important to be aware of the types of music you listen to, the type of entertainment you indulge in, the people you spend time with, the scents you’re surrounded with, and so on.
Again, the extent that you follow the yogic diet will be directly reflected in your progress on the spiritual path.
If there are certain habits that you’re not ready to let go of yet, that’s okay. Just remain aware and detached from the situation. You can compensate by putting more energy into your asanas and pranayama. As you progress, you will naturally let go of these habits.
The Role of Ayurveda in a Yogic Diet
Ayurveda is the sister science of yoga for good reason.
Ayurveda focuses on re-establishing and maintaining balance in the system. It does so by examining your specific imbalances and prescribing diet, routine, and herbs as required.
The strength of Ayurveda lies in this personalization. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions as every mind-body complex is different.
To cultivate a diet and routine that is correct for you at this moment in your life, it is essential to understand your doshas. By identifying your doshic composition, the science of Ayurveda can tell you exactly which foods are supportive and which ones aren’t.
Steps to Start to Follow a Yogic Diet
Now, I just dumped a load of information on you and I know it can seem a little overwhelming in the beginning.
In this section, I’m going to tell you exactly how to approach the yogic diet and start to make changes to your day-to-day routine.
Step 1) Audit your day-to-day life
Start to notice everything that you consume and the effect it has on your mind. This process is called swadhyaaya or self-study and it’s also a part of the practice of yoga.
Be aware of what you’re eating, who you’re spending time with, how you’re spending your time and your routine.
Start to identify things that don’t resonate with you. These are things that leave you feeling less than peaceful, relaxed and happy; they can be people, habits, foods, environments and really anything you encounter in your day-to-day life.
Notice when your mind becomes restless and identify what triggers this. What is it that the mind is making a fuss about? How can you change it?
Once you’ve identified the problem areas in your life, you can start to change them.
Awareness is key. If you know something is a problem and you’re not able to do anything about it, your awareness of the effect it has on your mind will help to keep you grounded anyways.
Step 2) Create a supportive routine
Following a yogic diet and focusing on spiritual growth require discipline. Your routine should be at the top of your mind when you think about discipline. (Psst! Discipline is also a part of yoga!)
The main things to focus on here are mealtimes and sleep hours.
Rest and consistent mealtimes help to keep your system in balance and maximize your energy levels. You can then use this energy in whatever pursuits you please.
Click here for more information on how to create a supportive routine that aligns with nature’s clock. This includes information about times of day when you’d have the most focus to plan, the most energy to work, the most endurance to exercise and so on and so forth. It’ll also help you choose the best times to sleep, wake up and eat.
Step 3) Do the dosha quiz
The dosha quiz is an online resource that can help you identify your composition.
It’s definitely not the same as seeing an Ayurvedic doctor, but it’s the next best thing. It’s online, it’s free and it’s right here.
The dosha quiz will tell you your Ayurvedic composition and any imbalances you might have.
From there, you’ll be able to work toward correcting your imbalances. Once they’ve been corrected, you can move on to step 4.
Step 4) Choose supportive foods
An Ayurvedic diet is a diet that is compatible with both a yogic diet and your composition. What your siblings, parents or children eat may not necessarily be compatible with your system. Once you’ve corrected any imbalances, following a supportive Ayurvedic diet will help you maintain the balance that you worked so hard to find.
It will also keep your digestion strong and your body and mind healthy.
Step 5) Study the gunas
Now, as I said, there’s a lot of information in this article to assimilate and make your own. Make it a process instead of a cold turkey switch.
Let the audit you did in Step 1 be a continuous audit.
The awareness that you’re cultivating will only get sharper the more you progress on this path. As you become more and more in tune with your body and mind, you’ll start to see that making changes in your life becomes easier and easier because you can see the fruits of these changes more clearly.
At some point, the things that you’re doing won’t just be arbitrary things that you do: they’ll become intuitive and you’ll start to see real, lasting impacts from the tiny changes you make to your life.
As you study the gunas more, you’ll develop an intuitive understanding of what’s good for you and what isn’t. This understanding will guide you going forward and you will naturally tend toward a yogic diet.
Step 6) Be a more mindful consumer
This goes without saying. Forget about a yogic diet and lifestyle for a moment, a healthy person wouldn’t want harmful chemicals in their body.
A vegetarian, mindful diet is the best way you can follow the principles of ahimsa and live by yogic standards in today’s times.
When budget and practicality make it possible, opt for more conscious products.
Step 7) Have fun with it!
Eating healthy is not a punishment!
Eating healthy is an opportunity to explore the diversity in the world and bring some of the most exotic tastes into your home.
Your favourite meals can be made with healthy alternatives and you’ll discover a whole lot of other foods that you’ll love. There are so many different options out there for you that everyday will feel like an adventure in its own respect.
Ultimately though, you aren’t living to eat; you’re eating to live and more often than not, simplicity is key.
Progress faster on the spiritual path
Being proactive on the path is the key to starting your spiritual awakening journey and progressing on the journey.
As you’re working through the 7 steps to implement a yogic diet listed above, it’s vital to have a spiritually grounded teacher that can motivate and reassure you that you’re moving in the right direction.
Most of the time, this reassurance isn’t verbal, it comes from a different level.
The practice of yoga is deeply spiritual and functions on all layers of your existence. In fact, yoga is transmitted, not taught.
Finding a teacher that is spiritually grounded will get the energy flowing and keep it flowing in the right direction.
Parm’s Yoga gently and non-invasively leads you through any blockages you’re experiencing so that you can move on with your life and focus on things that are important to you. Every session is taught intuitively without a script based on the needs of the day.
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Supplement your diet with Yoga, Breath Work and Meditation to Move Forward Powerfully on the Path
