Food For the Soul By Nicole Petroff
If you ask different yoga teachers/masters what the yoga diet consists of, you would probably get different answers, just as there are different ways of doing postures and different opinions of what is considered to be a branch or style of yoga. In my research I had found that the following about the yoga diet is pretty consistent.
The yoga diet doesn’t just consist of food that is ingested through our digested system. What is adsorbed through all of the senses is also food to the soul, mind and body. What someone pays attention to through the senses can affect someone’s yoga practice, mind, emotions, and physical health. What we read, watch, listen too, and who we associate with all has a certain energy associated with it. That energy can either intensify the veil/ego keeping you stuck in the matrix or help to lift and release veil/ego so enlightenment can occur.
Observation of self while practicing the yoga diet can help with bringing peace of mind, self realization, liberation and enlightenment as part of your yoga practice. Once you start practicing, it becomes easier to notice the subtlest differences in what you bring in through the senses and how it affects your mind, emotions and physical health. Then the yoga practice and diet stops being ancient philosophy and becomes a lifestyle.
In Yoga philosophy, all matter in the universe arises from the fundamental substrate called Prakriti. From this ethereal Prakriti the three primary gunas (qualities) emerge creating the essential aspects of all nature—energy, matter and consciousness. These three gunas are tamas, rajas and sattva. All three gunas are always present in all beings and objects surrounding us but vary in their relative amounts. We have the ability to consciously alter the levels of the gunas in our bodies and minds. The gunas cannot be separated or removed in oneself, but can be consciously acted upon to encourage their increase or decrease. A guna can be increased or decreased through the interaction and influence of external objects, lifestyle practices and thoughts. (Timothy Burgin)
Diet is a very important part of the yoga practice. The mind is said to be formed from the subtlest portion of food. If the food is impure, rotting, spoiled the mind also is impure in its workings and takes away from the goal of yoga.
Tamas is a state of darkness, inactivity, lethargic and materiality. Tamas manifests from ignorance and deludes all beings from their spiritual truths. To reduce tamas avoid tamasic foods, over sleeping, over eating, inactivity, passivity and fearful situations. Tamasic foods include heavy meats, and foods that are spoiled, chemically treated, processed or refined foods alcohol, meat, eggs, preservatives.
Rajas is a state of energy, action, change and movement and over stimulation of the nervous system. The nature of rajas is of attraction, longing and attachment and rajas strongly binds us to the fruits of our work. To reduce rajas avoid rajasic foods, over exercising, over work, loud music, excessive thinking and consuming excessive material goods. Rajasic foods include fried foods, overly spicy foods, onions, garlic, and stimulants such as caffeine and drugs.
Sattva is a state of harmony, balance, joy and intelligence. Sattva is the guna that people who practice yoga achive towards as it reduces rajas and tamas and thus makes liberation possible. To increase sattva reduce both rajas and tamas, eat sattvic foods and enjoy activities and environments that produce joy and positive thoughts. Foods that have been processed, refining and overcooking destroy much food nutrients and should be avoided. Sattvic foods include whole grains, legumes, beans, and fresh fruits and vegetables (organic if possible) will better supply the nutritional needs and maintain health, and peace of mind.
Dairy is not really mentioned in the yoga diet and is debated among the yoga community. Some research suggests that avoiding or reduce dairy products is better for digestive system, sinuses, lymphatic system. We are the only species on the planet that ingests another species milk, and may be considered unnatural. Every other species uses mom’s milk to a certain age. I find that it’s a personal preference and avoiding it is really good for some but doesn’t matter for others. It doesn’t hurt to try substituting dairy with soy, almond, or rice milk products to see if health improves while eating more Sattva.
When we do eat it’s important that we eat mindfully to get the most out of the food that we are eating and the mind and body can focus on digestion.
Tips on eating mindfully:
Enjoy your meals.
Eat in clean, pleasant surroundings.
Don’t be doing other tasks while you are eating.
Create an attitude of tranquility immediately before and during a meal
Pay attention to eating when we are eating
Chew each mouthful of food thoroughly, Eat slowly
Do not take more than what we need. Make sure there is enough for everyone.
Never stuff yourself
Remember those in the world who don’t have enough to eat
The mind’s psychological qualities are highly unstable and can quickly fluxuate between the different gunas. The predominate guna of the mind acts as a lens that effects our perceptions and perspective of the world around us. Thus, if the mind is in rajas it will experience world events as chaotic, confusing and demanding and it will react to these events in a rajasic way. (Timothy Burgin)
All gunas create attachment and thus bind one’s self to the ego. “When one rises above the three gunas that originate in the body; one is freed from birth, old age, disease, and death; and attains enlightenment” (Bhagavad Gita 14.20).
While we reach to strive sattva, in our lives the ultimate goal is to transcend their misidentification of the self with the gunas and to be unattached to both the good and the bad, the positive and negative qualities of all life.
Namaste!
Love Yogini Nicole Petroff
