The road to health is really about learning to pay attention to the subtle cues your body is always offering to you. The more attentive you become to your body's messages, the more you understand your body. And understanding helps you pivot to support your health.
Pain is your friend because your nervous system is your alert system. Don't shoot the messenger. Also, pain is a sign of vitality. As a person ages, they feel less pain. Only a dead thing can't feel pain.
Instead, try to understand the alert system of your body, and connect cause to effect. Over time, you will be able to act on these signs.
Don't run from pain. I've had clients who have received sudden, complete, and total relief from pain just from facing it and relaxing into the pain.
Ayurveda is a system of restoring balance in your body before there is a major problem, before you get really sick. To excel at Ayurveda, you have to understand how your body talks to you. Below you will find a dictionary of common feelings, sensations and pain types.
Resources for Body Awareness
Sensations
Start by noticing where you have physical sensations. If you don't feel anything, check your head, heart, gut, and skin. Then, notice the type of sensation. Physical sensations generally include the following:
- Temperature: Hot / Cold
- Pain: Sharp / Dull / Burning / Scraping / Itching / Tingling / Numbness
- Pressure: Fullness / Emptiness
- Vitality: Heaviness / Lightness
- Tension: Tense / Constricted / Relaxed / Cramping
- Texture: Slimy / Smooth / Rough
- Movement: Pulsation / Throbbing / Gurgling
Once you become aware of these physical sensations, notice your reaction to them. Are you averse to the feeling, or do you crave it?
Try to connect physical sensations in your body to emotions you are having. Does it make you feel afraid or confident? Does it make you feel happy, embarrassed, angry, or depressed? Your skill in translating emotions into felt senses is key to discovering the subtle imbalances happening in your body and learning how to maintain balance.
Biocharacteristics
| Heavy | Light |
| Dull | Sharp |
| Cold | Hot |
| Oily | Dry |
| Slimy | Rough |
| Thick | Thin |
| Soft | Hard |
| Stable | Mobile |
| Gross | Subtle |
| Cloudy | Clear |
Feelings may be hard to talk about, hard to describe. Use biocharacteristics (
gunas) to help you fully articulate & grasp the feeling. This is simpler than it sounds - just try it! Is the feeling heavy or light, hot or cold, oily or dry?
Pain Types
- Sharp / Knife-like - Usually from cramping, colic or spasm
- Dull - Swelling, distension, pressure, obstruction, and cramps
- Raw / Acute - From tearing, ripping, breaking, rupture
- Burning / Scraping - From irritation, topical injury
- Itching - Low grade pain
- Tingling / Numbness - Poor circulation
More on Pain
Sensations by Organ
Here are some sensations you might notice as you explore the impact of a particular food on your body:
- Effects on Tongue
- Taste: Sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent
- Temperature: hot, cold
- Texture: scratchy, rough, smooth, slimy
- Irritation, swellings, bumps, lumps
- Effects on Focus, Attention, and Concentration
- Sharp, focused, alert
- Dull, heavy
- Meandering, scatterbrained, distracted
- Light headed, spacey
- Headache, throbbing
- Effects on Emotions
- Angry, irritable
- Sad, depressed
- Anxious, fearful
- Excited, joyful
- Greedy, attached
- Effects and Sensations of Nerves
- Shaky, nervous, tremors
- Hyper-sensitive, hyper-active
- Tired, dull, exhausted
- Grounded, calm, content, relaxed
- Effects on Heart
- Racing heart
- Palpitations, arrhythmia
- Pressure in chest area
- Breathing: easy, difficult
- Pulse: steady, strong, racing, dull
- Effects on Fluids
- Eyes: watery, dry
- Dry mouth and tongue, excess saliva
- Saliva: thick, rough
- Thirst
- Throat: Mucus, heat
- Runny nose: Thick or thin fluids
- Urine output: increased, decreased
- Changes in color of urine
- Effects and Sensations of the Skin
- Color and complexion: rosy cheeks, rash, hives
- Moisture: Sweat, oily, dry
- Itchiness
- Skin temperature: flushed, cold
- Sensations of the Hands, Feet
- Solar Plexus
- Colon
- Sinus
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