Kevin Hart and Ayurveda

I just finished reading The Decision by Kevin Hart - what a great book! His main focus is on what he calls ‘mental toughness’ and this mental toughness is a lot of what ayurveda is about. My teacher once told me that 80% of diseases start in the brain. She meant stress. According to Ayurveda, anything that leaves you feeling at unease for long periods of time will accumulate in your system, whether it be in your mental, emotional or physical system and will create an issue. Unprocessed energy ( and by that I mean any feelings, thoughts or emotions that have not been fully felt and/or dealt with) will remain repressed in your systems and cause weakness and disease in the system that is being affected. Over time, if these issues are not dealt with, the systems overload and chronic issues arise. Genetics and environmental factors also play a role in creating disease however right now, we’re talking about something you can learn to manage - stress.

For me, stress really boils down to the question of relating. How am I relating to myself at this moment? This requires effort, especially if you’re not used to it, but ultimately, taking the time to learn to pause to ask yourself this question, will help you identify when you are stressed and give you clues as to what you need to do about it. Sometimes you can feel something off in your body first. Like your throat gets constricted, or your chest gets tight or you feel a push in your stomach. You can pause then and ask yourself the same question. How am I relating to this moment? Am I scared, pissed off, annoyed, agitated? Are my thoughts racing? Am I having a silent argument in my head with my partner? Am I obsessing or are my thoughts fixated on 

After you have identified how you are relating to yourself, you may want to pause, breathe and ask yourself how you want to process this stress. It could look like anything from ‘talking yourself down’ with rational thoughts or counter arguments that you know are more likely to be true, or walking away for a moment and letting yourself cry and feel the grief and pain while putting a hand to your heart and telling yourself ‘i got you’, or journaling, or breathing, or meditating or even just surrendering to the moment and letting go - or any way that you can let out what is stressing you out (without taking it out on someone else or ruminating on thoughts, or trying to control the situation). There are many many tools and you’ll probably need more than one because we are complex beings with complex thoughts, feelings and emotions. 

A couple of things that can also help are some things Kevin Hart mentioned in his book. 

1. Get to know yourself. Start looking for deeper patterns on how to relate to yourself when you are triggered. And do this by observing yourself without judgment. The more you know about yourself the more power you have to create ease for yourself. 

2. Try Kevin’s 30 day challenge! See if you can not complain for one month. It’s not easy and you cannot always control your thoughts but you can try to control what you say out loud. This experiment will help you observe and decide on what and how you want to cultivate your environment. It will lighten the load for your brain to process stress. 

Most importantly, try your best but don’t stress!

M.P.

(Skylit Ayurveda team)