Intro to Ayurveda (for chronic illness, psych drug withdrawal, TD)

Intro to Ayurveda (for chronic illness, psych drug withdrawal, TD) ~~ I wrote this for a Tardive Dyskinesia group I’m part of. I’m sharing it here with a few edits as anyone interested in learning about Ayurveda might find it helpful. Those with chronic illness, lyme etc. or psych drug withdrawal illness too.

Ayurveda is the traditional Hindu system of medicine, which is based on the idea of balance in bodily systems.

Since one of the members of our group has had great success with Ayurveda for her TD and I have had it in terms of the multiple chronic illnesses I have dealt with I thought I’d share some of how I learned about it. I have gone to practitioners but, Ayurveda, at foundation, is about learning to listen to your body and know how to feed it, move it, rest it and take care of it as needed. That is always our job in the end.

I never found a practitioner who could deal with my extreme and multiple issues either. I’m also Italian American, not Indian. As a first generation Italian American I was very much in touch with my own ancestral diet and so I adapted the rules when it made sense for cultural (and physical DNA) reasons.

Since, I couldn’t leave my house for 5 years as I was bedridden, I started these practices on my own at home in my bed. I am no longer bedridden or nonverbal.

I still have tardive dyskinesia and I still love Ayurveda with a profound gratefulness as it helped me be in touch with my body. This is good stuff for anyone in life at anytime.

If you’d like to read about Ayurveda, this is a list of 80 top sites.

I suggest learning about the doshas (body types with suggestions for most appropriate foods etc … we all have all the doshas in us so it’s not about cutting out your favorite foods…it’s about learning how to eat what you like in balance with everything else).

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Learning how to oil pull is really good for our sore mouths (just search oil pulling on any of these sites). Any kind of oil can be used! Experiment. They all have different properties.

Dry skin brushing is great before bathing (shower or bath) and self-massage with oils is a deeply nuturing and astonishingly medicinal loving thing to do to our own bodies. There are a lot of recommendations for mouth and dental care too, and again, for us this can be very helpful. It’s important to start slowly and carefully as when we are very sensitive these practices can be too much. They cause lymphatic movement and if our lymph is seriously overworked as it often is when we are ill this can be too much.

I learned all this over a period of years and it’s impacted the way I live my life in every way. There are many other healthy and wonderful practices worth looking into. I don’t want to overwhelm.

If you’re like me and have a hard time finding practitioners because of where you live or because you can’t afford it I just want to encourage you because there is so much we can learn about it right at home and go at our own pace as we learn.

I, over the years, have become a bit of an herbalist in my own right, by necessity, but don’t worry about jumping into too much. I have lyme disease and had to learn about many intensely medicinal herbs given I haven’t tolerated pharmaceuticals for many years. So I borrowed from many traditions while Ayurveda has always been my foundation.

When we learn about Ayurveda it’s about deep lifestyle changes and so they take time. Patience is important and trusting your own process is even move important. Do what feels right for you and don’t worry about anything else.

Yoga and movement is also part of Ayurveda. I practiced yoga while bedridden!!

People don’t really understand that yoga is about meeting the body. It’s not about being uber fit and limber. Yoga got me out of bed!! I practice yoga everyday even when I can barely move. Soft gentle stretching will keep our bodies fit enough to keep on going until we hit that better day. There is quite a lot of yoga on youtube and some of it is very gentle. If you can’t do something just don’t. Search for gentle yoga, restorative yoga and yin yoga if you’re in a lot of pain or can’t move much. I sometimes think about starting a channel called “yoga for the damaged nervous system,” because most of the yoga on youtube is simply overwhelming to those of us who are very sick. (I have lots of YOGA POSTS on this site)

on Youtube I like Yoga with Adrienne but right now I can’t keep up with most of what she teaches. She is gentle and sweet though. I lay on the mat and do what I can. There really isn’t anything for extremely disabled people. I’ve learned to do my own thing most of the time. My own practice in the home and throughout the day as I need it. I do love doing classes when I can.

Most of my yoga happens off the mat. See: healing is living ritual

I do it wherever I am…it improves blood flow and circulation. You might search Chair Yoga on youtube if you’re just starting…that’s a good way to start learning how to do it on the fly.

I send love to all of us on this incredibly difficulet path we find ourselves on.

more on Tardive Dyskinesia

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