Vata Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Consistent Ways for The Inconsistent Vata

Consistent is the balance needed for a Vata whose middle name is “irregular” and “variety.” The balancing remedy is routine.

Oat Pear Crumble dish with Vata happy balancing cinnamon and oranges! Recipe below. 🧡

Today I share some better ways to get consistent so you’re in mind-body alignment. And if you’re in a season where you’re not in alignment (or have never been), you’ll have a hard time with the “A” word because you’re not there yet. But you can make that a mantra to get aligned!

And being in balance helps us get there …This time I’m focusing on Vatas, where every month looks different, like moon periods…

And every day of the month is inconsistent in some way… on top of the world around us is changing. The good news for all of us is, like plants, we’re growing just a bit daily. 🌱

And Vata patterns change more often than Pittas and Kaphas, even though those could be secondary dials that can ratcheted up.

For a Vata looking closely at her life, you’ll see how this affects your sleep, food, and play minute-by-minute… even what you reviewed in your productive time last time looks different.

And even though nothing about the work has changed. Because your last name is “change.”

Like the wind, Vatas by nature is changing all-the-time. Vata bodies don’t withstand temperature swings well… more like orchids than enduring palm trees.

So to balance and restore, doing the opposite helps. You want to be consistent and stay on task instead of letting the mind run you by sending a list of things you need to do this minute that aren’t urgent.

If you look at a tipping scale, the way to balance it is to add some weight to the opposite side. …makes sense, right? ⚖️

And if you’re feeling like you can’t sit still, or are going from task to task more than usual, you could be heavy on the Vata. And some daily tweaks could help you restore back to your usual ways pretty quickly.

For any of us, it doesn’t take much to get off balance in our Vata, Pitta, or Kapha.

For Vata, these are the balancing tricks you can help to tip the scales back to equilibrium:

1.Consistent sleep – just like you’ve been told is a good idea, keep the same schedule as much as possible. Even if you go to bed late, try to get up at the same AM time you normally do. You want to take advantage of circadian rhythms.

If you sleep in because your body has been tired for a season, you’ll be even more tired once your body gets a sleep dose. It’s part of the process of our bodies trying to restore balance.

Our one-and-only bodies send obvious signs and blaring warnings that we can still miss in our busy modern lives full of external noise. Alarms and coffee only go so far to help us awaken.

And while 8 hours of sleep is healthy and on average what most of us need, if you’ve had enough sleep, that’s all you need.

Worrying the Vata head is worse than not getting enough sleep in the mind-body connection, because then you add silent stress to your body. With a lack of sleep, your body will let you know by your tiredness, and other new symptoms over time.

Your body knows what it needs to reset and we’re not in charge of that. And if it’s running efficiently and you’ve been good to it by not overdoing yourself, then you may only need a few hours of sleep one night to be recharged.

The recommended 8 hours is just an average and works neatly for 1/3 of our 24-hour day.

But even if you have a perfect sleep record streak from measuring your sleep… at the end of the day, that just says you’re off to a good start with your daily health. It doesn’t indicate much else.

It’s more what you don’t do in sleep that shouldn’t be ignored. Any daily health telltale signs show up on the body and should be attended to quickly so they don’t become a new normal.

And getting the right dosage of sleep amount is individual as we all have different symptoms and bodies.

So… In short balance, the goal for each of us in sleep is getting enough. 💤

2.Consistent eating – and having regular eating patterns is good. I shared how time-restricted eating (or Intermittent Fasting) could help set a discipline, like it does with me for snacking and late-night eating.

And one thing I would steer more into the Vata ways is variety and diversity in healthy foods. Pittas and Kaphas tend to stick more to the same foods.

Different healthy foods offer different nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, and amounts. It’s also good to have macros: lean protein, healthy carbs, and healthy fats in the diet.

Muscle gradually declines as we age so we need more protein. Healthy carbs give us bursts of energy and keep us full enough while junk carbs rob us. And healthy fats help the body absorb foods and fat-soluble vitamins better this way.

3.Consistent Practices and Activities – keep you calm as you do your daily routines you enjoy.

That can include exercise, your craft, quiet time, reading, etc.

When you’re tired, try to plow through those moods and do at least a little bit of your routine or practice. This will teach you to keep at it, which helps with balancing inconsistency. And you’ll be working on a skill you can use the rest of your life.

And if you need ideas, you can find outlets like this one here that gives life advice on pillows:

LIFE IS GOOD…

And keeping it good is part of the balance. Because we all run into situations we’d rather not at some point. It can’t be all sunshine and roses (as part of the balance). 🥀

4.Consistent Behaviors with Other Influences

It’s important to stay consistent even when we don’t live in a bubble. We interact with people and society.

And you do this in work and life where you can get tested.

I’ve had many experiences starting something new with new people involved that can be a bit stressful… and sometimes throw the balance off. I’m sure you can relate.

And to make those times easier, what I do is I stick to my gut thoughts, feelings, and boundaries. It’s smart not to react as the air shifts around you and in you.

I know not everyone has offenders in their lives (living in a bubble, haha!)…

But kidding aside, in daily life, some people have no idea how they come across to others (in lack of self-awareness). And sadly, others knowing better let their bad sides run, trying to work (play) the systems. You just happen to be someone muddled in their system.

That’s just how it is in this imperfect life where we only control and manage ourselves.

…And that should be enough to keep us all busy!

We all come from different backgrounds. Sticking to our own values and not compromising is going to do you and the world a world of good (say that 10 tongue twister 10 times 😊).

You teach people how to treat you and how to behave toward others.

I know it’s not easy.

But always remember: your life is not a dress rehearsal. You will never get this year or today back.

And you don’t want to live in your own regrets if you need a motivator.

Usually, the people who want to test your buttons are the ones who aren’t doing the right things to begin with… and they’re not the ones that you want to follow anyway.

So with the troublemakers who aren’t considerate and are annoyingly kicking up your Pitta, initially it could seem like a good idea to follow along their ways or at least not create waves. But wise not to fall into this temptation.

…But the innocent often fall and don’t follow the good rules. They cave into the squeaky grease and play along on their blind path game that leads to nowhere.

And innocently that’s ’cause they don’t want to cause friction with themselves or other people. But you teach people how to treat you today and in the future.

If you let others step on you, then expect more of that when you allow it once. That’s how it is with children, and some adults haven’t grown up yet or figured out their ego sides.

And last tip on that note: never, never ever reward bad behavior unless you want more of the same behavior.

To be a productive leader, you want to create and forge your own path. Be considerate but stop caring so much. And think for yourself. You’ll be glad you did at the end of whatever you’re facing.

And be consistent where you tell your heavy anxious Vata mind to stop worrying about what will or won’t happen.

Because what will happen is you’ll get respected by the people you respect, and get to do more of what you want (and work with the people you want to work with).

And you’ll get to build the consistent, work-life balance that you really want!

Next time I’ll follow up with the 2^nd part of the self-awareness series I started a few weeks ago that you won’t want to miss! 🧡

Pear Granola Crumble

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

dry oats
pear
honey
cinnamon to liking
light EVOO

Instructions

Add your layer of oats. And drizzle honey ontop and a drizzle of light olive oil so you get the toasty granola effect.
Add your cut pear slices. Add cinnamon as a divine flavor pairing.
Add another layer of oats and more cinnamon to liking.
Bake until toasted.
For healthy Vata balancing, add orange slices or zest and additional Ceylon cinnamon.

Intuitive Eating Vata + RD Recommends

Intuitive eating can be a reframing way to develop a healthy relationship with food and greater food appreciation.

Intuitive eating is mindful eating thta can open up personal tastes to more healthy food variety that helps our bodies.

When your body is running well, intuitive eating can be a sustainable non-diet approach. 🧡 It can be more automatic than programmed into our day. We don’t need to count calories and other nutrition data content.

As daily eating routines, you listen to what your body wants and needs. This is where intuitive eating and Ayurveda meet. Ayurveda is body and mind listening for balancing and learning what your body is telling you by its wants. You can discover more about this with a body balance quiz you can take to get results.

In healthy terms, Ayurveda is more specific in what works for each type of imbalance, whereas intuitive eating is a general description for eating with when and what feels natural and healthy.

That would include a diet balanced with proteins, healthy fats, and good carbs (both veggies and minimally processed grains and starches).

Below, I share some valuable nuggets from a Vata (body) perspective who doesn’t need to lose weight… along with some RD thought weigh-ins.

For most of us as we age, we need more proteins that help build muscle. If you’re a natural Vata especially, you need more filling foods that give you the most energy like proteins with amino acid building blocks.

Intuitive eating refocuses our attention on what our bodies are telling us, rather than hard and fast, food “rules” that are imposed on us from diet culture and other external forces.

Vatas tend to get hungry easily (and can lose weight even faster), and we’re more likely to get close to the 23 servings per day Food Pyramid diet than the other body types, just to feel full.

Food is fuel and as a Vata example, realized I wasn’t getting enough proteins… because I wanted to tone muscles and despite doing the same toning exercises I couldn’t make a dent. That’s normal after age 40.

So the change I made is trying to get 50 grams of protein in per day. I work in the yogurt, seafood, legumes, nuts… and eggs that have a smidgeon of protein. Like an appetizer plate of shrimp doesn’t hurt 🍤

Many of us Vata bodies are lean (or have a small frame) and need to eat more, not less… and more often. For many Kapha metabolisms, that would not work well.

In either body types, it’s easier to get daily full-satisfied with proteins. Where a Vata can easily gravitate toward comfort starchy carbs that’ll help satiate hunger, while a Kapha body could lean into veggie carbs.

Vatas can also get a skinny-fat build if eating too many sweets (that’s a natural Vata body trait) or processed foods, and if they don’t work on moving and exercising like everyone else.

And while this is the profile of a typical Vata, whatever body type you have, you want to figure out what works for you.

Protein and plant-based are a good combination for most people. With most healthy eating habits, healthy intuitive eating is about getting enough good healthy foods in the diet.

While I do like some food rules, the RDs I collaborate with who promote intuitive eating, describe it as a way to make peace with food and prioritize your physical and mental wellbeing.

So, it’s intuitive eating is like another piece of the puzzle for heathy eating.

“It’s a way to get back in tune with your body and refocus your mind away from “food rules” that can be good for certain people.”

Intuitive eating de-prioritizes weight as a primary measure of health, while inviting you to eat the foods you want when you’re hungry—and to stop eating when you feel full.

Eating intuitively means being curious about what and why you want to eat something, and then enjoying it without judgment.

It’s about trusting your body’s wisdom without external influences. When you have a healthy body, it’s a reliable way to see what’s missing in a diet.

These were the original 10 Intuitive Eating principles that Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch (practicing registered dieticians) came up with decades ago:

Reject The Diet Mentality

Ditch diets that give the false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. You are not a failure for every time a diet stopped working and you gained the weight back. Until you break free from the hope that there’s a new diet around the corner, you cannot fully embrace intuitive eating.

Honor your hunger

Your body needs adequate energy and nutrition. Keep yourself fed to prevent excessive hunger. By honoring the first signal of hunger you can start rebuilding trust in yourself and food.

Make peace with food

Stop fighting with food and give yourself unconditional permission to eat. Stop fostering intense feelings of deprivation by denying yourself a particular food, as these can lead to cravings and bingeing. You don’t want your “giving in” to lead to overwhelming guilt.

Challenge the food police

Confront the thoughts that you as a person are “good” or “bad” based on what and how much you eat. Diet culture has created unreasonable rules. The food police are the negative, hopeless, or guilty thoughts you can chase away.

Discover the satisfaction factor

Pleasure and satisfaction are some of the basic gifts of existence. By allowing yourself to feel these when you eat, you can enjoy feeling content and fulfilled. When you do this, you will be able to identify the feeling of “enoughness.”

Feel your fullness

Trust that you will give yourself the foods you desire. Pause in the middle of eating and ask how the food tastes. Listen for the signals that you’re not hungry anymore. Respect when you become comfortably full.

Cope with your emotions with kindness

Restricting food can trigger a loss of control and feel like emotional eating. Be kind to yourself. Comfort and nurture yourself. Everyone feels anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger. Food won’t fix these feelings—it’s just a short-term distraction. Ultimately, you have to deal with the uncomfortable emotions.

Respect your body

Everyone is genetically unique, whether it’s shoe size or body size. Respecting your body will help you feel better about who you are. Being unrealistic or overly critical of your shape or size makes it hard to reject the diet mentality.

Movement—feel the difference

Feel the difference activity makes. Not militant or calorie-burning exercise, but simply moving your body. Focus on how energized it makes you feel.

Honor your health—gentle nutrition

Choose foods that honor your tastebuds and health. Don’t focus on eating perfectly. One snack, meal, or day of eating won’t suddenly make you unhealthy or deficient in nutrients. Look at how you eat over time. Choose progress, not perfection.

The science behind intuitive eating

Studies show that people who eat intuitively tend to also have lower body mass index (BMI) and higher levels of body appreciation and mental health.

They are also associated with lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and inflammation.

A review of eight studies compared “health, not weight loss” eating styles with conventional weight-loss diets. While they found no significant differences in heart disease risk factors between the two types of diets, they did find that body satisfaction and eating behavior improved more for people in the “health, not weight loss” groups.

Another review of 24 studies of female college students showed that those who eat intuitively experience less disordered eating, have a more positive body image, and greater emotional functioning.

Overall, there is a growing amount of research that shows the benefits of intuitive eating for both physical and mental health.

The non-diet approach of intuitive eating fits within the concept that there can be health at every body size.

It’s good to come up with your own sustainable healthy habits so you’ll stick with them, finding the foods that satisfy you and your body.

Removing the “good” or “bad” labels on food and ditching the guilt or pride about eating a certain way is at the heart center of peaceful eating.

Taking care of our bodies and embracing what we enjoy eating as balance are healthy ways to live.

Vata Body Mind Type: Is This Your Natural Way?

Vata body mind is a way to define a body and mind type. As a Vata, I know most of us are naturally thin and have worry tendencies.

Are you a Vata?

If so, this article post is all about you. And if you don’t know what a Vata is, you can discover more below.

You have several identities in this world. I’ll share a few of mine…

Some are fun. You know those personality tests you can take (to learn about yourself and your friends).

Well… in the self-taking Enneagram test, I’m most closely a 7. We’re the happy enthusiasts. …Hoo-ray!

Maybe that’s why I created this place for others to glean off of my happy aura 😊.

By the way, all the Enneagram types 1-9 are great (you’re still a complex individual and have potential traces of all the types). If you’re not familiar, Enneagrams are based on your general life motivations.

Any one enneagram type is not better than another, but I like to cheer mine on (and be happy for the happy type). As an Enneagram 7, we’re known to be the optimistic and positive people in this world.

This makes sense because I naturally gravitate without hesitation towards life’s pleasures enjoying beauty, fashion and gourmet foods.

…Which makes people that know me wonder, how I can be so deeply spiritual? I think of this combination as my superpower… being in this world, but not entirely of this world.

On the outside, like all of us, I’m just a person having a daily spiritual journey.

I found better answers inside from life’s challenges and life’s non-answers. In other words, in the silence.

I was actually born 90% Vata. “A who?”, you may ask if this is new to you.

That’s right, I identify as the Vata body-mind type in Ayurveda.

There are 3 types: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. We all possess traces in varying degrees of each of these types and any of us can get off balance (irritated, anxious, lethargic, etc.) from these types.

Today I’m just focusing on the Vata type…

As a Vata, most of us are naturally thin or slender. A Vata can eat and eat and eat, and gain little weight.

There are people you hate or envy because of this (not really… but you get my drift). On the flipside, Vatas have thin bones and usually a more sensitive body.

We can take a warm bath and still feel cold especially in the winter.

Each body type has special features.

Another for Vata is, we epitomize the saying, “cold hands, warm heart.”

Our skin and hair stay on the naturally dry side. We use deep moisturizers and conditioners. And adult eczema can arise that’s manageable.

Outside of appearances, the Vata body-mind type naturally holds onto worry and anxiety. An area that I did not care to hold onto so I learned to transform.

In pure Vata fashion, we naturally bounce from task to task (sometimes too much), as multi-taskers are our middle names. We also prefer variety as the spice of life.

We have or like more than one type of any product or food type.

Based on all these descriptions above, I’m 100% Vata.

You learn in life though, you adapt to situations and can balance or counterbalance any natural body type, especially with all the resources and great products we have in the world at our fingertips.

So why am I sharing all of this?…

Because I believe you have a choice to make changes in your life for the better.

I wanted to get up 10 times while writing this, but I forced myself to stay put. I also wanted to wonder what you would think reading this. I chose to not worry about anything that’s not helpful, and just be productive despite natural tendencies because I learned the better way.

But I still care about feelings and how I come across with thin skin, that I learned to toughen up over the years and through life’s situations.

There’s a part of me that still wants to be the reserved person who doesn’t want to share who she is, but I put myself out there anyway as I know I can help others.

I challenge myself to be fearless. Because I know that there’s no personal growth without bringing light to weaknesses, and places I’d rather suppress.

Then I see dynamic people in this world and I couldn’t even begin to do the things they do in their physical abilities and skills.

And I naturally want to believe they are happy.

But they’re not, inside. And despite all they have.

They weren’t wired that way. But I was.

They live on what they know and their comforts. That’s not better or worse, it just is.

They have a choice to change parts of their lives if they choose.

As we all have choices relative to our lives and opportunities.

As long as we support one another as humans, and don’t judge one another, we can learn from each other and grow.

And that can be the greater world we are becoming in collaboration efforts.

If you’re a Vata (or think you’re one from my description above), high five and a big hug to you. I get you.

We naturally have anxious tendencies that can show up in the form of overwhelming feelings, heart palpitations, or nervous butterflies in the stomach.

You don’t have to live that way, as a regular way of being based on your thoughts and situations you can’t control.

I know this from my own learned past experiences.

Without anxiety awareness, you’re putting on a band-aid to calm the symptoms.

Breathing deeply and drinking plenty of water are super important habits to help soothe anxiety.

If you think you have anxiety in your life, confirm with this quiz, and get quick restoring tips and ongoing healthy and happy life balancing tip advice.

You too can change what’s not fully working. (Let it be easy… why live another day not being or feeling like your whole self?).

We live in an evolving world that changes whether we want it to or not.

…And there are lots going on.

But, I believe each of us can get ahead of anxiety and learn to manage and prevent anxiety in a healthy way.

Each situation is a teacher and a chance to find a remedy.

The statistics show our depressed society is growing.

Most women in America and maybe the world, don’t currently do or take the time to learn how to live healthy and happy in life’s busyness, despite all the resources available.

And, that’s where I hope I can shed light with my positivity, encouraging vibes, and sharing self-transformation lessons to help in this cause.

I encourage (and challenge you) to be your change for your life’s happiness.

You can learn all about the Vata, Pitta, and Kapha in this in-depth balancing mind-body article which btw, as an example I’m dominant in Pitta mind (in addition to a Vata mind) to add fuel to the fire.

And very likely, you have more than one dominant mind type. That’s what makes each of us complex, unique, and alike in this life. It’s as simple and complicated as that. 😊