Ayurveda & Gratitude
In the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda, gratitude is not merely an emotion—it is a powerful medicine for both body and soul. Like the morning sun that brings balance to the three doshas, gratitude illuminates our internal landscape and harmonizes our being.
Through the Ayurvedic lens, cultivating gratitude is as essential as selecting healing herbs or following one’s dinacharya (daily routine). It is a practice that brings us closer to our natural state of balance, where health flows freely and joy arises spontaneously, like a lotus blooming in clear waters.
The Health Benefits of Gratitude
It is easy to become hyper-focused on how things go wrong and the ailments that befall our society. But the truth is, we have much to be thankful for. Many people practice gratitude not just because they’re trying to stay positive amid chaos, but because a daily gratitude practice is absolutely essential to a healing and wellbeing journey.
Consider the practice of eating mindfully. Before each meal, taking a moment to express gratitude activates our parasympathetic nervous system—what Ayurveda recognized thousands of years ago as the body’s natural healing state. This pause enhances digestion, or agni, allowing us to extract not just physical nutrition, but also the subtle essence, or prana, from our food.
Of course, remembering gratitude everyday can be difficult. Over time, however, it becomes easier, and even innate, leading to greater immunity, happiness, pain relief and general wellbeing. A recent study from the University of California San Diego’s School of Medicine found that people who were more grateful had better heart health, specifically less inflammation and healthier heart rhythms. The list of health and wellbeing benefits of adopting a fairly simple daily gratitude practice goes on and on: better sleep, lower blood pressure, less appetite, less anxiety and depression, recovery from addiction, greater focus, better decision-making ability, etc…
Why Gratitude is so Hard
The brain is evolutionarily wired for negativity. There are few people who don’t have the natural human trait of “fight or flight” – often perceiving threat or discord and seeking, by any means, to avoid it or fight back. It is a characteristic that lives deep in our cellular structures and dates back to hunter-gatherer times when we always had to be on the lookout for the next threat. This primal instinct often serves as a default, especially if we don’t train our brain or receive the environmental nourishment that allows us to think differently.
One of the reasons many people enter an anxious state is because their brain, which believes it has lost control, tries harder to control a situation just by worrying or getting upset about it. Ninety percent of your long-term happiness is predicted by the way your brain processes the world – only ten percent is predicted by your external circumstances (job, money, stuff, etc.).
Our brains, in fact, can become so addicted to negativity, fear and anxiety that we can’t function without them – primal instinct seeking protection and control just to make it through the day. We probably don’t have to tell you the health risks of functioning in this state for a prolonged period of time.
Adopting a Gratitude Practice
When we awaken with thankfulness, we align with the rhythms of nature. Just as the earth freely gives its bounty, and the rivers flow without expectation, our hearts too can overflow with appreciation for life’s simple gifts. This state of thankfulness, according to Ayurvedic principles, helps balance Vata’s restlessness, soothes Pitta’s intensity, and lifts Kapha’s heaviness.
Feeling gratitude deep within your mind, body and soul requires practice – genuine practice. If you know you are likely to face many external influences of negativity throughout the day, it is best to start your day with gratitude. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, make a list of three things you are grateful for – and if you can only think of one, write down one and try for three the next day. If you can’t think of any, try again later in the day or before you go to bed. Repeat this practice everyday for a month. If you don’t start to notice a shift after 30 days, ask yourself if you’re just “going through the motions” or if you are genuinely practicing gratitude for the things or people in your life.
Similarly, in the evening, as the sun sets and we reflect on our day, gratitude becomes a cleansing practice. Like the gentle application of warm oil in abhyanga, thankfulness soothes our nervous system and prepares us for restful sleep. We release the day’s tensions and remember that even challenges are teachers, helping us grow stronger and wiser.
Life can give us plenty of reasons to be ungrateful. But, everyday, we can begin again:
~ I am grateful for this sunrise.
~ I am grateful for a difficult path that gave my life more meaning.
~ I am grateful for loves lost so I can find another one.
~ I am grateful for learning more about my body and how it functions through injury and disease so I can heal.
And, when we need to grieve, we grieve. Gratitude isn’t about putting on rose-colored glasses. It’s living with reality as it is, finding the beauty amid the storm, and sometimes just sitting in the middle of it all.
Just as Ayurveda teaches us to listen to the wisdom of our bodies, gratitude teaches us to hear the whispers of our hearts. In this union of ancient science and timeless virtue, we find a path to wholeness that nourishes us on every level of existence.
Required Disclosure: The information contained within this article is for educational purposes only and should not replace the direct advice of a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional. Always consult a medical or other professional healthcare provider when considering a new health regime.
