After a month of daily writing on my very first novel that I actually plan to finish, I am now taking it easy again. I decided to turn towards a bigger focus on health(y living), once again.
A couple of days ago, I got into researching Ayurveda ( traditional Indian medicine ) and in those days, I have learnt a lot. Some things I had already picked up, thanks to earlier health routes ( both researched and discovered by myself over the years ), others are completely new to me.
It's astonishing to see that a lot of things that I'd always seen as possible symptoms from ( undiscovered? ) disease(s) were actually just imbalances in my 'dosha' ( to use an ayurvedic term ). Yeah, you could call them diseases but the amazing thing about all this is that they might be cured way easier than I'd ever expected.
We all know that lifestyle and eating habit influence our health but we often don't know how to change this around, once imbalanced.
I tried veganism for a short while ( am still considering it in the long term ), followed a circadian diet for 8 months, have been meditating for years now and did all kind of other stuff. I even moved to another country to try and cure myself, hoping that I would feel better there. But circumstances don't create happiness, they might just make it a little easier to be happy.
Over the years, I started to feel more and more that some foods or beverages don't seem to do well in my body but I couldn't help but thinking it was an allergy, or intolerance or malabsorption. I never thought all this had such a huge impact on my wellness.
Yeah, I might be hypersensitive and have hyperreactive airways ( who would want to fly with that company? ). It looks like I tend towards depression ( genetically ). I'm also an avid overthinker and have often thought I was a hypochondriac, as doctors hardly found anything wrong with me, up till the point that I thought I was exaggerating and stopped visiting them.
Last month I felt pretty crappy, several times: daily diarrhea, moments of dizzyness, headaches and a lot of stomach aches, to name some things. Nevertheless, I managed to write 50,000 words for nanowrimo, thus constructing the base of my first novel.
I was very close to visiting a doctor to find out if my stomach issues have to do with lactose intolerance or possibly fructose malabsorption ( thank you Google ). If it weren't for not having a car, not having a doctor ( yet in Portugal ) and not having a hospital close by, I would already have gone there.
After having found out about ayurveda, I'm happy I haven't seen a doctor yet.
In fact,to my pleasant surprise a lot of what I thought was 'wrong' with me are just general trademarks of the so called Vata dosha of Ayurveda ( some others belong to the Pitta dosha ) and I found out that I am mostly a Vata type, with some Pitta elements in it, so that explains a lot.
For those who know me: apparently, people who are predominantly 'Vata', are known to be light / skinny, they can't sit still, often feel cold and have a dry skin, to name a few things.
Interestingly, ayurveda is mainly based on balancing your dosha, by doing the opposite ( of how you feel ). So what I need ( not that strange in late Autumn/ early Winter ) is warmth, rest, and warm, oily foods, as well as warm drinks ( to give some examples ).
Anyhow, I didn't plan to make this a long and complicated post. I just wanted to let you know that I am taking it easy on the editing of my 'Hypersensitivosaurus' story for now as health is my number 1 focus at the moment. I will still do some editing though, to not lose momentum entirely.
This time I will make sure though that I'm not too rigid in my changes, a tendency that I often have, as that will probably just have the opposite effect.
Some tweaks that I've made over the last couple of days are getting to bed earlier, waking up earlier, enjoying more warm drinks and ( mainly ) warm food ( even the fruit I eat ), as well as drinking less coffee ( for the umptieth time ). I also try to be more mindful while eating ( no screen staring and chewing my food more ).
As you can see, no major changes but, as the wee mouse said: "all little bits help." ( before he peed in the sea ). Or was it the pee mouse? I'm not sure but you get the point.
I will slowly make some more tweaks, and listen to my body and mind as much as I can. As we all should do. I think I will still visit a doctor, later this month. Mainly out of curiosity. If they try to make me take any kind of ( unnatural ) medication, I will kindly thank them, while finding my way around ayurveda and natural healing. I start to feel more and more that there's nothing wrong with me and that I can find my own way towards optimal health.
TO BE CONTINUED
It's pretty awesome to be part of the Natural Medicine group here on Steemit and Discord. It helped me a lot in so many ways. It's great to know that I am not alone out (t)here. Feel welcome to join the group or take a peak, if you're interested, by following this link: Natural Medicine Discord chat
