{"id":1418,"date":"2022-12-21T12:45:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T12:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.org\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2022-12-28T12:34:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T12:34:51","slug":"lessons-from-ayurveda-for-living-in-our-complex-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/2022\/12\/lessons-from-ayurveda-for-living-in-our-complex-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from \u0100yurveda for Living in our Complex World <\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanessa C.M. Englert, PhD scholar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s so much to learn from \u0100yurveda, maybe “significance of principles and qualities\u201d is not the first thing that comes to mind. And it surely isn\u2019t the only thing that I am grateful to carry away from the 15-day course in \u0100yurveda by Dr. Alaknanda Puri at Yoganga Santosh Puri Ashram. But it is this insight that I find so very relevant in today\u2019s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How \u0100yurveda thinks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the class, next to applied theory sessions, we joined in parayana of the first chapter of the A\u1e63\u1e6d\u0101\u1e45ga H\u1e5bdaya . The practice of reciting this scripture and then learning its meaning clearly gave access to what I like to call one of the internal logics \u2013 or ways to think<\/em> \u2013 of \u0100yurveda: it speaks about characteristics and reactions, about combinations and consequences, of context and current state vs. your nature. In short, \u0100yurveda seems to be all about qualities and principles! Where other systems of medicine provide linear prescriptions to an ailment regardless of e.g. personal state or environmental context, \u0100yurveda deals with this informational complexity by looking at things through principles and qualities. By giving fundamental \u2018operating assumptions\u2019 and distinguishable features of all that is life, the scripture manages to maintain the validity of its guidance independently of context, while concurrently considering the individual situation of a patient. As an example: S\u016btra 7, Chapter 1 of the A\u1e63\u1e6d\u0101\u1e45ga H\u1e5bdayam speaks about which do\u1e63a dominates which temporal space:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


vayo \u2018ho r\u0101tribhukt\u0101n\u0101\u1e43 te \u2018ntamadhy\u0101dig\u0101\u1e25 kram\u0101t
<\/em>Age, day, night, digestion. Their beginning is kapha, middle is pitta, end is vata.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it matter where I live or in which state my health is for this to remain true? No. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it matter where I live and what do\u1e63as are currently (dis-)balanced to find proper measurements? Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, thinking in principles and qualities allows for a universal guidance while considering individual circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The topicality of thinking in principles and qualities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that in VUCA times the guidance given needs to be adaptable and remain true in many contexts. Looking at this from a management perspective, we too need to consider individual contexts for solutions but don\u2019t need (nor have the time) to build a solution from scratch every time we encounter a challenge. Working with principles and qualities provides what creates flow: a direction, stability and room to move and react. Being able to flow allows organizations to be nimble and re-invent themselves when needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A simple transfer-experiment into the world of management<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the context-adaptability of \u0100yurveda principles, their application is bountiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not look at the people working on a project as the living organisms that they are and apply the above-mentioned principle to support them in their human experience? Let\u2019s imagine you are facilitating a team in a project, one could consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the beginning, kapha is present. With kapha\u2019s qualities of heaviness and stability, there might be some lethargy about joining the project. An energetic kick-off or 1:1 conversations may be helpful to get people from their stable previous position into motion and excited about the task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the middle, pitta predominates. In the project\u2019s main productivity phase, the chemical reaction or creation of value is happening. People are most engaged and social, as they have found their place. Now, the interest or \u2018fire\u2019 that was ignited in the kapha-dominant starting phase needs a direction \u2013 a vision or roadmap \u2013 and fuel to continue, which could be a conducive work environment and resources, feedback or autonomy or whatever you think fuelssavi sarin the team and individual members. Also, an eye needs to be kept on kapha qualities to prevent people from \u2018over-heating\u2019 or burning out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end, vata is present, meaning the attention is \u2018drying up\u2019, and people feel ready to move on. Here, we could provide some grounding by helping to tie loose ends and facilitating adjourning activities amongst team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, this little thought experiment is much simplified. All do\u1e63as as well as the individual state of the people in front of you need to be considered when letting \u0100yurveda inform your actions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0100yurveda can teach us so much about being in this life; this time, for me, it was about the significance of thinking in principles and qualities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

May we continue to learn from \u0100yurveda as a science of life and give thanks to all (inner) teachers that have received and shared its knowledge before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n



yo \u2018p\u016brvavaidy\u0101ya namo \u2018stu tasmai 
I bow to the physician who has no one behind him.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vanessa C.M. Englert, PhD scholar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam There\u2019s so much to learn from \u0100yurveda, maybe “significance of principles and qualities\u201d is not the first thing that comes to mind. And it surely isn\u2019t the only thing that I am grateful to carry away from the 15-day course in \u0100yurveda by Dr. Alaknanda Puri at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[164,160,10],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality-issue-11-21-december-22-en","tag-december-22-en","tag-issue-11","tag-spirituality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"trp-custom-language-flag":false,"newsportal-magazine-tab-thumbnail":false,"eggnews-slider-large":false,"eggnews-featured-medium":false,"eggnews-featured-long":false,"eggnews-block-medium":false,"eggnews-carousel-image":false,"eggnews-block-thumb":false,"eggnews-single-large":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Vanessa englert","author_link":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/author\/vanessa\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Vanessa C.M. Englert, PhD scholar, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam There\u2019s so much to learn from \u0100yurveda, maybe “significance of principles and qualities\u201d is not the first thing that comes to mind. And it surely isn\u2019t the only thing that I am grateful to carry away from the 15-day course in \u0100yurveda by Dr. Alaknanda Puri at…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1421,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions\/1421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.omrise.net\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}