When It’s Time to Let Go: The Wisdom of Emotional Healing with Ayurveda
Ayurveda has long recognized that our emotions are closely linked to our physical health.
You’re probably already of this simple truth — for example, you may notice how stress affects your sleep, or the surge of energy you have when feeling loved and supported.
Ayurveda is an ancient system of natural healing — the sister science of yoga — which offers us powerful insights into how to process stress and old emotions to support greater strength, healing, and resilience.
The Role of Emotions and Your Heart
Your emotions are meant to play an important role in helping you navigate your reality, serving as an internal guidance system to recognize your level of alignment with your authentic nature.
However, most of us do not feel this alignment all of the time, and may struggle with low moods, fears, anger, irritability, or anxiety.
In the same way, Ayurveda views emotional imbalances as an expression of a lack of harmony between how we use our 5 senses, our emotions and our thoughts.
It also teaches us that there’s an important connection between your heart and your mind. When this connection is strong, your wellbeing flourishes. When this connection is weakened, health challenges arise.
The heart as the seat of your soul
Just like in Western medicine — Ayurveda emphasizes the crucial role that the heart plays in supporting all of our mental and physical faculties. In an understanding that’s both highly practical and romantic, how we experience our entire reality depends on the health of our heart (love).
Ayurveda views the heart as the seat of the soul, the mind (manas) and the foundation of our capacity for higher consciousness.
Without this healthy connection to our heart, it’s not unlike losing the main support beam in a house — everything else seems to collapse.
To this end, let’s look a little more closely about the important role our emotions play in our health, in the regulation of our nervous systems, and in our overall well-being.
How do you process your emotions?
From the Ayurvedic perspective, emotional imbalances are created when we’re unable to process our emotions in a timely manner.
You may notice in your own life that some people you know are able to process their emotions very quickly, while for others, processing takes more time.
In Ayurveda, our capacity to process (or digest) our emotions relates to “sadhaka agni”-- the subtle mental and emotional “fire” that governs the digestion, processing and transformation of our thoughts, feelings and life experiences.
It works very much in the same way as when you have challenges digesting an unhealthy meal.
When emotions from past experiences have not been fully processed, and they remain “stuck” in their heart and mind, resulting in low moods and the inability to shift and welcome new experiences.
When negative experiences stay with us for a long period of time, it can lead us to feel “stuck” in negative emotions (like persistent depression, grief or anger) and create a lack of mental clarity (where we experience more judgment or stressful reactions).
This can make it difficult for us to experience life in a calm, peaceful way, to embrace new experiences and to create new realities for ourselves.
In a recent example:
I’ve been working with a woman who is undergoing a stressful divorce. She recently began a relationship with a new partner, but often questions whether she can trust him or if he really cares for her.
As she has not fully ‘digested’ the emotions from her last relationship, and it has been difficult for her to see that her new partner — although imperfect — is genuine, consistent, loyal and has good intentions for her.
Through our work together, she has been able to acknowledge his good qualities and let go of some of her old wounds and expectations. She has also learned to address the challenges of their relationship in a way that’s more mature, honest and less reactive.
What balanced emotional processing looks like
A person with balanced emotional processing (strong sadhaka agni) will process negative emotions more quickly and show greater resilience.
They may have experienced stress or traumatic events, but you will notice that they maintain an inner attitude of resilience and wisdom. They may say: “What happened was very difficult, but I’m going to be okay. I will learn from this experience. I am strong. I have faith in myself and in life.”
Even in a difficult situation, they remain optimistic and connected to the spirit of strength, clarity and resilience. With this, they can transform their challenges or ‘negative experiences’ into wisdom.
In practical terms, you may have observed how two different people can experience the same stressful event in a very different ways.
Signs of weak emotional processing:
When your capacity for emotional processing is low, weak or impaired, it can give the following symptoms:
You feel overly judgmental of others (focusing too much on their negative qualities + not seeing the positive)
You tend to be overly positive about others, naive or blindly optimistic
You have a hard time making decisions
You have a hard time letting go of old emotions and painful memories
You lack of focus, procrastinate, or have challenges in keeping your commitments. It’s difficult to perform day-to-day tasks.
You suffer from analysis paralysis ( a state of overthinking a situation or choice so much that no decision or action is ever taken)
It’s challenging for you to achieve your goals
Excessive physically restlessness
You’re unable to enjoy normal pleasures in life or activities that were formerly enjoyable for you (e.g. you avoid going to a party because you don’t know what toe wear or feel inferior to others)
You notice issues with learning, focus, retention and recall
You suffer from strong moods and reactions where you feel you lose control of yourself
In school children, having a hard time recognizing the correct answers
Weak emotional processing can occur due to chronic stress or traumatic events, through poor lifestyle choices, or from birth. It is also something that can be cultivated through our choices and attitudes.
Emotional Processing and Somatic Healing
It’s not surprising that Ayurveda’s view on emotional healing offers similar to perspectives shared in modern trauma healing and somatic therapy.
Both share the foundational principle that emotional trauma results from our un-metabolized experiences that must be fully “digested” to avoid chronic symptoms or suffering, and both focus on strengthening our capacity to clear the stored emotional charge.
The Ayurvedic approach for emotional balance
Ayurveda has many powerful teachings to help us recalibrate toward greater well-being and harmony.
Here are few to support your healing:
A Balanced Daily Routine (Dinacharya)
Your daily routine is considered to be your best medicine for restoring balance and well-being.
It does not have to be perfect, but a few simple routines can go a long way to help you feel more grounded, connected and balanced. This can include waking up with the rising sun, ensuring you’re eliminating each morning, taking an early morning walk, eating natural, unprocessed foods, and going to bed before 10:00 p.m.
Your Daily Breathontology Practice
Your daily spiritual practice is one of the most powerful tools you have for emotional resilience and well-being. (I teach this in the Breathontology Program). Through this daily routine, you will learn to balance your body-mind using breath, meditation and gentle movement and – often immediately – feel a shift in how calm, blissful and balanced you feel, even in moments of challenge or inner conflict.
Caring for Your 5 Senses
Ayurveda teaches us that we can create greater harmony between the body, mind and emotions by actively feeding ourselves positive impressions through the five senses. This is especially important in our modern world, where our senses tend to be inundated with excess stimuli and sensation.
A few examples can include:
Smell (balances earth element): Diffusing essential oils or burning natural incense in your home. Enjoying the fragrances of a home cooked meal or flowers in your garden. Avoiding synthetic fragrances, perfumes and fragranced laundry detergents. Keeping your body clean.
Taste (balances the water element): Avoiding excess use of sugar, salt and condiments like ketchup or commercial salad dressings. Experimenting with different tastes, herbs and spices in your cooking. Enjoying the 5 Ayurvedic tastes at each meal. Tongue scraping.
Sight (balances fire element): Choosing beautiful environments and clothes, Decorate your home with beautiful colours, plants and objects that inspire you. Light a candle, ghee lamp or fireplace to inspire your evening. Protect your eyes from excess screen time.
Sound (balances ether element): Playing calming sounds, classical music, dolphin sounds or mantras in your home. Spend time in the car in silence and in full presence with yourself, without listening to podcasts or the news. Avoiding aggressive or overstimulating music where possible.
Touch (balances air element): Touching a loved one or a pet. Enjoy long hugs with friends or holding hands. Make time for physical intimacy, tree hugging, connecting your barefeet to the Earth and self-massage. Favour clothes with natural, breathable fibers.
Protecting Your Mind (Pratyahara)
In yogic teachings, pratyahara refers to the practice of ‘withdrawing your senses’, where we train ourselves to pull our senses inward and train ourselves to not be reactive to outer sounds or stimuli.
This is an especially relevant practice in our modern world, where our minds tend to chase every thought or distraction.
This mental discipline allows us to be more selective about the thoughts we choose to follow and the impressions we take in.
For example, you do not need to use Google or AI for every thought that passes through your head, or check your phone 20x / day!
You can practice pratyahara in the modern world by consciously reducing our exposure to the news and social media, and by withdrawing from the use of cell phones for 1-2 hours before waking and before bed.
We also take you deeper into the practice of pratyahara on silent retreat.
You will quickly feel the effects of this practice on the clarity of your mind and your level of self-connection, as well as in the balance of your emotions and your nervous system.
Educating Your Mind
At the foundation of Ayurvedic healing (and in our work together) is the education of the mind.
A mind educated in stillness, meditation and self-observation is an incredibly powerful tool for cultivating a calm, clear, blissfully alive and radiant emotional body.
This includes learning to witness your inner conversations, not believing everything you think, and cultivating a relationship with yourself beyond the physical form.
A very modern practical habit for cultivating a powerful mind is to read a book for 20 minutes per day. Your 80-year old self can thank me for this one.
Seasonal cleansing
There comes a time where we need to stop, slow down and consciously let go of old stress and emotions.
Panchakarma is an Ayurvedic healing program that can be done to support the release of old stress and emotional toxins, and naturally promote healing emotions.
In our work together, we do a mini seasonal cleanse in the fall and spring to help release old emotions and stress, and support natural joy, clarity and resilience for the season ahead.
You may be surprised how much you love this re-set, and how natural it feels to you.
Learning to be present with negative emotions
An important secret for emotional healing may surprise you : it is learning to stay present with the parts of you that feel unhappy, depressed, sad or like something is lacking in your life.
In the modern world, we’re often told to be happy all the time. However, this is very unrealistic and a recipe for blocked emotional energy!
Life is a dynamic, ever-changing process, and we will inevitably experience days that are more challenging than others.
Our culture’s tendency to block or repress negative emotions (like sadness, fear, depression or anger) also numbs our capacity to experience deep states of joy, gratitude, bliss, vulnerability and authentic connection with others.
Instead, we want to learn to create healthy skills and relationships which allow us to fully feel our negative emotions and process them in a healthy way.
This can be done with a journal, with a friend, in silence and contemplation, or with a therapist or a mentor you trust.
Men and women often have different approaches to processing their emotions, and these differences need to be honoured.
Good relationships
Strong relationships have a powerful, healing influence on your life. In yogic texts, it is said that those you surround yourself with have one of the most powerful influences on your healing and awakening, more than willpower alone.
A relationship with a spiritual teacher and community can be especially helpful here, helping us to align with the qualities of sattva guna, or of higher truth, love, wisdom, purity and balance.
This helps to align our healing process with the principle of “Sattva Vijaya”, meaning the victory we obtain when we align with our spiritual consciousness and our true nature. Naturally, this resonance with creation allows us to feel more supported, inspired, balanced, joyful and emotionally resilient.
About the Author
Rachel Freeman is a teacher and facilitator of courses in meditation, Ayurveda and modern spirituality. She is passionate about exploring the potentials of human consciousness in a way that respects, unites and transcends global culture and tradition.
Rachel is the creator of Wildly Regulated: a modern course on nervous system healing using Ayurveda, and the Inner Alchemy Podcast on Spotify. She can be reached at thefreeowoman.ca
