What is my Original Nature and What Does that Mean?

In Ayurveda, you will often hear the terms original nature or constitution. Both mean the same thing and we will discuss why it's important to understand yourself at a core level.

Ayurveda is About Coming Back into Balance

If you were to Google 'constitution' it literally means foundational principles. It's the principles that cannot be changed but create the structure of who you are. These are your innate qualities that no matter how much therapy you go to or how many hours you spend at the gym, they will never change. 

Your Constitution is Created at Conception

Everything is built upon energy. Energy is everything. At the time of conception your parents had very specific energy. Maybe they were in a happy loving place or maybe they were stressed. Those energetic qualities came together to create your unique DNA. 

I know you may be thinking that it sounds a little out there but don't judge quite yet. 

Think about how you go into a doctors office and the form that asks about your family lineage and diseases. This is because your parents DNA is passed down and now you are more susceptible to that disease. This is why the conversation of epigenetics is so important because by way of an imbalanced lifestyle we turn on the switch to manifest certain diseases. 

I know for me I didn't believe this at first but the older I get the more I notice I am more like my parents than I originally thought.

What Does Our Constitution Affect? 

Our unique nature or constitution affects our physical, mental and emotional body. It also affects the illness or diseases we may be prone to. Again, this is because of energy and DNA that was passed down to us via our parents.

How Our Unique Nature Affects Your Physical Body

Think about your body and the things that you cannot fundamentally change. Your eye color, your original hair color, the size of your feet, or your bone structure.

For example, I am naturally a smaller person. My bones are small and my body frame has always been thin no matter how much I eat. No matter how much I wish I had more curves, it's just not going to happen because it's not my original nature to be curvy. On the flip side, Adele, who is very curvy will always have her curves no matter how much she hits the gym or salads she eats. 

Both of our physical structures were defined at conception and we were born with our body types.

Understanding your constitution leads to acceptance of who we are and what we cannot change.

How Our Unique Nature Affects Your Mental-Emotional Body

How you react and absorb energy around you is also a part of your original constitution. While yes, a lot of this can be from conditioning or the home environments we grew up in, there is a part of this that is innately you. 

Some of us are more prone to reactivity and others withdraw. If your responses are how you have always been then you can learn to accept that this is just you. Yes, we can certainly have healthier patterns some of these qualities may be who we are.

How Our Unique Nature Affects Disease

When you look at your family tree, it's very important to know what types of disease and illnesses run in your family. Does cancer, auto-immune disorders, or diabetes run in your family? By understanding your family's lineage in terms of health you will be able to learn what you need to watch out for. 

I know diabetes runs in my family so I have made it a point to eat lots of protein and fiber every single day. By way of the paternal side of my family tree I am more susceptible to diabetes and I am choosing a lifestyle to hopefully offset that. 

Ayurveda is the Science of How to Live a Life in Balance

It's important to know yourself at a fundamental level because not only will you have more awareness of your patterns but you will also have more acceptance. Our lives become chaotic and we fall ill when we live a life that is out of balance.

When we move so far away from who we innately are we are off center. Ayurveda teaches us how to come back to our center and how to many daily choices that serve us in the healthiest way possible. 

Watch the whole video here.

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