What does a Sicilian volcano have to do with Āyurveda and Chronic Lyme Disease?
When I was 8 years old, I used to erupt. My mom called me “her little Mt. Etna." Mt. Etna is a Sicilian volcano that’s been erupting on-and-off for 500,000 years. It has generated landslides, tsunamis and ash plumes that could be seen from space. Lava from Mt. Etna has destroyed dozens of villages, a train station, and filled in seaside harbors. The nickname was an exaggeration, but I did earn it by flipping out, slamming doors, and yelling. Loudly, explosively, destructively.
As I grew older, I became known for my total restraint. As in, never getting angry. Ever. The volcano still existed within me but no one else ever felt the scald of molten lava. Just me.
Internalizing my anger made me sick, literally. I still remember one of my first sessions with my therapist after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (which was really chronic Lyme disease) in 2007. She asked “what do your guts look like?” In my mind’s eye, I saw metaphorical shards of glass lodged in my belly causing me to bleed internally. I became aware that internalizing my anger was at the root of my ulcerative colitis symptoms.
That awareness was the beginning of my healing.
Bear with me for a moment, as I take a short, but relevant, detour into Āyurveda.
If you google Āyurveda one of the first things you’ll discover is the three doshas of the body: vāta, pitta, and kapha. The doshas are the structural building blocks of our bodies and simultaneously the doshas create disease in our bodies when homeostasis is disturbed.
But did you know that there are doshas of the mind? And, according to Āyurveda, the doshas of the mind also create both health and disease.
The doshas of the mind are named rajas and tamas, most simply defined as initiation (rajas) and inertia (tamas). We need rajas and tamas to live fully. Without rajas, we would never get out of bed in the morning. Without tamas, we would never go to sleep.
Tamas encourages us to be skeptical, allows us to grieve when we need to, protects us from truths we aren’t ready to hear, and supports rest when we need it.
Rajas defends our boundaries with righteous anger, impels us to explore new places and have new experiences, allows us to see another person’s perspective, and helps us enjoy the sensual delights of life.
However, like Vāta, Pitta, and Kapha, rajas and tamas can create disease if left unchecked. Rajas is fiery, like a volcano. In excess, rajas fans the flames of rage, harshness, cruelty, and hyperactivity. Tamas is like a glacier in its inertia. Excess tamas leads to depression, delusion, confusion, and the avoidance of responsibility and meaningful work.
What, you might ask, does this have to do with chronic Lyme disease (CLD)?
Lyme disease is a clever parasite. Once it enters our bodies, it hijacks our body’s natural healing abilities and turns it against us. This is called auto-immune disease. The number of auto-immune diseases is extensive: ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, anemia, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease, myocarditis, fibromyalgia, and many more. Most people are diagnosed with at least one or two of these before being diagnosed with CLD.
When we attack ourselves (by internalizing anger for instance), we become more susceptible to Lyme disease.
So, if you have chronic Lyme disease, this is why you need an Āyurvedic and Yoga Health Coach on your healthcare team. I look at you as a whole person, not as an auto-immune disease or a collection of symptoms. I look at root causes in the body and also in the mind. Āyurveda and Yoga have the tools and structure needed to heal a whole person. I can teach you to use them so that you can get back to living the life that you are meant to be living and not settle for the dregs.
Love, Kimberly
P.S. Did you know that volcanoes produce some of the most fertile soil on Earth? And that the most precious minerals in our world, such as copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc, are found deep within the roots of extinct volcanoes? Fascinating, huh?
