Vedic Wisdom: 5 Ways to Support Ourselves during Challenging Times.

Breakdowns are breakthroughs, how to trust the journey and surrender to the flow of grace.

This has been coming up a lot with friends, family, and clients about going through hard times. It’s as if you’re in the ocean and you are getting pounded by wave after wave. The more you relax into the water’s movements, the easier the moment becomes.

Buried emotions never die and what we resist persists. Vedic wisdom teaches that we are on a soul journey, a karmic evolution, and that there is a higher intelligence guiding our lives.

How do we trust the universe, our karmic path during challenging times, in order to ride out the waves and allow what’s transforming to happen with the least resistance and the deepest acceptance and honoring? When we have “emotional breakdowns,” there are incredible deep insights and lessons that want to surface and transform us.

Breakdowns are times when we can’t hold the container anymore. The container is the structure of how we have learned to cope, the egoic infrastructure that holds us together and can mask over a deeper terrain of emotions, pain, wounds, and conditioning. These breakdowns are when karma is burning off, when our heart and soul are asking us to listen deeper to what is ready to be seen and heard.

The universe is helping to guide us into some of those challenging places where there’s a lot of stagnation, where it’s tender, where there’s grief. It’s those moments when we ask and look for something to offer relief—a way out. Breakdowns are an unraveling where we’re releasing something on a certain level.

In those moments is when we are so vulnerable that these profound insights and lessons can come through. They are insights into what isn’t working for us, what is no longer serving us, and what relationships are no longer in alignment. This is where we get to dance with the mystery, the darkness, the unconsciousness, where we get to unlock these pathways into the depths of our soul—into our roots—and see. It’s an incredible journey where we are just spiraling up in our own existence—our own evolution.

Breakdowns are an unraveling, an opportunity to learn to listen to the heart’s wisdom, to the soul’s wisdom, and to trust the universe. They don’t come easy! If they did, we wouldn’t listen. We can take our energy, our prayers, and our manifestation powers and help to align certain pieces in a deeper way for our evolution. The universe is taking care of us.

How do we do our work to relax our nervous system so that we can move through this time with more ease and grace? The ease is how it can feel calmer and nourishing, and grace is the grace of the divine guidance that shows up, always and already there, holding space for our soul’s existence in the form of our humanness.

What can we do in these times of breakdowns, challenges, and emotional upheaval? How can we take care of ourselves so that we can move through these times and not give up hope, care for ourselves, and really integrate that which is showing up, listening to insights, to the wisdom for our highest good? How do we help to regulate our nervous system? Often, when we are going through hard things, we inevitably do things that aggravate our nervous system more. Let’s learn to receive the waves and learn to swim with the pulls of less resistance, allowing the waters to polish our soul.

Here’s some Vedic wisdom to support the nervous system during challenging times:

Slow down

When we are doing too much and are stressed, it aggravates the nervous system. Try doing less, cancel extra plans, take time to move slowly, and give space for listening. It takes intentional work to listen to the wisdom and insights that are coming through. When we are too busy, everything is noisier, and it makes it harder to relax into the moment and be with what is coming up.

Cultivate a daily routine

A daily routine is essential to provide a dynamic framework for harmonizing the body, mind, and spirit. It supports the biological rhythm, healthy digestion, strong immune system, deep sleep, and inner peace of the body. It also provides a foundation for calming the nervous system and quieting the mind.

By aligning with natural guiding principles, we tune our body’s daily rhythms into a higher governing intelligence. The daily rhythm focuses on when we wake up, when we eat, when we work, and when we sleep. The consistent timing of these daily routines provides a stable and harmonizing support for the entire body systems.

Practice daily meditation and pranayama

Meditation offers a time to be still and gain awareness of the mind and recurring thoughts, helping to destress and calm the mind and the nervous system. Pranayama, or breathwork, opens the pranic or energy pathways to help purify the mind and body.

By concentrating on the breath, the mind becomes still and the breath offers deep healing and transformation. Try 20 minutes of meditation in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening, starting with five to 10 rounds of alternate nostril breathing.

Take walks in nature

Take time to connect with nature, breathing in the fresh air and being open to the magic of life. Walking on Earth is grounding and offers a soothing rhythm for the nervous system, helping to nourish the body, mind, and soul. By immersing ourselves in nature, peaceful qualities are cultivated, and we learn how to live in harmony with our inner and outer environments.

When we take responsibility for our lives, we realize that our thoughts, words, and actions become our reality and that we are at the core of our own suffering. When we ignite the inner light to guide our awareness, we can heal our karma and release the tethers, transforming the individual and collective consciousness to higher states of awareness and freedom.

Self-oil massage (Abhyanga)

This self-massage technique with warm oil is one of Ayurveda’s beloved daily routines. The qualities of the oil are warm, oily, and heavy. This helps to bring in the Kapha quality and soothe the nervous system, as well as offering a time for self-care. Incorporating this ancient practice offers deep nourishment, balance, and longevity to the body.

Breakdowns are the crumbling of energy, emotions, and karma, allowing it to process, compost, and nourish the new.

Trust the journey; the universe loves you.