Your mental state can make or break your progress and success. If you feel confident and joyful work goes smoothly if you are stressed and push you can get worn down. When you experience darkness, stagnation, or feeling trapped in the past, you are living with too much tamas. Darkness can take you down. Take the actions you need move into light.
Tamas is the one of the three mental gunas. A tamasic perspective creates artificial limits. Tamas fuels delusion and dis-empowerment. Don’t spend all your time in low energy or stagnation can occur.
We got together as a family for Easter and were talking about our mental state how we are all doing. My family is at a new point of recovery I am grateful to say. I am too. My mom died a couple of years ago, and in my grief, tamas has become a place I know. The path of tamas is worn in, familiar and getting way too comfortable.
Most of us move from guna to guna with relative ease. But we also can spend a lot of time in a specific mental outlook. The tendency to stay in tamas or sattva is called the “law of continuity”. Continuity aside, I feel it is time for me to put an action plan in place to make the shift out of tamas.
Don’t Hang Out In Tamas
What is the big deal with being tamasic? For me, tamas brought back a lot of bad habits and self-reinforcing negativity. It drains my will to do the things I know are good for me.
My self-care routines dissolve in the darkness. Tamas is cold, stagnant and stubborn. Many people turn the experience of tamas outwards to how they treat others. I turn on myself, act out of integrity and behave in self-destructive ways.
Tamas is the lowest energy of the three gunas, of mental temperament. It is not the state in which you want to live. Sattva is the perspective you want, to explore life. The puzzle to solve is how to move out of tamas.
Actions To Shift Out Of Tamas
Get Religious About Dinacharya. Plug movement and light into your daily routine.
Dinacharya is a self-care structure that supports building the strength to shift out of tamas. You don’t have to be perfect, but meditation and yoga in your daily practice is critical to bring organization, movement, and light to your day.
Meditation
Silence may not work when all you feel is darkness. Try a more structured approach like a mantra, guided, or loving-kindness meditation. Start at a level that seems doable. For instance, three times a day close your eyes and silently say, “May I be filled with loving kindness, may I be peaceful and at ease, may I be well.” Do that for a week, then 3 times each day repeat the phrase twice.
Yoga
Regular practice in community is supportive and healing. Schedule time for a community class, go and enjoy. Find a kula a group of folks who naturally share their light.
Don’t Let Your Focus Drift
In tamas it is super easy to forget you are making choices to create your world. You start to think that you are isolated from light love and movement and that is the way it is. You forget that you have the power to make changes.
Create lists and cross things off as you get things done. Reward yourself for progress and forward movement. Tap your support system (if you haven’t alienated everyone) for active help in shifting.
Hug and Hold the Positive
Find and hug onto the positives that are lighting your life. Practice appreciation at the most basic level. Make a list of the bright spots of your day before you go to sleep, and expand gratitude as you can.
Identify and do things that bring you joy. Laugh and celebrate a little each day.
Get The Help You Need To Transition.
See a doctor or hire a counselor or coach. Join a support group or take a class that can teach you the tools of change.
Ayurselfcare’s purpose is to educate on the benefits of Ayurveda. This article is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment or advice. All the material here is for learning purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.