May the Force be With You

We are constantly influenced by forces we cannot see. Take gravity, for example: invisible yet predictable, defined by Newton’s equation F = G(m₁m₂)/r². We trust its presence because centuries of observation, experimentation, and innovation have allowed us to harness it—flying airplanes, launching rockets, even reaching the moon. But imagine how many other forces act on us each day that do not yet have an equation to explain them. Remember, gravity was shaping the world long before Newton described the law of universal gravitation. (Aristotle even believed that rocks fell because it was in their very nature to return to the ground!)
Just because we can’t see these other forces doesn’t mean they aren’t impacting us—shaping how our bodies feel, how our minds function, and how our energy rises and falls. Yoga offers us many lenses through which we can better understand, directly experience, and refine these unseen influences. Ayurveda, yoga’s sister science, reminds us that our well-being depends on living in rhythm with the natural world.
Working with Ayurveda reconnects us to the qualities of nature—sometimes powerful and overwhelming, like a tidal wave or hurricane, and sometimes delicate and fleeting, like a butterfly landing on a rock. By observing how the five elements—space, air, fire, water, and earth—arise and dissolve through the seasons, moon phases, and daily cycles, we begin to understand more clearly what is happening within us. And in turn, as we notice these same elemental forces shaping our own bodies, we attune more deeply to the environments we inhabit.
Of course, drifting out of harmony is inevitable. Ayurveda describes these disturbances as imbalances, or unrefinement, of the doshas—the three primary energies that shape body and mind: vata (air and space), pitta (fire and water), and kapha (earth and water). When these forces fall out of balance, the effects can be immediate: stress, fatigue, confusion, digestive upset, inflammation, depression, or heaviness. One of the most profound ways I’ve learned to restore balance quickly is through the Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy vinyasas taught to me by my teacher, Mukunda Stiles. These unique sequences work directly with the doshas, offering powerful relief and helping to restore equilibrium to body, energy, and mind. Constant practice refines the doshas which is a huge upgrade to our whole system. Refinement makes us more resillent- recognition of imbalance comes more quickly as does the wisdom required to address the imbalance.
Another essential aspect of Ayurveda is dinacharya, the daily rituals that harmonize us with the natural cycles of day and night, the turning of the seasons, and the eternal flow of growth, release, death, and renewal. These practices remind us that health is not simply the absence of illness, but the presence of alignment, clarity, and vitality.
This October, I’ll be offering these teachings in the beautiful natural setting of our upcoming retreat in Lee, Massachusetts. Together, we’ll explore how Ayurvedic wisdom, therapeutic yoga practices, and the steadiness of dinacharya can become trusted allies in daily life. By weaving these practices together, we create a foundation that not only supports healing but also reconnects us to the rhythms of nature that nourish us on every level.
And on October 17th, we’ll continue the journey in the next installment of Subtle Anatomy. This is not the anatomy you’ll find in textbooks, X-rays, or MRIs. Instead, we’ll explore the chakras through the lens of Shree Vidyaa, a perspective that reveals the living, energetic structures shaping our inner world.