Have you ever noticed how emotions feel like weather inside you? Some days, anger blazes hot, stress dries everything out, and low moods make the world feel heavy and slow. Gratitude and love, by contrast, soften the body, open your breath, and connect you with others. We are not just our physical body or just our five senses. Thoughts, feelings, breath, spirit, and consciousness form the software for our hardware, and how well the hardware functions depends on how well it responds to the software.Our experiences set off thoughts and feelings, which show up as sensations in the body. Anxiety can leave your mouth dry, your muscles tense, and your energy scattered. Gratitude or love can literally open your chest and soften tension. You do not need a machine to measure this; you can feel it if you pay attention.I once worked with Janet, who joined my 21-day program to address lifelong eczema and autoimmune conditions that had surfaced after a stressful year. Angry, intense, and passionate, she had learned perfectionism as a coping mechanism after losing her mother at nine. Her life experiences and mindset had left her burnt out. Over the program, she realised that every symptom from eczema and rosacea to stomach burning had 'hot and dry' written all over it. Even her moods with her husband reflected it. She wrote to me afterwards, "My life has never made more sense. It is parched, it is burned, inside and out. I feel like I can exhale. I have my answers." Over the following weeks, her eczema improved, her sleep became restorative, and her relationships flourished.Modern science backs up what Ayurveda has known for centuries. The insula in the brain monitors heartbeat, breathing, and gut activity, linking these signals with thought and memory. This creates what we experience as feeling. If your mood is stormy, your body is the sky it passes through. Anxiety dries and tightens the body. Anger heats and flushes the skin. Low mood slows circulation. Gratitude or love warms the chest and relaxes the nervous system.Life is full of unpredictable moments, and our nervous systems often stay on alert long after the stressor has passed. That is why it helps to have small practices to maintain balance. Five minutes of slow breathing in the morning, a gentle oil massage, listening to calming music, journaling, or taking a few moments for gratitude can help you weather the day more gracefully. When stressful moments hit, a few slow breaths, humming, naming the emotion out loud, or simply moving your body can help release tension and reset your inner climate.Emotions show up differently in each body. Anger feels hot and charged. Anxiety mixes heat with dryness. Depression brings heaviness and withdrawal. Even jealousy, fear, guilt, and shame have unique signatures. By paying attention, you can use these cues to regulate your inner climate.Regulation does not mean suppressing feelings. It means noticing them, accepting them, and gently guiding them back into balance. Anger, when regulated, becomes passion. Anxiety can become creativity. Jealousy can inspire motivation, fear can be eased with faith, and a low mood can be lifted with gentle stimulation. Over time, practising these skills allows you to return to a warm and moist state, reducing the chronic imbalances that our familiar emotional patterns can create.Ayurveda teaches that health comes from living in harmony with natural rhythms. [Nidhi Bhanshali Pandya, NAMA Certified Ayurvedic Doctor, Educator, and Author (Your Body Already Knows)]
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