As we move forward on our health journeys, there is a need to address questions regarding how we can move forward taking fruitful action, including action that:
1. creates positive outcomes and
2. minimizes any harm created by that action.
This post is focused on one framework that can be used to answer these questions, and the best part is that it happens to be the case that I can explain it in terms coming from me, as a biomedical engineer, as well as my experience as a yogi.
That answer? It has to do with how we, as biological beings living in a biological world, must exist within the constraints established by the natural laws that govern our world. It is these laws that shape our very existence, including the world around us as well as our own selves, mind and body.
Given that these laws governing our natural world exist, there are two key points that have become crystal clear to me:
- As humans, we do all we can to test those constraints, and when we push our limits, poor health and disease arise.
- If we can learn to live aligned with the natural order of things, we become capable of making decisions that support the health of our own selves (mind & body), support the health of our communities and planet, and support our personal goals.
Let’s take a look at one simple version of these laws, including how we can use this information to support our journeys through this life, as well as how we break down, becoming sick and injured when we don’t exist within the constraints set up by the natural laws governing this world.
A Biomedical Engineer’s perspective
As a biomedical engineer, I’ve been teaching the idea of “stress balance” as a framework for creating positive health outcomes for many years now.
Calling upon biological and engineering principles, the idea is this:
- To create a change in a particular biological system, the system must be stressed
- To create the right kind of change, the system must be stressed in a certain way
- Too much stress and the system can be damaged
- Too little stress and no change will occur
To apply these technical concepts to a couple of examples we are all familiar with, think about what we do when we exercise:
- If you want to be able to run a 10k, you have to stress different systems in your body (your cardiovascular system, your leg muscles, your core muscles, etc.). You would do this by running, perhaps also adding in some strength workouts.
- If you want to be able to bench 150 lbs, you have to stress your arms, pecs, and other relevant muscles. You would do this by building up as you bench increasing amounts of weight.
The same can be applied to any other change you wish to create within yourself:
- If you want to pass an exam, you have to study (stress your mind)
- If you want to be more mindful, it helps to stress your mind in mindfulness meditations
Now, the same can be said for any health-focused change you wish to create:
- Want to change your diet and eating patterns to better support your health? You will have to stress yourself just a bit, getting uncomfortable as you introduce new foods and release some old ones.
- Want to get more physically fit and support your cardiovascular and metabolic health (along with other aspects of your health)? You will have to get out and get moving, exercising in different ways that will make you feel uncomfortable
Get the idea? No matter what outcome we want, it is going to require that the relevant system is stressed in the right way and with the right intensity.
Understand that this principle is foundational to how we, as biological beings, operate. As biological species evolve, threats to survival arise. To be able to stay alive, each species must be capable of adapting to this stress.
Stress – received by the body as a signal that there is a threat to survival
Adaptation – a change within the body to be better capable of taking on that stress in the future
This stress is an important first piece to creating positive change because it results in a signal to the systems under stress that potential harm is here. If that system doesn’t want to break in the future, it needs to adapt to be better capable of taking on that stress in the future.
You can thank the magic that is biology for this awesome characteristic!
Now, before getting too carried away with the stress piece, there is a second essential piece to this stress balance.
Rest and recovery
Once a particular system has been stressed (for example, a set of muscle fibers have been fired until near exhaustion), the next step is the work that the body must go through to make those beneficial adaptations.
Whether it’s muscle fibers, brain cells, heart cells, blood vessels, or any other system supporting the body, these cells, tissues, and organs need time to recover from that stress. Meanwhile, these systems need time to come back stronger (e.g., build more muscle fibers, build more mitochondria for more efficient energy production, build more neural cells, etc.).
The full process:
- Stress the right system in the right way and with the right amount of intensity
- Rest and recover, allowing the body to adapt and come back stronger, better capable of taking on that challenge in the future
Once again, as a biomedical engineer, this is the process I’ve been teaching for some time now (for example, I wrote this post about it last year using my technical jargon and left-brained explanations).
What has been interesting more recently (as I’ve been escaping the depths of my “left brain” for different fields outside of science & engineering) is seeing these same principles play out in different schools of thought.
A different school of thought – Yoga & Ayurveda
Once upon a time, as a student deep in the gullies of science and engineering, I laughed at the idea that people would seek health-based help from a framework that had been established long before the scientific method and the incredible modern technologies that enable us to .
How naive I was.
It turns out that ancient schools of thought have much to offer, even if the ideas aren’t presented to us in the language and frameworks that we are comfortable with. If we are willing to open our minds to these ideas, we find that many of the ideas that our modern practices have “discovered” were already present, passed along the generations alongside practices that serve our better selves.
When it comes to how we can live balanced lives, stressing ourselves in the right ways to create the right kind of change, while simultaneously understanding why we feel burned out, depressed, or anxious… For this, we can look to the gunas.
The Gunas
Sattva – it’s that state of balance in which you feel light, peaceful, and clear-minded. Sattva is a balanced state of being, one which I might venture to label as “good health.”
Balance. Or, shall I say, homeostasis!
Of course, given our reality, sattva is not a state of being that we can exist in perpetually. Our world has other forces at play, and we need to be able to understand these if we are going to take fruitful action and create the world in which we wish to be living.
To create change, we need a force.
Rajas – action; force. This is moving energy that creates change.
But what happens if we push too hard? What happens if we keep pushing too far? And, what happens if our “pushing” is done in a way that is not so aligned with the natural way of things?
Tamas – it’s that state of burnout. That state of defeat. That state of feeling down and unwilling to get back up.
Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Three states of being, comprised of different forces and qualities, working in a dynamic and everlasting state of change that constitutes life.
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Here at Upward Slopes, the emphasis is on creating positive change. Rajas. That fire that moves us forward.
Along the way, perhaps we find moments of Sattva, wherein we’ve come into balance, finding moments of peace and lightness.
Of course, we don’t get to dance in the light the whole way. Sometimes we push too hard. Sometimes we take a wrong path. We become over-stressed. Tamasic.
Then? Well, we keep moving forward along our dynamic journeys, forever dancing between states of stress and rest; rajas, tamas, sattva.
Balancing Traditional and Modern Frameworks
How can we move forward taking fruitful action, including action that 1. creates positive outcomes and 2. minimizes any harm created by that action.
To do this, we need a fuller set of ingredients and a process for putting it all together (something I do in the Upward Slopes guide).
Still, we can learn a lot and make leaps and bounds forward if only we can understand this fundamental principle discussed here, in this post.
We, as human beings, exist in a world with forces at play, and when these forces are in a balanced state of equilibrium, we exist peacefully in the light.
But we can’t always exist here! We, as biological beings living in a biological world, live in an ever-changing state and we must regularly do work if we are going to find ourselves back in that sattvic, balanced state. Plus, we have all those problems to overcome to make this world a better place so that it, too, can find its sattva.
Because of this, we need to take action. As we do, it is important that we take the right kind of action and take it in the right dose.
When we can take the appropriate action in the appropriate dose at the right time, we can create that positive course of action and return to that balanced state of equilibrium (sattva; homeostasis).
However, if we take on too much at once, too much for too long, or too much of the wrong type – we burn out and break down (tamas).
I have come to understand that we are living in a world that is stuck in a rajasic and tamasic rut.
We are constantly told that hard work is what is most important, and because of this we live our lives constantly straining, leading us directly into a chronic tamasic rut.
What would happen if we, instead, would think about things differently? Either as a scientist & engineer or as a yogi (whichever you prefer), perhaps we could begin to cultivate this idea that the goal is not chronic hard work, but instead, balance. Sattva.
Could we work to do the thing we know we need to do, and as we do, ensure that we are applying the right amount of stress? When we feel ourselves over-stressed and burned out, could we know that it is no longer appropriate to keep pushing forcefully onward? Instead, perhaps that would be a good time to release, to relax, and to reset.
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As a couple of common examples for those seeking to become healthier versions of themselves, oftentimes we are advised to take things on in a way that is over-stressful:
- We tell ourselves we will go workout every single day, even though we’ve been mostly sedentary for a few years
- We tell ourselves we are going to take on a strength routine involving heavy weights, even though we haven’t lifted much more than a light object in years.
- We tell ourselves we are going to fully embrace a new diet, eating a large assortment of new foods while forcing ourselves to give up a whole bunch of foods we have been eating regularly
What happens when we take on too much at a time?
We become too stressed, quickly burnout, maybe even cause some harm, and then give up.
By calling upon the principle that is balancing stress and rest, we become capable of taking on anything, applying the right amount of stress for each point in time. Then we release it, relax, and recover. Later on, we continue applying more stress to keep moving forward when the time is right.
See the cycle, forever continuing forward in a balanced and dynamic cycle?
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On my journey to answering the questions I posed as the foundation of this platform, what has intrigued me time after time is that we have arrived at the same sort of answers from diverse perspectives.
For thousands of years, yoga and Ayurveda have taught the principles of the gunas (sattva, rajas, and tamas) as a framework for living a balanced and harmonious life, while still taking the necessary courses of action to overcome obstacles and get done what needs to get done.
Far more recently, the scientific method and the arising of engineering thought have led us in the same direction. Our world operates on a set of fundamental principles that cannot be broken. When we can strategically apply these principles and work with nature, we become capable of overcoming incredible challenges.
But we must work with, and not against, these natural principles!
Call them the gunas, call them forces. Pick whatever lingo serves you best!
The underlying principles remain the same.
Stress and rest.
Balance.
