Carolyn

TN, USA

Learn to balance your digestive fire and reduce toxins through Ayurvedic wisdom and simple lifestyle habits.

English

In this talk we explore the important concepts of agni and ama. Did you know that your digestion is the basis of good health and a healthy functioning body?

The concept of agni is the digestive fire. When it is strong and functioning well, you can digest and process pretty much everything you eat and experience, and feel well. Experiences and emotions, besides food, also need to be processed/digested by your body. 

If your agni is weakened by eating and living habits that don't suit your body, digestion won't work properly, and ama builds up. When ama accumulates it clogs up your system and in the long run inflammation and disease ensues.

Understanding Ayurveda: Digestion With Agni And Ama

Agni and Amma, the Ayurvedic view of digestion. In Ayurveda, there are some principles that we do not have from a Western point of view, but which are very useful and explain a lot. Two of them are the terms Agni and Amma. Agni is your digestive fire and that is what Ayurveda is all about. Without digestive fire, everything just stops. Because when you take food, it has to be digested in order to get the various building blocks, vitamins and minerals in usable form so that they can perform their function in the right place. If not, you'll be left with unusual, partially undigested food which your body can't do much with. And this is what's called the Amma. If this accumulates, then it can get stuck, so to speak, and eventually it will create inflammation. You can think of your body as a big porous tube system. The cleaner the tubes, the better the input, transit and drainage of everything. The stomach is the campfire place where digestion starts after which it then passes through the intestines for absorption into the circulation so that it gets to the right place. So you can see the Agni as the campfire. And to have a good fire, it needs plenty of good wood on a regular basis. Too small from dry twigs like snacks and meals that are too light are gone easily and do not keep the fire going and so is not very sustainable. A very thick log, like too much and too heavy food, also makes it difficult to keep the fire going. And wet wood, like cold and raw food, doesn't help your fire either. So it is important to take in the right amount and the right heaviness of food for you to keep your fire going or to have the right fire for the right food that you put in. Food stays in the stomach for about two hours and in that time it needs to be digested to be useful. If that fails, then that sets the tone to create Amma. This then ends up in the intestines where a coating is created, so to speak, which prevents the intestines from doing their job properly and they can then cause inflammation if it gets any worse. Because the intestines cannot absorb the nutrients, which are almost non-existent because of a weak Agni, you can imagine maybe that your whole body will suffer from a shortage of building blocks and nutrients. Some people by nature have a stronger and faster digestion where heavier foods can be more important to keep the fire under control so that it doesn't become kind of a blast furnace that burns everything and you are left with nothing. And some people have a quieter fire by nature or due to imbalance and illness. So the fire is a bit smaller or it's almost out and simpler and lighter meals are very important then to be able to strengthen the Agni again. So how do you know if your Agni is strong or not and if you have Amma or not? If having an average of three meals in a day and a daily comfortable bowel movement gets you through the day in an energetic, kind of feel-good way, then you're pretty good. If you don't feel hungry before your meal, if you suffer from bloating or heaviness, excessive wind, burping, bubbling in the belly, poor sleep, pain, no energy, mental brain fog, no clarity, constipation or diarrhea, then that is a sign of there being an imbalance. So how can I improve my Agni again and get rid of the Amma? Since everyone's imbalance is different and everyone's structure is different, the approach is very personal. Therefore, in Ayurveda, a first consultation is a comprehensive intake of about two hours to find out what is going on and for how long. The longer the imbalance has been there, there might be a chance of more inflammation and more blockage and the recommendations that will be given will be adjusted accordingly. What generally works though is regularity and simplicity. We always say that babies need regularity to function well and to feel good, but the same actually kind of holds true for adults. So regularity means taking three meals a day around the same time every day, get up and go to bed around 10 p.m. in the evening, if that's feasible for you, get up at around 6 in the morning, same time every day, have a good night's sleep and eat cooked food that you eat at rest and with attention. That will bring you quite a long way. And it's not just food that you can cook, also your water you can boil. And it might sound a bit strange, but that is one of the best tips I always give to people if they feel bloated or if they have indigestion that can really help to strengthen your Agni and get rid of some of that Amma. So that is a little bit the basics of Agni and Amma and how that functions in your body from an Ayurvedic perspective.