MysticMag chats with Crystal Hoshaw, founder of Embody Ayurveda, believes that life becomes richer, more sensual, and more reverent when one slows down—a philosophy that applies to parenting, work, commuting, and eating alike. Her journey with Ayurveda began in 2007 after three years of practicing yoga, providing her with a profound understanding of her subjective experience as part of a greater whole. Crystal shares her passion for Ayurveda as a means of deeper self-connection, viewing daily meals as an opportunity for transformation and sacredness. She has learned to self-regulate, accept her unique qualities, and see herself as interconnected with nature through Ayurveda, which she describes as more than just diet rules or self-care practices, but a way to nourish body, heart, and soul. Crystal’s diverse background as an academic, expat, preschool teacher, yoga & meditation instructor, and corporate marketer allows her to weave together a unique perspective in her work with Embody Ayurveda.
You mention that Ayurveda had a profound impact on your life and helped you understand your connection to self, others, and the world. Could you share a specific experience or realization that exemplifies the transformative power of Ayurveda in your life?
The first time I picked up a book on Ayurveda, I recognized it as a system that validated the way I already experienced my body and the world around me. As a kid, I had the fiery qualities I’d later recognize as Pitta Dosha, but saw that fire wane during times of imbalance to be replaced with more windy, erratic, and anxious qualities. I used to run hot and was barely able to tolerate wearing long sleeves, then during times of imbalance found myself acutely sensitive to cold. Little signs like this made me stop and wonder, even as a kid, “what changed?”
Ayurveda gave me the framework to describe those subtle experiences that conventional medicine simply doesn’t have the vocabulary to acknowledge, and to make sense of and validate those subtle experiences rather than dismiss them.
Ayurveda gives us the language to express and understand our sensitivities in this way, and then the means to deepen those sensitivities for greater connection to our body/mind complex and the world around us.
Ayurveda is often associated with diet and daily self-care practices, but you emphasize that it goes beyond these aspects. How does Ayurveda help us see ourselves as deeply embedded in our environments, and what impact does this perspective have on our well-being?
Nothing has helped me understand my psyche and the way it interacts with my physiology and my environment more than Ayurveda. The self-care practices of Ayurveda are just the beginning. They’re like a foundational framework that creates a nourishing container for our connection to self and world to deepen.
Just like a flower’s growth and flourishing depends on the soil in which it grows, we are also dependent on our environments for our well-being and growth. Ayurveda goes a step further and teaches that our environment is simply a further extension of self, i.e. the two are deeply interconnected.
When you understand the elemental energies at play in your environment, both past and future, you come to understand the energies that made up the “soil” in which you were nurtured. This creates an opportunity to have compassion for yourself and your traits, as well as gives you the power to “amend the soil” to better support who you are and where you are now.
Your background is incredibly diverse, ranging from academia to yoga instruction, marketing, and more. How have these various life experiences contributed to the creation of Embody Ayurveda, and how do they influence your approach to Ayurvedic wellness?
My background reflects the elements that make me, me. I have a lot of fire, which manifests as passion, intelligence, and ambition. I also have a lot of wind, which manifests as dynamism, creativity, and variability. I like creating things, and I like change! I also like forging connections between things that, at first blush, seem very different.
In a sense, I see everything I do as a form of communication: writing academic papers, creating marketing copy, and sharing my love of Ayurvedic wisdom are all ways of communicating my unique perspective to the world. They’re all just expressions of that fiery, windy energy manifesting in different forms.
In the description of Embody Ayurveda, you mention slowing down, savoring life, and letting go. Could you share some practical tips or practices that people can incorporate into their daily lives to achieve this sense of mindfulness and connection?
I focus so much on slowing down, savoring life, and letting go because this is the medicine that I myself need to soothe all that wind and fire energy. This also happens to be the medicine the entire world needs in the 21st century, as we live in an increasingly complex, frenetic, and changing society. Fire and wind energy is everywhere!
As far as practical advice, I offer a really lovely free mini-course on my website that shares one practice per day (most 3 minutes or less) for slowing down and savoring life.
These practices include engaging the senses, like picking up an orange and feeling the texture, smelling the rind, and tuning into and enjoying the visual experience. What does it actually feel like when the color of the peel hits your retina? What emotion or memory is evoked when you smell it? It’s a practice for getting back into the body and a sensual appreciation of basic, seemingly uninteresting things we encounter all the time.
Modern life discourages us from settling deeply into moments like these, and I think our best medicine is simply allowing ourselves to experience the sensory delight of being alive, much like a baby does. Tactile, sensory, and fully embodied.
How can individuals begin their journey toward making peace with their bodies and plates while integrating the wisdom of Ayurveda into their lives?
The first step is arriving in the moment in which you find yourself, right now. Arriving in the body isn’t always easy to do, especially if that body has proven to be an unsafe place in the past due to trauma.
However, Ayurveda contains the tools to reclaim our bodies as our homes, not only conceptually but in a deeply felt way. When we arrive in our bodies, we meet the rich communication it has for us — hunger cues, surges of pleasure, protective pain signals. It has so much to tell us all the time, and learning to listen brings us into harmony. Our body is just another extension of our environment. It’s like the bridge that connects the subtle self with the external world.
If you would like to find out more about Crystal Hoshaw, please visit https://www.embody-ayurveda.com/
