Notes from an Ayurvedic Practitioner: What Helps Us Flourish?

Lately, I've been returning to a question that seems to follow me everywhere:

What conditions help people flourish?

I find myself asking this question in my work as an Ayurvedic practitioner. I find myself asking it when teaching yoga, coaching clients, coaching my JV tennis team, facilitating trainings, reading books, or reflecting on my years working with and in in the criminal legal system.

At first glance, these areas may appear unrelated. One involves herbs, food, digestion, and daily routines. Another involves behavior change, supervision, leadership, and organizational systems. Yet the longer I sit with them, the more they seem to be exploring many of the same questions.

What helps people heal?

What helps people grow?

What helps people move beyond survival and into a more connected, meaningful, and vibrant way of living? 

Ayurveda teaches us to look beyond symptoms and consider the whole person. When someone comes to me with digestive concerns, skin issues, low energy, or difficulty sleeping, I rarely find myself thinking only about the symptom itself.

Instead, I become curious about the larger picture. What is happening in their daily life? How are they eating? How are they sleeping? What relationships are they surrounded by? Do they have meaningful work? Do they have opportunities for joy, creativity, and rest? What stressors are they carrying? What support systems are available to them?

The symptom matters. But the context matters too.

Context matters, how are these trees growing and is there something more that can be done to ensure they flourish?

In many ways, I approached my work in corrections similarly.

When discussing behavior change, we often focus on specific risk factors, interventions, or needs. These are important. Yet I find myself wondering about the broader environment surrounding the person. Did they have stable housing? Did they have healthy relationships? Did they experience belonging anywhere? Did they have opportunities to contribute, create, learn, or connect? What did their days actually feel like? I firmly believe that people do not exist separately from the environments they inhabit.

We are influenced by our homes, our food, our workplaces, our communities, our relationships, our routines, and the systems we move through.

This has led me to another question I've been exploring:

Is it enough for needs to simply be met? Or does the quality of those needs matter too? A person may have housing and still feel unsafe. A person may have relationships and still feel lonely or not be safe. A person may have employment and still feel disconnected from purpose (I have experienced this myself). A person may have access to healthcare and still not feel cared for. 

Likewise, organizations can provide resources, PTO, discounted gym memberships, Taco Tuesday, trainings, policies, and programs while still struggling to create environments where people feel supported, valued, and able to thrive.

Flourishing is not only about access. It is also about quality: quality of our relationships, quality of our food, quality of our environments, quality of our routines, and the quality of the care we give and receive.

5 Stars as in receiving the best care.

One of the things I appreciate most about Ayurveda is that it continually invites us back into relationship—with ourselves, with nature, and with the conditions that shape our lives.

This perspective has influenced how I think about wellness, leadership, behavior change, and systems. It has also influenced how I think about care. Care is not simply something that happens in a treatment room, a yoga class, or a coaching session. Care is reflected in how we structure our days, how we speak to one another, how we design workplaces, how we support communities, and how we create conditions that allow people to succeed.

Whether I am working with an individual client, a group of professionals, or an organization, I find myself returning to the same belief:

The conditions we create matter.

And when we tend to those conditions with intention, remarkable things become possible.

This is something I am committed to continually exploring:

Through Ayurveda.

Through yoga.

Through coaching.

Through community.

Through leadership.

Through the criminal legal system.

And through the many teachers, clients, colleagues, and friends who continue to shape my understanding of what it means to be human.

If you’re curious like me, you’re in the right spot.

Thank you for being here. 

Balloon hearts free floating.