How To Manage Pitta in the Mind

I have a lot of pitta in the mind (fire and a little water). 🔥

This means my tendency is towards getting shizzle done, thinking there must be a “right” and “wrong” way to do things, wanting structure, and well, plain old perfectionism.

Yes, yes these ARE also some of my superpowers.

Over many years, I’ve learned some surrender, faith, softening, and cultivated an ability to hold two contradictory things as being true at the same time.

I attribute much of this to my yoga practice (not simply the poses, but the breathwork, prayer, mantra and meditation), my Ayurveda teachers, and some good old Jungian analyst therapy.

The #1 energetic antidote to pitta is PLAY.

Getting in nature helps me get out of my head. Back out on a freakishly warm February day. Chataqua Park in Boulder, CO. Photo by Ron Michael Photography.

That means doing something for the sheer joy of it.

Like a kid climbing a tree or pumping hard to get a swing up higher. Like you riding your bike and feeling the wind blowing in your hair coast down a hill. Like creating a picture by dipping your fingers in paint and smearing it across a canvas.

Doing something that isn't "productive."

I forget this all the time.

This week, I joined a screenwriting class and wow. We read each other's pages out loud, so I got to put my acting hat on and channel my inner teen and my inner cranky old lady. I was also reminded how hilarious I can be on the page -- I got to dust off a pilot I wrote over a year ago.

I had so much FUN.

I still, even in my play, sometimes get caught up in the "right" way to do things. I'm truly practicing letting that go.

So my reminder to you this week is simply this: go do something for the sheer joy of it. I know you need it, and your soul will thank you.