There's an old saying "you are known by the company you keep". This saying has a very deep meaning in Ayurvedic psychology.
Who we are psychologically is a result of how we interact with our environment. When we want to check who we are, we must look at the people we feel closest to and with whom we spend the most time. The mind captures impressions through our senses and the most important of these impressions come from our social interactions, starting with our parents or guardians.
Our relationships make the greatest impressions upon us. We must associate with those individuals who elevate us, who bring peace and keep our minds calm and we must keep ourselves away from those who overheat our mind or drag us down. Spiritual teachers, true friends, teachings of wisdom and the beauty of nature are just a few of the examples that we can associate with. It's not always possible to be around such people but we can always keep them in our mind and hearts; keeping attune with their thoughts and deeds.
Frequently surrounding yourself with the company of spiritually elevating people can be very therapeutic.
We have all tried or heard of physical detoxification methods, but Ayurveda talks about the detoxification of mind as well. There are many steps you can take to detoxify your mind:
1. Stop taking toxic impressions for a few days.
2. Pause taking any impressions (means pause interacting with all other people) for a few hours or even days)
3. Maintaining a doshic diet along with certain herbs
4. Pranayam (yogic breathing exercises) to help release undigested and toxic impressions on the mind
5. Mantra and sound therapy. Mantras like AUM help change the Rajasic and Tamasic patterns in our deeper consciousness and make it sattvic.
We must be very careful about how we feed and nourish our minds as the results will manifest over time. It is imperative that we guard our consciousness and protect it from the wrong influences.
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