61. Stop Managing Stress: Start Shifting It With Ayurveda

How is it that stress seems to run the show in our lives? In this solo episode of Everyday Ayurveda with Kate, Kate O’Donnell takes us beyond the usual “stress management” advice and introduces a more empowering approach: stress shifting.

Instead of treating stress like an unchangeable force that we just have to “handle,” Kate breaks it down into clear categories, reveals how much of it is actually self-generated, and explains why so many of us are living in a constant stress reflex. From an Ayurvedic perspective, she connects this to Vata imbalance, nervous system agitation, and the feeling that “everything is not okay” even when nothing is actively wrong.

Kate shares practical ways to reconnect with nature’s rhythms, anchor the mind in something larger than the to-do list, and use simple daily routines to change your internal relationship with stress. You’ll learn how to stop overscheduling, how to say yes less, why morning and afternoon “sense breaks” matter, and why rest is not a luxury but the direct antidote to stress.

If you’ve ever felt like stress is calling the shots in your digestion, sleep, mood, or hormones, this episode will help you see it more clearly, soften its grip, and choose a different way of living inside your life.

What You’ll Learn

In this episode, Kate explores:

• Three types of stress
• The stress reflex
• Ayurveda, Vata, and the anxious mind
• Reconnecting to nature’s rhythms
• Daily rhythms that shift stress, not just manage it
• Overscheduling, productivity, and self-worth
• Time-specific practices for the nervous system
• Kate’s top four stress-shifting habits
• The bigger picture

• Stress is not just about what’s happening in your life. It is also an internal reflex that you can retrain.
  
  
• From an Ayurvedic lens, chronic stress often points to Vata imbalance in the mind and nervous system.
  
  
• Reconnecting with nature’s rhythms – morning light, lunar cycles, daily Dinacharya – gives your mind a bigger frame than your inbox.
  
  
• Overscheduling quietly keeps you in a constant state of activation. Leaving white space on your calendar is a powerful practice.
  
  
• Ten minutes of phone-free morning time, an afternoon sense break, and earlier, screen-light-free evenings all help shift your stress baseline.
  
  
• You do not have to earn rest. Rest is the opposite of stress, and it is okay to lie on the floor for five minutes and do nothing.
  
  

• Ayurvedic concepts: Vata imbalance, Dinacharya (daily routine), Ayurvedic daily clock
  
  
• Practices: Morning quiet time, tongue scraping, warm water, sense breaks, tracking the moon, saying yes less, planned rest
  
  
• Book: Everyday Ayurveda for Women’s Health by Kate O’Donnell
  
  

For more on daily routines, lunar rhythms, and women’s health, explore Kate’s books and resources at healwithkate.org.

If this conversation helped you see your stress patterns in a new light:

• Subscribe to Everyday Ayurveda with Kate so you never miss an episode.
  
  
• Share this episode with a friend who is always “managing stress” but never really getting relief.
  
  
• Take one small step today: choose a single daily touchstone from this episode – a 10-minute morning pause, an afternoon sense break, or a five-minute rest on the floor – and commit to it for the next three weeks.
  
  

Ready to shift your relationship with stress, rather than just survive it? Join Kate and the community at healwithkate.org for more Ayurvedic tools, courses, and seasonal support.

Connect with Kate: https://www.healwithkate.org
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