Why We Get Knocked Off Centre — and a Yogic Fix That Actually Works

🎙️Show Notes

Keywords 

Ayurveda, yoga philosophy, Patanjali, Yoga Sūtra 1.33, mindfulness, mental clarity, stress relief, seasonal rhythms, women's wellness, mind–body balance, emotional wellbeing, nervous system regulation

Summary 

In this episode of Rooted in the Seasons, Katja Patel explores why we get knocked off centre so easily — and how ancient Yogic wisdom can steady the mind in today’s noisy world. She breaks down Patanjali’s four attitudes from Yoga Sūtra 1.33, showing how they reduce overwhelm, soften reactivity, and create mental clarity. Katja also shares an Ayurvedic perspective on overstimulation and rhythm, along with simple, practical tools you can begin using this week to feel calmer, clearer, and more grounded.

Takeaways 

• Small, everyday distractions can quickly unsettle the mind.
• Mental overload creates emotional and physical imbalance.
• Patanjali’s four attitudes offer simple, powerful tools for clarity.
• Our approach to situations shapes our inner experience.
• A steady mind supports digestion, sleep, and emotional resilience.
• Practising friendliness softens comparison and envy.
• One attitude per week prevents overwhelm and builds rhythm.
• Mindfulness practices act as daily mental hygiene.
• Ayurveda explains how overstimulation disrupts balance.
• Rhythm and consistency are essential for long-term wellbeing.

Titles 

Why We Get Knocked Off Centre — and a Yogic Fix That Actually Works
A Gentle Yogic Practice for a Clearer, Calmer Mind

Sound Bites 

• “You’re not missing the answers — you’re just too overstimulated to hear them.”
• “It’s not the outside world… it’s our approach to it.”
• “A steady mind grows from a steady rhythm.”

Chapters

00:00 — Why We Get Knocked Off Centre
01:04 — The Modern Vikshepas: Distractions & Overload

04:18 — Patanjali’s Four Attitudes for a Steady Mind
08:07 — How Mindset Shapes Emotional Stability
09:50 — Ayurveda’s View on Overstimulation & Rhythm
12:33 — Practical Tools: Friendliness, Breath & Daily Rhythm

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🎙️ Rooted in the Seasons is created by Katja Patel at Zest for Yoga & Ayurveda.
 Explore more episodes at zestforyoga.com/podcast

Transcript

Katja Patel (00:00)
Hello and welcome back to Rooted in the Seasons where we explore how ancient wisdom meets modern life with a strong cup of tea and a dose of practical tools for real busy women. Katja Patel Ayurveda diet and lifestyle educator, yoga teacher, teacher mentor and someone who helps you

find calm and clarity with small daily rituals, seasonal rhythms and timeless wisdom.

I've been thinking a lot about why we feel so easily knocked off course. The smallest thing can unsettle us. A comment, piece of news, scroll through social media and suddenly our mind is jumpy, tired, irritated, overwhelmed, or turns negative.

This came up again in this week's Find Your Rhythm Again training where we looked at the ways we drift away from the steadiness we crave, Patanjali called the Vikshepas distractions or energy drains. And although they're over 2000 years old, have a look how modern they sound.

discomfort and disease, mental dullness, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, overstimulation of the senses, false assumptions, giving up, stop and start behaviour. Honestly, you could

lift these straight out of any self-help magazine today. A modern example, overuse of the senses. Think about what happens when you scroll through your phone for 10 minutes. Pictures, videos, tiny sound bites, stop and start.

so much enters through your eyes and your ears in this short amount of time. And everything that enters through the senses has to be digested. If you listened to other episodes before, you know that I mention that regularly. And when there is too much, the mind simply can't keep up.

So this is what Ayurveda calls overuse of senses. And this leads to mental indigestion, which then trickles down into physical indigestion as well.

Here's my experience with that. During my yoga teacher trainer training, I did several other trainings at the same time. Out of nowhere, I noticed that I had no appetite. Nothing was wrong with me. I was simply flooded. My system was trying to digest too much information.

And what follows overload is doubt.

You don't know what to believe. Everyone has a magical solution. So you try one thing. It doesn't work. You hop to the next. Then the next. Stop and start.

your confidence drops, you feel like you're the only one who can't get it right. And before you realise it, you're back in the loop again. Does it sound familiar to you? I definitely can relate to that.

And this is exactly where yoga steps in with something surprisingly practical.

For us it is normal that we look outside for answers when we feel unsettled. But yoga disagrees. It tells us you're not missing the answers, you're just too overstimulated to hear them.

In the Yoga Sutra 133

Patanjali

introduces four attitudes that clear the mind.

and he says that we create a steady, unruffled mind by practising four simple shifts, being friendly towards the happy.

having compassion for the struggling, be delighted in the virtuous and show equanimity towards negativity.

Let's look at these more closely. So they are the direct answer to these distractions. When we are friendly towards the happy, so when someone is joyful, successful and doing really well and it is happy, even if we don't feel great ourselves, we still can be happy with them.

This melts away envy and keeps the heart open.

Or if we meet someone having a hard time, we greet them with warmth. Even if we are tired or struggling too, compassion grounds and connects us.

When someone shows integrity or strong values, we let ourselves feel inspired rather than threatened or critical. It lifts our mind.

And when someone is unpleasant, sharp or draining, Patanjali simply says, step away.

Protect your peace without needing to fix or absorb.

When you put these together, something shifts inside. Maybe not instantaneously, but steadily.

Can you see what Patanjali is doing? He's showing us that it's not the outside world that creates our inner state. It's our approach to it.

It is not the outside world that creates our inner state. It's our approach to it. This is really important because life will always happen. People will always have opinions. Not everyone will like us or understand us.

But the steadiness of our mind comes from how we choose to meet each moment.

And this is what I call the unruffled mine. Not rigid or cold, but spacious, steady and far less reactive.

and when the mind becomes more stable everything improves, our digestion, sleep, our sense of confidence, our relationships with others and our ability and also our relationship with ourselves actually and our ability to choose what's good for us.

Think of happy mind equals happy digestion and upset mind equals upset digestion.

Yoga and Ayurveda agree perfectly here.

If we bring Ayurveda into the picture it completes this story. Charaka explains that the causes of physical and mental disease are are threefold.

wrong use, no use or overuse of time, the mental faculties and the senses. the Sutras, sthana 1 verse 54. In simple terms, when we don't live in rhythm with the seasons, that's the time aspect, when we override our inner wisdom, our

mental faculties and when we over stimulate our senses we create an imbalance.

and the Yoga Sutra 133 is one way of strengthening the mind so it becomes steadier, clearer and more sattvic, means more balanced.

So how do we bring all of this into our real life? Let's make it doable. Here's how you can get started. Rather than trying all four attitudes at once, choose one for the entire week. Start with friendliness. Whenever you see someone happy or doing well, even in tiny ways, practice softening towards that.

One breath, one wow, well done you. That's enough.

a small tool to help whenever you feel yourself reacting.

and this happens and it's completely normal stop

Tap your thumb to each fingertip to interrupt the pattern. Take a slow conscious breath in.

and out.

It gives you a tiny space to choose again.

If you like to explore these tools more deeply, this is exactly what we work on in the Find Your Rhythm again, free training and forms the foundation of my Back to rhythm and stress less live more programmes.

And here's the bigger picture that most people miss. A steady mind grows from a steady rhythm. when your days have a simple structure, your morning routine, your meal rhythm, your regular yoga practice,

your mind naturally becomes calmer and clearer. You don't need to force clarity. You simply create the conditions for it.

So before we wrap up, here's what I would like you to remember. So this week practice friendliness, gently, quietly, consistently. Notice what softens inside you and how your body responds because these tiny shifts make a real difference over time.

You might be asking yourself, do I need to practice all these four attitudes at once? Like I mentioned, no. In fact, please don't do it because it just causes overwhelm. But choose one for a whole week. Rhythm creates change, not pressure. And please don't worry if you forget

react straight away. That's normal. We all do that. Remember, use the stop, tap, breathe and begin again. Every reset strengthens the mind.

And if you wonder how Ayurveda connects to this, these four attitudes build sattva, a calmer, clearer mind. Ayurveda says that when the mind gets overstimulated or unsettled, the body follows. These practices are like mental hygiene.

and they will help you manage stress, not overnight but gradually. When you react less, your whole system settles. Digestion, sleep, confidence, everything shifts.

Thank you so much for listening to Rooted in the Seasons. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe or follow wherever you're listening. That way you won't miss the next one. You can also download my free guide,

my 5 quick ayurvedic fixes from scattered to steady. And join my Sunday Read newsletter. You'll find all the links in the show notes. And of course, I always love hearing from you.

You can message me on Instagram or drop me an email. That's even better actually. I'd really love connecting with you. Until next time, stay rooted in the seasons. Bye bye.