Finally, I’ve learned a beautiful word for some of my worst choices.

Such as drinking coffee on an empty stomach. Ouch. Or visiting celebrity gossip websites. Yuck.

Prajnaparadha. Pronounced “praw-zhna-pa-rawda.”

The Sanskrit word comes to us from ayurveda, an ancient system of medicine in India that seeks to balance the body and keep it disease-free through diet, herbs and lifestyle choices. Prajnaparadha means “crimes against wisdom.”

At its most basic, prajnaparadha is repressing the urge to sneeze or use the bathroom. At its most complex, it’s feeding yourself poisonous thoughts, such as revenge or hate, that can compromise your health. And I mean not only physical health, but also mental, emotional and spiritual health.

“There is something innate within our bodies, as children of nature,” said Sara Carson, a local ayurvedic practitioner and owner of The Body Tree Healing Center. “We have this connection to knowing what’s right or wrong for us, what will keep us in balance and throw us out of balance. So often in our culture, we go against that wisdom, override it, shut it down, disassociate, with more intellectual agendas, like either cultural programming or wanting to do great at something and overriding the signals of our body.”

It’s simple yet challenging. How many choices do you make during a day that you know are not in your best interests? I’m no innocent bystander when it comes to these minuscule and monumental decisions. There was the woebegone choice to eat a slice of ice cream cake several birthdays ago, knowing full well my belly would scream in protest against the devil known as dairy after merely a bite or two. On other days, it’s the work-propelled choice to surf over to Twitter and read half a page of vitriolic tweets before my inner compass guides me out.

“There’s a discomfort,” said Carson. “You’re playing a video game, for example, and there’s a lot of violence. If you tune in to your body and mind after you’re done, there’s agitation, a feeling of uncomfortableness. That’s wisdom telling us that’s not a healthy behavior for us. Over time that does overtake our mind, and we become depressed or anxious or any of the negative emotional mind states.”

Ayurveda lists nine crimes against your natural wisdom, including suppression of natural urges, such as sleeping or crying; absorbing too much violence or wishing harm to your so-called enemy; disrespecting the elderly and ignoring the wisdom and experiences of our elders; and giving up on good habits, such as exercise or eating lots of veggies.

Those nine guidelines are only the beginning, says Carson. What’s most important is listening to ourselves. We are reminded over and over in yoga to always listen to and abide by your body, as it will never lie to you. We have to honor and respect the messages of our being, even when they might be out of step with the person alongside you or what’s prevalent in popular culture.

Carson recommends we disconnect from the external and create space, perhaps through meditation or some other internally focused activity, such as conscious walking, so we can tune into ourselves and the present moment.

“For example, if you eat a meal and feel sick afterward, you might take Tums or cut off from the information that the meal wasn’t correct for you and cover up or repress symptoms, rather than acknowledging that information,” she said. “That’s across the board in our world — to disconnect from messages.”

No doubt I will continue to perpetrate crimes against my wisdom. Some I’ll do knowingly, such as eating too much dark chocolate or feeling envy of my friend’s seemingly perfect Instagram life. Other times, I won’t realize they were crimes until afterward. Much as we always call yoga a practice, working with prajnaparadha is also a practice. But I’m grateful for becoming more present to what the gut ache or mind ache or, maybe most important, the heartache is trying to get through my thick skull.

Contact the writer: 636-0270