Marma Appreciating 7 ways of learning

I got interested in Ayurveda some forty years ago. Trained in Western nutrition, I was fascinated with its different ways of looking at therapeutic foods, with plans tailored to individual needs. It really changed how I practiced as a health educator. A decade later in the ‘90s I simultaneously fell in love with Polarity Therapy and Ayurveda Marma Therapy. Doing hands on work iin these fields enlivened my practice again. Today, still, half my professional practice is hands on, and half is more verbal communication sessions. With Marma appreciating 7 ways of learning has helped me understand better what my clients need, and how to focus our work. What do I mean by this?

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

We each learn in different ways. Some of us learn more easily with words: writing, reading, talking. This is linguistic intelligence.

Others of us ground with numbers and reasoning: statistics, counting (logical mathematical intelligence).

Others of us learn best through seeing: images, photos, maps, films (this is known as spatial intelligence).

You may be among those of us who learn easily through sound: music, mantras, chanting, singing (musical intelligence). The knowledge of Ayurveda was originally transmitted through slokas, verses chanted aloud. Some vaidyas, Ayurvedic doctors, still do this when teaching. 

Others of us learn most readily through hands-on experiences that involve our whole bodies, including our hands: touch, marma therapy, polarity therapy, sports, yoga, cooking classes, dancing, gardening. (This is known as bodily kinesthetic intelligence.)

Learning can happen directly from social interactions and relationships: group discussions, sports, mediation, cooking classes (interpersonal intelligence). 

And there’s the learning born of self-knowledge: contemplation, journalling, meditation, pranayama, self-insight, yoga (intrapersonal intelligence). Often there are two or three modes of intelligence that work best for you, though you may have learned how to operate in all seven spheres of learning. These perspectives come originally from the work of Dr. Howard Gardner, as taught now by Dr. Thomas Armstrong. See 7 Kinds of Smart here.

There are lots of different ways to learn Traditional Western education leans heavily on words, numbers, and sight. Yet much of how I’ve connected with Ayurveda in this life is through hands-on whole body experiences. I’ve tended to teach and work from the kinesthetic intelligence place: cooking, touch, guided therapeutic self-care.

Polarity Therapy and Marma Therapy

Polarity Therapy and Marma Therapy are hands-on methods that can be used together to calm the nervous system when we need it. If you’re a hands-on kind of person, here’s one direct example of this.

Seva Van Why and I created three simple modules to introduce people to my favorite hands-on healing flows. From a “Marma appreciating 7 ways of learning” perspective, this course engages many ways to learn. There’s hands-on guided experience, visual, words, interpersonal, and intrapersonal learning (reflecting on how you feel as you contact the therapeutic marma points on yourself). You can sing to marma points. You can count breaths, as in I’m sending loving kindness to this spot for three breathes at my own pace. To find out more about this distance pre-recorded class, click here.

A Tibetan Buddhist perspective on the present moment

My root teacher HE Garchen Rinpoche addressed these times last week in an online and in-person teaching during the Chenrezig Drupchen. As one of his students, I face this present moment with all of me: my body, mind, heart, and habitual patterns. No part of me can escape the present, though for sure I have creative methods of avoidance.

To understand a little of where Garchen Rinpoche is coming from, when young he fought against the Chinese invasion of Tibet as a Tibetan freedom fighter. He was imprisoned for twenty years in a Chinese prison camp. Since his release, he has travelled the world, teaching. His primary US center is in Chino Valley, Arizona. These words were written as I heard them. Any errors are my own.

Sangha, he said, is not just the Tibetan Buddhis community. Sangha pervades everywhere in this world, wherever kindness and compassion are. Whoever possesses this quality of bodhicitta, including animals acting out of loving kindness, is sangha. 

When asked in a Q & A (6/7/25), In these dangerous times, with world leaders not agreeing, what can we do, how do we practice?

Garchen Rinpoche responded, We gather together in places in the world due to our karma. Since there is ripening karma, we need to be careful not to accumulate further karma.

He continued, Stay in a state of immeasurable equanimity and immeasurable love. Whatever spiritual practice you do, hold with immeasurable love and equanimity.

Destructive Thinking Can Become Habitual

Here in the US, we’ve made lots of movies. Films with thousands of car chases, millions of shoot em up cowboy shows, you name it. Since childhood, any time going past a television set, it’s been easy to be confronted with total violent mayhem. These movies and programs are expensive. This movie we’re in right now is very expensive. 

To maintain immeasurable love and equanimity is a tall order. To hold with openness free of fixation, to not assume the worst, or head for our worst selves, our most distracted angry scared selves, is hard. 

Peace, calm, loving kindness as options

Yet we don’t know what’s going to happen. There are a lot fewer films showing people being kind, grass growing, people working their way through chaos to something positive and healing. Yet these moments are happening right this minute, all over the world. There’s lots of sangha. We connect through kindness, compassion, loving equanimity, empathetic joy. To bring forward the healing warrior inside, the peace keeper in this moment. To remember how many of us there are, right now. 

The next week or two could be especially volatile. What do you want to lean into for yourself? How will you hold with this widespread sangha?

One option is to access Marma appreciating 7 ways of learning for ourselves. We don’t have to be a scholar to heal. We do not have to have a certificate to bring forward peace and calm. We can trust our deepest kindest selves right now.

It might be you just pause, place your right hand on the center of your chest (Hridaya marma) and your left at your navel (Nabhi marma) and take three deep breathes, breathing in loving kindness, breathing out loving kindness…. May this help everybody somehow.

Image, Listening with Marma thanks to Iza Bruen Morningstar

Amadea Morningstar is a writer and health educator working in the US. Her latest book is Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda. You can access her course about Polarity Therapy and Marma here. Here’s more about Polarity Therapy offerings.

You can also find this blog on Substack.