Advice for the current economic times: Combining Schumpeter's Creative Destruction, Shiva and the Doshas.

"(this process of) mutation-if I may use that biological term-that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in."

Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950), Austrian economist who popularized the term "creative destruction" amongst economists.

Was Schumpeter talking about Shiva?

Acknowledging that the messy, painful way that capitalism and free markets use to regulate themselves is part of their essence is hard, especially when going out of business, job losses and unbearable debt become personal. Yet, yoga reminds us that birth-decay-death is the nature of everything in the material world, so how could banks and business stay out of it? Through this imperfect process called crisis, the economy will evolve, the fittest will survive, new business will emerge, some old will thrive and some will die, becoming food or fuel to something new.

So what can we do? Well, if we oversimplify reality, and that's what all models do, there are only two strategies:

1) sit and wait, conserving resources for when the recovery/renovation begins;

2) go out and find opportunity within the chaos.

Sit and wait is a good strategy, as long as you can really wait patiently. You have to have enough resources, material and non-material, to endure the dark night of the economy, and you have to be able to really stay relaxed even if you are in the path of the storm. Otherwise, rather than saving energy for new beginnings, you are draining yourself with worry that is not even getting expressed as action.

Finding opportunity within the chaos is also valid, and the caveat is that you have to truly believe this is possible. Your sense of adventure has to be greater than your risk aversion. Your faith has to be greater than your fear. And if that does not sound like you, don't feel frustrated. Instead, take it as a sign that there's a better way to use of your energy.

I can't think of anything wiser than finding what your natural inclination is and working with it. Treat it as wisdom, as guidance from the forces that always accompany you. One starting point is to look at your dosha, your body-mind type from Ayurveda.

Can you see how kaphas can sit and wait? It's the best thing form them to do, given their patience and stability. The same choice would make vattas space out and pittas spin on their wheels. Vattas and pittas will be drawn to taking risks, vattas because their essence is change, and pittas because their fire makes them go-getters.

Whatever your strategy is, as yogis, we know that power is made available to the extent we can remind ourselves of our nature, our purpose and our practice, specially as we go through turbulent times. How do we manage ourselves when there's a gap between what we want and what we are getting? Isn't that what we practice yoga for? The more I read the media, the more I turn to yoga and my tradition for guidance and inspiration. And in case you need some of that too, here's a message from my teacher Rod Stryker.

This reminder may not be very practical and yet, it's really the most valuable thing I can offer you. My endless curiosity for the convergence between practical and mudane aspects of life and the mistery and power of spirit leads me to think that, at this very moment, it's inspiration, more than specifics, what we all need.