WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AYURVEDA

You may have heard about this ancient body of wisdom in the media or through a friend, as more and more people are opening to its world view, but what exactly is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is the art of daily living in balance with nature’s rhythms and includes all parts of life, body, mind and spirit. This ancient holistic medical system originated in India over five thousand years ago. It is a system of natural wisdom of health and healing that is more relevant than ever considering the current health crisis and how that has shed light on the fact that the top-ranked causes of death in developed countries are nutritionally and lifestyle controllable diseases.

Ayurveda’s goal is to maintain an optimal state of health, but it can also heal disease, always carried out by entirely natural means.

To cure the disease, Ayurveda focuses on the root cause of the problem, not the symptoms. This holistic approach involves understanding all levels of life from a person, including diet, lifestyle, exercise, work, relationships and emotional well-being, to create a unique protocol that can target and eliminate the root cause of the problem.

Doshas-Gunas

Ayurveda states that five elements exist in all matter:  Ether, Air, Water, Fire and Earth. They are the building blocks of nature, and they are also part of human nature. The way we function and behave is directly related to them. These combine into the three bodily energies, or doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. 

3 Doshas

Ether+Air= Vata energy of movement 

Fire+Water=Pita energy of transformation 

Water+Earth=Kapha energy of the structure

All of us have a combination of the three doshas in one way or another, hence the great variety of individual differences in the world. The doshas are ever-changing, both internally and externally. They change with the seasons, the stage of our own lives and the time of the day. To maintain optimal health, we must constantly adjust to these changes.

Depending on the doshas' quantity and quality, there are seven constitutions: Vata, Pitta, Kapha, VataPitta, VataKapha, PittaKapha and Tridoshic.

3 Gunas: they are the three essential universal qualities of the world; Sattva, purity and clarity, Tamas as inertia or heaviness and Rajas as Activity.

Law of opposites and the Twenty qualities

When you understand these concepts, you can be one step closer to making optimal daily choices towards self-healing. These qualities are the extremes of a continuum, and they are in all organic and inorganic matter as qualities of the elements and the doshas.

According to the two fundamental principles in Ayurveda, these states affect each other: like increases like and the opposite brings balance. Our unique constitution (Prakruti) will always have tendencies towards similar qualities, excessive increase of these qualities will create imbalances. When this happens, then the opposite qualities will help bring us back to a balanced state.

Prakruti and Vrikruti

The unique combination of the three doshas at conception is called Prakruti. In modern terms, this will be your DNA, your unique combination of physical, mental and emotional characteristics that remain almost constant during life.

I say almost because although our essence remains constant, we are constantly being affected by internal and external change like stress, unhealthy diets, lack of sleep, repressed emotions etc. Our Prakruti (doshic balance) can shift into an altered state of the doshas, your current health state or Vrikruti (imbalance). Our goal is to restore the doshic balance towards our Prakruti, not balance the doshas in equal amount.

The importance of lifestyle choices and why the “quick-fix mentality” does not work:

It is widespread knowledge that environmental and external factors affect the expression of our genetic makeup, but we fail to see the effects on us from our chronic lifestyle issues. We would rather shift the responsibility onto other factors instead of taking ownership of our health and the choices we make.

This is where Ayurveda comes in: we can take back our power through its emphasis on the role of daily routine, seasonal changes, lifestyle, diet, regular exercise and herbs to maintain optimal health.  

Given that the only certainty in life is change, to maintain balance, we must constantly adjust. Some adjustments will happen naturally due to the change of seasons, for instance, and if you already live in tune with your body, mind -soul and nature. If you have lost your connection, you will require some guidance in shifting to conscious choices and developing self-awareness. 

What Ayurveda is not…

1. A passive form of therapy: requires commitment and action. It asks each individual to take responsibility for their own daily choices that will affect their daily life as a whole. These simple actions for prevention and self-healing will develop wholeness and growth towards fulfilment.

2. A quick fix: forget the idea of “a pill will fix everything”. Discovering the root cause of disease and bringing anyone’s constitution into balance requires a holistic approach. However, simple lifestyle and diet changes can create incredibly positive effects on people's lives even from the beginning.

Optimal health

...is to be in a state of equilibrium within the mind, body and soul as well as the three doshas. All three doshas are present in all of us at all times, but their proportions might vary. Maintaining their quantity and quality in proportion is our challenge to remain healthy.

Ayurveda, as a science of life, encompasses the whole of life. Why? Because as a holistic system, it states that our mind, body and soul are in constant interaction with each other, other people and the environment. It is all connected. To maintain health, Ayurveda considers all these different layers and elements of our life and their interconnection.

Ayurveda considers the 'Four Pillars' of Diet, Lifestyle, Sleep and Energy Management as the foundations of reaching optimum health. By focusing on them, one can start developing self-awareness and a present mind which is the first step towards shifting our habits to make better choices for our unique constitution.

Agni, Ama and Ojas

Ayurveda considers that health starts within our digestion. By having your Agni or digestive fire in optimal condition your health and immune system will be too, as Agni is the main source of life. The concept of Agni as fire (on the elements) is that which governs transformation. If Agni cannot digest food properly, then AMA will appear in the body (undigested food toxins) - this can lead to disease.

A key element in this process is Rasa or taste because it kick-starts the digestion process. The six tastes have different effects on the doshas. In Ayurveda, we work with them within the food and herbal remedies in the appropriate dose to bring balance.

One of Ayurveda's fundamental principles is that food must be enjoyed to feel satisfied and nourished, which positively affects our Ojas or immunity So flavoursome meals that include at least four or five of these tastes, prepared with care, will support our vitality.

The seven dhatus are the seven bodily tissues: plasma, blood, muscle, bone, bone marrow, and male/female reproductive tissue. They hold the structure of our body and mind, and our digestive capacity determines them From the moment we ingest food to the last part of digestion, we aim to nourish and build these tissues.

Ojas is the essence of our tissues and is related to vitality and immunity. It circulates through the heart and around the body as our natural resistance to fight against infection, ageing and disease. 

Ayurveda it is not about diet or weight, it is about eating good food for your body to keep it nourished, healthy and happy!