Introduction to Ayurveda. Embrace Health & Embody Your True Potential

What Is Ayurveda?

The name “Ayurveda” is derived from two words in Sanskrit, “ayuh” meaning “life” or “longevity” and “veda” meaning “science” or “sacred knowledge.” Ayurveda’s definition therefore roughly translates as “the science of longevity” or “the sacred knowledge of life.”

At its root, Ayurveda is a holistic tradition and way of living that can help each of us to claim and celebrate our capacity for wellness. Ayurveda can help us:

• Sync up with our truest inner nature
• Honor and develop our strengths
• Hone in on our challenge areas
• Redirect detrimental tendencies
• Maintain balance in the face of adversity

In other words, Ayurveda is not simply about taking an herbal formula and waiting for the results. Instead, Ayurveda encourages you to be an active participant in your own journey toward healing.

This involves learning about your relationship with the elements and the unique combinations they create called doshas, which we will explore below. First, let’s take a look at Ayurveda’s background.

What Is Ayurveda?

The name “Ayurveda” is derived from two words in Sanskrit, “ayuh” meaning “life” or “longevity” and “veda” meaning “science” or “sacred knowledge.” Ayurveda’s definitio Ayurveda is not simply about taking an herbal formula and waiting for the results. Instead, Ayurveda encourages you to be an active participant in your own journey toward healing.n therefore roughly translates as “the science of longevity” or “the sacred knowledge of life.”

Ayurveda’s Definition of Health

The practice of Ayurveda as a medicine is believed to date back to over five thousand years, during the Vedic period of ancient India. The earliest known references to Ayurveda and its sister science, Yoga, appeared in scholarly texts from the time called “the Vedas. The Sanskrit word for health, svastha, is a state in which the mind, soul, and senses interact harmoniously to experience a feeling of Self, wellness, and even bliss. Achieving this may seem like a lofty goal, but Ayurveda provides a treasure chest of elegant and insightful tools to help us get there.”

Ayurvedic Principles

These Ayurveda basics are

• Interpreting the laws of nature
• Identifying various states of health or imbalance
• Charting a course toward improved well-being

Examining these core principles will also help illustrate what makes Ayurveda such a timeless art and science.

The Five Elements

Ayurveda recognizes five elements as the fundamental building blocks of nature:

• Earth
• Water
• Fire
• Air
• Ether (Space)

Every substance contains all five of these elements. That said, in a given substance, one or two elements are typically predominant over the others.

Ayurveda also identifies twenty qualities (gunas) that can be used to describe every substance or experience. These qualities are organized into the following ten pairs of opposites:

The gunas are essential to understanding the Ayurvedic principle that like increases like and that opposites balance.

The Doshas and Your Ayurvedic Body Type

Then there are the three doshas (bodily humors): vata, pitta, and kapha. The doshas, or some combination of them, can be identified in various seasons, climates, landscapes, activities, plants, and animals.

Each of them embodies a combination of elements and qualities to create a functional entity—an energetic force of nature.

All three doshas are present in everyone, but the ratio between them varies a great deal from one person to the next.

• Vātaor vata is characterized by the properties of dry, cold, light, minute, and movement. All movement in the body is due to properties of vata. Pain is the characteristic feature of deranged vata. Some of the diseases connected to unbalanced vata are flatulence, gout, rheumatism, etc.^[9][10] Vāta is the normal Sanskrit word meaning "air" or "wind", and was so understood in pre-modern Sanskrit treatises on Ayurveda.^[11] Some modern interpreters prefer not to translate Vata as air, but rather to equated it with a modern metabolic process or substance.^[1]
• Pittarepresents metabolism;^[1] It is characterized by heat, moistness, liquidity, and sharpness and sourness. Its chief quality is heat.^[9] It is the energy principle which uses bile to direct digestion and enhance metabolism. Unbalanced pitta is primarily characterized by body heat or a burning sensation and redness. Pitta is the normal Sanskrit word meaning "bile".^[12] It is etymologically related to the Sanskrit word pīta "yellow".
• Kaphais the watery element. It is a combination of earth and water. It is characterized by heaviness, coldness, tenderness, softness, slowness, lubrication, and the carrier of nutrients. It is the nourishing element of the body. All soft organs are made by kapha and it plays an important role in the perception of taste together with nourishment and lubrication. Kapha (synonym: śleṣman) is the normal Sanskrit word meaning "phlegm".^[13]

Understanding Constitutions

As mentioned before, your constitution, prakriti, or Ayurvedic body type, is established within you at conception and remains constant throughout your lifetime. It represents your natural state of equilibrium and your blueprint for perfect health. Your constitution influences your physiology, your likes and dislikes, your tendencies and habits, your mental and emotional character, and your vulnerabilities toward imbalance and disease. Therefore, learning how to manage your constitution can be truly enlightening.

• A vata imbalance occurs when vata is in excess. This can cause fear, anxiety, physical and emotional constriction, ungroundedness, poor circulation, constipation, dry skin, cracking joints, emaciation, insomnia, twitches, tremors, and other abnormal movements.
• A pitta imbalance occurs when pitta is in excess. This can cause anger, jealousy, inflammation, excessive heat, heartburn, loose stools, migraines, rashes, bruising, bleeding disorders, sharp hunger, an overactive metabolism, and difficulty sleeping.
• A kapha imbalance occurs when kapha is in excess. This can cause attachment, greed, resistance to change, lack of motivation, heaviness in the mind and body, excessive sleep, depression, a sluggish metabolism, congestion, water retention, hardening of the arteries, and the formation of masses and tumors.
• It is also possible for more than one dosha to be out of balance at a given time, or for all three doshas to be imbalanced.

Which Dosha Should I Focus on Balancing?

Remember, if any of the doshas are out of balance (and for most of us, at least one of them is), your constitution will not tell you the entire story.

Your current state of balance may actually be more important because it highlights which doshas you need to pacify in order to return to balance, and it can help you identify the most effective treatment strategies for your particular situation.

There are, of course, some universals in Ayurveda: practices that are generally understood to be beneficial for all of us, regardless of constitution or current state of balance.

But if you follow only general principles, you may inadvertently limit Ayurveda’s extraordinary ability to specifically support you and your changing needs.

there are many other reasons why you might be interested in exploring an Ayurvedic lifestyle. Now that you have familiarized yourself with some of the basic principles of Ayurveda, let’s explore some practical benefits Ayurveda has to offer.

Health Benefits of Ayurveda

Integrating Ayurveda into your life can be immensely beneficial to your overall sense of wellness, but what are some specific issues it can help with? Let’s explore eight distinct areas in which Ayurveda can improve your health:

1. Prevention

The traditional practice of Ayurveda is used to treat the cause as opposed to the symptom. It is therefore considered to be more preventative in nature than many other forms of medicine. Ayurveda can show you how to support your immune system and minimize the stress that often leads to imbalances and illness, getting to the root of the problem.

2. Daily Routine

Learning about Ayurveda can help you establish a dinacharya, or daily routine, to help you feel grounded, stable, and ready to start each day. Your daily routine might involve cleaning your tongue upon waking, practicing some yoga or meditation daily, and soothing your system periodically with a loving oil massage.

3. Ayurvedic Diet and Food Combining

Ayurveda has many diet and food combining suggestions to help maximize the agni, or digestive fire. Learning about your constitution and state of balance will help you determine which dietary choices are right for you.

4. Exercise: Ayurveda and Yoga

Certain asanas can have a cooling or heating effect on the body. Learning yoga poses from an Ayurvedic perspective is helpful for determining which poses would bring you optimal wellness.

5. Ayurvedic Herbal Support

Ayurveda has many insights into the world of herbal medicine. While we always encourage reaching out to a practitioner for additional guidance, discovering more about Ayurveda can help you learn more about Ayurvedic herbs, as well as which method of taking herbs is right for you.

6. Ayurveda for Energy and Vitality

Ayurveda’s approach to energy and vitality is multifaceted, with a special focus on adrenal health. By supporting your adrenals and finding natural sources of energy, you can stay active and doing what you love without experiencing a crash or depleting yourself afterward.

7. Ayurveda for Beauty

The Ayurvedic perspective on beauty focuses on the whole being, body, mind, and spirit. Ayurveda has tips for luscious hair, smooth skin, and more. Its holistic approach will leave you feeling beautiful from the inside out.