Secrets of Ayurveda
Ayurveda is a profound and ancient Indian healing science and wisdom. Ayurveda is a very practical approach to alternative medicine. It can be adapted and integrated into modern life for today’s health needs.
Ayurveda emphasises prevention and encourages the maintenance of your health. Ayurveda is designed to help you stay vibrant and healthy while realizing your full human potential.
Ayurveda fosters correct thinking, diet, lifestyle, exercise, relaxation, meditation and breathing. It also uses medicinal herbs, body cleansing and detox, and rejuvenation programs.
Ayurveda recognizes that each human being responds differently to the many aspects of life. The science of Ayurveda has a wealth and depth of knowledge about the relationship between cause and effect and how this relates to each unique individual.
Origins of Ayurveda
Ayurveda is one of the oldest forms of medicine and has stood the test of time for more than 5000 years. Ayurveda is holistic healing focussing on life, longevity, and your overall well-being.
Ayurveda is a science of life and is also known as the mother of all healing. The word ‘Ayur’ means life and the word ‘veda’ means science or knowledge.
Ayurveda originates from the ancient Vedic culture. It was taught for many thousands of years in an oral tradition from accomplished master sages to their disciples. The principles of many of the natural healing systems now familiar in the West have their roots in Ayurveda.
The two main Secrets of Ayurveda
- The mind and body are inextricably connected. Mind and body are inseparable. Nothing has more power to heal and transform your body than your mind. With correct intention, healing is more powerful and longer-lasting.
- Freedom from illness depends upon expanding your awareness. This brings you into balance mentally and emotionally. Then you extend that balance to your body.
When you meditate you effortlessly expand your awareness and inner calmness. This refreshes your mind and restores balance to your whole being.
The ancient Ayurvedic physicians prescribed many tools including meditation for balancing your mind and body. Ayurveda offers many other practices for expanding self-awareness and cultivating your innate state of balance.
Balancing Your Constitution
Knowledge of Ayurveda enables you to understand how to create balance in your body, mind, and consciousness. It teaches you how to understand your own constitution and also guides you to make long-lasting lifestyle changes.
Everyone has a unique pattern of energy. Your constitution is a synthesis of physical, mental and emotional characteristics. Your constitution is determined at conception in the womb and remains the same throughout your life.
There are many factors, internal and external, that act on you to disturb your energy field. These are reflected or mirrored as a change in your constitution away from your balanced state.
Your emotional state is influenced in many ways. These include diet and food choices, seasons and weather, physical trauma, and family relationships.
You understand how these things affect you and then act to minimize their effects. When you eliminate the cause of imbalance, you will re-establish your original constitution.
Balance is the natural order and imbalance is disorder. Health is order and disease is disorder. Within your body there is a constant interaction between order and disorder. Ayurveda helps you to understand the nature and structure of disorder in your body to re-establish order.
The Three Doshas
Three doshas, or varieties of energy, are present inside everyone and everything. The three doshas are vata, pitta, and kapha. These energies create energy winds so that fluids and nutrients flow to your cells. This enables your body to function and metabolise correctly.
All people have varying amounts of vata, pitta, and kapha. Vata is the energy of movement, pitta is the energy of digestion or metabolism, and kapha is the energy of lubrication and structure.
In Ayurveda, disease is pictured as a lack of proper cellular function. This is caused by an excess or deficiency of vata, pitta, or kapha. Disease is also caused by the presence of toxins.
According to Ayurveda, the entire cosmos is a stage for the play of the energies of the five elements. The five elements are space, air, fire, water and earth. Vata, pitta, and kapha are combinations and patterns of these five elements that manifest in all of creation.
What are Vata, Pitta, and Kapha?
Vata is the subtle energy associated with movement. It is composed of space and air. It governs breathing, blinking, muscle and tissue movement, pulsing of the heart, and all movements in the cytoplasm and cell membranes. When balanced, vata promotes creativity and flexibility. When out of balance, vata produces fear and anxiety.
Pitta is your body’s metabolic system. It is composed of fire and water. It governs digestion, absorption, assimilation, nutrition, metabolism, and body temperature. In balance, pitta promotes understanding and intelligence. When out of balance, pitta arouses anger, hatred and jealousy.
Kapha is the energy that forms your body’s structure including your bones, muscles, and tendons. It is formed from earth and water. It holds your cells together, supplies the water for your entire body, lubricates joints, and maintains immunity. In balance, kapha is expressed as love, calmness, and forgiveness. When out of balance, it leads to attachment, greed and envy.
Healing with Ayurveda
Ayurveda does not focus on disease. Instead, it maintains that all life must be supported by energy being in balance. When there is minimal stress and the flow of energy within a person is balanced, the body’s natural defence systems will be strong. Then they can more easily defend against disease.
Ayurveda works well with Western medicine. It helps you become stronger and you are less likely to be afflicted with disease. Ayurveda also helps to rebuild your body after medical treatment or surgery.
A skilled practitioner of Ayurveda will look for the key signs and symptoms of illness including the cause of any imbalances. They reach a diagnosis by direct questioning, observation, and a physical exam. They may recommend lifestyle changes, adopting a specific diet, or going through in a cleansing program, called panchakarma, to help your body eliminate accumulated toxins.
Your progress towards balance and health is proportional to how well you stick to improvements in your diet and lifestyle. Old habits sometimes die hard and the changes you experience may be gradual.
Remember that life presents you with many challenges and opportunities. You always have the power to decide on your diet and lifestyle. So choose wisely to maintain your balance and health.