What is Ayurveda
Change begins with awareness. Awareness coupled with Action increases your potential for peak experiences of well-being.
Ayurveda is an ancient system of medicine and healing. It originated in India thousands of years ago. The first written books of Ayurveda are 5-6,000 years old, and no one knows how much farther back the wisdom goes before written history.
Ayurveda is derived from the Sanskrit word “ayus” which means life, and “veda” which means wisdom. So, a translation of Ayurveda is “the wisdom of life”.
The main purpose of Ayurveda is to facilitate balance and help us return to our natural state of health and wholeness.
A main premise of Ayurveda is that health is not simply the absence of disease, rather, it is an ever-expanding state of greater well-being, creativity, and joy.
The main practices of Ayurveda are experiential, requiring, and hopefully inspiring, your active engagement and participation. The choices you make about food, sleep, relationships, daily routines, are the choices that shape your body, mind, and spirit.
Ayurveda recognizes there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” prescription for health, nor are there static interventions. You are a dynamic network of multi-dimensional intelligence, influenced by and influencing everything with which you engage both internally and externally.
What are the Benefits of Ayurveda?
Creating an Ayurvedic lifestyle has countless benefits, many of which can be felt both immediately and long-term. The many techniques available to practice continue to be recognized and validated by research.
In fact, there is a mounting body of evidence that demonstrates that practicing Ayurvedic techniques can even change genetic expression, promoting health, self-regulation, and homeo-dynamic balance.
Pop culture media has made us all aware that our genes and any genetic mutations can influence and/or increase the potential for disease. The critical missing piece of the puzzle for that information is that genetic mutations do not predict disease.
Believe it or not, 95% of your genetic mutations can be turned on or off simply by the lifestyle choices that you make. In other words, for that 95%, there is no such thing as a sure thing. It means that there is no such thing as an "obesity" gene, or a Type II Diabetes gene, or any other lifestyle-related condition. It means that what you eat, think, or do can turn your best opportunity for health on or off. Why not give yourself the best opportunity for wellness?
The Six Pillars of Health
What does following an Ayurvedic Lifestyle really mean?
Interestingly, the 5,000 - 6,000-year-old teachings of Ayurveda are quite similar to the latest information being discussed and demonstrated by certain schools of modern research and science. So, embracing an Ayurvedic lifestyle or incorporating the elements into your life doesn’t mean that you have to go on a pilgrimage or reject modern medicine. Rather, it means shifting your perspective to include quantum ideas and practices that are not only time-tested but also evidence-based.
In short, it means learning all about you and your unique health needs. It means understanding how to include the six most important pillars of health into your daily life.
The six pillars of health are Sleep, Meditation/Contemplation, Movement/physical activity, Healthy emotions/relationships, Nutrition, and Self-care.
What does an Ayurvedic Practitioner do?
An Ayurvedic Practitioner acts as a guide to health and well-being. As an Ayurvedic Practitioner, I will help you identify your Ayurvedic body type (called a dosha) and then help you understand the "Layers of Life" and how they relate to your unique self.
Accessing the wisdom of traditional medicine and weaving it with the knowledge and information of modern medicine, we will explore your current life and craft a foundation of practices that will help shift you closer and closer to your optimal sense of wellness.
Since the goal is Harmony and Balance, Ayurveda rarely focuses on symptom management. Rather, we will explore the root causes of imbalance and begin to make adjustments that can result in both immediate and long-term results. Once Balance and Harmony are in motion the rest of your life begins to fall into place.