Let’s be honest about our initial reactions when we feel sick. Usually, we shrug and attribute a cold to humid weather, or a back pain to a non-ergonomic chair. Being reductive, we simply pop a pill to remedy the discomfort, fully believing we will feel better after. But a week later, we don’t, and oftentimes gets worse from there.
The ancient holistic health practice of ayuverda will tell you differently. Ayuverda is the world’s oldest healing system developed 3,000 years ago in India. It believes that one’s health and wellness rely on the delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit in harmony with the universe. We get sick because something disrupts this balance, meaning these three aspects are not in alignment. To maintain health, and to prevent illness, one must strive to attain harmony in all of these.
So I ask you – do you prefer band-aid remedies to your health issues, or more holistic and long-term solutions? If you choose the latter, read on to familiarize yourself with the principles of ayuverda, and how you can restore balance in your life.
Ayuverda: Basic Principles
Ayurveda believes that every person is made of five basic elements found in the universe: space, air, water, fire, and earth. These elements combine in the body as three principal energies or doshas: Vatta, Pitta, and Kapha.
The day we were born, we already have a unique makeup of these three doshas, which is called prakriti in Indian. Most people have a combination of at least two doshas, with one type usually being predominant. Let’s find out soon which is your predominant dosha. But first, let’s familiarize ourselves with the three doshas or main life forces.
The three doshas
1. Vatta is believed to be the most powerful of the three doshas. It is represented by air and space. It controls many aspects of one’s health: breathing, the nervous system or heart, blood flow, and the ability to get rid of waste through the intestines.
Vatta people are usually busy bodies, on-the-go type of people, but as a result of their predisposition and lifestyle, are usually inflicted with excessive stress.
Vatta people are more likely to develop: anxiety, asthma, heart disease, skin problems and rheumatoid arthritis.
What to avoid: eating again too soon after a meal, fear, grief, and staying up too late.
2. Pitta is represented by fire and water. It controls bodily functions such as digestion, metabolism, and hormones linked to appetite, as well as skin and intelligence.
Pitta people generally have a strong appetite, and are able to digest food more easily than the other doshas. However, pitta people are prone to irritability and hot-temperedness.
Pitta people are more likely to develop: Crohn’s disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, and infections.
What to avoid: eating sour or spicy foods, and spending too much time in the sun.
3. Kapha is represented by earth and water. It predominantly controls the physical structure of the body, such as muscle growth, weight gain, body strength and stability, and the immune system.
Those who have a dominant Kapha dosha are said to be solid and reliable people. So resilient are they that they tend to hold onto jobs and relationships, long after their necessity have ended. When Kapha people experience imbalance, they become stubborn and resistant to change.
Kapha people are more likely to develop: asthma and other breathing disorders, cancer, diabetes, nausea after eating, and obesity.
What to avoid: sleeping during the day, eating too many sweets, and eating or drinking watery and salty foods.
Know what your dominant dosha is: take this FREE QUIZ.
Treating Illnesses with Ayurveda: How Does it Work?
Rather than focusing on medicine, an ayurvedic healer will create a treatment plan specifically designed for you. They’ll take into account your unique physical and emotional makeup, your primary life force or dosha, and the balance between all three of these elements. From there, the healer will recommend lifestyle practices you can do to whip the dosha or doshas back into shape, restoring balance in your life.
The “program” is personalized according to the patient’s problem, but the lifestyle practices usually include diet, massage, exercise, oils, and herbs. An ayuverdic doctor may also prescribe a cleansing process—called “panchakarma” to cleanse the body of undigested food. Blood purification and laxatives can be included in the program to achieve this.
How does it work exactly? For example, a Pitta person (represented by fire and water) who is stressed should not do “hot activities” to decompress, such as lifting weights or running. Ayurveda believes you should do the opposite to restore balance. This means a Pitta person should relax with a slow yin style yoga in a cool environment, rather than a hot one.
To avoid getting angry easily, a Pitta person should eat cool and light food, such as coconut and mango. It’s always about doing the opposite.
How to Incorporate Ayuverda in Your Daily Life
Not planning on seeing an ayuverdic healer soon? You can always follow these general lifestyle practices to keep yourself centered and prevent unwanted illness.
1. Wake up early
A proper Ayurvedic practice would involve waking up with the sun every day. Sounds like a chore when you’re not a morning person, right? But dinicharya, or the daily routine that’s meant to maintain physical health, is both calming
and energizing for the body.
For example, the routine in the morning can look like this: Rise two hours before sunrise. Wash the face and eyes, and scrape the tongue. Massage the body with oil. Exercise by practicing yoga and/or pranayama. Bathe, meditate and eat a light breakfast.
To incorporate this in your life, start by taking baby steps. Just start by going to bed early, and waking up earlier than your usual schedule, until you muster enough discipline to beat the sunrise.
2. Try tongue scraping
In ayuverdic medicine, it’s believed that leftover toxins could still dwell on the tongue from the day before, or even two days before. And because ayuverda is a firm believer of how a healthy gut can help promote balance, they prescribe scraping the tongue in the morning every day, for about 7-14 strokes.
3. Eat seasonal breakfast
Eating according to the seasons seems quite obvious if you think about it, even if you don’t practice ayurveda. But many people just eat unmindfully, or according to their cravings.
Ayurveda’s principle is simple: your goal should be to live in harmony with the seasons. So, what the season provides, we accept. For example, if it’s the cold dry season, it’s harvest time for pumpkins, squash and mushrooms. Eat what’s in season, because they are what the Universe provided, and what your body needs according to the weather, Plus, eating seasonal is eco or planet-friendly.
Ayuverdic healers also recommend eating a light breakfast in the hot months, and then a more substantial one in the winter.
Conclusion
Ayuverda or ayuverdic medicine is a broad field of study, and there are many books available online, should you wish to go in-depth.
Researching about it, though, could seem like a bottomless and never-ending pit, but to make things simpler, just remember that at its core, you can practice ayuverda by believing that everything in the Universe— dead or alive, is connected. If your mind, body, and spirit are aligned and in synchronization with the Universe, you will lead a happy, healthy and more balanced life.
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