7 Facts Yogis Should Know About Ayurveda
If you’ve spent any time in a Yoga class, you might have come across Ayurveda. It’s understandable if it still seems mysterious and complicated. Ayurveda (pronounced “ah-yer-vey-duh”) is a beautifully complex system, but if you start at the foundation, it is equally beautiful in its simplicity. Let’s start with seven simple facts.
- Ayurveda and Yoga have ancient roots in the Indian sub-continent and have evolved side by side for 5,000 years.
- Ayurveda is the science of life and living harmoniously in the body, mind, and in our environment. It literally translates as: Ayur = life, Veda = sacred knowledge.
- Ayurveda serves as a guide to healthy living and as a holistic system of medicine. The ultimate goal of both Yoga and Ayurveda is to attain a state of physical, mental, and spiritual harmony that will allow us to realize consciousness.
- At a fundamental level, Ayurveda identifies the five elements: Space, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, as the building blocks of all mater.
- According to Ayurveda the 5 elements are energetically represented in the human body by the three vital energies (Doshas): a. Vata (space & air) b. Pita (fire & water)c. Kapha (earth)
- There can be no physical health without a strong digestive fire, Agni (pronounced: “ugh-nee”). Agni is our power to transform nourishment into something we can use to grow and develop both physically and spiritually.
- To maintain health and help alleviate disease, Ayurveda focuses on diet, lifestyle, and herbal therapies to balance the vital energies.
So, the next time you come across Ayurveda you’ll have these seven simple facts to get you started. In order to create a lifestyle, diet, and utilize healing therapies that compliment your yoga practice, you may want to consider learning more about Yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda.
About the Author
Ayurveda: Preparing Your Kitchen as a Ritual Space for Healing
At the change of each season I take a few hours to clean out and prepare my kitchen for the next season. I sort through anything that doesn’t seem fresh or healthy and move it out. I then spend time creating fresh spice mixtures, soup stocks and other staples. This practice is calming and creates space in my life for eating well.
In Ayurveda, a form of wellness that stems from ancient India, but has direct application to contemporary life, we often say that the most important ingredient in food is the consciousness of the chef. Compare, then, the consciousness imbued in food lovingly prepared in the home with food cooked under pressure by a stranger in a commercial kitchen.
The choice is clear: home-prepared food has the potential for more consciousness-value and can, therefore, transmit more radiant health. Even more so when the chef clears the space and their mind prior to cooking. When the kitchen is lovingly prepared to create scrumptious and delightful food, high-value healthy food will be the result.
What can we do to make food a partner in the creation of our radiant health?
