What is Ayurveda?
With it’s growing popularity in the West, you may or may not have heard the term Ayurveda. Or maybe you have heard someone say three seemingly odd words, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Either way, I am going to try and portray a bite-sized explanation of what has been passed down from a lineage of teachers and what Ayurveda has come to mean for me.
Simply put, Ayurveda is a gradual form of medicine that works with diet, lifestyle, and herbs to reach the root cause of disease, giving support to ease discomfort, aid longevity and quality of life. Dating back to Ancient India over 5,000 years ago, Ayurveda’s influence stems from the example of nature and the belief that all matter, individuals, and cells contain the 5 elements of Ether/Space, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.
These elements combine to create what we know as as the three doshas or the tridosha; Vata (ether+air), Pitta (fire+water), and Kapha (water+earth). Each one of us has a unique make-up of these elements and the qualities that they exude. Therefore, each one of us has a unique way of maintaining balance as we go about our life, some methods more aware/informed than others. Much like the language, Sanskrit, that carries this system, Ayurveda is best understood by experiencing and embodying it’s practices. Ayurveda provides many tools to empower us to re-learn how to listen and become informed of our highest nature, mostly through diet, lifestyle and herbs.
More profoundly, Ayurveda is the science to find and maintain homeostasis in this ever-changing and evolving body, mind, planet, solar system and universe. And that is it’s beauty. It is a living breathing science of how we can live our best life by being more connected to ourselves and the vibration that connects us all. We are Ayurveda.