The Ayurvedic Lifestyle

Ayurveda & Beauty
Ayurveda and Yoga
Ayurveda and Food
Ayurveda and Western Medicine
 
Ayurveda & Beauty

Beauty in the traditional West is seen as external perfection and is predominately associated with youthful skin, curvaceous bodies, healthy hair and nails.

In this view, inner health and even happiness are the effects of external beauty. On the contrary, Ayurveda believes good health and inner balance will result in naturally good looks. Beauty is therefore considered as the direct effect of a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
 
In Ayurveda, appropriate daily care and sound physical health is the equation to achieving and maintaining real beauty. This includes daily routines and habits to bring out the best in each person, respecting one’s uniqueness instead of being in conflict with it.

Ayurvedic treatments feed the body with nutrients that are balancing to one’s unique constitution, developing the mind through positive thought, meditation and awareness.
 
In the dynamic, often intoxicating bombarding of our senses, it is even more crucial to find the correct balance between inner and outer beauty for a healthy lifestyle.

Ayurveda offers a unique combination of rejuvenation treatments, detoxification programs, specific dietary routines and physical exercises that will help bring out your natural beauty.

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Ayurveda & Yoga

Ayurveda originated as part of the Vedic science, an integral spiritual science devised to give comprehensive understanding of the entire universe. Vedic science also includes Yoga, meditation and astrology, and sets forth Ayurveda as its background.
 
Ayurveda and Yoga are therefore sister sciences, both aimed at developing the physical, mental, intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels of the human being.

As such, Yoga cannot lead us to its ultimate goal of liberation
until and unless we compliment a regular Yoga program with an Ayurvedic lifestyle. At the same time, an Ayurvedic lifestyle is not complete without regular specific Yoga practice.  
 
An Ayurvedic approach to Yoga will honor the individual’s uniqueness by devising specific postures (asanas) suited to a particular dosha that will result in maximum benefit for the individual.

For example, Vatas will do well with poses (or asanas) that are grounded and calming like Lotus or Tree, Pittas benefit from cooling and relaxing poses such as Moon Salutation and Fish, and Kaphas do best with asanas that are energizing and releasing, like Plow and Shoulder Stand.

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Ayurveda & Food

Modern approach to food is often filled with counting calories and nutrients and taking supplementary pills to make up for deficient vitamins and minerals or any other imbalance in our health and wellness.
 
Ayurveda’s approach to proper nutrition is deeply different, emphasizing the importance of eating certain foods at regular times to create perfect functioning of the body.

Its simplistic approach lies in determining the correct diet based upon an individual’s constitution. In this view, foods not suitable for one’s constitution may affect natural resistance and cause disease.
 
Ayurveda classifies foods in six different tastes (or rasas): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, pungent, and astringent. Every food is also categorized by its own heating or cooling energy (or virya) and post-digestive effect (or vipak).

When food substances of different taste, energy and post-digestive effect are combined together, one’s agni (or digestive fire) can become overloaded, thus inhibiting the enzyme system and resulting in production of toxins in the system.

While it is true that an individual's agni largely determines how well or poorly food is digested, Ayurveda also teaches us universal diet and digestion principles all of us can adopt in our daily life. For instance, food combinations are considered of great importance in a healthy diet. This means one should include all the six tastes in each meal, taking the right combinations of fresh fruits, starches, proteins and fats at regular times and intervals of the day

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Ayurveda & Western Medicine
 
Ayurveda sees disease as an imbalance in an individual’s combination of doshas. This leads to the fundamental Ayurvedic concept that two individuals manifesting the same symptoms may not have the same path or solution to treat the cause.

Concentrating on the source of the disease, Ayurveda uses natural products and treatments to eliminate the cause of the disease, re-establishing an individual’s correct balance of body, mind and soul.

In this view, all diseases that stem from physical, mental, emotional and environmental conditions are treatable. In particular, Ayurveda has proven extremely successful in treating conditions such as migraines, weight problems, nervous stress, and joint pains.
 
Western allopathic medicine on the contrary is based on hypothesis, experimentation or observation and a final conclusion. In this approach, once the cause of a disease has been identified, it is treated and eliminated through chemical drug therapies.

The limit of this approach lies in its ability to diagnose an illness when symptoms cannot be identified, what Western medicine refers to as a functional or untreatable disorder. 
 
Despite this difference in approach, Ayurveda has for centuries influenced medicines throughout the world, from Rome to Greece, from Egypt to Persia, from China to Japan.

For instance, reconstructive surgery was used in India since 800 BC to restore beauty on princes who were disfigured while fighting. These techniques were translated and further developed by European surgeons, eventually evolving into modern plastic surgery.

In the same way, Chinese acupuncture derived from an Ayurvedic technique called Marma, and Japanese Zen philosophy drew inspiration from Ayurveda. Most interestingly, the word shampoo derives from the Hindi champna, the practice of washing hair in India dating back to at least the 4th Century BC, when it was documented by the Greek historian Strabo.
 
Today, the World Health Organization recognizes Ayurveda as
a complete health care system, and with the surge in holistic medicines Ayurveda is being rediscovered both in India and in
the Western world, where an increasing number of doctors are incorporating Ayurvedic principles to their practice, capitalizing on the best elements of both approaches.

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