Ayurveda is a proactive approach to prevent and treat illness by maintaining balance in the body, mind, and consciousness through proper diet, fresh food, daily exercise, relaxation/stress reduction, regular cleansing and lifestyle, as well as herbal remedies. According to Ayurveda, the five elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth) manifest in each of us in a unique way to give us our physical and mental qualities. These five basic elements then combine into three constitutions or doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha.
The unique combination of the three doshas in each individual has a specific influence on our physical, mental, and emotional tendencies. When any of the doshas accumulate in the body beyond the desirable limit, the body loses its balance. Every individual has a distinct balance, and our health and well-being depend on getting a right balance of the three doshas ("tridoshas" Determining which dosha(s) are dominant can help you to make the right diet and lifestyle choices that will maintain balance and promote health and well-being on all levels. Ayurveda suggests specific lifestyle and nutritional guidelines to help individuals reduce the excess dosha.
The three doshas, found in our body are:
Vata pertains to air and space elements. This energy is generally seen as the force that regulates bodily functions associated with motion. Vaata governs breathing, blinking of the eyelids, movements in the muscles and tissues, pulsations in the heart, all expansions and contractions, the movements of cytoplasm and the cell membranes, and the movement of the single impulses in nerve cells. Vaata also governs feelings and emotions like freshness, nervousness, fear, anxiety, pain, tremors, and spasms
Pittapertains to fire and water elements. This dosha governs all transformations in the physiology, from the digestion of food to the metabolizing of feelings, emotions and sensory perceptions. Pitta is responsible for vision, maintenance of temperature, digestion, hunger, thirst, softness and suppleness, complexion, glow and metabolism at tissue levels. It increases heat and body temperature as well as appetite and thirst. It maintains the complexion, color and luster of skin
Kapha pertains to water and earth elements. This energy is responsible for growth and protection. Kapha governs the structural integrity of the body, from giving it mass and stability to protecting it from the outside environment. It gives strength, stability, and endurance--both physical and psychological--and promotes human emotions and capacities such as love, compassion, empathy, understanding, forgiveness, loyalty and patience. It governs immunity and resistance against disease and is responsible for strength stability and firmness of body and mind
All people have vata, pitta, and kapha, but usually 1 or 2 are dominant in a given individual. There are numerous things that can drive our doshas to be out of balance such as stress, an unhealthy diet, damaging emotional states, the weather, and strained family relationships and other factors. Such disturbance is expressed in the body as disease. When our doshas become unbalanced, our bodies become subject to sickness, disease, depressive disorder and other destructive factors.
Ayurvedic sessions can easily restore the doshas to their master equilibrium so that we can heal, body, mind and soul.
Prakrati
There are a total of eight disciplines of Ayurveda treatment, namely: |
