Ayurveda (say it “eye-yur-vay-duh”) is a very old system (at least 5,000 years) of obtaining and maintaining health.
In fact, our Western medicine we have today comes from this tradition, which is why the two work so well together.
The main difference between Ayurveda and Western medicine is this: Ayurveda is all about prevention, Western Medicine is all about fixing problems. Most people practice Ayurveda every single day, and utilize Western medicine for checkups, vaccines and to fix problems.
Ayurveda Overview
Ayurveda looks at who you are as an individual person. Ayurveda figures out what you tend to be prone to (i.e. bronchitis, colds, runny noses) and what your current lifestyle is like. Ayurveda prescribes a routine for you, the individual person, rather than just blanket recommendations (like in the US, we have the food pyramid and the recommendation to exercise an hour a day). It’s not that the food pyramid is bad, or the hour a day thing is wrong, it’s that you are a unique individual and perhaps some adjustment might be necessary and beneficial.
For example, take myself. I used to drink milk all the time. I also used to have a constant runny nose, post-nasal drip, and bouts of bronchitis. An Ayurvedic Practitioner recommended that I reduce the dairy to something I eat rarely (instead of daily) and instead focus on getting calcium and other nutrients from other sources (like veggies). Three years later, I have not had one single bout of bronchitis, rarely have a runny nose and post-nasal drip is a thing of the past.
Ayurveda breaks everything down into 5 elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether (also called space … not like ‘outer space’ but the space that air fills up). Take cheese for example. Cheese has a lot of the earth and water elements in it. It’s dense, heavy and cool. Crackers? They have a lot of the air element and some earth. They’re crunchy, dry and hard.
What is Your Dosha Balance?
There are also three doshas in Ayurveda. Everyone has all three, it’s just we all have a different dosha balance. The doshas are Vata (vah-tah), Kapha (Kah-fah) and Pitta (Pit-tuh). Vata is made up of the air and ether elements. Pitta is fire and water. Kapha is earth and water.
You can find out your dosha by taking this short quiz here: http://doshaquiz.chopra.com/
Ayurveda also talks a lot about the principle of ‘like attracts like.’ For example, let’s say you have been really distracted lately: you have Facebook up on your laptop, are texting your friends on your cell phone, have a paper you are supposed to be writing sitting in front of you, the TV is on and you have music playing in the other room. Distraction overload. You are likely to be eating at irregular times if you’re like this, or skipping meals all together. This scenario is likely a description of someone with a vata imbalance, which means they have too much air and ether going on. So, do we recommend eating popcorn and crackers? No, we recommend eating 3 meals a day, the same time every day, with warm, cooked veggies and grains. This person likely wants to just nibble here and there on things like pretzels, which have a lot of the air and ether elements in them. That will not balance them out, it will just increase the imbalance. With “like attracts like,” they want what they are. Eating the warm, cooked veggies and grains at consistent times each day will help ground them and in turn, help them be less distracted.
References
If you’re interested in learning more, a great book to start you off is Ayurveda: the Science of Self-Healing by Dr. Vasant Lad. If you are into cooking, a great Ayurvedic cookbook is Eat, Taste, Heal: An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living by Thomas Yarema, Daniel Rhoda and Johnny Brannigan. It will go over the basics of Ayurveda as well and includes handy, color-coded recipes and charts.
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Meet the Writer: Cole Imperi is a business owner, designer, and yogi. When not working at her creative agency, Doth Brands, you might find her on the mat teaching yoga or behind a laptop writing her blog, Simplicity Embellished. Cole is a 200-Hour Certified yoga teacher and working on completing the Himalayan Institute Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist
Certification.