Ayurveda for Beginners
Understand & Apply Essential Ayurvedic Principles & Practices
By: Jane Rivers
Copyright 2021 by Jane Rivers
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Understanding Ayurveda, or what might also be called ayurvedic medicine, is a specified lifestyle system that people from India have used for more than five centuries. Ayurveda promotes good health practices by way of prevention and the treatment of illness and/or disease through multiple lifestyle practices, and by the express use of herbal remedies and dietary influences.
Ayurvedic medicine tries its best to be holistic, which means incorporating the physical body, the spiritual body, and the mind functionality as a whole. And Ayurveda not only treats an individuals physical complaints, it also adapts lifestyle practices as preferences to help maintain and improve overall health.
Essential to Ayurveda are the 5 elements within nature. More specifically known as: space, air, fire, water, and earth which combine within the human body as 3 symbiotic integrations (vata, pitta, and kapha) known collectively as doshas. These doshas resemble the basic elements of nature and represent the specific functions within the human bodys functioning. According to Ayurveda, a balance of these doshas is said to be required for the optimal health of an individual.
Air & Space = Vata
Vata is in control of muscle and joint movement, along with breathing, and the heartbeat. Additionally, vata controls an individuals anxiety, fear, pain, and other functions concerned with the nervous system of the physical body.
Fire & Water = Pitta
Pitta is said to control bodily functions including metabolism, digestion, intelligence, and skin color. Pitta is concerned with the emotions of anger, hate, and jealousy, too.
Earth & Water = Kapha
Kapha represents the physical structure of the body, as well as the immune system. Emotional responses are said to be controlled by kapha including calmness, forgiveness, love, and greediness.
Interestingly, the doshas are determined at the time of an individuals biological conception and are representative of an individual's physical makeup and their overall character or personality. A person with a vata makeup tends to have a smaller, thinner build. The pitta body type is more of a medium and muscular build. The kapha look is usually bigger and quite well-developed. Most people are considered to have a combination of these doshas, with one type being most dominant overall.
Ayurvedic medicine believes that when an imbalance occurs in any of the three doshas, illness will result. Ayurvedic medicine heals sickness in many ways, including the utilization of herbal remedies, dietary inclusions or emissions, and via exercise and some other complementary modalities which will be discussed later. According to the ayurvedic philosophy, you can enhance the practice through the practice of yoga, by including meditation, and/or counselling as treatment options.
What Can Ayurveda Medicine Do for Humans?
Some people use it to maintain their overall health, as a stress reduction, to improve flexibility, to gain strength, and/or improve stamina. Practices like yoga and meditation can be helpful for people with diseases like arthritis, high blood pressure, and even asthma. Ayurveda also promotes a truer diet for maintaining good health and treating disease. Herbal medicines are prescribed based on an individuals dosha type.
Is Ayurveda Considered to Be a Safe Practice?
Ayurvedic practices such as a great diet and the inclusion of yoga and meditation are safe ways to promote an individuals health. Scientific studies reflect this, too. For a long-term illness, combining Ayurveda medicine with conventional medical treatment can work, however, many choose either one or the other, and a consultation with a trusted practitioner is always recommended.
Some Western conformists do not believe that Ayurveda is completely safe, but its historical use dates much earlier than modern medicine. So, its efficacy may be argued either way, and opinions might differ, depending upon who is arguing, either for or against it.
Ayurvedic herbal doses can be like conventional medicines in that they may cause side effects, trigger allergic reactions, or perhaps even interact with other medicines or herbs being consumed. Some medicines may contain high levels of heavy metals which can be toxic or harmful to the human body. This is true for both Western and Eastern practices.
You should always speak with your trusted practioner about any complementary health practices or medicines, including herbal remedies that youd like to try or are already using. Sometimes its difficult to know whether or not some medicines go together, or if theyre disagreeing by way of functionality within the body.
These next chapters will introduce you to Ayurvedic medicine, and aim to give you a simple, yet broader understanding of an Eastern system which has been utilized for centuries; borne from the heart of India.
Chapter 1: The Easy Way to Wellbeing Through Vital Ayurveda Principles
Ayurveda is considered by many scholars to be the oldest healing science around today. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda translates as the science of life.
The understanding of Ayurvedic principles originated in ancient India and is often called the mother of all healing. It is based upon the ancient Vedic culture and was handed down for many thousands of years in a particularly oral tradition from accomplished masters who taught it to their disciples. Some of this knowledge was printed a few thousand years ago, but unfortunately, much of it is unobtainable. The principles of many of the natural healing systems known in the West, such as polarity and homeopathy, have their basis in Ayurveda, .
Inner Balance & Your Constitution
Ayurveda places great importance on prevention rather than cure, and therefore encourages the bridge to health through close attention and adhesion to balance in an individuals life, including correct thinking, diet, lifestyle, and the use of herbs as medicinal foods, or foods as medicine.
Knowledge through Ayurveda enables individuals to understand how to create the unique and important balance of body, mind, and consciousness according to ones own individual makeup and choice to proceed with a regime, and how to make lifestyle changes to bring about and maintain this overall balance.
