Ketabi - Ayurveda

No one likes a know-it-all. Most of us realize theres no such thinghow could there be? The world is far too complicated for someone to understand everything there is to know. So when you come across a know-it-all, you smile to yourself as they ramble on because you know better.

You understand that the quest for knowledge is a never-ending one, and youre okay with that. You have no desire to know everything, just the next thing. You know what you dont know, youre confident enough to admit it, and youre motivated to do something about it.

At Idiots Guides, we, too, know what we dont know, and we make it our business to find out. We find really smart people who are experts in their fields and then we roll up our sleeves and get to work, asking lots of questions and thinking long and hard about how best to pass along their knowledge to you in the easiest, most-accessible way possible.

After all, thats our promiseto make whatever you want to learn As Easy as It Gets.That means giving you a well-organized design that seamlessly and effortlessly guides you from page to page, topic to topic. It means controlling the pace youre asked to absorb new informationnot too much at once but just what you need to know right now. It means giving you a clear progression from easy to more difficult. It means giving you more instructional steps wherever necessary to really explain the details. And it means giving you fewer words and more illustrations wherever its better to show rather than tell.

So here you are, at the start of something new. The next chapter in your quest. It can be an intimidating place to be, but youve been here before and so have we. Clear your mind and turn the page. By the end of this book, you wont be a know-it-all, but your world will be a little less complicated than it was before. And well be sure your journey is as easy as it gets.

Mike Sanders
Publisher, Idiots Guides

Publisher: Mike Sanders

Associate Publisher: Billy Fields

Acquisitions Editor: Janette Lynn

Cover Designer: Lindsay Dobbs

Book Designer: William Thomas

Compositor: Ayanna Lacey

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First American Edition, 2017
Published in the United States by DK Publishing
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Copyright 2017 Dorling Kindersley Limited
A Penguin Random House Company
001305396August2017

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Published in the United States by Dorling Kindersley Limited.

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ISBN: 9781465462763
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2017930736

This digital edition published 2017
eISBN: 9781465471116

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Foreword

In 1991, I wrote Perfect Health , the first book to bring Ayurveda to a mainstream Western audience. I felt like a pioneer who couldnt be sure that anyone would follow me. Now, decades later, Ive witnessed how Ayurveda steadily rose in popularity until it became almost a household word, certainly among anyone interested in Traditional and integrative medicine. Ayurvedas success is owed, I think, to an urgent need. As our healthcare system became alarmingly expensive, as patients felt frustrated by medical care relying almost entirely on drugs and surgery, the search for alternatives was unstoppable.

Ayurveda has come to the forefront because it is genuinely holistic. It represents not just a traditional approach to healing. A complete analysis of body type, psychological tendencies, specific kinds of imbalances, and dietary requirements opens up a host of lifestyle choices. The benefits have spread far beyond the original conception of the ancient rishis who conceived the principles of Ayurveda. This is a system for lifelong well-being based on the timeless notion that the human body, mind, and spirit are attuned to Nature. When this attunement is maintained through conscious choices in everyday life, the healing response of the body-mind itself is reinforced.

Modern life has reached a level of speed, stress, mechanization, and complexity that the simplicity of remaining in tune with Nature has been forgotten or neglected. Fortunately, we are collectively relearning the basics of wellness. For anyone willing to look deeply enough, this involves a reawakening that begins with questions people have asked for centuries: Who am I? What is this body I inhabit? How do I relate to the vast realm of Nature? Ayurveda provides a totally thought-out, practical approach to these questions. In the West theres a long tradition for connecting Nature and human nature, but nothing as profound and systematic as Ayurveda.

Ayurveda may be the worlds oldest health system, but it is in no way dead. In an age where life accelerates too fast, Ayurveda teaches the benefits of going slow by discovering your own natural biorhythms and respecting them. Everyone wants to be healthythis goes without saying. But as life expectancy has lengthened, the average person in old age spends 8 to 10 years coping with disease and disability. This problem can only be overcome by a long-range strategy for wellness. Idiots Guides: Ayurveda is aimed, therefore, at a mass audience of newcomers who desperately need such a strategy.