What is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is a traditional healing system and science from India dating back at least 5,000 years. This living body of wisdom uses many different modalities for healing, including using food as medicine, lifestyle changes, herbal remedies, bodywork and extensive detoxification practices. In India, Ayurveda is still practiced as a complete medical system with its own hospitals, treatment centers, and pharmacies that dispense herbal medicine. Here in the United States, Ayurveda is better known for its emphasis on preventative health, promoting a holistic lifestyle, and being a sister science to Yoga. Ayurveda’s emphasis on cultivating a balanced state for mind, body and spirit through diet and lifestyle changes makes it an accessible science for anyone wanting to improve their life.
Ayurveda is based on a traditional philosophy called Sankhya that also influences yoga. There are three ancient texts that provide the foundations and philosophy of Ayurveda. In Mādhya Way’s foundations class, we learn about the principles and practices discussed in these traditional texts and how to apply them to our modern lives.
Ayurveda is best known for its theory of the doshas—sometimes translated as constitutions or humors. Each of us has a unique combination of the three doshas—Vata, Pitta, and Kapha—which makes up our individual constitution, or prakruti, that stays with us throughout our lives. The doshas teach us about our individual nature, physical body and mental personality. However, we may experience imbalances in these doshas based on many factors, such as diet, environment, lifestyle and stress. Through learning more about the doshas, we are able to understand the needs of our individual constitution. We better understand who we are when we feel healthy and balanced. By following the patterns of the doshas like a roadmap, we can bring ourselves back to balance, making informed and educated decisions about our diet, lifestyle, herbal remedies and mental state.
Ayurveda’s emphasis on holistic nutrition teaches us to use food as medicine—eating correctly for our dosha and for the season at hand. Ayurveda believes that agni, or the digestive fire, is the foundation for the health of our entire mind and body. Current research on the microbiome continues to prove the importance of the gut-brain connection and to demonstrate the link between healthy digestion and the functioning of many other systems in the body.
Ayurveda utilizes dinacharya, or daily routines, which follow a circadian rhythm, to maintain our mental and physical well-being. The practice of dinacharya is an age-old and time-tested way of bringing care and mindfulness to each decision we make throughout the day. Creating a morning routine to support the awakening of the body and establishing mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga as the foundation for our day creates a greater sense of presence and well-being. Learning to eat meals with mindful intention, at the right time of day, brings our digestive system into greater alignment and balance.
Though Ayurveda is an age-old wisdom, it is constantly evolving and adapting to fit the needs of the times. Ayurveda helps us understand the mind-body connection. Ayurveda helps us understand why food affects our mood. Ayurveda helps us understand the impact our decisions make on our hormones, immunity, emotional state and overall well-being. Ayurveda sees the individual as a mind, body and spirit. It empowers us to find healing in our daily lives so we have more clarity, wisdom and resilience.
Why is Ayurveda important now?
“By learning about our deeper nature, and the nature around us, we learn to reconnect to the parts of us that move slower, think deeper, and care for our bodies and minds.”
-Anjali Deva
Who is Ayurveda for?
Ayurveda is a low-cost, accessible, common-sense system of medicine that is as important now as ever. In a time where stress, disease and over-medication are rampant, alongside increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and unhappiness, Ayurveda can bring relief, mindfulness, care, and education to many. Ayurveda connects us back to the way of the natural world. By learning about our deeper nature, and the nature around us, we learn to reconnect to the parts of us that move slower, think deeper, and care for our bodies and minds. Many of us are suffering from burnout due to unsustainable lifestyle habits that plague our society. Ayurveda teaches us to slow down, come back inside, listen to a time-honored system, and reconnect to ourselves.
Ayurveda is for anyone open to learning about a holistic, mind-body, ancient way of healing. It is for any gender, age, race, orientation or socioeconomic background. What Ayurveda asks is that you are open, patient, and willing to put your well-being first. Studying Ayurveda and changing your life requires patient dedication. If it were easy to make these daily changes, we would have already. Ayurveda is for anyone who is ready to make change in their life and seeks a mindful way of living.
What is Integrative Ayurveda?
Mādhya Way defines Integrative Ayurveda as a trauma-informed and compassionate approach to Ayurveda that empowers individuals to become active participants in their healing journeys. In our approach, we learn the traditional foundations of Ayurveda from classical texts and weave this knowledge with an approach that fits contemporary life.
To us, Integrative Ayurveda means:
Understanding Trauma: Recognize the existence of trauma symptoms and honor the role trauma may play in an individual's life
Using Sustainable and Local Herbs: medicinal herbs can often be over-harvested when in high demand. We aim to use local and sustainable herbs as substitutes, when appropriate, to prevent endangering traditional herbs.
Social Justice: We understand that often individual imbalances are influenced by the social, economic and political climate they are impacted by. We aim to bring awareness to injustices that negatively contribute to our health.
Accessibility: We modify food recommendations to support an individual’s religious or cultural background.
Yoga & Meditation: We believe that Ayurveda is supported by additional mindfulness practices and we are informed by Yoga and Buddhism where applicable.
Compassion-Based Practice: We believe all Ayurvedic teachings should be rooted in compassion for self and others, and we rely on compassion-based practices to support this throughout the course.
