CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY SUDHA BULUSU AND DR. SHEKHAR ANNAMBHOTLA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE: My Story

INTRODUCTION: Reinventing the Wheel?

       Why the Wheel?

       Taking Back Your Health and Your Life

       Taking Responsibility for Your Health

       Exercise: Your Commitment to Yourself

CHAPTER 1. A Quick Immersion in Ayurveda

       What Is Ayurveda?

       Balance versus Imbalance

       The Ayurvedic Definition of Health

       The Mahabhutas: The Great Elements

       An Introduction to the Doshas

       The Ayurvedic Mind-Body Type Test

       Interpreting Your Mind-Body Type

       The Six Stages of Disease

       Creating a Symptom Plan

       Exercise: Identifying Your Typical Symptoms

       Checklist for Health: An Introduction to Ayurveda

CHAPTER 2. The Entire Wheel: Living Your Dharma, or Life’s Purpose

       The Importance of Dharma

       Defining Dharma

       Finding Your Dharma

       Exercise: Discovering Dharma

       Intention and Desire: Creating Your Life’s Purpose

       Exercise: List of Intentions and Desires

       Checklist for Health: Dharma

CHAPTER 3. Physical Health

       Food as Medicine

       An Ayurvedic Plan for Optimal Nutrition

       The Twelve Guidelines for an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Eating Plan

       Guidelines for Re-creating the Mind-Body Connection with Food

       Ten Guidelines for Eating Awareness

       Eating for Your Mind-Body Type

       Exercise: Your Dosha-Specific Eating Plan

       Daily Routine and Seasonal Routine: Respecting Nature’s Waves

       Moving Your Body

       Exercise: Creating Your Physical Movement Plan

       Checklist for Health: Physical Healing

CHAPTER 4. Spiritual Health

       What Defines Spiritual?

       Embracing Your Spiritual Self

       Going from Tunnel Vision to Funnel Vision

       Cultivating the Act of Witnessing Awareness

       Exercise: Internal-Dialogue Assessment

       Meditation: Anyone Can Do It

       Thinking Thousands of Thoughts a Day

       Do Nothing or Do Everything?

       Wondering How It Works

       Living a Spiritual Life

       Checklist for Health: Spiritual Healing

CHAPTER 5. Emotional Health

       Do You Run Your Emotions, or Do Your Emotions Run You?

       Tools for Establishing a Healthy Emotional Life

       Emotional Clearing for Each Dosha

       Exercise: Your Emotional Healing Plan

       Checklist for Health: Emotional Healing

CHAPTER 6. Healing Your Past

       What Is Your Story?

       Exercise: The Stories from Your Past

       Exercise: Your New Reality

       Understanding Why You Have a Past

       Finding the Lesson and Moving On

       The Seven Main Chakras: Opening Blocked Energy

       Let Go of Your Past by Taking Three Lessons to the Future

       Exercise: Your Three Lessons to Take to Your Fulfilling Future

       Checklist for Health: Healing Your Past

CHAPTER 7. Relationship Health

       We Are Social Beings Meant to Be in Relationships with Others

       Life Is Not Balanced without Healthy and Loving Relationships

       Twelve Traits of Healthy Relationships

       Exercise: Taking Inventory of Your Relationship Using the Twelve Traits

       Communicating Compassionately

       Minding the Doshas in Relationships

       Creating the Relationships You Desire

       Steps to Attract the Right Mate

       Checklist for Health: Healing Your Relationships

CHAPTER 8. Occupational Health

       The Daily Grind

       Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do

       Discovering the Higher Purpose of Having a Career

       Finding Dharma in a Career That Is Not Exactly Your Dharma

       Honoring Your True Nature: Ideal Work for Vata, Pitta, Kapha

       Exercise: Creating a Plan for Transforming Your Current Job or Finding Your Ideal Job

       Checklist for Health: A Healthy Occupation

CHAPTER 9. Financial Health

       Your Financial Situation and Your Health

       Getting Rid of a Poverty Mind-Set

       Exercise: Taking Stock of Your Beliefs about Money

       Honoring Money as Energy: Giving to Receive

       Exercise: A Commitment to Financial Giving

       Your Plan to Abolish Debt and Create Wealth in Your Life

       Checklist for Health: Healing Your Finances

CHAPTER 10. Environmental Health

       Maximizing Healthy Sensory Input

       Outlining the Environments in My Daily Life

       Exercise: Space-Clearing Commitment

       The Dosha Response to Environment

       Reconnecting to the Outer Environment: Living outside Our Boxes

       Exercise: Ways You Can Live Outside Your Boxes

       Checklist for Health: Healing Your Environments

CHAPTER 11. Breaking a Spoke of the Wheel

       Dealing with Illness While Learning an Ayurvedic Lifestyle

       Healing from Addictions

       What If You Get Stuck on One Spoke and Cannot Move On?

CHAPTER 12. Rolling Smoothly: Enjoying the Ride

       Karmic Action: Doing What’s Right

       On Being Gentle, Humble, Loving, and Kind

APPENDIX: Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar)

NOTES

GLOSSARY OF SANSKRIT TERMS

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES AND AYURVEDIC RESOURCES

REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READING

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR