Looking back to my earliest memory of health, I know I have always been health conscious but not necessarily healthy. At age twelve, I read Richard Simmons’s book on weight loss and watched his videos. I went on to practice Jane Fonda–style workouts and started taking yoga at age eighteen. And so my passion for healthy living began.
But it wasn’t until I was twenty-eight years old and the mother of two small children that my life took a sharp turn. I received the devastating news that no one ever wants to hear: “You have cancer.” My diagnosis was thyroid cancer. All through the process, I kept asking the doctors, “What caused me to get cancer?” None of them could give me a remotely intelligible answer. I was dissatisfied with this lack of knowledge. Deep within me, I knew there had to be a reason why, at twenty-eight, I had allowed myself to become ill. And I didn’t stop until I found that reason.
In a serendipitous event, I was led to Ayurveda, a five-thousand-year-old medical system developed in India. A friend handed me the book Perfect Health, by Dr. Deepak Chopra, and it introduced me to a medical system that understood my question. The practice of Ayurveda takes you to the root cause of illness by helping you understand how it originates in you.
After some time, I began practicing an Ayurvedic lifestyle and saw results. I did not refuse traditional allopathic treatment, however, and went through two surgeries and radioactive iodine treatments. But Ayurveda helped me on my path to healing, because at my core I knew that if I didn’t discover the “why,” I would only allow myself to get sick again. I also combed through every aspect of my life to search for answers. My logic was that, even if one area of my life stayed out of balance, I was opening myself up to illness. The idea for this book came out of my multifaceted approach to healing. My journey through illness and into wellness again made me believe that if I was frustrated by the current medical system, with its lack of answers, there must be countless others who are equally frustrated.
The Wheel of Healing with Ayurveda is designed to help you find the answers you seek by discovering your own inner healer. The advice I offer you is practical, easy, logical, and intuitive. Ayurveda takes a balanced approach and does not suggest you go to extremes. Be wary of any health plan that does. Know that, like anything authentic, change takes time. Be patient with yourself and don’t expect results overnight. On my personal journey, it was three years after my cancer treatment before I felt I was in optimal health. That’s longer than most people will take. But if I had given up, I wouldn’t be where I am today, at age forty-three: much healthier than I ever was before age twenty-eight.
To quote one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Chopra: “Ayurveda is not about adding years to your life, it’s about adding life to your years.” Let’s begin adding life to your years. You came to your life, this parenthesis in time, so you could live it.