Ayurveda is a comprehensive approach to health that encompasses all facets of our life and living. Body, mind, and spirit; work and relationships; diet and the external environment; season of the year and daily routine; physical exercise and spiritual practices—all these and many additional factors are treated in the classical Ayurvedic texts.
From our deepest spiritual concerns (Who am I? Where do I come from? What is the purpose of my life?) to the most practical and mundane (How can I heal a sore throat? How much exercise is best for me? What foods should I eat?), the five-thousand-year-old living tradition of Ayurveda has answers that are practical and meaningful.
As a system of natural medicine, Ayurveda is not about curing symptoms, although it certainly accomplishes that. Rather, it is about building a way of life that creates health and healing. To make the best use of Ayurveda—and of this book—you have to put its principles into action. Just to run to the remedies section (Part III) when you have a health problem is truly to miss the richness and beauty of Ayurveda, which is a complete science of life that can enable every individual to be healthy and happy.
I would not be telling the truth if I said that incorporating Ayurveda into your life is totally simple. It is not. You will probably have to learn some new principles, as well as understanding the nature of your constitution, your mind-body type. It is likely that from what you learn, you will want to make changes in your daily routine, such as waking up earlier or changing the amount and type of exercise that you do. You may decide it would be wise to modify your diet, perhaps dropping some favorite foods that may be inappropriate for you. Such changes in our habitual way of living do not happen overnight.
On the other hand, I would also not be telling the truth if I didn’t say that every small step you take toward an Ayurvedic lifestyle will have an immediate and positive effect on your body, mind, and consciousness.
To incorporate Ayurveda into your life, you have to start somewhere. Many people find it easiest to begin by following some of the dietary guidelines for their body type. Then gradually, little by little, you can adopt some of the recommendations for the daily routine, adjusting your daily schedule to be more in tune with nature, or using some of the suggested breathing exercises or meditation practices.
The underlying assumption of Ayurveda is that each individual has the power to heal himself or herself. We each have the ability and the freedom to recover our health if we become ill, or to maintain vitality and joy of living. We can do this by understanding our body and its needs, and by attending to those needs as they change in response to the ever-changing outer environment and our inner world of feelings. For this, consciousness is the key: moment-to-moment awareness of what is happening.
In this book, I discuss more than a hundred health conditions, from acne to yeast infections, from headaches to athlete’s foot. Within those major categories of symptoms, I describe literally hundreds of smaller signs and symptoms. These signs and symptoms are nothing but the body’s language. By presenting us with a headache, diarrhea, fever, toothache, joint pain, insomnia, emotional anxiety, fear, or insecurity, the body is talking to us, letting us know that something is wrong, something is out of balance and needs our attention. It is the language of tridosha, of vata–pitta–kapha.
Ayurveda says that whatever symptom we experience is an expression of doshic imbalance. To restore good health, we have to reestablish balance by juggling the three doshas, favoring this one or pacifying that, in order to attain harmony between vikruti, the present doshic state, and prakruti, the original state of our constitution.
Ayurveda teaches us how to read this language of signs and symptoms. When, for example, there are signs of excess heat in the body—skin rash, heartburn, a flaring temper—we know that pitta dosha is in excess and needs to be pacified. Similarly, out-of-balance vata may speak to us in terms of insomnia, constipation, or anxiety, while kapha imbalance may communicate its presence as lethargy, overeating, or congestion in the lungs, sinuses, and chest.
We should never disregard this language of tridosha. It is the foundation of health and happiness, as well as of ill health.
In this book I have tried to share with you how to take care of those symptoms—not symptomatically but radically, fundamentally, basically. I have tried to show you how to use the symptoms as a catalyst to reestablish balance within the tridosha, as well as between body, mind, and consciousness.
By any method, creating balance within body, mind, and consciousness, and within vata–pitta–kapha, is called healing. The purpose of this book is to help you in your healing efforts, so that you can attain total health in your life.
In health and healing, there is an equal sharing of responsibility between the physician and the patient. In this book, really, every reader is taking on both sides of that responsibility. By using your own insight, perception, observation, and judgment, you are becoming your own physician and healer. By following the recommendations given in this book in order to bring healing, you are taking the role of the patient. You are the healer, and you are the person who receives healing.
Use this knowledge well to bring health, harmony, and happiness into your life.