What is Ayurveda?

What is Ayurveda? And how do you pronounce it?

The translation of Ayurveda (ai-yr-vay-duh) is The Science of Life. It is an ancient wisdom medicine philosophy that is based on the mind/body/spirit connection with nature. Today, many of the Ayurvedic teachings have been affirmed by western science.

Ayurveda has its roots in the Indian culture and considered by some scholars to be the oldest healing science. My teacher likes to describe it as our “grandmothers medicine.” It encompasses a holistic approach that does not separate the body from the mind or spirit. It is a preventive and restorative system of tools and lifestyle techniques that looks for the root cause of disease, in order to heal from the origin of the problem.

The ancient teachers of Ayurveda said that the information must be given in a way that it can be digested by the person in the place and time that they are receiving it. In other words, it needs to work for you, today!

Ayurveda is a highly personal type of healing. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach and many times when a patient comes to an Ayurvedic practitioner with a question about how to fix a problem they are having, the first answer will be, “it depends.” Lifestyle, diet, stress levels, the season, age, the time of day, and your energy are all taken into account when determining the best route to health. Ayurveda teaches that health is Svatha, a Sanskrit word that means to be situated in the truth of who you are!