About Ayurveda @ The Yoga Place

People are all different: They prefer different foods, different environments, different people, different activities and so the list goes on. Here, for example, are some simple observations that most of you will be able to identify with one way or another.

• Did you ever wonder why you love hot weather and others hate it but why you can't stand the cold.?
• Or maybe why you prefer to take it easy in your free time yet some people seem to be constantly doing some form of physical activity or constantly on the move. ?
• Or why you are a light sleeper and sometimes suffer from insomnia while someonelese can fall into a deep sleep in minutes and is able to sleep through anything. ?
• Or why some people seem to be able to eat anything they feel like without gaining weight whereas you seem to put on weight almost by looking at food and also have a really hard time loosing it. ?
• Or why you prefer sweet foods and others prefer savoury foods. Or why you seem sluggish and congested after eating cheese or dairy but can pile on the chillies yet others get instant heartburn from a single chilli. ?
• Or why you make decisions really quickly but others can never make up their minds. ?
• Or why you find yourself sweating profusely and it smells and someone else doing the same thing hasn't sweated at all. ?
• Or why you have real difficulty getting going in the morning but this is your partner's best time of the day?

Ayurveda can explain these differences to us through it's constitutional model. It can show you how you can use the simple knowledge of your individual constitution and nature to make major improvements to your life.

• to improve your general health
• to improve your understanding of yourself and others
• to increase your longevity
• to maximise your potential
• to prevent disease from gaining a foothold in your system.

Ayurveda is a constitution based natural medical system which is based on five thousand of years of successful experience in helping people maintain and improve their health by teaching them how to live in harmony with their own individual nature (constitution) and Nature itself.

Each of us has our own individual constitution - a mix of three doshas which are present in all life. The doshas are influenced by all sorts of things such as the foods we eat, combinations of foods, our emotions, the weather, exercise, the time of day and our lifestyles. Ayurveda is therefore broader than what we typically understand as medicine - it is a Science of Life which recognises us as part of Nature and is based on observable laws of Nature which we can know to be true by our own direct experience.

What Is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda literally means "Science of Life". It is the traditional healing system of India and the oldest system of natural health care, in continuous practice, in the world. It is based on the laws of nature. It is a comprehensive, naturalistic, healing system which deals with the body, mind and spirit. It is the health and healing aspect of Yoga. It is easily applied and orientated around prevention. It aims to raise the general level of health by creating balance in the system and by strengthening the function and tissues of the mind and the body. As such it treats the underlying causes of disharmony and disease and does not work at the level of suppressing symptoms. It treats the person, not the disease.

Ayurveda is an Active versus a Passive form of medicine. Active means you take active responsibility for creating and maintaining your health. Passive medicine places the responsibility for our health in someone else's hands such as taking a passive role of expecting an expert doctor to create your health via magic medicines which require no more action on your behalf other than buying and swallowing them. In Ayurveda the doctor performs the role of teacher, adviser and facilitator. This means that the doctor and client work together in an exploratory process to find what works best.

Ayurveda includes many different forms of treatment- the majority of which the individual has to take responsibility for. These treatments include herbal medicine, dietary and lifestyle changes, body work (Yoga asana and massage), psychology and spirituality (meditation and mantra), detoxification and rejuvenation therapies.

Ayurveda believes that most disease is caused by living in a way that is out of alignment with Nature and our individual constitution - this includes issues like inappropriate diet and lifestyle (stress, pollution etc) and lack of exercise.