By Raquel Issenberg
Thought by many to be the oldest healing system in life history, Ayurveda translates as the “knowledge of life”.
Ayurvedic medicine has treated the body, mind, and spirit through a personalized approach for thousands of years, which not only observes nourishment and life habits but includes the environment, and how the earth’s transitions affect us.
The expert who enriches this month’s sankalpa, Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist, Shea Walker, considers this individualized healthcare her favorite part of Ayurveda: “I first came to Ayurveda because I was interested in expanding my skills and palate in the kitchen, but then found my way to it because of my own health challenges. I fell in love with the intelligence and the science of Ayurveda. We are like thumbprints... Uniquely individual but also a part of the whole, like fingers are to a hand.”.
The Sanskrit term Prakriti is our essential nature embodied as the combination of the three Doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Vikriti describes an imbalance in one of these three categories, and that becomes apparent in the physical body since we are in constant partnership with nature and the universe on a bigger scale.
“So we have cycles and rhythms that reflect the macrocosm”, Walker expounds, “but we all come with our own histories and experiences which tune our cycles and rhythms in an individual way. What is healing and helpful for one person may not necessarily be the same for another. However, what is true for all is that we are nature, we are not separate from it. And in our modern world, full of conveniences (many of which are great, yes), we are often pulled further away from nature, her rhythms (our rhythms), and what keeps us feeling vibrant.”
The Doshas are the qualities that make us unique, and Ayurveda studies them as a manifestation of the five elements of life in our essential nature: space, air, fire, water, and earth.
Walker reminds us that “health is our birthright and our natural state”, and brings light to the experience of “illness and discord when we forget that we are nature, and we try to live against those natural ebbs and flows; those transitions and seasons of our lives. I could go on for hours about this because I feel this is one of, if not the greatest teaching of Ayurveda!”
Vata is the dosha that manifests as space and air, with a high potential for movement, and a tendency of dryness and cold. When in balance, the mind expresses it as flexibility, creativity, and spiritual awareness. When out of balance, the individual’s psyche can show anxiety, fear, and doubt.
The panchamaha bhutas (the five great elements, in Sanskrit) support us physically and mentally, and when they get out of balance they can create serious disharmony between the environment and our bodies and eventually disease.
Pitta is composed of fire and water, and its energy prompts transformation, metabolism, and heat. When in balance, Pitta brings clarity, focus, and discipline. When out of balance, its energy manifests as anger, judgment, and perfectionism.
Originated in India, Ayurveda is supported by Sankhya (the philosophy of yoga) and is considered to be a “revealed” science to the rishis (sages).
Kapha is based on earth and water, and expresses protection and steadiness. Kapha’s qualities are wet and solid. When in balance the person projects compassion, loyalty, and strength. When out of balance, this dosha shows sloth, attachment, and depression.
Each person commonly has one or two predominant doshas. In lesser cases, an individual can be tri-doshic, a balanced ratio of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, although they can also experience imbalances under extreme circumstances.
Pristine nature
Click and explore the quizzes below to help you determine your Dosha type (but have in mind that independent of your tendencies, consulting a specialist to help you work with your current state through the eyes of the five elements can be the next step for improvement)
△ Banyan Botanicals Dosha Quiz
△ The Chopra Center Dosha Quiz
△ Kripalu Dosha Quiz
Shea, who began studying yoga in 1998 and teaching publicly since 2016, describes her first encounter with this system of holistic health.
“My journey with Ayurveda started when I was in high school. I ran across Maya Tiwari’s book, Ayurveda: A Life of Balance: The Complete Guide to Ayurvedic Nutrition & Body Types with Recipes, in the discount section at a major bookstore. I bought it because of all the recipes and not because I really knew what Ayurveda was. As it happened, the book sat on my bookshelf for quite a few years until I was in my 200-hour yoga teacher training that I started learning more about Ayurveda and the five-element theory”, recounts.
Ayurveda is often referred to as the “sister science” of yoga, and in modern teacher-trainings is observed as a complementary field. But ancient tradition and seasoned yogis can also consider it a first step before start practicing any postures or meditation.
In Walker’s journey, vikriti, her individual state of health, got her closer to these ancient techniques: “(During yoga teacher training) I was experiencing some health issues that hadn't resolved in over four years, and continued to worsen. I knew that seeing an allopathic doctor would result in being prescribed steroids that would only treat the symptoms and not the root cause; I would still be ‘sick’. I did as much as I could on my own through elimination diets and determining what foods would cause a reaction. However, I didn't want to spend my life not eating apples, honey, tomatoes, and various other foods that I really enjoyed.”
For many of us, is only until we find the appropriate nourishment according to our pristine nature that we stop feeling in the dark in regard to the fluctuations of our minds and bodies.
“So I turned to acupuncture as well as enrolling in the Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist program at the Himalayan Institute”, she continues, and “over a nine-month period, I learned more about my inherent strengths and challenges when it came to health and healing. I was guided to remember that I’m not separate from nature and that I was living, in many ways, against my own intelligent cycles of health and well-being; creating an environment that wasn't allowing my body's own healing intelligence to help me.”.
Accounted by historians to first appear around 1,500 BCE in the Rigveda, the earliest of Vedic texts, Ayurveda continues to be a current practice due to its proven efficacy throughout the times, which intersects with Shea’s experience: “Shortly after diving into my training, I began to see vast improvements in several areas of my life, and even though it took about another year or so to really move past the health challenges, I was seeing enough improvement that I knew I was on the right path for healing.”
A gentle approach to this sacred system, according to my teachers, would be to explore it and embody it one step at a time. If we “force” it into our daily habits aiming to affect our matter in a short period of time, then is not Ayurveda, it becomes something else. Honoring our imperfect minds and bodies is the most compassionate method to have an understanding of the manifestation of the five elements in our lives and gradually owning our essential nature.
“Like many others in a healing profession, we feel called to help others because we at one time needed help and couldn’t find it in the current methods available. Ayurveda is a science that uses the wisdom we are naturally imbued with and I feel called to help others remember that wisdom; to remember they don’t need to give the power of healing to anyone else, and that they can create the conditions for a vital, vibrant, and thriving life!”
◢ Sources:
• Yoga & Ayurveda: Self-Healing and Self-Realization by David Frawley, MD
• Eat Taste Heal by Thomas Yarema, M.D., Daniel Rhoda, and Johnny Brannigan
• Articles from Sheila Patel, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for The Chopra Center and board-certified family physician.
◢ Resources of interest:
▷ A brief introduction by The Ayurvedic Institute
▷ General food guidelines by The Ayurvedic Institute
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△ Banyan Botanicals Dosha Quiz
△ The Chopra Center Dosha Quiz
△ Kripalu Dosha Quiz
