What is Ayurveda?

What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda, which literally means “The knowledge of Life and Longevity”, is a 5,000-year old powerful natural healing science from India. Health as defined by Ayurveda is a balanced state of body, mind and consciousness. Ayurveda focuses on the whole person and seeks to correct the imbalances at the root cause of disease, instead of focusing just on the symptoms, which is the allopathic medicine paradigm. Health is not just the absence of illness or symptoms – it is a state of balance, radiance, joy, vitality and peaceful wellbeing. Whether you are looking to alleviate occasional digestive issues, or obtain relief from a chronic condition, Ayurveda can help you.

Central to Ayurveda is the concept of the 5 elements (Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth), all of which are present in the universe as well as in the human body – the human body, according to Ayurveda, is viewed as the microcosm of the macrocosm that is this universe.

These elements combine to form the constitutional makeup of our or bodies – known as ‘doshas’ or bodily humors (Vata, Pitta and Kapha). We are all born with a certain combination unique to our constitution – Ayurveda views this is our perfect state of balance. However, as we move through life, we move away from this state of balance through our diet, lifestyle choices and other stressors. This state of imbalance manifests itself as disease.
Ayurveda offers various tools to support the body and mind in its journey back to balance and health. Ayurveda employs a holistic approach, offering food programs, medicinal herbs, Yoga, meditation, breath-work, aromatherapy, sound and color therapies, rejuvenating therapies like massage and other balancing lifestyle practices to bring us back into balance. As each one of us is unique as viewed through the lens of Ayurveda, so too are the tools employed to bring us back to a perfect state of health – thus Ayurveda offers us the most customized approach to health, once again very different from the ‘one size fits all’ paradigm of allopathic medicine.

About Sandhiya Ramaswamy MBA, CAS, PKS, CMT

Sandhiya is a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist (CAS) and a Panchakarma Specialist (PKS) from the California College of Ayurveda (CCA), one of the premier schools of Ayurvedic education in this country. She is the Director of the Southern California campus of CCA and a current faculty member.
Born and having lived in India, she has had a lifelong and intimate connection with Ayurvedic healing. It is through Ayurveda that Sandhiya found relief for her chronic asthma, which led her to the complete study of this powerful system of medicine.
She is a certified Yoga teacher, having studied with Johnny Kest of the Center for Yoga in Michigan and Ganga White and Tracey Rich of the White Lotus Foundation in California. She received her Thai Massage training from Saul David Raye.

Prior to embracing the healing arts and sciences as a full-time vocation, Sandhiya spent many years in the corporate world. This experience provides her with a unique perspective and understanding of the daily work-life-family stressors that most people face.

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HELPFUL LINKS:

Yoga Journal: Ayurveda
http://www.yogajournal.com/category/h...

Oil Pulling
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/...

Discover your Dosha
http://www.yogajournal.com/article/he...

Ayurvedic eating
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/...

Using Oil for your hair
http://www.yogajournal.com/article/ay...

Ayurvedic Tea - Yoga Journal
http://www.yogajournal.com/slideshow/...

Ayurveda at the Chopra Center
http://www.chopra.com/our-services/ay...

Intro to Ayurveda
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/ayurveda/...

Ayurvedic Institute
https://www.ayurveda.com/