Ayurveda Pinellas Park, FL. Anu Ayurveda offers Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Consultations, and Ayurvedic Body Treatments.

What Is Ayurveda:

Ayurveda is a way of approaching health that views “healthy” as being balanced and harmonic. A body in the state of equilibrium is a healthy body. Where western medicine focuses on symptoms, and immediate relief from acute health issues, Ayurveda focuses on correcting the sub-optimal lifestyle and dietary choices that end up causing acute symptoms.

Ayurveda is not a quick fix solution. It requires education, implementation, and lifestyle adjustments on an ongoing basis.

Where Did Ayurveda Come From?

Ayurvedic originated thousands of years ago in the area of Asia which is now known as India and is still practiced there today as their primary means of health care. If you are looking for a wholistic approach to health, you should know that Ayurveda is one of the oldest wholistic approaches to health care in the world.

How Does Ayurveda Work?

Balance

Ayurveda seeks to balance the elements of your constitution, but what throws you out of balance?
Your dietary choices, the weather, the seasons, where you live, pain, sleep (or lack of it), environmental toxins, etc. Everything you interact with has an influence upon your body, mind, and life. Each interaction with food, the elements, the weather, and the actions you take of don’t take will either work to bring you into balance or work to throw you out of balance.

Ayurveda teaches you to make decisions and take actions that are going to help restore you as an individual to balance, and help you maintain that balance for a lifetime. , We do this through dietary choices, lifestyle choices, and herbal formulations.

The Doshas

What Are the Three Doshas?

They Are: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha

In the west people think of the three elements as “Wind (Vata), (Water) Kapha, and Fire (Pitta). This is an oversimplification.

Vata, as an example, should be thought of as movement rather than being “wind.” All movement, both internal and external is attributed to

Vata. Vata (movement) – is made up of a combination of Space and Air. Vata impacts all internal activity in the body: breath, muscle contraction, movement of blood and lymph, etc. When Vata it is in balance it is experienced as creativity, intuition, and inspiration. Out of balance, Vata manifests itself as fear and anxiety.

A person who has a significant amount of Vata Dosha will tend to be “in motion” a lot. They will tend to talk and move quickly. They will tend to have cold feet and hands, dry skin, and may have a tendency to feel constantly “ungrounded.” Anxiety and discontent are Vata Dosha at work.

Vata begins to “accumulate” in the summer, aggravates in the fall and early winter, and becomes pacified in the spring. Because of this, you need to get to working on your Vata the season BEFORE it gets out of balance.

Diet: Vata’s qualities are cold and dry. You can offset Vata Dosha by consuming food with the opposite qualities (warm and wet) such as soup, and by avoiding eating things that are cold and dry.

Disease/Health: Vata out of balance can cause health problems involved with breathing, digestion, and because of the cold dry nature, can impact the skin, hair, and joints. Growing old is basically an increase in Vata – no surprise then that dryness and joint problems are common.

Kapha, rather than being just “water” is better thought of as fluid dynamics as well as structure. As an example: Your bones and body structure is the result of Kapha, but so is the fluid characteristic of blood, mucus, and lymph. All of these are Kapha at work.

Kapha (hydrodynamics and Structure) – kapha is Earth and Water. It gives fluidity to the body as well as structure to the bones. In harmony kapha is experienced as steadiness and peacefulness. Unbalanced kapha becomes stagnant, sluggish, putrid, and bogged down (think stagnant water).

Kapha has received a bad name in the west, because people think it means “fat.” Kapha does not mean “big” or “fat.” The truth is, individuals who are overweight tend to have Vata out of balance, which causes them to pack on pounds to increase their mass and help hold them down.

Kapha in balance is steady, sweet, reliable, and strong. They have amazing immunity. Things don’t tend to bother them much. Ayurveda practitioners don’t see people with a lot of Kapha much, because either nothing is wrong, of the fact that it is wrong doesn’t bother them.

Unfortunately, the activities that would help in balancing Kapha are things not very likely to do. They are the one Dosha that could truly benefit from intense exercise, and plenty of variance in their routine. Basically they could use a little “Vata” in their life. The very things that throw a person with a lot of Vata Dosha out of balance, is actually perfect for a person with a lot of Kapha Dosha.

Pitta has come to be known as fire, but it really more about combustion and heat. For instance, you don’t have any fires burning in your stomach, but the heat caused by digestion is attributed to the Pitta element, as is digestion itself.

Pitta (Fire) – is actually a combination of Fire and Water. When balanced, pitta gives rise to focus, drive, and intelligence. Unbalanced, you may become angry, aggressive, and critical.

Pitta Dosha has the primary qualities of hot and sharp. Individuals with a significant amount of Pitta Dosha tend to be warm (they don’t have cold feet and hands). They have drive and focus. If you are looking to get something done, find a person with Pitta Dosha to do it.

Because Pitta is composed of fire and water, seeking out the opposite qualities (cool and dry) can be helpful for balancing Pitta Dosha. And although they will want to, individuals with a lot of Pitta Dosha should avoid hot spicy foods and instead opt for foods that are sweet, bitter, and astringent. Pitta Dosha makes people perspire easily.

Health wise, because of their fire, individuals with a lot of Pitta Dosha can have ulcers, digestive troubles, and suffer emotionally from “burn out.” Pitta Dosha might be easily irritated during the heat of summer, and “cool off” when the weather does. They do better in cooler/drier climates.

Every Person Has All Three Doshas

Everyone has all three doshas in them in varying volumes. Most people will have one dosha that tends to “lead the pack” followed closely by a secondary dosha and then they have some smaller volume of the third dosha present (although some people have a fairly even balance of all three).

It is important to not start identifying yourself as your doshas. More westerners have begun describing themselves according to their doshas – i.e, “I am Vata. I am SO Pitta! My Kapha is getting the best of me.” The goal of Ayurveda is to remove the effects the Doshas have on your life. Dosha literally means “stain.” Identifying yourself as you’re the makeup of your Doshas isn’t helpful.

It is also worth noting that Ayurveda is not just about “the three doshas.” Everything in the world is a compilation of the five sacred elements—Earth, Water, Fire, air, and Space/Ether.

To properly identify your doshas, and your essential makeup for Ayurveda, it is important to work with a qualified practitioner. Many people have made the mistake of taking online dosha quizzes, without understanding the language correctly, and mis-diagnosing their dosha constitution. Not only can this cause you to take improper action and throw yourself even more out of balance, it can cost you a lot of money by buying herbs and supplements that aren’t going to be good for you.

The Difference Between Ayurveda and Western Medicine

Western medicine tends to focus on diagnosis of symptoms and the location within the body of diseases. This is to say that they tend to work on whatever “parts” of the body are malfunctioning.
Ayurveda views disease as the natural outcome of lack of balance in your life. Ayurveda looks at a person as an individual ecosystem that is continuously interacting with everything and everyone around it, and being dramatically impacted by each interaction.

We do not intend to besmirch Western Medicine. Many lives have been saved by the western approach to medicine. Also, Ayurveda should not be seen as a substitute for Western medicine. Drugs and surgery have saved a lot of lives, and are absolutely appropriate when symptoms become out of control. Ayurveda should be used instead to help reduce the likelihood you will require assistance from Western Medicine in the first place.

We also shouldn’t be too critical about the rise and dominance of the western approach to medicine. After all, we as western patients want “the pill” too. Lots of people come to Ayurveda just hoping to be given the “right herb” to fix all of their problems. Many western doctors would love to see their patients take care of themselves, quit smoking, drinking, and take control of their diet. But we would rather have the blood pressure pills than learn to eat whole foods and green vegetables. So we can’t only blame doctors. We as a culture tend to want the quick fix too.

But Ayurveda is not a quick fix. You can’t just get a new herbal formula and not change anything about your life and expect Ayurveda to “work” for you. You have to participate in the process. But we will be with you on your journey to support and help guide you.

To Schedule Your Initial Ayurvedic Consultation – Visit our Contact Page

Summary

The most important thing to remember is that the goal of Ayurveda is to restore you to balance. Ayurveda accomplishes this by balancing out the Doshas through diet, exercise, healthy lifestyle choices, herbal formulations, and more.

Everyone has all three doshas to varying degrees. Each must be balanced to restore harmony to the body, mind, and spirit.

Ayurveda is one of the oldest approaches to wholistic medicine and is still practiced today in India as a primary source of healthcare.

Anu Ayurveda offers Ayurveda Pinellas Park, FL. To learn more about Ayurveda, visit NAMA.org

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