Ayurveda: a wonderful wellness treatment? We'll explain how much more Ayurveda is and what Ayurvedic nutrition entails.
What is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is a health doctrine originating from India and translates to the "science of life". In Indian culture, Ayurveda is a self-contained science in medicine. This healing art is already several thousand years old.
Ayurvedic teaching aims to preserve people's general health and heal existing diseases. At the same time, it is also about promoting emotional well-being.
Ayurveda is based on its own worldview. At the center of this worldview, our body, mind, and soul work together.
Ayurvedic Basic Elements and Doshas
Ether (space), fire, air, earth, and water form the 5 basic elements for this worldview. Ayurvedic teaching uses these elements to describe the concept of Doshas<.>
These are the Ayurvedic life energies that strive for a balanced interplay of psychic and physical units:
The three Doshas:
- Vata = Air and Ether (space)
- Pitta = Fire and Water
- Kapha = Earth and Water
Experts can determine which Dosha type a person belongs to by examining the tongue and pulse.
How is Ayurveda performed?
How can the Ayurvedic basic elements and Doshas now be transferred to the treatment room?
First of all, it must be stated that the Ayurvedic health doctrine has a very holistic approach. Its methods are correspondingly holistic.
Every person is born with a Dosha constellation that regulates our and every individual body in an individual way.
Complaints can arise when one's own Dosha constellation gets out of balance. This can be caused by very different influences.
For example, by factors such as:
- Nutrition
- Climate
- Seasons
- Traumatic experiences
- Places
- Age
The goal of Ayurvedic treatments is to bring the natural and innate types into balance and thus restore health.
The following elements are used in treatment, for example:
- Ayurvedic medicines
- Intake of herbal preparations (e.g., Ashwagandha)
- Ayurvedic spices
- Individual diet plans
- Steam baths and oil applications
- Breathing exercises
- Physical exercises (e.g., Yoga)
- Designing the environment with specific colors, smells, and sounds
The methods can be very individual and do not follow a standardized procedure.
What are the areas of application?
In contrast to Western medicine, Ayurvedic healing is preventive. It involves less reaction to acute concerns, such as in emergency medicine.
Meaning: Act rather than react.
Rather, it is about prevention and early care for discomfort and initial symptoms.
These complaints or illnesses are always to be understood as a system out of balance. The Dosha constellation is not in equilibrium.
In other words, these discomforts arise when one lives contrary to or disregards one's energy principles.
A permanent overexertion of the body, psyche, or senses can thus lead to an imbalance.
In Western medicine, this might lead to the treatment of burnout after the onset of persistent symptoms.
Ayurveda Nutrition
Spices, diet plans, and herbal preparations have already been mentioned as part of Ayurvedic methods. However, Ayurveda offers much more.
Ayurvedic health doctrine includes its own Ayurvedic diet.
One can imagine this as its own system, which primarily focuses on very specific combinations of foods and their compatibility. Fresh food and enjoyment in creative preparation are important here.
Factors such as the following play a role in Ayurvedic nutrition:
- the individual constitution of the person (Doshas)
- the personal daily routine, lifestyle, and possibility for meal preparation
- the season and time of day
- age
- individual taste and preferences
- cultural background
- any existing complaints
- the general physical and psychological state
- use of fresh herbs and spices
The Ayurvedic diet is intended to have a positive effect on the body, stomach, and mind through thoughtful combinations of foods.
Foods are selected, for example, according to the time of day and year, as well as according to the prevailing temperatures. In this context, dishes then have specific mental, physical, and emotional effects.
Thus, dishes can specifically increase well-being or be prepared for the healing of certain body regions.
Typical and practically applicable elements of the Ayurvedic diet are:
- Mindful and slow eating, never under time pressure
- Predominantly warm dishes, even in the morning (e.g., a grain porridge)
- Light meals in the evening, the main meal of the day at noon
- Warm water in the morning, possibly with fresh lemon
- Drinking fresh herbal teas, e.g., with turmeric or fennel seeds
- Cooking with fresh and seasonally chosen fruits and vegetables
As you can see, mindfulness and naturalness, as well as wholesome food for body and mind, are incredibly important in the Ayurvedic diet.
Ayurvedic foresight
Ayurvedic healing aims to cleanse the body with all its diverse methods. Whether through baths, oil applications, yoga, or a healthy, fresh, and Ayurvedic diet.
The overarching goal of these treatments is to strengthen and activate the body's self-healing powers.
It is important to understand that it is not individual measures that bring Ayurveda to life.
Rather, it is the holistic approach and the simultaneous consideration of body, mind, and soul that makes Ayurvedic health doctrine so special.
At CLAV, we have heavily oriented ourselves to the holistic aspect of Ayurveda in the development of our formulations and products.
We rely on well-thought-out combinations of herbal preparations and take into account the well-being of body and mind equally.
100% naturalness, purity, and a mindful approach to active ingredients are important to us.
All our articles are written by nutritionists and checked for content quality by experts.
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