If you have come this far, I can assure you that you are looking for a change. This change may be a desire for better health, the answer to a chronic illness, or simply a desire to find the tools to become more autonomous and to decide about your own well-being.
The goal of Ayurveda is to bring your body, mind and spirit into perfect balance, into their natural state of equilibrium. We all have this natural state of balance in us from the moment we are born, but modern life pushes us towards imbalance.
We tend to repeat habits that are detrimental to our health and we don't realise it. Over the years, we accumulate toxins and weaken our optimal state of health. This imbalance manifests itself in many ways: some people sleep too few hours, others eat foods that are harmful to them, some feel fatigue all day, others spend the day with negative thoughts, many are stressed or have digestive or menstrual problems... the list is almost endless...
Modern medicine simply tells us that the definition of health is the absence of disease. But it is clear that health is much more than that. Ayurveda takes into consideration each person as a whole and seeks to re-establish harmony in all that constitutes him or her, to find the balance among body, mind and spirit. Ayurveda promotes, prevents, heals and nourishes our health.
One of the reasons why Ayurveda continues to inspire me today is its broad definition of health. We find this definition written in Sanskrit, in one of the ancient texts of Ayurveda, the Sushruta Samhita, written by India's first surgeon in 600 B.C.:
"Sama dosha Samagnischa Samadhatumala kriyaha
Prasanna atmenindriya manaha Swasthya ityabhidheeyate".
Here a healthy person is defined as one whose doshas (biophysical humours) are in balance (sama), as well as his agni (digestive fire) is also in balance (sama), and also his bodily tissues (dhatus) and his wastes (mala). The quotation explains that the balance must be perfectly in good condition - joyful or blissful (prasanna) between the person's mental state (manas), his sensory organs (indriyas) and his soul (atma). The person who has this right balance, according to Ayurveda, is a healthy person.
A microcosm within the macrocosm
Take a minute of your time and ask yourself: "What habits do you do on a daily basis that weaken your health?"
In the process of healing and change you are about to undertake, you must first know yourself. The lack of this knowledge is the root of many diseases. Ayurveda will give you the tools to understand your current state of health. You will understand that we are a microcosm in a macrocosm, that we are made of the same 5 elements that the universe is also made.
Our outer environment and our inner environment are constantly changing with the seasons, the weather, the time of day or the phase of a person's life. For good health, we have to adapt to these environmental changes. We must know what to eat and how to live in accordance with these changes. All this knowledge gives you autonomy and decision-making power over your health.
Most of us, until now, have looked for the solution in a pill, denying that what we need is to hold ourselves accountable.
Only in the process of listening to ourselves, knowing ourselves and desiring that change, we can find the solutions that will bring us into perfect balance.
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