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Mind/Body Index
(click on interest)Our Natural State
How Do We Get Sick?
Ayurveda holds that specific disease conditions are symptoms of an underlying imbalance.
It does not neglect relief of these symptoms, but its main focus is on the big picture: to restore balance and to help you create such a healthy lifestyle that the imbalance won't occur again.
Perhaps the most important lesson Ayurveda has to teach is that our health is up to us.
Every day of our lives, every hour of every day, we can, and do, choose either health or illness. When we choose wisely, nature rewards us with health and happiness. When we persistently choose unwisely, nature, in her wisdom, eventually sets us straight: She makes us sick and gives us a chance to rest and rethink our choices.
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Mind & Body : Ayurveda
"Understanding your body's natural rhythms and needs activates unbelievably powerful disease-fighting processes within you." Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Ayurveda (aa-yoor-vey-da) is the world's most ancient system of preventive health care. Developed in India over 5,000 years ago, Ayurveda (which translates as "knowledge or science of life") is a natural approach for creating balance and strengthening the body's healing abilities. Ayurveda teaches how to achieve optimal, physical, mental and emotional health by living in harmony with nature. Many of the natural healing principles now familiar in the West have their roots in Ayurveda.
Life, according to Ayurveda, is a combination of senses and balanced health is maintained by right thinking, diet, lifestyle and the use of body, mind and consciousness according to our individual constitution (prakriti). So it is of little wonder this holistic health care system bases its major premise on the symbiosis of mind, body and spirit. Any imbalance in this synthesis results in physical ailments.
Its practice seeks to reestablish the harmony between the body and its habitat by creating the optimum health environment. Unlike modern western medicine, which focuses on treating the symptoms of an illness, Ayurveda lays out guidelines not only for the ill but for the healthy, acting as a preventive and curative medicinal science. It deals with a wide variety of fields like gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, anatomy, E.N.T., dentistry, herbal drugs, Ayurvedic dieting and nutrition and rejuvenation medicine.
Bodily Constitutions
What is unique to Ayurveda is practitioners teach patients to understand their unique bodily constitutions showing them how to use diet, massage, herbs and lifestyle adjustments to harmonize body, mind, and spirit.
"Constitution" is the keystone of Ayurvedic medicine and refers to the overall health profile of the individual, including strengths and susceptibilities. The subtle and often intricate identification of a person's constitution is the first critical step in the process. Once established, it becomes the foundation for all clinical decisions.
Ayurveda concentrates on the source of the disease using natural treatments to eliminate the root cause and promote the patient's inherent self healing abilities by improving immunity. The ultimate goal is to create a state of holistic health for the individual, consequently creating a healthy society.