Ayurveda 101

So far, we've talked about hormones, the nervous system, stress, and the impact of stress on the female body. And we've talked about some of the root causes of stress in modern women. So I'm gonna start talking about what you can do to support yourself, how to see your body in a way that is more in alignment with the rhythms of nature. So there's two things I would love for you to take away from this. Number one, that your body is a reflection of nature, and number two, that the female body is deeply rhythmic. Much of the stress that we experience is because we've been living in this linear world, not really understanding how to attend to our rhythms, how to understand how our body is speaking to us, and what these four primary rhythms that I'm gonna talk about are. The beauty of Ayurveda is that it gives us a system for understanding that — understanding how our body is a reflection of nature, understanding the nature of these four primary female rhythms, and giving us language for understanding that. So I'm gonna give you a little background into Ayurveda, how you can start understanding what we call the three doshas and the five elements that that's based on, and giving you more information about what these four rhythms are. Ayurveda is a complete mind/body approach to healing. It is traditional medicine from India that dates back between 4,000 and 5,000 years. It's the sister science of yoga. Ayurveda and yoga are essentially two sides of the same coin. In the language of Ayurveda and yoga, Sanskrit, ayus means life and veda means knowledge. Ayurveda means the knowledge of life — the knowledge of and the wisdom of how to be alive, how to be here in this human body, how to support our own prana or life force, how to be resilient and adaptable. The principles of Ayurveda are that your body is a reflection of nature, each person's physiology is unique, and so we treat the root imbalances of issues, not just the symptoms, so we're getting to the root cause. We remove obstacles to healing so your body can heal itself. Your body has a powerful, innate healing intelligence, so what we're doing is removing the obstacles to healing. And we look at the whole person, not just physically, but also spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. From the Ayurvedic perspective, everything is based on the five elements, meaning that the entire universe, including your body, is composed of the five elements of space, air, fire, water, and earth. And those elements have qualities. These qualities, what we call gunas, are described in terms of pairs of opposites. And when those elements take form in the human body, they create what we call the doshas. So the doshas are forces of nature that carry out the physiological functions of the body and create the structures of the body. The qualities of the doshas are also understood in terms of pairs of opposites. As I said before, the elements and the doshas have qualities. These qualities are described in pairs of opposites, and we come back to that basic principle of healing: like increases like, opposites balance. And we create balance or imbalance through what we take in through our five senses. So the five elements of space, air, fire, water, and earth have qualities, and those qualities that we look at in terms of opposites are heavy/light, cold/hot, moist/dry, soft/hard, mobile/stable, sharp/dull, rough/smooth, dense/flowing, subtle/gross, cloudy/clear. So the first dosha I'm gonna talk about is vata dosha. Vata is composed of air and space elements, so it has those qualities of the air and space elements. It rules circulation and movement, so any kind of circulation or movement in your physical body or mind is ruled by vata dosha, the air and space element. Vata, by nature, is light, cold, dry, hard, mobile. There's a sharpness to it, rough, flowing, subtle, and clear. The most important things to remember are that vata is mobile, it's cold, it's dry, and it's light. Pitta dosha is composed of fire and water elements. It rules metabolism and digestion. So think about a fire: it’s going to transform whatever it is that’s being burned, right? So pitta is light, hot, slightly moist, kind of an oily quality, sharp, flowing, subtle, and clear. The most important qualities of pitta are to remember that pitta is hot. It's the only dosha that has heat. It's sharp, and it has lightness to it, and it's a little mobile as well. Not as mobile as vata, but it has some mobility. Kapha dosha is composed of water and earth elements. Kapha rules stability, structure, and immunity. Think about the cohesiveness of your body — the structure of your body, your bones, your muscles, fat tissue, and your immune system. They're all ruled by kapha. It's what's keeping your body contained and stable. So kapha is heavy, cold, moist, soft, stable, dull, smooth, static, gross, and cloudy. Most important ones to think about for kapha are heavy, stable… Kapha's not moving, right? Water and earth elements aren't really moving. So heavy, stable, moist, cold, and soft. So I'll talk a little bit in the next lesson about the female body rhythms and how to connect these doshas to understanding those four female body rhythms. And be sure to check out the guide in the course hub.