Why I’m Fascinated with Ayurveda

I started listening to the The Highest Self Podcast after hearing Sahara Rose on Lori Harder’s podcast and was hooked.

Within a few weeks, I had ordered her book the Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda and dove in. I started reading it about the same time as I was half way through The Inner Tradition of Yoga and it was the perfect compliment. There is a quote on Page 8 that reads “Ayurveda’s purpose is to achieve health, while yoga’s is to achieve spiritual enlightenment.” which got highlighted immediately!

I first heard about Ayurveda from a few Acupuncturists I’ve seen, then from 2 of my podcast guests. First, Andrea Claassen and then Colette Kent. I have never really looked into it too much but it’s always fascinated me. Since I’m in love with learning I think it was the perfect time to start studying it while I embark on my Yoga Teacher Training in Bali.

So what is Ayurveda?

One of the next terms you’ll hear in the Ayurveda world is about dosha’s or your mind-body type or constitution. They express unique physical, emotional and mental characteristics. What’s interesting is that Ayurveda talks about balance. If you know me or have listened to my podcast, you’ll know I can’t stand the term work/life balance as I believe balancing work and life doesn’t exist, instead there needs to be harmony. I think it’s the same for Ayurveda so whenever I read balance I’ll simply flip out for harmony 🙂

Ok the next term you’ll hear a lot is Dosha. Which includes Pitta, Vata and Kapha.

So why understand what your Dosha is? In Ayurveda, a belief is that we are all unique and when we study our uniqueness we are able to figure out how to optimize our life vs. treating blanket health problems in our life. If Ayurveda believes in a well-balanced (harmonized) mind & body there are aspects of living in the world that will cause us to become imbalanced. To bring our body back to harmony involves understanding when we’re imbalanced.

If you’re curious to find out your Dosha here are 2 resources I’ve used.

Banyan Botanicals Dosha Quiz

Sahara Rose’s Mind-Body Type Quiz

Based on the Banyan quiz, I’m primarily Pitta with some Vata imbalances.

When I took Sahara’s quiz it gave me even more perspective that I actually have a Pitta mind but a Vata body.

What was really cool about the Banyan site is they explain what your primary imbalance is and provide suggestions for balancing it out. So while the site will obviously try and sell their products they provide you with lifestyle practices, routine suggestions and dietary choices that you can try out first as baby steps before purchasing supplements. I really appreciated their approach and as a marketer applaud them as well!

Since I purchased Sahara’s book I’ll be looking at the lifestyle suggestions and nutritional suggestions in there for my Pitta mind and Vata body to see how they map out compared to Banyan. I like that I have 2 easy tools at my finger tips. So why am I using resources to understand this vs. just going to see a practitioner? I prefer educating myself first and then meeting with a trained practitioner to understand if I’ve understood things properly. I find it empowering to be my best healthcare advocate and since I’m my very own health CEO I prefer to use accredited resources to start the learning process and then ensure I’ve understood the basics properly.Ok so back to the title of this blog post. Why am I fascinated with Ayurveda? If you’ve been following along with my health journey, you’ll know that I’ve really become interested in Eastern medicine since it started solving health problems for me a few years ago. My very first blatant solution that is Ayurveda based was to stop drinking green smoothies in the morning that would immediately cause diarrhea. I had gone to see a Toronto acupuncturist, Amrit Singh after my MS diagnosis in 2014 and during her thorough intake, I had mentioned that I was trying to heal my gut. I had adopted the Wahl’s Protocol into my meal planning and it was really hard to get a lot of green vegetables into my system in a day so I thought a green smoothie would help. I was also eating a lot of raw green vegetables to save time during meal prep on Sunday evenings. I told her that after drinking my morning green smoothie I’d have loose bowel movements after consuming. She deduced that I had a Vata constitution and that I need warming spices and warm foods to warm up my digestive system. I stopped drinking the green smoothies and opted for almond milk smoothies with ginger and/or turmeric, nut butter and protein powder instead as a morning snack and started steaming all my green vegetables during Sunday meal prep. My digestive system started to heal much faster than I thought.

That’s when I realized that certain healing modalities that may work really well for auto-immune patients need another lense as you adopt them. That’s why I’m truly diving into Ayurveda practices now as I believe I’ve reached a plateau in my healing but can optimize further for more vitality in my life through Ayurveda.

Are you curious to find out what your Dosha is?

Wanna study with me? Here’s a link to purchase the Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda below!!