About Ayurveda

Ayurveda is an ancient holistic system of medicine from India that understands health in terms of a constitutional model. Each of use manifests a mixture of each of the three constitutional energetic forces ? or ?doshas?. Its aim is to provide guidance regarding specially designed treatments, food and lifestyle so that health can be optimized and illness healed. There are several aspects to Ayurveda that are quite unique:

• Recommendations will often be unique for each person regarding which foods and which lifestyle they should follow in order to be completely healthy. This is due to its use of a constitutional model.
• Everything in Ayurveda is validated by observation, inquiry, direct examination and knowledge derived from the ancient texts.
• It understands that there are energetic forces that influence nature and human beings. These forces are called the Tridoshas
• Because Ayurveda sees a strong connection between the mind and the body, a huge amount of information is available regarding this relationship.

Meaning of Ayurveda

Ayurveda is made up of two Sanskrit words: Ayu, which means "life" and Veda, which means "the knowledge of". To know about life is Ayurveda. However, to fully comprehend the vast scope of Ayurveda let us first define "Ayu" or "life". According to the ancient Ayurvedic scholar Charaka, "ayu" is comprised of four essential parts: the combination of mind, body, senses and the soul.

Origin of Ayurveda

Ayurveda is an intricate system of healing that originated in India thousands of years ago. We can find historical evidence of Ayurveda in the ancient books of wisdom known as the Vedas. In the Rig Veda, over 60 preparations were mentioned that could be used to assist an individual in overcoming various ailments. The Rig Veda was written over 6,000 years ago, but really Ayurveda has been around even longer than that. What we see is that Ayurveda is more than just a medical system. It is a Science of Life. In nature balance is always to be found. Just as the animals and plants live in harmony with nature, our minds and bodies adhere to these same principles where a balance is required for health to thrive. It is fair to say that Ayurveda is a system that helps maintain health in a person by using the inherent principles of nature to bring the individual back into equilibrium with their true self. In essence Ayurveda has been in existence since the beginning of time because we have always been governed by nature's laws