The Ayurveda Experience Blog
Aging is growing. Everything in nature ages, including us. It recognizes that you are in a powerful position to make a significant impact on your wellness that can be a lovely, natural experience.
Ayurveda is a science of life. It has been practiced in India for more than 5000 years and is still in practice today. It is an old natural healing system that guides us to be stronger, more confident and secure as we progress in the natural process of life.
Ayurveda’s theory is based upon the three constitutions or pillars called doshas and those three doshas are representations of the five elements of nature: ether, air, fire, water and earth. Everything in nature including the human body is made of these five elements.
Health in Ayurveda is your Prakriti (Nature) and disease is vikruti (Not natural or imbalance).
Whether you like it or not, you will age. While you can’t control the fact that you will age, you can control how you choose to age. In Ayurveda the goal is to age easily, moving through the transitions of life with balance and grace.
The negative side effects associated with aging all come from imbalances in the doshas, which can and will affect us all through life. To prevent these negative side effects throughout our entire life, we simply need to find balance. Obviously, this is one of those times when it sounds simple but to practice balance becomes much more difficult.
There are four stages or seasons of life. Birth to teen, teen to youth, youth to middle age and middle age to old age. Every stage has growing pains. We will have to understand the qualities of the seasons of nature and have an understanding of balancing those with the three constitutions in our body.
In Ayurveda each individual is unique and will have a different definition of balance. Balance also never stays the same — it will always be changing based on external inputs. This is why balance is a practice just like asana or meditation.
Ayurveda is a preventative system of health care but also a guide to support you in optimal living. Your lifestyle should be a reflection of your life, and your life should be supported by choices that enliven us versus enslave us. As we live according to the daily cycle, seasonal cycle, annual cycle, lunar cycle and life cycles, we can recycle the breath over and over again with more joy and less sorrow but ultimately more peace and ease.
Ayurveda is a science of understanding nature’s laws and they are not negotiable. That means you have to tune yourself into nature. If you live in harmony with nature, you receive the benefits of good health. The seasons of life are part of nature’s laws. Those who live life in rhythm with nature age gracefully, remain in optimum health and have great peace of mind.
Ayurveda is India’s ageless science of life. There are three wisdoms of Ayurveda.
1. Ayurvedic Lifestyle Management
Diet plan with foods based on your mind-body constitution that can help you in growth of new cells while creating least amount of toxins in the body. Right diet according to the season, blends with the nature and prevent seasonal illness.
Detoxify your body regularly- a weekly fast, a monthly fast, or a quarterly cleanse based on your lifestyle. If toxins accumulate in your body, they create more illnesses.
As you age, the natural tendency of the body is to lose muscle mass and replace it with fat. The goal is to slow down the rate of muscle mass conversion to fat mass and retain as much muscle mass for as long as possible.
2. Yoga
No matter what your age, you must stay active and balanced. Follow a routine of exercises and activities that can help you retain muscle mass, reduce fat buildup, and stay flexible.
3. Meditation
Balance of mind and body is important for good health.
Besides food, you need to be aware of stressful thoughts and emotions you take in from the outside or cultivate within. You must figure a way to “metabolize” stress out of your system to remove “mental inflammation.” This can be a cause for many nervous related and other diseases.
Utilize your life experiences and spiritual knowledge to shift your mental attitudes to neutralize emotions or thoughts that are a source of stress.
Get good rest at night by sleeping at least 7 hours.
Ayurveda has a lot to offer: prevention, rejuvenation, longevity, balanced lifestyle and remedies for illness. Anti-aging and longevity is very well defined and practiced in Ayurveda. Ayurveda offers holistic Rasayana therapy that includes lifestyle management, massages, herbal combinations that work harmoniously to repair and revitalize tissues at the cellular level.
The goal is to continue building healthy new cells while replacing the old dying cells for as long as possible. If the old cells are not replaced with new cells, the skin becomes wrinkled and the body loses its strength and shape.
Harmonious balance of the three doshas and working in harmony with nature and following these three wisdoms, you can enjoy many years of vitality and strength while making a positive contribution to society.
