What Ayurveda Is, and What Ayurveda Isn’t

If you are a part of the Vira Bhava Community, you likely connect to a yoga that runs deep. The fashion forward, hot vinyasa flow to pop music probably isn’t your jam. 

There’s a similar vibe in the world of Ayurveda- a juxtaposition of two worlds. Just as being a part of the VBY community calls us to be warriors, to expose our students to a true experience of yoga, I want to call out and debunk some of the common myths surrounding Ayurveda. Just as we lift the curtain to see what’s behind the “love and light good vibes only”, let’s see what is under the pop culture advice to take Ashwagandha for anxiety,  As well as call IN a deeper, more nuanced understanding of this ancient science. 

1. Asking “What’s your dosha?” is technically incorrect. 

I know, I know. It is SO commonplace. Just as what is normally coined “yoga” in the West is really just asana while forgetting the other 7 limbs, asking someone “what’s your dosha?” is an equally ubiquitous and equally false misnomer. 

Why? Because we each have some amount of ALL 3 doshas. As a living being in this world, you couldn’t exist without at least a little bit of all 3. So when you say “what’s your dosha?” it’s normally a good hearted attempt to ask “What’s your constitution?” (sanskrit word is Prakruti). Your constitution isn’t just which dosha you have the most of, it’s actually an expression of your unique ratio of all three doshas.

So for example, when someone asks “What’s your dosha?” and I answer “Pitta!”, it implies that I only have pitta dosha. The more nuanced way to have that conversation would be “What’s your constitution?” And I could respond with “I lead with pitta, I’m Pitta 3, Kapha 2, Vata 1”. 

1. Ayurveda is not just a long list of foods you should and shouldn’t eat

Folks think that just because Ayurveda is all about digestion, that must mean that to heal using Ayurveda you should follow a dosha specific food list, while some foods are labeled “good” and others “bad”. False! I rarely, if ever, give a client I’m working with a food list to follow. 

If digestion is the root of all health, then let’s heal and boost your digestion INSTEAD of making food the enemy. Wouldn’t you rather have a robust, resilient digestion instead of avoiding dairy, nightshades, gluten, and sugar for the rest of your life? Yes, knowing which foods jive best with which doshas can be helpful, but it’s missing the point of addressing the root cause of imbalance.

To bring us back to yoga- wouldn’t you rather have a robust and resilient inner world that allows to navigate the ups and downs of life rather than avoiding hardship, discomfort, disappointment, and failure for the rest of your life?

1. Ayurveda isn’t about waking up everyday and doing and enema or self-induced vamana (vamana is therapeutic vomiting used in panchakarma treatment)

Ayurveda may be counter-culture, yes, but it isn’t intense or extreme all the time. Folks' only exposure to Ayurveda may be through panchakarma- or the 5 therapies, which may leave them feeling overwhelmed or downright afraid to try Ayurveda. Panchakarma is an extremely effective way to detox the body and forcibly remove excess dosha through bowel movements, purgation, enemas, nasya, and blood-letting. But panchakarma is only performed on already healthy people, and is not to be done as a daily practice.

On a more day to day basis, Ayurveda in action is the tiny micro choices you make throughout the day- when to get up, how to start the day, how to care for your sense organs, when and what to eat, what form of exercise you choose. It’s about being deeply in touch with your inner world, so that the choice that your body needs is evident.

1. Ayurveda isn’t just about what to do when you feel sick, out of balance, or off course
   
   

If we just used Ayurveda reactionarily, that would just be Western medicine regurgitated. That means we would have fallen into the trap of “Oh, I feel bad? Let me take a pill to fix that”, but just substitute “herb” for “pill”. Instead of masking symptoms, let’s view them in their truest sense- as messengers. What deeper imbalance are they trying to point our attention to?

Ayurveda is at its heart of hearts preventative medicine. You begin to learn through intimate experience what your body feels like when it is happy, healthy, and firing on all cylinders. And then you practice to stay close to that vision of health, knowing that we are imperfect and balance is but an illusion! As you build trust in your body and a deeper understanding of the subtle ways in which your body communicates to you, you begin to notice the very first inklings of imbalance, even before they become symptoms, and can address as need be. 

1. Ayurveda won’t do the work for you. 

Western medicine has taught us that we don’t have to change our lifestyle, our mindset, or our habits. We can just receive treatment for the ways we are ill, and pills and surgeries are designed to be as easy as possible. How opposed to yoga is that? To be as removed as possible from the experience of our own life? To not be intimately connected with crafting our own reality? To take the easy way out to just avoid feeling bad?

I’m not promoting purposefully not addressing imbalance. I’m saying the opposite in fact. Instead of outsourcing the wisdom of your body, what if you became so attuned and so fluent in the language of your body that you became your own healer? And instead of just trying to get rid of the symptoms, could we get to the root of the actual problem. Why did those symptoms show up in the first place?

So when Ayurveda recommends sometimes significant lifestyle change, a deep overhaul of how we view and consume food, and how we care for ourselves, it can be easy to shy away from “too much work”. It’s certainly not Cosmo’s quick tips, and it won’t unravel deep imbalances overnight. But this is the most important work. Ayurveda becomes the lens through which we see the world, and it just becomes second nature. It’s not something you have to put conscious thought towards, it just becomes the way you live.

So if that’s what Ayurveda ISN’T, what IS Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is holistic health and wellness that originated alongside Yoga in Ancient India. It’s preventative, individualized, and based in strong and resilient digestion. Ayurveda seeks to address the root cause of disease instead of just masking the symptoms. It’s a one stop shop for totally individualized recommendations for diet, sleep, and exercise. No more googling “are seed oils bad for you?” or “Is coconut oil good for your hair?” or “Why do I get acid reflux when I eat spicy food?”. Learning the wisdom of Ayurveda allows you to understand your unique constitution and its ever changing needs.

Ready to uplevel your health and take healing into your own hands? Join me for the Integrating Ayurveda Course. It’s a 4 module self-paced in-depth study into the basics of Ayurveda. It’s the most comprehensive place I’ve compiled all of the introductory material. With live Q&A’s each month, after you work through the material on your own time, come together as agroup to debrief, discuss, and ask questions. Purchase before March 18th and bundle all 4 modules and save $75!