Thursday 13

May 14, 2009

Thursday 13

I have an Ayurveda appointment today. Ayurveda is the ancient form of health care from India. It has been practised for over 5000 years but is just now getting a little more well known in the United States. I have been seeing my practitioner, Eleni, for almost a year and I love her and everything I learn about Ayurveda. She is not Indian by the way. She is very interesting actually. She is from Australia, with Greek nationality and married to an American. She has been a Godsend to me. My list this week is 13 things about Ayurveda and why I love it.

1. It's natural, based on nature and how our bodies work naturally.
2. Everyone is an individual and has a body type that relates to nature. There is your basic "prakriti" or constitution. They call it your Dosha and there are 3 basic doshas, Pitta, Vata, and Kapha.
3. Each body type has qualities that relate to nature. The basic doshas relate to Earth, Air and Fire.
   
4. Ayurveda believes there are things we can do daily to improve our health such as, oiling your body. They suggest you use an oil for your dosha and before showering you should oil your body from head to toe, doing self massage. I've done it, it's very relaxing and does make you feel wonderful.
5. Other daily habits they suggest are exercising, meditation, using a neti pot, scraping your tongue, eating a large leisurely lunch, resting after meals, resting on your left side after eating and the oiling.
   
6. Ayurveda says you should eat with the seasons and eat as natural as possible.
7. Ayurveda treats the whole body. Not just the physical, but the emotional. It all relates. Emotions can affect your health.
8. They use herbs and natural remedies for common ailments. For instance, I've suffered with migraines for years. So I was instructed to take a quart a day of feverfew tea for 30 days straight. Feverfew is an herb, a dried green leaf, it looks like oregano and I did do this and I am happy to report that my migraines/headaches are reduced very dramatically! I still get them every now and then, maybe once a month, compared to getting them 3-4 times a week, and sometimes daily. It's totally remarkable and it was so easy.
9. They use certain spices for your health and because of taste. Certain tastes help your health. A big one for me is turmeric, I use it everywhere I can in cooking and I take a capsule of turmeric daily. I made the capsules myself and I take it because turmeric helps digestion and also improves the health of your skin.
10. Kitcheri. It's a type of indian style dish that has whole grains in it and is easily digestible. I love it because it's comfort food for me now and because it's versatile and because I actually like the taste of it.
11. Yoga is a part of Ayurveda, they are connected, but you can do one without the other. I do some yoga, but it's not a definite part of my practice yet.
12. I had some pretty significant stomach problems for over 6 months before seeing Eleni. We worked on my digestion with some herbal supplements and my diet, and taking a yogurt drink. I mixed plain yogurt with fresh ground ginger, pumpkin pie spice and honey or agave and I drank that twice a day. My stomach issues also went away after a while of this treatment.
13. I've lost weight. Since seeing Eleni I've lost about 30 lbs. The weight is a symptom of my body imbalance and I'm working on that. When you get in balance, the body loses the weight because the body knows what is a natural weight for you. It's also empowering to be able to lose the weight.
    

I hope you are intrigued. Could it help you? Is it a better way to live? For me it is. I'm healthier and I only have to take one medication now only because there is no other alternative for my hypothyroid.

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