“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. when diet is correct, medicine is of no need”.-Ayurvedic proverb

What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is a 5,000 year old healing system that originated in India. The word Ayurveda is derived from the Sanskrit word ayus, meaning “life” and veda, meaning “wisdom” or “science”. Ayurveda is therefore the science of life and it offers a rich perspective and practical tools for leading a long, health, happy life.

Ayurveda is a consciousness-based approach to health and healing. Consciousness is the ground state of our existence. It’s the changeless core of our being. Beyond the constant change in the world around us and the world inside us, there’s an underlying aspect of our being that remains constant. Consciousness has no beginning nor end, no space, nor time. Your essential nature is pure consciousness. The wisdom traditions of the world have a variety of names for consciousness, including pure awareness, spirit, soul, and being.

the benefits of Ayurveda

Creating an Ayurvedic lifestyle offers countless benefits and current scientific evidence validates Ayurvedic techniques:

  • While 95% of disease-related gene mutations increase your risk factors for disease, they don’t predict the disease. In other words, simply because you carry a genetic mutation that predisposes you to heart disease, you’re not destined to develop it. Only 5% of disease-related gene mutations are fully penetrant, which means that the gene directly causes a disorder.

  • Through your daily lifestyle choices, you can optimize how your genes behave, helping to “turn on” the genes that promote good health and “turn off” the genes that promote illness, including genes for Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, and many types of cancer. Ayurveda offers tools and guidance to help you create a lifestyle that prevents these disease and cultivates health.

  • As Chopra teaches the 6 most important pillars of health to focus on in our daily lifestyle are sleep, meditation, movement/physical activity, healthy emotions, nutrition and self-care.

  • There is a great deal of evidence showing that Ayurvedic techniques can change gene expression to promote healing, self-regulation, and homeostasis (balance).