Balance Your Dosha 
Ayurveda is a system of natural healing that originated in India 5,000 years ago. Basic principle is that each of us has a specific mind-body type, known as a dosha, which is influenced by everything we do and experience. Health is maintained by balancing our dosha with our environment and lifestyle, through meditation, diet, herbs, oil massages, and fasting.
Holistic Clinical Science
Life is the integration of body, mind, and consciousness. The
purpose of Ayurveda is to heal, to maintain a high quality of life, and to in-crease the longevity of the individual. It is a holistic clinical science as well as an art of daily living that has evolved from practical, philosophical, and spiritual insight.
Emphasis On Prevention Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through right thinking, proper diet and lifestyle, as well as the use of herbs and other therapies. Ayurveda is a science of self-understanding. By understanding our own unique constitution, we can begin to understand how we interact with our environ-ment and thus make choices that will
lead us towards greater health. Ayurveda defines disease as the natural end result of living out of harmony with our constitution.
Ayurveda Works By An individual's dosha is made up--to varying degrees--of three doshas (types of energy): vata, pitta, and kapha. Vata energy is characterized as fast and light; pitta is quick and hot: and kapha is slow and heavy. Everything you do--how you eat, sleep, think, exercise, and relate to the world--will either intensify or tame these three energies.
Don't Aggravate Pitta You may aggravate pitta, for instance, by eating too many hot spicy foods, or vata by failing to maintain any routine in your life. An excess of a dosha energy can make you vulnerable to illness. To balance, or pacify, a dosha excess, you need to tame the energy that is aggravated. To pacify pitta, for example, you might eat more cooling foods, such as green salads.
Don't Distrub Your Balance Ayuryeda gives the individual's constitution or prakruti is determined at the time of conception as a particular pattern of energy (and genetic code). Many factors, both internal and external, can disturb this balance and bring about changes in the constitution that may lead to disorders and disease.
Causes Of Imbalance Some of these factors include emotional and physical stresses, improper food combinations and choices, seasonal and weather changes, physical trauma, and work and family relationships. Once we understand how these factors affect us on a constitutional level, we can take appropriate actions to minimize or nullify their effects and eliminate the causes of imbalance.
Ayurvedic Philosophy
According to Ayurvedic philosophy, the whole cosmos is an interplay of the energies of the five great elements: Space, Air, Fire, W ater and Earth. Vata, pitta, and kapha are combinations of these five elements that manifest as patterns present in all creation. Vata, mainly composed of Space and Air, is the principle of movement. Pitta, principally made up of Fire and Water, is the fire component that transforms food into energy. Kapha, mainly a combination of Water and Earth, is the cementing, constructing matter of the body.
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