Ayurveda:

Breaking the Rules

Without Breaking the Principles

Before we start, I would like you to ask yourself a question: Why are you here? What drives you to gain an understanding of Ayurveda in the first place? Your reasons for diving into the world of Ayurveda are as unique as the subject of this question: You. 

And yet, too many of us forget to consider ourselves when seeking out health and wellness. We seek external solutions and wonder why we can’t seem to achieve the results we want. Ayurveda — a 5,000-year-old science — is a way to get the body, mind, and spirit back to balance, and the key to healing comes from knowing ourselves. You might already be familiar the term, perhaps hearing about how Ayurveda uses your individual constitution (dosha type — vata, pitta, or kapha) to recommend foods to favor and avoid. We will do that in this book, but the world of Ayurveda is so much vaster than that; it’s about how time and place affect your overall well-being; about how simple practices like daily oil massage, breathwork, and meditation can help you connect to the Self; about how all food can be a medicine and all food can be a poison.

The beauty and philosophy of Ayurveda is grounded in epigenetics and spirituality, creating a mind-body union that generates self-awareness about how our choices make us feel. To benefit from that self-reflection, you must first gain a comprehension of the basic principles see what these time-tested, clinically validated techniques have to offer. Then, it’s time to break the rules to apply Ayurveda to your personal situation. Who you are is more than just a dosha type or pre-determined genetics; it’s the climate where you live, the conditions under which you were brought up, how your specific body tolerates certain foods, the type of exercise you enjoy, your personal belief system, and how you’ve created the life around you.

In this book, we will explore how there’s no one-size-fits-all prescription for health. We will examine how knowing yourself starts with identifying your predominant dosha constitution, but that it’s possible to change yourself by adapting to the doshas that exist in nature around you. We’ll delve into ingredients and food combinations that can come together to create simple recipes designed to promote health. Most importantly, we’ll discover how —when we open our minds to truly knowing ourselves — our individual path will show us the right things to do. Regardless of whether you decide to adopt Ayurveda into your life, its principles can help you find something greater than yourself. From there, I hope you come to accept how much you belong in that greater place.