Ayurveda & Beautiful You

there is you and you.

this is a relationship.

this is the most important relationship.

– nayyirah waheed

Ayurveda : [Āyuh - vedah]

Ayur means life and it implies longevity. Veda means knowledge or science. Put the two together, and Ayurveda is the sublime science of life. It is the most elegant and practical guide to the art of daily living.

According to the medical system of Ayurveda, you are a unique combination of five elements: Space, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. The subtle energies of these elements combined in an unprecedented and unrepeatable way at the moment of your conception, creating Beautiful You. Your body and mind is wired in a unique way. These preferences form your natural constitution and remain with you throughout your life. You are your own energetic signature blending with the circadian rhythms of the day, the changing seasons of the year, and the unfolding seasons of your life. You can flow with your innate rhythms or you can fight your natural flow.

Are you deeply intimate with the unique dance of energies inside you? Or are you a constant enigma to yourself? Is there more mystery than awareness?

Intimacy with all of life begins with being intimate with who we are.

Dharma is universal; your dharma is the same as mine. Our dharma is to preserve our boundaries; to protect our life. Life is a sublime gift. We can only preserve our boundaries if we know who we are. We will only protect what is known and precious to us. And what we truly are can only be found inside us.

So. Who are you?

How do these subtle elemental energies express themselves in you, as you? Is there joy for the morning or are you a night owl? Do you have a sharp temper or are you slow to anger? Do you love movement or does exercise feel like a burden? Does your mind tend to get scattered and anxious or weighed down with heavy thoughts? Are you a creature of habit or do you riff off spontaneity? Do you laugh often? Love willingly? Weep easily? Sleep peacefully?

If you’re intimate with who you are, then you know how you best metabolise food, fluid, happiness and heartbreak. Everything coming in through our senses needs to be digested, assimilated, stored or released for us to be well in our being. Taking the time to learn about yourself and your natural preferences is your most important work. You can’t give what you don’t know you have.

The Sanskrit word for healthy is Svastha. It means to be established in yourself, to know who you are, to feel sweet and sassy in your own skin. Svastha captures an inner and outer radiance, authenticity, authority and undeniable gorgeousness. A joyfully embodied and sensual human being fully engaged in life.

Daily Routine | Dinacharya

Ayurveda offers us an elegant template for daily living (Dinacharya) deeply inspired by the elemental energies and cycles of nature. We can blend with our environment, or we can battle against it. Ignoring our true nature will always result in some kind of imbalance and suffering in the mental or physical body; anxiety, depression, hormonal imbalance, chronic stress, sleep disorders, erratic energy levels, low immunity, weight loss or gain, metabolic syndrome – every dis-ease and disease is the body signalling that it has moved away from its natural rhythms.

Ayurveda is not a one-stop shop. While it honours universal laws, Ayurveda celebrates the individual and considers that medicine can be anything from eating lightly or feasting, going for a run or doing tai chi, meditating or dancing. The remedies and nourishing rituals are different for everyone because each of us is exquisitely unique.

Ayurveda creates an art of daily living because what we do daily really matters. With its deep bow to consciousness as the truth that pervades all experience, Ayurveda is a fascinating map into your own inner territory; a portal into the precious expression of life force flowing through you, as You.

You are an elemental being.

You are a wild wonder, a creature of comfort, and everything in-between.

And it is your divine dharma to know, tend to and celebrate Beautiful You.

Tat tvam asi. You are That.