Ayurveda: An Introduction & Guide + Panchakarma Details
Ayurveda is an ancient healing system that has been used for thousands of years to support physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. Although it originated in India, respect for Ayurveda has now spread around the world, including here in America.
While Western medicine has traditionally been reactive, dealing with physical symptoms and illness when they show up, Ayurveda is a holistic, preventative science that aims to keep our bodies and minds healthy through daily practices.
This philosophy is one I wholeheartedly embrace. My own healing practice uses many of the principles of Ayurveda, combining an understanding of nutrition, breathwork, energy systems, and physical movement to support the wellbeing of my clients.
I also use Ayurveda in my own health journey. Indeed, I’m writing this as I prepare for a three-day intensive panchakarma – a cleansing and rejuvenating practice that aims to restore our bodies and minds to a state of balance.
Inspired by my journey, I want to share a little more about Ayurveda and panchakarma, including some suggestions you can use yourself at home.
What Is Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is a holistic form of medicine that has been used in India for thousands of years. The earliest written record of it comes from the Vedas, the sacred texts that are the basis of Hindu theology. But the oral tradition behind Ayurveda dates back even further.
The basis of Ayurveda is that health relies on a delicate balance between our bodies, minds, and spirits. So, it is a healing system that looks beyond the physical. Ayurvedic treatments aim to restore and maintain this balance through diet, movement, breathwork, meditation, and herbal remedies.
Ayurveda takes an extremely personalized approach to health and healing. One of the essential principles is that there are three types of energy, called doshas. These are vata, kapha, and pitta.
Everyone has all three of these doshas but in different ratios. Understanding your dosha profile is essential to Ayurveda. The treatments recommended to you will vary depending on your unique needs.
The Three Doshas
Each dosha has a specific role to play in our bodies. Since most of us have more of one or two doshas than the others, people are usually described as being dominant in a particular dosha. An Ayurvedic practitioner can help you determine your dosha type by looking at your behavior, personality, and body type.
1. Vata
Vata combines the elements of air and ether (sometimes known as space instead). It governs movement, including our breath and heartbeat.
Airy, dry, and cool, vata’s season is the fall. People who are vata-dominant tend to be creative and energetic. They will generally have a slim build, learn quickly, and are open-minded and flexible. They usually have dry skin and wavy, dry hair.
However, vata-dominant people can also become anxious or distracted and may struggle to calm their minds. Although they learn quickly, they also forget things easily. They may suffer from digestive issues, feel the cold more intensely, and have trouble sleeping.
People who are high in vata need to balance out the airy nature of this dosha with grounding practices and a good routine. Plenty of warming foods, root vegetables, and water also help to counteract the cool, dry vata energy.
2. Kapha
Kapha’s elements are water and earth. In our bodies, it is responsible for our immune systems and maintaining our essential structure, such as our bones and muscles. It provides the water our cells need.
Grounded, calm, and cold, kapha energy is linked with the season of spring. People with this dosha are strong, caring, and kind. They are the rock that others rely upon. They think before they act and go through life calmly and deliberately. They have excellent memories.
Kapha-dominant people tend towards a larger body type. Their skin can be oily, with large pores. When out of balance, this dosha can lead to metabolic issues and weight gain. It is often associated with sluggishness and finding it difficult to wake up.
Balancing this dosha requires regular exercise, a strong sleep routine to prevent oversleeping, and a healthy diet with fewer carbs and plenty of fruit and vegetables. Breathwork and meditation are beneficial practices to combat the earthy nature of kapha.
3. Pitta
Pitta combines the elements of fire and water. It governs our digestive system and metabolic processes.
Pitta energy is hot, light, and fast-moving. Its season is summer. Pitta-dominant people are intelligent, quick-witted, and ambitious. Natural leaders, they are decisive, high-achieving, and athletic.
Naturally slim and strong, people with this dosha are usually energetic and spend their time on the move. However, they can become overly competitive, aggressive, and rigid. Focused on achieving their goals, they may lose track of their life-work balance. They can be prone to acne and other skin issues, as well as burnout. They also find it hard to cope with the heat.
The fiery nature of pitta can be balanced through cooling activities, such as spending time in or around water. People with this dosha should avoid spicy foods and hot weather. They can also benefit from a looser schedule and making rest and relaxation a priority.
The Doshas Out of Balance: Agni and Ama
When we are experiencing physical illness, emotional turmoil, or mental unrest, Ayurveda says that our doshas are out of balance. This causes disturbances in our agni, or digestive system. Agni is also the name of the Hindu fire god, and our body’s agni has the same sense of fiery warmth, light, and energy.
Long before Western doctors began to pinpoint the vital role that gut health plays in our overall wellness, Ayurveda understood that digestion, agni, is the basis of good health. It absorbs nutrients from our food and rids our bodies of waste and toxins.
When our doshas aren’t properly balanced, our agni is weakened and our bodies can’t effectively digest our food. This leads to the build-up of ama, or waste. Where agni is fire, ama is stagnant mud, building up in our systems and causing sickness.
Restoring Balance: Panchakarma
Ayurveda is a preventative form of medicine, which means we shouldn’t wait until we see signs of imbalance to prioritize our health. Understanding our dosha type and using our diet and daily routines to balance ourselves can go a long way to keeping us healthy and happy.
But there are always going to be times when we aren’t able to maintain that balance perfectly. Life sometimes gets in the way.
When that happens, you might feel like you need more of an intervention to help you restore your balance. A trained Ayurvedic practitioner can help you discover the underlying causes and address them.
One recommendation may be to do a panchakarma, which is a type of Ayurvedic cleanse. It aims to remove toxins from the body and restore the body-mind connection.
There are five parts to a panchakarma, but you won’t necessarily do all of them. It depends on the issues you’ve been experiencing and your unique dosha profile.
1. Vamana: therapeutic vomiting, aimed at clearing excess mucus (kapha) from the lungs and stomach.
2. Virechan: purging, usually by taking a gentle laxative, to release bile (pitta) from the liver, small intestine, and gallbladder.
3. Basti: massage and enemas to release vata from the large intestine and colon.
4. Nasya: nasal clearing with herbs, steam, and oil to clear the airways and allow the free flow of the prana (life force or breath).
5. Rakta moksha: blood detoxifying. Traditionally, this would be by bloodletting, but could also involve herbal remedies and avoiding certain foods, such as alcohol, recreational drugs, yogurt, and other sour foods.
Before the panchakarma itself, you’ll usually do a preparatory phase called purvakarma. This gets your body and mind ready through snehan – oil massage – and svedana – sweating.
During the panchakarma, you are also advised to avoid stimulation, such as television, loud music, strenuous exercise, and sex. You’ll usually keep your diet very simple during this time. As well as avoiding alcohol, caffeine, and other drugs, you should eliminate dairy, sugar, and cold food and drink from your diet.
Kitchari, a dish made from seasoned rice and mung dal, is the recommended food while on a panchakarma. You may also eat or drink ghee, clarified butter, which helps to remove fat-soluble toxins from your cells.
Balancing the Doshas at Home
A full panchakarma is an intensive process and should only be done under the guidance of an experienced Ayurvedic practitioner. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t use some practices at home to help you remove toxins and rebalance your doshas.
Eating a healthy diet that is appropriate to your dosha and incorporating some of the balancing practices discussed above is a good first step. Other dosha-balancing techniques that you can use at home include:
1. Tongue Scraping
In Ayurveda, oral hygiene goes beyond just brushing our teeth. Tongue scraping helps to remove ama (toxins) from your tongue and activates your saliva glands, which are the first step in the digestive system.
According to the Ayurvedic Institute, kapha types should use a copper scraper, vata should use a gold one, and pitta should use a silver one. Fortunately, stainless steel can be used by all types and may be easier to find.
2. Warm Water with Lemon
Starting your day with a mug of warm water and lemon, instead of a cup of coffee, helps to remove toxins that have built up in your digestive system overnight. Plus, lemons are packed with vitamin C, which will help your immune system. This practice will also help you stay hydrated, which is especially important for vata types.
3. Dry Brushing
Brushing your skin with a dry brush in the morning encourages lymphatic drainage, helping to remove waste and toxins from your body. It is also very energizing, waking up your circulation and helping you prepare for the day. This makes it particularly good for kapha types, who can find it hard to get moving first thing.
4. Oil Massage
Daily massage is beneficial for all dosha types, helping to relax the mind, release tension from the body, and promote healthy circulation and digestion.
Vata types should opt for a heavier oil, such as sesame oil. Kapha benefits from lighter oils like sweet almond. Pitta falls somewhere in the middle and can use neutral oils, like coconut oil.
Now I hope this introduction to this ancient system has inspired you to connect to your body on a deeper level & you feel compelled to integrate some of these easy and powerful practices into your routine.
Let me know in the comments below and please contact me if I can be of service in any way