AYURVEDIC MEDICINE

Ayurvedic medicine (Ayu – life, Veda- knowledge) is one of the world's oldest holistic healing systems. It was
developed more than 3,000 years ago in India. It is based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a
delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit. The main goal of Ayurvedic medicine is to promote good
health and not fight disease.
Those who practice Ayurveda believed that every person is made of five basic elements found in the universe:
space, air, fire, water, and earth. These elements will combine in the human body to form three life forces or
energies called doshas. They control how your body works. They are Vata dosha (air), Pitta dosha (fire), and
Kapha dosha (earth).
Vata Dosha lifestyle

1. Keep warm, specially in the lower portions

2. Remain calm, use deep nasal breathing
3. Limit raw foods especially cold
4. Eat warm foods and spices with plenty of easy to digest fats
5. Keep regular routine, especially meals and sleeping times
6. Daily exercise should be dominantly meditative and relaxing
7. Dominate in sweet, sour, and salty taste

Pitta Dosha lifestyle

1. Avoid excessive heat

2. Limit salt intake and heating oils (fried)
3. Eat cooling non spicy foods
4. Drink cool drinks not iced
5. Exercise during the cooler part of the day
6. Spend time in visually calming natural environments ocean at sunrise
7. Dominate in sweet, bitter, and astringent taste

Kapha Dosha lifestyle

 1. Get plenty of exercise and keep active
2. Live a life of service and charity
3. Decrease foods that are heavy e.g. dairy, fatty, oily, thick and grains like wheat
4. Avoid iced food and drinks
5. Dominate in bitter, astringent pungent taste
6. Vary your routine

Abhyanga also called as oil massage is a form of Ayurvedic medicine that involves massage of the body
with dosha-specific warm herb infused oils. The oil is usually pre-mixed with herbs for specific conditions.

Steps in Abhyanga:
1. Start massaging your scalp. Use fingertips to really work the oil in scalp
2. Move to your face making circular motion over your forehead, temples, cheeks, nose, upper lip and
chin.
3. Pay attention to your ear massaging the outer ear and placing oil onto your fingertips and massage
the ear canal.
4. Long stroke in front of the neck and collarbone, back of the neck and upper shoulders.
5. Move to the arms, using long strokes in the long bones of the arm. Move from the outside towards
the center of the body. Circular strokes to massage the joints.
6. Massage the chest in circular motion and the arms towards the center of the body.
7. Large circular motions over the entire of the abdomen.
8. Finally, massage legs and feet in long strokes just like the arms.

Benefits in Abhyanga:
 Nourish and replenish the skin
 Tone the muscles
 Calm and soothe the nervous system
 Revitalize and energize cells
 Tune up the functioning of internal organs
 Optimize the ability to remove toxins
 Support healthy sleep patterns