Ayurveda is an ancient sister science to yoga and there are a variety of ways it can be integrated into Western Medicine. If someone has an acute attack of some kind of illness, Western Medicine is life saving and absolutely necessary. I mean, in the midst of a heart attack, there is no better place to be than the hospital! However, it falls miserably short when it comes to prevention and care of chronic illness (think not getting the heart attack in the first place. Here’s where Ayurveda can help:
Besides movement and breath, diet is a massive problem for most westerners. We have all heard that recent news about eliminating sugar and processed food from our diet. There was even a recent Medscape article titled, “Sugar is the next Tobacco, so why aren’t we Treating it that Way?” Everyone I know has tried gluten and dairy free living, at least for a short while. But what if you’ve really cleaned up your diet and your digestion is still sluggish? Perhaps eating according to your Dosha could clear things up. A Dosha is akin to your personality type. You can take a test here to find out your personal type. The thing with Doshas is that “like equals like,” so if you take a quiz and find out your unbalanced Dosha is Pitta, you would want to remove any heating, “fiery” food from your diet. You can learn more about eating according to your Dosha here.
Lifestyle Change
After you’ve learned your Dosha, it’s time to find out how your lifestyle is out of balance and where changes could be made. For example, if you’re a scattered, easily distracted out of balance Vata, a lifestyle change might include some quiet meditative time first thing in the morning, before the kids get up. This is the Dosha that needs more reflective, slow music in the morning as well.
Color Therapy
It is clear that color is symbolic and that it may have different effects on different people. Take Bill and Hillary Clinton’s choice of purple accents on their clothing the day she conceded the presidential election. Purple can represent dignity. If you have learned that you need to decrease Kapha in your life, finding yourself stuck to the couch and difficult to motivate, use color to uplift the spirit. While out of balance Pitta’s should surround themselves with cool colors, while Kaphas need fiery, warm colors to ignite the spirit.
Ayurveda and yoga are a perfect complement to physical therapy, health care and preventative medicine and are integrated seamlessly at Breathe. Physical Therapy & Wellness. Call or email to find out more.