How Ayurveda Can Compliment Your Yoga Practice
What if you could take your yoga practice to the next level and create a new way of relating to your body? What if you could discover a way of communicating and caring for it with compassion and ease? And as a result, you develop a new awareness and love of self that awakens your health and vitality.
What’s your current relationship with your body? Is it one-way where you’re doing all the talking? Does this behaviour spill over into your relationships with friends and lovers? The reality is that how we care for ourselves is how we tend to relate with the world around us. The good news is that we all have the ability to create a nourishing two-way relationship with our body when we quiet the mind and listen to what our emotions and bodies are telling us.
Your body knows what it requires to be happy, healthy, and radiant. Discover how Ayurveda medicine can compliment your yoga practice in ways that can help reawaken your energy healing capacities and improve your well-being.
What Is Ayurveda?
In ayurveda, just as in yoga, each of us is constitutionally unique. When working towards a holistic state of health in ayurveda, the goal is to investigate how our lifestyle and thoughts impact our overall well-being.
Known as the ‘science of life’, ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through obtaining balance in one’s life. This includes your mindset, diet, lifestyle and the use of medicinal herbs.
Knowledge of Ayurveda enables one to understand how to create this balance of the body, mind and emotions according to one’s own body type and to consciously implement lifestyle changes to bring about a mind, body and soul balance.
Practice Listening To Your Body
Energy is the first language of the body. Tuning in is what takes place when you step onto your mat for your daily practice. This quiet time allow you to hear what your body is telling you. The information you’ll get is unique to your body.
A fun way of deepening your relationship with your body is to begin by asking your it questions just as you would your child or friend. For instance, Body what would you like to eat today? Or Body, what would you like to wear today or what momentum would you like our practice to be today?
Your body knows what it needs to feel nourished, understood and satisfied. The funny thing is that if you get your opinions out of the way then you may realise that your body might not agree with the decisions you make on its behalf.
The practice of asanas aides in maintaining the balance of the five elements in the body.
“The basis of Yoga is Ayurveda, and the fruit of Ayurveda is Yoga.”
Yoga and Ayurveda
The yoga system, as a science of self-realisation, is the ultimate goal of Ayurveda as a science of life.
In Ancient India these two aspects of the Vedic science don‘t exist separately. Once the essence of Ayurveda was understood then yoga was taught to the student. This is due to the belief that after one develops their physical health, then the individual can achieve emotional and spiritual harmony.
Both believe that the balance of the three Doshas is of great importance in order to maintain good health. Ayurveda prescribes the right diet, herbs, massages and lifestyle changes where as yoga prescribes asanas, meditation and pranayama.
The end goal is to create a new connection with the self and the body. During your next yoga practice, listen with openness. Don’t assume. Never judge. Stay open and aware.
You’ll find life flowing more easily with renewed energy. Have a go at it and see what you find. Your body will thank you for this, I promise.
