What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is India’s ancient system of health. It has been practiced for over 6,000 years and originates from the same vedic texts and philosophy that yoga, and Hindu practices stem from, the Bhagavad Gita. Some people say it is the sister science to yoga but a few say it is the mother.

Ayurveda is holistic wisdom of the body. Whereas allopathic medicine treats individual symptoms with drugs and surgery, Ayurveda looks at symptoms as clues to deeper issues and goes straight to them. Through Ayurveda, we understand that disease is best healed when treated at the source where it originated, not just by masking the symptom or numbing the pain. It is actually quite simple, follow the symptom to the source, discover what qualities are in excess, and heal them by bringing balance through opposites. Like this tree, symptoms are leaves on the tree that lead us to the roots. The body loves to be in balance, so when we give it a few helpful tools, it uses its own vast intelligence to figure out how to get there.

I’ve learned through Ayurveda that all disease starts in the digestive system, so if we harbor healthy digestion most of the time, we can PREVENT illness from happening in the first place. Healthy digestion is our ability to consume delicious foods that are in line with what our bodies need (it’s different for everyone!), transform that food into useful nutrients, assimilate those nutrients, and efficiently eliminate the waste. Once imbalance goes beyond the digestive system into our organs and tissues, it becomes harder to treat, so why wouldn’t we start there?

If you have indigestion, bloating, gas, constipation, or diarrhea for example, this is your body’s first attempt at telling you you’re getting too much of something. If we tune in to the language of the body, we will see that it is always telling us what it needs.

We also understand through Ayurveda that everything we take in contributes to our health (or lack of). Not just food, but environment, season, weather, even (and especially) life experiences, screen time, and stress. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Ayurvedic practitioners have known for thousands of years that energy, emotions, and stress affect our health just as much as food. So how you breath, exercise, meditate, sleep, interact in relationships, and move through the world all affect your health.

When diet + lifestyle changes aren’t enough, Ayurveda has a depth of wisdom around herbs to either cleanse or tone your system. Most of us have a lot of these herbs in our kitchens right now. If we tune in to the superpowers of them, we have everything we need right in our own kitchens to make healing happen.

There you have it: diet, lifestyle, and herbs are the pillars of how we will weave Ayurvedic wisdom into our modern lives.

This is what I love about Ayurveda. It is grounded in science in a very practical way, and yet has no qualms about saying that your connection to spirit matters. It joins my interest in the intellect around how the body works with the more esoteric knowingness that non-visible energy also affects health. It is both deeply sensible and spiritual at the same time. How can you not love that?

What is Reiki?

For today only, do not worry.

Reiki is a Japanese healing practice that believes the body can heal itself when life force energy (ki) is flowing naturally. The practitioner is like a vessel for energy, bringing it to the body. Every cell in the body has inherent wisdom to reorganize itself, release blockages and find harmony.

We all carry stress and disharmony from the hectic daily lives we lead. There’s so much pressure to perform, to succeed, to prove ourselves, that we forget to rest and let our bodies reset. From that place you remember that everything is perfect as is, and none of this matters anyway. How often do you just rest, receive, and listen to that intuitive voice?

Nothing needs to be thought through or figured out, just surrendering to that which is in this present moment undoes it all. The magic of reiki is that it’s your own body that does the healing.

There is no solution like this in Western Medicine. There is no pill that can remove energetic blockages. Sometimes there’s nothing to do because you have to un-do, un-ravel, un-diagnose. By laying down and allowing reiki to flow through you, you are surrendering to a power you cannot see or measure and allowing nature to heal itself.