Curious About Ayurveda? Here’s What You Need to Know

“Having a healthy physical body or absence of disease doesn’t alone achieve wellness. To achieve wellness, we need to have a healthy mind, healthy habits, a healthy exercise routine, healthy coping mechanisms and healthy emotional healing,” says Zohreh Sadeghi, doctor of Ayurvedic medicine and founder and director of San Francisco’s Roha Center for Healing Arts. Ayurveda, one of the world’s oldest holistic healing practices, was developed more than 3,000 years ago in India and is popular with people who have a devoted yoga practice or who prefer a gentle food-as-medicine approach.

“Ayurveda and yoga are sister sciences … they have the same goal, opening up the channels within the body and the mind in order to release and eliminate ama (physical, mental and emotional toxins) to make the entire being more sattvic (good, pure, clean),” adds Sadeghi. Ayurveda incorporates yoga asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work) and meditation as tools to bring the body back into balance, but Sadeghi is quick to point out that in order to become more in tune with your body you must “distinguish between the messages your mind is sending you versus what your body is telling you.”

Have you ever noticed that during times of extreme emotional stress you feel like you have a physical injury even though you haven’t done anything to cause it? There is a reason for that. “Ayurveda believes that a person’s state of mind has a great impact on their overall health and well-being. A healthy mind will lead to a healthy body and vice versa,” she says. “When there is an imbalance within the mind it could show itself through different physical symptoms. And when there is agony or pain within the body, the mind becomes uneasy, restless and agitated.”

Unlike Western medicine, which focuses on treating symptoms, Ayurvedic medicine revolves around prevention. “We have special methods for rejuvenating the body and the mind. So, it’s highly beneficial to see an Ayurvedic doctor even when you’re healthy and don’t feel any symptoms within your body,” she says. Want to learn more? Sadeghi recommends Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing: A Practical Guide and The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies, both by Vasant Lad.