Do I have to study Ayurvedic terms first before I can undergo an Ayurveda treatment?
If you come across a description of Ayurveda, the many strange terms and definitions can be puzzling: Doshas of Vata, Pitta and Kapha; Ama, Agni and Ojas; Panchakarma and Rasayana – the list is endless. Do you have to know all this?
It’s actually very simple.
You do not need to know about all of this. There are just a few terms and basic principles in Ayurveda that you will come across again and again. If you are familiar with them, it is very useful. A few of the basic terms are explained below.
The goal, the journey, the tools.
The goal is holistic health: prevention, rejuvenation, revitalisation, and cure.
The journey is the development of consciousness – this means enlivening in each one of us the full value of consciousness at the basis of our mind-body functions. Then we can realise what makes us ill and what we must do to get well.
The tools are: the purification treatments, dietary recommendations, herbal supplements, teas, herbal oils, yoga, the Transcendental Meditation® programme, aromatherapy, music therapy, recommendations for sport and exercise, as well as daily routine.
Constitutional model: The three Doshas
Each person is understood to have an individual constitution, largely determined by three principles. Our body is regulated by the interplay of these three Doshas:
- Vata – movement (e.g., in the nervous system, the muscles, metabolic circulation)
- Pitta – transformation (e.g., metabolism, digestion)
- Kapha – stability (e.g., structure, substance)
By completing a preliminary self-evaluation, we can find out which of the Doshas are predominating. The Ayurveda-trained doctors of our Health Centre can detect and balance subtle imbalances even beyond that.
Digestion and diet: Agni – Ama – Ojas
- Agni is the “digestive fire”. It breaks down food and converts it into various body tissues. We can strengthen our Agni with Ayurvedic measures. The ideal situation is that everything we eat will be completely digested without any residues.
- Ama is created when the transformational processes in our physiology are disturbed for some reason and therefore not functioning properly. The Sanskrit word actually means “undigested”. We translate Ama as “metabolic residues”. The residues get deposited in weak areas in the physiology and lead to symptoms of illness. The purification procedures at our Health Centre aim to remove Ama.
- Ojas is the subtlest metabolic product. It’s defined as the “radiance of our physiology”, essential as a main indicator for our health status. It also indicates the self-healing capabilities of our physiology. Our doctors can determine your Ojas levels in your pulse.
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