4 aims of life in Ayurveda

Ayurveda emphasizes that when our digestion, sleep cycles and emotional & sexual expression are all in balance, we have more energy to fulfill the four goals of life—ultimately creating a positive cycle while deepening our engagement with what truly matters.

Ayurvedic philosophy asserts that every individual possesses four fundamental motivations, known as purusharthas. Rather than abstaining from satisfying these desires for pleasure, success and purpose, or material gain – we can confidently pursue them with joy in our hearts. The Ayurveda teachings offer guidance on how to maintain balance while striving towards total health and wellbeing through holistic exploration of the soul’s goals. By cultivating conscious awareness & spiritual understanding accompanied by service-mindedness – one may lead a more integrated life full of fulfillment as well as enlightenment.

Kama is an ancient concept, teaching us to appreciate and find pleasure in life with self-awareness, moderation and non attachment. We can tap into a deep reserve of sensory satisfaction from the natural world; by simply enjoying its beauty we reap physical benefits at the same time! Achieving Kama involves recognizing how momentary joys are meant to be savored for what they are – fleeting moments that leave lasting memories as reminders of our connection to Nature’s abundance. Just like a flower blooms, it also dies. Remaining open without clinging allows true happiness rooted in appreciation rather than neediness – because everything essential will always return again…if only you’d trust it would!

Artha is more than just material security and wealth; it encompasses the total sum of our environment that leads to a fulfilling life. Deeply rooted in Ayurveda, Artha includes knowledge, friendships, love, career growth opportunities and skillset development – all which provide us with not only financial abundance but an overall sense of ease as we move closer towards uncovering true self-actualization. Without this tangible comfort around finances or health however, life can be taxing – leaving minds overly anxious & distracted from both mental clarity & intellectual pursuits alike.

Dharma is our true purpose in life. We each have our own unique dharma – a virtuous and moral path that brings purpose to our lives, serving both ourselves and society. According Ayurveda teachings, when we are not living this truth within us, inner peace will elude us. To fully express who we truly are at the deepest level though requires more than just knowledge: it takes stillness of mind so as to discern what is really calling out from inside us. Dharma can take on many forms – spiritual or material – but no matter how varied its shape may be ultimately all serve as paths for deepening self-awareness towards growth in spirit.

Moksha or liberation is an inward exploration of our true self in order to liberate us from material desires, suffering, and the repeating cycle of samsara. Through meditation and conscious living we can gain wisdom that will help connect us more deeply with freedom’s sweetest bliss. As we deepen our understanding of who we are as individuals, it becomes clearer what choices will support true emancipation – yet not without peril; too attached to this idea of freedom or liberation may leave us vulnerable to developing holier-than-thou spiritual egos. Instead let’s encourage ourselves lovingly embrace and bear witness to both pleasure and pain while taking delight in life’s temporal magnificence along the way towards final enlightenment.

Many Blessings!

In Gratitude,

Michelle

Simple way to ground yourself while standing.

This is an exercise for you to use to calm yourself in times of stress and upset.  It is ideal for bringing you back to ‘the moment’ and pushing your concerns and worries away.

Remove your shoes. Stand with your bare feet firmly on the ground, legs slightly apart, and allow your feet to really feel the support of the earth underneath you.

Take a few moments to find a relaxed posture – you may find that gently swaying around your hips helps you to settle into a relaxed upright posture. Make sure that your head is resting in a relaxed way upon your shoulders, just move the head around the shoulders slowly to find a relaxed position. Allow your back to relax. Allow your in-breath and out-breath to fill your chest and abdominal area. Rest your gaze at about 45 degrees or just ahead.

Now place your attention firstly on your feet, and then on the earth beneath your feet. Just feel the earth. Imagine that your feet have invisible roots pushing down into the earth. Push these roots as far as you can go.

Imagine now that your roots are contacting the fresh green energy of the earth. Allow this fresh energy to rise up through the roots into your feet. Now allow the earth energy up through your feet into your legs, up into your pelvis and abdomen. And then allow the earth energy to flow through your chest, heart and neck and shoulder area.

You are now grounded and ready to begin your meditation exercises.

Hope this helps and was enjoyable!

Many Blessings! ~Michelle~

Dance with Yoga

Every year, you hear more people start “doing” yoga. Maybe it’s your friend, a coworker, or a family member. There’s something magnetic about the practice that makes everyone instantly attracted to it. Moving your body, keeping it limber, noticing the little nuances.

In my personal dance with yoga, I have been practicing asana for about 20 years now, it has lead me to deeper spaces of my being than I was unaware existed. I haven’t been to an actual asana class for years, unless you count that Im currently in a 300 hour We Evolve training I am participating in.

When you go for your first asana practice, you might think it will improve only one aspect of your life. Perhaps you do it for its physical benefits, or because you want to incorporate some type of spiritual practice into your life. But soon you realize it seems to affect every aspect of your being – and soon you come to realize, the more you learn, the less you know and the practice of yoga becomes more important, it somehow becomes part of you.

The True Importance Of Yoga

True yogis understood that humans are physical, mental, and spiritual beings. Yoga, which in a literal sense, means “to yolk” works on all of the subtle layers of our body to, bring us back to our center or seat and bring us back to harmony. True yoga in India, didn’t develop only around physical exercise, not at all. It was primarily a spiritual practice focused on the development of virtues, sadhana, and inquiry that help us reach our highest potential, and find purpose in our life.

Still, even if you only practice the physical postures or asanas, you will see a change in your being. If you incorporate pranayama, you get even more benefits. If you include meditation, well the grey matter in your brain only gets stronger and more dense in certain areas of your brain. That’s not only a promise coming from subjective experiences of practitioners, it is also something that has been proven by science today. 

Physical yoga practice is a form of education about living a better life. On the mat, we become aware of our body and our movement. We connect to our breath and learn to control it. The breath serves as a sort of bridge between our physical body, our mind, and our spiritual self. You can experience that as soon as you start controlling your breath. And you don’t have to believe me my word – you can try it right now. 

Start deepening your breath. That means your inhales and exhales get longer, and you activate all the organs involved in the breathing action. As you inhale, lift both your belly and chest and try to make your exhalation longer than your inhale. Only after a couple of moments, you will experience a sense of calm, your thoughts will be quieter, as more air flows into your body, your nerves will calm down reducing stress and anxiety and the more you practice, the more your body will enter a meditative state. Try closing your eyes, and breathe for a minute or two.

Now, in only a few moments of conscious breathing, you have experienced the true importance of yoga. Without any preparation – you have managed to connect your body, your mind, and your spiritual presence.

When we start practicing yoga regularly, we learn of this control over our bodies. We learn we are able to calm ourselves down, heal our pains, and become aware of the present moment. This happens even if we’re not aware of it, but it does become more significant when we are conscious of what we’re doing.

After you learn to connect your breath, movement, thoughts, and emotions, this will soon lead to taking these skills and incorporate it into life off the mat where real “yoga” begins.

That’s the true importance of yoga. When we start experience this ancient wisdom first hand, and experience the benefits in everyday life, what a blessing our practice becomes. When we add the knowledge of Ayurveda, we then we are experiencing true health, harmony and happiness.

To understand your unique constitution, please feel free to book a consultation with me and I will even give you personalized pranayama and possibly some asana as well as diet, lifestyle and healing practices you can incorporate into your life. As we heal ourselves, we are building our personal spiritual practice and personalized medicine as well as improving our mental health. With yoga, you gain back control of your own being. That empowerment is what makes it so important, especially in this fast-paced time in which we are living today.

Physical Benefits Of Doing Yoga

Some people wonder if they’ll lose weight when doing yoga. Some want to improve their performance, whether it is greater flexibility or strength. The third want to heal their chronic pain or improve their posture. The truth is – yoga does all that. 

The reason why yoga improves every aspect of your body is that it uses primal movements. When you observe yoga poses, you will notice you’ve done many of them since you were a child. We squat before we walk, nearly every child tries rolling on the floor, stretching, and doing the candle pose. With yoga, we’re not focusing only on one aspect of our body. We’re doing natural movements that simultaneously improve our strength and range of motion.

Still, there are different styles of yoga you can do, if you want to focus on a certain physical benefit. All styles will still improve every aspect of your body, but some do some things a bit better than others.

For example, if your main goal is to build strength and to lose weight, a more dynamic style of yoga would be appropriate. There are many styles of dynamic yoga, including Ashtanga, Rocket yoga, Iyengar yoga, Hot yoga, and more, but they can all be described as Vinyasa Yoga. Vinyasa yoga is every type of practice where you spend a lot of time in standing poses and move through them at a fast pace. 

On the other hand, those who want to combat back pain and other chronic issues, or want to improve their flexibility, will be attracted to more gentle yoga styles. Although Hatha yoga meant something else in the past, today we relate this word to a slow and gentle yoga style. Other variations are Restorative and Yin yoga. In these styles of yoga, we spend most of our time in sitting and lying positions, and we hold them for longer.

Most yogis are attracted to one style of yoga the most. Still, with time, you will realize you don’t have to decide. Simply choose the style of yoga that gives you the physical benefit you need at this day, this season, or this period of your life. 

Mental Benefits Of Doing Yoga

Even if your main motivation for doing yoga is physical benefits, you will notice the mental benefits of the practice from your first class. 

By being aware of our body, and connecting breath with movement, we have something to focus on. At that moment, our thoughts slow down, and we begin to relax. Science has proven time and time again that yoga improves mental health. A single class can remove the stress from that day, and regular yoga practice can relieve symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental illnesses. 

Whenever you feel stressed, anxious, or have negative thoughts about yourself and the world – try doing yoga. At least for that hour, and an hour after the practice, you’ll get back to a calmer and more positive state of mind. With time, you will see the benefits last longer, and you will be able to use yoga as a type of self-therapy whenever you want to improve your mental well-being. 

All styles of yoga will give you this feeling, whether you’re sweating through a challenging Vinyasa sequence or relaxing your body through a gentle Hatha practice. 

Spiritual Benefits Of Doing Yoga

Regardless of our religion or view of spirituality, most of us feel there’s something else, beyond our body and our thoughts. The spiritual aspect of our lives is what gives us purpose, a greater meaning. Only when we can feel our greater purpose, can we combat our daily struggles long-term. 

Yoga can give you that. The focus on the movement and breath allows you to calm your thoughts. When your thoughts and emotions are calm, you are able to return to the present moment. The present moment is when spirituality happens. 

Every person can experience something different in spirituality. It can be that you simply feel a state of love and bliss. Some get physical sensations, others have visions. That’s why it’s hard to explain what spiritual benefit you can expect from yoga. Yoga is very individual – and the best things happen when you don’t expect them.

Still, what we can promise is that you can expect to gain spiritual experience, knowledge, and understanding. When this begins to happen, yoga stops being merely a physical practice, and it becomes a part of your life. You start using the practice to improve yourself, to treat yourself and others better, and to finally find meaning, love, and true joy in this beautiful life you were given.

That was exactly why old Indian yogis created this practice in the first place. The goal was to reach a higher state of being and to live spirituality both on and off the mat. 

Many will say yoga today moved away from this initial idea, but that’s far from the truth. Yes, it did change – but humanity changed as well. It’s only natural we adapted the practice to make sense to this day and age. We need a different approach, we practice more physical poses, but the goal is the same.

And whether that goal is why you started doing yoga, or it’s only somewhere in the back of your mind, with regular practice, you will achieve it.

Keep doing the type of practice you enjoy, incorporate what you learned into your everyday life, and see for yourself how you and your surroundings change for the better.

Bring more joy, peace, love, and meaning into your life, and enjoy the process of improving your life little by little, every day with yoga. 

What’s the difference between a regular massage and an Ayurvedic massage?

India is known around the world for its ancient culture and wisdom. One such form of medical treatment found in India, Ayurveda medicine has been used to heal people from all over this vast country for thousands upon millennia! The system uses food spices herbs remedies body work lifestyle changes which boost your health balance spirit throughout life’s journey.

Abhyanga is an oiling of the body that is based on the principles of Ayurvedic medicine. Which means it’s designed to relieve stress and release emotional blocks. This technique can be very beneficial for people suffering from anxiety or depression because they focus heavily upon relaxation during these massages as well!

HOLISTIC HEALTH

The pursuit of overall wellness can be achieved through gaining proper balance in life. The idea has been around since ancient times and was made popular by doctors like Hippocrates, who believed that all parts must work together for good physical shape- mind, body & spirit too!

Holistic healers take an holistic approach when they look at your environment, stress in life and medications you’ve taken before. Some people want only natural treatments while others may utilize both Western medicine AND alternative practices such as yoga, Ayurveda or meditation for their healing path.

A good Ayurvedic Professional will treat the whole person – not just what’s wrong with them so that their bodies can be functioning properly but also how it affects other aspects of our lives like mental health, diet and lifestyle to exercise and relaxation techniques.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN AYURVEDIC MASSAGE AND A REGULAR MASSAGE?

The focus of an Ayurvedic massage is holistic- relieving emotional stress as well physical. The practitioners hands are used along with medicated herbal oils to help relieve tension from the body’s energy points instead joints and muscles which can be released through activating the body’s Marma points. These are vital points on the body are the junctions of the body and mind much like acupuncture in Chinese medicine but much larger and are not related to the meridians.

A typical Western Massage focuses on pinpointing problem areas such as tight shoulders while also working over time into strengthening those weak spots so they become less noticeable when someone applies pressure elsewhere.

The body is made up of three energies in Ayurveda, which can be balanced through diet and lifestyle. These are the Kapha (earth/water), Pitta(fire/little bit of water) & Vata (air/space) combinations that each person has one dominant dosha based on their individual makeup with an ability to keep it within normal ranges by following specific practices like eating wisely according to what type you are primarily represented at any given time as well taking care not only about your physical needs but emotional.

An Ayurvedic massage may include: mantras, oils, sound therapy, light therapy and more. Ayurvedic Massage is known as Abhyanga. The word ‘abhyanga’ is composed of two Sanskrit words, Abhi and Anga. Abhi means ‘towards’ and anga, in one of its meanings, refers to ‘movement’.  It also means ‘oil massage’ or in sanskrit, ‘snehana’. Snehana means oil, but it also means love. So by receiving Abhyanga, we are oiling our bodies with love, comfort, and nourishment.

The experience of Abhyanga is deeply relaxing to your brain, nervous system and joints. It eases pain while feeling comforting warmth throughout the body – a super yummy way to nourish the body. It lovingly replaces your anxieties with a sense of calmness and contentment because the oils are warm, stable, and grounding.

The Abhyanga treatment can range from spa like a more clinical therapeutic procedure that uses herbalized oil to penetrate the skin and bind with toxins. It also provides joint lubrication, nourishment for your skin as well moisturizing it once bound together by this powerful natural substance! The medicated oil also helps your body achieve balance through mind and body.

Abhyanga is a sequence of massage that helps clear out toxins by encouraging quick removal from the body. The Lymphatic system has various pressure points which are targeted with varying degrees for each section being massaged, ensuring optimal circulation in order to remove metabolic wastes via this route as well! 

The lymphatic system is a very important part of our bodies because it helps to remove fluids from your organs and transport them around so that they can be excreted by other body systems. The manual massage therapists use their hands as pumps, which increases circulation in the area being treated; this leads us towards getting more nutrients through better blood flow- all while feeling totally blissful! It is an amazing experience when there is the option for treatment includes having two people work together using tandem massages where both sides are being touched at once. Either way, this is a highly recommended experience and very unique to Ayurvedic Massage.

The massage helps in tuning up the functioning of our internal organs and optimizes how well they work. It also revitalizes cell self-healing abilities, which can have physical effects on you mentally or emotionally while stimulating parasympathetic nerves with psychological benefits as well! The body, mind and skin is transformed by regular Abhyanga simply by infusing it with the loving herbal oils making it more resilient, hydrated and vibrant that can better withstand the aging process ~ so you can have that vibrant glow!

Generally, Ayurvedic massage should not be done in the following conditions according to Ayurveda.

  • Fever
  • In any acute illness (unless permitted by your doctor)
  • Blood clots (like deep vein thrombosis) or bleeding disorders
  • Hangover
  • Dehydration
  • During Chemotherapy
  • During Menstruation

Schedule a consultation or a treatment today!

Love & OM,

Michelle