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Several thousands of years before modern medicine started to pay attention to the mind-body connection, Indian sages developed a holistic and natural medicine which they named Ayurveda.
Definition
In Sanskrit, Ayurveda means the “science of Life and longevity”. It is an art of living, a knowledge of the body and a science of healing rooted in nature.
Ayurveda has been practiced and transmitted for over five thousand years. It is an empirical science based on experimentation and intuitive deduction that draws on the observation and knowledge of living entities, and a reflection enlightened by spirituality.
Its approach to the body’s internal composition is a combination of wisdom and science. Ayurveda is the oldest therapeutic system in the world that is still relevant and used.
Origines
Primary evidence of Ayurveda is thought to date back to the 10th century BC. However, as Ayurveda was mostly transmitted orally, it is not before the 4th century BC that the first written evidence of this medicinal approach can be found in the Veda.
The first Ayurveda practitioners were wandering therapists who were going from one village to the next in order to treat and teach individuals how to heal and guard against disease, and how to grow medicinal plants. It is therefore fair to say that Ayurveda was a family medicine in the first place.
Principles
Ayurvedic medicine aims to prevent disorders, to reinforce the immune system and to restore internal balance. It is a way towards harmony which invites us to self-observe and be involved in our health.
Ayurveda seeks to preserve and maintain the harmony that naturally exists between the body, the mind and the soul, which it considers to be the source of health and internal well-being. It offers lifestyle principles and therapies that are fully adapted to each individual and respect biological, energetic and seasonal rhythms.
Ayurveda brings back the original balance between a living being and their environment, between the body and the mind and between the physical and spiritual body. It affirms the importance of finding one’s harmony with their surroundings and the Universe and recommends that we strengthen our natural defenses in order for the body to be able to spontaneously rectify emerging imbalances. Prevention is also a key principle in Ayurveda.
Ayurveda also calls for an inward journey that allows for a deep reconnection with one’s self. In doing so, it invites us to take responsibility for the misalignments we may be facing. Ayurveda wants us to draw a force of life in the heart of our living being’s innate intelligence. It teaches us that the body is an organized energetic structure which is part and parcel of the living world and a way towards self-knowledge.
Ayurveda today
Through its holistic and preventive approach, Ayurveda has been able to answer a dire need for finding therapeutic modalities that could be more mindful of our very nature. Ayurveda looks at an individual as a whole. It focuses on the notion of balance instead of limiting itself to the study of the sole disease. It has been transcending borders and is now influencing the health and well-being of individuals across the world.