An in-depth exploration of Ayurvedic Philosophy and Embodied Practice
Hi! I wanted to personally introduce this new course we’re running at Yoga One Bournemouth and briefly explain why I’m so passionate about Ayurveda and Yoga and how Ayurveda came to be such an important part of my life.
When I first started studying Ayurveda it was at the beginning of my journey into yoga and gradually I began to see this “Science of Life” as a pathway I could follow to my own wellbeing and connect more consciously with my body.
One of the sessions on my first ever training (a British Wheel of Yoga foundation course over 15 years ago!) was on Ayurveda. I was intrigued by the idea that we are all inherently beings of nature, and that it is in our benefit to act in harmony with the environment around us. It planted a seed and six years later I enrolled on an Ayurvedic Wellness Course at an ashram in Kerala, the home of Ayurveda .
My further education in Ayurveda was not linear, but more like the traditional ways both Ayurveda and Yoga were taught. After my time in India, I returned to Australia and sought out a practicing Ayurvedic teacher and in return for assisting him with his work he mentored me and furthered my education through practise and self-study. Gradually he would introduce more teachings and this measured approach allowed me to gain a much deeper understanding of the teachings by fully integrating them into my life.
I continued this method of learning through practice at The Chopra Centre’s Perfect Health teacher training program in California, enjoying coming at the practice from a completely new view point.
The more I learn about Ayurveda, the more I realise just how important it is as a practitioner and teacher of Yoga to share on this knowledge with our community. I have put my heart and soul into creating this three day Ayurveda and Yoga workshop and I would love you to join me!
Lucy
Ayurveda and Yoga Course Summary
Inspired by the Chopra Perfect Health training program, Yoga One Bournemouth’s Ayurveda and Yoga workshop serves to deepen your wellness journey by using the centuries-old healing methods of Ayurveda to balance body, mind and spirit.
Ayurveda is a 5000 year old consciousness-based system of healing from India. References to Ayurveda and its sister-science, Yoga, appeared in ancient scholarly texts called “the Vedas”. In this course we aim to provide you with context and understanding of tried and tested techniques to balance the nervous system, reduce inflammation and improve digestion so you can achieve optimal wellness.
This 3-day workshop will include:
- Twice daily Yoga and meditation sessions
- An introduction to the doshas and understanding your unique constitution
- The concept of nourishment for body, mind and soul
- How to achieve detoxification, purification and rejuvenation in perpetual renewal
- Discovering emotional freedom and how to interact in harmony with others
- How to use the five gateways to the inner pharmacy
Course Details
Friday March 15th to Sunday March 17th, 2024.
Ayurveda and Yoga runs over three consecutive days, we start each day at 7:00am and finish each day at 5:00pm.
Your course will be hosted by our co-founder, Lucy.
Please wear comfortable clothes, including something to practise in. Mats, props, course booklet and materials are provided, but please bring a notepad and pens to take any extra notes.
Ayurveda and Yoga Course Detail and Syllabus
Who is the course for?
Anyone curious about ancient Eastern wisdom: Ayurveda & Yoga is based on understandings of the natural world that date back over five thousand years to ancient India. Known as the sister-science to Yoga, Ayurveda offers some of the most nourishing and satisfying experiences you will undertake wherever you are in your wellbeing journey.
Seekers of happiness and harmony: Ayurveda & Yoga encompasses plenty of practical wisdom for securing happiness and harmony across all aspects of your life by understanding how all things are related to one another. Anyone who is open-minded and truly wants to heal, be happy and healthy, and live a life of their greatest expectations – this course is for you.
Students, teachers and lovers of Yoga: Ayurveda & Yoga is ideal for anyone who loves Yoga. For the “forever learner” who loves to find new ways to support optimum health, it will bring new insight to your practice and help you to understand the quickly growing niche of Ayurveda.
Course Features
Theory and Concepts
Ayurveda is a 5000 year old consciousness-based system of healing that comes from India. The Sanskrit word Ayus is the Sanskrit word for life, and Vedas is the Sanskrit word for knowledge. References to Ayurveda and its sister science, Yoga, appeared in ancient scholarly texts called “the Vedas”. In this course we aim to provide you with context and understanding of tried and tested techniques to balance the nervous system, reduce inflammation and improve digestion so you can achieve optimal wellness.
Yoga Practice
If you love Yoga then you will love Ayurveda and Yoga as we start each morning with a dynamic Vinyasa class and each afternoon with a gentle Yin class to introduce you to key concepts of our learning. These practice sessions further serve the aim of deepening your wellness journey by balancing the nervous system, and you may even experience profound shifts as you enhance calm and focus.
Ayurvedic Techniques
You will have ample opportunity to experience traditional wisdom combined with modern wellness techniques to promote inner peace. One of the main pillars of Ayurveda is meditation and so as well as Yoga you will be practising meditation to enhance wellbeing and reduce stress. On top of this you will experience emotional clearing techniques to release unresolved emotions leading to greater success in health and happiness. You will also learn balancing techniques through sound, touch, sight, taste and smell.
Summary of Course Content
Body, Mind and Soul
The five elements of Ayurveda, prithvi (earth), japa (water), agni (fire), vayu (air) and akasha (space) form the multidimensional nature of life and are described in the context of Vedic philosophy. This is the basis for all the classical philosophies of Indian thought, with the Charaka Samhita being the seminal text on Ayurveda, completed around 100 BCE – 200 CE – it describes ancient theories on the human body and the importance of diet, hygiene and prevention as well as more detailed medical education necessary for recovery of health.
According to Vedic philosophy, all life is multi-dimensional. From the most abstract to the densest expression, life is a multilayered spectrum. But masking one’s essential nature are three primary divisions we call the physical body, the subtle body and the causal body, or known more simply as body, mind and soul.
Modern Ayurveda explores a new model for life and health in which “body, mind and soul” are seen as interconnected aspects of one underlying field of intelligence. This perspective opens the possibility for creating wellness through making simple consciousness-based choices; ie, through changes in awareness, choices, thoughts and interpretations. Understanding how the basic elements of nature are addressed in your individual constitution enables you to make better choices to maximise balance and wellbeing.
In Ayurveda and Yoga we pick up this central idea of one underlying field of intelligence manifesting as the multiplicity of forms and phenomena that we call the physical universe, and through Vedic concepts such as the “koshas” meaning “coverings”, we explore the three primary divisions and their secondary levels.
By understanding these layers, your life can be so much simpler and more contented.
Nourishment for Body, Mind, and Soul
The concept of weight loss and reducing fat are often associated with the Ayurvedic diet; and whilst they may be applicable, they are not really central themes in Ayurvedic nutrition.
After breathing, eating is the most vital bodily function; we nourish ourselves by converting the energy and information of our environment into the biological intelligence of our physical body.
Our digestive power is known in Ayurveda as “agni” and is comparable to an internal fire that governs the breakdown and metabolism of the food we eat, with proper digestion being essential to health.
Improper digestion may lead to toxicity – when digestive power is not adequate to metabolise the food you eat, a residue of undigested substances is left behind in the physiology.
During our three days we will introduce you to the idea of Food as Medicine; what the terms “ojas” and “amas” mean, and how they impact digestion. You will become familiar with simple ways to make food more nourishing, digestive power more strong and elimination more efficient.
Perpetual Renewal
Our third exploration is detoxification, purification and rejuvenation in perpetual renewal. This school of thought also sets out a map for how to find balance and harmony on a day-to-day basis; and how your environment plays a key influence in maintaining this balance.
Your physical and emotional digestive systems must function in a strong and healthy manner in order for you to extract optimal nourishment from your environment.
Put simply, harmonising your internal rhythms with those of the environment will enable you to receive maximal nourishment with minimal stress. For this reason you will learn to identify where you are storing toxicity in your physiology and identify gentle cleansing and balancing procedures that can eliminate accumulated impurities – in both body and mind.
In other words, Perpetual Renewal is a guide to understanding how you are one with the universal rhythms of nature, so that you can choose how to act, or whether to act at all.
Students of Ayurveda and Yoga will really love this part of the course for its fascinating viewpoint on health and harmony; as well as for its easy to adopt principles on how to live a contented and balanced life.
Emotional Freedom
The real purpose of our time together is to discover a way of looking at the world and ourselves, and how to interrelate and interact in harmony with others.
Every human being SHARES the fundamental desire to be happy. But! From the time we are small children, most of us learn to seek happiness outside of ourselves. Once we grasp that our happiness is not dependent upon people, situations and things, an ENDURING sense of happiness exists in the realm of our being, which is beyond form and circumstance.
This deep understanding is really about finding intimacy with your Self. Intrigued? We will see you there. 😉
The Five Gateways to the Inner Pharmacy
The five gateways are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose… the sense organs through which we experience the world.
Healing through sound: Sound is a profound healing modality. Virtually every culture in the world has recognised the healing and unifying properties of sound. Sound can be used to create harmony and coherence within body, mind, emotions and spirit including:
- Mantras – Mantras express the fundamental vibrations of language. A mantra used in silent meditation, such as “So Hum”, serves as a vehicle to quiet the mind and expand awareness. A mantra chanted out loud can be directed through attention and intention to any part of the body that needs healing.
- Primordial sounds – This applies to the sound vibrations of nature, such as waves crashing against the shore. The sounds of nature remind us of our essential nature.
- Awakening energy centres in the body – There are classical primordial sounds that can be verbally toned to enliven the major energy centres in the body, i.e. when you express a chakra mantra with your attention in the chakra centre within the physical body, you open up energy that may be congested in that region.
Healing through touch: Your skin is your largest organ and gives access to your inner pharmacy. Touch is fundamental to health and wellbeing. You will learn to nourish your body daily with self massage. Daily self massage nourishes the tissues, stimulates the skin to release health-promoting chemicals, improves circulation, increases alertness, facilitates detoxification and improves immunity.
Healing through sight: The images that enter through your eyes have a profound effect on body, mind and emotions. You can improve your wellbeing and enhance living and working environments through the creative use of colour.
Healing through taste: Feelings, like food, come in a variety of flavours. Rasa, the Ayurvedic word for taste, also means emotion or mood. Only when you have the experience of all six tastes do you feel completely satisfied after a meal. Likewise, fulfilment in life comes through exploring the full range of your emotional expression.
Healing through smell: Aromas can trigger the healing power within and so you can use aromas to invoke states of wellbeing.