For our week 7 workshop, we invited Naomi Uchida-Boas to present about Ayurveda. Naomi Uchida Boas is a clinical and teaching faculty in the Department of Ayurvedic Medicine at her alma mater, the Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCU). She is also a Certified Ayurveda Practitioner, Massage Therapist, Jyotishi/ Vedic Astrologer, Reiki Master, and Biomagnetic Therapy Practitioner.
Ayurveda (roughly meaning “Science of Life”) is the oldest system of medicine which dates back to 5,000 years in ancient India. Much of the teachings of Ayurveda were established through observations of nature/animals and were written by sages who meditated at the foothills of the Himalayas to acquire this knowledge. Naomi explained that Ayurveda focuses on the prevention and treatment of disease while also living in accordance with nature and balancing the mind, body and soul.
Naomi described that, since Ayurveda was a complete system of medicine it had 8 main branches: Kaya Cikitsa (Internal Medicine), Vrushya (Fertility), Bala Cikitsa (Pediatrics), Urdhwanga Cikitsa (ENT), Jara (Gerontology), Damshtra (Toxicology), Shalya (Surgery), and Graha Cikitsa (Psychiatry). The basic principles of Ayurveda include the five elements: air, fire, earth, water, and space. Naomi explained that every person has different levels of all three doshas: vata (for air and space), pitta (for fire and water), and kapha (for water and earth). The balance of the three doshas depends on time, weather, seasom, and what point of life you are at.
Vata is responsible for action, movement, and transportation. It has qualities that are cold, dry, light, minute, mobile, and rough. Pitta is responsible for transformation, metabolism, and digestion. It has qualities that are hot, light, oily, sharp, liquid, and spreading. Kapha is responsible for stability, construction, lubrication, and nourishment. It has qualities that are cold, heavy, slow, soft, stable, thick, and unctuous.
Naomi stated that each of these doshas has characteristics that may be prominent in the people that resonate with a specific dosha. Additionally, each dosha has certain features that can balance or unbalance the dosha. Balance (or imbalance) is created through many factors, such as taste and food type. For vata, sweet, sour, salty, and warm, nourishing, grounding food (such as root vegetables and grain with healthy oils and fats) create balance while imbalance is created through astringent, bitter, pungent tastes, and light/dry, raw or cold foods and drinks. In a typical person, a balanced vata is seen through activity, creativity, adaptability, and thin frame. An imbalance of vata can cause issues such as anxiety, lack of focus, insomnia, being underweight, constipation, and dry skin/hair.
For pitta, sweet, bitter, astringent, and dark leafy/bitter greens, cooling spices and grains create balance while imbalance is created through pungent, salty, sour, and spicy foods. Usually, the balance of pitta is seen through organized, goal-oriented, passionate, focused, strong digestion, and medium frame. Imbalance pitta can create anger, irritability, inflammation, skin rash, ulcers, and fevers.
Finally, for kapha, balancing tastes include pungent, bitter, and astringent while food types include dark, leafy bitter, astringent greens, slightly pungent spices and vegetables. Imbalancing tastes include sweet, sour, and salty while food types include heavy, cold foods (like dairy), bananas, bread, sweets, excessive meats, grains, and fried foods. Balances kapha characteristics include calm, stable, strong, flexible, and large frame while imbalanced characteristics include depression, lack of motivation, stagnant, slow digestion, weight gain, allergies, colds, etc.
Another concept presented by Naomi was “Agni and Ama.” Agni refers to the digestive fire and metabolic process of your entire body while ama refers to the toxins and undigested food/emotions that quickly spread to other parts of the body and play a huge factor in the disease process. To keep Agni strong, some tips given by Naomi included drinking hot water in the mornings, exercising, breath work, eating some fresh ginger, and having warm/cooked foods. To clean Ama, bitter greens, and herbs, detoxifying the body and avoiding heavy foods (like dairy, greasy foods, etc.).
Some ayurvedic cleansing techniques include tongue scrapping in the morning to remove bacteria, and toxins, freshen your breath and improve digestion; oil pulling in the morning with coconut oil or sesame oil which helps also helps to remove bacteria, moisturize gums, brighten teeth, and to improve the overall health of your mouth. Finally, self-massage (abhyanga) before taking a shower/bath improves flexibility, reduces stress/flexibility, softens skin, etc.
If you want to explore more about ayurveda feel free to check out Naomi Uchida-Boas in her website: www.healayurvedaLA.com
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