As an Ayurveda Beauty educator and Ayurveda Spa consultant, I just recently taught a few estheticians and massage therapists how to understand themselves and heal themselves with the wisdom of Ayurveda, and her two other sisters Yoga and Jyotisha (Vedic Astrology).
To see ourselves with a Vedic lens can seem complicated, so I introduced a layered approach using my KNOW THYSELF, HEAL THYSELF motto.
My love and passion for Vedic science, philosophy, psychology, medicine and spirituality motivates me to share with my clients and hundreds of spa practitioners and healers I have taught over the years. My goal? Helping them understand how the wisdom held within these ancient paths of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Jyotisha can be applied to our daily lives for personal development and healing. Recently I have begun offering these courses online.
This is exciting to me because I understand the importance of doing inner work as well as helping others professionally and in our family network and community.
Whatever industry you are in, having a new way of seeing yourself, seeing your community, your team, your family, and this world, can be very liberating. It will offer you new ways to approach daily challenges that come up among people and how people affect you.
When you understand yourself and your suffering, you will understand the pain and suffering of others.
Let me share the steps to begin to see yourself with an Ayurveda lens, along with some key questions to ask yourself for further introspection.
As a healer and teacher, I have to continuously review these questions and assess myself, my body, my energy centres, and tweak my self-care as I go.
Self-Care needs refining as we change and grow and as life presents different challenges for us to experience. We can apply the newly learned behaviours and use the “new knowledge” of self that we have discovered.
Assess your Dosha Regularly
The word Dosha means a flaw, a mistake that your body produces that is causing you to feel out of ease with yourself. When we do not reduce these waste products, they can turn into diseases.
Be aware of the symptoms that you are experiencing.
If you feel very constricted in your muscles, mind and heart.
Suppose you are experiencing a lot of gas and irregular bowel movements or menses. In that case, your Air element may have increased due to stress, weather changes, overwhelming things that can cause you to feel anxious about the future.
When you feel unstable, insecure and confused, your Vata Dosha may have increased. It does not mean you are a Vata, but Air and Ether’s elements may have increased, causing you to feel some of the Vata symptoms.
If you are experiencing signs of increased Fire you may feel hot, agitated, frustrated, you may have inflammation, your skin can show signs of acne, rashes, rosacea, your blood pressure may be high, and you may feel burned out. Then your Pitta Dosha may have increased.
Perhaps your Water has increased and you feel heavy, lethargic, bloated, experiencing a lot of phlegm or mucous, then Your Kapha Dosha may be high.
Adjusting your diet, essential oil self massages, and bath rituals, the scents you use towards more Doshic reducing can help you support yourself.
Assess the predominant element and address how to reduce it by making changes to your self-care rituals. Feel free to email me for a 20 min complimentary assessment and prescription to, info@ayurvedictouch.com.
Take time to assess your energy centres. These are the seven gateways of consciousness known as the Chakras.
Understanding your element and your chakra centre that is out of balance will begin to give you a picture of yourself and what needs you may have as well as what anti-dote and medicines to invite into your healing space.
Awareness is the first step towards our healing.
In Ayurveda, Yoga, and Jyotisha, we understand that our mind can be the culprit to most of our imbalances. These three sister sciences provide us with encyclopedias that contain recipes for living, healing and liberation out of our suffering.
The mental natures or the three modes of material nature that can wrap themselves around us like a rope making us behave in certain ways that can bring us more entanglements.
These are known as the Gunas.
We are not just an elemental being, living out a Dosha type, or a walking spectrum of coloured gates that display our energetic consciousness. Now we have a mental nature that can explain all the reasons why we are suffering.
They are the states that the mind cycles in. Yoga philosophy and practices offer a deeper understanding of our mind.
My teacher Mantriji used to write on his whiteboard:
Three states of the mind
Tamas “To Have”
Rajas ” To Do”
Sattva ” To Be”
Tamas- The state of darkness, stagnation, fear, phobias, ignorance, trauma. State of mind stays in the TO HAVE.
Rajas – The mental state of action, passions, desires, competition, strategic plans, obsessions, state of mind stays in the TO DO.
Sattva – The mental state of peace, love, compassion, purity, spirituality, service, devotion, goodness, lightness, state of mind stays in TO BE.
Understand your Mental Nature by asking yourself the following questions
#1 What do I want “TO HAVE”? What am I longing for? What do I desire deeply within myself? What am I waiting for?
#2 What do I have “TO DO” to get what I want “TO HAVE”? What do I need “TO DO ” to fulfil my desires and satisfy my longing?
What do I have to take action on instead of waiting for it to come to me?
#3 What do I now understand about how the desires, the longing and the periods of stagnation that occur in my life when I want “TO HAVE” something take me away from the state of “BEINGNESS”?
What do I now understand about how the actions of “TO DO” keep me from experiencing the state of “BEINGNESS” ?
What do I now need to accept within myself so that I can “BE” in the “BE” “TO BE” your “True Self”.
Now you have a Dosha type so that you see how your body goes out of alignment. You understand the states in your mind and how this cycle of wanting to have something or fulfilling a desire takes you into overdoing, and these actions make you long for your true state of being, your true self and a peace that is you.
Detachment is the key to your mental peace.
Letting go of desires that take your energy away, that do not serve your highest health goals and peaceful state of mind.
Are they worth it?
Prioritize your desires, and assess the true state of your Prana/lifeforce energy.
Do you have enough Prana without robbing other centres in your body?
Redo your Chakra awareness assessment to see what centres are weak so that you know this is where those desires will drain further. Then see which centres are strong. This is where those desires will drain your reservoir of Prana from.
Now take a look in a mirror. See what your FACE is manifesting. What are the signs of stress and aging that you are seeing?
What is your face showing you that you are “FACING” in your life? Your face is a mirror of everything that is happening in your life.
When you address the stress the face relaxes, when you heal pain the face looks relieved. Face massage is key!
Daily facial self-care is vital for skin preservation and help those mental stresses and emotions from manifesting on your skin. If your face is showing signs of stress, aging and dullness, use my Rejuvenation Serum and Renewal Cream.
If your face is breaking out and oily, use my Balancing Cleanser with Liquid Nectar and the Pitta Ayurveda Herbal powder called Ubtan.
Whatever condition your skin is having there is a self care ritual that will help to change it and bring back the balance
Please take advantage of my extended Spring/Summer sale of 15% off all products using the discount code Student15, as we are all students and we all wish we were 15 again! Visit ayurvedaritualsskincare.com
Imagine if we could start again with all the wisdom we have gained from all our experiences in our lives! Your skin and body can renew, and your consciousness can refresh itself over and over again. I am a Latina, and we celebrate sweet 15 La Quinceañera instead of sweet 16 ( many people ask me about that LOL!)
See how the need to have something, those hidden desires that have not been fulfilled, manifest as grief lines on your face.
See how the need to manifest and fulfill all your desires by keeping yourself busy doing this and that to get satisfaction has aged you. It has drained you or overheated your body and caused skin disorders that are now showing up on your face.
As you “face” yourself, your life and your reasons for doing all that you do, you will begin to recognize your inner saboteur.
This inner saboteur is introduced by the third sister Jyotisha, which is the light of the planets that shined on you at the time of birth. The importance of having your natal chart done is so that you can begin to see the map of your Karma.
What will be revealed to you is the play of your inner saboteur. Jyotisha offers you a look at your strengths and weaknesses and a way out of your karmic suffering. Book a Karmic Life Map reading with me!
KNOW THYSELF, HEAL THYSELF. The more you understand the layers of your Elements, your Dosha and the imbalances that each element within you produces and you take up the Self Care rituals offered by the Mother of all Healing, Ayurveda and the Prana balancing practices offered in Yoga, as well as the Karmic Life Map that Jyotisha (Vedic Astrology) offers, you will begin to fully understand and support yourself with wisdom, love and compassion
This is my goal for you !
Andrea is a pioneering figure in the field of Ayurveda beauty, and has dedicated her life to the study of Ayurveda, Jyotish, Yoga and the Vedic Sciences. Over 30 years ago, Andrea began her career as a make-up artist and aesthetician, and was one of the first Canadians in her field to incorporate Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedic Astrology and Eastern wellness practices into her spa treatments and services. Today, she is one of Canada’s leading Ayurveda beauty and wellness specialists and educators.