Ayurveda, which is sometimes referred to as the science of life or the sister science to yoga, has made my life better in so many ways. Ayurveda teaches us that when we’re sick, depressed, angry, overweight, or unhappy, we are experiencing an imbalance. The way to feel well again is to return to balance. Everything we see and experience here on planet Earth is made up of certain qualities and these qualities are what make up the unique blueprint that governs how we think, learn, feel, love, move, and act in the world. Although the teachings of Ayurveda can seem quite vast, it’s also a science that offers accessible practices to help us live our best life during our time here.

These are the ways Ayurveda can make your life better:

1. Balancing ‘guilty pleasures’

You’ll stop self-shaming whenever you have a certain craving. Ayurveda teaches us that like increases like and opposites balance. If it’s a cold and snowy day and you’re craving hot apple pie all day long, most fad diets will say that your craving is bad and then you may feel negative for wanting this “bad” thing. According to Ayurveda, if you’re feeling like you want something hot and sweet on a cold day, it simply means that you’re looking for something to balance out the cold and light qualities that are present during the winter months. If you look at your craving with curiosity rather than shame, you’ll notice that you simply need to come back to balance and you can do that with warm, cooked meals.

2. Love, love, love

You’ll begin to do all things with love. Ayurveda aims to help us remember who we are and why we are here. When we’re operating from a place of love and recognizing that we are a soul that is all-loving, we begin to see that in all beings around us. When we’re moving through our days in this way, we make choices that are more fulfilling and we become happier in all that we do.

3. “Because, I’m happy!”

You’ll be happier. When we’re unhappy, it’s usually because we’re experiencing some kind of depletion or some kind of excess. The teachings of Ayurveda assure us that we’re not meant to exist in a state of emptiness or indulgence. When we’re experiencing too little or too much of something, we can empower ourselves to make choices that bring us back to that happy middle ground.

4. Can’t forget about yoga

Your yoga practice will be more balanced. Have you ever drank or ate something that upset your stomach or gave you heartburn? Have you ever found yourself on your yoga mat during that time? I have, and it wasn’t fun! Ayurveda’s focus on how we digest is key when it comes to feeling well in our beautiful bodies. Each of us has our own unique list of needs and when we listen to those, we can move with much more ease.

5. … and Meditation

Your meditation practice will be more focused. We don’t just digest meals, we also digest experiences. When our mind is frenetic and when we don’t give ourselves the time and space to process what we’ve experienced in a day, these experiences can basically constipate our thought process. We’re so lucky to be living in an era where modern science is proving the endless benefits of meditation, but if we can’t actually meditate because we’re so frenetic with all of our other experiences, those benefits may not find us.

6. Human interaction doesn’t have to be hard

Spending time with difficult people will become more bearable. When we understand the doshas and how they can shape certain personalities, we grow more understanding towards the people around us – especially the ones we can’t really get away from. Perhaps you have a boss who is always starting a new project or looping you into a new idea, only to forget about that project or idea after you spent days working on the outline for it. Ayurveda informs us that this person simply has a lot of vata in their personal blueprint and they probably do things like this all the time. Once we have an understanding of the doshas and how they influence creativity, decision making, work ethic, and relationships, we become more understanding towards the people we have to see or work with on a regular basis. Maybe you could sit with your boss and create a timeline together or let them know you need a contract before you begin working. You could also kindly say you don’t have the time and step away without taking anything too personal.

7. Traveling just got easier

Travel will be more easeful. Long road trips, flights, and boat rides will all either increase or deplete certain qualities within each of us. Once we know what qualities are most present within us and how to be balanced in our day to day life, we can prevent those headaches, digestive issues, irritability, and sicknesses that come with travel.

8. Be in sync with the seasons

The transitional time between the seasons will be more smooth. The study of the seasons and their rhythms is called “ritucharya” and it stresses the importance of adjusting our consciousness and our own rhythms to flow with the season. The time between each season is called “ritusandhi” and stresses the awareness we need to cultivate during the change of seasons as this is when we’re more likely to come out of balance. When we’re in rhythm with the seasons we’re in, we’re ideally balancing our bodies to be ready for what comes next and we lessen our chances of experiencing the cold/flu/allergies that sometimes come with seasonal changes.

9. You’ll just feel good

You’ll feel better. If you’re incredibly healthy in your body, but your mind is always haunting you with anxiety or depression, your body will eventually begin to feel the weight of the mind. If your mind is healthy, but your body is not, your mind will eventually begin to move away from its state of ease. The same goes for matters of the heart and spirit. When one part of us is out of balance, we become imbalanced in another. When we’re in balance, which is one of our goals in Ayurveda, we feel much better and more like ourselves.

10. Enhanced relationships

Your relationships will be healthier and more fulfilling. The way we connect with the world around us is the way we inevitably connect with ourselves. The way we connect with ourselves is inevitably the way we connect with the world around us. When we’re studying and practicing even the smallest Ayurvedic practice or concept, we feel more fulfilled and more at peace with who we are and where we’re at.

Ayurveda is a gentle and fulfilling transition

Some of the most simple practices in Ayurveda can be the most transformational. You don’t have to completely change your entire lifestyle to experience benefits. Many of the practices are about happiness and fulfillment and enjoying the time you have here during this lifetime. They connect us to the elements around us and provide us with the tools we need to experience them in a loving and blissful way.

– Written by yoga teacher & Ayurvedic goddess Lisa Bermudez

Check out her courses in Ayurveda:

• Ayurveda + Asana
• Ayurveda + Women’s Health
• The History of Ayurveda
• Ayurveda Diet
• Ayurveda + Self-Care

Why is Ayurveda considered the sister of yoga?

Ayurveda is a science that helps us understand our personal rhythms and the rhythms of this world. It’s often called the sister science to yoga because it’s said that Ayurveda and yoga are meant to be practiced together. We can understand yoga as a practice that helps us tune into our soul and connect to the divine. It can help us understand the nature of our mind and access our heart so we can remember who we really are. Ayurveda helps us understand this body we are born with and how it works in this world. Ayurveda helps us understand matter, the world, and the elements that make it up. It allows us to live in this world while having a connection to our soul.

Whenever I teach an Introduction to Ayurveda class, I often like to open by saying that Ayurveda is the Sister Science of Yoga. That usually sparks some interest in everyone because most people have heard of yoga, but Ayurveda is something that’s not quite as mainstream, but it’s definitely a science that’s becoming more and more popular. We’re even starting to see certain celebrities talk about Ayurvedic Treatments, Ayurveda Wellness, and even Ayurvedic Cleanses. Just like yoga, Ayurveda can sometimes come off a bit intimidating to anyone brand new to it, but both yoga and Ayurveda can be incredibly accessible once we begin to learn more. Ayurveda may actually help us with our yoga practice and our yoga practice can help us bring Ayurvedic principles into our lives. They truly are “Sister Sciences”

1. Balance

When we are balanced in our body, mind, and spirit through Ayurveda, we can connect more deeply to our yoga asana, meditation, and pranayama practices. These days, when we take a yoga class, we usually move through the asanas (the physical shapes), maybe some pranayama (breath-work), and perhaps even some meditation.

If I’m having a day where I wake up irritated because I didn’t sleep much, drink a ton of coffee, eat super spicy food for lunch, and then have a very heated argument with a coworker, I might think that going to a vinyasa yoga class is the perfect way to balance out my frustrating and heated day. However, once I get onto my yoga mat, I might start to feel like I can’t sit still because I’m still buzzing from my hot lunch and heated conversation. Even as I begin moving through the asanas, I may find that my stomach is bothering me or I might even also have heartburn from the spicy food. Maybe my lunch from earlier didn’t digest well because I had a rough conversation with my coworker immediately after eating and now it’s distracting me from my yoga practice.

While I might be able to make it through the class, I might find myself overly irritated as opposed to finding the balance I was seeking. By the end of the class, the teacher might offer up some pranayama or meditation, but I probably won’t be able to focus because I’m incredibly over-stimulated.

Ayurveda teaches us that like increases like and opposites balance. Waking up irritated, drinking coffee, consuming spicy food, and having intense conversation are all very heating choices. By filling my day with these choices that are quite “hot” in their quality, I’m only making myself more and more heated as the day goes on. Once I’m in this overheated and over-stimulated place, it can be difficult to cool down and find balance.

Ayurveda teaches us that everything we take in through our senses will either bring us to balance or out of balance. Perhaps when I woke up irritated, I could have had coconut water or some herbal tea instead of that coffee. As my day went on, I could have had a lunch that was well-cooked and easy to digest instead of the spicy food. After lunch, going for a light walk would have helped me digest not only my food, but also why I didn’t sleep well. Then, maybe my conversation with my coworker wouldn’t have escalated. The yoga class could have provided the balance I was looking for if I’d made some of these small adjustments throughout the day. When our mind, body, and spirit are balanced, our yoga practice can help us remember who we are and why we’re here. We can start to see how life is happening for us and not to us.

2. Health + wellness

“In the words of Dr. Marc Halpern, the Founder and Director of the California College of Ayurveda, ‘the path to perfect health parallels the path to enlightenment!’” When we study and practice Ayurveda, we are doing the best we can for ourselves to be on the path of perfect health. When we study and practice yoga, we are usually on the path to finding and achieving enlightenment. Both “perfect health” and “enlightenment” look very different to different people, and this is what’s so beautiful about both.

When we enter onto the path of finding ways to better ourselves and feel more alive in this world, both yoga and Ayurveda work hand in hand to guide us to a place of balance. When we are balanced, we can begin to remember who we really are and why we are here. It’s believed that the cause of most, if not all, suffering comes from forgetting who we really are. When we forget who we really are, we begin to identify with who we really are not. We might use our paychecks, our car, our home, our clothes, and even our occupation to define ourselves. When these things disappear or when they’re taken away from us, we’re left feeling empty and lost because we’ve been identifying with things that aren’t eternal.

3. Freedom from suffering

Both yoga and Ayurveda aim to free us from suffering. It’s inevitable that we will all experience some form of suffering during our time as human beings here on planet earth. We all move through similar experiences like birth, life, disease, and death but for some reason, most of us are shocked when we’re faced with these experiences. Yoga teaches us that we are so much more than these experiences and that we’re all connected to something higher and more eternal than what we see here on earth. Some lineages call this God, love, or even a greater higher truth.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali present to us the Eight Limbs of Yoga, a system that outlines a way for us to live a life filled with meaning. When we feel like our life has no meaning, we might fixate on the experiences that cause suffering. The Eight Limbs help us move away from this fixation and move through life in a more purposeful way where we can gain control over our mind.

Ayurveda teaches us that most, if not all, disease begins in the mind. When we pollute our mind with thoughts that cause worry, anxiety, stress, sadness, or any other lower emotion, put ourselves into a state of dis-ease. We are no longer at ease with our lives and with who we are. This may begin to manifest as complications in our physical body and also in our subtle body. Yoga and Ayurveda come together to give us tools to recognize the beauty in our lives and in everything we do. Both provide practices for us to love ourselves and the world around us.