Ayruvedic Concepts
Welcome to my Ayurvedic Concepts posts! Below you find all the articles I have written about ayurvedic concepts. If you have any suggestions for posts or ayurvedic concepts related questions, please leave a comment below!
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| WHAT IS A DOSHA – HOW IT INFLUENCES OUR LIVES | AYURVEDIC DOSHA TEST – DISCOVER YOURSELF | WHAT IS POSITIVE THINKING ABOUT – SATTVIC MIND |
This article dives into all the aspects of aromatherapy and essential oil blends, their cosmetic, medicinal and therapeutic usage for benefiting the body, mind and soul.
Essential oils have been used in ayurvedic medicine for centuries for their medicinal, cosmetic and aromatic purposes. The term aromatherapy however is fairly recent and was created by the French chemist and perfumer Rene- Maurice Gattefosse. He published a book 1937 which contained his clinical findings about the benefits of essential oils.
Essential oils have been used in ayurvedic medicine and beauty products for centuries. However one of their most widely accepted uses is aromatherapy, which has turned into big commercial business today.
Aromatherapy is offered by massage and bath oils and scented candles to mention just a few, best ones containing various amounts and qualities of essential oils, others simply synthetic aromas.
Essential oils are concentrated liquids obtained from various parts of the plants, such as leafs, bark, flowers, seeds or roots and contain their aroma compounds in a concentrated form.
There are many methods for obtaining these oils, the price, quality and purity is often dependant on the difficulty of the method, as well as rarity of the ingredients. Flowers in general are very difficult to extract the essential oils from and are therefore among the most precious essential oils.
Here you can order the Master Aromatherapist kit contains 12 pure organic essential oils in a beautiful wooden box. This wonderful handpicked essential oil selection contains:
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Most essential oils, such as peppermint, lavender ad eucalyptus are distilled. The desired plant parts are crushes and placed in distillation equipment, water is heated and the steam is lead through the plant material. The steam containing the aroma compounds is then condensed back into liquid.
Byproduct, the re-condensed water, such as rose, orange blossom and lavender water is often sold to be used in bath oils and other cosmetics as essential oils.
Many flowers cannot be expressed since the contain too little oil, but due to their delicate compounds cannot be tolerate the high heat of the distilling process.
In these cases a solvent is used to extract the oils and the result is a mixture of essential oil and resin or wax. This mixture is then again mixed with second solvent, such as ethanol. The solution is chilled to -18C to separate the oil from the other lipids and ethanol is removed in most cases with evaporation and vacuum purge.
Before the distilling became the man methods, expression used to be the only extraction method. Some argue that the essential oils which are produces by this method are more pure and they are preferred for medicinal uses. A higher price can be demanded for them.
Citrus oils, produced from the orange or lemon peel, are examples of essential oils which are expressed manually in mills. Also some rare essential oils, such as ginger oil, are produced from seeds or root are produced using this method.
Ayurvedic medicine uses essential oils in many of its remedies. They are used to treat everything from curing stomach upsets and indigestion, flu and airway infections, various skin problems to much more serious diseases. They can also be used to balance out the doshas.
The usage of the oils depends on the active ingredients in the essential oil. Some of the most commonly used essential oils in ayurvedic medicine are: ylang-ylang, ginger, peppermint, lavender, rosemary, bergamot, lemon, oregano, cinnamon, eucalyptus, tea tree and frankincense.
There are several different methods for using the essential oils for curing or relieving various conditions. They can be transformed into ointments and oils to be massaged into the skin. They can be consumed in some tea or water. The essential oils can also be added into the bath and washing water or inhaled with the help of water vapour.
Essential oils are a key ingredient in all ayurvedic skin creams and oils, shampoos, conditioners and hair oils. Typically pure essential oils are used for face elixirs and blended with waxes or butter for creams and with other oils, such as coconut or almond oil for body oils.
Simply more essential oils are being used for the cosmetic product, more natural and therefore more expensive it is. However these products produced from pure essential oils are also very effective, as they are hand picked for their ability to heal, invigorate and regenerate the skin.
Not all essential oils which are effective for skin care have a pleasant smells and often other essential oils are added to the skin care products for their pleasant smell. Essential oils are also used in ayurvedic hair oils, shampoos and conditioners both for their benefits and the aroma-therapeutic effect.
Take a look at some of the skin care products produced with essential oils, according to the ancient ayurvedic recipes:
Completely Natural Skin Care Products
“Aromatherapy can be defined as the controlled use of essential oils to maintain and promote physical, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing.” – Gabriel Mojay
Aromatherapy or Essential Oil therapy, is using the aromatic essences extracted from the plants to heal the body, mind and the spirit. There are many way of using essential oils for aromatherapy.
Aromatherapy works by the vapour penetrating our brains via our nasal cavity. It connects with the areas of the brain that process desires, emotions, memories and appetite, as well as stimulates endocrine glads, which are responsible for regulating our hormone levels.
Probably the oldest form of aromatherapy there is. Perfumes or their diluted forms such as cologne water, are made by combining essential oils, sometimes mixing it to a base, to produce a pleasant aroma. The more rare and exquisite the ingredients, the more expensive the perfume.
These aromas range from sweet to pungent and their fragrance chances once it gets in touch with the skin and it’s own oils. This is the reason why the same perfume smells great on one person while making an other stink awful. Their purposes are to excite, to overpower, soothe, seduce or repel other people, often the opposite sex.
Essential oils are added into other oils, such as almond oil, to produce a bath oil, which is both great for the skin and also provides either a soothing and relaxing or energising and invigorating experience. Few drops of pure essential oil can also be used in the bath water.
Scented candles are produced by adding a blend of essential oils into the candle wax during the production. They release aroma into the air when they burn. The aromas can be relaxing or invigorating, setting the mood in the room.
Most scented candles in the market are not produced with real essential oils, but rather with synthesised aromas.
The essential oil aroma is spread into the room with a help of a warm water dish, an oil burner, dried grass method or an electrical diffuser either with the help of water vapour of a fan.
You can read more about essential oil diffusers in my article:
What Exactly Is an Aromatherapy Diffuser
Natural incense, either sticks or cones are made with blending essential oils with combustible base. Incense is burned and the aroma from the essential oils is released into the air, however the combustible component pollutes the air and is harmful for the lungs.
Essential oils are added into other oils, such as almond oil or coconut oil or ghee to produce a massage oil. Massage with the essential oil is especially powerful as it combines the therapeutic effects of the massage itself, the aromatherapeutic and the medicinal effect of the essential oils used.
The essential oil massage in the hand of a good massage therapist can be invigorating, tension and pain relieving, relaxing or even sensual. You can read about the usage of aromatherapy for lifting a depression in my article:
How To Deal With Depression Naturally
Both essential oils and aromatherapy have always played an important part of my life. In every human being scents trigger memories, but everyone has one or two senses that are more important than the other. For me smells are the most important, making aromatherapy extremely effective way of altering my moods.
Therefore I have my house well stocked with scented candles, incense and perfumes. I used essential oils every day either for healing or purely for the mental benefit of their aromas have on me and others. Read in my latest aromatherapy article, how I used essential oils to ensure my children succeed in their exams:
Essential Oils For Concentration and Memory
I hope I have convinced you how they can chance yours. If you have any questions or want to talk about your own experiences with essential oils, please leave me a comment below.
ॐ Love and Purity,
P.S. If you want to enjoy the benefits of peppermint essential oil in your life take a look at the Ayurveda aroma experience This high power, silent and portable essential oil diffuser can bring you the benefits of aromatherapy into your home .
This article will answer many of the question about doshas, such as; what is a dosha, why are doshas so important for ayurvedic medicine, how the dosha type we are assigned at the moment of conception influences our lives and how does one balance the doshas.
According to the ayurvedic science, the physical body has vital bio energies, doshas, which together with seven dhatus, tissues, and three malas, waste products, create the human body.
Every person contains all three elements, but in different amounts, this mixture is called Prakriti. Our dominant dosha, is determined at the time of our conception; we are born with it and it is like finger prints, staying the same for our entire lives.
Ayurveda recognises 5 elements which include:
Each dosha in its turn contains 2 of these elements. The 3 main dosha types are:
Additionally it is possible have a combination dosha that consists of 2 types, such as Vata-Pitta dosha. A person would be called dualdoshic. In rare cases a person has equal qualities of all 3 doshas, making him or her tridoshic.
Doshas all have their own set of properties, which give us our unique personality by determining the persons physical function, including body type, metabolism and mental capabilities such as intellect, temper, practicality and reason.
Together all doshas create a concept called tridosha, which is basis for all ayurvedic medicine. Tridosha simply means:
The Science Of Ayurveda and its three energies vata, pitta and kapha.
Any medical problem, let it be mental or physical illness is caused by the imbalance of tridosha. Hence any problem can be solved by restoring the balance in the three doshas, hence all the Ayurvedic treatments base themselves on it.
Therefore in order to take advantage any ayurvedic remedy, treatment, diet or exercise plan, one must determine his or her dosha type. By knowing your dosha type, you will also discover a lot about yourself, including deceases and difficulties you are prone to.
I have created a free dosha quiz, which you can take to determine your dosha type. You can access it here:
Vata consists of ether (space) and air. It’s a dosha that controls movement and change. Since nothing moves without vata, it’s considered highest of all the doshas. Vata dosha makes a person energetic, lively, enthusiastic and creative.
Vata covens the following physical aspect:
Prana Vata – Senses, reasoning, creative thinking and enthusiasm
Udana Vata – Memory, voice and movements of thought
Samana Vata – Food movement through digestion
Apana Vata – Elimination of wastes, menstrural cycle and sexual functions.
Vyana Vata: Heart rhythm, blood flow, perspiration and sense of touch
Read about how to balance your Vata Dosha here.
Pitta consists of fire and water. It’s a dosha that controls metabolism, digestion and energy production, the sensory perceptions and our sense of right and wrong. Its primary function being transformation.
Pitta covens the following physical aspects:
Alochaka Pitta – Eye functions
Bhrajaka Pitta – Glowing skin
Sadhaka Pitta – Desires, bodily drives, decisiveness and spirituality
Pachaka Pitta – Digestion, metabolism for healthy nutrients and tissues, assimilation.
Ranjaka Pitta – Detoxification of blood.
Read about how to balance your Pitta Dosha here.
Kapha consists of water and earth and is the protecting force the governs the body and its structure, it holds cells together and forms muscles, fat, bones and sinews. Kapha makes a person physically slow, steady and sturdy, but at the same time they tend to be fantastic human being as their nature is very loving and loyal.
Kapha covens the following physical aspects:
Tarpaka Kapha – Nose, eyes, mouth and brain moisture
Bhodaka Kapha – Sense of taste
Kledaka Kapha – Stomach lining moisture
Avalambaka Kapha – Protects the heart, lungs and muscles
Shleshaka Kapha – Lubrication of the joints and soft, supple skin
Read about how to balance your Kapaha Dosha here.
Dual doshic people have almost equal amount of characteristics from two doshas. It is rather common to have this prakriti.
People with this dosha are energetic and make excellent intellectual leaders. It is difficult to stay in balance since the individual is periodically experiencing many of the opposites.
The key to keeping the opposites in check is to base yourself on the climate, taking the seasons into the consideration. Vata Pitta dosha experiencing conflicts such as:
Read about how to balance your Vata Pitta here.
People with this dosha are prone for weight gain, constantly being cold, suffer from water retention and difficulties of waking up. They also get sick lot more than others.
Read about how to balance your Pitta Kapaha Dosha here.
These individuals are prone for serious indigestion problems due to combination of food cravings and weak digestion. tend to carry all the problems in the world on their shoulders.
Conflicts arise with the need for excitement, seeing new places and meeting new people and yet being creature of convenience and stuck in routine.
Read about how to balance your Vata Kapaha Dosha here.
It’s rare for a person to have all 3 doshas prominent. This combination is a very sturdy and solid. These individuals tend to be very healthy and they can easily adapt to seasonal and environmental and dietary changes.
Read about how to balance your tridosha here.
To balance your doshas, you need to look into the following areas of you your lifestyle:
Ayuveda recognises 6 different tastes, each consisting of 2 elements:
Sweet – water and earth
Salty – fire and earth
Pungent – air and fire
Bitter – ether and air
Astringent – air and earth
Your recommended doshic diet will contain tastes to balance out the elements of your prominent doshas.
Yoga and yogic breathing exercises are a powerful way of balancing your doshas. Each dosha has their own pacifying asanas and pranayamas.
Ayurvedic daily routine should include a cleansing of the whole body including the teeth and tongue by brushing the teeth and practicing coconut oil pulling, bathing and evacuating the bladder and bowels.
Additional cleanses can include seasonal fasts or daily intermittent fasting with elimination of wastes from the bowels, juicing, drinking teas and infused water. Read more about the ayurvedic tradition of cleansing the body here.
Massages, self massage or various ayurvedic therapies with essential oils specifically chosen for your dosha type is a great way of balancing your doshas. Therapy tools such as kansa wand and marma tools are often used to enhance the results. Read more about the variety of ayurvedic treatments here.
Additionally it’s important to establish a daily, weekly and seasonable routine.
Daily routine should be a set time for rest, waking up, cleansing routine, meal, meditation and exercise times.
Weekly routine should include things such as potential fasting days and hair care.
Seasonal routine should be thought for holidays, celebrations and changes in weather and natural light.
Read more how a healthy ayurvedic routine can balance your day.
I hope you have enjoyed my overview of the ayurvedic doshas. There is so much to tell, since this is one of the basic concepts in ayurveda, on which all the healing bases itself on. I will keep on adding articles on this subject and update this one with links to them accordingly.
Please let me know if you have any questions related to the doshas, I will be happy to help the best I can.
ॐ Love and balance,
Have you ever read an Ayurvedic remedy and seen it refer to one of the three dosha types vatta, pita and kapha, wondering which type you might be? Wonder no more, as this Ayurveda dosha test will take you through a discovery of your dosha by asking you simple, multiple choice questions!
In Ayurvedic medicine, the overall health is defined by the dynamics between body, mind and environment.
The doshas, are in fact ayurvedic names for the balance of the elemental substances ether, earth, water, fire and air.
According to the ayurvedic concept of doshas, body-mind type, a balance of the 3 doshas results in good physical, emotional and mental health, while imbalances result in diseases, including emotional and mental problems.
You can read more about doshas, how they determine both your physical and mental characteristics and advice how to balance them here:
The 75 questions presented to you in random order concentrate on both your physical, emotional and psychological characteristics.
Some questions might feel intruding, personal and might make you feel uncomfortable. You might also feel that the same question is asked multiple times in different ways.
Do not worry, your ayurvedic dosha test results are for your eyes only. They will not be stored on the server, only your overall score in each category. You should therefore answer as honestly as possible and base your answers on the 1-5 scale, where
You have to answer all the questions before you will get the results. Any unanswered results will be visible on the overview on the top. If you are unsure of any answer, select 3 (the average).
Make yourself a nice cup of tea, sit down, relax and enjoy the ride.
Most of us use all our lives to chase after happiness, not realizing it’s a choice we make every day! Read my article to discover what is positive thinking about and how sattvic mind program can help you in your search for the ultimate bliss!
This has been one of those months that absolutely everything goes wrong. It’s been really hard to try to maintain a positive attitude and thinking.
Luckily last week I have been attending a seminar about how to use the Ayurvedic sattvic mind program for positive thinkings! Although the concept was not new to me, it has reminded me of the fact that happiness is indeed something we choose with our words. actions and thoughts every day.
First of all my health has gotten to the worst the last months and besides tightening my diet, yoga and exercise routine, I have been forced to give up my full time work, causing a considerable loss of income for my family.
For the same reason, I have also been forced to give up my active roles in running several of my companies, as the work and travel related to it were both causing a lot of stress.
I also had 2 car accidents, although neither my fault, the hassle caused was endless! One was caused by a drunk youngster in Poland and other by a truck, who’s tire exploded, causing flying debris and junk on the road.
However both times, the insurance companies were refusing to handle the case with ease and pay for the damages without a fight, causing me to having to advance the repairs out of my own pocket just to get the car into driving state.
Besides from not having a car for weeks at the time, I will now be facing a motor vehicle technical inspection in January, which I know I will fail with some of the repairs still pending. I smell a court case here!
My teenage son has experienced some trouble at school and was expelled twice, forcing me to care for him, instead of myself like I had planned. Same time my daughter also experiences difficulties in math and I have not been there to help her out for the oncoming exams due to my cancer treatments.
Our lovely dog got bitten rather badly by an other older male while visiting on the island of Rügen by the North Sea. That aggressive dog also bit through my finger!
This has caused my dog to react somewhat aggressively towards other male dogs and made him very protective towards the kids. As a result, he bit a mail woman who entered the house while I was in the shower.
I am sure I can find plenty of other things that have gone wrong lately.
Tickets for speeding on the motorway
Friends, family and colleagues getting upset with me due to me being unavailable
Kidney infection and various flu strands that have plagued me
So forth, in a very short time, causing a lot of frustrations, anger, agitations, stress, not to mention the effect is has had on my friends and family.
You might wonder how a seminar could help me out with all of the problems above? In order to find the answer, we need to first look what health is from Ayurvedic point of view.
The ayurvedic definition of the health is a complete piece of mind. A true emotional bliss, which will help us to cope with stress and negativity in our lives! It can be achieved with the help of understanding our mind, which is a complex organism, tightly bound with our bodies and therefore all our actions and behavior.
First step is to understand the strong body and mind connection means that every thought impacts our body and every bodily function impacts our mind. The second is the knowledge how to rewire our neural pathways to change our emotional and mental habits to become healthy!
The seminar I attended was a reminder to me about the Ayurvedic program that leads to achieving the sattvic mind, the emotional bliss. It relies on targeted deceptively tricks to change your habits and therefore your life.
The teaching starts with the tale of three animals; elephant, tiger and jackal. They represent the 3 gunas, or qualities; sattva, rajas and tamas.
Elephant is a strong, gentle and highly intelligent giant, who’s diet is purely vegetarian. He represents the calm sattvic mind, one that works well in the human environment. He has heightened creativity and expanded consciouses.
Rajasic nature is represented as tiger, who kills and eats other animals. His nature as a carnivorous makes him aggressive, fierce and angry. His mind is restless and strong, always on the lookout for any dangers.
Tamasic mind is symbolized by the jackal. He is lazy and fearful, but cunning at the same time, prone to activities not good for us; self-sabotage. He shuns daylight and survives on food which is left behind to rot by others. Mind full of tamasic qualities is dull and weak, known to faint or panic in tough situations,
In order to achieve the emotional bliss of a sattvic mind, you need to take care of all the aspects of your being. Everyone’s mind consist these three aspects and we need to learn to balance them right.
We need to understand that each aspect is needed, depending on the situations we encounter. For instance if we are involved in a car crash, we need to be able to react fast and fiercely, to get out the vehicle and help the others.
It is not a moment to panic and withdraw into ourselves. This is a moment when tiger has to take over and deal with the situation, just like when we lived in a world much more filled with dangers today.
But we also need the Sattvic mind, which will help us to remain calm and steady. Taking a moment to analyze the situation, before acting is always best in any situation, in this case how to best help a person stuck in a burning car.
Returning back to our normal lives, we need a way to stay calm and happy in our jobs and family lives, surrounded by all the external stress factors.
This means we need to cultivate a mind that is high on sattvic aspects, yet not overwhelming rajas and tamas. As cunningness and fierce actions are parts of problem solving in our daily lives. We also need to be lazy in order to be able to relax and enjoy our lives.
Ayurveda recognizes that there are two legs of balancing the qualities. Ahara, the diet and Vihara, activities and lifestyle.
The journey starts with nutrition, move towards eating like an elephant.This means:
Each an one of us is born with a different balance in our gunas and together with doshas, they define our persona to some extend. However we also face changes by the demands of our environment, often bringing a less favorable aspect to dominance.
We all have the power to chance the amount of these aspects in ourselves and therefore change our personalities. By changing the way we behave, we can bring joy into our lives.
To practice this we need to do the following:
Finally it is important to learn the techniques to recognize the situations when one of the less favorable aspects of your mind is about to take over and stop it from happening before it’s too late.
You can read my previous article about meditation benefits, it deals with how meditation can help you to control anger:
10 Benefits From Meditation – Ready To Make A Change
All the mental problems and illnesses can be relieved or even reversed by following the Ayurvedic path to discovering our unique minds, turning negative thinking into positive and applying some self-care to balance the aspects our mind consist of.
If you want to learn more about how to bring some more happiness into your life, take a look at The Sattvic Mind program. A DVD and online course into the techniques in achieving the Sattvic mind!
Positive thinking brings you happiness! It helps you to make the best out of every situation and discover all the things in your life worth celebrating. Being happy in your life is a choice you make like any other, be sure to remember this when go chasing after the bliss!
By adding more sattvic aspect into mind I have been able to see positivity in everything instead of dwelling on my problems. I have once again been reminded what positive thinking is really all about!
To learn more about the practice of positive thinking, read my article about walking meditation method:
Walking Meditation Benefits – Gratefulness
Instead of seeing an overwhelming mountain of issues like the week before, I have instead started to deal with them one at the time, prioritizing things and concentrating on the most important once.
I chose to take care of myself and my children. In the end money and other material things are not as important as me getting healthy is. Concentrating on my children to ensure their growth is a priority!
Join me today in choosing happiness!
ॐ With All My Love,
