As part of the World Health Day, which is commemorated every year on the day of the WHO's foundation, April 7, 1948, the whole world talks about the need to protect health, as a precious gift that allows every person to live a quality life.
We know what health is at the moment when we have lost it, whether short-term or long-term, or when one of our loved ones falls ill. The answer to what health is is usually the negation of illness.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or bodily defects.
And what does Ayurveda say about health? First of all, Ayurveda perceives man as a part of nature, as a microworld, which is composed of the same elements as the macroworld, the entire universe. The basic elements of the world we perceive are space, air, fire, water and earth. Each of them has its own characteristics and laws. The combination of these elements are the energies and layers that Ayurveda defines as doshas within the human organism. The earth element is represented in our body by all solid parts such as bones, muscles, and teeth. We can find the element of water in the form of liquid, it is saliva, gastric juices, blood, plasma, urine, sweat. The element of fire is the temperature of the human body, the digestive fire; the element of air is in the lungs, in the intestines, in the stomach, and space is the cavities – veins, head, nose, etc. We have three basic doshas in the body, they are called vata, pitta and kapha, they have their own characteristics, laws, movement. At birth, we have a certain optimal ratio of individual doshas, which for various reasons change during life, deviate from their natural location, and we perceive this disharmony as a disease. According to Ayurveda, health is therefore the arrangement of energies, elements, rhythm of life. Illness is chaos, disorder.
The definition of health according to Ayurveda in a free translation reads approximately as follows:
A healthy person is considered to be one whose dosha and digestion are in balance, whose tissues are balanced (bones, muscles, fat, blood, etc.) and whose emptying functions through three channels (stool, urine and sweat); his senses, mind and heart are calmed, full of peace.
The Ayurvedic doctor examines the patient using the pulse technique, perceives his movements, face, eyes, hands, fingers, asks about his habits, and never misses a question about the regularity and quality of the stool. The examination also includes questions related to the psyche, anxiety, fear, dreams, etc. Finding the source and origin of the disease with a holistic approach is what is not quite common in classical medicine.
Prevention plays an important role in this. When disharmony manifests outwardly, intervention, change is usually needed, and it takes time for the body's energies to harmonize again.
It sounds incredible that Ayurvedic doctors can "read" the source of imbalance and thus the cause of disease from the pulse. Of course, he must be an experienced doctor, in the past it was mostly a family tradition, when children helped and assisted their father in the preparation of herbal preparations from an early age and thus gradually mastered the art of healing. Through the pulse, they can detect an anomaly in some organ, which has not yet manifested itself externally.
In our country, Ayurveda is best known as Ayurvedic massage, for some "nothing much", just stroking with a lot of oil. In India it is recognized as regular medicine and in In 2014, the Ministry of Yoga and Ayurveda was also established.
Deeper knowledge of the laws of the five elements operating in our body, how to achieve their balancing and how to know all about it, are the topics of future posts, trainings and workshops.
If you take a closer look at our logo, you will discover five leaves, each with a different shape. Each one represents one element - you can definitely guess which one represents what.