Ayurveda (Idiot's Guides)

Ayurveda, Sanskrit for the "science of life," is the world's oldest health system, originating in ancient India over 5,000 years ago. As the sister science of yoga, Ayurveda provides a framework for caring for the body to achieve beauty, balance, and longevity. The system's core belief is that each person has a unique path to health. This guide helps you discover your Dosha—your Ayurvedic mind-body type—and understand how it manifests in your physiology, metabolism, digestion, thought patterns, personality, and dreams. The book explains how your body's needs change with seasons, environment, time of day, lifestyle habits, stress, sleep, and exercise levels, as well as with age. The guide includes plant-based recipes and yoga poses tailored to your Doshic constitution, instructions for establishing Ayurvedic morning and nighttime rituals such as oil-pulling, dry-brushing, tongue-scraping, and self-oil massage, and home remedies for digestion issues, skin problems, headaches, PMS, hormonal imbalance, colds, flus, and other ailments. It also shows how to integrate Ayurvedic practices into modern life, regardless of time constraints or cooking experience.