My First Ayurveda Class

Last night I attended my first Ayurveda class. I was so excited to get started with this that I brushed the dust off of the wonderful book I bought last year (shown above). If I ever read it when I bought it ages ago, I'm nearly certain I forgot whatever I learned so it was all new to me.

This first class was really just an intro to what we will learn in future classes. We covered some of the basics of Cosmic Evolution, which is the theory that Ayurveda is based on. (I just realized that one of my goals for this class will be to be able to spell "Ayurveda" without having to look it up every time!) Anyway, the basic principals in which Ayurveda are based on are fascinating and at times hard to wrap my brain around. There are lots of new words to digest . . . Purush, Prakruti, Mahat, Ahamkara, and I can't leave out the instructor's favorite . . . Buddhi (pronounced "boot tee").

This intro was probably the hardest part for me. I compared it to me reading a novel. When I come to a person's name I just blow by it as if it's non-essnetial information that I don't want to clutter my brain. I have this "just get to the story" impatience and I can sometimes get through half a novel without really knowing who all the characters are. It's really hard for me to remember and process names for some reason. So last night was the painful introduction when all I want to do is jump in and learn 'the good stuff.' I must practice patience because the 'good stuff' is yet to come.

And the more we visited the topics of what is to come the more anxious I grew to learn about it. We talked about some basics about how important food is in providing the much needed balance that our body requires. Everybody knows which foods are healthy and which foods are not, but what most of us don't know is which healthy foods are right for our particular body and even, (ready for this?) what time of day you should and should not be eating them. Some foods can be very beneficial during certain times of day, but be detrimental during other times of the day. One of the foods that we talked about was oatmeal. I love oatmeal. What could possibly be bad about oatmeal? Well apparently certain body types can process oatmeal perfectly while others will get dragged down. I sure hope I'm the type that handle oatmeal . . and chocolate . . .and pasta . . .and ice cream . . .

Food plays such an important role, not only in our energy level, but also our cognitive functions. All I know is that I can use all the help I can get in feeling my best and thinking clearly. I have so much trouble focusing on anything for more than 10 seconds these days. I simply can not wait to learn what I should be eating and when.