Maharishi Ayurveda Blog

An Ayurvedic body cleanse is designed to improve your health and lengthen your life by removing ama, or toxic impurities from the body.  A body cleanse will also have the additional benefit of increasing energy levels while reducing negative thoughts and stress.

A herbal body cleanse can be advantageous for everyone, but it is especially beneficial as you get older, since your body develops a tendency to accumulate toxins and impurities. Our bodies were not designed to handle the long-term storage of impurities, which can oftentimes contribute to many health afflictions.

Chemicals in the air …

One of the most common causes of imbalance in the body is an improperly functioning digestive system. It is essential that you eliminate waste every morning to avoid negatively impacting your physiological, physical, and mental health. Herbal remedies for digestion assist you in maintaining proper elimination of bodily waste.

By not following your body's natural clock, your dosha is thrown off balance, and you experience constipation and problems with complete elimination. By storing waste in your body for too long or by not completely eliminating waste, you can begin to experience a toxic …

Ayurvedic experts have long recommended that followers do periodic internal cleanses in order to prevent disease or afflictions from being manifest and to promote healing and longevity. Just like changing the oil in your car or flushing out the plumbing in your home, Ayurveda uses herbal body detoxification to maintain the balance of your doshas and bodily systems.

Herbal body detoxification is especially recommended if you are age 40 or over, as the body's cleansing and rejuvenation mechanisms begin to slow down. Spring is the best time to do a body cleanse, as those mechanisms are at their …

Every mother knows her child is unique and special; Ayurveda recognizes that as well. To know Ayurveda is to know life. The principles of an Ayurvedic lifestyle, combined with herbal remedies for kids, can be very beneficial to the emotional, physical and spiritual health of a child.

These principles begin with breastfeeding for the optimal start in a child's life. Breastfeeding combined with a happy state of mind of the mother and a loving and secure environment for the baby balances the baby's doshas right from the very beginning and provides the building blocks necessary.

When an …

The adolescent transition from childhood to adulthood can be intense, both physically and mentally, for any teenager. The swift changes can cause emotional unbalance, mental fatigue, stress, confusion and vulnerability. Ayurveda offers practical applications and natural herbal remedies to help ease this transitory period for teens.

According to Ayurveda, Pitta dosha dominates life from mid teens on through early adulthood. The characteristics of Pitta dosha are having a passion for many things, being strong-willed, determined, having initiative and energy, and having good digestion. It is …

Emotional balance, stress relief and a purer state of mind are things we all strive to achieve. According to Ayurvedic tradition, all of creation contains three gunas, or influencers, called sattva, rajas and tamas. These three gunas influence our state of mind and being. Sattva is clear, harmonious and creative; rajas is all activity and movement; and tamas is lethargic, slow, dull and inert.

Every individual contains all three gunas to varying degrees and each guna is perpetually interplaying with another. Excessive tamas and rajas can disturb the mind, cause a buildup of stress and …

Maharishi Ayurveda separates individuals into three doshas: Kapha, Vata and Pitta. Although a person may have elements of more than one dosha, most are predominantly one dosha. Individuals who are Kapha types may have a harder time with natural weight loss.

If an individual dislikes exercise, has an overwhelming propensity for wanting to eat sweets, is larger-boned, slow-moving and often fatigued, they are probably predominately Kapha, and need to restore balance to encourage natural weight loss. Realizing what causes an imbalance in Kapha is integral for restoring and maintaining balance.

It …

If you are dominantly Pitta, then you generally digest your food well and have no problems burning carbohydrates or sugars. Most Pitta-types do not have a problem with weight gain, but it can occur if this dosha burns too hot for too long. Maintain a proper Pitta balance to encourage natural weight loss.

Problems with digestion begin by skipping meals; this is the number one problem for Pitta individuals. When digestion is thrown off balance, ama (toxic waste produced by the body due to incomplete or improper digestion) clogs the body’s channels. Pitta-types should be very careful to not …

In Ayurveda, each individual is predominantly one of three types of dosha: Vata, Pitta or Kapha. Vata types are usually slender and wiry, but they can also experience weight gain due to an imbalance in their dosha. All doshas have the capacity for creating ama, or digestive toxins, due to an imbalance. Healthy recipes for weight loss and all natural remedies can help a Vata-predominant individual shed unwanted pounds and avoid future weight gain.

Individuals who are Vata-predominant are more susceptible to mental stress. Mental stress can affect how much they eat, how often, and the types of …