Are you feeling run down and out of energy? Are you struggling to keep up with your work and personal obligations?
You may benefit from holistic health. Holistic health is a broad term that refers to a variety of health philosophies and treatments that consider the whole person, rather than just individual symptoms or body parts. If you’re interested in holistic health, here’s what you need to know.
Holistic health can be broken down into five main categories: mind-body medicine, natural products, alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and energy healing. Each of these approaches has its own set of beliefs and techniques that can be used to improve your wellbeing. For example, mind-body medicine emphasizes the importance of stress relief and relaxation techniques,
Ayurveda is a holistic system of medicine that has been around for centuries. One of the key principles of ayurveda is that of balance – or finding equilibrium within the body and mind.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates
So today lets look at balancing with Taste
In Ayurveda, all foods are made up of one or more of the six tastes. The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent. See on right what each type of foods are included in each taste.
Each of the six tastes provides important nutritional benefits that your body needs. By including all six tastes in each meal, the body intuitively sends signals to the brain when you’re fulfilled and it’s time to stop eating.
And in this way, you feel more nourished, satisfied and less likely to feel hungry later.
These tastes are packed with information. Simply put, everything you need to know about your food comes from its taste.
Ayurveda also makes it simple. Eat the six tastes in every meal, and make each meal as colorful as you can.
Key Points:
- We can increase or decrease our intake of each of the six tastes based on their elemental qualities.
- Remember, restoring balance to a dosha requires you to introduce opposite qualities of that particular dosha. Each taste and each dosha are made up of elements.
- Choose food comprised of tastes without the same elements of the dosha you need to balance.
Six Tests of Food for Balancing your Body
BALANCED
- Sweet. Balanced: satisfied, fulfilled, content
- Sour. Balanced: discerning, aware, insightful
- Salty. Balanced: desire, joie de vivre, passionate
- Pungent. Balanced: extroverted, driven, ambitious
- Bitter. Balanced: level-headed, dynamic, focused
- Astringent. Balanced: introspective, lucid, composed
IMBALANCED DUE TO LACK OF THE SIX TASTES
- Sweet. Imbalanced: unsatisfied, discontented.
- Sour. Imbalanced: impulsive, scattered.
- Salty. Imbalanced: indolent, indifferent, hesitant.
- Pungent. Imbalanced: avoidant, passive
- Bitter. Imbalanced: grief, despondent.
- Astringent. Imbalanced: brain fog, obtuse.
IMBALANCED DUE TO EXCESS OF THE SIX TASTES
- Sweet. Imbalanced: lazy, apathetic, complacent.
- Sour. Imbalanced: overly critical, judgmental.
- Salty. Imbalanced: controlled by senses, overly self-indulgent.
- Pungent. Imbalanced: angry, combative, aggressive.
- Bitter. Imbalanced: bitter, pessimistic, jaded.
- Astringent. Imbalanced: overly sensitive, fearful, spaced out, anxious.
Would you like to find out If your body is out of balance?
Take our quiz and find what you need to adjust. As part of Holistic Health course, we will share tips and look at some foods that can help boost agni, as well as some tips on how to create healthy meals using these foods.
Are you ready to learn more?
Start our Holistic Health course and we will share what foods to use to balance your body.
6 TASTES
SWEET Foods
SOUR Foods
SALTY Seeds
PUNGENT Foods
BITTER Foods
ASTRINGENT Foods
REFLECTION
- BREATHE:
- Take a moment to pause and notice your breathing.
- Feel the air going in and out of your body.
- Observe how deep or shallow the breathing is.
- REFLECT:
- Ask yourself: What are the sources of tastes in my life?
- Can you notice any unpleasant feeling in your body?
- RESPOND:
- Slow deep breathing… and guide your breath to go deeper
- Remind yourself of power of choice you have, the power to pause, breathe and be mindful.
- Be Present with what you eat.
Breathe, connect with power of choice and stay balanced.
If you’re looking to improve your health, Ayurveda may be a great place to start. This holistic approach to nutrition takes into account all aspects of an individual, including mind, body and spirit.
Our Holistic health course will teach you everything you need to know about the principles of Ayurveda so that you can start eating in a way that supports your health goals. Register now and join us on this journey to better wellness!
Ayurveda also gives us many simple practical ways to help us balance and one of them is honey.
Honey is considered as a ‘treasure of health’.
– Ayurvedic saying
