Course Syllabus
January: Intention
- Set your intentions for 2015 by creating a Sankalpa (heart vow)
- Establish, commit or recommit to a regular meditation practice for the year
- Explore Ayurvedic history and Samkhya philosophy
- Study the basics of Ayurveda including the eight branches, three causes of disease, four goals of life, three pillars of life, six schools of Indian philosophy and the four Vedas
- Discover the five elements, three doshas, ten pairs of opposing qualities and apply this understanding to yourself
- Be able to identify the difference between long-term and short-term states of health
- Familiarize yourself with or review the eight limbs of yoga
February: Forgiveness
- Explore the subdoshas: causes of imbalance of each subdosha and methods for rebalancing
- Practice applying Ayurvedic structural assessment, the three-fold diagnostic method and the eight-fold diagnostic method
- Understand the basics of Ayurvedic pulse assessment
- Study the law of attraction and do activities to grow the seed of your 2015 intention
- Learn strategies for overcoming resistance
- Deepen your understanding of your personal health history and patterns
March: Nourishment
- Learn the fundamentals of Ayurvedic nutrition and guidelines for healthy eating
- Delve into your psychological relationship with food and learn why you gravitate toward certain food behavioral patterns
- Discern between healthy and unhealthy food cravings
- Incorporate all six tastes in your meal and watch your negative food cravings become a thing of the past
- Understand the qualities of food and how that relates to the elements and the three doshas
- Learn the categories of food
- Practice gratitude and mindfulness during meal preparation and dining
- Study and practice how to use food as medicine
- Explore Ayurvedic food preparation and person-specific menu planning
- Create an Ayurvedic kitchen and dining room sanctuary
- Play with intuitive eating
April: Rebirth
- Familiarize yourself with Ayurvedic digestive theories
- Discover your metabolic tendencies and how to manage them
- Learn Ayurvedic strategies for weight loss
- Practice loving and approving of the image of your body
- Become proficient in using digestive herbs to suit your constitutional needs
- Educate yourself on how pre and probiotics enhance digestive functioning and overall wellness
- Become aware of how toxins accumulate in the body and what to do about it
- Apply ayurvedic understanding of how waste products exit your body, mind and spirit
- Familiarize yourself with Ayurvedic tongue diagnosis
- Develop and incorporate diet, lifestyle and herbal recommendations that promote healthy digestion
May: Abundance
- Acquire a beginning knowledge of Ayurvedic herbalism
- Discover herbal energetics and herbal actions
- Prepare common herbal remedies
- Familiarize yourself with Ayurvedic carrier substances
- Maximize the absorption of herbs
- Develop customized formulations for your particular constitutional needs
- Explore your relationship to money and how it affects your wellness
June: Prevention
- Learn about the seven tissues and how they are formed
- Understand the byproducts and waste products of tissue formation
- Familiarize yourself with the 13 channels of the body and assess the state of your own channels
- Observe how the doshas correspond to times of the day
- Become proficient in Ayurvedic pathogenesis (how diseases begins and evolves) so that you can take preventive health measures for yourself and your family
- Comprehend and apply appropriate diet, lifestyle and herbal recommendations for the first three stages of pathogenesis
- Gather information about your state of balance by taking your own vital signs
- Discover Ayurvedic palliation and tonification strategies
July: Ritual
- Discover Ayurvedic daily routine practices and develop your own daily routine suited to your needs
- Initiate the shift from transactional self-care to genuine whole soul love
- Familiarize yourself with the Ayurvedic concept of chronobiology (biological clocks) and how the doshas relate to your age
- Comprehend and apply the ten-fold diagnostic methodology
- Flow with menopausal sleeplessness
- Learn about perinatal Ayurveda
- Invite your kids to join you on the body-mind-spirit health wagon
August: Nature
- Refine your daily routine
- Understand your seasonal health patterns and plan your routines accordingly
- Practice Ayurvedic care of the eyes, ears and nose
- Learn how to use chromotherapy (color therapy) to increase balance and joy
- Use sound for harmonizing yourself
- Discover Ayurvedic care for the house and home (vastu)
September: Energy
- Acquire knowledge of Ayurvedic psychology
- Study the three gunas and observe how they manifest in you from day-to-day
- Distinguish between long-term and short-term mental health
- Discover how to rebalance imbalanced mental states
- Understand the causes of sympathetic nervous system arousal and become skillful in down regulating your nervous system
- Study how food, lifestyle choices and herbs affect your mood/mental well-being
October: Love
- Study Ayurvedic subtle psychology
- Learn about your subtle body including your three bodies, five koshas, chakras, nadis and marmas
- Have fun familiarizing yourself with the concepts of prana, tejas and ojas
- Engage in healing rituals to enhance the functioning of your subtle psychology
November: Gratitude
- Master Ayurvedic skin and oral care
- Become familiar with how to safely and skillfully use aromatherapy/essential oils to balance your doshas
- Discover how various gems affect the body, mind and spirit and learn how to incorporate gems in your everyday life to increase happiness and balance
- Prepare and enjoy an Ayurvedic Thanksgiving
December: Joy
- Check in with your meditation practice and record changes you have noticed over the course of the year
- Explore yoga therapy concepts
- Discover how tantra can assist your evolution
- Practice yoga nidra
- Greet the winter solstice
- Begin to learn about Ayurvedic astrology (jyotish)
- Participate in a graduation ceremony for the 2015 lite program
Course Summary:
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