Ayurveda For Dummies

Ayurveda for Dummies is a basic approach to what Ayurveda holistic medicine is, its origins, principles, practices, beliefs, ways to incorporate it into your life, and traditional remedies.I didn't know much about Ayurveda, beyond Ayurveda beauty and relaxing treatments, so it is great putting things into perspective to understand how a whole continent and culture approaches health, wellness, disease and healing.Put it simply, Ayurveda is an alternative and millenarian medicine system born and widely practised in India, but with many devotees and practitioners all over the world. Many of the practices are common-sense ways of taking care of your body mixed with traditional herbology and Eastern philosophy and beliefs.The originality of Aryuveda resides in its integrative philosophy, in which body, mind, soul and energy are all interrelated and presented in your body; a system in which your lifestyle, diet, exercise, and spiritual practices are extremely important and clearly related. Yoga is an integral part of the system as well as herbal remedies. Also characteristic of Ayurveda is the classification of human beings into three basic doshas or types (these doshas have common traits regarding their physical constitution, temperament, psychology, levels of energy and ways in which the body reacts to food and healing). Aryuveda considers sickness an expression of lack of balance in the body. Aryuveda, as Western Medicine, has different branches and specialities.Ayurveda reminds me immensely of pre-modern Western Medicine, the one in which body and soul, mind and body were tightly linked, a Medicine based in the four temperaments-humours-elements minus the Yoga and the chakras. It also reminds me of Western holistic medicine.However, I want to mention two things that caught my attention and I find utterly intriguing and specific to Ayurveda. The first is that Ayurveda cannot be separated from the Sanskrit word and the second is the consideration of the individual as a part of a cosmic whole. Thus, the sentence we are made of star dust is somewhat very Ayurvedic, and the power of the spoken word is also reinforced in this system as well.Explaining some of the concepts in Ayurveda is not easy, but Murry does a great job at introducing those concept for us, adding very useful explanatory tables and illustrations, and providing us with Western medicine terminology to match the one found in Ayurveda.I am a fan of tables, Anything can be explained, clarified and organised in them. This being the case, I really like the many tables in this book, which are really helpful. They are great to discover what your dosha is, the best foods, exercises and medical approaches for every dosha, the characteristics of chakras and so on. The illustrations are also very helpful and simple to understand.Many items of advice in the book can easily be incorporated into your daily routines if you feel like, even if you don't want to follow Ayurveda. Murray is keen to provide readers with simple remedies to be incorporated into our lifestyle, some of them might be for you while others might not.I found very useful the glossary of Sanskrit words and the botanical glossary with equivalences between Sanskrit, Latin, Hindi and English names. If you are really into Ayurveda, the final appendix contains a list of links to suppliers of herbs, journals, organisations and institutes of Ayurvedic education that will come handy.Murray takes literally that she is writing for dummies and some of the writing is overly simplistic, repetitive, bloggish, and some of the content in the book a series of truisms that apply to the way of understanding well-being by your grandma or you if you have a minimum dose of common sense and are keen on keeping healthy.A huge amount of space is devoted to the description of some basic Yoga exercises. If I wanted a book on Yoga I would have bought another one. I understand that this an integral part of Ayurveda, but describing an exercise is nothing I enjoy or find useful, even if it is accompanied by illustrations. Perhaps a link to videos with the exercises would have been more useful (to me). This is the 21st century after all.The formatting has too many headings and too large (some of them occupy the space of four lines), and to me this always feels as a naughty way of filling pages, not a way or making the headings and subheadings clearly visible.This book is an UK edition, although you won't find that clearly stated on the cover. Therefore, the bonuses and many of the general links as well as those on nearby practitioners refer to the UK.Overall, this is a very educative and fun, enthusiastic and informative book to read, and good for a first approach to Ayurveda. Great for beginners, but also overly simplistic.

I tried and tried with this book, I am about to enter Ayurvedic college...One of the instructors told me it's good to read two books concurrently, to get different takes, different info. I was reading Ayurveda for Dummies along side Ayurveda The Science of Self Healing by Dr. Vasant Lad.His is laid out very simply, going from beginning concepts, then through the elements, organs, etc. then through the doshas, etc.AFD is all over the place! She tells us not much about each element, but throws in their qualities before even explaining what a quality is. I can see where some would be terribly confused!I don't mean to be mean here, but this one is going out of my library. The word list in the back is also not terribly comprehensive. And I also did not know that the "for Dummies" books are British, which MAY be confusing to some American readers because of the difference in common vocabulary.I just got more and more frustrated trying to even follow what is really a simple, easy to understand concept. I'm being nice by giving it two stars.

As someone who is pretty new to the concept of Ayurveda, this book did an excellent job at describing the general guidelines/practices pertaining to this way of life. I have read a couple of instructional Ayurveda books, and this one is by far my favorite. It's an easy read that goes more in-depth than other books typically do, and is great to have on-hand as a quick reference book.

Love thumbing through this book. I listened to it for free thanks to my library and wanted a copy on hand. I’m enjoying to body specific exercise guide at this time.

Very clear and easy to understand. Appropriate amount of depth for a beginners book. I especially liked the sections on what herbs and spices to keep on hand. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is curious about Ayurveda and would like a jumping off point.

Like this book because it tells me in plain language what ayurveda is and how to live that life. Recipes and all. VERY informative, as usual, and easy to use format, great price, and some humor, also!Would recommend to anyone, even my doctor! I am trading in my wicked ways of eating and going ayervedic and glutin free and meat free. It is helping my rash and I just feel better all the time. Thank You Angela Hope Murray!

good

This book is great in that it allows you to know more about your body and what you should and shouldn't eat. It was a relief to read this as I have tried so many different ways of eating: palea, no carb, smoothies, vegetarian, etc...I recommend this for everyone since it is based on an ancient way of eating that most people are so confused on due to the mass amounts of information out there.

Great way of presenting basic and comprehensive information about Ayurveda. It's helped me find my type and learn about how best to manage my 'good food is medicine' campaign. The Dummies books make it easy to understand and this one is no exception. Author has been practising Ayurveda for many years.. good expertise and some great recipies.. Kitchari.. should be a staple in everyone's diet.

Most "Dummies" books are good, but this one is, I am sad to say, average. Nothing dealt with thoroughly, it felt very much like a primary school review of Ayurveda. Waste of money as far as I am concerned. Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and didn't go into lots of areas it could have explored.

I am pleased with this book, informative and good guidance

Bought this to aid in studies, did it's job.I passed with distinction.

Learning a lot, a good quality in depth introduction to Ayurveda. Not a quick read but good for learning basics and beyond.