I had a very interesting conversation with one of our students on the topic Yoga, Ayurveda and Shamanism. The longer you practice all three together, the better you see the positive effects on your being. I would like to share the findings of that conversation with you.
Yoga
According to ancient Indian traditions (written down in the Vedas), the goal of yoga is to reach higher levels of consciousness, and finally, enlightenment or unity with divine energy. ‘Yoga’, actually, ‘Yog’, means union. Yoga gives us all the tools to develop our mind to raise into higher levels of consciousness and to become one with our source.
Sometimes we might forget that our soul and our spirit reside in our body. Many, who follow the yogic path tend to overlook what important role our body plays on our journey. The body is the vehicle of our soul, which we use to navigate through this world and to communicate with our environment. Consequently, we can not neglect our body, if we want to reach higher consciousness. If we neglect the needs of our body anyway, it will show us its limitations, which we cannot ignore. Therefore, the essential key to spiritual growth is to keep our body healthy. On the one hand, we can achieve that with yogic techniques, such as asanas and kriyas (more about that you find here). On the other hand, Ayurveda helps us to keep our body and mind balanced.
Ayurveda
Ayurveda is the oldest health system of human kind and was written down for the first time about 5,000 years ago (Vedas). It offers us methods for healing and, more importantly, for maintaining our health. More about Ayurveda you can read here.
In a nutshell: Ayurveda makes our bodies healthy and through yoga we can reach higher levels of consciousness. But what has shamanism to do with all that?
Shamanism
Shamanism is the oldest healing system in the world and was/ is practiced worldwide (also in India). It is the first form of psychotherapy and was recognized as such by the WHO (World Health Organization) in 1980. With the help of shamanic work we can solve problems and topics of our life (relationship problems, traumatic events, chronic diseases …). Only if we solve our problems and strive for growth, we can reach higher levels of consciousness. Even working through our topics increases our consciousness level automatically . Therefore, Shamanism is another helping hand on our way from duality to unity.
You can learn more about shamanism here. Read here why yoga and shamanism work together in such a nice manner.
The interplay between Yoga, Ayurveda and Shamanism
In summary, these three components (Yoga, Ayurveda and Shamanism) form a powerful unit for spiritual growth. Yoga offers us the way to enlightenment. Ayurveda helps us to keep our body healthy for this venture and Shamanism helps us with our daily-life problems, so we can fully concentrate our spiritual growth.
To see the interplay between Yoga, Ayurveda and Shamanism in action, visit our courses, workshops or retreats in Austria and Goa, India.