I. Foundation

Introduction

     Welcome to the Ki-Atsu Ayurvedic Lifestyle & Health Consultant Course.. You are about to join a healing tradition that dates back over 5000 years. This course will teach you to incorporate the ancient teachings of Ayurveda into your life and into the lives of others.  Through these teachings and through the practice of Ayurveda, you will discover a new way of looking at overall health and a new and unique way of defining disease. 

     The meaning of the word “Ayurveda” is “the science of life”.   Ayurveda is the oldest codified system of health and wellness in the world.  In health care today the phrase “holistic medicine” is often talked about and treated as if is a new and revolutionary concept.  In the material you study during this course, you will learn that Ayurveda is not only the original holistic practice, but still views the individual in a more holistic way than any other practice used today. 

     Ayurveda views the individual and disease not only in a physical and mental sense, but in a spiritual sense as well. In Ayurveda, the physical and spiritual are intractably linked. Ayurveda not only focuses on treatment of disease, but upon developing a harmonious lifestyle that will allow a person to live a healthy existence.  The primary goal of Ayurveda is the prevention of disease and the maintainence of a healthy lifestyle. However, the science of Ayurveda provides several methods for returning an individual to health when disease occurs. 

     This course contains a large amount of information.  Although this can seem overwhelming at first, but as you delve into the coursework, you will begin to find that the elegance of the system of Ayurveda is how it weaves together in an elegant tapestry and as you gain understanding of one area of Ayurveda, it provide you with a framework to understand new information within the system.  You may also find, as many do, that as you study the material, there is intuitiveness to Ayurveda, an it may seem that you feel as the information is something that you are being reminded of, not something that you have to learn. 

     We will begin with a through overview of the history and philosophy of Ayurveda.  We will then examine how Ayurveda views the individual, and physiology from the Ayurvedic perspective.  We will then look at how Ayurveda views disease, how disease progress and how disease is diagnosed.  Finally, we will look at the various modalities that Ayurveda prescribes to maintain health and treat disease.