How I Came to Ayurveda & What I Am Discovering Along the Way

My Journey to Living Ayurveda as a Lifestyle

I didn’t find Ayurveda; it found me. Decades ago, I was living a carefree life, feeling invincible until a car accident slowed me down with head and brain injuries. Two years later, in the face of inexplicable, inescapable and debilitating fatigue, I was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a rare autoimmune disorder with no known cure. It wasn’t related to the car accident, which meant it was the result of living unconsciously and unaware, under relentless mental, emotional and physical stress and anxiety – in 24/7 Fight-Flight-Freeze mode – for years, possibly decades. I tried to push through, as society had me conditioned to do, resisting the reality of my situation, because I felt I needed to ‘perform’ and ‘achieve’. For years, I trapped myself in cycles of temporary ‘fixes’ – symptomatic relief, stimulants, supplements, retreats & detoxes, yoga asanas, some meditation techniques, and bits-and-pieces of ‘this’ and ‘that’ that came through my social media feeds from Influencers – momentarily numbing symptoms only to slowly decline into a crash at some point, to then begin the long and frustrating struggle of ‘getting back on my bicycle’ . . . again and again.

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When Medicine Wasn’t Enough

I did not feel comfortable with the ‘unusually high’ dose of corticosteroids I was taking daily, which was even concerning my physician and his consulting endocrinologist. But as I overheard him say one day among his colleagues: ‘Look at these charts, if I don’t give him these doses he’ll die.’ At some point, I knew I needed another perspective, another pathway, another body of knowledge. I just didn’t know where to start.

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Called Back to the Motherland

My first trip to India in late 2013 to late 2014, where I met and lived with Amma the Hugging Saint, in Kerala South India, was my turning point. It was here that I started becoming aware of Ayurveda. It was a gradual thing that happened by itself when I first went to see the resident Ayurvedic doctor in the ashram; an ancient man who wandered around in his robes talking to trees while picking leaves, roots and god-knows-what-else. He took my pulse, prescribed some herbs, and told me:

“No spicy food.”

I asked why and he said:

“If you want to know why, go and study. If you want to get better, do what I tell you.”

So I said that I’m Indian and ‘no spicy food’ wasn’t a reasonable instruction without an explanation. And he handed back the money I had paid for the consultation, with the words:

“You are a foolish boy, get out.”

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The Body Talks

Over the remainder of the year, between 6-month stints in India followed by 3-month stints in Nepal, I started practically testing out the ‘no spicy food’ theory. I would not eat anything spicy for about two weeks and journal exactly how I felt in my body. Then as I started feeling better, I would go into the village and treat myself to some of that deliciously spicy food that is synonymous with South India. And I’d stay with that until my body’s indicators showed I was close to shutdown. That’s when I would reluctantly go onto a spicy-food-fast until my body’s signals returned to a more balanced state. And round and round I went, until I could no longer escape the obvious – I needed to remove spicy food from my eating habits.

And that was just the chilli story. In my post about How a Rare Autoimmune Diagnosis Sent Me on a Global Food Experiment, I share more about this experiment with self, and its many layers and spirals.

Now as all this was happening, I started reading and researching deeper about Ayurveda. What was it all about . . ?

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What Is Ayurveda, Really?

Ayurveda originated in India over 5,000 years ago, derived from the Sanskrit words “Ayur” (life) and “Veda” (knowledge or science). So Ayurveda literally means “the Science of Life.” And rather than seeing individual symptoms, and extracting individualised treatments to relieve those symptoms, Ayurveda simply sees either Balance or Imbalance. A balanced system expresses no symptoms; it is healthful. An imbalanced system falls into a state of imbalance and dis-ease, and in this state it expresses symptoms. Ayurveda addresses the Root of the imbalance so we can bring harmony to the whole system. This approach encourages us to create a lifestyle that strengthens self-healing, fostering longevity and well-being.

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Ayurveda’s Core Principle: Right Digestion

At the heart of Ayurveda is the principle of Right Digestion. When we cultivate a Healthy Gut, we nourish our Inner Environment and our Whole being, aligning with Nature’s rhythms and supporting the body’s natural resilience. Ayurveda’s emphasis on Gut Health and balanced digestion means that rather than waiting for symptoms and focusing on targeted treatment, we create a life in tune with our inherent capacity for balance and renewal.

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Back to My Life Story

Over the years, I collected all my research, with myself as the guinea pig. Trial and error. Good days and bad months. ‘Aha!’ moments and ‘Ah shit!’ moments. Moments of hope and weeks of despair. Weeks of belief and months of doubt and cynicism. My healing wasn’t linear. Sometimes it felt like I was winning, and then other times I spiralled downwards without understanding why. It was frustrating. It affected my relationships, work, sports and physical exercise, creativity, joy, and everything. I could start anything, fearlessly, but inevitably, I’d hit an invisible wall where energy vanished, breathing became shallow, heart palpitated, moods swung to the lower rungs, mental focus dissolved, and anger stormed the castle like a castrated raging bull. And all without warning. Sometimes after two months… sometimes after two hours.

Gradually I began taking small steps with Ayurveda, introducing practices that felt intuitively right and which I felt I had capacity for. And I found that each step I took toward Ayurveda was like uncovering pieces of myself that had been waiting for this nurturing all along. Now, after nearly ten years, it is inseparable from my life, like brushing my teeth at night and going to the toilet in the morning before my first meal.

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Conclusion

What if there was a lifestyle approach—not a temporary or symptomatic treatment—that could bring true balance and resilience across your body, mind, and spirit?

Living Ayurveda is that lifestyle. It’s not a quick-fix treatment or just a system of medicine but a profound, timeless way of living that brings us into harmony with nature and cosmic laws. By nurturing Right Digestion and a balanced Inner Environment, Ayurveda aligns the Body-Mind-Spirit system, activating the body’s natural healing processes and deepening our relationship with self, others, and Earth.

Ayurveda teaches us that the gut is foundational to wellness, supporting everything from immune health and cognitive clarity to emotional balance and spiritual alignment. This is the journey of Living Ayurveda — an invitation into a lifestyle that encourages health at every level. Because prevention is better than cure.