Ayurveda Yoga Therapy in New Orleans

Ayurveda Yoga Therapy/Natural Life Medicine Consultation

 Balance and Heal Your Life with the oldest self-healing medicine in the world.

New and fresh to Swan River Yoga is the natural life daily practice and medicine of Ayurveda. Michelle has permission and certification as an Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist from the Ayurveda College of California as directed by Dr. Marc Halpern at the Sivananda Ashram. Marc wrote the epic book on Ayurveda called “Healing Your Life” and has a bestselling Yoga Nidra. He is the President of the Ayurveda Association in The United States. 

She became exposed to the healing arts of Ayurveda most extensively in South India in Kerala and Bali, Indonesia where she went on a full retreat of learning the various arts of Ayurveda in the form of diet, purification techniques, cooking, marma/massage points and oiling the body, called "Abhyanga" and oiling the third eye, called "Shirodhara". Noting that in India, Ayurveda is offered along side Yoga and often Reiki in all yoga studios or wellness facilities, she found very little support or education in this natural healing art and means of healing our life beyond the mat in our own country, as popular as yoga is. 

For this reason she went on a quest to unify the 2 together, making the practice of Ayurveda/ Yoga a 24 hour practice in everything that we do. Ayurveda reveals this in a very practical way and is accessible to everyone. It brings your inner medicine guide back to you and calls upon you to heal your life. It is also the original means and creative way to live, invoking deep, self guided and empowering life transformations that are in reach in every moment.

Background: What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda, the science and medicine of life, is thought to be the oldest form of medicine in the world. Originating from India, it is the Mother of yoga (our lives), and a constant facilitator and reminder of the nourishment and harmony in everything that we do and experience. Called “Ojas,” Ayurveda brings out the maximum life force that we contain within us as protection of our immune system so that we can access spirit.

Ayurveda is a science that we have very practical, palpable access to, so that we can heal at any moment.  It reminds us to be mindful of every action, from physical maintenance, life duties, work, recreation, and exercise to our spiritual practice, as THE medicinal remedies.  Ayurveda examines our lifestyle habits and routines to bring us back into harmony with our original state. It utilizes all of the elements that reside within nature and our own bodies by examining our strongest imprints and tendencies that have imposed as a part of our nature.

The alchemy of natural medicine can be found within us and in our daily lives.  Lifestyle practices and daily routines as an antidote can bring our well-being back into balance emotionally, mentally and physically instead of throwing us off with further imbalance and into disconnect or even disease. This naturally brings us back to the original joyful spirit that we are and into a state of homeostasis that resides within us all. 

It is empowering to embody every aspect of our lives as means of joy and upliftment instead of further draining our life force and creating more stress and blockages. Ayurveda is a recalling back of our life and health.

Applying Ayurveda:

After learning and applying the Ayurvedic principles, we can sense and move energy to its optimal capacity, remove blockages that separates us from our natural state, holding, like a container, greater health, clarity, increased capacity, nourishment, adaptability, creativity, intelligence and enthusiasm. With this life medicine, we reawaken our fortitude and awareness to heal our life within everything that we do, be it work, family, traveling, eating, sleeping, changing, exercising, loving, interacting, taking care of business, or of course, even our yoga asana practices. 

From the moment we wake up, we can use Ayurveda to address what habits are best suited for us within all of our five senses: taste (specific diet, the means of digestion and tongue reading); touch (specified yogic practices, marma and ayurvedic massage, Thai massage, the quality of the skin); smell (aromatherapy, oil therapy, cleansing the energy currents); sight (eye health, color therapy, meditation, visualization & beauty hygiene); and sound (ear health, music therapy, speech quality, listening and silence). 

Other habits include the pace and clarity of our mind and physical body, the time of day we operate best at, the way we sleep, our relationships, our daily environments and the reason why we do everything that we do. It also helps us to understand the things that will throw us more easily off balance, which is personal to each individual.

Detoxify Extreme Imbalance:

Ayurveda addresses very specific and extreme imbalances or changes in our lives, such as aging, toxicity from food or the environment, stress, digestive issues, menstrual imbalance, sexual incontinence, infertility, trauma, accident recovery, insomnia, weight gain or loss, disease recovery and dying. Also extreme emotions, including grief, loss, lack of self-acceptance, depression, anger, impatience, jealousy, fear, anxiety, worry, lack of focus or lacking in feeling or motivation. Most importantly, proper expression and embodiment of Ayurveda assists in  releasing “Ama,” which are toxins, or the inability to digest things, release attachments that block the life force, access inner motion, inflammation or stagnation. All of these are addressed for means of purification.

A Consultation will include:

A personal survey with very extensive questions will take place to create a diagnosis of your possible constitution. This will allow us to learn about the ways you operate so as to better understand how you get out of balance and into possible distress. Called “dosha,” our personal constitution is a very specific recipe to us of percentages of the elements that reside within us.

Each person is a very unique mixture of constitutional elements. For this reason, a personal, hands-on assessment of your bones, skin, face, hair, tongue and digestion is observed from the moment of your birth as is your current and personal state. After a physical assessment, a psychological assessment is done to assess your mental abilities and emotional tendencies.

We will discuss the relationship you have to your senses, your physical patterns of eating, daily activities, exercise and sleeping/dreaming patterns.

From this a very specific recipe of the three doshas (your unique constitution) that you embody will be offered with further wisdom offerings in relation to the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, sound), offering basic insight on what can assist to balance your specific dosha or dosha combination, be it Kapha, Pita or Vatta or a combination with exact measurements.

For the initial consultation, two hours is required to determine your long-term natural state, called Prakriti. From there, you may check in from time to time to determine your current imbalance that you are going through at the moment, called your Vikruti.

Please note: One does not have to be a yoga practitioner at all to receive a consultation. There will be no yoga at all in the consultation. One does not need to know a thing about Ayurveda or Yoga. If you are interested in accessing and getting inspired by this means of self-healing within your life and learning more about yourself through a deep examination, this is for you, all ages, all stages of any cycle that you are currently in. If there is an intense case that requires further and more in-depth consultation, you will be referred to a qualified Ayurvedic counselor or doctor so you have a reference of further guidance.

Investment:

Initial 2 hour Consultation: $140 (required)

1 hour Consultations: (after the initial) $108

Special Beginners Package: Consultation & Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy

3-hour Combination Ayurvedic Consultation with Ayurveda Yoga Therapy Private Session: (2-hour initial consultation with a 1-hour yoga session specific to balancing out your specific dosha imbalance): $210

Book your consultation and register now: Nancy@swanriveryoga.com

Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Private Session:

This choice, unlike the Ayurvedic consultation, is very specific to yoga practitioners. It is an in-depth examination of the way in which the doshas are affected in specific asanas so that you can take your prescription home with you and practice further on your own, safely and with the most personalized efficiency possible.  

If you are feeling current energetic or physical imbalances in any way, this will help us to come up with the appropriate yoga asana and pranayama (breathing exercises) diagnosis for you to bring you back to harmony, based on the diagnosis of the constitutional make up (dosha) that you are or are currently experiencing at the moment. 

With yoga becoming increasingly popular and accessible, it is important to be aware of the Ayurvedic side of this ancient healing art. Certain types of yoga classes, styles or specific poses may increase an imbalance within you and some may be the exact prescription you unknowingly need if you are in pain. Often we have access to deep self-healing in yoga, moving the energy out of us on our own to the place that nature allows, yet it may be hard to fully access this depth in the more popular or general classes that are attending to a generalized population. 

This is yet another understanding of the way in which you can heal yourself so as to examine the ways the energy, called vayus, move in each yoga asana pose and how this affects your chakras, emotions, physical body and mental state of clarity or lack of it.

Some poses build more heat, some less; some build or lift more energy, some less—all related to the digestive fires of the body, the way energy moves and your chakra system. A specific prescription of a yoga class sequence from this perspective is quite complex and personal yet renders very specific healing effects on you.

The asanas in this session will be presented free of any yogic style or level of experience but more so based on exactly what it is that you currently need according to where your constitution, dosha,  is imbalanced. An initial consultation must take place first to determine what Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy session is needed for you.

A Yoga Therapy class tends to be for very specific ailments, purpose, or intention.  This type of class will pacify the exact dosha or current imbalance in the constitution that you are experiencing. A yoga therapy class may include restorative yoga, slow flow, quick flow, basic beginners, fast paced vinyasa, reiki, mantra or meditation, depending on exactly what it is that you need.

Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Private Session:

1 hour: $108

1.5 hour: $130

Package of 3 one hour sessions: $300

Book your consultation and register now: Nancy@swanriveryoga.com

*Note, Michelle may offer suggestions on specific books, body oils essential oils or life style and hygiene that is specific to you. Many of these things can be found in our Swan Boutique.

*Michelle has permission and certification as an Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist from the Ayurveda College of California as directed by Dr. Marc Halpern at the Sivananda Ashram.

Om Danvantra Murtaye Namaha. Om Danvantra Murtaye Namaha. Om Danvantra Murtaye Namaha.