Yoga in Ayurveda
Honouring International Yoga Day with a deeper understanding
As we celebrate International Day of Yoga today, many of us are reminded of the powerful role yoga plays in our personal wellness journey. Yoga is deeply woven into the healing fabric of Ayurveda, well beyond the current popular notion of it being a practice of postures and stretches. While yoga and Ayurveda both stem from ancient wisdom, their relationship is often misunderstood.
In Ayurveda, the branch focused on health promotion and disease prevention is called Svasthavrtta, and yoga is a key component of it. So, rather than seeing yoga and Ayurveda as ‘sister sciences’, within the Ayurvedic system it's more accurate—and more useful—to understand yoga as a preventative and therapeutic tool. When practiced through this lens, yoga becomes personalised medicine, a path to deep inner transformation, balance and liberation.
Yoga through the Ayurvedic lens
Ayurveda views health as a dynamic balance between body, mind, sense organs, and soul, achieved by maintaining equilibrium of the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha), balanced agni (digestive fire), proper dhatu (tissue) formation, and balanced malas (excretory processes). To maintain such balance, Ayurveda offers a wide range of tools: herbs, diet, detoxification therapies, lifestyle routines, and… yoga.
In this way, yoga, as part of Ayurvedic care, is tailored to the client’s individual constitution (prakriti) and current state of balance (vikriti).
For example, if you tend to experience anxiety, restlessness, or insomnia—signs of excess Vata energy—Ayurveda might recommend slow, grounding yoga postures, longer exhalations for pranayama (breathwork), and guided relaxation. If you’re dealing with inflammation, irritability, or have exaggerated controlling tendencies—more typical of Pitta energy—your yoga practice might focus on forward bends, yoga nidra for letting go, as well as calming and cooling breathing techniques. And for those with Kapha concerns, such as sluggishness, weight gain, or lethargy, energising movements, dynamic flows, and stimulating breathing practices may be prescribed.
However, we don’t need to label ourselves in terms of Vata, Pitta, or Kapha to benefit from this approach. It all begins, really, with simple self-awareness, by tuning in and asking: What state am I in today? What kind of practice would bring me closer to balance? When yoga is practiced with this level of intention, it becomes a deeply personal act of care. For instance, if you're already feeling overstimulated and turn to an intense, fast-paced yoga posture class, leaving the mat feeling more agitated, then the practice may not have served you well. Similarly, if you finish your session in a dull or heavy mental state (mudham), the practice may have lacked the energy your body-mind system needed.
In all these cases, yoga becomes a customised practice, a daily medicine guided by how you feel, what you need, and what will move your body-mind toward greater clarity and steadiness. This is yoga as abhyasa—a conscious, sustained effort to choose what truly supports balance.
Yoga as a path to liberation
It’s important to have in mind that Ayurveda views health as the foundation for a purposeful and fulfilling life. When the body and mind are in balance, we are better able to pursue dharma (life purpose), artha (prosperity), kama (joy and fulfillment), and ultimately moksha (freedom from suffering and liberation of the soul).
In this deeper context, yoga becomes a tool not only for physical healing and mental clarity, but also for cultivating the inner stillness needed to progress on the spiritual path. The classical Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita, in its Chapter 1, verses 138 and 139, offers profound insight into this, by stating that:
from the contact of the self, the senses, the mind, and the sense-objects arise pleasure and pain; both pleasure and pain cease as a result of the inaction of the mind, which is firmly fixed in the self. Such a state is known as yoga.
In other words, yoga is not simply defined as posture or breathing practice, but as a state of mind firmly anchored in the self, beyond distraction, desire, or aversion. This is the highest aim of both yoga and Ayurveda: to restore us not only to health, but to our essential nature—rooted, clear, and free.
Honouring the journey
As International Day of Yoga reminds us, yoga is not a workout; it’s the journey of the self, through the self, to the self. And within Ayurveda, yoga is honoured as a means to prevent and restore health, awaken consciousness, and ultimately reconnect with the essence of who we are.
Whether you're just beginning or deepening an established practice, approaching yoga through the lens of Ayurveda can offer fresh insight and renewed purpose to your own personal journey.
If you’re curious about how yoga can support your health, enhance your wellbeing, or guide your spiritual growth, reach out to learn more about our transformative 3-month online program.