Perhaps your digestion has changed. You're exhausted but can't seem to slow down. Your sleep isn't what it used to be. Your periods have become more difficult. You're feeling anxious, overwhelmed or disconnected from yourself.

Sometimes we try to deal with each thing separately.

We look for something for our digestion, something for our hormones, something to help us sleep.

But the body doesn't work in separate compartments.

This is one of the reasons I love Ayurveda. It gives us a way of stepping back and looking at the whole picture.

Health isn't somewhere we arrive

When we are looking at improving our health and getting the best results for ourselves across the year, I think it is important to move past the idea that health is somewhere we arrive.

We get there, stop, and no longer have to do anything about it.

Health doesn't really work like that.

It is a continuum, changing in the same way that the seasons and the weather change. There will be different points throughout the year, and different stages of our lives, when we need different kinds of support.

The other idea I think it is important to move past is that there is a magic pill that can solve all our problems, and that our health is somehow out of our hands.

Ayurveda offers us something very different.

It teaches us how we are at one with nature, how our nature changes, and how much influence we actually have in helping ourselves become well.

So what actually happens in an Ayurvedic consultation?

Before we meet for the first time, you complete a detailed questionnaire.

It looks at your health, of course, but also your emotions, your work, your family, your daily life, your habits and the things happening around you.

Because your health doesn't exist separately from your life.

When your questionnaire arrives, I start to get a feel for you even before we meet. I notice the amount of detail, how things are written, what you choose to mention and sometimes what you don't.

Then, when we meet, we use it as a starting point to go deeper.

I listen not only to what you are saying, but to how you are saying it. I notice changes in your voice and intonation, your body language and your eye contact. This is just as possible online as it is in person.

I'm listening beyond the words — to the emotions, intentions and stress points.

Often, before I have even looked at your tongue or face, I already have a sense of where some of the imbalances may be.

For me, an Ayurvedic consultation is about getting to know you, not simply collecting your symptoms.

Looking at the whole picture

People often come to me because their digestion isn't right, they are exhausted, their hormones are all over the place, they aren't sleeping or they are feeling anxious and stressed.

But these systems aren't separate.

Ayurveda looks at the whole body and the interconnection between everything. We look at your unique constitution, or prakriti, and at what is happening in your body and mind now.

Because what is good for one person isn't necessarily good for another.

And you are not the same person in every season.

You may have a naturally fiery constitution, for example, but in autumn you may be experiencing a lot of Vata imbalance. Your needs at that moment have to reflect what is actually happening in your body, rather than simply following a list of foods labelled “good” or “bad” for your dosha.

This is one of the reasons an Ayurvedic consultation isn't simply being handed a diet sheet.

I tried that approach myself many years ago, before I began my Ayurvedic journey. It didn't work for me.

I don't want you to leave with a list of rules that you are frightened of getting wrong.

I want you to understand cause and effect.

To understand how your food, routines, emotions, sleep and choices affect you — so that you can begin to make decisions for yourself.

Looking underneath the symptom

Ayurveda isn't only about treating the symptom. It is about understanding what is causing the symptom.

We can have an Ayurvedic cleanse, take herbs or have treatments, but if we haven't understood what brought us to that point, we can easily go home and do the same things again.

And eventually, we end up in the same place.

In my practice, finding the root cause sometimes means stripping away layers. The cause isn't always immediate or obvious. There can be a pattern underneath a pattern underneath a pattern.

And often, when we look closely, we find that we have been running, running, running forward without stopping to think about what we are carrying.

Not processing emotions. Not even realising that we aren't processing them. Staying on the treadmill because we don't know how to stop.

This is why Ayurvedic counselling is such an important part of the way I work.

It isn't just about herbs, treatments and food. It is also about recognising the emotional and mental patterns that may be keeping you in a loop, or that have contributed to getting you to where you are now.

Sometimes what we need to digest isn't on our plate.

We also need to digest life.

Ayurveda and the nervous system

This is where Ayurveda connects very naturally with the rest of my work.

Sometimes someone comes to me for energy healing and we suddenly realise that their physical body needs Ayurvedic support to catch up.

At other times, someone comes through Ayurveda and we discover an energetic blockage that needs to be addressed, or that their body needs to embody something they haven't yet processed or even realised was there.

For me, these aren't separate parts of a person.

The physical body, mind, emotions, nervous system and energetic body are all part of the same whole.

What does becoming well actually mean?

Good health isn't about never having a difficult day or never experiencing stress.

Life will always bring challenges.

For me, health means having balanced emotions and being able to navigate those challenges without going into extremes. It means being able to experience something difficult, process it and come back to yourself, rather than clinging to negative feelings and emotions long after the experience has passed.

There are also the physical signs: good digestion, clear skin, clear eyes, steady energy throughout the day and good sleep.

But health is more than the absence of symptoms.

It is how we navigate life.

It is how well we can digest our food, but also how well we can digest our experiences.

It is learning to listen to your body rather than constantly overriding it.

And it is learning that your body is not something separate from nature. We are made of the same elements as everything else in nature, so when nature changes, we change too.

Nothing stays the same.

You don't have to change everything at once

When you leave your first consultation, I want you to feel empowered.

I want you to feel that there is hope, and that you are the person who has the authority and ability to make changes that can help you feel better.

But I don't want you to go home with twenty things to change.

Sometimes we want to achieve everything all at once. I know this because I was that sort of person too.

Instead, we start with two or three things.

Practising Ayurveda doesn't mean having to do everything at once. It means being willing to become a beginner. To be curious. To learn about yourself and notice cause and effect.

And your treatment plan isn't fixed.

We adjust it as you change.

You may need something different because your health has improved. You may no longer need something that was important at the beginning. Or we may discover that another area now needs our attention.

That is part of the process.

One of my favourite things is seeing someone experience this cause and effect for themselves.

A woman may come back and tell me that she has had an amazing period and no PMS after a month of making changes, taking herbs or having treatments.

And then she realises that her menstruation is showing her how healthy she has been the month before.

She is no longer just following instructions.

She is beginning to understand her own body.

You don't have to do this alone

This is also why I offer follow-up consultations.

Once you have started making the changes we have agreed on, it is useful to come back and see what has shifted.

You might have two or three follow-ups across a year. You don't necessarily need to be constantly seeing someone.

But there is something very special about having a practitioner who knows you.

Someone who knows your constitution, your character, your emotions and how you tend to respond in certain situations.

Someone who knows what you have already tried, what worked, what didn't, and how your body responded.

You aren't starting from zero every time.

Because you are changing. The seasons are changing. Your life is changing. Different things accumulate, and sometimes you need a different approach.

Having somebody alongside you who can see the bigger picture, watch your progress and cheer you on can be very powerful.

I can be your guide.

I can hold the torch and the mirror.

But you have to travel the journey.

Why Ayurveda felt like coming home

I fell in love with Ayurveda because it felt like coming home.

It felt like something that finally made huge sense.

As I started studying it, I discovered how much wisdom there was in it and how deeply it connected to the entire life.

Because we are not just our health in isolation.

Our health is how we navigate life. It is how we cope with challenges. It is the patterns we have developed. It is how we respond to change.

Ayurveda understands that the body isn't just a machine that we can abuse and then expect to keep functioning.

It needs fine-tuning.

It needs taking care of.

And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that we are part of nature.

This is why I don't want to simply tell you what to do.

I want to help you understand yourself.

I want you to leave with a few things you can actually put into practice, and with a better understanding of why they matter.

You don't need to know anything about Ayurveda before you come.

You don't need to have everything figured out.

And you don't need to change your whole life overnight.

We start with where you are.

We look at the whole picture, understand what may be happening underneath the symptoms, and find the first few steps that can begin to move you towards greater balance.

If that sounds like the kind of support you've been looking for, I'd love to work with you.

You don't have to fix everything.

You just have to be willing to begin.