Welcome to Online Ayurveda Academy Before you read on, please take a moment to make yourself comfortable. Place your feet flat on the floor. Sit with your spine tall and at ease. Take a few slow and deep breaths—allowing your belly to fill up as you inhale and empty as you exhale. Soften your tongue, your jaw and forehead. Lift up your heart and let your shoulders relax downward away from your ears. Allow yourself the luxury of a smile… I am delighted that you are interested in pursuing your training as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor. By nature of being here reading this, you are a seeker and an adventurer so grab your hiking shoes, backpack, trail mix, water bottle and binoculars! I will joyfully be your tour guide as we climb this gorgeous and ancient mountain of Ayurvedic education together. This journey will nourish you on all levels—body, mind and spirit. Along our path of learning, we will engage all of our senses—taking in pleasant aromas, sights, sounds, tastes and sensations. There is something in your soul that has brought you to the point of longing to learn a healing system that will allow you to become a tour guide as well. Undoubtedly you have passed through your own challenging phases along your personal hike. You have experienced or watched loved ones endure fatigue, illness, grief, fear and other trials. You have found your own methods of recovery from life’s rocky and steep patches and you are curious to learn more strategies for healing yourself and others. During your ascent, you will encounter other like-minded souls who believe that the most powerful tools for healing are right under your nose along the trail: whole foods, movement, sunlight, spices, rain, plants, flowers, rest, moonlight, living water and clean air. There will be several summits along our hike with expansive and breathtaking views that will include new ways of perceiving yourself and others through the lens of Ayurveda. As you stand at the top of the mountain peaks you will relish in broadening and transforming your consciousness and you will feel alive and awake. Joseph Campbell, in “The Power of Myth” interview with Bill Moyers said, “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we are seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” I warmly invite you to sip the sweet nectar of Ayurveda with me and your classmates. Come participate in this hike of Ayurvedic Health Counselor training and learn how to be alive and thrive in this world. Then return to your communities to be way-showers and healers for yourself and the planet. Listen to the call of your spirit to make a powerfully positive difference in our world and spread the life-giving light of Ayurveda!