Diet is the first line of defense against diseases and not medicine. With the help of ayurvedic nutrition, you can enjoy a healthy life. Here are the 5 best ayurvedic nutrition certifications online, especially for you.
Ayurveda or ayurvedic medicine is the world’s oldest holistic healing system developed over 3000 years ago in India. Currently, in the U.S, Ayurveda is considered a form of complementary and alternative medicine.
The primary purpose of Ayurveda is to bring a balance between the mind, body, and spirit to promote good health. An ayurvedic practitioner can gear Ayurveda treatment toward specific health issues. According to the Ayurveda teachings, there is a connection between everything in the universe, dead or alive. Whenever your body, mind, and spirit are in perfect harmony with the universe, then your health will be good. But when something disrupts the balance, you’ll get sick.
The 5 Best Ayurvedic Nutrition Certifications Online are:
- My Vinyasa Practice- Ayurvedic Nutrition Certification
- Bastyr University – Ayurveda Health Advisor Certificate
- Sarasvati Ayurveda Institute- Foundations of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Yoga Certification
- National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA)- Ayurvedic Professional Certification
- New World Ayurveda School- Ayurvedic Health Practitioner Training
Ayurveda puts forward good health, treatment, and prevention of illness through lifestyle practices like; meditation, massage, yoga, herbal remedies, and dietary changes.
Not only does Ayurveda treat a person’s physical problems, but it also changes your lifestyle practices helping you improve and maintain good health.
To be an ayurvedic practitioner, you will need to acquire certifications in the right course. It is not compulsory to study and get a certificate. The certification is not for a legal basis but rather to show authenticity.
Ayurveda bases its practice on five main elements of nature;
- Fire
- Water
- Air
- Space
- Earth
All these elements combine to create harmony. Different elements represent various parts of the body. Even though we all have the five elements, only a combination of two elements defines each person.
- Air and space (Vatta) are considered the most superior of the other elements (doshas). It represents heartbeat, breathing, blood flow, and joint movement. Vatta controls functions of the nervous system like anxiety, pain, and fear. If Vatta dosha is your main life force, you’re most likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety, asthma, heart disease, and skin problems.
- Fire and water (Pitta)– Pitta dosha is in charge of your digestion, skin color, metabolism, and intelligence. Sitting for too long in the sun and eating spicy foods are most likely to disrupt its balance. Pitta also controls the emotions of anger, jealousy, and hate. If Pitta is your main life force, you’re most likely to suffer from; high blood pressure, infections, Crohn’s disease, and heart disease.
- Earth and water (Kapha)– Kapha governs the body’s physical structure and the immune system. Kapha dosha can be disrupted by sleeping too much during the day, drinking and eating things with too much salt or water, and eating too many sweet foods. Kapha dosha represents emotions like; greed, calmness, forgiveness, and love. If your main life force is Kapha dosha, you’re more likely to suffer from breathing problems like asthma, nausea after eating, diabetes, obesity, and cancer.
Your time of birth determines your doshas, your personality, and your physical makeup. Everyone has a mixture of all three doshas, but one is always the strongest. Each controls a function of your body, and it is believed that your chances of getting ill depend on the balance of your doshas.
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How do I get certified in Ayurveda?
There are no standard requirements for being an ayurvedic practitioner in America, but it’s still necessary as every employer needs to see it. The educational requirements will depend on your area of specialty, whether massage, nutrition, or herbal skincare.
Now since you are interested in learning more about Ayurveda, you could take a course either online or in a physical class and get certified in the art of Ayurveda.
National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) provides programs meeting the 500-hour practitioner requirements to become a Certified Ayurvedic Educator (CAE) or Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner(CAP).
CAE programs are one year long of learning the basics of Ayurveda and prepare you to teach ayurvedic fundamentals. But if your interest is to be an ayurvedic practitioner, you need to pursue the CAP program.
The CAP program is an extra year of training and a 650-hours internship. Upon completing the CAP program, you can now hop into your private practice, get employment in holistic centers, or even continue to pursue studies of Ayurveda up to the doctorate in alternative medicine and surgery.
To practice Ayurveda safely, you should obtain an ayurvedic professional certification from the National Ayurvedic Medical Association Certification Board (NAMACB). You can only get the NAMACB certificate by passing your educational studies and exams.
When choosing an online Ayurveda course, ensure the school is registered under NAMA to have the proper credentials to practice the ancient medicinal treatment method.
What is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner?
A certified ayurvedic practitioner is an ayurvedic professional who has training in nutrition, preventive healthcare, lifestyle pathology, and disease management. To earn this certification, one must have 1500-2500 hours of qualifying education in a NAMA-approved institution.
When visiting an ayurvedic practitioner, expect to answer a lot of questions. As seen above, Ayurveda is not only about your physical health but also mental and emotional.
Your Ayurvedic practitioner will ask you questions about your mental health, go through your medical records, and ask about your diets, working conditions, exercise, and relationships.
The main point here is to view how you live your life fully, see where the issue could be, and help you through your healing journey. Both mental, physical, and emotional.
When asking all those questions, your practitioner will determine the potential cause of the imbalance and recommend a suitable treatment option.
An ayurvedic practitioner uses holistic healing methods from India to eliminate impurities, boost a healthy life, fight disease, and reduce stress. The practitioner will assess your entire well-being by observing the connectedness between the spirit, physical, and mind.
The 5 Best Ayurvedic Nutrition Certifications Online
There are many ayurvedic nutrition courses online, but we’ve put together the best ones for you. Having a certification for this ancient healing method helps you prove your knowledge to clients. Going to class helps add more knowledge to what you already know about Ayurveda. These institutions offer the best Ayurveda knowledge to be found out there.
1. My Vinyasa Practice- Ayurvedic Nutrition Certification
This certification course offered by My Vinyasa Practice will give you a great foundation in clinical nutrition and Ayurveda. The program will equip you with skills to coach your clients and treat them as an ayurvedic nutritionist.
This program will teach you the foundational concepts found in every traditional nutritionist course. Your teacher will elaborate on these concepts to include teachings of the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda.
As a learner, you will learn how to evaluate your patients’ nutritional intake, investigate their dosha and areas of high risk. You will also learn to leverage ayurvedic techniques to help your clients mitigate those risks.
Students will also learn how to create personal ayurvedic programs to promote a healthy and holistic relationship to food and food combining.
This Ayurvedic course is perfect for every yoga teacher and yoga therapist. Yoga therapists can use this Ayurveda knowledge to help them with their dietary needs to improve the quality of their lives better.
On completing this training, you will handle clients and help them track their progress, and ensure the client recovers.
Once you attain your ayurvedic certification, you will be able to work alongside healthcare providers to assist clients in their journey to healing and well-being.
2. Bastyr University- Ayurveda Health Advisor Certificate
Whether you want to pursue certification for Ayurveda or incorporate Ayurveda into your current practice, this Ayurveda course by Bastyr Univesity is the right path to take.
Hence, healthcare professionals, yoga teachers, nutritionists, acupuncturists, and other wellness professionals should pursue this course.
Even individuals that would love to use the knowledge of Ayurveda to care for their friends and family. Or those who want to venture into being an ayurvedic health advisor.
The world of Ayurveda is full of knowledge as it is yoga’s ‘health sister’ science. You can pursue this online course from wherever you’re comfortable doing it. Get to know more about this ancient science that brings harmony between the body, mind, and soul.
This program in itself will provide you with all the proficiency needed to become a confident Ayurvedic Health Advisor.
Each module contains 20 hours of a live webinar, 10 hours of self-study, 10 hours of a client session, and 12 hours of recorded supplemental instruction available online.
3. Sarasvati Ayurveda Institute- Foundations of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Yoga Certification
If you would love to add ancient ayurvedic healthcare wisdom to your practice, the Sarasvati Ayurveda Institute would be another great institution to partake in your program.
This program not only offers you knowledge on the foundations of Ayurveda, but you will also learn ayurvedic yoga.
The program’s purpose is to help bring together ancient knowledge and modern science to help people achieve a balanced life.
The course isn’t just for people who want to practice Ayurveda professionally, but for anyone interested in learning.
Students will learn about the history and practice of Ayurveda and how to practice and teach your clients a daily ayurvedic routine. You will also learn yoga that is infused with the practice of Ayurveda.
The course will inform you about the three Gunas of nature and the five elements of nature. All this knowledge will help you when making diagnostics and cultivating overall balance. You will be able to identify a client’s dosha and sub-dosha to identify a patient’s area of imbalance.
The program will teach you different diagnostic tools for Ayurveda like eye charts, pulse reading, and tongue reading. You will also get lifestyle guidance that will guide you through every season. You will also be able to support your clients in setting up a healthy home.
4. National Ayurvedic Medical Association(NAMA)- Ayurvedic Professional Certification
Since NAMA is the official certification board for all ayurvedic professionals in the united states, you will have to surpass their exams to be considered an ayurvedic professional.
For you to get a NAMA-approved certification, you will have to study Ayurveda in a school recognized by the institution and pass the rigorous exams.
There are three certifications that NAMA offers in regards to Ayurveda;
- Ayurvedic health counselor is a health professional whose primary focus is preventive healthcare and health promotion by focusing on lifestyle and diet. To qualify, you will need at least six hundred hours of qualifying education.
- An ayurvedic practitioner is an ayurvedic professional with knowledge in preventive healthcare, nutrition, lifestyle, pathology, and disease management. For one to qualify for this certification, you will require 1500-2500 hours of qualifying education.
- An ayurvedic doctor is an ayurvedic professional with specialized training and can provide comprehensive ayurvedic healthcare to patients. To qualify for this certification, you will require over 4000 hours of qualifying education.
NAMA offers all the above ayurvedic education and certifications to students eager to learn and practice Ayurveda professionally or at home. Anyone can learn Ayurveda; you don’t need to use the knowledge professionally.
5. New World Ayurveda school- Ayurvedic Health Practitioner Training
This course by New World Ayurveda School is perfect for professionals who would like to add Ayurveda healthcare in treating their patients and guiding them to achieving a healthy lifestyle and diet.
This course is for;
- Educators are people who learn Ayurveda for the sole purpose of teaching other students.
- Coaches– If you like, you can get training as a health coach and Ayurvedic practitioner. Your teachers will teach you how to coach clients for up to six months back to a healthy journey.
- Clinicians– You will learn how to assess a patient, diagnose and recommend the best method of treatment they can pursue.
When pursuing the course, you will learn all the above, and you can go out there and practice it in a way that is most comfortable, ethical, and helpful to others.
The program will take you ten months to complete, and you will have a minimum of 50 clinical client cases as part of the training. You can choose to study independently or through a live online program.
In the live online program, you will need to complete the course in less than twelve months, whereas, in the independent study program, everything will be self-paced. Both programs contain the same material, therefore, resulting in the same certification.
How long does it take to become an ayurvedic practitioner?
According to NAMA, it will take between 1500-2500 hours of qualifying education to become an ayurvedic practitioner. On top of it all, you will have to pass all your exams to get certified.
On the flip side, if you are interested in pursuing a Bachelors in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery(BAMS), or a graduate degree like Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (DAMS), you will need to go to school and study for up to five years.
So, in general, the amount of information and knowledge you need to acquire in Ayurveda determines how long you will spend your time studying to be a practitioner.
Mostly, professionals looking to offer ayurvedic help to their patients exclusively take continuing education. With time, they tend to have a lot of knowledge in the field as they will still be helping clients as they study.
As you keep gaining more knowledge in the ancient science of Ayurveda, you could take on private practice and help sick and healthy patients looking for a holistic way to take care of themselves. If you aren’t ready to stand alone fully, you could partner up with your local yoga studio, naturopathic doctor, or acupuncturist.
After years of experience and study, you could also choose to share along with the knowledge you have gained over the years with other Ayurveda enthusiasts.
You could choose to be a teacher in any school (online or physical) offering Ayurveda courses or even create your courses to pass along the knowledge you have acquired. No need to keep it to yourself.
You could make teaching Ayurveda fun by holding retreats, workshops, and seminars to help all others learn and keep alive this ancient-old practice.
Final Words
Ayurveda practice is a traditional healthy way of life passed down to us over thousands of years. It is something sacred that helps bring harmony between the spirit, body, and mind.
When choosing the path of becoming an ayurvedic practitioner, you will be using natural methods to restore harmony and balance in the body that most people disrupt through their eating habits and way of life. What you will be doing is very important and will help many people live healthy lives.
To get certified means that your clients will recognize it. Most clients like it when their practitioners have papers to show for the knowledge acquired. Also, to get employed in a studio or massage place, such papers are necessary. Even though you might not need them in some places, it is better to have the certification at hand.
The above institutions will offer you the best knowledge needed to practice Ayurveda. You can choose between any of them to acquire the best ayurvedic knowledge there is out there. These institutions have been carefully selected based on the quality of their courses and reviews from former students, which are astounding.
