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What is The Ayurveda Sanctuary?
The Sanctuary is a three-hour Online Workshop Series taught by renowned Ayurveda teacher and bestselling author: Acharya Shunya. Each Sanctuary takes a deep dive into nuanced aspects of the topic of that day. An immersion experience is created where the teacher can impart subtle knowledge from varying perspectives (body and psycho-spiritual) and the participants can feel held so they not only learn the knowledge but can also embody it.
Originally these workshops were an exclusive offering to Acharya Shunya's year-long self-healing program called Alchemy Through Ayurveda. In 2023 Acharya Shunya will open the Sanctuary to the wider public. She wants her pioneering teachings on Ayurveda lifestyle medicine to awaken health and wellbeing and reach more people across the globe.
Acharya Shunya believes there is a gap in the contemporary healthcare system and true health. Western medicine is failing to empower us. We need and desire appropriate food and immunity enhancing and mind, body, soul-rejuvenating strategies. When Ayurveda is taught and practiced within a psycho-spiritual and holistic context it restores health without creating side effects. It enhances quality of life, personal power and wellbeing and brings joy through alignment with the laws and biorhythms of nature.
Traditional Ayurveda: Relief from What Ails Us
Ayurveda is a 5000- year old ancient Indian science of health and healing. It is meant to be imparted in all its purity and without dilution; spiritually, psychologically and ecologically rooted in tradition and grounded in the holistic life transformative wisdom of the Vedas. Acharya Shunya literally grew up with Ayurveda in her Vedic lineage - one that goes back 2000- years in the heartland of India. She studied and lived Ayurveda everyday for 14 years under her grandfather and Guru, 'Baba' Ayodhya Nath's tutelage. For the last two decades she has been advocating for and leading traditional Ayurveda education on the world stage.
Acharya Shunya is a champion for a return to the original tradition. She imparts a deeply holistic model and cautions learning modernized and diluted versions of Ayurveda that are so readily available. Tap into true knowledge from the source texts to attain abiding health awaiting within each one of us!
The Sanctuary offers Acharya Shunya's unique and celebrated Ayurvedic teachings in a digestible, half-day workshop format.
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The Invitation
We invite seekers of true health and wellbeing of the body, mind and soul. Experience this original wisdom as a blessing for your being.
This is a rare and special opportunity to study with a master of the tradition for a half-day immersion in food and lifestyle practices, mind-stablizing tools and spiritual insights. It is an invitation to heal the body, mind and soul through the timeless path of Ayurveda, the sister science of Yoga and Vedanta.
The Sanctuary will give you new insights, hopes and possibilities. New pathways to health will open as you discover your own unique healing journey.
How Does This work?
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Four sanctuaries shall be offered year after year, in the same week and month, beginning with the first workshop in January, 2023.
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Each Sanctuary is a stand-alone, exclusive workshop. It will have a body-based wellness focus, while always addressing the mind, soul, and social dimensions of life.
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Each Sanctuary is beneficial for beginners and advanced students to practitioners. No prior knowledge required.
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You can sign up for one workshop or all four.
Why Does This work?
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Health is not just a possibility that you are lucky to achieve. It is a reality, an underlying natural state of being.
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Once you shall learn to live in alignment with Nature’s intelligence, health will manifest.
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This is the promise of Ayurveda, India’s five-thousand-year-old system of health and healing.
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From Acharya Shunya's Book: Ayurveda lifestyle Wisdom (Sounds True, 2017)
The Benefits
Previous workshop participants describe Acharya Shunya's Ayurveda workshops as life altering and profoundly effective. They facilitate breakthroughs in understanding and empowering health and elevating consciousness.
Read student testimonials and stories of transformation by clicking here.
While a year-long systematic study is ideal, the Ayurveda Sanctuary is a great place to check out Ayurveda, and its potency when taught by an insightful and compassionate teacher. For those already studying or practicing Ayurveda the Sanctuary is an opportunity to go deep into a topic and learn subtle aspects that cannot be found in texts.
Participants will also get to listen in on short dialogues between Acharya Shunya and students from her year long Alchemy Through Ayurveda course. This added community aspect will additionally make the Sanctuary a beautiful abode of learning, connections and hope!
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The Teacher
Acharya Shunya is a globally-recognized exponent of classical Ayurveda anchored in classic Vedic spiritual tradition. Author of several bestselling books including international bestseller "Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom", that was nominated amongst top -10 books in alternative medicine by Health Line, in 2017, Shunya was also recognized amongst top-100 teachers in Ayurveda and Yoga by Spirituality and Health Magazine in 2016. She has served as advisor to Government of India on international Ayurveda affairs ( 2016 to 2018); and she also served for two consecutive terms as President of the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine (CAAM). Acharya Shunya has taught at Kripalu, Omega, Sounds True, University of California – San Francisco, Los Angeles and Berkeley, Stanford University, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), 1440.org, Shift Network, The International Ayurveda Delegates Assembly (a 60-country consortium), World Ayurveda Congress WAC) and the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA). She was also invited to present on the status of “Ayurveda and Yoga in the United States” to the Government of India, a rare honor bestowed upon by Acharya Shunya by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Overseas Affairs, India, in 2016.
Past Sanctuaries
What's Included in Each Sanctuary
LIVE wisdom transmissions by
Acharya Shunya
LIVE teachings and demos by
Assistant Teachers
Access to Session Recordings
Q+A+ Share
opportunities
Meditations, Yoga, Soul Evoking Rituals
Mental Health
Ayurveda specializes in a unique approach to self-manage our thoughts and change the quality of our mind-based awareness from one that is stuck in depression, anxiety, grief, loneliness and emotional stress to one that is illumined, enabled and intelligent. It emphasizes emotional balance, spiritual development as well as physical balance. It even looks towards cultivating a healthy relationship with our environment (natural and social), so that we can live in harmony with all of existence. Ayurveda believes these interconnected aspects of our lives contribute to sound and sustainable mental health. Do not miss this very special opportunity to change the trajectory of your life by learning to support your mind with Ayurveda.
Sunday, October 29, 2023 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM PST, US
Heal Your Gut
Ayurveda’s 5000 years of experience in healing the gut makes this course ideal for anyone dealing with beginning or advanced digestive issues. It is also ideal for someone who wants to proactively optimize their digestive health. You will learn unique insights as well as practical tools and wisdom on how to diagnose the state of your own metabolism (agni) and restore it to health. This includes the use of Ayurvedic spices in cooking, home remedies, yogic-breathing techniques, unique meditation and yoga postures, all oriented to support and bring balance to digestive health. You will learn two recipes that will become your go to recipes for healthy digestion that are both delicious and easy to make. This workshop will expedite your journey towards improved gut health.
Women's Health & Sexuality
Women's bodies require special care, especially as they age and transition from birth to youthful and fertile years, and then to menopause and beyond. Their breasts, womb, menstrual and post menstrual cycles deserve attention. Women's sexuality is tied to both their biology and beliefs - important topics that will be covered in this in depth workshop. Acharya Shunya will share specific kitchen spices and herbs that support women's health and improve libido, as well as strategies that help one age gracefully. If you are a woman, or someone who supports a woman-partner, friend or are a grown child of an aging woman, this workshop will serve as a great resource. You will find Ayurveda's ancient wisdom a beautiful balm for women of all ages.
Perfect Sleep
Sleep is paramount for good health. Modern lifestyle and stress is often a challenge to a good night's sleep, creating the grounds for much emotional and physical distress. In this workshop learn how you can restore sleep to its natural rhythm and quality and in sync with the lunar and solar biorhythms. Gain insights on foods to avoid and common lifestyle mistakes that compromise sleep. You will learn the best times to go to bed and wake, wind-down practices and recipes that will help you sleep soundly. Specific self-massage techniques, essential oils, herbal teas and mantras can also restore your natural relationship with sleep. Yogic practices like pranayama (breathing techniques), yoga asanas and mudras also help calm the body, mind and nervous system before bed. This sanctuary will cover many tools and practices to help you restore your sleep.
Enroll in Individual Workshops
All Four Sanctuaries
Bundle Offer
Enroll in the bundle to attend the Mental Health session live on 29th Oct 2023 and to get the recordings of the following past workshops.
# Heal Your Gut
# Women's health & Sexuality
# Perfect Sleep
We would be happy to honor a refund within 10 days from the date of purchase
Meet The Assistant Teachers
Vimala Devi
Concepts
Chef Sanjai
Recipes
Lakshmi Tracy
Cunningham
Beauty
Soumya Kristin Renee
Yoga
The Sanctuary is Rooted in Tradition
Acharya Shunya was fortunate to have been born in a 2000-year old spiritual Vedic lineage of teachers and healers from India. She was in an ancestral home with her legendary grandfather and lived traditional Ayurveda from a young age. Acharya Shunya conveys the deeper knowledge of Ayurveda, maintaining the original beauty, authenticity, purity, and power of the teachings often lost to modern teachers.
Acharya Shunya’s 14 year Ayurveda education took place inside a traditional wisdom school (Gurukulam). In addition to being clinically sound, it was suffused with spiritual insights from the Vedas, integrated with Yogic and Advaita (nondual) philosophy and enriched with ancestral food and herbal wisdom. This background created a strong foundation for awakening health and lasting wellbeing.
Today, Shunya imparts this lineage enabled wisdom of Ayurveda wholeheartedly, to anyone who cares to study with her. Her students reap profound spiritual wellbeing and unprecedented healing at the level of the body and mind. Moreover, Acharya Shunya has used the spiritually integrated model of Ayurveda to deeply examine her relationship with herself and the world. In doing so, she was able to overcome her own physical and emotional challenges, remove the veils of self-ignorance and awaken to a deeper truth, to reside in a state of abiding health, inner peace and soul contentment.
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How do I know if this eCourse is right for me?Do you feel stuck? Stressed? Do you experience disturbed sleep, heartburn, emotional eating, weight gain, high blood pressure, chronic pain or other physical challenges? Have you lost your enthusiasm, joy or vitality? Are you ready to become unstuck? Are you searching for new, but reliable and all natural ways to be whole, healthy and happy again? Then this course is for you. Following this course’s guidance can lead you to implement a few or even all of Ayurveda’s health-, joy- and peace-awakening practices, and thereby experience greater physical energy, more enthusiasm, better ability to focus, higher sleep quality, improved digestion and immunity, amongst many other profound benefits for physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health and well-being. In this course, you’ll learn lifestyle, food and positive behaviors from the classical science of Ayurveda that will inspire you, help you heal yourself, make you more whole and give you the hope and confidence you are seeking to connect with your inner latent state of health and well-being (despite current symptoms). The teachings will serve as a rite of transition, from a life lived unconsciously, at the mercy of unexamined habits or chemicals and dependency upon medications, laxatives, for example, to the recreation of each day, lived in brilliant balance hence forward with the aid of Ayurveda. Once the wisdom from this course is internalized and lived, disease is overcome spontaneously, and all dependencies, including emotional ones, are resolved. Worldwide, people are turning away from popping remedies (even the natural forms) and exploring lifestyle-, food- and belief-level changes. This course is a leader in this trend and has helped countless people since its beginning in 2007 reclaim their soul birthright of enjoying renewed health, well-being and joy! Along with the health seekers, Ayurveda lovers, self-healing enthusiasts, seekers of wellness, Ayurveda doctors, integrative medicine and functional medicine practitioners, holistic and mainstream nurse practitioners and essentially anyone who wants activate their health and their family’s health and wellbeing from within are invited on this journey with Acharya Shunya. You won’t be disappointed you took this course.
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I am not sick, I am pretty healthy. Will I still benefit from this eCourse?"Whether you’re looking for food and lifestyle recommendations for specific health concerns such as stubborn weight, asthma or depression, or if you’d simply like to protect and improve your overall health, immunity, vitality and well-being and learn anti-aging practices, in this course you’ll find a treasury of classical, deeply integrated and spiritually-inspired Ayurvedic lifestyle teachings, wellness practices and inspired ideas for every part of your day. The spiritual and psychological teachings in this course are well-balanced with practical knowledge on physical health, supported by practical advice on how to live a healthy lifestyle by following Ayurveda’s daily routines. This course is for everyone, because we envision a healthy and happy planet. We invite the youth, the middle-aged and ageing, the diseased and the healthy, the home-makers and the professionally employed; and finally, we invite current and future students and practitioners, who wish to awaken their own health with the tools we impart, for one and all.
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What will I learn?This first-of-its-kind course is based upon the spiritually-potent Awakening Health Model™ of Ayurveda, as put forth by internationally renowned Ayurvedic teacher, healer, and scholar, Acharya Shunya. It goes beyond a basic level or micro-level study of Ayurveda (constitution-focused) and, instead, will launch you into a macro-level engagement with Ayurveda, its life wisdom, spiritual philosophy, health-enhancing lifestyle practices, superfoods, and recipes. You will learn nourishing daily rituals organized by the time of the day and aligned with the seasons. This course teaches you how to incorporate traditional practices, recipes, exercise, yoga, rituals of devotion, meditation, self-care and beauty into your modern lifestyle. You will learn the “why” and “how-to’s” of several traditional Ayurvedic health, well-being and immunity-enhancing lifestyle practices; morning and evening self-care, spiritual rituals and contemplations, self-massage, beauty and cooking instructions, and information on important spices, recipes, exercises, and ways to access inner peace and mental clarity. You will learn all about the Doshas, how modern lifestyles contribute to dosha imbalance, and how to restore dosha balance for vital health and strong immunity. You will learn in great detail about various food groups and their healing qualities, seasonal usage and impact on body and mind (dairy, cereals, pulses, vegetables, meats, oils, buts, fruits, etc). You will learn how to use Ayurvedic superfoods and other herbal elixirs to enhance your immunity and fortify your energy. ‘ In depth, you will explore Ayurveda’s lesser-known but very powerful Sacred Psychology teachings from ancient Ayurvedic texts that will help you calm and purify your own mind, and respond to relationship or work challenges with greater wisdom and presence of mind. "Health is not a probability that you may achieve. It is a reality, an underlying natural state of being." - Acharya Shunya
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Can you explain what is different about the “Awakening Health Model” and how I stand to benefit from it?Acharya Shunya’s “Awakening Health Model” draws upon the enormously powerful but sadly forgotten psycho-spiritual teachings of Ayurveda that evoke inner abilities and latent resources to manage and transcend emotional stress, relationship challenges, and existential question marks. An increasing number of published studies are examining the connection between spirituality, health, and quality of life. Spirituality is different from religion. While religion pertains to devotion to a “god figure,” spirituality is universal and focused around expanding inner “awareness” and “consciousness.” It speaks to ultimate existential concerns, coping with the stress of life, loss, aging, personal strivings, and issues of adaptive functioning. Physical medicine has limitations in this capacity, and this is where the need to blend the hard science of disease management with pragmatic spirituality, ethics and values, becomes apparent. This is why those who are spiritually-inspired and have a sense of connectedness with a universal truth experience hope, meaning, purpose, and inner strength to overcome to become. To understand this spiritually-integrated approach and sample Alchemy through Ayurveda sign up for the FREE, 3-part introductory course. We suggest you watch all three videos!
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What is the format of the course?The course is 100% online and self-paced with access to videos, learning materials, discussion forums and once-a-month LIVE sessions with Acharya Shunya or her teaching assistant Vimala. View Vimala’s biography here: https://www.vedikaglobal.org/vimala-leeann-brady. While attendance to the live sessions is completely optional, we highly encourage attending due to the interactive nature of these sessions.
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What will I get when I enroll?Upon enrollment, you'll receive access to 120+ hours of course content with coordinating PDFs for further learning and engagement. You will also get access to discussion forums where you can post questions and have them answered, and also connect with other students. All participants will also access to the 4-part Yoga Sutras: A Roadmap to Self-Mastery Masterclass and Ayurveda Ancestral Herbal Video and Recipe Library (18+ video teacings and recipe PDFs.
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How do I get my questions answered during the course?We got you. We have set up several ways to ensure all your questions are answered as you progress along the course: We will host a discussion forum where you can interact with the TA, post your questions and get them answered. All Q&A will be available alongside the course and you can return to it anytime. Any questions that need a fuller explanation, will be answered during the monthly Live Q&A session by the TA. No less than five times a year, Acharya Shunya will join the LIVE Q&A sessions to answer the most important questions.
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How many times will I get live interaction with Acharya Shunya?Several times a year (no less than five times per year), Acharya Shunya will join her TA in the monthly interactive Q&A session to answer your questions, and encourage you in your journey towards greater health and well-being with Ayurveda.
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Can I preview the course before I enroll?Absolutely! Please sign up for the FREE Preview of Alchemy through Ayurveda.
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Are there any prerequisites to the course?None at all. You are welcome to join this course without any prior knowledge of Ayurveda or its sister sciences of Yoga or Vedanta.
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What is the time commitment for this course?The time commitment is variable as this is a self-paced course - which means you can proceed with it at your own pace. The recommended guideline is to complete one video per week and attend the LIVE online sessions once per month.
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How long do I have access to the course?You will have access to all of the materials and videos for 547 days (which is approximately one 1.5 years) after which you will lose access to the content.
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When do classes begin?You can start any day of the year. Upon enrollment, you will be emailed your username and password to login into the course and access the teachings.
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When can I enroll?You can enroll any day of the year.
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When does enrollment close?Enrollment is always open. You can enroll at any time of the year and continue at your own pace.
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Is financial aid available?Not at this time.
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Will I be licensed to practice when I complete this course?In its current form, no, this course does not license you to be an Ayurvedic Practitioner. However, all of the Ayurveda Ancestral Herbal Library classes are eligible for PACE credits from the National Ayurveda Medical Association - these are provided as a gift within the Alchemy through Ayurveda course.
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Will I receive a certificate of completion?Yes, all graduates will get a “Certificate of Study with Acharya Shunya” issued by Vedika Global®, Inc., a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) spiritual and socially responsible humanitarian Ayurveda organization, founded by Acharya Shunya Pratichi Mathur in California. Vedika Global®, Inc. is dedicated to igniting a spiritually empowered community healing and wellness movement with classical Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta.
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Where is your institute located?As of 2020, our programs are 100% online. Our administrative office is located in Hayward, California.
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Can I share the course and log in with friends/family?Practicing studies, recipes and demonstrations with a friend or family member may be fun and educational, however, sharing logins and course materials will result in account cancellation. Please do not share account or login information. Thank you for understanding.
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I don't live in the United States. Can I still take your classes?Anyone with an Internet connection can sign up for our classes. If you are wondering whether our courses meet specific standards for your country, you would need to check with your local regulations. Please note that all fees and costs listed on our website are in USD. Prospective international students should contact their bank to determine exchange rates.
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Can I get a refund?We have a 100% money back guarantee. We want you to be happy and fulfilled by this course. If you buy this course and aren't satisfied, email us within 30 days of your purchase and we'll refund your money or you can opt for a credit toward another course. To request a refund, email us at office@vedikaglobal.org.
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