The founders of Botanic Garden – Elena and Anastasya – on Ayurveda and few other important things

Anastasya – on the left, Elena – on the right
Elena:
What attracted me in Ayurveda is this idea: its main goal is not to achieve beauty and health, but to help us find inner peace and accordance with our self. Ayurveda sees sickness as a sign of internal contradictions in soul and mind. And these contradictions sooner or later end up with problems at the physical level.
To be healthy, we first need to achieve a peace of mind, a peace of soul and a harmonious coherence between thoughts, emotions and actions. If there is no peaceful tranquility inside of us and if we don’t feel that we are happy, then it’s not likely, that we will be healthy and beautiful. The beauty will come once peace sets in inside our soul and mind.
To follow Ayurvedic prescriptions, that harmonize our emotions, is not tricky – it is pleasant. For example, there a many simple tricks, that will rebalance Vata (a personality type that has a dry skin, the one who talks a lot, etc. – as I am for example). Just do more of this – enjoy more often watching sunrises, take warm baths, find time for a short afternoon nap, make light massage with sesame oil, inhale warm aromas (such as geranium, orange, thyme), listen to the hiss of sea waves, drink warm teas with soothing herbs. From my own experience I know how effective are those seemingly simple things. For many-many years I haven’t suffered from flu and similar illnesses thanks to the power of essential oils. I know that if nerves are starting to manifest themselves a little, it will be taken care of by a cup of lavender tea and a herbs-infused bath. As for the most extreme cases, a seaside trip will save me from any trouble.
Ayurveda doesn’t separate from each other our diet, way of life, work, natural environment, our deep down inner goals – a person is important as he or she is as an individual. The crucial idea of the Ayurveda science is that everything in the world is interconnected, and the whole is not just a sum of parts. The whole embraces all parts and each part is a reflection of the whole. Everything is interconnected and, at the same time, every creature, every something is unique and inimitable – be it a human, a flower or a tiny cell.
Anastasya:
I have instantly liked the idea of ‘eatable cosmetics’. This idea came to Botanic Garden from Ayurveda. Ayurveda is an approach, where we nourish and moisturize our skin with essential oils. Essential and base oils revitalize and renew our skin. They also regulate our mental state – taking away bad moods and depression, subtly regulating emotions.
I remember my very first experience of using essential oils. It was a highly stressful situation. I was breastfeeding and it wasn’t going well. My head kept splitting apart. I couldn’t take any medicines – too harmful and dangerous for the kid. And then Lena brought me some lavender essential oil. I started breathing it in and also rubbed a little into the skin around my temples. And then, behold a miracle! Migraines had gone for good, while milk stayed and breast-feeding restored to full capacity.
Wisdom of Ayurveda amazes me. The world is now moving towards personalized healthcare, to highly individualized selection of medicines and tools for preservation of health and balance. And Ayurveda has been doing it for more than 3000 years – offering differentiated approaches to be healthier, depending on the physical and mental constitution of a person. This principle of differentiation is also applied when nourishing and moisturizing the skin. All oils and their combinations possess certain effect and character, due to which they can be used not just for treatment of certain issues, but also for certain personality types in general.
As a conclusion, here’s a simple Ayurvedic recipe to have a wonderful start of the day. What can be more genial, simple and effective for a modern man or woman than a natural foot bath – regularly take early morning bare-feet walks over cool, dew-covered grass. This ritual refreshes body and soul in a big way.