Lisa Moore, Ayurveda Consultant Healing Charlotte Podcast

This episode, we meet Lisa Moore of Harmony Health Yoga and Ayurveda. She's been a therapeutic yoga teacher for 15 years, facilitates many workshops, seminars, retreats, does energy work as a Shamanic practitioner, as well as an Ayurveda Consultant. She describes Ayurveda as the sister science to yoga and the oldest medical system in the world, and was banished in India when the British invaded. It combines energy medicine, diet and lifestyle changes, and the interplay of the mind for wellness. In Ayurveda, everyone has a constitution which is a system of doshas that are categories people fall into based on their elemental makeup assigned at conception. It focuses on digestion and high functioning tissues and organs. In Ayurveda, the goal is for people to live in sattva which is a pleasing and neutral state. Each dosha is made up of 2 elements; ether, air, fire, water, and earth. Vata is made up of ether and air and these people move a lot in space, are creative, and intelligent. Pitta is made up of fire and water and this is the energy of transformation and these people are natural born leaders. Kapha is made up of water and earth and is the energy of structure as these people tend to be compassionate, loyal, and stable.

Lisa's work begins with an assessment where she will look at digestion, stress, unprocessed trauma, sleep and meal times, exercise, and quality of relationships. A physical analysis will be done on the tongue, fingernail, hair, skin, among other things. She's going to look into someone's energy patterns as well such as prana and apana. After the constitution is determined and imbalance is discovered, understanding the root problem including possibly eating the wrong foods or eating at the wrong time as well as developing a plan for supporting their constitution is developed. Digestion is a major focus of the beginning work of Ayurveda. Lisa mentions that getting digestion under control for each person is paramount. From here, she will create a maintenance plan taking into account the season and help each person understand when to eat, the types of food to eat, hydration, exercise, sleep time, the right type of yoga, meditation, and breathwork to support their constitution. After everything is in balance, Lisa will prescribe herbs based on what organs and doshas were out of balance.

"It's a process that unfolds because you want it to be a lifestyle. I don't want it to be novel that someone is going to try and then say 'oh it didn't work, so I'm going to move on to something else."

Lisa became inspired to get into this work after the health issues that she encountered about 10 years ago. She believed she had a stellar diet and had all types of intense symptoms. Her doctors ran invasive tests and determined that nothing was wrong. She knew something was not right and was introduced to Ayurveda. She realized she was eating the wrong foods for her dosha and within months felt grounded for the first time in her life. From there she spent many years training and obtaining her certification. Lisa enjoys working with people who are curious, motivated, and want to truly understand the root causes. She is motivated by people who want to break out of patterns, understand the role of nature in their health, and are ready to inspect relationships they have in their life.

Lisa moved to Charlotte in 2001 from Arizona and was interested in finding a local Naturopath. At the time, there was only 2, so she called up one. He became a mentor to her with energy work. She's also be influenced by Steve Nelson who was an Astrologer and Shaman as well as Dr. Vasant Lad, who is the head of the Ayurveda Institute in New Mexico. "The Doctor from India" is a documentary about him and his work.

"I would like to heal Charlotte in terms of people getting expansive, people being more compassionate, people being more open to other cultures and systems of beliefs, and let those things interplay with one another, an