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Synopsis Forced by cancer to reexamine and redirect her life, Maya Tiwari left a highly successful New York design career and returned to her native India to study Ayurvedic medicine. Her book, a profound but practical testament to the healing power of balanced living, shows how Ayurveda's ancient principles of health can help you achieve the highest levels of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The traditional form of medicine in India for more than five thousand years, Ayurveda relies primarily on the proper use of foods and herbs to maintain or restore the body's natural state of balance. While Ayurvedic healing has in recent years become increasingly well known in the West, Maya Tiwari is the first author to provide us with a comprehensive working guide to Ayurveda as a way of life. She expands the traditional numbr of body types (and their respective dietary requirements) from seven to ten and discusses the psychospiritual nature of the types  an area that no other Western author addresses. A comprehensive questionnaire enables you to determine your own body type, and extensive charts identify the attributes of specific foods and their place in your diet. Seasonal menus and recipes (all vegetarian) are keyed to each of the body types, allowing you to choose the foods and spices that are ideally suited to your constitution. When we eat seasonal, fresh foods according to Ayurvedic wisdom, we attune with our most essential natures and awaken ahamkara, the memory of who we really are. Tiwari brings every feature of Ayurveda back to its true source  the health of the spirit. She shows wholesome foods and spiritual practices (known as sadhanas) of the hearth, home, garden, and community connect us with our primal memory of a time when human beings lived in harmony with all of nature. Performed with awareness and gratitude, sadhanas enhance the nourishing and healing properties of food and act as a catalyst to our innate capacity for self-healing.