What's in a Name? Why Rock Star Āyurveda?
My practice is called Rock Star Āyurveda for philosophical and personal reasons. Philosophically, the name calls attention to the importance of the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space) to Āyurveda. I love that the expression rock star is shorthand for the five elements. Vedic philosophy lists the elements in the order of the most tangible (earth) to the most subtle (space). Rock represents the earth element. Star represents space. And I love that we humans are all rock stars because we contain all five elements, or as Joni Mitchell croons, “We are stardust.”
Of course, Rock Star Āyurveda also alludes to a particular type of musician, and the love of my life is a musician–some might even call him a rock star. So the term has a more personal meaning for me too. (My life partner once gave me a shoutout in Rolling Stone magazine for my Āyurvedic skills, so that’s pretty much as rock and roll as an Āyurvedic consultant can get, don’t you think?)
I’m not just in love with a musician; music has always been the love of my life. My love for music is actually written in my stars–or more technically my moon! (Vedic Astrology uses a solar and a lunar zodiac, and our moon-sign is just as important as our sun sign. My moon-sign, Dhaniṣṭha, predicts a love for music.) I cannot imagine life without music. In my home, there are multiple record players, and I even have shelves for records in the kitchen where other people would have pots and pans. (Don’t worry–I have pots and pans too, as cooking is central to an Āyurvedic lifestyle. I need all those records in the kitchen because I live in the kitchen.)
When I began studying Vedic philosophy, I learned that the space element, ākāsa, is embodied by sound. I’m not very musical, but I have always loved sound and have written poetry since childhood (I even have an MFA in Poetry). My version of making music is chanting mantras in Sanskrit. Now Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, and in Vedic thought, sound created the whole universe. Sound is space!
My husband and I were once lucky enough to meet Neil Young and he told us that he could go to outer space whenever he wanted, and that’s true of all musicians since sound is space. (Sun Ra knew that space is the place!) Space happens to be one of the dominant elements in my body, so I need to be mindful to cultivate the earth element in order to stay balanced. Luckily my husband has a good amount of earth energy, so he helps keep me grounded. But I can go to space whenever I want to by chanting mantras (or listening to Alice Coltrane while I make kitchari in my kitchen).
Sure, Neil Young is a rock star, but when I think of the term rock star, I think of how we all have the potential to be both grounded and unbounded. We just need to learn how to keep the elements in ourselves in balance with the elements outside of us. Āyurveda is a cosmic practice for the earthbound that can empower us to live a life in tune with our unique selves, the earth, and the universe. We can think of Āyurveda as teaching us how to tune our instruments, meaning ourselves. We are all born rock stars, but with Āyurveda, we can be our most fully realized version of a Rock Star.