Abstract
In this paper, I explore Ayurvedic self-care practices as way to stabilize a good life. People employ various Ayurvedic techniques to reach this goal.
These include specific daily regimes, eating habits, exercises, herbal therapy, new ways of relating to own self, other people and society. I argue, that the goal of the concrete individual assemblage of these practices is to eliminate or accept anxiety.
The aim of this paper is to discuss the dynamic process of negotiation between elimination or acceptance of illness and various personal or social pressures people deal with in their everyday life. The paper is based on a four years long research among two Ayurvedic training centres.
I work largely with data from participant observations of the schools and free-time activities of Ayurvedic students and practitioners. Moreover, I have also conducted semi-structured interviews with some of them.
Most of my informants are employing Ayurveda for their own needs in the first instance. The needs of each person as well as the practices to fulfil them are different but the aim is always to reduce anxiety.
Anxiety is here usually the result of an illness, feeling of unreachable mental, physical or moral ideal concerning own self or relation to other people. I discuss how people deal with various kinds of anxieties as part of a process.
I argue, that at the core of this process lies the dynamics between acceptance and elimination of anxiety. The aim of this paper is to explore this dynamic, which I believe is one of the key features in the process of the construction of one's own good life.