The Five Elements of Wellness: Ayurveda, Nature & Nutrition
Week of March 1, 2025
The ancient science of Ayurveda supports Rancho La Puerta’s 5 principles of health – that joyful movement, fresh air and sunshine, good food and digestion, friendship and connection, learning and inspiration, amplify health and happiness, while igniting a renewed sense of purpose.
Together, in these classes, we will explore the power of nature to heal, strengthen, inspire and restore. You will learn the ancient secrets of Ayurveda for vibrant longevity, your unique Ayurveda constitution, how to nourish optimally with nature’s support, and how to take these practices home with you in delicious, delightful, sustainable ways.
Just as the Ranch helps you connect with nature, Ayurveda reminds you that you are nature, inviting a reunification with all its glory, beauty and power for truly sacred, sumptuous living.
Class 1: Which Element Are You? Understanding Your Ayurvedic Constitution
Ayurveda begins with the five elements, Space, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, exploring their energies and how they work in you to give your unique mind-body constitution. Learn how the Ranch’s five principles relate, and how to work with these elements to heal and balance, in alignment with nature’s rhythms.
Class 2: The Six Tastes – Ayurveda’s Key to Optimal Nutrition & Digestion
Ayurveda’s Six Tastes describe the rays of light each type of food brings. Each taste, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent, supports your health in unique ways. Explore how to incorporate these tastes into your meals, using fresh, seasonal ingredients, adapted to your individual needs. When you know this, all doubt vanishes, and meals become intuitive, delicious, healthy, while nurturing whole person health.
Class 3: Working With Fire – Energizing Body & Mind
Explore the transformative power of Fire, which governs digestion, metabolism and transformation in Ayurveda, as well as clarity, courage, warmth and radiance. Learn how to stoke your digestive fire (Agni) with fresh, seasonal foods, herbs and spices, teas and tonics, and mindful eating practices, to ensure optimal digestion, metabolism and vitality.
Class 4: Playing With Water – Rejuvenating & Healing
In Ayurveda, Water is the element of fluidity, purification, healing, and renewal. It represents all that soothes, strengthens, lubricates and nourishes, giving wholeness, integrity, ease and contentment. Learn how to work with healthy foods to replenish for greater acuity, serenity, energy and endurance.
Class 5: Integrating this Joyful Care into Your Daily Life
Develop personalized strategies to take Ayurveda, and your Rancho La Puerta experience, home with you. Create a sustainable plan to nurture body, mind, and spirit, for enduring wellness. Cultivate a reverent connection to nature to encourage your own reverent connection to self every day.
Laura Plumb
Selected by Spirituality & Health as one of 100 Trailblazers of Yoga & Ayurveda, with decades of study into Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotish, consciousness, and the potential for Self-realization, Laura is an international educator on the power of the Vedic sciences to promote radical health and sacred, sumptuous living.
A Vedic Educator, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Jyotish Consultant, Author, Speaker, and popular blogger on Ayurveda, Laura is dedicated to making this ancient knowledge accessible and relevant to our modern times.
As the former General Manager of Discovery Channel Europe, subsequently working for decades in the fields of health and human potential, Laura has studied the world’s great healing and spiritual traditions with some of the greatest luminaries of our times.
She is the author of the best-selling book Ayurveda Cooking For Beginners; creator of the acclaimed Ayurvedic Integrated Nutrition Consultant Training; the writer/ presenter of the video course The Medicine In Your Kitchen: Introduction to Ayurvedic Cooking hosted by Spirituality & Health; writer and host of the 53-part television show CleanseVeda; and creator/host of the 12-part series Divine Yoga, which ran on Gaia, now available on Amazon Prime. She also serves on faculty for The Sevanti Institute and UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine.
Laura’s blog food-alovestory.com is an inspirational, free resource for Ayurvedic recipes and wise living. Her popular whole food, plant-based seasonal cleanses are powerful, effective and delicious, and have helped many overcome health challenges.
Laura’s articles on health and wellness have been published in Huffington Post, Spirituality & Health, Well + Good, Ayurveda Next Door, Yoga Digest and the Times of India, among other national and international media. She has taught at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, the Omega Institute, the Shift Network, The Natural Law Academy, BhaktiFest, ShaktiFest, the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh, and has been featured on numerous podcasts including The Higher Self with Sahara Rose, The Melissa Ambrosini Show, and VitalVeda with Dylan Smith.