The 4 foundations of holistic health

You may eat well, exercise occasionally, and still feel that something is off. You wake up tired. Your digestion is unpredictable. Your mood shifts easily. You feel unwell, though your medical reports are normal. This is the state many people live in today: functioning but not flourishing. Managing but not thriving.

At The Yoga Institute, we believe that health is not just the absence of illness, it is a dynamic balance built through AVAV, our cornerstone framework for holistic living.

AVAV stands for:

• Ahaar (nourishing food),
• Vihaar (rest and recreation),
• Aachaar (daily discipline) and
• Vichaar (positive thinking).

These four pillars support every aspect of your well-being: body, breath, mind, emotions, and habits. They help you in living in harmony with yourself and the world around you.



1. Ahaar – Food as Nourishment
Today, food has become mechanical. You eat on the go, without attention, without gratitude. You eat to fill a gap, to push through the day or to calm your emotions. As a result, digestion weakens. Acidity, bloating, and weight gain follow. But what you may not realise is this: a disturbed stomach also disturbs your mind.

In yoga therapy, we teach that food is not just physical matter. It carries energy, mood, and intention. Eating fresh, plant-based meals in a calm state helps your body feel safe. This supports digestion, hormonal balance, and mental clarity.
Eat when you are calm. Chew properly. Avoid excess. Honour your hunger. When your food becomes pure and balanced, your health begins to return.

2. Vihaar – Rest to Recharge
You may sleep at night, but you rarely rest during the day. You scroll through your phone while eating, multitask constantly and stay mentally active even in stillness. Over time, this leads to exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout. In yoga therapy, Vihaar means giving your senses a break and your mind a chance to breathe. Vihaar in yoga therapy is not about escape. It is about emotional restoration. True recreation is found in simple, uplifting acts like walking in nature, breathing deeply, sharing time with loved ones, laughing without filters and feeling at ease in your own company.

The best form of recreation is to live with warmth. It is about being caring, loving, and cordial in every situation. Put aside the habit of capturing every moment for social media. Not everything needs to be recorded. Some things are meant to be lived. Connection matters more than perfection. A shared joke, a genuine conversation, or a quiet moment of companionship nourishes the heart far more than likes and filters ever can.

Do not give up joy to please others. And do not suffer silently because of them either. When you allow yourself joy without guilt, and rest without resistance, your body begins to relax. Your breath deepens. Your system starts to heal.
Rest is not the absence of action. It is the presence of ease.

In that ease, the nervous system calms, and you return to yourself.



3. Aachaar – The Strength of Steady Habits and Routines

Many health problems arise not from one big mistake but from daily neglect. You skip meals, sleep late, delay movement and live without balance. The body, like nature, thrives on cycles. When your routine is irregular, your energy scatters. Aachaar brings you back to balance through discipline. This is not about rigid rules. It is about small, consistent acts that support your well-being. Wake up early. Drink water. Move your body with awareness. Eat meals at fixed times. Rest after meals. Wind down before sleep.

The body relaxes when life is predictable. Routines offer you inner safety, which allows healing to happen naturally.


4. Vichaar – Thoughts That Heal, Not Harm

You may do everything right for your body, but if your thoughts are full of fear, anger, or self-criticism, your health suffers. The mind is not separate from the body. It communicates through every system: digestion, immunity, hormones, and sleep.
Yoga therapy teaches you to observe and clean your thoughts. Vichaar means watching the patterns that drain you, and gently shifting them. It means forgiving, letting go, choosing kindness over judgement, and cultivating a balanced view.
You do not need perfect thoughts. But you need awareness.

Practice pratipaksha bhavana — when a harmful thought arises, introduce its opposite. Where there is hatred, bring compassion. Where there is fear, bring trust.

These four pillars, Ahaar, Vihaar, Aachaar, Vichaar, are part of an organic lifestyle. They help you realise that what you eat affects how you sleep. How you rest affects how you think. How you think affects how you digest. AVAV highlights how every part of you is linked. AVAV is revolutionary because it reminds you that good health lies in the small, everyday choices you make with your food, your rest, your routines and your thoughts.

Start where you are. Begin gently. Even one change in one pillar will shift the others.

Live consciously. Live simply. Let yoga become your way of living, not just something you do.

That is when true healing begins and health becomes your natural state.

(Authored by: Dr Hansaji Yogendra, The Yoga Institute)