WHO: Nicole Mahabir, 31, Ayurvedic therapist; manager of education, marketing & public relations at Centre for Ayurveda & Indian Systems of Healing (5359 Dundas W., ste. 400, 416-233-2049, www.caish.ca); and founder of The Sages Ayurveda (www.thesagesayruveda.com) beauty and skin-care product line.

After spending a year studying art at OCAD, Mahabir transferred to Ryerson to learn fashion marketing, which she says gave her a solid business background and the opportunity to exercise her creativity. After working in marketing at Toronto Life for several years, she decided she needed to pursue her lifelong attraction to alternative healing. As a child she was exposed to Vedic astrology and Vastu Shastra, an Indian system of using form and colour to improve one’s environment similar to feng shui. “The women on my father’s side of the family were interested in alternative healing,” she explains.

She completed the certification program at the Centre for Ayurveda & Indian Systems of Healing, where she now works, applying her business and marketing skills to promote something she believes in deeply.

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE
Ayurveda is one of the oldest systems of medicine still practised today, with roots that go back 5,000 years. At the core of Ayurvedic philosophy is the belief that people are ruled by their dosha, which determines their physical attributes, personality, strengths and weaknesses. The three doshas traditionally correspond to the elements earth (kapha), air (vata) and fire (pitta), and when your body is out of balance it will exhibit different symptoms based on what your dosha is. For example, someone who is more kapha is likely to gain weight more easily than others while someone who is vata is more prone to insomnia.

“It’s a very individualized approach,” Mahabir explains. “All therapies are adapted to address the client’s specific needs.”

IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT
Modern Ayurvedic therapists in North America tend to focus on nutrition and massage to help facilitate detoxification and rejuvenation. Mahabir says that in the west we tend to be overzealous in our desire to detox and less careful about buiding our health back up. “After detoxification, rejuvenation is the first step toward reconstructing ourselves on every level,” she says.

Mahabir offers Ayurvedic massage ($125 an hour) at Hammam Spa (where she is pictured above; 602 King W., 416-366-4772, www.hammamspa.ca) and gives private consultations ($90 an hour) on daily routine, diet, breathing and overall lifestyle counselling through the Centre for Ayurveda & Indian Systems of Healing. She has recently launched her own skin-care line called The Sages Ayurveda with over 60 products that use traditional herbs and oils for their therapeutic properties. Her bar soaps ($14 each), for example, smell incredible and come in formulations using raw sugar (which draws moisture into the skin) or soothing shea and cocoa butter blends, rich with heady scents like cinnamon, vanilla and almond.

“Small luxuries are very healing,” she says. “I want people to have the opportunity to draw the benefits of Ayurveda into the home and throughout their daily routine.” The Sages Ayurveda line is currently available at the Centre for Ayurveda or from Mahabir directly at nicole_mahabir@thesagesayurveda.com or 416-399-3047.