> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.readsouveraine.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Expert Interview: Geeta Vara on Rasayana, the Ayurvedic perspective on aging well - URL: https://www.readsouveraine.com/expert-interview-geeta-vara-on-rasayana-the-ayurvedic-perspective-on-aging-well/ - Published: 2026-09-23T00:54:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-24T00:35:13.000Z - Description: Geeta Vara is an Ayurvedic practitioner and she talks about rasayana and what to clear before you nourish anything, and why vitality may be lost in how we live rather than to age. - Author: Geeta Vara - Tags: Soul-led Leadership, Ayurveda, Wellbeing, #Editor's Pick, #issue001 > British-born and inspired by her Indian roots, [Geeta Vara](https://www.geetavara.co.uk/?ref=readsouveraine.com) is an Ayurvedic practitioner with over 20 years of clinical experience. She specialises in longevity and healthy aging, helping women navigate midlife through her clinic, coaching, workshops and retreats, guided by her signature seven pillars of pro-aging. > > A passionate traveller and cook, her mission is to make Ayurveda accessible and authentic. She is the author of Ayurveda: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Wellbeing (2018) and [Rasāyana: Feel Young in Mind and Body with the Wisdom of Āyurveda ](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/rasayana-9781399429801/?ref=readsouveraine.com)(2026). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/001-Souveraine--Pre-Launch---4-.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/001-Souveraine--Pre-Launch---1--1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/ChatGPT-Image-Sep-17--2026--01_00_50-PM.png) ### 1\. You were doing Ayurveda before you had a word for it. Your grandparents taught you routines and food habits that turned out to be the same thing you'd later study formally. What is one small practice from your childhood that you still do, unchanged? I grew up with many of these practices in a traditional family, where they were simply a natural part of everyday life. We began meals with a gratitude prayer. In winter there was warm saffron-spiced milk, and ghee with rice or roti as part of our meals. But the one practice that has stayed with me completely unchanged is tongue scraping. I genuinely don't remember a time when I didn't do it. I think I learned to use a tongue scraper not long after I learned to brush my teeth. Everyone in my family did it, so I did too, without ever questioning why. It was only much later, when I formally studied Ayurveda, that I understood the thinking behind it, both as part of oral hygiene and as a daily opportunity to observe what is happening in the body. In Ayurveda, the tongue can give us useful clues about digestion and internal balance. For me, it is completely non-negotiable. I won't travel anywhere without a tongue scraper, even for one night. An occupational hazard perhaps, but I'm always noticing tongues now. They can be incredibly revealing. ### 2\. You had a business degree and a marketing career before you trained in Ayurveda. What did leaving that behind actually cost you? And how much of it turned out to be useful once you were building a practice of your own? For several years I actually straddled both worlds, growing my Ayurvedic practice while continuing to work in corporate marketing. Looking back, I think part of that was practical and part of it was confidence. Ayurveda wasn't as visible or widely understood then as it is today. We didn't have the explosion of Ayurvedic training courses, retreats, treatments and wellness conversations that we see now, so stepping away from a conventional career felt like a much bigger leap than it seems today. Eventually, though, I realised that this was the work I wanted to devote myself to. My dharma, and a calling that quickly became my passion. What did it cost me? Stability, certainly. A regular salary, colleagues, office life, work socials, and the comfort of knowing what was coming in each month. When you work for yourself, you also never really wear just one hat. You are the practitioner, but you are also responsible for marketing, sales, finance, administration, client experience, technology, data and logistics, and sometimes quite literally down to the cleaning. At the same time, what I gained was autonomy. I was suddenly in the driving seat of my own decisions. > There is enormous freedom in creating work that reflects your values and not constantly having to report into somebody else. But that freedom requires discipline. You have to stay motivated and focused, and there are inevitably difficult periods when you miss the predictability of employment. My marketing background has absolutely helped, particularly with strategy, understanding people, communication and positioning. The marketing landscape changed enormously as I transitioned, and digital and social media transformed everything, so some of the practical skills have needed updating. But the ability to think strategically, understand an audience and communicate an idea clearly have been hard-dying skills. I also grew up around self-made people, so I had seen first-hand that working for yourself requires an enormous amount of hard work, resilience, dedication and passion. That probably prepared me, as I reflect on it now. ### 3\. In my experience, Ayurveda often reaches women in the West as a spa treatment or a product or a retreat before it reaches them as a way of living. Does that match what you see in your clinic, and if so, is that a good door in, or is something lost on the way through it? Absolutely. A spa treatment, a product, or a retreat can be someone's first doorway into Ayurveda, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. For somebody else, the entry point might be curiosity about their dosha or "body type," an interest in rituals, or discovering Ayurveda through its sister science, yoga. The route matters less to me than what happens next. Ayurveda literally means the science or knowledge of life. It is far more than a collection of treatments or products. It is a holistic system of health and medicine, and a way of understanding how we live in relationship with ourselves, our environment and the rhythms of nature. In my clinic, I also see another type of entry point. Many people arrive because they feel they have reached the limits of what conventional medicine has been able to offer them for ongoing concerns, commonly digestive problems, allergies, skin issues, stress, or nervous-system dysregulation. Others are not unwell at all. They are interested in prevention, vitality, and what we would now often call longevity science. My role is to help people encounter authentic Ayurveda without making it feel inaccessible or overwhelming. There is reasoning behind the rituals, routines, and practices. They aren't arbitrary wellness habits. They arise from a much deeper understanding of rhythm, digestion, seasons, aging, and our relationship with nature. Oil pulling is a good example. It has become a modern wellness trend on social media, yet it is a form of daily oral care that has existed within Ayurvedic daily routines for centuries. The same could be said of tongue scraping or living according to circadian rhythms. Sometimes wellness culture presents these ideas as new discoveries when they are actually part of a much older body of knowledge. > So any doorway into Ayurveda is welcome. I would simply say: don't mistake the drops for the ocean. The ocean is much deeper than it first appears. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/001-Souveraine--Pre-Launch---6-.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/001-Souveraine--Pre-Launch---5-.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/001-Souveraine--Pre-Launch---8-.png) ### 4\. Declutter your life is your mantra, and you've described yourself as a bit of a clean freak about keeping your energy clear. Where does that sit in Ayurveda for you, and what is the first thing you'd have a woman clear if she came to you exhausted? For me, it comes back to a very simple idea: ***less is more.*** We have been conditioned to believe that if we want to feel better, we need to do more. Another magical supplement, another hack, another revolutionary workout. But very often we are trying to optimise a mind and body that are already overloaded, dysregulated and living out of sync with their natural rhythms. > There is a principle I return to repeatedly in my work and in Rasayana: clear and make space first, then nourish. > > Before we continually add things, we need to create space. That might mean reducing physical accumulation, simplifying the diet, clearing mental noise, addressing emotional baggage or letting go of habits and commitments that continually drain us. Then nourishment can actually be absorbed. From there, we can begin to build a stronger body, a calmer and clearer mind and greater emotional resilience, which to me are the real foundations of vitality and longevity. ***If an exhausted woman came to me, I would probably first ask: what are you carrying that you no longer need to carry?*** Women can hold an extraordinary amount of responsibility, expectations, emotional baggage, guilt, clutter, commitments, and the constant pressure to keep everything moving. Sometimes the first intervention isn't adding anything at all. It is identifying what no longer serves you and beginning to release it. Of course, Ayurveda is highly individualised, so what needs clearing will be different for every woman. > But the principle is universal: you cannot continually pour nourishment into a system that has no space to receive it. ### 5\. Your first book was Ayurveda: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Wellbeing. Your work now speaks directly to women in midlife, and Rasayana is built on seven pillars of pro-aging. What did you see in the clinic that narrowed your focus that way? I began noticing a growing belief that being healthy meant continually restricting, detoxing, cleansing, fasting and pushing the body harder, often coupled with exercise that exceeded a person's natural capacity to recover. There is a point at which the pursuit of health itself can become depleting. If our goal is long-term vitality, resilience and preventative health, then nourishment matters. Rest matters. Regulation matters. Digestion, sleep, strength, emotional wellbeing, meaningful relationships and a sense of purpose all matter. Particularly in midlife, the conversation needs to shift from constantly taking things away to asking what the body needs in order to remain strong, adaptable and well nourished as it changes. > I want people to understand that if we hope to live not only longer but better, we need to build and protect vitality, strength and resilience. Our needs change from decade to decade, and none of us is exempt from aging. It is wonderful that perimenopause and menopause are finally receiving more attention, but Ayurveda has always acknowledged that life happens in stages. Aging is not viewed simply as decline. There is also the transition into what I like to think of as our wisdom years. That is very much the philosophy behind the seven pillars of pro-aging in *Rasayana*. Ayurveda understands us as layered beings, not simply physical bodies. The concept of the pancha kosha, for example, describes different layers or dimensions of our being. So genuine wellbeing cannot only address the physical. We also need to consider our energy, mind, emotions, relationships, sense of meaning and inner life. That broader view is what ultimately narrowed and deepened my focus for the second book. ### 6\. Rasayana asks whether vitality is something we lose to age or something we lose in how we live. In my observation, most women don't come to that thinking until perimenopause. At what age does rasayana actually become relevant, and what would you say to a woman reading this in her twenties? Rasayana is relevant throughout life. Ayurveda recognises that as we age, vata dosha naturally becomes more dominant and there is a gradual change in the body's reserves, tissues and functions. But aging does not automatically have to mean ill health, exhaustion or profound depletion. The earlier we understand how to protect our vitality, the better equipped we are to navigate each stage of life. > So to a woman in her twenties, I would say: don't wait until your body forces you to pay attention. Learn how to rest before you are exhausted. Learn how to regulate your nervous system before chronic stress feels normal. Protect your digestion. Build strength. Respect sleep. Understand your menstrual cycle. Learn what genuinely nourishes you rather than constantly overriding what your body is telling you. Its foundations are not something we suddenly begin at 45 or 50\. There is a wonderful opportunity in your twenties and thirties to build the reserves that you will draw upon later. And equally, I would never want somebody in their sixties or seventies to think they have missed the opportunity. You are never too young or too old to begin living in a way that supports greater vitality. ### 7\. You've said good health isn't the absence of illness but optimal wellbeing, and that happiness is measured by state of being rather than a collection of achievements. For a woman reading this who is doing well by every external measure and still feels unwell, where does she start? I think she starts by asking herself a question that we very rarely make time for: how do I actually feel inside the life I have created? We are very good at measuring life externally: career, home, relationships, achievements, productivity, finances, how much we manage to get done. A woman can look incredibly successful by every conventional measure and still feel tired, disconnected, anxious or empty inside. Ayurveda asks us to pay attention to our state of being, not simply the appearance of our life. > I sometimes invite women to imagine themselves at 80, looking back. What will matter then? What will you wish you had protected? > > Your energy? Your health? Your friendships? Time with your family? Your sense of joy? Your creativity? Your peace of mind? And what are the things you may regret giving quite so much of yourself to? That perspective can be incredibly clarifying. From there, I think the starting point is not necessarily to change your entire life. It is to begin noticing where there is a gap between the life you are living and the way you want to feel. Where are you constantly overriding yourself? Where are you saying yes when your body is saying no? What brings you back to yourself? What gives you energy rather than simply demanding it? For me, wellbeing is ultimately about creating an inner state of steadiness. Achievements of course have their place. But if the cost of an impressive life is that you never feel well enough to enjoy it, then something needs to shift. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/df/efdfca84-acfc-4044-8396-35d61cbc943a/content/images/2026/09/001-Souveraine--Pre-Launch---9--1.png)](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/rasayana-9781399429801/?ref=readsouveraine.com) *Geeta Vara is a London-based Ayurvedic practitioner. Her recent book* is [Rasāyana: Feel Young in Mind and Body with the Wisdom of Ayurveda](https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/rasayana-9781399429801/?ref=readsouveraine.com).