What is Kaya5 - Knowing the five elements.

Kaya5 takes its name from two foundational ideas in Ayurveda.

Kaya (काय) is Sanskrit for body, not just the physical form, but the living constitution that expresses your unique nature. 5 represents the Pancha Mahabhutas, the five great elements — Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether, the building blocks of all matter and the framework through which Ayurveda understands health, imbalance, and healing. Together, Kaya5 means: your body, understood through the five elements.

Ayurveda recognizes five fundamental elements which are believed to make up all matter in the universe, including the human body.

1. Space/Ether  The element of emptiness and openness. It governs sound and is associated with the spaces within the body, such as the hollow organs and cavities.

2. Air/Wind  The element of movement. It governs touch and is associated with all motion in the body, breathing, nerve impulses, and circulation.

3. Fire  The element of transformation. It governs sight and is associated with digestion, metabolism, body temperature, and the transformation of food into energy.

4. Water  The element of cohesion and fluidity. It governs taste and is associated with all fluids in the body, blood, lymph, saliva, and cellular fluid.

5. Earth The element of stability and structure. It governs smell and is associated with all solid, dense structures in the body, bones, muscles, teeth, and tissue.

These five elements combine in pairs to form the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha), which are the primary functional energies in Ayurvedic medicine that determine a person's constitution and health tendencies.

To learn more, read the article on From Space to Earth - How the Five Elements Power Your Digestion.