WEST BRATTLEBORO — Setu Vermont, a yoga and meditation center on Quails Hill Road, is named after the Sanskrit word for “bridge” because it connects cultural practices with Ayurvedic medicine.
Before moving to West Brattleboro, Setu Vermont co-owner Emily Murphy Kaur said she and her husband, Harmeet, lived and practiced yoga outside Boston and had visited India and practiced yoga with a teacher. Harmeet is Indian.
“When you practice yoga in India, it’s a little bit different than it is here,” Kaul says. “It’s mostly a private practice.”
In India, yoga is often experienced alongside its sister sciences, yoga and Ayurvedic medicine, and Kaul and Harmeet dreamed of opening a center on the east coast where all three practices could come together.
“We found this beautiful piece of land in West Brattleboro and set out to make that dream a reality,” Kaul said. “Our program encompasses all three.”
Kaul said the centre seeks to uncover how the “eight elements of yoga” work together, how Ayurveda can benefit people’s health in different ways and how the two practices can be integrated with meditation.
Since its founding in 2018, the center has sought to feature scholars from a variety of traditions, with a mix of in-person and remote training, though COVID-19 has presented some challenges.
From September 12-15, the center will host a special workshop, “Ayurvedic Home Remedies: Enhance Your Health Naturally,” hosted by third-generation Indian physician Vaidya Jayarajan, who serves as president of the National Association of Ayurvedic Physicians and executive director of the Kerala Ayurvedic Association of America. Registration and more information is available at setuvermont.com/ayurvedic-home-remedies.
“We’re very excited,” Kaul said. “He has a lot of experience and respect in this field.”
Participants will learn how to make formulas that will help with beauty, hair care and skin care, while other products will help with stomach aches and other ailments.
Kaul teaches yoga therapy with an emphasis on breathwork, while Harmeet conducts meditation sessions using a large symphonic gong.
Kaul said there has been “considerable interest” in Ayurveda at the centre.
“But now that yoga has taken hold, I think Ayurveda is becoming more popular,” she said.
She believes traditional medicine links illnesses and other problems to diet and lifestyle.
The home remedies discussed at the workshop address “acute symptoms,” Kaul said. Chronic pain requires more support.
Kaur said the goal is to show people how to combine yoga and meditation with home remedies and “give them a new perspective and fun products they can make for their kids, their families and themselves.”
Sētu Vermont offers accommodation services and reserves workshop slots for local residents.
