We recently connected with Sebastian Urrea and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sebastian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.

I trained in Ayurveda at Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder, Colorado under Alakananda Ma, a top London medical school graduate and a longtime practitioner of Ayurvedic Medicine. The school is modeled after the traditional schooling setting in India, with a small group of students spending a lot of time with the teacher in a close setting.

I loved my time there. We got so much time for one-on-one instruction, and a lot of clinical experience, both observing and practicing. We were able to learn so much from integrating everything together in a holistic setting. Some of my fondest memories are of the times that we spent together outside of class, like sitting and eating lunch together or going for walks on breaks. We would gather in the evenings for sacred fire ceremonies and then share a meal, music, and conversation together. I would take every opportunity I could to ask questions and learn from my teacher’s wisdom; I remember going for walks and asking everything from how to distinguish different health conditions to how to use different herbs and foods.

I remember sitting my teacher’s clinic and feeling amazed at how well she was able to help support people through difficult periods in their life. That was one of the most valuable things that I learned in fact, not just an in-depth knowledge of Ayurvedic Medicine but actually how to connect with and work with people with an open heart and love and compassion. That has helped everything from my private practice in Ayurveda and Astrology to my personal life.

My training in Vedic Astrology was different. When the COVID-19 pandemic began I was very strictly isolating myself, and I found myself with a lot more time on my hands. I dedicated that time to studying Vedic Astrology and chose to do so via Sam Geppi’s online courses. I threw myself into it completely; there were many days where I spent the entire day from morning to evening listening to lectures, reading materials, and studying charts. Vedic Astrology shares many of the foundational philosophical principles as Ayurveda, so I was able to take it up very quickly and start offering readings and incorporating what I learned with Ayurveda as well. I remember so may “ah-ha!” moments, where I would suddenly make a connection to something I had studied and that connection would illuminate my life in a whole new way. The study of astrology has really helped me see life from an entirely new perspective and connect things back to a deeper spiritual meaning or purpose, which is key when practicing these disciplines.

I am now a full practitioner of both Ayurvedic Medicine and Vedic Astrology and have had good results with the clients I work with, but I also know that these are both lifelong disciplines and practices and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow so that I can keep sharing the best that I can offer with others.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My name is Sebastian Urrea, and I grew up in Massachusetts as the child of immigrant parents from Colombia. To make a long story shorter, I had a deep feeling of restlessness and a desire to have a deeper understanding of life’s uncertainties and mysteries and how to navigate them. That feeling combined with some opportune connections led me to begin studying yoga, meditation, and yogic philosophical principles. During my yoga training in India I learned about Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India. Ayurveda is an entire system of health that defines what good health is based on the individual and their unique constitution, history and environment. The idea is to bring health through balancing the different aspects of a person’s life. Balance is achieved through working with everything from diet and lifestyle to medicinal herbs and formulations to practices like yoga, breathwork (pranayama) and meditation.

I had never been so captivated by anything else in my life as I was by Ayurveda. Ayurveda seemed to hold many answers and frameworks for understanding longstanding questions that I had about what it meant to live a healthy and happy life. I devoured all of the information that I could about it, and decided that I had to study it in-depth. I attended Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder, CO and I am now a graduate of their full-time 4-year Master Ayurvedic Practitioner program, and I am certified as an Ayurvedic Doctor through NAMA, the National Ayurvedic Medical Association.

Ayurveda helped me greatly in understanding myself, my life, and my health, but my desire for deeper answers about life’s mysteries also lead me to studying Vedic Astrology. Vedic Astrology is similar to the astrology most readers would be familiar with, but it is the tradition as it has been practiced in India for centuries. In Vedic thought, each person is born with different patterns, tendencies, and desires that they will be drawn to play out within the context of their life. Looking at the astrological birth chart is a way to understand those patterns, tendencies, and desires. It allows us to give voice to them and thus understand ourselves on a deeper level more connected to our true nature. I have gotten powerful responses from clients who feel seen in their readings in a way that they never have before, and suddenly understand new things about themselves in ways that they had never considered before.

But what I find most powerful about Vedic Astrology is the ability that it has to illuminate our lives, so that we can live them with more clarity and awareness. Once we have a better understanding of who we are, what we value and what we are trying to do in this life, that knowledge allows us to make better, more informed choices in our life. Those conscious choices help us direct ourselves towards the higher potential that we can achieve. It may sound a bit abstract, but that is partly because it is a rich science that is designed to illustrate the complexity of life itself.

I now run a private practice called Esensana, where I offer Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology consultations to share what I have learned with others and help them live a more fulfilling life, where they can feel their best and express their fullest potential. With Ayurveda I have worked with people ranging from the healthy who want to learn more about how to fine tune their diet and lifestyle, to those who are chronically or seriously ill looking for additional support for their condition and the healing they want to accomplish. With astrology, I help clients with a huge range of matters in their lives. Relationships and career are two of the most common and popular subjects, especially understanding why they are challenging and how to approach them differently for different (and usually more desirable) results. Children, finances, education, housing, health, marriage, timings for important things in life are all also common subjects; I get asked about everything! I also offer tutoring sessions for both Ayurveda and Vedic astrology. I was a former faculty member and teacher at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico, and I love teaching and helping students understand things more deeply and with more nuance.

There are a few things that I have worked hard on to make my practice stronger, more informed, and applicable to the average person in the modern-day west. With Ayurveda, I have placed special focus on studying the foundational principles and how to honor them as their own system, while still incorporating the knowledge that we continue to gain through modern science and medicine. And of course Ayurveda being such an old tradition means that there are many things that are used and recommended classically that are not obtainable or feasible nowadays for many people. I have worked hard to delve deeply into the reasons why certain things are recommended or used, in order to better understand how to properly adapt or give substitutions for different situations that arise in today’s world.

Ayurveda also comes from a specific cultural context, and I put forth a conscious effort to preserve and honor that context as best as I can while adjusting to our new cultural context here in the west. This is especially true as I work with clients who are hispanic and sometimes reside in Colombia or other parts of Latin America. Translating different concepts and ideas into Spanish and adapting practices and remedies to a completely different culture is challenging but has also been fascinating and rewarding, and it has helped me gain a deeper understanding of using and practicing the principles of Ayurveda.

With astrology, I work to uphold the deeper lessons and awareness that it has to offer. It is very easy for us to get caught up in the story of our lives, this thing that we want, this thing that we don’t want, how to avoid the bad and get the good. I think the value of astrology is that it can take us out of that story and connect us to a deeper truth and meaning behind the surface-level ups and downs of life. It helps us understand the underlying truths in our lives that are always there for own growth and development if we know how to look for them. I never tell people what they should do. I help them understand the dynamics that are at play in their life and what they mean, and with that support them in navigating making more informed decisions. I aim to help people leave with a broader and deeper understanding of their own nature and how to manage that to feel like they are living in alignment with their true self underneath all of the influences that affect us all from day to day.

I feel very proud of the work that I have done to connect to the essential elements of these Vedic sciences, and find the best ways to use them and communicate them to others in ways that feel applicable and empowering. And I know that there is still so much to learn; the study of any of the ancient sciences of India in itself is a lifelong pursuit, but that is also part of the joy of it, to be continually growing and learning and gaining new expertise and understanding. While I enjoy being a scholar and student, what I consider most important at the end of the day is connecting to the person who has come to me seeking help, honoring and giving space to their their troubles, their pain and suffering. Through that I aim to help them heal and leave feeling more open, clearer, and empowered to take the next steps in their life that will lead them to a higher expression of their true self.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

I absolutely would. Like I mentioned before, I felt deeply drawn and called to study and practice yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology; I felt like it was something that I just had to do for myself, and then for others. And studying them has completely changed how I see the world and lived my life, significantly for the better. Sometimes what I think that I would change is that I would do it sooner, or direct myself in a way to get myself better set up to pursue these practices. I actually got my bachelor’s degree at Tufts University with a double major in Music and Sociology, and then I worked in Human Resources for a number of years before I stumbled onto the path that I am on now.

Sometimes I think back and I think that I would have studied medicine, or biology, or chemistry, or taken up an interest in astrology or Indian culture and spirituality when I was younger. Sometimes it feels like I was just floundering before I started doing what I’m doing now. But really I know that I would not have been ready for any of those things when I was younger. I discovered this path when the time was right for me to discover it and life has unfolded such as to support me in my efforts and pursuits, in a way for which I am deeply grateful. And I also know that all of my past experiences have been important in helping to shape who I am today. Nothing has been lost or wasted and all of it helps make me a more well-rounded person in the end.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Something that I talk about a lot is what I refer to as the importance of being a good clinician. That word of course is traditionally used to describe a healthcare professional (which I am not), but I use it in this sense to bring out the difference between study and practice.

It is one thing to study and have a sound working knowledge about yoga, or Ayurveda, or astrology, which is of course very important to be able to do good work. But your effectiveness in your practice ultimately has a lot more to do with an entire set of skills that has nothing to do with how much you know about those subjects. It has to do with how well you are able to connect with and work with other people.

How much you will be able to help others with the knowledge that you have will depend heavily on listening and communication skills. It depends on your ability to know how to ask the right questions and adapt and adjust based on the answers that you receive. It depends on how well you are able to hold space in difficult situations, where a person may be revealing something vulnerable about themselves or sharing something deeply painful with you. It depends on how well you are able to listen to what that person shares with you and respond in such a way as to allow them to feel safe and heard, without judgement. That open-hearted connection is what creates the space for people to begin to heal. This applies to Ayurveda certainly but also astrology, where it does not always get talked about as much.

Those are skills that can and should be learned by anyone wishing to practice ayurveda or astrology in my opinion, and I am grateful that they were always held at the core of my training. It’s through love and compassion with one another that we find the deepest healing and strongest connections.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://esensana.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esensana/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esensana.co
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIsIWIe2mu55rDKqrnGbCqw