The Art of Balanced Living introduces the body-type diet of the ancient Indian Ayurveda tradition and shows how it can help us live healthier, happier and more balanced lives today.

The advice in The Art of Balanced Living is designed to help you sustain wellbeing and overcome stressful times and events. It based on the bodytyping system of Ayurveda, India's traditional system of healing. Elements of Ayurveda are well known around the world, for example, yoga and meditation. However, until now, only a select few have known about the body type diet and how it affects our physical, emotional and mental health.

The three body types, or doshas, are: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. They reflect and affect everything from the health of our skin to the state of our finances.

• At the physical level, our body type 1has a bearing on how we walk, our skin type, the weather we enjoy and how our digestion functions.
• At the emotional level, body type has a bearing on how we react to people and situations, resolve conflict and deal with stress.
• At the mental level, it affects how we approach tasks and process new information.

Dr Shaun Matthews uses Ayurvedic medicine to answer questions such as:

• Why is it that I can't shift that last 5 kilos of weight?
• Why is digestion so sensitive to raw food, creating excessive wind and bloating?
• Why do I get angry so quickly when others seem so relaxed?
• Why can't I tolerate hot spices while others seem to thrive on them?

The Art of Balanced Living explores all this and more, from maintaining a strong immune system to meditation and yoga, the healing power of herbs and the secrets of eternal youth. It also contains recipes and personal stories from people whose lives have changed after implementing the body-type diet.