tala  like all Sanskrit words, has multiple meanings.  

It's definitions include, rhythm, cadence, dance.  Also sole of foot, palm of hand and 'root, or seed of events.'  

My first understanding of the term is shaped by my experience as a dancer and performer. 

Tala, 'hand' as in the hand that is clapped to “a rhythmic beat or strike that measures musical time”. Classical Indian dance and music are traditionally performed together with the dancers and musicians playing off one another within their interpretation of the music.  While the basic rhythm or tala is always in a performer’s consciousness, one of the principal methods of creating excitement in a performance is to play rhythmic patterns that contradict the tala but eventually return to its fundamental scheme. 

In the same way, our health requires us to maintain a steady undercurrent of grounding practices that keep us in rhythm.  These are both the stabilizing habits cultivated by daily living but also the pulse of knowledge; the truth of who we are and 

what we require to be whole.  

Living is the joy of experience and growth within life's creative and changing patterns. For our body and spirit to be able to improvise and thrive from these developments, our health requires adaptability, resilience and an open heart & mind.  

Living the gift of Ayurveda is to 

discover your rhythm and dance with it.