We are living in this digital and fast-acting world, which has speeded up our daily routine and it has impacted our lives including health in many ways.
Many of us awaken bleary-eyed and then hit the snooze button to catch more sleep. We often feel energy depletion, exhaustion due to the hectic pace of modern living.
Fast pacing lifestyle style, inappropriate dietary habits and constant stress are seen to be part and parcel of everyone’s life which affects many health ailments along with metabolism in micro levels.
Tremendous increase in the burden of lifestyle disorders at very early age indicates the same that people are not understanding and managing their lifestyle properly and not even addressing some small health problems unless it becomes troublesome.
An Ayurvedic self-care ritual lays the foundation for a grounded, focused day.
According to Ayurveda, Dinacharya – or daily rituals are integral to our physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. Making space for meaningful rituals helps us ride the waves of energetic shifts throughout the day.
Secrets of healthy lifestyle by Ayurveda
We all try to live a healthy life by incorporating good habits in our lifestyle. However, in today’s world, it has become challenging to pay equal attention to health and work. Living an Ayurvedic lifestyle by following Dinacharya, an Ayurvedic daily ritual is a simple solution to all the health-related worries and key to promoting a harmonious balance between mind, body and soul.
An Ayurvedic morning routine aligns us with the changing doshik energies in our environments. In Ayurveda, the three doshas – Pitta, Kapha, and Vata – dominate different hours of the day. Small daily rituals, done at an intentional hour, help us flow with these bio-energetic forces – rather than struggle against them.
The Ayurvedic practice of Dinacharya refers to daily self-care routines. This routine is a set of self-care practices which are cleansing and rejuvenating. These small simple daily actions can help to remove the build-up of ama or toxins from the body and so help bring our whole system more into balance, regulate our body clock and our digestion.
Ayurveda Dinacharya consists of two daily cycles :-
- Sun cycle
- Moon cycle
These self care rituals include guidelines about diet, daily routines to be followed for maintaining quality of life.
Include following self care rituals in your busy professional life.
1. Rise and Shine :-
According to Dinacharya, it is important to wake up before or around the sunrise. This pre- dawn time is when the Vata dosha is dominant, and the energy present in the environment will make it easy for you to wake up. Moreover, it is that time of the day when there is a certain amount of peace and freshness that is necessary for the body and soul. Before getting out of bed you should say a prayer since it will induce positive energy into your mind and soul.
2. Evacuate your bowels :-
Ayurveda recommends having bowel movements every morning before any other activity. If you’re carrying around the previous day’s waste, toxins can leach back into your system and hamper immunity, leaving you fatigued, drowsy, and irritable. You’ll feel a lot more relaxed, energetic, and healthy if you’ve had a proper bowel movement. Don’t ignore urges at any cost.
3. Tongue Scraping and Brushing :-
The white coating around the tongue should be removed properly. Daily tongue scraping helps remove bacteria, improves bad breath, and keeps our body from reabsorbing this harmful oral gunk. It also provides a gentle – yet stimulating – massage for sense organs.
4. Oil Pulling :-
Another way to cleanse oral ama is by oil pulling. You can think of oil pulling as an Ayurvedic mouthwash that supports a clear mind, good oral health and healthy sinuses.
5. Oil Massage :-
Massaging your body with medicated oils daily will keep your body moisturised and will prevent your tissues from getting dry. This ensures good blood circulation. It is not possible to execute daily massages on a fast daily schedule but you can take medicated oil massages on weekends for betterment of health.
6. Exercise and Meditation :-
This can be done in any form, be it Yoga, Surya Namaskar or jogging. Exercise will remove stagnation and fat from your body and will strengthen your muscles.
Meditation will help you concentrate on your goals, by maintaining a balance between your mind, body and soul. It will also calm your nervous system and will make you feel peaceful and steady.
7. Nasya (Nasal Oil Drops) :-
Applying medicated oils to our nasal passages maintains balances all doshas, and provides strength to the neck, head and reduces many infections. A regular Nasya treatment supports our overall well-being. It can also help with allergies and sinus conditions, and boost focus and mental clarity.
Self care rituals related to diet :-
Good metabolism is important for the healthy functioning of the body. Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you consume into energy. Having a slow metabolism not only leads to weight gain but a series of health issues from skin troubles, hair loss, chronic fatigue, difficulty in concentration to unhealthy cravings. Impaired metabolism is the root cause in many lifestyle disorders like hypertension, diabetes etc.
Here are some diet related guidelines and rituals given by Ayurveda :-
Always consider the intensity and time interval between hunger spikes. Keeping 1/3rd portion of the stomach empty is very important during each meal. Prakruti, season and region-specific diet is very important for better metabolism.
When you eat, just eat with full focus. Quiet yourself by observing your breath for a few inhalations and exhalations. Feel your feet on the ground. Be grateful for your food, and how it will support your health physically, mentally, and spiritually. Chew your food well and eat with awareness of the experience, rather than gulping it down. The taste, texture, and the action of chewing all are important entities.
For all prakruti types, properly cooked food, warm food, spiced, and freshly prepared food is always recommended.
Here are some diet related alerts that are responsible for metabolic disturbances. Try to avoid following by implementing a healthy lifestyle.
- Eating at irregular time and during late night.
- Consuming foods that are not wholesome.
- Eating before the last meal is fully digested.
- Having heavy meals.
- Consuming too much water.
- Consuming alcohol.
- Eating incompatible foods.
- Eating contaminated foods.
- Eating newly cropped cereals.
In Ayurveda, food is medicine. What and how you eat doesn’t just nourish your body. It can shape your entire life.
Unique approach by Ayurveda for self-care :-
- Season specific care :-
As the season changes, there are plenty of things that change accordingly, which show a high impact on human health. Understanding the qualities of each of these seasons can help you reduce any adverse effects.
Adopting season specific rituals is extremely beneficial to avoid health impairment and it proves more helpful in kids, senior citizens and immuno- compromised people. It is important to follow the body’s natural inclination to respond to the seasons by adapting our diet and activities.
- Prakruti specific lifestyle approach :-
In Ayurveda, food, daily habits according to Prakruti plays an important role in determining an individual’s health.
Today’s society is conscious and always curious about diet and nutrition. Many people blindly follow what they see in the newspaper or on social media. One should know the suitability for particular food, type of exercise and daily routine towards their body after consuming it. Hence knowledge of food suitability, lifestyle according to individual prakruti is very important for maintaining health harmony.
- Need of ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy :-
Rasayana is an Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy which helps in maintenance & promotion of health. Rasayana essentially means nutrition at all levels from macro to micro-cellular level. Rasayana therapy replenishes the vital fluids of the body; boosts the ojas (vital force of life) and the immune system, thus keeping away from diseases and prevents against ill effects of advanced age.
Rasayan chikitsa is a key solution for maintaining health harmony in today’s fast paced life.
Rasayana therapy prevents the effect of aging and provides longevity, improves mental and intellectual competence, preservation of youthfulness, body complexion and glow of the skin, healthy condition of voice, excellent potentiality of the body and the sense-organs.
Understanding and implementing all these principles are extremely essential for maintaining healthy work – life balance.
Nadi Tarangini is tech based Ayurvedic diagnostic tool which can analyse Nadi, predominant Dosha within body, prakruti and current Tridoshik status within body. Based on these, Nadi Tarangini can provide very individual specific lifestyle modifications for betterment of life.
In this era of high paced modern life, Nadi Tarangini can be extremely helpful for balancing health harmony which is important for maintaining healthy and better work – life balance.
