Fall is fast approaching, which means cold and flu season is right around the corner. By having a balanced lifestyle, we can avoid illnesses and the costs of trips to the doctor’s office and pharmaceuticals to fight off airborne illness. Balance can be achieved in many ways, one of which is an Ayurvedic (pronounced Eye-yer-ved-ick) lifestyle. In direct Sanskrit translation, Ayurveda is “the science of life”. This is a 5,000 year-old science originating in India and thought to be the oldest form of heath care in the world - even predating Chinese Medicine.
The purpose of Ayurveda is to heal, maintain a high quality of life, and increase the longevity of the individual. Ayurvedic science treats the person, not the illness or symptom, in a very individualized and holistic way. Your path to optimal health is different from any other individual and depends upon your unique constitution, daily habits, environment and family medical history. In the modern world, the levels of stress and environmental imbalances make it harder for your body to stay healthy and your mind to remain calm and positive, which in the long run affects you on a cellular level. All of this causes the accumulation of toxins in your body.
Ayurveda offers different therapies to support your individual constitutional harmony while promoting cellular rejuvenation and overall vitality and immunity.
In Ayurveda, the methods to reduce toxins can be pretty basic to more complex. For the more complex methods, it’s best to see an Ayurvedic Doctor or other Ayurvedic Practitioners for healthy wellness treatments and lifestyle plans.
For this article, I’d like to offer these basic guidelines you can easily do to assist in achieving balance in your life.
1)Keep a regular daily routine. Eat meals at the same time each day. Don’t sleep in on the weekends or stay up too late.
2)Drink tea, not coffee. Drinking tea is KEY in an Ayurvedic lifestyle.
3)Drink liquids slowly and at room temperature, not ice-chilled, which decreases your internal body temperature (Agni-digestive fire). Cold beverages slow the digestive process to at least 1/10th the body’s normal rate.
4)Twice a day, incorporate about 15 minutes of quiet time into your schedule, such as meditation or prayer, to cultivate a calm and peaceful state of mind.
5)Start or continue a daily Yoga practice that’s best for your dosha, or constitution. To learn more about doshas, do a google search on Vata, Pitta and Kapha.
6)Eat foods best for your constitution that includes all 6 tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, pungent and astringent.
7)Digestive functions depend on keeping the pH alkalinity up, acidity down, and on how much we chew.
8)Eat more warm cooked or stewed foods throughout your day. A daily diet consisting only of dried or raw fruit and veggies is not optimal for digestion.
9)If possible, do a 1x/week fast by skipping meals for approx. 24 hours. The easiest way is to eat a healthy meal at lunchtime, skip dinner and breakfast the next day and then enjoy a healthy meal at lunch once again.
10)Use Ayurvedic herbs to address specific health issues. Ayurvedic herbs commonly used in cooking are ginger, cinnamon and fennel. Conveniently, these herbs can be found at Indian Sweets and Spices right here in our neighborhood off of 15th Ave in North City.
11)Always choose organic foods if your budget can afford it. The money you would have spent in medical fees more than covers the cost difference of foods best for your health!