Want to bring about a change in your lifestyle and habits? Try some tried and tested Ayurveda remedies, writes REENA SINGH
A family member was attending an Ayurveda workshop online for five hours, an hour a day over five days. The rest of us crowded around his laptop to listen to some valuable Ayurvedic advice.
It was time well spent. I for one, took down copious notes on food, diet, prakriti, breathing, meditation and the complex workings of our digestive system. Dr Harish Warrier, the Thrissur-based creator of the workshop had put the content together succinctly and his workshop was a storehouse of information.
Once we understand that our body is made up of five elements – earth, water, fire, air, and space – the key principles of Ayurveda, it is easy to embark on a journey towards repairing and rejuvenating one’s gut, the subject of the workshop. Everyone is born healthy, but over the years, our wrong choices of food, emotions, thoughts and drinks accumulate as baggage both in our minds and in our guts. In short, we become toxic, and it is essential to get this toxicity out of our systems, or better still, never allow it to accumulate at all.
I discovered some key points during the course of the workshop:
1 Get Up Early, Meditate and Exercise
This is perhaps the most difficult. The ideal time to wake up is Brahma Muhurta, between 90 to 45 minutes before sunrise. It is the right time to exercise, meditate and be ready for the day.
2 Do Your Breathing Exercises
Deep abdominal breathing is good. It carries oxygen into your body and as you breathe out, it takes away toxins. Breathing and sweating, besides your body’s natural system of eliminating liquid and solid wastes is what keeps the body healthy. Any obstruction in this system shows up as disease. So, make kapaalbhati, and other forms of pranayama key to your daily life. Do it outdoors, for you need daily exposure to the sun too.
3 Daily Body Scrubs
Remember the Dinacharya routine in Ayurveda? That apart from yoga, meditation and breathing, you need to oil and massage your body as well? Use a natural loofah or scrub and do it daily. It improves circulation, gets rid of dead skin and mobilizes subcutaneous fat. You might even end up losing weight. There are methods to do this scrub, so consult the good doctor or see authentic videos on the subject.
4 Detox Tea
Much as you would like to have your cuppa tea or coffee, try to switch to detox tea prepared with one litre of water, and half tsp each of saunf (fennel), dhania and jeera seeds (coriander and cumin). Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer for a few minutes. Strain and store in a flask. Take sips of this hot beverage through the day, from morning till 6 pm. Have no more than 30 to 50 ml in each sip – this means reaching out to this flask about 20 to 30 times a day.
5 Magic of Triphala
Health experts advocate 3 to 4 gms of triphala a day for good bowel movement. Dr Warrier suggests you have just 1 gm (three chutkis) with half a glass of warm water. This dose and method is an excellent gut repairer for a leaky gut and for those suffering from indigestion, lethargy, gas, bloating and other such horrible things! This mixture works better if you add half a tsp of isabgol and powdered flax seed powder to the triphala every alternate day.
6 Sleep Like a Baby with Padabhyangam
That’s a foot massage, done best with a fat from an animal source like cow’s ghee or unsalted butter. Vegans may prefer cold-pressed coconut oil. Massage from heel to toe.
With these steps, you are all set for a new, healthy you. It may take two to 16 weeks to fix your digestive system, but you might have the chance to view the world more lovingly with a healthy digestive system.
Take the plunge, today.
Also read, Watch Out for a Rotting Gut https://yourspositively.com/watch-out-for-a-rotting-gut/
Reena Singh has more than 38 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent more than nine years.
Featured photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
Ayurveda is indeed the timeless code of conduct of a holistic life which will be increasingly relevant in time to come, as in the wake of modern life style we are getting estranged from the very nature of our nature and facing the brunt of imbalance in our body-mind metabolism taking away life out of life.
Regaining our lost natural balance as inherited during our babyhood is the only way to restore our original blessing and to that end Ayurveda is the only way, there is no doubt about it. Just as retreat is the direct approach to retrace the steps leading to our lost home, so also forsaking our bad habits is the only way to forbid the toxic things and thoughts that eat into the vitals of our life.
No way is better way than Ayurveda in that respect which as such is not medication in true sense of the term but a way of mediation to resolve the conflicting elements that create all the disturbances in body mind metabolism landing us in a state of “dis-ease”.
Lord Krishna too says in Gita:
युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु।
युक्तस्वप्नाव बोधस्य योगो भवति दु:ख।।
Those who are temperate in eating and recreation, balanced in work, and regulated in sleep, can mitigate all sorrows by practicing Yog and regain the state of complete ease by overcoming dis-ease and stay balanced all the way.
Nice post Reena ji. Thanks for sharing.