Ayurveda: healthy routines

 

A healthy mind in a healthy body

 

How to keep a healthy mind when the world around us is full of confusion and unhappiness.  The mind inhabits a human machine.  We must understand that our physiology plays a fundamental role in the well-being of the mind. How do we feel when we are in pain?  When we suffer from insomnia?  And as simple as skipping a meal, or changing time zones can disturb our mood?

 

Homeostasis, i.e. our physiological balance, is based on a circadian rhythm, influenced by the rotation of the earth on itself (rhythm of approximately 24 hours) where the body’s activities follow a very specific schedule.  Traditional medicines place great importance on circadian cycles.

 

It is through these cycles that our health routines act to harmonize body and mind.  And yes, practicing our routines can be an effort.  First an effort to start a health routine, a challenge to maintain it!  I hear OUF!!!  One more effort… establishing a routine requires an initial effort but the result is worth it.  More and more, our lifestyle habits are moving towards the trend of comfort, ease and even laziness.  Everything is created to make the task easier; yes it is good provided that it does not lead to laziness, a stasis of our physical, mental and spiritual systems… whose reaction will be to seek over-excitation / addiction to counter the stasis…

 

How to get out of it fulfilled and not exhausted?  Awareness is already taking hold, and we can perceive health routines as the light at the end of the tunnel.  You will tell me that it is trivial, how can these practices have so much impact?  Routines are our anchor; a boat without an anchor risks drifting, the same for us.  Routines are moments of awareness of a body, of its state of being allowing us to know ourselves better and even recognize our moods…  They are stops on the path of life.  And in our fast and faster lifestyle, stops are ultranecessary.  Below are some ayurvedic suggestions –

 

Upon waking,

  • brush your tongue to eliminate the nocturnal accumulation of metabolic waste
  • practice oil-swirling, swirl 1 tbsp. of raw sesame oil in your mouth for 2-10 min. then spit out. This practice helps absorb and reject toxins present on the surface layer of the walls of the mouth.
  • drink a small glass / cup of warm water before breakfast.
  • 5 -10 min. of stretching

 

At noon,

  • Eat a meal in harmony with the season, cooler in summer and warm / soft in winter.
  • Take the time to breathe, a short walk, allow yourself a moment of internal tranquility, a return to yourself.

 

At bedtime,

  • stop all electronic activities at least 1 hour before bedtime.
  • Take a break / intermission – 15-20 min between day and night, of meditation, of letting go of the events / dramas of the day; Night is a time of detox, tissue repair and awareness of our internal clock, the importance of nighttime regenerative activities. Gradually, the peace generated by the perception of inner harmony will extend to daytime activities. This is how peace becomes a state of being and not an external quest.

 

Respect, honesty, purity, humility, morality, ethics, discipline, compassion, are stepstones on the path to expanded consciousness and peace.

 

Peace on Earth !