THE ART OF LIVING

Formulated in ancient India, Ayurveda has been gaining quite a lot of popularity in recent times and showing the world its healing power. Gurjyot Kaur tells you about a few simple Ayurvedic practices that you should adopt

Ayurveda is an ancient form of medicine, one that has a wide range of solutions catering to a wide range of problems. Before you dismiss the old form, you should at least give some of its practices a once-over. Who knows? You may find that they help. In fact, we often practise different exercises and try to maintain a healthy diet to achieve good health, so there’s no reason why traditional Ayurvedic practices can’t come to your rescue.

Opt for meditation
As they say, a healthy mind leads to a healthy body, and meditation is that branch of Ayurveda that focuses on soothing mental processes. This has been helping people curb stress, anxiety and depression for ages. Meditation is a spiritual practice that includes chanting and rhythmic breathing techniques. A recent study conducted by the researchers at the University of Waterloo concluded that mindful meditation can significantly improve brain functioning and energy levels.

Tip: Make time in the morning and surrender to the practice of meditation in a calm and composed space. You can even do this outdoors.

Calm your body with self massage
With a host of spa treatments available, we’ve forgotten what our ancestors have given us —the technique of self massage. Massaging your body with hot oil is an ancient practice that has a plethora of health benefits. It can lower your blood pressure levels, reduce stress and depression, bring a glow to your skin and increase muscle tone. Embrace these benefits with any aromatic or organic oil by warming it for few minutes before applying it on your entire body from head to toe and massaging it slowly and in circular motions.

Tip: For best results, perform self massage every day for at least 30 to 40 minutes. You can practise this in the morning before taking a shower.

Drink luke warm water
Remember the times when your grandmother forced you to drink hot or warm water? Well, there’s a reason for this. Warm water helps in digestion, it flushes out toxins and can reduce fat deposits in the body. Also, see to it that you drink eight glasses of water a day. Drinking lukewarm water has quite impressive effects on hair and skin too. Boiling water before you drink it helps to get rid of impurities, heals throat congestion and enhances blood circulation. Make this ritual a daily practice and you’ll notice the change in your health.

Tip: Drink a glass of lukewarm water with lemon juice (you can add ginger too, to improve the effect!) every morning on an empty stomach to keep your digestive system healthy and clean. 

Eat your food slowly
Eating too quickly doesn’t give our body the time to judge whether we are full, and so we end up eating an unhealthy amount. Ayurveda gives importance to mindful eating, which is an act of knowing what you’re eating, what is included in your food and eating slowly by chewing each morsel properly. Focus on your food; refrain from watching television or doing other work while eating. Eating healthy meals regularly and in small portions is what the traditional practice suggests.

Tip: Make sure that you eat fresh and warm food, and while eating, chew each morsel for about 20 times.

Scrape your tongue every day
We all care about oral hygiene, but not many among us take the time to scrape or clean our tongue each morning. However, Ayurveda preaches scraping your tongue to clean out toxics that are present on the tongue, which if not cleaned may cause digestive problems. We may not notice, but the fact is that the tongue is prone to bacteria and plaque, and if not cleaned regularly it can lead to difficulty in tasting food, which can further lead to consuming more salt and sugar.

Tip: Scrape as far back as you can. Do this every day for at least a minute or two.

FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE AYURVEDIC PRACTICES
Here are few more simple Ayurvedic practices that you should include in your daily routine.

Get proper sleep: Make sure that you sleep for at least eight hours each day to stay healthy.

Laugh more: Laughter generates happiness by releasing endorphins and neuropeptides in the body. So, keep laughing!

Eat more for lunch: Ayurveda advocates eating more during lunch and small or lighter meals for dinner, because our digestive systems work more during the day and less at night.