PRACTICES
The definition of a practice is the actual application of an activity done habitually to improve one’s proficiency in the activity – the very basis of a routine! There are so many good Ayurvedic practices you can add to your self-care tool kit to create rituals and routines in your healthcare.
There are remedies for almost any ailment you can think of, you just have to connect with an Ayurvedic practitioner to get access to what you may need and can’t find on Google! Ayurveda loves using oil as a medium for almost every self-care practice, and you can fix digestion with very basic cooking spices you may already have in your pantry.
There are also larger practices that are great to incorporate into your routines, one of which is a self-oil massage that you can read about here in my blog!
There are practices around meals and diet that you can read on the “Diet” page. There are also multiple sister sciences to Ayurveda that you can incorporate into your life. Yoga is the most famous, there is also Vastu Shastra, the science of setting up your surroundings to attract prosperity, growth, and happiness, as well as Jyotish, which is the practice of Vedic Astrology.
Chanting, meditation, breathing exercises, making herbal remedies, reading pulses, palms, tongues, and faces are all part and parcel of these practices and things you can practice at home as well.
In general, however, almost anything could be an Ayurvedic “practice.” If it promotes your whole health, does not harm others, and encourages intimate connection with self then it is a practice and a practice that should be done!
Life is a practice, we can’t ever master life but we can practice doing it more gracefully and in alignment for us.
We briefly discussed a morning waking routine on the lifestyle page, but in Ayurveda a morning routine is considered vital to starting your day off on the right foot and wellness in general. In the Ayurvedic texts written 5,000 years ago, there is an incredibly long list of morning practices to be done. In the interest of modernizing it a little bit, a morning routine could look like any of the following:
Rising when you need to – 6:00 am or even a few minutes before sunrise is said to be the most sacred time of the day and you will incur a lightness of heart and mind if you are able to. However, rising time means something different for everyone so do your best to rise early.
You should be able to eliminate a bowel movement when you rise either unprovoked or after a cup of warm water.
Brush your teeth, scrape your tongue 12 times, do your skincare routine.
Study your face and tongue, you can tell what your digestive system is doing by the color, shape, and lines on your tongue.
Oil pull. You can Google this, but swishing any cold pressed organic oil around your mouth for two minutes to twenty minutes will gently detox your body, clean teeth, and promote healthy gums.
Do a neti pot – this is a practice of washing out your nasal passages with warm water and salt, and then breathing exercises to eliminate any excess water.
Do a nasya – this is a practice of laying your head upside down over the bed and dropping warmed nasya oil (a combination of an oil and decoction of correct herbs for your dosha) into your nostrils and giving yourself a facial/head massage. This practice soothes the nasal passages, calms the mind, and eliminates any blockages to your third eye that allows for clearer meditation.
Drink a cup of warm water with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of sea salt. This not only detoxes your organs mildly in the morning, but helps with bowel movements, and hydration for the rest of the day.
Do some movement. This could be light stretching, a full yoga routine, a walk, an exercise class – whatever is appropriate for you at this time.
Meditate and breathe. Even ten minutes is effective, but any time for silence, intention, or reflection is great. Tai chi is fun, pulling tarot cards, praying, reading something inspirational, journaling while breathing deeply – these aren’t technically “Ayurveda” but they practice nonetheless.
Eat breakfast and take some herbs! Sheesh, finally.
As a mom of a young child, I will be the first to tell you that doing three of these things makes me feel accomplished – but that is the point.
There was a time when I was able and happy to do everything on this list, and now my attention is needed elsewhere. What is important is that I created space to be able to do a few things and I do them every day.
It is the same with a bedtime routine, children need it and so do adults. There is a much shorter list of evening routine practices in Ayurveda, but the ones I love are massaging my feet with oil before bed and reading a book that isn’t too stimulating to calm my mind.
When you go to an Ayurvedic spa or Ayurvedic doctor with a license for bodywork, you will get treated for many different ailments. One practice is called Shirodhara. This is a stream of medicated (herbal) oil warmed to a specific temperature that flows gently and directly onto your third eye and pours onto the top of your head.
This is for calming the mind, easing anxiety, promoting clear thinking, and instilling a sense of safety and peace. You can do a modified version at home by soaking a small towel in warm Shirodhara oil and laying it over your forehead until you feel complete.
Another is called Svedana, which is the practice of steaming and sweating out toxins in either a sauna or a steam tent with herbs. You can also do this at home with ginger powder and baking soda in a bath. This practice is especially helpful when you are sick.
Normally you perform this before Abhyanga, which is the quintessential Ayurvedic spa treatment that is a full body herbal oil massage that follows a certain massage pattern to improve digestion and can even sometimes include four hands massaging you!
If you have a particular ailment, let’s say heart palpitations from anxiety or a low back injury, an additional treatment the abhyanga practitioners will do is a Basti, which involves them making a circle of chickpea flour dough around the affected area and pouring warmed herbal oil into the circle then allowing it to soak into your skin and deep into your tissues then continuing the massage. It’s heaven and I highly recommend trying it where you can!
An Ayurvedic practitioner may recommend getting these therapies done if you have access to an Ayurvedic spa, or trying some of the modified versions at home. They can take the meaning of self-care to a whole new level!
MORE OF MY AYURVEDIC VALUES
