Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Ayurvedic Life Regimes


AYURVEDIC LIFE REGIMES
Ayurveda emphasizes on establishing for us an appropriate life regime, which suits our constitution. This establishes a right rhythm in our lives and maintains certain harmony and consistency. There is no substitute for our own right living. The rhythm of our right action in life creates a certain momentum that gives power to our lives and gradually improves all our faculties.
            Ayurvedic regimes keep us in harmony with the universe and cosmic life force. They are the rhythms of creative living. They establish an order, but one that gives freedom. They require an effort to establish in the beginning to counter the inertia created by our life out of balance, but they soon create a self-sustaining and expanding force of their own.
            Ayurvedic life regimes are simple; non invasive, non-traumatic and generally wont interfere with other forms of medical treatment.
            They start with waking up in the morning to the time we go to sleep and include our total life style.
            Ayurveda says that Nidra (sleep), Ahara (food), and brahmacharya(right sexual conducts) are the  sub pillars of life. Apart from these, ayurveda emphasizes on the dinacharya,. ritucharya , ratricharya, ahar, vihar which encompasses the total life style of a person .Amongst  the life regimes, sattvic living is essential for all human beings (constitutions).
           
Sattvic Life Style

They include physical purity, purity of mind and purity of life style which provides one with peace and clarity mind.
physical purity Pure diet, fresh vegetables, cleanliness, pure air and water, proper  exercise are included in it.
Purity of mind included  truthfulness, honesty, humility, friendliness, non-violence to all beings. Emotional impurities like hatred, anger, fear, lust, pride are to be given up. They destroy the equipoise of mind.
Purity of life style: right livelihood, pleasant talk, and pleasant environment, avoiding violent noises, distraction and perverted and degrading forms of entertainment.
            Sattvic life style includes devotion to the divine or to the truth, compassion, and service to humanity, study of spiritual teaching, reverence to teachers, and practice of yoga and meditation. This sattvic life style is covered under the topic of achara rasayana in Ayurveda.

 

 

Life regimes common for all constitutions


1.      Waking up at Brahma Muhurta
It is best to awake at sunrise so that body can synchronize itself to the rhythm of the Sun. The last portion of the night in ruled by vata, whose qualities of lightness and irregularity do not encourage good sleep. As vaai is responsible for elimination. The predawn period is the best time to try to eliminate the body’s physical and mental wastes. Early morning is the good time to request Nature to maintain and amplify your own harmony during the day so that you will interact harmoniously with every one and everything you interact.   

2.      Elimination of wastes
Defecation   early in the morning is the best for the body. Once or twice is fine but three or more times in a day increases Vata. Urine and feces have to be examined each morning to decide if they are healthy or not. Do not put food into your system whenever your system shows signs of indigestion. A weak herbal tea prepared of ginger can be taken. Presence of Ama in stool indicates indigestion
.
3.      Washing
Washing our hands, feet, face, mouth, eyes and nose purifies our body’s sense organs. A coating on the tongue signifies a coating or poisonous ama (undigested or improperly digested food) in your digestive tract.
Scraping the tongue with a tongue scraper made of wood, silver; copper or gold removes the filth from its crypts as possible. Occasional gargling of salt with a pinch of turmeric helps in keeping the gums, mouth and throat healthy.
In rural India twig toothbrushes are used to floss the teeth as they brush.
Eyes should be cleansed gently with warm water. Nose should be cleansed with fresh water and ears can be cleansed by instilling two or three drops of oil once a week. 

4.      Meditation

Meditation is essential of all daily programs as it satisfies the minds hunger. Meditation a short of eating a consumption of subtle energies while are digested by the mind’s subtle digestive five. Good meditation nourishes as thoroughly that the body can maintain itself as less food. Control of desire, which is mental hunger is the key to longevity.
Meditation brings awareness, harmony and mental order to human life. It awakes the intelligence to make life happy, peaceful and creative.

5.      Surroundings
The friends and comrades you select for yourself should be selected with the harmonizing effect of their influence as chief criterion. Friendship with self-destructive individuals will magnify any self-destructiveness you have not yet expunged from your being camaraderie with the empathetic will increase your own empathy. When you choose to associate yourself with any individual, you should be aware of the effects that person has on you own personality. Association with negative individuals, or Sanga Dosha, causes you to pick up physical, mental and spiritual defects from them while Satsanga, association with strong, healthy, spiritual people allows their harmoniousness to rub off on you.
Physical and mental characteristics should alos influence your choice of residence. Pure V people do best in hot, humid climates like Hawaii and the Guild Coast, and find cold climates almost unbearable. Pure K people require hot, arid climate like the Western desert to balance themselves and pure P types shun torrid climates and adore the cold. V and K people both need regular exposure to the sun, though overexposure can damage the immune system, Ps most be wary of the sun.


6.      Sleep
Sleep is known in Ayurveda as the “Wet-nurse of the world” because it nourishes beings with motherliness and promotes proper growth. Sleep is bodily inertia with mental relaxation; it is closely associated with Kapha because its essence is inertia.
Night is the time for sleep, after the personality tires of projecting itself externally. Ten-minute catnaps are good for V types. Long naps are permitted in the peak of summer, when days are hot and nights are short. Otherwise sleeping during the day increases kapha, and only the very young, the very old, the very week and those exhausted by sex, intoxicants, disease, travel, overwork or other physical or emotional trauma should nap longer than ten or fifteen minutes is an afternoon. Sometimes a nap before eating will benefit a case of acute indigestion, but usually unless you have been awake all night, sleeping during the day inevitably produces Ama.
Evening is the Kapha  time of night, when Ks must struggle against becoming cozily inert. Midnight is the pitta time of night. Ps especially should not be awake then, since their appetites will grow and they will be tempted to eat. Ps sometimes wake up in the middle of the night hungry or, if they have ulcer, in pain from the acid Pitta has caused the body to secrete then.  The hours just before dawn are governed by Vata, another reason why V people  should go to bed early, when Kapha will encourage them to sleep soundly, and arise in the early morning , when Vata will not permit them sound sleep anyway.
Sitting up is the best sleeping position, because it provides the most alert sleep. You should always wash your hands, feet and face, massage your feet with a little oil, and meditate for a few moments to allow the day’s negativity to dissipate before entering into the arms of sleep.