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.
