Do you brush your teeth every day? Most of us do. Why is this? Is brushing our teeth the most important thing in our life? That's why we make sure we brush every day? Is it because we are still following "orders" we were given growing up? What else do we do every day? Why? We probably brush our teeth at the same time every day - first thing or maybe after breakfast and before going to bed. I hope this post explains the important daily components and motivates you to add them to your "every day calendar".
This blog will map the three most important parts of Yoga and the five key daily parts of Ayurveda living. In previous posts, I discussed that there are eight branches (or steps) in Yoga that lead to happiness. The branches are sequential. The first three control the elements outside of your mind. They are 1) detachment, 2) observation with compassion and 3) discipline or practice. Any health recommendation should include these branches. In addition, Ayurveda teaches that the world is made of five elements; air, space, fire, water and earth. It is important to understand the prominent elements that make up each of us and develop a daily routine to stay in balance.
Ayurvedic teachings preach there are critical pieces to our daily routine. The five areas are: 1) Diet
2) Sleep 3) Exercise 4) Relaxation and 5) Meditation. Lets look at these five parts of the day and map a plan to make them habitual. To accomplish this, we will pull on our Yoga skills to OBSERVE our current routines, DETACH from some unhealthy habits and have DISCIPLINE to implement necessary Ayurveda practices. Lets get started:
DIET
Diet is the most important part of a healthy daily lifestyle. In previous posts, we discussed lymph, fascia and the immune system. It is important to breathe good air, drink filtered water and herbal tea and eat anti inflammatory natural foods. Avoid, smoking, drinking from cans and bottles and eating yeast, dairy, sugar and preservatives. Observe your habits with compassion and detach from those that negatively affect your immune system.
Focus on including anti inflammatory drink and foods in your diet. I believe the best way to do this is early in the day. Breakfast is a critical meal for the day. Your immune system does it's heavy cleaning at night. When you wake, your body is as "pure" as it is going to be. Start your day with anti inflammatory foods. Your immune system can clean deeper in the morning because of a good night's rest. Include fruits, herbs and vegetables - a mixed salad or smoothie.
Let me tell you a personal story;
My first professional health assessment when I was getting Meniere's attacks was too much sodium. Of course, my reaction at the doctor's office was I don't eat sodium - that can't be it. The doctor told me to go home and look at every label I ate for a week. At that time, I had egg beaters with salsa every morning. (I thought the low calorie and low fat content was a great start to the day.) I loved salsa and buried my egg beaters in salsa - probably 3-6oz of salsa - I mean bury). It did not take long to find the sodium culprit. By the time I left the breakfast table I had eaten 5000+ mg of sodium - 200% of the recommended daily amount.
I came up with the idea to reverse this - do same thing on a positive side. Use breakfast to eat all the required anti inflammatory fruits and vegetables for the day. So now, every day, I have a herbal smoothie around 9:30am after a morning walk. I put the following ingredients in my daily drink: basil, mint, parsley, celery, cucumber, broccoli, frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries) tahini and OJ or tea. Now, by the time I leave the breakfast table, I have eaten my nine helpings of fruits and vegetables. My anti inflammatory score when I leave the breakfast table is high enough to cover any problems during the day. My smoothie is high in calories - about 700 calories (OJ, tahini and fruit) but it doesn't matter. My system flushes itself because it is all natural and organic.
The reason I tell this story is because it is an example of Yoga and Ayurveda working together to live a balanced life. The first step of the process was OBSERVATION (Yoga's second branch) to observe my breakfast habit. Then, DETACHMENT (Yoga's first branch), was used to stop eating egg beater's and salsa. Finally, DISCIPLINE - the third branch was used to implement a new daily routine - the most critical step to Ayurveda living - the diet. I used to think I was crazy and a nut to do all this. However, the Ayurveda and Yoga readings and sutras gave me confidence that I was not alone. Rather, this has been done for thousands of years. It gave me peace of mind to know that prophets have been discussing this for a long time.
SLEEP
Sleep is underrated. Through the lens of the immune system, sleep is the most important part of the day. Lets review for a second. The immune system oversees all fluid movement in the body. Every time we ingest, we "occupy" the valuable asset. Therefore, sleep affords the immune system the opportunity to do the jobs it can't get to while we are eating and digesting during the day. That is why eight hours of sleep is so important. At night, the immune system deep cleans. The lymph travels through the fascia and pulls impurities and inflammation out of the body and sends it (to circulatory, digestive and respir
Furthermore, you can accelerate the benefits of sleep by preparing for sleep with two simple Ayurveda practices. First, DO NOT EAT WITHIN THREE HOURS OF GOING TO BED. This allows your digestive system to empty. Your immune system will get eight full hours of deep cleaning. Food is still in your stomach if you eat within three hours of going to bed. Then when you lie down, it doesn't move through your digestive system as efficiently. This occupies your immune system and your "deep clean" will not be as deep. Second, RELAX OR MEDITATE as part of getting ready to go to bed. This quiets your system and gives you a head start on getting to deep sleep when your immune system does its best work.
You can monitor your sleep two ways. First, how sound is your sleep? A perfect night would be at least eight hours of sleep without interruption. Second, is do you wake with pains? Many times the pains we feel in the morning we blame on"sleeping the wrong way". In reality it is really caused by eating inflammatory food too close to sleep or being "TV excited" when you go to bed.
The best way to improve your sleep is value it and prepare for it.
Here is another personal story - maybe too personal:
I am a vata and have variable sleep patterns. I wake multiple times a night. The nights after a lymphatic massage my bladder needs to be emptied multiple times. This is a good thing. What this proves is that the lymph is flowing, cleaning and sending the toxins to exit the body. This experience has given me faith the immune system doing its deep clean at night.
EXERCISE
Exercise is an important part of the third branch of Yoga - practice. I learned something very important about exercise from Yoga. EXERCISE SHOULD BE A RELEASE. Do not strain during work outs. Yoga is all about deep breathing and relaxing the muscles as you exercise. Again, in my prior life I did this completely backwards. I used to be very proud of the way I exercised on the arc circle at the gym. In an hour I could burn 1000+ calories. I would have a heart rate of 160 bpm and drenched in sweat. I used to weigh myself before and after a workout and would lose 3-5 lbs. during a workout. However, my body was stressing and I would fill with calories and drink after the workout.
Yoga taught me to release during workouts by breathing deeply through the nose . Now I do Yoga stretches daily and walk with my dog instead of hitting the gym. As I walk, I focus on deep breathing through my nose and relaxing my abdomen. My weight has dropped and flexibility increased even though I don't burn as many calories. This seems counter intuitive but feels right. I can feel my body release and the fluids move more freely.
Relaxation and Meditation
Find time every day to relax and be yourself. Turn off your phone, close the door, shut out the family and take time for yourself. I have found being out doors is a great way to do this. It makes me appreciate being part of a large world and how special of a place it is. When relaxing, focus on your breath. Slow it down and allow your body to release. Please find the time to either start or end your day with a 10+ minute of meditation. Sit and allow your mind to empty. It will enable you to be lighter in life.
Develop daily "rituals" that enhance your health and life. For thousands of years we have been taught that we should include a healthy diet, sleep, exercise, relaxation and meditation in our days. Good luck.
