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Living Ayurveda

by Shubhra Krishan


I used to know just as much about Ayurveda as I know or care to know about the Atlantic Ocean. But that changed, the day a vaidya took my pulse.


He placed three delicate fingers on my wrist, supporting it with the ball of his thumb. Then he leaned back and closed his eyes. It was as if in that one silent minute, he was drawing on his lifetime of training to hear the inside story of my body.


When the vaidya opened his eyes at last, he asked me an unexpected question: "Have you ever had a kidney problem?" I was stunned. I had &8212; but how on earth could he tell? I had been in the United States less than 36 hours, having just flown in from India. I had known the vaidya less than two hours &8212; we were dining at a mutual friend's place &8212; and here he was, telling me something my best friend did not know.


He went on to prescribe a few unusual medicines &8212; I was to use a lot of turmeric and coarsely pounded coriander in my cooking. The best pharmacy I could go to, he said, was my kitchen. All my medicines were there, waiting on the spice rack.


We left soon after, but the good doctor's words stayed in my mind. That meeting with Ayurvedic Expert sparked off in me a curiosity about Ayurveda I hadn't felt before. Fed up with strong medicines, I suddenly wanted to know more about herbs and healing the Ayurveda way. I visited the nearest public liary, and fished out all the books on alternative healing I could find.


I soon noticed a pattern: In almost every book, Ayurveda was sandwiched between aromatherapy and Chinese herbalism and defined as a 5,000-year-old system of medicine from India that believes we are made up of three body types called doshas. The author would then go on to discuss the characteristic of each dosha, and what could be done to keep it in balance. I tried figuring out my dosha and realized I was a jumbled mix of all three -- vata, pitta and kapha. It was frustrating.


I went back to Ayurvedic Expert, and asked him to tell me my dosha so I could start healing myself. He smiled at the disappointment in my voice. "Ayurveda is not all about doshas, just as psychology is much more than Freud. What people don't seem to realize is, whatever dosha you are, there are a hundred things you can do to live healthier and longer the Ayurvedic way."


For the next two hours, I listened to what the Ayurvedic way was &8212; and at the end of Ayurvedic Expert's talk, I realized I had just emerged from the depths of the Ayurvedic Ocean. I'd like to share with you the golden nuggets I found there.


The first thing to know about Ayurveda, says Ayurvedic Expert, is that it is about YOU. You are an individual, and just like your thumb-print, your health, too, is unique. That is why the vaidya ("one who knows") does not reach for the blood-pressure instrument or the thermometer the first time you go to him. He puts his finger on your pulse.


To change the script he has just heard, the vaidya will not pull out his pen and prescription pad. He will ask you to take notes on as he talks to you about sleeping well, eating more intelligently, and getting in touch with yourself.


This is where Ayurveda differs from the standard systems of medicine. To an allopath, your body is a machine. If a part of this machine malfunctions, he will treat it with tablets or repair it with his scalpel. A vaidya, on the other hand, will expect you to take responsibility for you. Yes, you and you alone, Ayurveda believes, can heal yourself and prolong your life. And if that seems like the ravings of ancient rishis who ate too many wild berries, then you might be more impressed to know that modern statistics strongly support this theory. A study involving 7,000 adults said to be typical of a Californian urban community found a strong correlation between various health practices and longevity. This study, published in the March 1973 issue of Preventive Medicine, was done by Nedra B. Belloc, a researcher in the Human Population Laboratory of the California State Department of Public Health at Berkeley.


Fascinated? And to think you have just dipped your toe into the waters!


Ayurveda believes that your health stands on three pillars: diet, sleep, and awareness of self. It is up to you to make sure each of these pillars stands tall and strong.


Re-Think Your Diet


Ayurveda does not talk about food as a collection of vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and calories. It believes that food is more than that &8212; and the "more" has to do greatly with the spirit.


The vaidya believes that each meal you eat should connect you with the spirit of the earth. No Ayurvedic recipe ever contains milled white eads, overrefined fats and oils, bleached sugar, or denatured grains. Lightly cooked and mildly spiced, food should be fresh, hot, tasty, easy to digest -- and most of all, synergized by your own intelligence and care.


Following are some Dos and Don'ts for Eating the Ayurvedic Way


DO:

Eat at a healthy gap of at least four hours.

Combine your foods intelligently: you do know, for instance, that yogurt and vinegar are both acidic and don't go together well. And that milk combined with lime will only curdle.

Balance your diet. Ayurveda believes that there are six basic flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. A balanced meal would contain all these flavors.

Say grace before your meals.

Infuse herbs and spices in your food. Use them in the right proportions and in the right season, and they will synergize your body from the inside out.

Eat natural, organic and fresh foods as often as possible. Stay away from bottled, canned, frozen and over-processed foods.

Listen to your body. How does it feel after lunch? Heavy and sluggish? You're either eating too much or not cooking your food the way you should.

Dress up your dining table to inspire appetite and induce pleasant thoughts. Even a cheerful bunch of flowers helps.


DO NOT:

Eat too many items in one meal.

Overcook or undercook.

Gobble. Take your time. Chew well.

Mix fruits with meals. Either take a separate meal of fruits or eat between two meals.

Drink water one hour before or after your meals. But you can have it in small quantities with meals.

Down your glass of milk in two strong swigs. Instead, sip it. Ayurveda says milk is digested better when it stays longer in contact with saliva.

Drink milk straight from the fridge. Boil it with some cardamom seeds and cinnamon; they add flavor and aid digestion. Bring to room temperature before you drink.


Press Your "Sleep" Button


There's a very good reason we spend one-thirds of our lives sleeping. Sleep regenerates. Look at the word "regenerate;" it means "to make again." That's what we do when we're sleeping the way we should.

Are you sleeping well? Take a quick check: Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you moan, talk or walk in your sleep? Do you have intense, vivid, and often disturbing dreams? Do you often wake up in the middle of the night?

If you've answered "yes" to even one of these, you need to sleep better. Though Ayurveda has a whole storehouse of strategies to deal with insomnia, Ayurvedic Expert gives you a few quick tips to help you slip into the sleep of your dreams.

DO:
Go to sleep and wake up at regular hours.

Go to bed before 10 p.m.

Try to rise early.

Take a warm bath before sleeping; this boosts circulation and helps you sleep better.

Dim the lights, switch off the television, slow down your activities an hour before bedtime.

Apply a good oil (almond works well) to your head and legs before sleeping &8212; another circulation booster.

Tuck a lavender potpourri in your pillow or soothe your senses with lavender oil at bedtime. Lavender has sedative properties.

Drink warm milk simmered with dates 45 minutes before you go to bed &8212; it is an excellent tranquilizer.


DO NOT:

Eat a big meal before bedtime.

Drink coffee or any other stimulant two hours before bedtime.


The important thing is to realize the importance of sleep, and then work on safe and sane calming practices that work for you. And much more than anything else, says Ayurvedic Expert, it's being in harmony with your Self that will really right your rhythm of sleep. Which ings us to the third and perhaps the most important pillar of Ayurveda.


Seek Out Your Self


This is not about self-illumination, monk-. It's about getting in touch with your mind, learning to be happy with your senses, living life to the fullest. The key to achieving this is upping your Ojas quotient. Ojas? Though it is difficult to find a literal meaning for it, says Ayurvedic Expert, it's easy to understand if you think of Ojas as your being's master coordinator &8212; the computer cord that connects your mind, Self and body.


Here are a few ways to keep your Ojas on a high the Ayurveda way:

Train your senses. "Think of your senses as wild horses," says Ayurvedic Expert. Now take the simile further. Your body is a chariot, and your mind is the charioteer. The mind must control the senses through the body. This translates into simple everyday actions. Your senses long for that dish of colorful vegetables cooked in hot garlic sauce, so your hand reaches out for it. But your mind tells you you have an ulcer and should be staying away from Chinese food for the time being. If you listen and obey, you're conserving your Ojas.
Try Transcendental Meditation?. Spiritual leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's relaxation technique promises that elusive thing we're all after: bliss. What's more, it's completely effortless. Just 20 minutes, twice a day, turn off your tension center. Shrug the weight of the world off your shoulders. Meditate. Dive through the chaos inside your head. Reach out and touch those delicious crystals of clear thought lying at the floor of your consciousness. Meditation helps you experience the unadulterated delight that comes from being exclusively and totally alone with yourself, the sense of enjoying a twenty-minute vacation from which you emerge fresher than you could ever have felt on a week-long holiday in the Bahamas. More than anything else, discover that you can be utterly happy doing absolutely nothing at all!

Service your Body. Just like your car needs regular servicing, your body needs recharging, too. An Ayurvedic technique called Panchkarma is designed to do just that. Using essential oil and herbs, trained Panchkarma experts cleanse the toxins off your body, massage it, and pamper it till you feel as good as new.


Inspired enough to get off that couch and start working towards the "new, improved you?" Good. And remember, in this article, I have just skimmed the surface. There's much more to discover, once you plumb the depths of the Ayurvedic Ocean.

Shubhra Krishan is a journalist from India, specializing in alternative health issues. She scripted and edited the popular weekly series on Ayurveda for Doordarshan, India's premier television channel, and worked as an editor for the Indian Cosmopolitan. She now resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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la...la....cant hear ya lol..... (A) or (a) :$

[Uhmavano]

I'm loving this post!

[vforvandetta]

I'm loving this post!

Thank you for finding this and moving it up. I was trying to remember what it was called the other day as I read about it in a book and wanted to find a book explaining it more in detail. Now I can do that.

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Love and blessings