Our lives are surrounded by routines. Some routines we create for ourselves, such as going for a run or doing some exercise each morning. Some routines are driven by nature, such as going to bed when it gets dark and putting on warm cloths in the winter.
So that we maintain balance throughout the day and throughout the year, there are aspects of Ayurveda that help us align our personal routines or habits with the cycles of nature.
Dinacharya is the Ayurvedic science that deals with daily routines. Ritucharya deals with seasonal routine. Following such routines helps us tune in with the rhythms of nature and helps bring our mind and body back into balance and harmony.
In the following section Sue Lincoln, a Maharishi Ayurveda Consultant, gives a few Ayurvedic tips on how best to start the day.
Tips for a healthy start to the day
- Rise with the sun. This will be easy if you go to bed before 10pm. Waking up early gives you the best start to your day.
- As well as retiring early, take measures to ensure sound sleep: if necessary use the Peace at Night and Blissful Sleep formulas (available from Maharishi Ayurveda Products) which are made from some of the most healing herbs in nature.
- Practice Transcendental Meditation in the morning before breakfast. Besides giving very deep rest, Transcendental Meditation enlivens both mind and body and helps remove any dullness that may linger after a night’s sleep.
- Before practising Transcendental Meditation, perform daily abhyanga – a full body sesame oil massage, followed by a warm bath or shower.
- Have a good breakfast to avoid unbalancing sadhaka pitta which can result in irritability and unsettled emotions. Eating some stewed apples will help to create ojas, the final and most refined by-product of digestion. Sweet juicy fruits are excellent cleansers that help to eliminate impurities from the body, and can be taken 30 minutes before your cereal. Remember, fruit and milk at the same meal are not compatible.
- Take an early morning walk with a friend or family. Walking is a tridoshic exercise – it balances all of the three doshas, vata, pitta and kapha. It is calming to the mind and nourishing to the senses.
Sue Lincoln is a Maharishi Ayur-Veda Consultant living at Maharishi Garden Village, Suffolk, UK: 07980 335757, susanlincoln@btopenworld.com
Sue Lincoln’s contribution to this article was first published in Transcendental Meditation News, May 2013.
