12 Best Ayurvedic Tips To Remember On This Remarkable Day of the 21st Century

Ayurveda is an exemplary healing methodology that aims at granting complete health and harmony with nature. Every individual is considered as a unique part of nature and special care is taken before recommending natural remedies for treating any kind of illnesses. The best thing about this holistic science is that it focuses on prevention of diseases rather than just curing it after its occurrence. Purifying the human system by removing the toxic imbalances in the body and strengthening the immune system enables an individual to gain natural power for resisting harmful diseases and enjoy good health even after 50 years of age.

12-12-12 is a remarkable day in the 21st century and to come across such an excitement like this again, we have to wait for another hundred years when 12-12-2112 of the 22nd century would come to enthrall our forthcoming generation. Instead of building castles in the air, let’s empower ourselves with 12 simple and startling Ayurvedic tips on this worth remembering day in the history just to show that you are strong enough to fight more than 120 diseases.

12 Ayurvedic tips to remember:

1. Ayurvedic routine: The first thing that I would suggest is to take up an Ayurvedic routine also known as Dinacharya, which will bring in complete newness and revivify your lives. Everything in your day-to-day living will take up a firm change right from rising early till going to bed early.

2. Natural bowel movement: Drink a cup of warm water either with a teaspoon of raw honey or few drops of fresh lime juice as it fosters the natural bowel movement of your body, helping you to eliminate the toxins from your body.

3. Oral hygiene: Ayurvedic texts like Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita have talked about the importance of maintaining complete oral care. Dental health is known as Danta Swasthya in Sanskrit and it is said that the predominance of doshas and nature decides health care in Ayurveda and dental health also falls in this class. This natural science recommends the use of natural dental sticks especially from the Neem tree with astringent, acrid and bitter taste, supporting the health of the gums and preventing tooth problems. Brushing after every meal or at least twice daily a day is recommended.

Mentioned as Gandusha or Kavala in Charaka Samhita, oil pulling or swishing of vegetable oils like sesame oil, coconut oil or sunflower oil for about 20 minutes in the morning in empty stomach is said to treat about 30 systemic illnesses ranging from headache, migraine to asthma and diabetes. It is also proven to treat severe oral problems like plaque, gingivitis, toothache, oral cavities, halitosis, tooth decay etc, while effectively removing all the harmful toxins in the body. Ayurveda also suggests the scrapping or cleaning the tongue to remove the toxins or ama stored on it.

4. Yoga and physical exercises: Yoga is always a part of Ayurvedic healing and practicing simple physical exercises, breathing exercises like Pranayama and systematic Yoga is said to treat the imbalances in the body and help prevent harmful health disorders. Exercising and yoga practices on a regular basis for at least 15 minutes a day, especially in the early hours of the day relaxes the nerves, restores health, regenerates the body and rejuvenates your muscles.

5. Meditation: Meditation is an important part of Ayurveda as it helps to spend some quality time for self, supports self-realization, augments mental health and paves way for increased life span. Meditating regularly treats innumerable health disorders, gives a good start for the day and helps in calming the nerves and soothing the senses.

6. Prayer: Prayer is the best way to surrender yourselves to your Almighty, the Super Power above us. Spending few minutes in prayer before starting your day will grant you immense confidence and the real power to face your daily challenges. Ayurveda trusts that prayer strengthens your spiritual feelings and brings in real divinity.

7. Abhyanga or Ayurvedic oil massage: Ayurvedic texts suggest Ayurvedic oil massage for a supple, soft, strong and healthy body as it promotes blood circulation, fortifies the nervous system, relieves muscular pain, invigorates your mind, enhances the function of the lymphatic system and removes the toxins from the body. Ayurvedic essential oils like Lavender oil, Patchouli oil, Turmeric oil, Calamus oil, Tea tree oil, Ylang Ylang oil, Peppermint oil and many other essential oils have innumerable therapeutic properties to aid your well-being.

8. Regular eating habits: A regular eating habit in Ayurveda just indicates eating on time. Have a schedule for eating with a fixed time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Instead of taking 2 or 3 full meals, you can take 4 or 5 small meals with regular gap in-between. By doing this you are reinforcing your digestive system and promoting easy digestion. Improper eating habits might end up in a dismantled metabolism, leading to health disorders like hypertension, ulcer, obesity, accumulation of fat etc.

9. Fresh fruits and vegetables: Fresh fruits along with green and leafy vegetables contain essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals. These natural items will improve your physical and psychological health by preventing your body from diseases occurring due to nutritional deficiencies.

10. Drinking hot water: Drinking hot water is indeed a classical recommendation of Ayurveda as it augments the digestive power, lessens the accumulation of metabolic waste, balances kapha and vata doshas and regulates your entire digestive system.

11. Detoxification: Detoxification or cleansing is a vital part of Ayurvedic Panchakarma treatment that aims at removing the toxins in your body and restores balance and youthfulness. Healthy Ayurvedic practices include gentle cleansing of the system mainly during the spring season and at the start of every season. This can be done efficaciously with the help of your Ayurvedic practitioner.

12. Soothing and peaceful sleep: Rest is essential to rise up with energy and buoyancy for a refreshing start of a new day. To stay active tomorrow, you need to sleep well today especially during the night time. Ayurvedic scripts suggest taking warm baths with few drops of Ayurvedic essential oils before going to bed, recollecting the pleasant things in your life, eating light and easy to digest food for dinner, listening to pleasing music, using aromatic Ayurvedic essential oils for regular massaging and in your bed room either as room diffuser or as air freshener etc.

Everything is doable and why can’t you give it a try? For the best things in life can come to you only out of practice and determination. For an inspirational living, think again!

Thought for the day:

Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God

-William Cowper

Suggested Reading:

  1. Ayurveda Wisdom: A Simple Wisdom Book By Cybéle Tomlinson, Cybele Tomlinson
  2. Freedom in Your Relationship with Food: An Everyday Guide By Myra Lewin
  3. Ayurveda: The Science of Self Healing – A Practical Guide By Vasant Lad

Reference Links:

  1. Tooth brushing, oil pulling and tissue regeneration: A review of holistic approaches to oral health by NCBI
  2. Overview of Meditation by National center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
  3. Ayurvedic Panchakarma Restores Your Youth by Wikinut

Ayurvedic Doshas: An Intense Learning For The Insight Of Your Life

It is not necessary for you to be a Doctor to know about your body’s functioning and the aspects that are responsible for your every single action. Knowing more about your body and the reasons behind specific conditions makes you life a meaningful life. Say for example, do you know the real reason for sneezing? Human nose has mucous membrane and when its nerve endings get irritated either due to dust, allergy or cold, you end up sneezing where the trouble-causing elements are emitted.  Sounds interesting right! If a human being’s single action has so many reasons behind, then think of the complexity in learning the entire system. To our surprise, the divine science of Ayurveda has classified human body types into 3 simple and easy to understand elements based on the vital parts of Mother Nature. It is also known as Doshas and the 3 essential energy elements defining the physical constitution of a human body according to Ayurveda are Vata, Pitta and Kapha.

Perfect balance of these bio-energies contributes to a healthy system and dosha imbalance leads to sickness or ill-health. Knowledge about these Ayurvedic body types will help you understand the functioning of your body and which particular dosha level contributes to your unique characteristics, attributes and health conditions.

1. Vata (Air): Vata is the most imperative among the three doshas and vata imbalance can end up in imbalance of the rest of the two doshas also. As a prominent energy element vata is responsible for all the kinds of eliminations, destructions and discharge of numerous substances from the human body to aid its better working. Few such body ejections are sweat, semen, urine, fetus, feces and few more. Controls metabolism and contributes to the vital activities like muscular movements, motivation, brain functioning along with the sensory nerves, nervous functions, respiration, circulation, heartbeat and many more.

People who are vata dominant have tall physique and a dark complexion but are extremely creative and farsighted. Sleeplessness, too much of exercise and profusion of sexual feelings can cause vata imbalance leading to digestive problems, anxiety etc. Old age, sultry summer and dusk are connected with vata energy.  

2. Pitta (Fire): Your body has its own fire and it is expelled when there is a need for proper running. Pitta is your body’s conversion force that burns the things that you ingest and transforms the food into the types of energy that your body demands. Vision, ability of the body to maintain appropriate temperature, reasoning capabilities, digestion, judging potential, strength of your mind and body are influenced by pitta force.     

Pitta influence reflects a fair complexion, medium structure and supple skin and has the courage and determination to face problems and resolve them efficaciously. These perfection-lovers are generally well thought-out and zealous leaders who cannot stand incomplete and fragmentary activities, which make them burning and lose their tempers. They can be affected by hot food items, high exposure to sun, alcohol and constrained feelings. Inconsistency might show the way to ulcers, skin problems, heartburn and excessive heating of the body. Autumn, noontime and maturity are associated with Pitta.

3. Kapha (Earth): Your physical beauty and your structure are solely contributed to kapha element in your body as this gives the shape to human body with its lubricating properties that connects the tissues, muscles and bones. Your strength, muscle, vigor, stamina and the ability to repair and replenish are attributed to kapha predominance. This weighty energy element checks the abrasion between the different parts of your body by moistening it while granting you the energy to a fertile reproductive system.

Kapha governing individuals will never fail in impressing and influencing others with their benevolent, dedicated and affectionate personalities. They have a heavy and well-built structure with an average complexion. Dairy products and sugary items can be trouble-making and unevenness of kapha can make them overweight, sappy, sluggish and lose excess energy with a poor digestion process. Pleasant dawn, adolescence and wintry weather are correlated with Kapha element.

Hope this helped you to have an intense learning for the real insight of your momentous life and now that you’ll know why something happens in your body, which is the greatest library in the world.

Reference links:

  1. Dosha by Wikipedia
  2. Dosha in Ayurveda by Organic India
  3. Ayurveda by SREEKRISHNA Ayurveda Panchakarma Center

1,8-Cineole

Eucalyptol is a cyclic ether and a monoterpenoid. It is identified and ascribed the name eucalyptol in 1870 by F. S. Cloez. It is a natural organic compound that is a colorless liquid, also known by various names like 1,8-cineol, cajeputol, 1,3,3-trimethyl-2-oxabicyclo[2,2,2]octane, 1,8-oxido-p-menthane,  1,8-epoxy-p-menthane,  eucalyptole , eucalyptol, and cineole.

The name eucalyptol was given to it based on the dominant portion of Eucalyptus globulus oil. The constituent Eucalyptol is seen in 90 percent of the essential oil in most species of Eucalyptus oil. It’s component is majorly constituted of 1,8 cineole syn eucalyptol and monoterpenes, and hence it gets its’ name Eucalyptol.

1,8-Cineole  is also found in Common Sage,  Bay leaves, Camphor laurel, Tea tree, Sweet basil, Wormwood, Mugwort, Rosemary, Cannabis sativa and other aromatic flora.

Therapeutic Properties of 1,8-Cineole:

1,8-Cineole finds itself serving multiple therapeutic purposes such as  analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, airborne antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiviral, mucolytic, hypotensive, antispasmodic and it also increases the cerebral blood flow.

1,8-Cineole & Its Uses:

Flavoring and Fragrance:

A report in 1994 stated that the top cigarette companies used eucalyptol as an ingredient in about 599 additives in cigarettes, to improve the flavor. Cineole-based eucalyptus oil is used as a flavoring in various products, including beverages, confectionery, baked goods, and meat products, owing to its pleasant spicy aroma and taste. 1,8-Cineole is also used in flavorings, fragrances, and cosmetics.1 8-cineole

Remedial benefits of 1,8-Cineole:

In the areas of medicine, 1,8-Cineole is widely used as an ingredient in many popular brands of cough suppressant, mouthwashes, and as well as an inactive ingredient in body powder. It serves well in treating system related disorders as mentioned below.

Digestive system: 

A study conducted in 2010 with details from the Aromatherapy Journal of the NAHA states that Eucalyptol does play a crucial role against Candida and fungi. It is seen to restrict the filamentation in fungi, and is also effective on intestinal parasites that cause diarrhea.

It’s does exhibit anti-fungal activity on candida albicans.  When the leaves of Eucalyptus globulus were taken internally during an experiment with diabetic rats, Candia albicans and its proliferation were inhibited.

Musculoskeletal system: 

It can be used in the treatment of arthritis, rheumatism, muscular aches and pains, sprains and plantar fasciitis. Studies suggest that both analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity, were projected by Eucalyptus globules and Eucalyptus citriodora.

Immune System:

The Aromatherapy Journal (2010) of the NAHA indicates, “Eucalyptus globules was able to instinctively put into action a cell-meditated immune response, making it actively function as a immuno-regulatory agents which can be used in infectious diseases, and in chemotherapy, as adjuvant in immuno-suppressive pathologies.”

Respiratory system: 

1,8-Cineole is indicated in several respiratory conditions right from sinusitis, asthma, acute bronchitis and chronic bronchitis. It is also preferred in the treatment of sore throat and infections such as laryngitis, for its antiseptic qualities.

It is also used to clear the head especially when used in a combination of Peppermint and Rosemary under conditions of nasal congestion, coughs, cold, flu and pertussis.

1, 8-cineole is seen to provide positive responses even under the conditions of severe respiratory illnesses such as lung function parameters during the treatment of COPD and the common cold.

Eucalyptus globules have been identified to create positive battling effects on bacterial strains which have been isolated from respiratory infections. It has been proved effective for its growth restraining activity against bacterial strains including Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pyogenes, H. parainfluenzae, S. pneumoniae, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Staphylococcus aureus.

Skin: 

For the skin, 1,8-Cineole is used in the treatment of shingles, herpes simplex, measles, acne, chickenpox, ulcers, wounds, boils, burns, cuts. The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy Journal concurs, “bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity was extensively displayed by 1,8 cineole”.

Insecticide and repellent

Eucalyptol is used as an insect repellent and as an insecticide. This oil is said to elevate territorial behavior and specifically attracts the male bees. This was done so these males would periodically leave their territories to forage for chemicals such as cineole, to attract and mate with females, to synthesize pheromones.

Reference Links:

  1. 1,8-Cineole by Wikipedia
  2. About Eucalyptus globulus and 1,8 cineole by The School for Aromatic Studies
  3. Eucalyptus globulus & 1, 8 cineole – Seasonal Self Care Issue by The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy Journal