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What is Ayurveda

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Ayurvedic Pledge On The Constitution Day

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Hurray! It’s Constitution Day and Citizenship Day and time for keeping all your illness at bay. It is the Constitution’s 225th year and as a proud and patriotic citizen of the United States, I feel great to look back the way that the Constitution has changed the history of US. As most of us know Constitution day is celebrated on September 17 since 1787, when the United States Constitution was signed at the time of the Philadelphia Convention. Every year people of US are invited to observe the Constitution week from September 17 to September 23 especially in schools, churches and few other appropriate places with the most suitable bustles and ceremonies. I can read the doubtful rays on your face now, which says ‘Everything about Constitution day is ok…but what is the relation between Ayurveda and Constitution day? And first of all what is an Ayurvedic Pledge?’ I always love explaining things in a simple way and have a strong reason behind everything I say.  Look for those valid reasons as your eyes surf through the content below.

I still remember the special Constitution day when my school was delegated to take up the Constitutional celebration. Each one of us will have our own favorite Presidents and special reasons for retaining them as our favorite. My favorite President is James Madison, Jr. He was the 4th President of the United States and is called as the ‘Father of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights’ but for whom the US Constitution would have failed to succeed. He was the oldest of the twelve children of his family and had lot of struggles and values in his life left behind for most of us to learn. Constitution day is a memorable day to think about the glory, achievements, struggles and difficulties of our admirable leaders, which will help us to lead a determined life filled with their inspiration.

I would suggest you to take up a pledge or an oath on the Constitution day just like your New Year resolution to do something that would benefit you as well as your society. This year, let your pledge be all about practicing the spiritual healing science called as Ayurveda. This ancient medicinal system has innumerable benefits to your health physically as well as emotionally, helping you to mold yourselves as a perfect individual.

Ayurveda is an intimate ocean for those who already knew about it and for those who are new to this concept; I would rather say that you have missed a miraculous healing method in your past.  This holistic healing method treats the human body as a place of worship, which influences one to keep the body, mind and the environment clean and hygienic for your spirit to live in genially. Ayurveda respects every person and their specific feelings as it believes that every human being is a unique creation. It identifies the individual body types and treats you completely as an individual instead of just treating your illness alone. It aims at treating your sickness initially and proffering you the real strength from within to prevent it in the future.

With Ayurveda, you will soon realize that you have already started to lead a systematic life with appropriate time for everything, right from the time you wake up till the time you go to bed. It suggests the healthy practice of taking a balanced diet with regular physical exercises, focused meditation, habitual yoga practices and natural remedies like plant extracts, Ayurvedic essential oils and much more. Take this Constitution week as the trial week for taking up the Ayurvedic way of living, I am sure you will never regret later. As the Constitution changed the history of US, undoubtedly Ayurveda will change your lifestyle in a dignified manner.

Best wishes for your sparkling days ahead with Ayurveda and happy Constitution week. Let’s take the Ayurvedic Pledge now and say together ‘We the People’ of US ‘Let’s be the People of Strength’ with Ayurveda.

Reference Links:

  1. History of the United States Constitution by Wikipedia
  2. Constitution Day by the National Constitution Center
  3. James Madison by Wikipedia

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

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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

Super Six Tastes Of Ayurveda: A Tasty Insight

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Tongue is a tantalizing part of the human body. Though it is scientifically proven to perform numerous significant tasks like cleaning the teeth, phonetic articulation etc, the predominant function of the tongue is often associated with gustation and the taste buds. Drinking and eating are highly essential for survival and every single time the food that we intake is encountered first by our tongue, which helps us identify the real taste. This is the entry point that decides the quality and nature of the food or medicines that we ingest. Ayurveda, the noble Indian science of healing had described about six different tastes of our food and insists that our diet should be a balanced proportion of all the six tastes for a healthy living.

Importance of tongue in identifying the basic tastes: Tongue might seem very simple to us but you will be surprised to know that there are about 8 intrinsic and extrinsic muscles. The basic tastes that are identified by our tongue are bitterness, saltiness, sourness, Umami, sweetness and metallic taste. The cell membranes and the receptors on the taste buds play a vital role in recognizing the unique tastes. I feel like saying ‘What a splendid Scientist, Genius, Master, Physiologist and Inventor our Creator is!!!!’

Super six tastes of Ayurveda: The ancient healing system known as Ayurveda defines six tastes for harmonized living. They are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent. Ayurveda states that ‘the sense of taste is the natural guide map for a balanced nutrition’. This heavenly method of healing humanity says that each and every taste has a unique mechanism for nourishing our body, mind, spirit and senses gradually.

Most of the times the taste of our choice determines our personality and a popular adage that witnesses this statement is ‘We are what we eat’. Tasteless items are not at all considered and the booming restaurant industry proves the importance of taste since ages. According to Ayurveda, the six tastes are derived from the five vital elements. The significance of the six Ayurvedic tastes are as follows:

  1. Sweet: This taste is derived from the combination of earth and water. It is present in food items that are rich in carbohydrates, amino acids, fats, sugars, oils, milk and milk products, fruits, beans, and certain vegetables like beetroot, carrot and cooked potatoes. This taste has a heavy, oily, moist and cold characteristic. It is popularly known for building tissues of the human body.
  2. Sour: Sour taste is a combination of fire and earth. This taste in present in fermented food products, citrus fruits and vegetables with acids like ascorbic acid. It stimulates digestion by fortifying the digestive fire. It is hot, moist, oily and light in nature.
  3. Salty: It is derived from the fire and water elements having a moist, heavy and hot nature. Salty taste is found in sea salt, rock salt, refrigerated sea foods, salted nuts, pickles, chips and certain vegetables like kelp and seaweed. It calms the nerves, enhances digestion, supports in waste elimination and brings down anxiety and fear.
  4. Pungent: Being derived from air and fire elements, this taste is light, dry and hot. Pungent taste is a part of onions, garlic, ginger and chili peppers. It supports trouble-free digestion, reduces muscular pain and boosts circulation.
  5. Bitter: Bitter taste is a combination of ether and air. This taste is cool, dry and light in nature. It is found in spices like dandelion root, turmeric, fenugreek, green leafy vegetables like bitter guard, spinach, egg plant etc, Tea, coffee and olives also taste bitter. It has excellent detoxifying properties that aids in treating skin rashes, weight reduction, fever, water retention and much more.
  6. Astringent: This is a combination of the earth and air elements. Astringent taste is found in beans, potatoes, raw honey, resins, tannins, cranberries, cauliflower, broccoli, pears, turnip and few other spices like marjoram and turmeric. It is slightly cold in nature and purifies the tissues of the body.

Wow! Is all that I have to utter here as it’s really amazing to know the tastes that are good to our health. Hope our blind eating would stop here and help us start a healthy Ayurvedic diet with a combination of the all these six essential tastes.

Reference Links:

  1. Gustation by Wikipedia
  2. Ayurveda & Aromatherapy: The Earth Essential Guide to Ancient Wisdom and Modern Healing by Dr. Light Miller and Dr. Brian Miller
  3. The 6 Tastes: Our Guide Map To Optimal Nutrition by Eat Taste Heal