Best Christmas Gift Idea 2012: Adoring Ayurvedic Essential Oils

Are you thinking ‘What is wrong with me?’ wondering what’s the need for Christmas gift idea now, while there are still 4 full months for December 25th to knock your door? Come on! This is scorching summer season and to think about something that will enchant your mind, chill your senses and hearten your spirits will certainly be a brilliant idea and nothing else other than Christmas Eve has the glory to splash such joy on you. Sounds great now….. Right!! This is the right time to start your Christmas count down. Every year Christmas is exceptional in its special way. This year, you make it out of the ordinary by gifting your loved ones with warm and healing Ayurvedic essential oils rather than your usual gifts.

Your 2011 Christmas might not have been the same as your 2008 Christmas. You might have missed your loved ones or there might have been a new member to your family last year (baby!), much more adventure and a variety of gifts and that is what Christmas is all about. Make your 2012 Christmas outshine all the other festive seasons that you’ve passed in your lifetime with a wonderful pack of sensational essential oils that can take your entire family out of this world. Yes! There are certain mind-blowing Ayurvedic essential oils that suit everyone and can be used all through the year till the next Christmas comes by your way. Such enlivening essential oils are:

  1. Lavender essential oil: According to me ‘Lavender is the queen of all essential oils’ and is my all-time favorite. How can anyone keep themselves away from this magnificent oil with a mystique fragrance in it? Fill your love in a bottle full of Lavender essential oil that can uplift the spirits and refresh the mind. Wow! The wonderful color, the exuberant aroma, immense health benefits and numerous therapeutic properties like nervine, sedative, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, antiseptic, analgesic, anti-rheumatic, anti-convulsant and many more make Lavender very special at all the good times and sick times too!
  2. Ylang Ylang essential oil: Nothing can be so very romantic, tender, quixotic, passionate and magical like the transfixing fragrance of Ylang Ylang essential oil. This oil has emmenagogue, sedative, antiseptic, aphrodisiac, hypotensive and antidepressant properties that alleviates pain, supports mood fluctuations, controls high blood pressure, aids in frigidity problems, brings down rapid heartbeat and treats your senses.
  3. Rose essential oil: Shakespeare rightly said that ‘Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose’. Very popularly known as the symbol of love all around the universe, Rose essential oil can give you the joy of being together in a garden full of fresh, fragrant roses. Rose oil has been proven effective in treating various health conditions with its aphrodisiac, antiseptic, antiviral, antidepressant, antiphlogistic, antispasmodic, emmenagogue, uterine, bactericidal and nervine properties.
  4. Grapefruit essential oil: Grapefruit oil with its light and fresh aroma is trusted to have great effects in shedding the extra pounds of the body. Any weight loss program with essential oils cannot get fulfilled without Grapefruit essential oil. It is also an excellent skin toning agent and natural skin purifier.

Apart from these essential oils, you can also include Peppermint essential oil, Sandalwood essential oil, Sweet orange essential oil or Jasmine essential oil as per the preference of your near ones.

Love is known only when it is shown. Express your unconditional love this Christmas season with the never-ending bliss of these Ayurvedic essential oils gift pack. There’s nothing to get surprised if the love of your life asks for one the next Christmas also. Wait and watch!!!

Merry Christmas and let it be a Mesmerizing Christmas as well.

Reference links:

  1. Christmas by History.com
  2. Health benefits of Rose essential oil by Organic facts
  3. Ylang Ylang – The Great Benefits by Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

The Ayurvedic Routine

Health is not a one day activity instead it is a never-ending and continuous mission until your soul departs your body. To stay healthy is to stay on par with the flow of nature without interrupting the natural temperament of your system and Dean Ornish rightly said that ‘Health is not something that you need to get; it’s something you already have if you don’t disturb it’. That is what the ancient remedial science known as Ayurveda suggests mankind to simply tag along the cadence of nature. A daily systematic life that strikes perfect balance with the natural pace of Mother Nature needs no cure or meets no disastrous diseases. Such an inspiring Ayurvedic Routine is popularly termed as ‘Dinacharya’ and seasonal routine is known as Ritucharya.   

Ayurveda strongly states that there is a time for everything with a natural meaning in it. If things are done at the right time, you are striking balance with nature and your body functions perfectly and in close connection with your mind. This natural tempo controls our predominant natural urges like food, sleep and sex, also known as the three pillars of life. Today’s modern living has sickened our lives and has forced us to lead it as blindly as a lost kitten in the middle of the forest. Only when we practice certain vital things on a scheduled time, we can live in harmony without the compulsion of any other external factors misleading our lives. To remember it easily, I have listed the daily Ayurvedic routine as 11 simple points to follow as per the Ayurvedic body types. They are:

  1. Wake up early in the morning before sunrise. For Vata it is just about 6 AM, Pitta it is approximately 5:30 AM and for Kapha it is around 4:30 AM. This aids your senses to rise above and ascend along with the sunrise.
  2. Gargle your mouth and drink a cup of warm water with few drops of fresh lemon juice and one teaspoon of raw honey. This supports your body’s normal bowel movement in the morning and helps the digestive system to function properly. Regular bowel movement will aid in eliminating the toxin from your body and make you feel refreshed without carrying the toxins of the previous day’s food.
  3. Brush your teeth twice daily early in the morning and before going to bed. Scrape and rub your tongue thoroughly in the morning to clear away toxins or the poisonous particles sticking on your tongue from the remaining of the previous day’s food items known as ama in Ayurveda. You can either use a good tongue scraper or a stainless steel spoon to clean your tongue front to back. Clean your nasal passages, ears and eyes regularly.
  4. Go for a brisk walk for about 15 to 20 minutes. This helps in improving your blood circulation and aids you in enjoying the healthy rays of the sun fully filled with Vitamin D and other essential nutrients required to boost the functions of your brain and uplift your skin from within. Vitamin D deficiency might end up in skin cancer, rickets, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in elderly people, muscular weakness and much more.
  5. It’s time to caress, pamper and massage your skin with Abhyanga, the Ayurvedic massage therapy with the use of Ayurvedic essential oils all through your body and your head. Leave it at least for 20 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, you can practice the life saving skill nothing but the great sibling of Ayurveda, popularly known as Yoga. This grants you strength, endurance, resistance and the potential to enhance the functionality of your entire system.
  7. It’s time for a revivifying bath with few drops of energizing Ayurvedic essential oils like lavender essential oil, bergamot essential oil, rose essential oil, jasmine oil, sandalwood oil, grapefruit essential oil, cinnamon essential oil, orange essential oil and few other citrus essential oils to give a right start to your day.
  8. Offer prayers to the Almighty and a calm meditation for about 5 minutes will give you all the energy that your mind needs for accomplishing your challenging tasks all through the day. A powerful meditation influences self-realization and mental strength.
  9. Eating right is very important than just filling your stomach. Taste your food, like it and chew it well as it promotes quicker digestion and absorption of essential energy required by your body. Ensure that you take up a rich and nutritious breakfast between 7:00 to 8:00 AM in the morning.
  10. Have your lunch in between 12:00 to 1:00 PM. Let the not-so-easy to digest food items find a place in your lunch rather than during any other meals of the day because there is enormous time to digest and the Agni or the digestive fire is very active during this time. If possible, go for a small walk after lunch to help easy digestion.
  11. Ensure that your dinner is taken before 8:00 PM and you floss and brush your teeth before going to bed to keep away from harmful germs. Go to bed by 10:00 PM at night making certain that you have enough rest after working throughout the entire day and for gifting a dynamic start to the day ahead. Spend 5 minutes before sleeping to recollect all that you’ve done for the day. Think whether you have accomplished all that is required or have something left behind to finish? This will keep you informed about where you are and direct you towards where you want to go. Utter a small prayer and thank the Creator for all He has given you and sleep peacefully with the hope of being in a new day at dawn.

This might appear as a huge or an impossible list to many but you’ll certainly feel its simplicity and its greater benefits on your healthy and harmonized living once you start practicing it as the celebrated adage ‘Practice makes a man perfect’ appropriately fits in this context and a regular following of these Ayurvedic routine in your life will indeed make you perfect, peaceful and proficient. Start with one and its positive impact will naturally influence you in choosing the whole lot.

Best wishes for your methodical living in the pink.

Thought for the day:

The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they’ll ease
Your will they’ll mend
And charge you not a shilling.

-Nursery rhyme, What the River Knows, 1990, quoted by Wayne Fields

Suggested Reading:

  1. Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide, Revised and Updated Edition by MD Deepak Chopra
  2. Yoga for your Type: An Ayurvedic Approach to Your Asana Practice by Dr. David Frawley, Sandra Summerfield Kozak
  3. Dhanwantari: A Complete Guide to the Ayurvedic Life by Harish Johari

Reference Links:

  1. Dinacharya by Ayurveda Alchemy
  2. Vitamin D Deficiency by WebMD
  3. Agni(Ayurveda) by Wikipedia

Types of Ayurveda: 2 Major Divisions of the Ayurveda Family

The history of Ayurveda is as old as the history of Neem trees that can be marked back to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization of India. Generally, old traditions, out-of-date cultures and old-fashioned practices turn obsolete in due course of time but think if something is spreading its divine power all around the world even after 5000 solid years, what could be the authentic reason lying behind it? The concrete single word answer for this question is just ‘TRUTH’ and truth only in its way of healing humanity wholly.

Each solitary website on Ayurveda and Ayurvedic treatment will have its own way of defining Ayurveda. Apart from its real meaning ‘the knowledge of life’, few may call it as a holistic approach, magical science of healing, best way to treat human illness, natural way of curing mankind and many more. I’d like to remember Ayurveda with the term Ssshh…….. Yes! Let’s call it as the supreme system for superior healing holistically and the silent system as well. Looks easy for you too… to remember this heavenly science, right!!!

Many confuse the types of Ayurveda with Ayurvedic body types also known as doshas i.e. Vata, Pitta and Kapha but to signify unmistakably, the science of Ayurveda can be put into two major classifications namely the Traditional Ayurveda and Maharishi Ayurveda. These two types of Ayurveda work based on the individual Ayurvedic body types, which says that each individual is distinctive and have a discrete structure of energy compiling mental, physical, behavioral and environmental uniqueness.

  • Traditional Ayurveda: Ayurveda is trusted to have its root from two of the prominent religions in India namely Hinduism and Buddhism. This ancient structured method of healing has its traditional concepts listed in the sacred books known as Vedas. Few other sources say that this conventional system is received from Indian God Brahma by the blessed God of medicine known as Dhanvantari. Traditional Ayurvedic theory emphasizes on good metabolism supported by problem-free digestion and apt excretion that guides to vivacity along with meditation, yoga and other physical exercises.
  • Maharishi Ayurveda:  Maharishi Ayurveda is a contemporary resurgence of traditional Ayurveda system projected by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1980s based upon his interest in fortifying the ancient Ayurvedic science in the late 1970s. Maharishi Ayur Veda insists on Transcendental Meditation technique (TM) that presents an all-inclusive knowledge for experiencing the untainted realization of this world by slowing down the aging process through prompt treatment and prevention of diseases. This type of Ayurveda talks about the impact of optimistic feelings for balancing your life with accordance to the natural pace of your body.

Traditional as well as Maharishi Ayurveda believes that health conditions are a result of disparity of the doshas. Both these methods try to treat the whole system by enhancing the inner intelligence for striking balance between these doshas with the help of herbal medicines and Ayurvedic essential oils. To end with, the most remarkable fact is that this great medicinal science is recognized by WHO (World Health Organization) as the effectual and refined way of natural healing.

References:

  1. Ayurveda by Wikipedia
  2. Maharishi Vedic Approach To Health by eNotes
  3. Ayurveda by University of Maryland Medical Center