Dinacharya means ‘close to day’ in Sanskrit. It means you are in touch with the cycles of the earth, moon, and sun, as well as other planets on a more subtle level. If all that seems a bit airy-fairy to you, just observe how a full moon
affects the tides and how sunspot activity affects electrical systems. An undeniable connection exists between us and the elements of our solar system.
Ayurveda emphasizes harmonizing with natural rhythms and the influence that lifestyle has on the doshas following the daily routine can help allay ill-health and may prevent some of the damage caused by poor diet and lifestyle.
It’s never too late to cultivate good habits. The organs of your body create a wonderful harmony, but when you lose the connection to daily rhythms and seasonal changes, you begin to get that not-quite-right feeling. You lose awareness of what’s good for you – whether that’s food, relationships or exercise.
Day Time Rituals
The Right Side of the Bed: Starting the Day with Energy
Beginning your day correctly is paramount, because it sets the tone for the rest of your day. A few tips make maximizing this critical time easier and give you a more productive start. Of foremost importance is the time when you get out of bed. If you get up right away when you wake up, you’re more likely to feel good, because you’re at
your freshest during this time.
If, on the other hand, you go back to sleep, you’ll dream, and this can make you tired because you start to return to the part of the sleep cycle known as REM (rapid eye movement). When you have to wake up again, you feel groggy because you’re leaving your bed just when you’d be returning to deep sleep.
The time at which you get up depends on your constitution :
✓ Those with a Vata constitution should get up at about 6 a.m. You’re easily fatigued and tend to need more sleep to replenish your delicate nervous system.
✓ Pitta people are best suited to 5:30 a.m. You tend to sleep very soundly and wake up refreshed after about 6 hours.
✓ Kapha individuals ought to start stirring at around 4:30 or 5:00 a.m., even though they’re the ones who are most likely to want to stay in bed. This is because you need to stimulate an already slow metabolism and you tend to put on weight easily. Rising early and being more active throughout the day will stimulate your system.
Those on a spiritual path, whatever it is, will find 4 or 4:30 a.m. the best time for prayer or meditation, because sattwa, with its fine balancing energy, is more prevalent at this time and also at dusk. Try not to rush headlong into the day, and remember to factor in a gentle start with time for reflection, harmonizing your inner flow of energy with that of the earth. The following sections show you how to start your day gently.
Reflecting before you start the day
Moving from sleep to activity takes a little doing. A moment of reflection can help to ease the transition. When you awake, reflect for a few moments before your feet touch the floor. While still lying down, look at your hands, palms up, for a short while and then pass them gently over your face, chest, and waist to cleanse your aura and improve awareness. Then briefly say a positive affirmation or prayer for your intention to have a good day. You don’t have to get fancy; the important thing is that you use this moment to set the tone for the day ahead.
Putting your best foot forward
Every 90 minutes, the flow of breath in the nose switches from the left to the right nostril. When it’s on the right side, actions such as eating and urinating should be undertaken; conversely, the left nostril activities are more reflective, such as meditating and studying. This is because the right nostril is heating and connected to solar energies, and the left nostril is cooling and connected to lunar energies.
Establish the dominant nostril by breathing on the back of your hand near the junction of the hand and wrist. When you determine from which side the stronger breath is coming, place your corresponding foot on the ground. With this act (known as Swara yoga), you’re literally putting your best foot forward to carry positive energy throughout all your daily activities.
Cleansing your body
When you get up, head right to the bathroom to urinate and evacuate your bowels and remove wastes that have accumulated in your system overnight. Try to educate your bowels to release their contents at the same time every day, because the imbalance of the doshas can manifest itself here very quickly. Finish your body-cleansing routine by drinking a glass of room-temperature water with a little lemon juice. Doing so helps to flush the kidneys and keep your gastrointestinal tract clean. Drinking from a copper cup removes excess Kapha or mucus from the body because copper ions have a slight warming effect on the body.
Meditation: The Way to Nirvana and the Light in the Heart
Ideally, meditation becomes the foundation of your day. Regular meditation can change your life in a very positive way, leading you to experience the world and other people as being part of the same unified whole. Meditation is central to the practice of Ayurveda. Note that meditation isn’t just about sitting silently with your eyes shut; rather, it’s a state of total awareness giving focused attention, when both mind and body are in complete harmony. This state provides deep rest on all levels.
The action of meditation is thought to unlink the cortical and limbic systems, or, to put it another way, it separates the perceiving system and thinking arena from the emotional and autonomic parts of the mind. The result is that you become more wakeful and alert, while in a deeply relaxed state. You also benefit emotionally from a therapeutic effect that helps you cope more easily with the challenges, or slings and arrows, of the day.
Moving into meditation
For your morning meditation, select a place in your home that’s quiet, preferably facing north-east, a direction which is considered to be more in tune with spiritual energies. Choose a draught-free and well-ventilated room. Try to use the same space for your regular practice. Doing so promotes sattwic energy (a peaceful quality akin to that in sacred spaces; Chapter 2 tells you more about sattwic energy). Also, try to keep away from distractions like your
phone or computer, or at least turn them off.
Set aside the same time for meditation every day. Doing so strengthens your practice, because once you have a defined time, you can begin to fit your schedule around it. Sunrise and sunset are ideal times for meditation because
more calm is available in the form of sattwic energy.
Follow these steps to experience meditation:
1. Sit on a cushion or rug with your legs crossed. If that’s too difficult, choose a comfortable seat or chair that allows your feet to touch the floor.
2. Now try to still all movement in your body. Sitting up straight and still enables energy to flow unimpeded through your head and down through your spine, creating a sense of equilibrium in the body.
3. Focus on your breath, without changing it in any way. Sense the inhalation and feel the coolness of the air as it passes through your nostrils.
Next, allow the exhalation of air in its own time and note the warmth of the air as it leaves your nasal cavity.
4. Try to meditate for 20 to 30 minutes twice a day. Work up to that duration, and when you master it you can extend it (and perform meditation more often). But consistency of practice is more important than duration; a little every day is more valuable than meditating for huge chunks of time on an irregular basis. The benefits of meditation far outweigh any perceived problems.
A great step to help you towards deep meditation is to focus on a sound. I’ve included sounds for specific doshas in the next section. The sound ‘so hum’ is useful if you don’t know your constitution or want a general sound to focus on – ‘so’ on the inhalation and ‘hum’ on the exhale. This should be sounded internally in a measured and slow way. This enables you to move into a deeper place and enhance your inner awareness.
After finishing your meditation practice, slowly reengage your senses with the outer world and take a little time to reflect and stretch before moving headlong into your busy life. If possible, try to bring to mind how you felt during meditation; doing so will help you to be calm and centered throughout the day.
Being patient with difficulties
Meditation requires practice. As you become accustomed to meditation, expect some difficulties such as:
✓ An increase in restlessness. Your mind moves constantly, and you probably don’t realize just how true that is until you stop to observe. Don’t worry; the jumping around of thought that you’re starting to notice is perfectly normal. With practice, you can calm it.
✓ Impatience at the absence of results. Even though nothing appears to be happening early on, trust that at subtle levels you’re ironing out kinks and making progress.
✓ Intruding thoughts invade the mind during the practice. Don’t try to repress these perfectly normal interruptions, but do go back to focusing on your breath or mantra whenever you realize you’ve lost concentration.
Let patience be your watchword, and treat each meditation period as a special treat.
Looking After the Senses
Ayurveda places great importance on the care of the sense organs, because their smooth operation ensures clarity and freshness in your experience of the outer world. Part of staying in balance is keeping your senses clear, because they’re literally how you take in the world.
Refreshing your eyes
Seventy percent of sensory experience comes through your eyes, and most of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual insights are intimately linked to the successful functioning of our visual system. Nowadays, sight is seriously challenged by poor lighting, whether it be too bright or too low, as well as by bad posture, staring at computer screens for too long and reading small print.
Computer vision syndrome is now an established medical phenomenon, in which concentrating on a computer screen leads to headaches, blurred vision,
neck pain, fatigue, dry and irritated eyes, difficulty refocusing and double vision. If this sounds familiar, consider including eye yoga in your daily routine.
Rotate your eyes in either direction to improve visual acuity and remove habitual strain. You may also want to use a diluted Triphala eyewash, which is good for all doshas and cleanses the eyes. Here’s how:
1. Mix a 1⁄4 cup of water and a 1⁄4 teaspoon of Triphala powder (available from health-food shops; see Appendix C for suppliers).
2. Simmer gently for ten minutes.
3. Cool the mixture.
4. Strain to remove any granules.
5. Rinse eyes with the mixture.
You may want to apply anjanam, an herbal eye ointment, after your eyewash.
This herb is said to be a good coolant, it protects the eyes from bright light and enhances the look of the eyes. Eye drops such as organic rosewater are very soothing, and castor oil once a week really makes your eyes sparkle.
Caring for teeth and gums
Ayurvedic texts explain that the teeth don’t exist in isolation and that they’re part of a living matrix, which in fact is linked subtly to end organs in the rest of the body.
To stimulate the connections between the teeth and the organs, try clenching your teeth together. Doing so also aids the circulation of each tooth and maintains the muscles of the jaw. Thirty clenches per day is optimal.
The following tips help you keep your mouth healthy and thereby maximize the connections between your teeth and gums and your mind and body:
✓ Apply sesame oil to your gums after cleaning your teeth, to maintain tooth health. I have a close friend who’s a dentist and encourages all her patients to do so – with very good results. Decant raw, untoasted sesame oil over your brush (dipping the brush would contaminate the oil) and judiciously coat your teeth to condition the gums and prevent plaque build-up.
✓ Relieve bleeding gums and gingivitis by massaging the teeth and gums with raw sesame oil four times a day for four to five minutes after you clean them.
✓ A lovely formula for daily use on teeth is one teaspoon each of lodhra, kala namak, triphala, and neem, mixed together and kept in a container (all are available from online Ayurvedic shops). This concoction helps to contract the small capillaries and introduce Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that stimulates healthy gum tissue. Another useful dental formula is a 50–50 mix of Triphala powder with finely ground roasted almond shells.
✓ You can use Irimedali Taila, a special oil which is just for the mouth, to massage your gums to prevent gum disease.
Tongue and mouth maintenance
Two very effective strategies for looking after the mouth are sluicing the mouth with herbal preparations or oily substances, which is called gandusha in Sanskrit, and gargling, known as kavalagraha. These practices of irrigating the mouth can be performed all year round by all body types. The first thing in the morning is the most favorable time of day. They prevent and treat bad breath, all Kapha disorders and dryness.
Gandusha
In this procedure, you completely fill your mouth with fluid so that you can’t gargle. It’s particularly helpful if you’ve started to lose taste.
Start by preparing one of the following mixtures:
✓ Untoasted sesame oil or ghee with sweet, sour or salty substances such as liquorice powder or a little black salt (available from your Indian grocery) to remove Vata disturbances like wasting of the gums and loose teeth.
✓ Ghee with a small amount of a bitter medicament such as guduchi is useful in pitta problems, and particularly helpful in cases of mouth ulcers and pitta-provoked situations such as bleeding gums.
✓ Ghee with a small amount of a bitter, pungent and astringent substance such as eucalyptus oil or neem powder is known as samshodana gandusha and will help to eradicate Kapha problems such as infections, dryness and a white coating in the mouth due to candida.
Sit near a sink in a draught-free environment. The ancient texts suggest concentrating while seated in a darkened room with someone massaging your neck and shoulders. If you can arrange this, you’re very lucky – enjoy it!
Completely fill your mouth with one of the solutions. Doing so may cause your eyes and or nose to run. That’s part of the process of disturbing doshas from your ears, nose, mouth, and eyes which are accumulating in your mouth,
so that you can expel them.
Kavalagraha
In kavalagraha, you half fill your mouth with a decoction of herbs in either water or oil, so that you have room to gargle. The mixture you gargle depends on your constitution.
Determine your constitution, and then choose the appropriate recipe:
✓ For Vata, combine:
• 1 cup of water
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 drop lavender oil
✓ For a pitta constitution, mix:
• 1 cup of water
• 1⁄2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
✓ If you have a Kapha constitution, prepare:
• 1 cup of water
• 1⁄2 teaspoon honey
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ginger
For whichever recipe you choose, bring the water and herbs to the boil and then simmer for three to five minutes. If you’re using the vata recipe, wait to add the oil until after the mixture has simmered. Cool the vata or kapha mixture until it is warm before using; use the pitta mixture cold.
Then gargle, as follows:
1. Hold the substance in your mouth for one minute and then swoosh around your teeth and eject.
2. Fill your mouth again for two minutes and gargle with the head back.
Spit out the substance. Your mouth should feel really refreshed.
More tips for mouth care
Other tips for the health of the mouth include:
✓ Chew a mixture of equal quantities of fennel and cumin seeds, or a cardamom pod, after eating, to freshen your breath and aid your digestion.
✓ Avoid crunching on ice in drinks, which weakens tooth enamel.
✓ Refrain from drinking very hot drinks, eating acidic foods and smoking – all of which upset the natural flora of the mouth.
Care of the tongue
The tongue is considered a very important organ in Ayurveda and is known as jivha, a word which has the same root as the word ‘life’. Treat this organ of perception with great care.
Use a tongue scraper, which you can find at any chemist, to keep your tongue in its best shape. To use it, gently pass the scraper over the surface of the tongue from back to front.
Don’t be too aggressive with your tongue scraper. The papillae (the bits that stick up) on your tongue are very delicate and easily damaged. Keep your tongue scraper clean and dry between uses or you may spread infection.
Scraping your tongue:
✓ Aids the expulsion of ama.
✓ Stimulates stomach activity, because the stomach is innervated with the same nerves as the tongue is.
✓ Keeps the mouth and breath fresh.
✓ Removes excess kapha.
✓ Improves the taste of food.
Stainless steel tongue scrapers are a good choice. Plastic can be too sharp. Use a silver tongue scraper and you get the extra benefit of silver ions deposited on your tongue; that’s a tonic for pitta types. A copper scraper is good for kapha and vata doshas.
Snehana
Loving the Body with Oil Massage
Massage is central to the therapeutics of Ayurveda, which recommends that you should never be far from a bottle of oil. The early texts compared the human body to a leather bag that gets worn out but lasts much longer if it’s lubricated. Similarly, the axle of a wheel will also fail to operate unless properly greased.
Charaka
one of the most venerated Ayurvedic physicians, described the utility of oil massage by noting that when a pot is coated with an oily substance, the contents come out easily. This is also the case with the body: when appropriately oiled, the aggravated doshas can be expressed without too much trouble; when the aggravated doshas are left in place, they can create disease. In short, if you massage yourself with oil, you help to promote health.
The most gentle of all the therapies in the book, oil massage brings Ayurvedic herbs deep into the skin tissue. That action enhances your sense of touch by opening the channels through which sensation and prana (energy) flow to
create a balance between what you experience and how you perceive it.
Ayurveda identifies nine effects of oil massage:
✓ Strength
✓ Invigoration
✓ Fluidity
✓ Peacefulness
✓ Gentleness
✓ Repairing scar tissue and muscular adhesions which create blockages to the flow of prana
✓ Moisturizing skin
✓ Sensory stimulation
✓ Accommodation, or your skin’s ability to stretch and prevent the formation of fissures and splits
Oil massage is referred to as snehana, which also means ‘to love’. The ancient texts mention 24 methods of application, covering a wide spectrum of therapies, such as: vaginal/urethral (yes we need moisture inside and out!) douches; gargles; nasal, ear and eye applications; and ingesting oily or sticky substances such as rice and decoctions.
Selecting the best oils for your body type
Both Sushruta and Charaka, the founding fathers of Ayurveda, mention that sesame is a good all-round oil to use because it’s subtle, endows satiety, is bulk promoting, aphrodisiac, enhances retention of memory, and acts as a skin and hair tonic.
Sesame oil is one of the best rejuvenators in Ayurveda because it works on all tissues, or dhatus, is widely used as a base for herbs, nourishes the skin and bones and calms the mind. It’s said to penetrate all seven layers of the skin. In recent studies, sesame has been shown to have anti-viral properties, especially in the case of the Epstein–Barr virus. Sesame oil keeps for a long time without going rancid and contains several essential minerals, including iron, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, silica, trace elements, and calcium.
You can buy sesame oil in any supermarket. Just don’t get the toasted variety, or you’ll go around all day smelling like a Chinese restaurant!
Depending on your dosha, choose your oil as follows:
✓ Vata individuals should choose sesame, almond or nirgundi oils. These are light and warming in quality, which balances vata dosha.
✓ Sunflower, coconut and neem oils are recommended for pacifying pitta because they’re cooling in quality without being too heavy.
✓ If you have a Kapha constitution, look for mustard or corn oil. However, if you’re overweight, using oil will add more Kapha qualities to your already heavy and slow attributes. Therefore use dry powders with silk gloves if you’re very overweight, and apply more stimulation to increase the blood flow to areas like your thighs to stimulate the breakdown of fat tissue.
Oil application to the ears: Karna purna
Applying a drop or two of sesame oil in each ear every day protects and vitalizes these sense organs, which become aggravated by vata because you use them constantly. So this simple practice should become a life-long habit for everyone. Headphones, in particular, are hard on your ears. Using headphones increases air imbalance in the body, because sound is carried in this medium. In turn, this leads to dryness and accumulation of ear wax, which can give rise to tinnitus. The inability to withstand loud noises is one of the first signs that vata is going out of balance. Don’t apply oil to your ears if there’s any sign of infection, but see your doctor immediately.
Oil application for the nostrils: Nasya
Applying oil to the nostrils is beneficial to all doshas, but kapha and vata imbalances are particularly helped by it. Applying oil into your nose improves the flow of prana, prevents dryness of your nasal cavity, and is said to increase mental clarity.
Simply apply ghee or sesame oil to your clean little finger and rub gently into each nostril.
Patent nasal oils are readily available; the most common is known as Anu Tailam. Simply tip your head back and introduce three to five drops into each nostril daily. Doing so gives a sense of calm to the body and relieves dryness of the nostrils, pain in the face, weakness of vision, as well as pain in the neck region. If you suffer from a blocked nose or sinusitis, then you need a deeper cleansing using a neti pot.
Adorning Your Body with Clothes and Perfumes
How you present yourself to the world has a profound effect on how you feel about yourself, so time spent on your appearance is well worth the effort. Here are some simple tips for pampering yourself, using the knowledge of the doshas.
Choosing Clothes for Comfort
I’m sure you know the lovely feeling that freshly washed and ironed clothes give you. Ayurveda says that such clothing confers Ojas, or good energy, on the wearer.
Remember the old saying that you never know how someone feels until you’ve stood in their moccasins? There is literal truth to that. You don’t want to wear anyone else’s clothes or shoes, because they contain the wearer’s energy patterns, and those may be quite negative. This guideline is a hard one for any of us who frequent charity shops, so as a minimum get items dry-cleaned before you put them on.
When you choose clothes, keep the following tips in mind:
✓ Choose natural fibers where possible, because they allow the skin to breathe freely and are less irritating.
✓ Silk is said to best protect you against negative influences.
✓ Underwear made from silk or cotton is breathable and helps prevent fungal infections.
✓ Wearing nylon socks and plastic shoes is like putting your feet in polythene bags. A large number of sweat glands are located in your feet, and the result, especially in the summer, can be athlete’s foot (and smelly feet!).
Co-ordinating colors with the doshas
Colors are associated with different qualities and can be an important means of warding off bad influences. Dark colors, for example, tend to be heavy and cooling in effect, whereas reds and oranges are warm and stimulating.
Depending on your dosha, follow these tips for choosing colors:
✓ Vatas and kaphas are both cool doshas, and therefore favour warm colors such as coral, mauves and pinks.
✓ Kapha types should avoid white in general and stick to enlivening colors because Kapha secretions in the body tend to be white and cool.
✓ If you’re pitta, which means you tend to get hot under the collar and in the body, go for more sombre selections such as greens, browns, and blues.
✓ The ubiquitous black that’s favoured today is a shade that attracts denser,
more tamasic (undesirable), energies and literally drags you down.
✓ Gold jewellery imparts the warmth of the sun to vata and kapha doshas.
✓ Silver and platinum suggest the characteristics of the moon and are associated with its cooling properties. These are most suitable for pitta dosha.
Putting your best foot forward with comfortable shoes
How you understand the world is determined in part by how you make contact with the ground. According to Polarity Therapy, developed by Randolph
Stone in the 1950s and an offshoot of Ayurveda, the body is electric, with the head being the positive pole and the navel being neutral. The feet are
the strongest negative pole in your system and contain 84,000 nerve endings that connect to all the reflex zones of the body. According to the Ayurvedic system, 72,000 subtle channels called nadis find their junctions in the feet. So choosing appropriate footwear is paramount to your health.
Indian yogis wear wooden sandals because the leather of a cow isn’t permitted. For those of us who are not concerned with these issues, shoes that breathe are by far the best choice, so that means canvas, cork or leather. Feet expand by as much as one size during the day, so buy shoes in the afternoon or early evening to get the right fit. Take your shoes off the minute you enter your home and allow your feet to feel the ground. Change your shoes regularly, so that you’re not exposed to pressures in the same part of your foot daily. A word also about heel height: irreversible damage can be done to the delicate structures of your feet, legs, and lower back if you wear high heels all day. Wear them very, very rarely!
Perfumes and oils
Perfumes and oils are said to confer longevity and charm to the wearer. Wearing a scent isn’t only pleasing to the mind, but stimulating to the libido.
Your aromatherapy oils help with stress management, and each dosha has specific characteristics that may be pacified by using a particular oil.
Essential oils work at a primordial level to enhance mood, focus the mind and stimulate the body in a positive way. Introduce your picks from the following list of oils. You can apply them directly to your skin if they’re mixed with a
carrier oil such as almond oil. You can also use them in your home or office, using diffusers or room sprays.
Vata dosha
Those of you with a predominant vata dosha can benefit from the use of:
✓ Cedarwood, clary sage, ylang-ylang, frankincense and lavender to help dispel the anxiety and fear often associated with this dosha.
✓ Chamomile, eucalyptus, and angelica to improve groundedness
✓ Rosemary, cypress, and basil to fight fatigue and weakness
✓ Neroli, rose, thyme, basil, and lavender to remedy sleeplessness
Pitta dosha
The hot tendencies of pitta dosha can benefit from using:
✓ Coriander, musk, borage, sandalwood, frankincense, benzoin, cardamom and rose to address the propensity towards irritability and anger.
✓ Brahmi and gold chamomile to reduce frustration
✓ Lavender and peppermint to address stubbornness
✓ Amber and geranium, which come to the rescue when a domineering attitude is at play
Kapha dosha
Allay the heavy and cool qualities of kapha by using:
✓ Bergamot, clary sage, geranium, orange and petitgrain oils, especially if
feeling depressed
✓ Cardamom, rosemary and basil oils to address greed and attachment,
both common kapha feelings
✓ Jasmine and ylang-ylang to address low self-esteem
Time to Step Outside
Eat a light breakfast, and you’re ready to face the world. The steps in this chapter may seem extensive, but they leave you ready for a full and active day. I allow two hours before I leave the house in the morning for my daily routine: this allows for half an hour of meditation and 90 minutes for completing my ablutions without rushing. Taking your time with preparations enables you to face the world and all its challenges full of confidence.
When taking a nap is okay
Sleeping during the day is a no-no in the Ayurveda system. Catching a quick 40 winks is fine, but sleeping for more than 30 minutes during daylight hours creates an increase in tamas guna, which breeds inertia and dullness, making you sluggish and slow.
Like every rule, exceptions exist:
✓ A nap during the summer when it’s hot is okay. In other seasons, daytime sleeping can be bad for people with both pitta (hot) and kapha (cold) constitutions.
✓ If you’re older, napping is okay, and, of course, young children need extra sleep.
✓ If you’re studying hard, a little nap can help recharge you mentally and physically.
✓ After having sex, you need to replenish yourself with extra sleep.
✓ If you carry heavy weights as part of your job, you merit a little daytime kip.
✓ Traveling by any form of transport increases vata dosha (air) and causes fatigue, which is helped by a daytime nap.
✓ Illnesses all call for extra sleep time.
✓ During the grieving process or if you’re undergoing any intense emotion, including keeping a vigil of any kind, you can benefit from resting during the day.
Night-time Rituals for Sound Sleep
The importance of a good night’s rest is one of the three pillars of health in Ayurveda, along with food and sex. Sleep is profoundly refreshing because it offers a chance to disengage from the sensory bombardment that pervades your daily life. You let your mind, body, and emotions restore themselves and prepare for the day ahead.
To lead a healthy life, you need to get the proper amount of quality sleep.
Studies show a strong correlation between the amount of sleep people get and their overall health. People who get less than four hours or more than ten hours of sleep each night tend to be ill more than people who slumber between these extremes. Vagbhata, a famous Ayurvedic physician, points out that poor sleep weakens your digestion, and poor digestion can open the door to disease.
Certain nerves in the brain produce transmitters which keep the brain alert when you’re awake, but then another neurotransmitter, adenosine, builds up in your bloodstream to cause drowsiness. Your level of adenosine slowly reduces overnight while you sleep, so that you can wake up again in the morning.
According to Ayurveda, there are seven types of sleep, caused by:
✓ Tamas. This – one of the three different forces governing creation – is predominant at night. It tends to be dull, dense and heavy, and subsequently causes drowsiness.
✓ Kapha. On the physical level, Kapha has damp and gross qualities that induce sleepiness.
✓ Certain diseases or a fever. This type of sleep is caused when illness throws all the doshas out of balance.
✓ Fatigue from overexertion of your mind.
✓ Physical exertion. Sleep induced by exertion is a healthy response.
✓ The very nature of the night, when tamas and the darkness comes down. Sleep attributable to this is cool and has a heavy energy.
✓ Agantuka. This is a particular disease, to which Ayurveda attributes a
type of incidental sleep. This type of sleep points to a poor prognosis because it leads to eventual death. Hopefully you won’t experience this one!
Getting acquainted with the Ayurvedic
Types of Insomnia
Insomnia can manifest itself in a variety of ways. The Ayurvedic classifications go into the detail of the universally experienced symptoms of this sleep disorder (refer to Chapter 4 for a description of the constitutions):
✓ Vata: You’re a very light sleeper and the slightest sound wakes you up;
then you have a difficult time getting back to sleep. You typically wake up between 2 and 4 a.m. – the time when vata dosha is dominant. You tend to lie in bed worrying about things, and your mind flits like a butterfly
from one worry to the next. Your dreams involve flying, falling and being chased.
✓ Pitta: You fall asleep rapidly but wake up between 12 and 2 a.m. You often feel frustrated and angry when this happens, and it can put you in a grisly mood the next day. You tend to feel hot and often sweat at night.
Sometimes you’re thirsty as well.
Your dreams involve wars, conflict, weapons, and anger.
✓ Kapha: You fall asleep easily but wake up because your sinuses are blocked, which commonly occurs in the early-morning hours. You may suffer from indigestion because your digestion tends to be slow, especially if you’ve eaten late in the evening. If you haven’t metabolized both emotions and food, you feel heavy and depressed the next day.
Kapha’s dreams are romantic, sad, watery and calm.
✓ Sannipata: In this serious condition, all the doshas are out of balance and you find it very difficult to sleep at any time. Thus, you can be very tired and have trouble being fully awake. Thankfully, this is the rarest form.
Finding ways to get a good night’s sleep
each doshic type has an optimal bedtime:
✓ Vata: 10 p.m.
✓ Pitta: Between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
✓ Kapha: Between 11 p.m. and midnight
Getting to a good place – physically, mentally and emotionally – before you go to bed can do a lot to stave off bouts of insomnia. Use the tips in the following sections to make your night-time ritual a soothing one that encourages
healthful sleep. Some people are more vulnerable to insomnia than others. If you’re one of the sleepless ones, being aware when you’re exposed to physical and psychological stress can help you manage your insomnia.
Spending Time Winding Down
Take some time at the end of the day to reflect on the day’s events and contemplate how you can improve things in the future if necessary. Reading something spiritually meaningful can help you wind down to a night’s sleep with pleasant and calming thoughts. Save the thrillers for daylight. Turn off your computer at least an hour or two before retiring. Your electronic lifeline is also a stimulant, and recent studies from Harvard University say it definitely jangles your nerves, preventing calm sleep if you’re using it every night before you go to bed.
If you like to play music at night, stick to slow, soothing, melodic sounds, preferably playing on a machine you can turn off from your bed.
How the sun affects your sleep?
The sun’s energy is expansive and creates activity, while the night is dominated by tamasic energyy, or inertia, which tends to draw everything inward and slow you down. Sunlight stimulates the pineal gland (an endocrine gland embedded in the brain) to produce both melatonin and serotonin, hormones intimately connected to the sleep cycle. So if you want to be well and have undisturbed sleep, be sure to get at least 20 minutes of natural sunlight
every day – especially in the winter. The sun’s effects reach your brain through your eyes, so spend a minimum of 20 minutes exposing your face to the sun without glasses of any kind – even your prescription specs block the sun’s benefits. Studies in Sweden clearly showed that exposure to sunlight for at least 20 minutes a day helped to regularise menstrual periods and regulate sleep patterns. Lack of exposure to sunlight can interfere with
many physical and emotional functions. I went to a conference in Las Vegas a few years back and heard casino staff complaining of menstrual irregularity. It wasn’t hard to find the reason, considering that the staff worked in
buildings with no windows or even clocks for that matter, which is a very disorientating experience for the body.
Making your bedroom sleep-inducing
Turn your bedroom into a sanctuary. Use restful colors on the walls – pale yellow is ideal because it’s a positive color that reflects the energy of the sun. Remove all clutter from the room to make it a light and airy place. I use an air ionizer, which I think helps my breathing. Avoid any strong smells in the room – commercial cleaners, for example. Sprinkle a little lavender oil on your pillow to create a restful aroma.
Make sure that your mattress is the best you can afford. Don’t scrimp on this piece of furniture; remember that you spend a third of your life on it! A cheaper and very good option for the financially challenged is a memory foam topper. These toppers are brilliant for molding around all the kinks of your body. A small caveat, though: I had a patient with a foam mattress topper who suffered terribly with menopausal night sweats. Because the foam doesn’t allow airflow, the mattress can make you very hot indeed.
Reduce visual distractions:
✓ Remove your television if you have one in your bedroom. Many people watch intensely violent images before going to sleep, and Ayurveda says that the delicate film of tarpak kapha (grey matter in the brain) becomes
impregnated with these images, so that your sleep is disturbed by them without you being conscious of it.
✓ Turn the bedroom clock to face the wall, or remove it altogether. If you wake in the middle of the night, just seeing the time can cause anxiety.
Avoiding certain indigestible
Eating a heavy meal before bedtime not only makes getting to sleep difficult, the food also sits there in your stomach all night, leading to indigestion, which blocks the channels (and, ultimately, it can be a factor in obesity). So leave about two hours before retiring after having three courses.
A couple things to avoid before bedtime are:
✓ Alcohol: A glass of wine with dinner is okay, but leave it at that. Although the initial effect of liquor is to make you sleepy, it can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night feeling dehydrated and thirsty.
✓ Stimulants: It’s well known that caffeine can keep you awake at night, so avoid stimulants after 5 p.m. The good news is that Ayurveda doesn’t consider coffee, tea, nicotine and other stimulants intrinsically bad. However, Ayurveda is also about moderation and timing. In countries and cultures where the power of caffeine is recognized and respected, espresso and coffee comes in very small cups and isn’t drunk just before bed.
Keep in mind that some over-the-counter drugs for slimming, cold relief and asthma treatment contains caffeine.
Take a look at your medications. Tricyclic antidepressants can cause insomnia, and beta-blockers can plague your night with bad dreams and make you toss and turn. If you’re having ill effects, consult your doctor.
If you’re on prescription medications for insomnia, be aware that they cease to have any benefit after a few weeks, because the body gets habituated to them. Don’t stop taking them abruptly though, because this leads to further bouts of insomnia. Talk to your doctor about how to gradually reduce your dosage.
Connecting Eating and Sleeping
How you sleep at night depends a great deal on how you’ve eaten during the day and whether your food is well digested. The Ayurvedic idea of ama comes into play with improper digestion. Ama refers to the state of a process not yet completed; ama about digestion means improperly or incompletely processed foods, which can produce toxins in the body.
To avoid ama for the various constitutions, follow these rules:
✓ Vata dosha: Meals should be light and consist of warm foods cooked with warming spices such as cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. Those with Vata constitutions should eat at around 6 p.m.
✓ Pitta dosha: Food should be cool and not spicy. Use herbs such as coriander and fennel. It’s best to eat your supper between 6 and 7 p.m. if you have a pitta constitution.
✓ Kapha dosha: Warm food in moderate quantities seasoned with warming spices such as ginger, mustard seed, and garlic is best for Kapha types. Eat between 7 and 8 p.m. and avoid snacking before bed.
In general, yogurt is prohibited at night, because it’s said to obstruct the srotas or channels of circulation. This is particularly true for those of you with asthma, bronchitis or rheumatism.
In the Ashtangha Hrdyam, a famous Ayurvedic treatise by a physician called Vagbhata, Vajikarana translates to the strength of a stallion’s (vajee’s) tool (karana). This Vajikarana is the science of increasing fertility in men and producing healthy babies. The following list applies to men only:
✓ Vajikarana: The science of aphrodisiacs and substances that maximize
sexual satisfaction by acting as aphrodisiacs or heightening satisfaction.
One example is Mucuna pruriens or kapikacchu. Take one capsule twice a
day with water or milk after meals.
✓ Shukra-Shodhana: The concept of purifying semen, so that your progeny will be strong and in good health.
An example is Saussurea lappa or kushta. This herb is usually part of a
formulation.
✓ Shukra-Stambhaka: This group of medicines helps with premature ejaculation by increasing a man’s ability to retain sperm during intercourse.
An example is Myristica fragrans or jatiphala as it’s known in Sanskrit.
✓ Shukra Pravartaka-Janaka: These substances increase semen flow in the testes.
Examples are Embelica officinalis, or amalaki, and masha, which is black gram or urad dahl.
✓ Shukra Shoshaka: These drugs dry up semen – useful if a man has copious amounts of semen but a low sperm count.
Examples are Kalinga, a type of watermelon, and haritaki (Terminalia chebula), which is commonly taken with long pepper (Piper longum) at the end of the winter.
✓ Shukra Rechana: This group of compounds aid in the release of semen
for men who have trouble ejaculating.
Examples are Solanum xanthocarpum or kantakari and in the same family Solanum Indicum, or brihati.
✓ Shukrajanana: This collection of herbs promotes spermatogenesis, production of healthy sperm.
Under this heading fall popular Ayurvedic herbs such as Withania somnifera, or Ashwagandha, and Asparagus racemosus, or shatavari.
Selecting foods for good reproductive tissue. Here’s a list of foods that help you build healthy sperm and ova:
✓ Artichokes
✓ Asparagus
✓ Black lentils (masa)
✓ Ghee
✓ Honey
✓ Nuts: Cashews, pistachios, and almonds
✓ Meat soup (mamsa rasa; particularly favoured is chicken soup)
✓ Milk
✓ Mushrooms
✓ Rice (shali variety)
✓ Seafoods: Lobster, crabs, oysters, prawns, and shrimp
✓ Spices: Cumin, ginger, cloves, cardamom, garlic
✓ Sugar and sugar cane
✓ Wheat
The common feature of all these food substances is that they’re anabolic, which means they build strong and healthy tissues in the body and ultimately good reproductive cells, or shukra dhatu in Ayurveda. Eating these foods gives you strength – which imparts vigour, dynamism, virility, health and potency.
Some substances retard sperm production, so if you’re trying to conceive, avoid coriander seeds, tobacco and more than your two permitted glasses of alcohol.
Milk is given pride of place in ancient Ayurvedic teachings about sex, mainly because it’s a product of mother-love. In Vajikarana, milk is recommended before intercourse to promote semen. It’s also recommended for after intercourse – drinking warm milk with ground cashews helps build up sexual energy again.
Ghee (clarified butter) is given an accolade as a reproductive-health-promoting substance. You can easily understand why when you realize that ghee is distilled from butter, which is made from milk.