Ayurveda: 15 Fail-Proof Tips for Living a Beautiful Life

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Ayurveda with Simmi Chopra Bhatia

Presented  by Samaayurvedic.org

15 Smart Ideas to Add Ayurveda to your Daily Routine

          1.  Magic Chai

• Drink a quick digestive tea to improve your digestion especially after eating heavy meals or junk foods like cakes and fried food. Make the tea using cumin, coriander and fennel seeds. Add ginger to further boost the digestion. It also helps control cravings. A pleasant side-effect is you will start losing weight! 

      2.   Homemade Probiotics For All Diets

• Use Homemade Probiotic rather than packaged ones. Buttermilk made from home-made yogurt with fresh curry leaves, pink Himalayan salt, and cumin powder. For non-dairy eaters, drink Kaanji made from beetroot or black carrot seeped in mustard seeds and pink Himalayan salt.  Check out the recipe –  Recipe

  http://samaayurveda.org/blog/

   

       3.  Eat Like Grandma Used to!

• Rather than jump in by trying one of the fad diets which eventually are shown to have side-effects, focus on the diet you were eating when you were growing up– what your parents and more so what your grandparents used to eat.

        The key to a perfect diet is a personalized diet plan according to your              body type. To learn more about your body type, listen to the Ayurveda       Simplified or attend lecture at Pure Yoga.

    4. Raw salads and Vegetable Juices: Moderation is the key”

• Contrary to the latest trend, do not drink vegetable juices and do not eat raw salad – or do it in moderation. Ultimately, it is taxing to your gut, it lowers digestive strength, causes degeneration in nerves, bones, and muscles if continued for a large period of time. Humans do not have the enzymes to break up cellulose which is present in raw vegetables. Humans have evolved their diet from that of hunters and gatherers to one of farmers, and our digestive enzymes have evolved accordingly.

 

   5. Detox! Detox! 

• Allergies and inflammations! Have you wondered why certain food or pollen bothers some people, but not others? It’s due to your weak digestion and immunity so increase your digestive strength, detox and strengthen your liver rather than continuously eliminating food items from your diet. This will provide temporary relief, but will not solve the issue in the long run. One needs to fix the root problem which is to increase your digestive strength and take care of your liver. 

  6.  Herb Power

• Strengthen your immunity with yoga, pranayama, walking and the use of rejuvenating herbs called Rasayana. Some kitchen food items like dates, raisins, gooseberry (amla) can be rasayanas Another great immunity booster is a very commonly known Ayurvedic formulation called Chawanprash, which is a  blend of more than 50 herbs.

   7. Health Cleanses

• Do fall and spring cleanses to avoid health-related problems at the onset of the season. Word of Caution! Do not indulge in too many detoxes and cleanses as they are depleting in nature if they are done too often without doing a rejuvenating protocol. Depletion is a cause of many diseases in the long run. Fall cleansing should be more rejuvenating as fall and winter are drying and cold seasons.

  8.  Healthy Vegetarians can have High Cholesterol

• Even healthy vegetarians can have high cholesterol levels. This has nothing to do with the intake of fat, but mainly because their liver is not processing cholesterol optimally. Popping statins will not treat the root cause, one needs to take care of their liver, increase digestive strength and tweak their diet.

 9. Fat is Not a Bad Word!

• Importance of fat in your diet! These days either people are eating little or no fat or too much fat depending on what new diet plan they are following.  Moderation is the key. We need fat to keep optimal levels and functionality of hormones, for the myelin sheath around nerves, for our brain to function optimally.
• Ghee which has been used in India for ages, has the unique qualities of not only taking care of the above mentioned functions, but also enhancing the digestive strength and is safe for frying due to its high boiling point.

   10. The Art of Drinking Water

• There is an art to drinking water!  Do not drink water half an hour before or after a meal, although you can sip room temperature water or warm water while eating to optimize your digestion. Never chug water as it ultimately weakens digestive strength. 

Don’t Miss the Ayurvedic Lectures by Simmi!

 

     11. It’s All About the Timing

• It’s all about rhythm! Even if you are eating healthy organic food according to your body type, if you are not eating at the right time, i.e if there is no rhythm in your daily activities and food habits, you will create an imbalance leading to health problems.
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    12. Watch out for Nightshades

• Minimize intake of nightshades: tomato, eggplant, potatoes and bell pepper. These can cause inflammation in the gut, which is the cause of many allergies. Tomato can be boiled, and the outer skin peeled. The skin of potatoes should be peeled and the eggplant seeds removed. This process removes the glycoalkaloids which are very toxic.

     13. Don’t Forget to Soak! 

• Can’t emphasize the importance of soaking! Remember our moms and grand-moms used to soak grains, lentils, almonds. This process removes the tannins and lectins, the outer coverings of the above foods, which are the cause for inflammation.

    14. How to Sleep Like a Baby

• Insomnia help! Boiled milk with cardamom. Warm milk will help your mind to relax and help you sleep. Boiling milk makes it lighter to digest, and the addition of cardamom makes it tastier and digestive. You can add turmeric powder which will help in so many ways, because it’s anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory.

    15. Pamper Those Feet

• Rubbing oil at the base of your feet help you relax and sleep. Sesame oil in fall, mustard oil in winter and coconut oil in summer. Different oils are also recommended for different body types.

A Chat with Simmi Chopra Bhatia, Ayurvedic Practitioner

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hese are some basic tips of implementing Ayurveda in your daily life, which tailors your diet, lifestyle and treatment based on a personalized approach.

With the presence of toxic elements in food, the environment, and with the constant bombardment of different diets, medications and supplements, we are at a loss where our health is concerned. This is where we need the wisdom of Ayurevda, the 5000 year-old medical science from India.

 

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here are no second thoughts on the need for western medicine where emergencies, structural problems and quick relief are concerned, but for chronic diseases, it has its limitations. We need an integrated approach of western medicine with Ayurevda, which is tried and tested for chronic diseases. Ayurveda has a holistic approach of the body-mind-soul and the five senses. These do not function separately so any health problem has to be approached encompassing all of them together. Mind and body are interconnected, one feeds off the other so an imbalance in one can lead to an imbalance in the other.

With Ayurveda we learn to be mindful of our bodies, of the signals and warnings that our bodies give so we can take care of ourselves. The human body is an intelligent body which is capable of healing itself. All we need is the awareness and to use the nature around us to benefit us. Health lives within us, we have the potential to heal ourselves – we just need to claim it!

Ayurveda teaches us to be mindful of the food, thoughts, and the sensory inputs that we are feeding ourselves, along with the seasons, certain stages in our life, time of day, and how they impact us. Any wrong or incompatible input will cause health issues.

Health is defined as a balance in our functional energies, our tissues, our digestive strength, excretions, and to  possess a peaceful, happy mind, and the five senses. This definition of health is beautifully stated in a shloka from Ayurvedic text “Samadosha samagnischa samadhatu malakriya Prasann aatmendriya manah swasthya itiyabhidiyate”

Through Ayurveda, we treat the root cause rather than treat the symptoms. All diseases start from the gut and stress. The key to health is to boost your digestive strength to avoid allergies, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and many more.

I hope you enjoyed these tips and will implement them into your life.

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or a more deeper look at how Ayurveda can transform your life, please join me for my lectures at Pure Yoga East, where you will learn how to use food as medicine and how to be mindful about inputs like thoughts, perceptions, sensory inputs,  besides food.

I look forward to seeing you at the following classes and help in creating healthy new beginnings.  At Pure Yoga East on

Wednesday 11th; 6 to 8PM : Introduction to Ayurveda

Wednesday 18th; 6 to 8PM: Food  therapy

Wednesday 25th; 6 to 8PM: Stress, mind and  body

 

Simmi Chopra Bhatia, ayurvedic practitioner

Who is Simmi Chopra Bhatia?

Simmi Chopra Bhatia is a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner based in New York City. She completed her Ayurevdic studies from Kerala Ayurveda. Along with Ayurveda, Simmi has an MS in Molecular Biology and Biostatistics, enabling her approach to heal medical problems to be more integrative than other practitioners.

Aside from consultations, she wants to educate and bring awareness to the beauty and simplicity of this science to a wider audience. Her paper “Ayurveda: controversies and the need for Integration with Mainstream Medicine” published in The Journal of Global Health of Columbia University, addresses these topics in simple, yet scientific terms, addressing doubts of both practitioners or believers of western and alternative medicine alike.