Daily Routines: The Key to Strengthening Health
The Science of Prevention : Ayurveda
There are 4 necessary intakes of life in order for human’s to keep living. Those are:
- Food
- Water
- Breath
- Perception ( You can eat, drink and breath, but without social perception/stimulation, the human cannot survive)
But surviving is not thriving and in order to thrive we must be free of health imbalances that cause us discomfort, sickness and injury.
Ayurvedic Medicine’s philosophy is one that is founded on the prevention of disease. One of the key methods of preventing illness is to stick to a daily routine that best serves our overall health and wellness.
How TIME Effects Health
The 24 hours of the day have a direct health impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. Just as the sunflower opens and closes according to the sun, so too are our bodies effected by the daily hours of the sun and the moon. Based on the positioning and intensity of both the sun and the moon, our physiologies are effected, the same way any other animal is inherently governed by the days and nights.
So often it is easy enough to forget that human beings are part of nature, just as the flower is part of nature. We have not yet evolved to be robots and as a result of this, it is important to align ourselves as best possible to a daily schedule that mimics what nature would have us doing.
Just as human’s are composed by the tridoshas of Vata, Pitta and Kapha, so too is the day divided into 6 segments according to the tridoshas.
( Note: Please read ‘The 3 Energies: What’s your Body Type’ to learn more about the tridoshas of Vata, Pitta and Kapha.)
Ayurvedic Daily Hours
2am-6am VATA
6am-10am KAPHA
10am-2pm PITTA
2pm-6pm VATA
6pm-10pm KAPHA
10pm-2am PITTA
The Ayurvedic Daily clock is a helpful tool to help align our internal clocks to the natural rhythm of nature.
All of the following statements about the time periods are based on a person who is in balanced health.
2am-6am (VATA)
In the early morning, Vata creates movement, which helps us re-awaken. We tend to excrete waste during this time.
6am-10am (KAPHA)
Kapha makes you feel fresh & grounded.
10am-2pm (PITTA)
Midmorning Kapha slowly shifts to Pitta and by noon, hunger should begin setting in.
2pm-6pm (VATA)
The influence of Vata makes one feel light and active.
6pm-10pm (KAPHA)
Kapha creates groundedness and as energy begins to decline, the body begins to naturally wind down.
10pm-2am (PITTA)
Pitta is once again at its full strength and is involved in the subtle digestion of food as you sleep through the night.
Realistic Routines
“A routine is like swimming with the river, whereas no routine is like swimming against the river”- Kerala Ayurveda Academy
Cycles dictate everything in this world. Every human experiences life cycles, the mother’s womb goes though pregnancy cycles, there are seasonal cycles, yearly cycles, the cycle’s of nature, the cycles of the moon, the menstrual cycle. Cycle’s are unavoidable and the more that you can attune you life to these cycles, the more that your health improves in the three spectrums of body, mind and spirit.
Routines are great ways to help guide the body into an internal cycle that helps you sleep better, wake better, digest better, think better and better defend yourself from imbalances and illness.
The routines that you pick and the way that you do them should suit the way that you live your life. For example, some careers require individuals to stay up later, while other life circumstances might require constant fluctuations in when you wake up and go to bed. The key is to create routines that you can successfully do every single day, so that they can help keep you balanced even when life-circumstances require more of you than normal.
Ideally, the more attuned your own daily routines can be to the daily cycles that are already naturally occurring with the sun and the moon, the better you will look, feel and act.
Ayurvedic Daily Routines:
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner:
Stick to regular eating times: Ayurveda has proven that maintaining regular eating times is even more impactful to health than what we eat or how much we eat.
This is because of the power of the sun. When the sun rises, it helps to reawaken your digestive system, which has been on “sleep” mode all night, preserving energy.
Breakfast helps to reawaken the system and should be light because digestive strength is on a low, just like the strength of the sun early in the day.
Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day because the sun is at its strongest point and helps you metabolize/burn more easily. You will have also been awake for a period of 5+ hours and will be awake for another 5+ hours, until going to sleep. Lunch therefore must be the biggest meal of the day to sustain the peak hours of your energy.
Dinner is a smaller version of lunch. It should nourish and ground you after a long day, but it should not be the biggest meal of the day because your body is winding down and preparing to slow down your digestive organs to prepare for sleep. The sun is doing the exact same thing. As the sun sets, the heat and energy of the sun diminish greatly.
Eating Times:
- Breakfast: 1 hour after waking up. Ideally from 7-8am. If you cannot wake up earlier due to life-circumstances, be sure to eat 1 hour after waking up.
- Lunch: 4 hours after eating breakfast ( it takes 4 hours to digest a meal). Ideally eaten between 12-1 because that is when digestion is at it’s strongest.
- Dinner: 4 hours after eating lunch. Ideally eaten between 6:30-7:30/ 4 hours before going to sleep so that your body has enough time to fully digest the meal.
Morning Routines
Wake Up: Wake up around the same time everyday. The best time to wake up is from 6-7am.
Practice meditation: Take 10 long and easy breaths in and out to help re-awaken to the morning.
Clean Mouth: Cleaning the mouth cleanses the body of the bacteria that has built up overnight. This bacteria when left uncleaned leads to weak digestion and heart disease.
Oil pull
Scrape tongue with tongue scraper
Gently Gargle with warm water
Drink lemon water: The water should be room temperature ( iced water slows digestion). Lemon water stimulates digestion.
Do the first 3 listed routines first, then get ready.
Post Shower: Apply coconut or un-rosted sesame oil to the body.
Oil can replace all artificial creams and will effectively moisturize your body, without poisoning you.
Eat Breakfast: After about 30-45 minutes of being awake, eat breakfast.
Brush Teeth
Drink Water: Get comfortable with the routine of drinking 8 glasses of room temperature water daily. This is what the human system needs in oder to stay hydrated. Avoid drinking large amounts of water 1 hour before and after meals, because this slows down digestion.
Evening Routines
Eat Dinner: Eat 4 hours before going to bed.
Walk/Stretch/Unwind: You have been working all day. Now it’s time to end the day with a 30 minute walk followed by 20 minutes of stretching. Do this post-dinner. This is meant to relax you, not stimulate you. Take it nice and slow, it will help you digest and in the long run will support strong digestion.
Tune out: Spend the last hour before bed technology free. This helps your mind power down and will help you sleep better.
Hydrate: Drink a herbal tea that induces sleep, 1 hour before bed or a room temperature glass of water.
Take a Bath: If you have difficulty sleeping or simply need to unwind, hot water will also help.
Apply Warm Sesame Oil: Applying a small amount to the crown of the bed and massaging your feet with warm sesame oil helps induce deep sleep.
Breath work/Meditation: Practice 10 minutes of gentle breathing before bed.
Go to Bed: Going to bed by 10pm allows you to enter into deep sleep and will help you to wake in synch with the rising of the sun. This ultimately sets the tone for the next day ahead. If you cannot sleep this early due to work, then ensure you attain 6-7 hours of undisturbed sleep.
These are just a few examples of daily routines that anyone can practice.
Try them out for the next 3 weeks and see how much better you feel.