6 daily Ayurvedic practices that will change your life

The healing tradition of Ayurveda teaches that health and wellbeing depends upon our ability to digest everything we take in from the environment. The fundamental principle of the Ayurvedic clock is simple: the more we align our routine with nature’s routine, the more balanced we will feel. Conversely, the more we go against nature’s clock, the more we disrupt our wellness.

There are times of the day optimal for digestion such as lunchtime when it makes sense to eat the heaviest meal. This is when, we can say, that our digestive fire is strongest. Likewise, there are other times of the day when the digestive fire is weaker like dinner time.

Ayurveda recommends a variety of practical techniques for keeping our digestive fire strong. Incorporating these practices into your daily life can strengthen fire and, in turn, facilitate weight loss, improve the metabolism of food, and minimise uncomfortable gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms.

Here are six Ayurvedic practices that you can incorporate in your daily life to aid digestion:

Breathe and scan your body. How do you feel today?

You may have observed how your emotions can affect your digestive system. Stress can trigger heartburn, sadness can diminish your appetite, and nervousness can cause nausea or vomiting before a significant event. Recent studies are demonstrating that negative emotions that are not dealt with can impede the normal digestive process, leading to chronic digestive problems. With extreme stress, the brain sends signals to the gut immune cells that release chemicals leading to inflammation. This inflammation can then lead to malabsorption, and even food sensitivities if the stress becomes chronic. By learning how to manage stress and release emotional.

Start your day with a warm breakfast:

Although cold breakfast options are popular, Ayurveda suggests starting the day with a warm meal to enhance the digestive system. Ayurveda believes that a warm breakfast is vital for preparing the body to digest the largest meal of the day, which is lunch. This ancient medical practice regards the sun as the origin of our metabolism and proposes that lunch should be consumed when the sun shines the brightest, between 12 to 2 pm. At the beginning of the day, the metabolism needs a gentle kickstart and a warm breakfast helps in digesting the food better and prepare your gut for the day ahead.

Sip on warm water/tea throughout the day:

One of the traditional Ayurvedic methods for hydration, detoxification, and rejuvenation is the regular consumption of hot water. According to Ayurveda, drinking warm or hot water can purify and moisturize the digestive tract, as well as invigorate and exfoliate the lymphatic system. Additionally, warm or hot water can improve the quality of the initial nourishing liquid in the digestive system. Hot water can also strengthen the digestive fire in the stomach and digestive enzymes in the liver.

Eat your heaviest meal at lunchtime:

According to studies, our bodies are most efficient in digesting food during midday when we are more active. The digestive system releases the highest concentration of digestive juices around noon, making it the optimal time to consume our largest meal. During the evening, our bodies start to wind down and prepare for sleep. If we consume our largest meal at dinner, when our digestive system is weaker, we may experience bloating and heaviness, which can lead to difficulty falling asleep.

Eat your lightest meal at dinnertime:

There are other times of the day when the digestive fire is weaker such as dinner time, Therefore, it is recommended to eat the lightest meal at dinner time. Eat a lighter, well-prepared supper at least three hours prior to going to bed, and aim to get to go to bed by 10pm. Eating a large, filling meal late at night might tax your body as it goes through its night-time ‘rest and repair’ cycles.

Sleep before 10pm. It will change your life:

There are times of the day when our bodies feel dense and slow. These hours are between 6pm-10pm (Kapha time), so it makes sense to eat early and sleep before 10pm and take advantage of that natural fatigue.

Synchronise with Circadian rhythm

Your circadian rhythm is your body’s natural way of keeping to its 24-hour body clock, helping your body operate on a healthy sleep-wake schedule. Living a healthy, active lifestyle that promotes proper rest will help you maintain this important component of your body. Therefore, getting some 10 minutes of sunlight before 8 am helps regulate our body clock better. The charged ions from the night and the first few rays of sunlight work as medicine for our cells. We are a generation that uses artificial light inside closed rooms, therefore, it is important that get out and let sunlight back into our lives. We need the warmth of the sun, ideally from early morning, to enable us to start our day right and help the cells kick start the functions of its organs effectively.

Try the practices that resonate with you. Experiment with them and see how life changing they are.