Ayurveda And You

In this chat, we'll go over how deeply personal Ayurveda can be when it comes to your diet, lifestyle habits, and things like your morning routine. Learn a bit more about using Ayurveda to create a balanced life!

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

Today we're going to be talking about Ayurveda and you.

How you can use Ayurveda to your benefit and what that means.

What is an Ayurvedic lifestyle or what are Ayurvedic practices that you can incorporate into your daily routine.

So first and foremost,

We're going to look at Prakruti and Vikruti.

So these are two concepts regarding your dosha.

So Prakruti is your constitution,

Your Ayurvedic mind-body type at birth.

So this is like your fingerprint.

I call Prakruti your Ayurvedic fingerprint.

It's never going to change.

So for example,

You were born a Pitta Vata and you will always be a Pitta Vata.

That means that you have the least amount of kapha.

So that's never going to change.

But let's look at Vikruti.

Vikruti means what's happening now.

It means your imbalance after birth.

So it's not your Prakruti.

Sometimes it is,

But it's your Vikruti.

So your Vikruti is your current imbalance.

Now,

Like I said,

It could be the same as your Prakruti.

So what I mean by that is if I am a Pitta person,

I have a lot of Pitta in me.

I'm most likely going to have an imbalance of Pitta as well because it's just more naturally elevated and more naturally likely to go out of balance.

So my Vikruti is Pitta,

My Prakruti is Pitta.

That means I need to focus 100% on balancing Pitta in my life.

Now,

If you have a Vikruti or a current imbalance that is not the same as your Prakruti or your constitution,

You will want to first and foremost look at fixing the imbalance.

So if I'm a Pitta person with a Vata imbalance,

I need to focus on correcting that Vata imbalance before I go to focusing on my Pitta.

Right.

So the whole point of the dosas and Ayurveda is to find dosha balance.

So you ultimately want your dosas to be as close to balanced as possible.

This means there's going to be more harmony.

However,

That's just not realistic.

And so we get to use Ayurveda and the practices that it teaches us to balance ourselves,

To be able to look outside in the morning and say,

I can tell that Vata is elevated today.

I need to be aware of that or to feel our digestion in the morning and say,

You know what?

I'm having a really Pitta day.

I have loose stools.

I need to balance that.

So that is how you get to use Ayurveda to your advantage.

And it's really just a lifelong process of understanding that your environment affects you,

Affects your inner environment.

I covered this in the second talk,

I believe that I did.

But it's all about balancing and just being able to recognize what's going on around you and within you.

So that being said,

I just want to clarify again.

Prakruti is your constitution.

It is your Ayurvedic fingerprint never going to change.

So that's what you usually find out when you do all those fun dosha quizzes online.

You'll usually find out your Prakruti.

However,

Sometimes you will find the imbalance,

The Vikruti ones.

And that is usually a little more obvious what your imbalance is.

So if you have things like really dry skin and dry digestion and cold hands and feet and you have insomnia,

You're waking up every day at 2 a.

M.

And cannot sleep.

That's an avata imbalance.

And so as an Ayurvedic practitioner,

I would focus first on balancing your vata,

Regardless of what your Ayurvedic constitution is.

And then things start to usually fall back into place once you've once you've balanced your imbalance.

Things usually start to even out.

So once things are evened out,

Let's assume that you've seen an Ayurvedic practitioner and you've been working with them for a few months and you are back on track.

You're feeling great.

Digestions great.

Skin is great.

Everything feels good.

Your mind feels balanced.

What kind of Ayurvedic practices or maybe let's backtrack.

What are some Ayurvedic practices that you can incorporate into your everyday life?

So first and foremost,

We in Ayurveda love our morning routines.

These are called this is called Dinacharya and it is your daily morning routine.

So this is a big one because if we can have a routine that we can rely on every morning,

Doesn't have to be an hour long routine.

It could be a 15,

20 minute routine that you're doing every single morning.

Your mind and body is then prepared to go throughout the day and able to kind of handle whatever happens to it.

You know,

You can't control what happens to you throughout the day,

But you can control what happens to you within your first 15 to 20,

30 minutes of the day.

And that's what is important.

That's where you plant the seeds to success and happiness and longevity.

So to kind of outline a sample morning routine,

Let's say you wake up and you splash your face with water with some cool fresh water.

This is a way to kind of awaken the senses.

And then you're going to want to scrape your tongue.

So in Ayurveda,

We like to do tongue scraping to get any toxins that have kind of surfaced overnight.

Scrape them off instead of swallowing and ingesting them again and putting them back into our bodies.

So you scrape your tongue,

Brush your teeth.

And oil pulling is another Ayurvedic morning practice or ritual.

And that is putting a bit of oil in your mouth and swishing it around for 10,

15 minutes.

Depending on your dosha or your imbalance,

Again,

You would want to use different kinds of oil.

So maybe coconut oil for pitta and sesame oil for vata.

And then you're going to want to do some pranayama,

Which is breathing exercise.

And again,

These all of these things can be modified to your dosha,

To what your body needs.

So depending on what your imbalance or your constitution is,

You would want to do different types of pranayama.

Maybe you want to do alternate nostril breathing if you're a vata person and prone to over worrying and thinking and anxiety.

Maybe you want to do shitali breath if you're a pitta person and need some cooling down,

Some calming energy.

And maybe you want to do Kapalabhati or school shining breath,

Which is a heating and energizing breath,

Which is good for kapha.

And then you also would want to do some meditation after that.

Most likely you want to get your day going and started planting the seeds.

And meditation is a great way to do that.

Again,

So many different ways to meditate,

But that is kind of up to you and your preferences.

And then maybe you want to do yoga or some sort of exercise.

And again,

Depending on your dosha,

Your doshik balance or your current state,

You would want to be doing different things.

So if you're a pitta person,

You wouldn't want to be doing something so heating and draining,

Although you might want to because pitas are so ambitious.

You would rather do something maybe a little calming,

Like a yin yoga class or something that is not so competitive.

And if you're a kapha,

You might not want to do an exercise routine,

But it's probably what's going to balance you.

So again,

This all can be personalized to you and your needs and your doshik needs and what your body needs to balance.

And let's say lastly,

You are planning your breakfast for the morning.

This is also influenced greatly by your state,

Your balance,

Your doshik balance,

And what your body needs,

As well as what the environment is telling you sort of how the day might be.

So if it's a really hot day,

You probably aren't going to want to have,

You know,

Scrambled eggs with hot sauce and salsa.

You're probably going to want to eat maybe some thing more cooling,

Like avocado toast with cucumber,

Cucumber slices,

Or maybe a cooler yogurt kind of lassi shake.

So it's really just depends again this is all very personalized.

Ayurveda is the most personalized kind of healing system in the entire world.

And that is what's amazing about it.

So if you guys are interested and this sounds like something that you want to learn more about or you want to work on balancing something within yourself,

Or creating an Ayurvedic lifestyle and routine for yourself.

I strongly suggest to reach out to me you can find more information in my bio,

And I would love to answer questions and help you guys and work with you.

So I hope you guys all are having a wonderful day and continue to have a wonderful day with much gratitude.

Thank you guys for listening.

Reviews

Great reminder

Super helpful! I am in need of a good morning routine so definitely gonna try and put this into practice! Also you’ve mentioned sesame oil a few times for Vata — going to try and incorporate more of this too :) Thanks for the insight Drew!