Ayurvedic Health Protocols for Bushfires & Forest Fires

Immerse yourself in the transformative world of Ayurvedic health protocols specifically designed to navigate the challenges of bushfires, forest fires, and controlled burnings.

In this illuminating session led by experienced holistic health educator Dylan Smith, explore invaluable practices that fortify personal well-being during times of crisis. Explore Ayurvedic insights covering respiratory health, water purification, and trauma management.

Don't miss out on this vital listen, it could be your lifeline during a wildfire emergency.

Transcript

Today,

I'm going to share with you a personal health protocol for times of crisis,

Specifically for bushfires,

Forest fires,

And controlled burning.

My name is Dylan Smith.

I'm an Ayurvedic Health Practitioner and Holistic Health Educator.

And I've seen in my clinic,

People undergo devastating,

What we call in Australia,

Bushfires.

And particularly,

They are suffering various conditions from the drinking water they're drinking,

From their respiratory health.

So today,

I want to share with you a few simple protocols for your personal health,

The health of your family,

Friends,

And community.

And I hope that you are listening to this in the lead up to any potential bushfires or forest fires or wildfires or controlled or prescribed backburning.

This is particularly about human health.

It is not about ecological or environmental health.

There are plenty of other resources for that.

Between the 2018 to 2019 devastating summer bushfires in Australia,

Which was the hottest and driest year on record,

It was chaotic.

People lacked resources.

People lacked the ability to have access to resources or get resources to deliver to them.

We had what,

Quote unquote,

Smoky drinking water.

So this has also happened in 2021 in California,

In 2023 in Maui,

Hawaii,

Wildfires.

And in addition to wildfires,

There's controlled backburning,

Which is including hazard reduction burning or back burning.

So this happens right across Australia,

And this is already affecting the respiratory tracts of children and adults.

So in this episode,

I want to briefly introduce to you,

My Insight Timer family,

A few things.

I want to talk about respiratory health,

Drinking water,

And trauma and mental health.

Firstly,

For respiratory health,

I have to introduce you to an ancient Ayurvedic ritual,

One that is part of the daily routine in Ayurveda,

Alongside oiliating the body and bathing the body every day.

There's a routine in Ayurveda called Nasya,

N-A-S-Y-A,

And Nasya is the Ayurvedic practice of sniffing oil up the nose.

Which oil to use?

Well,

Ideally you're using a medicated Ayurvedic oil like Nasika oil,

Otherwise you can use ghee,

A high quality ghee,

Clarified butter,

Ideally homemade,

Or even a black sesame oil that is cold pressed and also procured by heating it.

Ideally you are using a well-prepared,

Well-procured medicated Ayurvedic oil,

But if you don't have that,

Ghee or sesame oil is fine.

When you sniff oil up the nose,

Which can be putting one drop in each nostril and inhaling it up,

So applying one drop either with a dropper or a more mild version is putting the oil on your finger,

Applying it into each nostril and then,

So a strong inhale in the nose and out through the mouth,

And this is going to prevent and protect.

This is going to enhance the turbines inside your nostril,

Which are the filters which filter pollutants and also it is going to help a lot with smoke and especially before going out to any polluted areas,

Whether it's smoke,

Whether you're going to start doing a painting job with toxic paint aromas,

You're going to be going into a heavily dusty area to clean out your closet,

Whatever it is,

Sniffing oil up the nose is kind of like an internal mask and in addition to mask,

When dealing with respiratory toxins and potential pathologies,

It is a very good preventative measure to sniff oil up your nose.

This practice of Nasya,

I recommend you do it.

It also helps cleanse the brain and cleanse the upper respiratory tract.

When you do Nasya,

When you inhale oil up the nose,

You can sometimes sneeze after and this is a positive thing.

This is meaning the body is detoxifying,

Particularly the upper respiratory tract and the head,

The brain.

This is actually a very special ayurvedic treatment to access the brain,

But today we're just talking about a regular daily sniff and you can do it multiple times a day,

Up to 10 times a day even is great and do it in between each activity and especially if you're in a smoke prone area and there's back burning or any pollutants,

It helps with that.

Another way to purify the respiratory tract is through steam inhalation and drinking.

Also sometimes it can be drinking those herbs,

But just steam inhalation in general,

Getting boiling water,

Putting it in a bowl and adding some herbs into that bowl to inhale the steam.

These herbs can be commonly available herbs like eucalyptus oil,

Some camphor,

Some adjoined seed oil,

Which is a type of celery seed that's less popular,

But clove oil is another great one.

So this you can add to the bowl of boiling water and inhale the steam.

If you're out and about and you don't have the capacity to boil a full bowl of water and stop and put a towel over your head and inhale,

Which is ideal,

You can even do it in a mug of boiling water and just inhale that mug.

Maybe you're tucking your head under your shirt and getting that full steam inhalation.

So those are some things you can do.

And then ideally,

If you can have access to certain Ayurvedic formulas like pranar drops or Siddha Jal,

By putting those in the boiling water,

Inhaling and drink,

That's Ayurveda says is a fantastic way to purify and cleanse the respiratory tract.

And certain Ayurvedic formulas,

You can even drink that as well.

You can also add similar oils and herbs to aromatherapy oil diffusers and have that around the house to purify the home.

You can get in a bowl and add some camphor and eucalyptus leaves or neem leaves and bay leaves and even some ghee and even allow that to diffuse whether you are burning it or not.

So there are little remedies of different formulas of whether it's a traditional Ayurvedic formula or it's easily accessible home spices in the kitchen.

Another important measure for a health protocol for forest fires and bushfires is what we call in the Vedic system pranayama.

And pranayama means to administer life force,

To administer prana.

And this is different breathing exercises essentially.

And my favorite one is alternate nostril breathing,

Also known as anulom vilom.

So you can search on InsightTimer probably that specific pranayama,

Alternate nostril breathing or anulom vilom.

I share a guided practice on that on my InsightTimer course about creating a healthy and conscious daily routine which are 10 different lessons for you to implement every day for 10 days and then you've got this wonderful toolkit of different Ayurvedic rituals and practices that you can choose on and continue to use whatever resonated and whatever you felt the benefit.

And one of those practices is alternate nostril breathing and that's working with different brain hemispheres and regulating the feminine and masculine energy and the fire and moon energy and of course enhancing respiratory health and filtration.

So that's a really effective thing to do during polluted areas like bushfires and especially If you do the nasya,

The oil beforehand,

Then do the pranayama,

The breathing technique.

And this is a slow and long and gentle but deep breathing.

It's not an intense hyperventilation.

That probably is not the best thing for a bushfire or polluted area.

You want to be doing more slow and entering the lower lobes of your lungs and getting that deeper prana,

That deeper life force into the body.

So that's about the upper respiratory system in summary,

The Ayurvedic classical practice of nasya,

Sniffing oil up the nose,

Purifying the respiratory tract with steam inhalation and certain herbs and also pranayama,

Breathing exercise.

The second thing we're going to speak about is drinking water.

It's really important to have some ways of filtering and restructuring your water.

Especially if you're living in the rural areas where you're relying on rainwater or you're relying on delivery of spring water or delivery of water,

Of course,

During bushfire or forest fire season,

These roads can become inaccessible and the rainwater can become smokey.

So it's advisable to have a device ideally connected to the main of your home,

The main water system of your home,

The main water inlet that filters and restructures your whole home.

So a lot of us know about filtration of water,

Filtering,

Whether it's the chemicals that tap water and council waters have put into the water to kill everything,

Which is great in a way because it kills pathogens,

But it also absolutely kills the prana,

Kills the life force of the water.

But not only do we have to filter,

And if we're in the bushfire area with our rainwater,

We need to filter the smokey aspects of the water,

But also we need to restructure it.

We need to,

After filtrating the water,

We need to revitalize that water to a harmonious structure.

We need to turn it and move it and spin it and put it through certain vortex technology or whatever way you choose to restructure water.

And I'll go through a bit of those in a bit.

That's going to revitalize that water so that it is a sacred geometrical molecular water molecule that can actually feed us with hydration and therefore gives the body the water it needs to detox and do all those important mechanisms which hydration gives us.

Another important thing with water is boiling it.

When you boil the water,

It is not only removing any pathogens and perhaps smoke,

And it is creating some purification effect,

It's also allowing that water to be a profound purification tool in your body.

So when you sip hot water,

Just like hot water washes grease off dirty dishes,

It does the same in the intestines.

It scrubs the toxins in the intestines.

It even scrubs the toxins in the respiratory tract and it also dilates the channels which means it opens them up.

So if there's any breathing difficulties,

Sipping hot water can be very helpful in dilating the respiratory channels.

You can add even more respiratory benefits by adding some herbs.

For example,

One of them is called Tulsi Holy Basil.

The botanical name is Ocinum Sanctum and Tulsi Holy Basil is a very common special type of basil,

Very effective for the respiratory tract and it purifies water.

So adding Tulsi to water if your water is polluted is very effective.

Another herb,

Common herb to add to water is Vetiver roots and Vetiver is a root of a grass and it is a beautiful aromatic sweet root which tastes very nice in water.

You may even be able to put a bit of Vetiver essential oil which is readily available because you may have not heard the word Vetiver before but actually Vetiver is that plant which is in most perfumes in the world.

It is a beautiful aromatic,

Very common herb in that way.

And there's some other herbs that help purify water like Nirmali which is a type of seed or a type of nut.

It's called clearing nut tree.

Strychonis Botartorum is the botanical name and that is a common nut used in India to purify water.

So those are some ways to help with water.

Also stacking up on spring water if you are listening to this in prevention of potential bushfires and you've had the warnings of wildfires,

Stacking up on clean water,

Protecting your tanks of water and definitely getting a solid filter and restructure unit.

I love restructuring units because they last forever unlike filters which you have to change.

The last part of this topic that I want to bring to the table is the trauma and mental health aspect of bushfires and forest wildfires.

So what are some things to do?

Number one,

Meditate.

Meditation has to be an absolute daily practice.

You should be doing that twice a day,

Morning and evening or afternoon before dinner and that is going to increase your capacity to handle demands and it is going to increase your resilience to demands and stress because when you meditate,

Particularly a technique of meditation where you transcend and you're beyond thought,

You're beyond focusing your breath on something,

You're beyond being guided to something,

But a technique where you're beyond the senses,

You are bathing in a field of pure consciousness and by bathing in this field of pure consciousness,

The pure unmanifest,

That regenerates the body with a deep energetic abundance.

It regenerates the metabolic and the cellular energy of the body at a very deep level because you're resting at a very deep level and you come out of that meditation being tangibly identifying yourself with your universal nature,

Not just knowing I am the universe,

We are all one,

But directly experiencing it on a tangible level when you come out into the waking state and that's the whole idea of meditation,

It's not about how you felt during meditation,

It's about how you feel when you're in the waking state,

When you're in activity,

When you are in life and when you are feeling that yes,

I have this universal nature established in myself,

I have just gotten a profound level of rest,

Now I'm ready to handle the demands,

To handle the stress and to process the stress and trauma.

I also want to bring the Vedic perspective of destruction operator.

In Ayurveda and the Vedic system we talk about that aspect of nature which removes irrelevancy.

When there is a bushfire or a wild forest fire or any destruction,

It's ultimately nature removing something which has been stagnant,

Something which has been irrelevant in order for creation to come.

That might be a unification in the local community,

That might be creating awareness from various parties or politicians or different parts of society of the climate crisis,

Whatever it is,

Ultimately the Vedic view is that whenever destruction occurs,

It is evolutionary and because it's about to bring creation,

It doesn't mean we have to evolve with destruction as the predominant force.

Actually destruction is the,

We don't want that to be primary.

Destruction is the rough path but if we align with natural law and we are paying attention to the laws of nature and living in tune with them,

We will be going into evolution and evolving in a smooth manner rather than a rough manner having nature to come slap us in the face with a big fire in the bush.

And the last thing I want to mention is really emphasis on counseling and community.

Times like this when it's really important to connect with community,

To connect with friends and get counseling if you need.

Ultimately these times of crisis really unites a community.

So I hope that's helped on health protocols for bushfires and forest fires.

If you want to learn more about hydration,

I have on Insight Timer about proper hydration.

I'm talking intracellular hydration,

Properly hydrating the body and there's so,

So many ways and so many things to know about water.

That's a huge topic and then of course I've got more information about the nose drops and different aerobic daily routines.

So if you're out there undergoing,

Whether it's prevention against fires or experiencing,

Please comment below,

Leave a review.

I'm more than happy to answer the questions and I love hearing from you guys.

If you have any questions at this at all or want some clarification on something,

Comment below and I'll reply.

Thank you and I look forward to sharing some wisdom with you on another Insight Timer track.

Reviews

Thank you 😊 This is really good information for any crisis.

Extremely profound talk on Ayurveda. Immense gratitude ✨