EXCERPT FROM ORIGINAL POST:
At the core of Ayurveda, the science of life from India, is dinacharya, daily routine for balance, and Rituacharya, routines for seasonal balance. These ancient practices are the ultimate self-care regimes. Think daily home spa treatments, meditation, yoga, and healing food!
Dinacharya and Rituacharya are composed of many self-care techniques performed at relatively the same time each day to encourage balance in the body, mind, emotions and spirit and prevent disease by alleviating doshic accumulation (the five elements can build up and cause imbalance) in the many layers of the being.
When we create a personalized healthy lifestyle, meaning daily habits that are in balance with nature, there is more opportunity for harmony inside and outside of the body.
There are many influences on us from nature: seasons, climate, sun and moon cycles, global temperature changes, and aging. There are also many influences on us that are man-created such as traffic, stress, air-pollution, water-pollution, busy schedules, financial stress, and more. All of these influences that we come in contact with have an effect on us. If there are similar qualities that we are repeatedly in contact with, these can build up and cause imbalance in our body, mind and spirit.
Our personal nature has a rhythm that is communicated through our body’s biorhythmic clock. These bodily clocks synchronize with the sunlight, moonlight and temperature in the atmosphere, to name a few examples. It is also affected by what we choose to eat, think, when we sleep and when we rise.
For balance in the transition to spring (Kapha season) we rise with the sun, meditate, dry brush the skin, practice Abhyanga with warm sesame oil infused with tulsi, eat a light breakfast with cinnamon and clove, focus on the tastes of bitter, astringent and pungent, engage in some vigorous exercise daily, reduce dairy and clear clutter from our homes.
Spring is a marvelous time to go within to nurture, develop and plan your dreams and goals. Just as it is natural to plant seeds for our summer garden in spring, nature is also holding space for us to plant our own seeds now to be harvested in the fall. Anything done steeped in the energy of earth and water (kapha), is sure to take root and become a stable, nurturing endeavor.
