Fasting

You can’t heal your bloating or any other digestive problem by eating more. Some of you might say it does help regurgitation and yes, for a moment but it does not resolve the problem. For acidity, you need to fast because the acid is caused mainly by fermentation of food that stays too long in your gut.

Your gut can only heal and improve its functionality if it is empty for at least 4 hours between meals and especially, fast in the evenings. Morning fasts are just damage control for the load of food that has been eaten late. If you want to heal and control weigh, evening should be your fasting focus.

Hot water

Whilst fasting, you can take sips of hot water once every 10 minutes. Hot water helps the food to move down as it relaxes gut walls. It also stimulates digestive enzyme activity and removes excess mucous. It calms down the nerves lining the gut wall thus reducing chances of cramps and spasms.

 

Cardamom

This spice is the most powerful little package for digestive relief. The etheric oils are muscle relaxants, it reduces excess mucous, kindles up your digestive fire, lowers down inflammation and is also breath freshener. Keep pods in your pocket or anywhere easy to reach. Crush the seeds from inside the pod between your teeth to a fine powder and sip hot water on top.

Resolving digestive problems is not very difficult, however, the solutions usually require you to make behavioural changes. It’s not the food, but how and when you eat it. Changing mealtimes, emphasising lunch instead of dinner, eating slowly and without stress, chewing, chewing, and again, chewing. First aid kit is for emergencies. If you have bloating and other digestive problems, the first thing is to simplify, eat slowly and chew like you never chewed before. Avoid creating the reason for getting the kit out.  

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From an Ayurvedic perspective having a strong routine and a framework around which conduct our lives increases our tolerance levels and resilience. A solidly structured life decreases reactivity and reduces the incidence of losing control. But what if the structures around us start disintegrating as we have seen in the last week or so? What if we have much less or no control in maintaining and arranging our lives as we like them to be? What if we are forced out of our comfort zones and still required to maintain calm, be tolerant and resilient for the greater good? People are asked to stay home for weeks now and that alone can be a cause for more worry than the virus itself. How can we survive this confinement without losing our heads?

CONNECTION FROM THE START

The most important factor for mammalian wellbeing is the connection we have with one another. Mammals deliver offspring that are not able to cope on their own and therefore need 24h surveillance for feeding and maintaining a sense of safety. We are born into this world dependent on our parents or carers and this early connection is what defines us for the rest of our lives. We are social animals and the mutual relationship is defined right from the start, even before we are born.

The baby and the mother establish cues between themselves to communicate safety. These behaviours are universal for all mammals, the most important being the vicinity with one another. The mother’s presence is felt by touch but can also be conveyed by the sound and eye contact. Hearing mother’s soothing voice has a calming effect on the baby. Imagine breastfeeding where all these elements come together: touching the skin, hearing mother’s soothing melodious voice and staring lovingly at each other’s eyes. Without these elements a child is less able to thrive.

These features that establish connection with one another persist for the rest of our lives. Social connection is an elementary need without which we do not thrive. We need safe and loving engagement with one another and we need to vocalise our needs and hear comforting words. When we feel isolated, lonely and unable to establish a safe connection with others our bodies will respond by turning on defences and a survival mode. In this state healing is difficult.

What do we do when these connecting elements disappear from our lives because of self-isolation or even being forced to isolate? How are we able to thrive and have strong resilience against any disease not to mention an invisible threat like the coronavirus? Especially, how are the old and lonely people coping when even the limited interactions are cut off?

SATTVIC LIVING

In Ayurveda and in Yoga philosophy positive social engagement is defined by word sattva. It is a state of mind which helps to connect with one another from a perspective of loving kindness. It is an attitude established in empathy and compassion towards ourselves, towards other fellow beings and the environment around us. It is an approach that encompasses the whole range of living experiences in order to create a place of safety and comfort.

We need to cultivate sattva now more than ever. Our lives have been turned upside down and we are called in by Mother Nature to express the best in us by showing determination in maintaining a sattvic mind during this period of global emergency. Sattva can be cultivated on our own and with others. The practice of sattva starts from simple things like creating a routine. Routine creates anticipation which is generally a comforting thought for the mind. Knowing what happens next reduces anxiety about the future. Sleeping, eating, exercise, hobbies, screen time and personal hygiene routines can be timed in our schedules around which we can do ad hoc activities. After routine has been created, self-development and emotional maturity exercises, mindfulness and other inspiring activities help the mind be focused and stay present. Lastly, thinking about routines as rituals that help fortify the mind and keep connected to the force field of your belief. If you have a spiritual life integrate practices every day and be methodical. Discipline and repetition are the key words for success in mind control and doorways to access emotional maturity and spiritual emancipation.

I want to share a few tips with which improve our ability to maintain sattva in all moments of our lives.

• Maintain the rhythm of the body clocks. Create a routine – Write down what you need to do daily at home. Create variety within the basic routine
• Limit times around the screens especially in the evening
• Read a book or listen to an audiobook before you go to sleep
• Try to live with more in sync with the dark-light cycle – go to bed earlier and wake up earlier
• Eat two good meals per day – have late breakfast and late lunch, especially if you are doing less exercise than usual. Fast in the evenings, or have only a piece of seasonal fruit
• Do your aerobic exercise in the morning and low impact in the evening
• Practice meditation – download an app e.g. Headspace which is has an excellent journey for starters
• I also recommend binary beat meditation (for example Holosync), an audio meditation that regulates brain waves
• Drink hot water in sips throughout the day
• Have a bathing/shower routine: Do body brushing before shower/bath. Then self-massage with an organic oil

• Act from a place of loving kindness. Make a conscious effort for extra acts of kindness. Say or do or just think something nice, make a comment that would solicit a smile. Create good karma. Think about your actions and act with intention of creating good
• Dedicate time for self-development. Read inspiring books, listen to calming music, do art. Listen to experts and spiritual leaders you feel affinity towards
• Make eye contact with loved ones but don’t force it
• Talk in melodious voice, low monotonous voices are subconsciously considered threatening
• Smile to the ones you can reach
• Smile at your own, even if it is not genuine. It promotes the body to start self-regulation and healing
• Talk about issues, worries, anxieties and problems but don’t force a conversation. Many of us are in a defensive state, either aggressive or dissociated and are not able take information in. Be patient and wait for a right moment to talk or give advice.

On that last note I realise there are innumerate situation of life and my advice do not apply to everyone. I am just sharing a few pointers that might be useful and lessen the burden of confinement. Being in a closed environment with the same people for a long time puts pressure on anyone and we need now to step up with our game to show patience and tolerance like never before. This advice might not work for you and this is perfectly fine.

If you’d like to talk more use our email anu@jivitaayurveda.com if you have any questions that I might be able to help you with. Happy to be of service.

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We are witnessing something unique happening to humankind and nature around us. Observing the process unfold moment by moment is humbling. Scary as this all might seem we are already noticing the nature starting to react when there is a reduced interference and less obstacles and containment of its forces. I just saw a video of hundreds and hundreds of monkeys in Thailand able to run around the town free from human threat. I also saw images of canals in Venice running crystal clear water. We are seeing a rapid change at global level as a collective experience and I think this might be something to appreciate especially if nature is concerned. The situation is not pleasant from where I stand as a business owner however, I am curious to see what impact this all has on nature. Mother Earth is being given a moment of respite. Let’s wait and see how she will express her true beauty of abundance once humans stop trying to rule over her

Another observation of mine about this situation, looking at the maps of epicentres of the virus, is that the virus has mainly hit areas of the first world, or industrial world. Looks like the third world countries have suffered much less impact from the virus, as of yet. This might be because there are no clear statistics from these areas but still, it makes me wonder. It’s difficult to guess what will be, however, the way the virus is propagating seems to be testimony of the reduced level of immunity that first world populations possess at this moment in comparison to the developing countries. This is a generalisation, but I cannot help but conclude that this could be the evidence of our reduced defences due to poor dietary and lifestyle habits, stress and environmental toxins. Our bodies are becoming impoverished soil that cannot efficiently fight the pests attacking it.

Considering this is a whole new scenario for anyone on this Earth there is no advice from me that would pacify your minds. Still, we can manage the symptoms of the virus and its consequences in a best possible way. Here’s a couple of tips from me to lessen the symptoms and pain.

• Don’t resist. The more you resist and get involved in fear and pain the more they grow in intensity. This doesn’t mean you don’t act to help yourself and others. Follow the general hygiene guidelines given and adhere to the instructions to restrict further spreading and try not to get involved in the fear game and accept the situation as it is
• Coronavirus has features of vata disorder. Breathing difficulties and dry cough require the following remedies
• Stay warm, especially in the kidney and lung area. Make sure lower back is not exposed and that you wear a scarf or halter neck pullover
• Avoid honey. It is drying/dehydrating and makes wheezing worse. Use maple syrup or raw sugar as a sweetener
• Take turmeric. It is, amongst all other things, a natural antihistamine and dilates bronchi, the air passages in the lungs. Take it in medicinal dosages (5g/teaspoonful) with some fat and black pepper. Turmeric latte will do with 1 tsp of ghee or coconut oil and a pinch of pepper. Mix in a blender
• Take liquorice. It can be used as a sweetener in powder form, as a tea (I recommend Pukka Herbs Peppermint and Liquorice) or eaten as bars
• Avoid alcohol. It can give you a temporary relief as it relaxes the nervous system and makes it easier to breathe but it also reduces your immunity and messes up the bacterial balance
• Fast in the evenings after 5pm. Digestion takes all your energy, but you need it for healing. Eat at 9am, 12pm and 5pm. You don’t have to limit calorie intake, just not eat in the evening
• Sip hot water every ten minutes. This will keep the gut moving, hydrates you properly, detoxifies and reduces tension in the body
• Keep a hot water bottle near your lungs to help breathing

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The climate change is real, most of us agree on that. Even many of the so-called deniers admit that the change is happening, although they may not agree on what or who has caused it. Nevertheless, the warming of our planet is a reality and we can observe it directly in many ways.

What is climate change in Ayurvedic terms? How does it translate to the ancient language of natural healing? Ayurvedic knowledge is based on how nature regulates itself, how living beings find comfort in the environment. In that context, what is the consequence of the global heat increase on the levels of comfort of organic life on the planet?

Plants and animals live through life by adjusting to the conditions around them. The species evolve as a result of the interaction with the environment. The survival is dependent on the ability to adjust to new conditions. The healthier an organism the better it tolerates changing conditions. The global warming is asking more and more tolerance due to the rising temperatures. Today and tomorrow every single living cell will be adapting to warmer and warmer surroundings, including the ones in your own body.

To speak about global warming in Ayurvedic terms we firstly need to understand that in Ayurveda nature is observed through how it feels like, not what it is made of. Feelings of hot, cold, wet, dry, heavy, light and many other attributes can be associated easily with climatic conditions. The balance and comfort are found by promoting theopposite quality if the climate feels unpleasant. You can see heat makes us sweat, cold makes us shiver. Dryness leaves us craving for water. These are a few very obvious mechanisms that regulate our bodies through feelings in order to stay in an area of comfort.

Some people are hot and some are cold by nature depending on how their blood circulates. Hot and cold can alternate in one single person from moment to moment. The ones having a hot disposition feel the effects of warming more easily. Heat becomes an unpleasant feeling. Ever heard an expression “hot and bothered”?That’s exactly how hot people usually get when they are out of their comfort zone and they are under stress. Impatience, irritability and anger are the ways they tend to respond if they cannot get cool.  Global warming is affecting everyone. It is especially having an influence on people with hot disposition and as if by magic, politicians and business people tend to be more of a hot disposition.

Why and how is world economy and politics driven by hot and bothered people? This is because the achievers are generally hot people. They often end up in positions of power. Heat is a driver for action to create change. Like fire burns wood to ash, an achiever wants to create change in a direction that is in line with his or her beliefs. When heat is controlled and balanced the driving energy is usually of a positive type and tends to be less of an ego driven action. Excess heat brings on the opposite. Impatience generates hasty decisions and with one’s own interest in mind. Good achievers become stressed out overachievers with personal interest in mind.

Global warming is playing a part in challenging our ability to cope with heat. It expresses itself through more irritability, anger and violence. You just have to look what the media, TV and social media have to offer to make that claim. The political platform is governed by right wing ideals, which lean towards more extreme expressions of fanatism and fascism. Anger and hatred dominate the language used in newspapers, TV presenters express opinions and push content that promote the current sentiment of frustration and anger, social media is abundant with fear mongering memes, global companies and large scale industrialists laugh at the faces of taxpayers and general feeling of intolerance grows and grows. I don’t even want to start on the military conflicts, the threat of war and actual wars.

Humans, like all other living forms are influenced by raised levels of heat. It is also clear that heat increases heat. Try having a glass of red wine and chew on jalapeños in a hot weather. It might make you sweat. Today we have hot people in an increasingly heating environment in a spiralling vortice that might result in a catastrophe. We’re going to be cooked, some slowly some fast. The earth is overheated on its surface and below. You just need to think about the recent forest fires in in all continents. Then there’s the threat of super volcanos erupting in Italy and California. Hurricanes are stronger because of the heat and resulting evaporation from the seas. Hot, dry and arid lands erode into the sea contributing to the desertification of the terrestrial areas.

The good and the bad of this situation is that humans have contributed greatly to the global heat increase. I’d like not to go to talk bad about people so I’m going to focus on the good. The hope lies in humanity being able to make a change. We are beings with intelligence and awareness. The only way for human race to survive is to make a great change to cool down. It’s an Ayurvedic manoeuvre to make us feel comfortable and safe again. To come together and protect our planet earth by comforting each other, slowing down, grading down, simplifying, de-globalising industries in terms of stopping overachieving. It has been proven that we can sustain ourselves better on a small scale. We need to engage in activities, politics and economics included, that arise from a cool place of patience and calm, consideration, empathy and sympathy.

The heat, however, does not come only in the form of global warming. It also presents itself in what we eat. Processed foods are highly heating i.e. inflammatory. In fact, the most pressing health issue today is chronic low-grade inflammation or in Ayurvedic words excess heat. Bad fats, especially heated oxygenated vegetable oils (cooking oil from a clear plastic bottle), are present in nearly all processed foods. White salt, sugar and wheat are now called anti-nutrients as they present no nutritional values at all. Instead, they cause inflammation.

We need cooling down our attitudes and opinions, cooling down activity, cooling our bodies and minds and slow down, stop creating all this heat in order to save our planet. The Earth is a gigantic self-regulating organism that goes through periods of cold and warmth from time to time. Our responsibility now, in order to savethe life on Earth, is to try with everything we got not to tip the balance over and escalate an adjustment on an unprecedented level by a mega-organism. Cooling down might sound naïve in the complexity of the platform of world politics and economics. If you think about it, however, it really doesn’t have to be that difficult. By the law of opposites everything has a potential of being balanced. In Ayurveda we always look at the big picture and on the world stage we find that the main problem is overheating. It is affecting not only the nature around us but also our bodies and minds. Ayurveda is great because the answers are simple. Complications are resolved by simplifying. Equally, for us to find balance and comfort again we need to chill out. The right answers to our ecological disaster come from that cool place.

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Oh boy, we are getting closer and closer to the climax of vata! Every time period of the year of a specific dosha exhibits an increasing amount of their characteristic attributes by the end of that period. Summer, the pitta period, is at its hottest in August.

Spring, the kapha time that we are moving towards right now, is wettest at the end of May. Our current period of winter is a time when qualities of dry, cold and lightness are felt in abundance. We feel these qualities on our skin, in our sleep, in our gut activity and so on. These qualities irritate the nerves and mess up with our brain activity.  Our nervous system is clearly under attack. Here’s a list of seasonal disorders you might be feeling.

• Runny nose: light, watery mucous and lots of sneezing by irritation of mucous lining by cold
• Insomnia and/or anxiety due to all the above-mentioned qualities creating restlessness and worry
• Constipation by dehydration in the gut
• Cold hands and feet: tension created by cold sensation
• Increased blood pressure: cold induced tension
• Increase urination: increased blood pressure
• Dehydration: increased tension by cold leading to increased urination
• Increased sensation of pain: hypersensitive nerves
• Dry lips and skin, cracked nails, dry hair, dandruff: dehydration as per above
• Toothache by tense nerves

What to do is relatively simple. Enjoy the opposite qualities of wet, heavy and warm. Avoid anything cold, drinks and food included. Make sure you have a routine in your days and that you rest more than usual. Take a nap after lunch if you can.

• Keep warm, especially head, neck and chest, lower back and kidney area
• Drink hot water in sips throughout the day
• Avoid raw and cold foods
• Eat warm cooked food with plenty of healthy fats and a good amount of natural salt
• Use mild spices, avoid chilli
• Ayurvedic massage brings all the qualities you need in this season; relaxation, safety, calms the nervous system, warm oils feed the body and skin, lymphatic drainage, as well as invigorating the energies
• Nourish your nose with ayurvedic nasya oil, especially if it is dripping and irritable
• Make sure you are warm when you go to bed. If your bedding is thin, take a hot water bottle and place it on your heart or tummy. Put on your woolly socks, long johns and what have you to make sure you are warm
• If you catch cold make sure you warm up immediately when you get a chance. A warm bath, or even sit next to a radiator to get the warmth back into your body as soon as
• Enjoy a hot herbal tea or even better, have a drink of Chyawanprash jam in hot milk of your choice, both dairy or plant based ones are good
• Sesame oil gargling:
  15 min swishing around, spit and rinse with warm water

Generally, avoid extremes, don’t push your limits now but take it easy and hold on to the middle path for a month or so now. Otherwise you’ll go into the springtime congested and cold and will risk the load of seasonal disorders from that period as well. One of the reasons why we do season appropriate activities is also to prepare for the next season. We want to enjoy the delights of spring in good health and vitality instead of potential congestion, asthma, hay fever, tiredness, water retention, depression and all sorts of ills brought by the qualities of the new period. Get ready now, be comfy and stay warm.

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The recommendations of daily routines reflect our need to maintain synchronicity between the cosmic clocks and our biological body clocks. The rotational movements of the Earth around itself and around the Sun create the cosmic clocks. Our body clocks and related gene activity have developed over our time of our existence on Earth to make sure we feel comfortable in the changing environment.

Ayurveda has recommendation on times and rhythms of little rituals during our time of wake so that we can heal, grow and maintain our bodies at night. Timing of our activities like eating is sometimes more important that what we are eating. For example, night-time eating increases weight more than daytime eating, even if we ate the same food each time.

Correct daily routines maximise our energy efficiency and increase our metabolic flexibility. We are able to switch between fat and carb burning at opportunistic times and be slow or fast burners when needed. Efficiency and flexibility manifest their benefits especially when performance is at stake and they are equally valuable for the body and mind.

I want to share with you the two ayurvedic recommendations of daily rituals that have dramatically changed the quality of my life:

• Small intermittent fasting
• Rest after lunch / siesta

I cannot praise fasting enough. It is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to manage nearly any health issue (there’s robust research on this). I have spent time and effort taking herbs and choosing food items for healing. I have taken yoga classes and other exercise regimes to increase energy, but nothing rivals small intermittent fasting.

My main health issues revolve around overwork on both physical and mental planes. Increased levels of inflammation are something I need to manage on a daily basis. Fortunately, it is very easy. Just skipping dinner guarantees that swelling and pain are gone by the morning. Most mornings I have breakfast. Then lunch around midday and something light at around five. This way I feed myself for eight hours and fast for sixteen. If I want to step up in intensity, I only have breakfast and lunch and nothing after. I have a window of only four hours of eating and 20 fasting. The results next morning are impressive. No hunger, high energy, no pain, no puffiness or swelling and a bright mind.

Apart from lowering inflammation fasting gives me loads of energy as it increases my ability to absorb nutrients. Energy increases even more when exercising on fasted body. Morning yoga after 16 or more hours of fasting is the best way for me to burn fat and increase growth hormone levels. They guarantee a solid reserve of energy without cravings and I control my blood sugar better.

The second most powerful way to maintain energy levels and mental focus is having a nap after lunch. I know this is not an option to many and I am privileged to be able to do it. There is nothing like a little siesta after food to perk up the mind for the afternoon and avoid the 4pm slump. The fact that we feel tired after eating is a physiological message, a craving, to go and lie down. This allows the blood to come to the stomach and deliver the enzymes for digestion. 10-15 minutes is already enough, and it is best done lying on the left side. Closing the eyes and allowing the food coma to take place is second to nothing in injecting energy into our system for the afternoon. You’ll avoid unhealthy cravings and create well broken-down material for better absorption, elimination and deep level nourishment.

The most important recommendation for routines in ayurveda is to be timely. Our bodies work in relation with the surrounding environment in all its dimensions, especially with the light and dark cycle. We are energetic beings and have a potential for storing and consuming high amounts of energy. Timing our activities correctly is what guarantees maximum performance.

If you fancy being on top of your game energetically and express creativity, even after lunch, start working out on your small intermittent fasting muscle and have a small post prandial snooze. If you feel some ayurvedic daily rituals are a bit bonkers these two routines certainly aren’t. Take these on and I tell you the gained benefits outweigh the lost ones from other rituals.

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