Daily Ayurvedic Rituals to Serve the Body, Mind and Spirit

According to Ayurveda, how you start your day is intrinsic to the “care and keeping” of mind, body and spirit, and can direct the course of how it will unfold.  Developing a morning ritual is called Dinacharya and this is an evolving process, originating with how your unique constitution (Read on dinacharya and constitution in Essential Yoga Practice – get your copy here – ) could use certain steps, some automated, to allow the mind to slowly meet the day while leaving space and time to adjust for what arrives anew daily. Optimizing on a morning routine has an added benefit: more time … to appreciate the people in front of us, to notice the new opportunities of the day, to be aware of the small things, which we all know are really the big things!

According to Ayurveda, wake your awareness, starting the day by rubbing your hands together, using the heat to rub and stimulate the face and then look at your hands and pray. Upon arising, go directly to elimination, oral hygiene to include tongue scraping to remove undigested ama (toxins), and include the slow sipping of warm water (with lemon, to stimulate the digestive juices to ensure proper and complete digestion of the morning meal). Living each day requires energy, and healthy, fresh food, unique to your constitution is necessary. Take care to include as many of the six tastes at every meal:  sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter and astringent; otherwise the body will crave what it did not get and this will arrive as temptations to snacking and as a hijacking of your mental energy,…until satisfied.

Waking up at the same time each day defines your body clock and will help with falling asleep as well as with getting good sleep/deep rest. Looking at natural light, opening the window or door to take in fresh air helps with orientation, proprioception, and connecting to nature. Whether you make time in your morning routine for movement, exercise, yoga or if it is built in to come later into your day, include time for meditation in your dinacharya. Sitting with stillness, is integral to developing a personal grounding habit, and lends itself to the acceptance and receptivity that comes from knowing yourself. As life becomes busier, it is all the more important to tune in, to reflect inward and to then feel both “held” and “propelled” by what you find. Your place in life connects you in many ways to your world, to ever widening circles and to realizing the sweet responsibilities that come from those connections. Learn more in our upcoming course:  Essential Yoga Practice Sangha, beginning March 25. Receive a copy of our book and DVD upon signing up!