Ayurveda For Dummies by Angela Hope Murray

Author:Angela Hope Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-03-20T16:00:00+00:00

For practical purposes, all you need to be aware of is that at the six seasonal junctions, the body is at its most vulnerable. These gaps are known as rtu sandhi (joints of the seasons), when disease can more easily enter the body. These sandhi points occur seven days either side of the intersection, so take extra care at these times by eating well, getting plenty of rest and attending to your daily routine. (See Chapter 6 for details of how to stay in balance.)

During these transition periods, both Sushruta and Charaka, the most famous Ayurvedic physicians, recommend shodhana practices (cleansing processes) to remove the excess doshas (in the form of bile, mucus and dryness) from the body by a process known as panchakarma. An Ayurvedic practitioner/physician can guide you in the correct manner.

Adjusting Your Digestion in Autumn

In early autumn, the evenings are still long, your appetite is strong, and the weather is generally cold and damp. While the sun’s power is diminished by wind, rain and clouds, the energies of the moon gain ascendancy.

This is the time to get some oil massages, preferably Ayurvedic ones, as well as herbal body scrubs. Warm baths with essential oils are always helpful to soothe away tension and increase vata dosha (refer to Chapter 2 for an explanation of vata dosha).

Looking at the conditions

At the beginning of autumn, vata starts to aggravate the accumulated pitta from the summer by acting like a bellows. As summer pitta leaves your body, you may develop symptoms such as conjunctivitis, gastritis, rashes, headaches and irritability.

Vata-related problems, such as cracking joints, anxiety, irregular digestion and an increased sensitivity to cold, can start to manifest themselves. To combat these conditions, adopt a leisurely and quiet lifestyle during this period so that your system can adjust to the change in seasonal energies. This translates as follows:

Don’t drink cold water or use ice.

Don’t sleep during the day.

Reduce sexual and physical activity.

These simple strategies also help you to adjust to the prevailing forces of nature. Vata characteristics are cold, light, dry and dispersing, and one of the main ways of pacifying these increased tendencies in the body is by increasing foods that are naturally sweet, sour and salty in taste, served warm and in moderate quantities.

Eating the right foods

This is a delightful time of the year when the autumn tints shimmer in an array of colours. All around you is evidence of the earth’s fecundity, with hedgerows filled with blackberries, rosehips and haws, rich in vitamin C.

An often-overlooked autumn bounty is elderberries, which are packed with anti-viral properties to allay winter colds. Add elderberries to an apple pie, put them in oatmeal, brew them in tea. One of the best treats I ever had was at an ashram in Orléans, France, where I was offered elderberry jam (sureau). It’s glorious on toast or in porridge. Failing that, you can buy it as a syrup called Sambucol in health-food shops.

Colon health should take high priority now, so that accumulated heat can find its way out of the body.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.