Ayurveda Ireland

Ayurveda views sleep as one of the most important aspects in a person’s health.  If sleep isn’t adequate then a person can become depleted working on very little reserves and opening themselves up to a host of health issues.  Remember that every body is different and the amount of sleep needed varies with each individual.  So much research has been done on sleep but I wanted to give you my quick tips for those who suffer from insomnia.

In general, those who suffer from a lot of air in their bodies are the most likely to have insomnia.  Air in your body shows up through constipation, dry skin, scattered mind, and excessive gas or wind.  The following suggestions are geared toward reducing the air in your body to make you feel more grounded and balanced before bed.

My 6 Tips to get your sleep back:

1. Oil the top of your head and the bottom of your feet with sunflower or coconut oil.  Oil is a way of grounding extra energy in the body.  When we travel, spend a lot of time outdoors in the wind or too much time in the sun we increase an energy in our body that can keep us from sleeping.  Oil helps stop the extra energy and brings a grounding calmness to the body.
2. Have a bedtime routine.  Always go to bed at a certain time and give yourself a routine before bed.  Your routine could include taking a bath, going for a short walk, reading a light book or meditating.  This allows the body to know that you are getting ready to go to bed and it will start responding by getting tired before you get to bed.
3. Give yourself time to reflect on the day before going to bed.  A lot of us are staying awake because we are going over everything that happened during the day as we are lying in bed.  Once you go to bed don’t spend time thinking.  Give yourself reflection time before you decide to go to bed so you don’t feel like you need to do it during.
4. Journaling before bed allows whatever is in your head to come out before you try to get some shuteye.  You may want to journal things you want to make sure you do tomorrow, or you can write about how great your day went.  The key is that once you get to bed if there is still anything going around in your head you need to get it out on paper so your mind can stop thinking about it.
5. Warm milk and nutmeg.  Warm milk induces a sound sleep and the nutmeg is a natural muscle relaxant that will help the body relax.  Just don’t use too much nutmeg as it will make you feel a bit heavy in the morning if you do.  Warm milk and nutmeg before bed is a natural and nice way to relax.
6. Avoid stimulating activities like watching television, doing yoga or any other form of exercise, drinking coffee, tea or soda.  All of these things will increase the energy in your body and make you stay awake.

Give 1 or all of my suggestions a try.  If you do all 6 you are sure to have improved your sleep.  If you don’t feel any improvement then you may need more help.  Insomnia is a sign that your body is out of balance.  Especially if you have been suffering from insomnia for any length of time you could need a lot more than what I have recommended here.  If you are interested in treating your insomnia naturally you can email me at edie@ayurvedaireland.ie and we can set up an appointment over the internet.

Ayurveda literally means “science of life” and is a medical science that comes out of India.  Ayurveda looks at the disease process and how the person got to their current state of health rather than looking only at what condition they are diagnosed with.  If you want to know why and how you got to your current place of health then Ayurveda can give you those answers.

The 5 elements

According the science of Ayurveda we are all made out of 5 basic elements of: ether, air, fire, water, earth.  These elements dominate our physical body and are necessary for our basic actions in everyday life.  We all have all 5 of these elements within us, but to varying percentages.  That is what makes us unique and why our health should be tailored for each individual.  Let’s look at these elements a little more.

Ether: Ether is the element from which everything was born.  There was space before anything else existed.  In our physical body, from the ether our thoughts are born that will eventually become a creation or a reality.   There must be the element of space that exists within us in order for us to be the creative beings that we are.

Air: Air is an element that is better felt then seen.  Air is what governs our movement.  We move our limbs because of the element air and we can move our thoughts from thinking to doing because of air.  Air also moves our food through the digestive tract which is why if our air element is in excess or going in a different direction we experience digestive problems.

Fire: Fire is hot and is what governs our digestion.  Not just the digestion of food, but also the digestion of thoughts and actions.  If there is very little fire in us then we tend to not be very productive or action orientated.  Fire gets things done and helps us to break down the foods we eat in order for it to become our body and mind.

Water: Water is the fluid in us that include the synovial fluid and phlegm or mucus.  It’s what keeps things moist and functioning properly.  If you don’t have enough water then you will experience cracking joints, memory loss and dry skin in addition to many other ailments.  Sometimes it isn’t enough to drink water.  You may need to be adding a little oil to your meals to aid the body in retaining the moisture it needs.

Earth: Earth is our solid structure.  It is all those bits we can see which includes skin, bones and tissue.  The quality of the earth in your body will determine your state of health.  Generally speaking, if your earth is depleted you could suffer from a low immune system and/or infertility.  It is important that you tissue is strong and healthy and an easy way of making sure it is strong is by caring about what goes into your body in terms of the foods you eat and what you put on your skin.

What is a Dosha?

So now that you know the elements and how they generally function in the body we can have a look at what Ayurveda calls a dosha.  Dosha is a sanskrit word that means “fault” or something that changes.  If you can imagine a fault as the crack in the earth that is the center of earthquakes then you would understand that a dosha isn’t something that ever stays the same, but always moves and fluctuates depending on what we eat, do, what climate we live in and what daily habits we have.  Let’s look closer at the dosha’s and more specifically their qualities.

Vata: Is the combination of Ether and Air.  Both of these elements are light, dry, mobile and cold.  A person dominated by Vata will tend to naturally hold these qualities.  Their body will tend to be dry through dry skin and constipation, they will be fast talkers and fast movers.  They will tend to be cold especially in their extremities.  And they will either be petite (short) or long and thin.  You can balance vata by bringing in foods and lifestyle habits that are opposite in quality to ether and air. So foods that are heavy, moist, warm and solid are good choices for a vata individual.

Pitta: Is the combination of Fire and Water.  The qualities of fire are hot, light, mobile and dry.  The qualities of water are cold, heavy, moist and mobile.  Pitta’s are generally warm, mobile and can hold a little weight.  It is important to know that some pitta individuals may be a dry and some may be more moist.  Generally speaking when pitta is out of balance an individual will have a fiery temper, skin that is sensitive to the sun and be an over achiever.  Pitta’s are intense people who crave the intensity in what they do be it job or sport.  They are also more likely to be a bit of a loner type.  You can balance your pitta body by bringing in the opposite qualities of warm, mobile and moist/dry by eating foods that are cool, solid and a little moist if you are a dry pitta and dry if you are a moist pitta.

Kapha: Is the combination of Water and Earth.  The qualities of water and earth are heavy, moist, stable, and cold.  Kapha individuals often have heavy solid bodies and have most likely had weight issues all their life.  They easily get congested and may have water retention or swelling in their body.  To balance your Kapha body you need to eat foods that are warm, light, dry and make sure there is plenty of movement in your life.  Accumulation of water and earth is easy if you don’t move every single day.

Those are the 3 Dosha’s, but it is important to know that we all have a different combination of these doshas and it is most likely that you have two dosha’s dominate.  It is rare to be a pure dosha type and it is also rare to be all three.

Do you suffer from IBS, gas/wind, constipation, acid reflux, heartburn, sluggish digestion, low energy or bloating?  If you answered yes to any condition just stated then you need to read this article.

But, before I get into the bulk of this article I want you to understand what happens when you let your digestion stay bad for any length of time.  I will start with a little story about gas/wind.

Gas/wind is the first sign that you are not digesting your food properly.  However, it is normal and natural to pass gas in the morning upon awakening and with the first morning stool.  Any time after that is when you know your digestion is not good.  When gas/wind occurs throughout your day and does for any length of time then the air (which is the gas) moves deeper into the tissue and generally goes into the joints.  Your joints will start to pop and there will be pain in some of them.  Then, if you still dont take care of the gas it will move even deeper into the nervous system and create tremors, restlessness and forgetfulness.  In old age you will be at a higher risk of getting conditions like Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease.  These are both long term air in the system that was not taken care of.

Now that you have a good idea of what can happen to your body if you have gas/wind lets look at other habits that lead to poor digestion.

Here are the most common reasons why we don’t digest our food and ways to start digesting again.

1. Chew your food.  If you dont chew your food until it is of even consistency (there is no magic number of times) you will see food particles in the stool and you will be leaving the stomach to do all the digesting (which is why you see food particles in the stool).  Things that pull us away from chewing enough are; talking, watching television, work, computer, and reading.  If your digestion is not good and you know you do one or more of the things that lead to poor digestion then my suggestion is that you stop and put yourself in a quiet environment where all you will be doing is eating.  Nothing else, just eating.
2. Eat when you are hungry. If you aren’t hungry when you eat you are asking the body to come up with enzymes to digest the food you are putting in that are not there.  I dont care how much you want to eat, if you are not hungry you will not digest your food.  This happens when you are scheduled for a lunch break and you arent hungry, but you think you might be hungry later so you eat.  You will get gas/wind from doing this and your health will suffer.
3. Food combining. Food combining can contribute to poor digestion because certain food items should not be eaten together.  A real common combination that a lot of people do is raw food with cooked food.  It takes a certain enzyme to digest raw food and a whole different enzyme to digest cooked food.  When your digestion is not good and you eat both raw and cooked foods together you are creating problems for your body especially when its cold outside.  In order for our bodies to digest raw food we need to cultivate and produce an enzyme that is not easy to cultivate if you are living in a cold climate.  In warmer climates, raw foods are generally not an issue for most people, but cold climates require foods to be cooked in order to digest it properly.  This includes fruits.  Having a desert of fruit after a cooked meal will only create gas.  This is because of the difference in enzymes.  Fruit should be eaten between meals to allow for proper digestion and never, ever with a meal (unless you have cooked it).

• Another combination of foods that don’t do well together are proteins with proteins or carbohydrates with carbohydrates.  You only need one of each in a meal.  You will experience heaviness if you put two proteins together and/or two carbohydrates together in the same meal.  Proteins are any meat item including fish and vegetable proteins such as beans and lentils and dairy that includes cheese and milk.  Make sure you only have one of these items in your meal.  Proteins are the heaviest food items to digest and eating one in a meal should be more than enough.

• Two carbohydrates together will also be hard for the body to digest.  A complex carbohydrate is a grain in its whole form (white rice, brown rice, oats, quinoa, barley, millet, amaranth).  A simple carbohydrate includes bread, pasta, cereal or couscous.  Combining any of these carbs together will create problems in the body.  Again, you only need one in your meal and if digestion is a problem then I suggest you stick to your complex carbohydrate.

Clearing up any digestive problem will help your body absorb the nutrients from the food and leave you feeling good.  You should be getting energy from your meals, not heaviness.  Simplify your diet if everything you eat seems to create problems for you and seek out the advise of a health coach to support you and give you advise while you make changes to your diet.  Digestive problems need not be something you have to struggle with your whole life.  They can be gone within days when you are diligent about getting your health back on track.