A Simple Ayurvedic Treatment Plan

By Rippan Sandhu

Practicing Ayurveda for a healthy you doesn’t need to be complicated. Yes, it involves change, but it doesn’t involve a drastic change. You may exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet and religiously go to your yoga class twice a week … yet you don’t feel as well as you should do. Something’s missing.

That something could very well be Ayurveda. This ancient Indian philosophy has and will be around for so many years for a good reason, it works. It promotes health through balance. How is Health Achieved? According to the ancient text of Ayurveda, health is achieved by keeping the body in balance.

A great Ayurvedic sage once wrote, ”When there is equilibrium in the Doshas (Vata, Pitta & Kapha), Agni (digestive fire) & Dhatus (body’s tissues), when Mala (waste product) is being eliminated efficiently and when there is normal functioning of the five senses and harmony between body, mind & soul, then one can be said to be healthy.”

Ayurveda has a simple treatment plan:

Stop the further accumulation of toxins in the body by improving digestion. Food is then “cooked” properly, preventing the build up of toxins.

Remove accumulated toxins from the body through herbal preparations and specific Ayurvedic treatments like massage. Nourish the depleted tissues through diet, herbal preparations & lifestyle changes.

Improving Digestion: Here are some general Ayurvedic guidelines that support digestion:

Don't eat or drink anything very cold.
Reason: Cold food or drink can adversely affect the digestive fire.

Avoid eating leftovers where possible
The food cooked for dinner can be eaten the next day for lunch, but anything kept longer than this is considered leftovers.
Reason: Leftover food can become difficult to digest and this can result in additional toxins.

Avoid eating tinned food where possible
Reason: Tinned food has much less energy than fresh food; it becomes stale and does not nourish you properly.

Avoid eating processed food where possible
Reason: It affects your metabolism and forms toxins easily.

Try to avoid food that is cooked or heated in a microwave
Reason: Microwave cooking, which is short and intense, has a tendency to overcook food. This can cause the food to decay faster than normal. Secondly, when this food is eaten it can cause a Pitta aggravation in the body and this can damage the stomach lining.

Always avoid these foods:
• Miso soup (it is fermented, heavy and too sticky for the body's tissues)
• Cheese & cheese products (they are too oily & heavy for the body & they block the body's channels)
• Peanut butter (it is heavy, oily and sticky)
• Soy sauce (it is heavy and fermented)
• Tomato sauce (it is too heating and it blocks channels in the body. It can quickly cause tissue degeneration)
• White sugar (it is over-processed)
• Cold meat (it is too heavy to digest)

Never mix these foods:
• Fish & milk (it affects blood and muscle tissue and forms toxins);
• Yoghurt & fruit (heavy, sticky, sweet and sour should not be combined together as they cannot be metabolised together);
• Meat & milk (an incompatible protein combination)

Ayurvedic Massage

Ayurvedic massage is a key part of Ayurvedic therapy. Just as a machine needs to be oiled, the body loves to have its largest organ, the skin, soothed, which is why oils are commonly used at Spa Ayurda for your treatments.

Over 5,000 years of empirical research has refined Ayurvedic massage into a sublime art, and yet it is still unheard of by many. However, combining skilled knowledge of the body with knowledge of oils, music, and bodywork techniques has resulted in a profound art for balancing the body and mind through the medium of oil massage.

Benefits include:
• Eliminates toxins
• Boosts Immunity
• Increases energy
• Balances the nervous system
• Increases blood circulation
• Reduces joint pain and increases flexibility
• Cleanses the lymphatic system
• Reduces fatty tissues
• Eases stress-related problems
• Lowers blood pressure
• Improves sleep

Ayurveda teaches us that we have a constitution, our own mix of the doshas, which is our individual psycho-biological makeup. By incorporating Ayurveda into our day to day routines and lifestyle, that something missing (even with the regular exercise, healthy diet and yoga) … your optimum health, can be achieved.