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| Winters Wellness |
Top 6 Ayurveda Winter Wellness Tips
Welcome winters and welcome wellness! Not only for this cold season, but also for the seasons to come. This is the time to nourish health and well-being so as to cherish its upshot for the coming times. Here are some useful tips that would help you to procure the benefits of the cold winter days to the fullest!
1. Eat To Your Heart’s Content
Winter Wellness |
As per Ayurveda philosophy, during winters, the gastric fire or the Jatharagni inside your body becomes invigorated due to the external cold in the environment. This means that during these days your digestive power is at its crest, and this calls for keeping your stomach full with a somewhat heavy diet. Or else, this augmented heat in your system may cause destruction of the body tissues. Ayurveda advocates the use of those foodstuffs that are generally sweet, salty, and sour in taste, and slimy and heavy by nature. You can feast on a variety of delicacies that otherwise your system refuses to digest. Furthermore, the quantity as well as quality of the right diet that registers in your body during this cold climate will be providing extra strength and health for the whole of the coming year.
2. Exercise And Keep Fit
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| Winter Wellness |
You are definitely going to enjoy the newly found freedom in terms of choosing your nutritious and delectable diet. But at the same time, a few words of caution: you still have to “take it in and work it out.” This means that this time of the year is also the right time for long, brisk walks, exercises and yoga asanas.
Ayurveda guides that in the colder season, you can exercise more and build up your body. This is because during winter you tend to get less exhausted and perspire less. It has still been specified that even during this season, you must exercise only in accordance to your own stamina and physical forbearance. However, taking in rich diet and avoiding exercise could be of more harm than good.
3. Enjoy Basking In The Sun
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| Winter Wellness |
Sun bath is believed to be one of the most convenient, available, and heath-promoting natural source. The merits of the same have been emphasized since ages. Sun therapy, or Chromotherapy, is an important aspect of treatment followed in Naturopathy. All you need to do is to lie in the sun with your face and head covered for a period of fifteen minutes to one hour. This needs to be practiced daily, if possible, and the right time would be during the morning or late afternoon. Other than providing warmth to your body, this is going to benefit by strengthening the bones—due to deriving of vitamin D — increasing the immunity of the body, combating a number of skin diseases, and removing toxins from the body with the help of sweating. The sun’s rays consist of seven various colours, each bestowing health-yielding and disease-fighting virtues.
4. Body Massage Is A Boon!
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| Winter Wellness |
Winter is the season for full body massage that can be accomplished daily, alternately, or at least once in a week’s time. This is a requisite for the body in compatibility with the coldness and dryness in the external environment. This will relax your tense muscles and nerves, improve the blood circulation, and also exhibit gain in your vigour and vitality. There is also the benefit of possessing glowing, soft, and supple skin.
You can choose for yourself from a variety of oils and massage lotions, but the best option provided by the nature is sesame seed oil. Mustard oil, olive oil, and coconut oil are also meritorious. Dry friction massage may also be practiced in which there is no need to use oil. Simply have rub your skin with your fingertips. There are many Ayurveda Centres and Ayurveda Spas which provide you with the best of relaxing and rejuvenating massage therapies using Ayurveda herbal oils.
Here are a few Ayurvedic massage tips to consider:
- Try to undergo massage therapy lying in the sun if possible, as this will provide extra benefits to your skin.
- Try to massage your body parts yourself as much as possible, as this will provide you with the benefits of exercising.
- Oil massage must include massaging the soles of the feet, scalp, ears, eyes (closed) and nails of the fingers and toes.
- After a full body massage, remember to clear the skin pores of the oil with the help of bathing and thorough scrubbing of the entire body.
5. Pamper Your Skin
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| Winter Wellness |
For ages, it has been practiced in India to apply some fragrant and cleansing pastes onto the skin so as to make it free of microbes and foul smell, as well as to make it tender and more flexible. This is also an easy and beneficial cure for dryness of the skin, skin problems like blemishes and itching, and also for removal of unwanted hair on the body.
At home, you can try a paste of turmeric, besan (gram flour), and mustard oil. This may be supplemented with fragrant herbs of sandalwood or saffron, for example. It is especially recommended for the ladies as a beauty aid. It is most beneficial to apply this paste at least a half hour before the bath and remove it by scrubbing with small portions of raw milk.
6. Health-Promoting Herbs
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| Winter Wellness |
There are a number of herbs and herbal formulations that are nature’s bounty, full of health and stamina enhancing properties. Let me emphasize that the timely use of the same during winters is going to pay you rewards throughout the coming year. These are termed as Rasayanas in Ayurveda, and are believed to provide physical and mental fitness, vigor and vitality, as well as help to decelerate the process of aging. Rasayanas benefit by causing a considerable increase in the body resistance owing to the distinguished anti-infective and anti-toxic properties that these hold.
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About the Author:
Dr Sonica Krishan is Author and Speaker in the areas of Healthy and Joyous Living through Ayurveda, Meditation, Yoga and other Contemplative practices. She is a leading Ayurveda Professional in India. She is also Health Writer, Columnist, Editor, Ayurveda Consultant and Holistic Healing Coach. Dr Sonica is open for National as well as International Collaborations with interested people / institutions in fields of Ayurveda, Meditation and Yoga.
Dr Sonica Krishan’s Books are available at Amazon
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