Improve Your Daily Routine for Better Health & Energy with Ayurveda
I grew up practicing Ayurveda in my South Asian household without really understanding its power. When I began studying Ayurveda, I noticed that Ayurvedic routines were deeply embedded into my childhood and these routines were why I had been so healthy for the first 25 years of my life. I now understand that routines are the foundation of Ayurveda because they are the foundation of health.
What you do everyday matters.
My mentor, Dr. Pratima Raichur, says “Health is our way of life in Ayurveda.” She means that an Ayurvedic lifestyle is defined by the things we do every day–our actions, habits, and routines–that help us maintain our health.
Let’s use sleeping habits as an example. If your habit is to get enough sleep every night, then one late night out won’t impact you too much. But if you sleep badly every night or have a pattern of interrupted sleep, you’ll experience symptoms of exhaustion and brain fog in your daily life.
Routines help your nervous system relax.
When you have a stress response, your whole nervous system is primed to take action. But to ensure your survival, your body pauses other essential processes. Your stress hormones suppress your digestion and immune system to allocate vital resources to survival.
One way to turn down your stress response is to induce parasympathetic relaxation through routines. Routines give our nervous systems reassuring touch points throughout the day, signaling that all is well and we can be at ease. Over time, routines give us a sense of predictability that invites rest and rejuvenation.
Routines reset your circadian rhythm.
Your body is the master of a daily routine. If you think about it, your body is doing thousands, if not millions, of individual tasks in a day. And just like you, your body needs a schedule, a timetable, to get all of that done.
Enter your circadian rhythm–the 24-hour pattern of your body’s activity. It's a natural internal process that regulates your sleep and wake cycles. When you rest, an entire ecosystem is at work internally, producing hormones and neurotransmitters you need to sleep at night and be awake during the day. Every system, organ, and cell in your body has a circadian rhythm.
This is why when our circadian rhythm is out of sync or dis-regulated, it causes a cascade of problems throughout the body which results in fatigue, low energy, sleep disturbance, hormonal imbalance, and digestive problems at a minimum.
Ayurvedic routines sync with circadian rhythms.
One of Ayurveda’s most fundamental principles is to live in harmony with nature for optimal health. This means following the daily cycles of nature and following the path of the sun through the sky.
We now know that the path of the sun aligns directly with our understanding of circadian rhythm. The Ayurvedic clock tells us when to sleep, wake, move, relax, and eat. Every Ayurvedic guideline matches the scientific findings of circadian medicine. In fact, the 2017 Nobel prize in Medicine was for discoveries of the molecular mechanisms that control the circadian rhythm.
Try one change to your daily routine.
Modern life keeps us in a stress response all the time which means it’s even harder for our bodies to regulate and rest. You can’t wrap yourself in a bubble, but you can adjust your routines.
Pick one of the routine changes below and test it out!
Create a bedtime routine to help you wind down. Avoid screens, stop eating 2 hours before bedtime, and do one thing to relax your brain and body.
Wake up with the sun and optimize the release of cortisol. Get your energy flowing with gentle movements and get outside in the sun for at least 10 minutes before 10 am.
Eat your biggest meal in the middle of the day. Your digestive fire, or agni, is most powerful between 10 am - 2 pm. Start and end your day with lighter meals.
Want personalized recommendations? Take my Energy Fix Quiz to get personalized routine recommendations based on your energy challenges.
Be well,
Avanti Kumar-Singh, MD
P.S. If you’re looking for other ways to update your daily routine, check these out:
