The idea of living an Ayurvedic lifestyle might seem like a lot of work, especially if you already feel like you have a full plate
Working a 9 to 5, taking care of family or loved ones, or just trying to find the time to take care of yourself are just a few reasons that may be holding you back. I get it! It’s not always convenient to implement new practices into your daily life.
The beauty of Ayurveda is its simplicity. Rooted in a common-sense approach to wellness, Ayurveda is meant to be implementable!
It’s not a practice that’s hard or all or nothing. It’s something you get to shape to fit your lifestyle, not the other way around.
Even the tiniest shifts will make a huge impact on your health, mood, and wellness. Today, I’m going to share with you 6 Easy Ways to implement Ayurveda Into Your Everyday Life.
On a global level, we need this information now more than ever!
Create a Daily Routine
The best way to create an intimate connection with Ayurveda is to put it into practice. To do this, you’re going to need a plan.
Start by creating a daily routine. This will help you in a few different ways. You’ll be able to have something to look forward to when you wake up in the morning, and you’ll get to schedule some sacred time for yourself.
Your routine doesn’t have to cover the span of your whole day unless you want it to.
In fact, the best thing you can do is set a routine for first thing in the morning and before you go to bed.
You might make a point to wake up with the sun each day, scrape your tongue, meditate, eat a balanced breakfast, and do yoga. Or, your day might begin with hydration, immune-boosting herbs, and a walk outside in nature.
Or, maybe your routine looks a little different, and that’s okay. This is your practice, so you get to customize it to meet your needs. When you approach routine like this, it’s easy to implement Ayurveda into your life one practice at a time.
When you’re thinking about your nightly routine, it may include an hour of time where you put your phone on airplane mode and read or take some undistracted time with your loved ones.
You might choose to meditate in the evening instead of in the morning or schedule some time to do both. You can even schedule in some time for self-massage!
A great tip is to create your routine, write it down on a piece of paper, and post it somewhere in your home where you can see it every day. This way you can eliminate decision fatigue, and focus more on yourself and being in your flow.
Choose Moderation Over Elimination
It happens time and time again. You decide you’re going to get healthy and the first thing you do is go to the kitchen and start throwing out all of the sugar, carbs, and fat you can find.
You get rid of those delicious crackers you love so much and replace them with celery sticks and water.
You start a juice cleanse and spend a weak consuming nothing but water and juiced fruits.
In about 2 weeks, you feel exhausted and the smell of fast food makes you want to hop the median in your car and go to town! And, just like that, all of your hard work has gone to waste and you slowly find yourself slipping back into your old habits.
This happens because you are taking the route of elimination over moderation.
The philosophy of Ayurveda is that anything can be medicine or poison. It starts to cross the line from harmful to helpful hen we implement extremes. Too much of a good thing can be just as harmful as eliminating everything that you see as “unhealthy.”
Now, I’m not telling you to only eat junk food and just shrink the portions. It’s important to eat healthy and fresh organic foods that are full of life force energy to aid in proper digestion. However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t have a few cookies every now and then or go out to eat with your friends on occasion.
The point is to be mindful of what you eat, think about whether or not you really have the digestive fire to break down what you’re craving, and do everything in moderation.
The same rule applies to your daily lifestyle. Maybe waking up with the sun at 6 a.m. is challenging, so give yourself a break and sleep in on Sundays, or wake up at 6:30 or 7 a.m. instead, It’s far more important to be consistent and compassionate with yourself than it is to be a drill sergeant.
Make Your Food Your Medicine to Implement Ayurveda
Here’s a secret that might blow your mind…your pantry is actually a medicine cabinet! The seasonings that you put in your food don’t just add delicious flavor to the experience, they are also great for your health.
Do you like to use salt and pepper to season your food? Pepper is a powerful digestive aid that can help with the common cold, and is packed with vitamin K, potassium and iron.
Good quality, mineral-rich salt is essential to your diet and helps the body create electrolytes that hydrate you and help your pancreas break down carbs.
In Ayurveda, turmeric, “the golden herb,” can help relieve excess heat in the body that causes discomfort and pain. It’s also a powerful antioxidant.
These herbs and spices are only the tips of the iceberg! The truth is – every herb you use has a health benefit.
This also extends to the food you eat, of course! You can balance out certain symptoms in your body with different foods because each food has an ayurvedic property. This means if you are looking to cool down you can eat cooling foods like coconut, cucumber or celery. If you need to boost your digestive fire, turn to chilies, lemon or pungent greens such as mustard, arugula, and basil.
The basis of Ayurveda is preventative health care, so while herbal formulas and supplements can be helpful, they are not always necessary for everyday use, Most of the time, herbal formulas are only recommended for chronic imbalances or during times of extreme stress.
You can get everything you need by incorporating herbs and spices into your diet. If you need some examples of healthy recipes, you can find lots of them here on my blog, or in one of my cookbooks. Whether you’re plant-based, carnivorous, or just looking for some damn good food, everyone loves my bestselling cookbook, The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen.
Schedule a Prep Day
Cooking your meals is very important in Ayurveda, but sometimes you barely have the time to eat a meal let alone cook it!
While cooking a fresh meal every day allows you to get the most prana out of the meal, I understand that it’s not always realistic. Instead, you might think of some raw meals you can eat that will support your ayurvedic blueprint and prepare those ahead of time.
To make preparing your meals easier, try setting one day out of the week where you spend time cleaning and chopping vegetables and fruits or portioning out your meals so that all you have to do is heat and eat in the skillet.
You can also use this day to shop, get inspired by your local farmer’s market, or reassess your daily routine and make sure it’s something that still works for you. When you take the time to prepare for the week ahead it can take off a lot of pressure you’ll have a much easier time living an ayurvedic lifestyle.
Break it All Down
You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead. -George Lucas
Taking baby steps is the difference between sustainability and burn out.
At first, incorporating ayurvedic into your daily life might feel a bit intimidating and that makes sense! Anytime you take on something new that feels a bit foreign, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. Just know you don’t have to change everything all at once.
You can take things day by day. Try adding one new thing to your daily routine and do that for a week or two before you add something else.
This is a marathon, not a sprint, and at the end of the day, as long as you stick with it, you’ll come out on top! Really and truly, the beauty of Ayurveda is in the journey – not the destination.
Meet Yourself with Love and Compassion
Take a lesson from the loving nature of the Kapha Dosha.
Kapha is the combination of earth and water. Some of its qualities are soft, smooth and nourishing. These qualities help things run smoothly in the body and it’s a great reminder to be easy on yourself as you take your own Ayurvedic journey.
Try this… Write down everything that’s holding you back from implementing Ayurveda into your life.
Write down all of the judgments that come up, then replace each one with an affirmation of love and compassion. Whenever times feel hard, smooth them out by reading your affirmation list.
What does this look like?
Judgment: I don’t have what it takes to do this.
Affirmation: I get to do this on my terms.
Judgment: I never stick to what I start
Affirmation: I am brave for trying something new.
Judgment: I am a failure
Affirmation: I am a winner!
You matter and your health matters. Meet yourself with the love and compassion you deserve!
Remember to take it day by day
I recommend that you take your time with this, and if at any point you feel unsure, reach out for support!
You can join my free and fabulous Facebook group, Ayurveda Every Day with Talya, where all we do is talk about Ayurveda and figure this stuff out.
To learn even more about Ayurveda and really sink your teeth into this amazing science of self, download my free Ayurveda Starter’s Guide. You’ve got this!
