A few easy tips that will help you radiate during and after our Wellness Week…
Abhyanga & Shower:
Use cold press organic oil (sesame / sweet almond for Vata types, coconutn sunflower or neem for Pitta, sesame, mustard in small quantity for Kapha – if you don’t know your Ayurvedic dosha, find out by taking this test!).
Warm your oil with the help of a tea candle.
Sit down on a chair, on your yoga mat on a towel, start by massaging your hair with circular movements (if you donʼt have time to wash your hair, dry massage them). Then continue with your face gently towards the outside of your face. Move to your breast, your belly turn clockwise (if you are bloated or constipated, move from horizontally from left to right). Massage both hips, then your bottom, go up to your kidneys and your lower back. The inferior members will be massage by gentle strokes towards the heart.
Leave the oil on during your morning from 10 min to 2 hours particularly before your yoga practice. After abhyanga take a Hot Shower. Do not soap oil off but rather keep the oil on and then towel dry without rubbing oil off.
Always end your shower with splashing your legs, belly and buttom with cold water. It will activate the lymphatic system.
Dry brush your skin, always towards the heart. The skin is our largest organ, it has a big role in detoxifying the body. Brushing gets rid of dead skin cells which opens up this method of elimination for the body to fully utilize. Done regularly, skin brushing improves circulation, brightens our complexion, and stimulates our lymphatic system. Do it in the shower, so the toxins will be flushed in the drain… Brush hard enough so that your skin will get reddish but not too hard to avoid irritation.
Face Pampering
Use rose water toner to moisten and neutralise the skin. Orange blossom water for dry skin, to cleanse and refresh skin.
Facial scrub:
* 2 tbs (table spoons) of oats
* 4 to 5 tbs of plain yogurt
* 1 tbs of honey
* ¼ tbs of turmeric powder
Grind the oatmeal with a coffee grinder or a food processor and pour it into a mixing bowl. Add the yogurt one spoon at the time and mix it up with a wooden spatula. Then add the honey, mix again, and finally add the tumeric. You can store it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for one week.
Oil Pulling
This a very ancient Ayurveda treatment. which has lot of benefits, such as teeth whitening, bleeding gums, headaches, insomnia, skin conditions…
Do this in the morning, before you eat: pour 1 tbs of sesame oil or sunflower oil (organic and cold pressed), take it in your mouth and swish it around for 20 minutes, moving your chin up and down as if chewing. It helps to release the toxins. When finished (you can see that if the oil has turned white), spit the oil in the bin, rinse your mouth and brush your teeth. You can do oil pulling twice a day if you like, just remember it always needs to be done on an empty stomach.
Tongue scrapping:
Yogis have been scraping their tongues clean for hundreds of years. The ancient science of Ayurveda has taught that tongue cleaning activates the salivary glands (which aids in our digestion) and it revitalizes the throat. Your tongue is one of the escape routes for toxins trying to leave your body. These toxins cause mucous and bacteria to build up at the back, or root, of the tongue and create a white film.
By regularly scraping the tongue with a tongue cleaner the excess mucous and any minor infection is removed. Tongue Scraper or Cleaner Tongue scrapers are usually made from gold, silver, copper, tin, brass and stainless steel.
Stick out your tongue. Take the two ends of the tongue scraper in your hand, and reach the arch of it to the back of the tongue. Scrape forward several times, rinsing the white mucous off the scraper between scrapings. Rinse out the mouth once you are done.
After meal to stimulate digestion:
Sit in Vajrasana (Diamond Pose)
