Ayurveda contains numerous beauty secrets - so many that I had to write a whole new article about it. So here it goes, more secrets offered by Ayurveda for simple and sparkling beauty.
Beauty treatments generally should be addressed to your whole body, not just the face. It's important to cleanse, moisturize and nourish your entire body. Ayurveda recommends you to use only the best herbal cleansers, as your skin is related to all aspects of your health, be it emotional, mental, sensory, spiritual or physical.
Don't forget that your skin is the largest organ of the body, and it plays a vital role in purifying toxins. Your skin is linked with all the nerve endings in the body and is a seat of Vata dosha. This is the reason why you shouldn't really disturb the natural intelligence of your skin by applying harsh chemical cleansers on it.
It's easy to get flummoxed with all the options of herbal soaps and cleansers available in the market. I'll help you in figuring out what to look for - read the ingredients at the back of the pack of the products, look for ingredients such as olive, almond oil, orange or grapefruit extracts blended with other herbal ingredients. Of course, you'll find a lot of chemicals in herbal products as well, so I'd suggest to choose the one with the least number of unpronounceable difficult terms. Fruit and herbal extracts help in revitalizing and moisturizing your skin, they help in maintaining a youthful glow as well.
You can go for a herbal cleansing product that has pure vegetable glycerine as the base ingredient, specially formulated for your skin type. For dry skin you should look out for lemongrass and for people with oily skin must look for citronella as an ingredient in your cleansing soaps or creams.
For maintaining youthful and radiant skin you need to get a good night's sleep. If you face difficulties in dozing off to dreamland, then try going to bed a little early - before 10 at night? Some people find it easier to sleep during the 'Kapha' time of the night, i.e. between 6 to 10 p.m. Make sure that you have your evening meal/ dinner at least two hours before your bedtime. Fixing an early dinner time is recommended by Ayurveda because your body would have enough time to digest the meal before you retire and sleep, because when you're asleep your bodily processes slow down, consequently making the digestion process slower. Try evading stimulating activities before going to sleep at night - things such as watching tv, working on the computer.
If you have no trouble in falling asleep but often find yourself tossing and turning, or waking up refreshed, full of energy sometime between 2 and 4 a.m. and find it difficult to go back to sleep. These are symptoms of Pitta- based sleep disorder. In Pitta related sleep disorders, you should stop having spicy and sour foods, for instance, chilly and vinegar. Sometimes waking up mid- sleep may also mean that you're hungry, so make sure that you have dinner properly.
Try heading off to sleep well before ten, as that is the intersection point between the Kapha and Pitta times of night. If you sleep after ten (in the Pitta time), your sleep will take on the agile quality of Pitta rather than the deep and settled sleep that results when you fall asleep in the Kapha time. Also, try not to exercise at night, stay away from watching movies or TV shows that are violent or display negative emotions - these can disturb Pitta dosha.
A different sort of sleep disorder in which you tend to get proper and sound sleep but still wake up feeling exhausted - this may be due to an imbalance of Kapha Dosha (or kapha energy). If this is the case with you then you need to balance your Kapha dosh. For this you will want to balance Kapha dosha by making sure you rise well before 6:00 a.m., get enough exercise during the day, and eat lighter, less oily foods. Eat a light dinner, possibly several hours before going to bed, to give your body enough time to digest the meal properly
In the crazy stressful world that we life these days you need a lot more than a good night's sleep. If you tend to stay under continuous mental or even emotional stress, it will show up on the face in the form of a drawn, dull look. And as stress and lack of sleep go hand in hand - one can cause the other - it's important to look into both of them. Meditation and practicing yoga can help in dealing with emotional stress and assist in building resilience to stress as well. If you think that stress is a part of your work and you can't really escape it, keep an eye out for ways of dealing with stress. For instance, green tea and oolong tea help in calming down your nerves. If keeping track of your tea consumption is also difficult in your packed schedule then find out about herbal tablets that aid in reducing mental stress and increasing attentiveness.
Abhyanga is a traditional way to get rid of stress, relax and calm down your tired body - it's kind of massage done with a concoction of ayurvedic oils. If you start your day with an oil massage, you'll increase luster and skin tone appreciably. Many people find that a morning oil massage is so stimulating that they no longer need caffeine in their systems to feel awake in the morning, which is an added benefit for your health and your skin, since caffeine takes a toll on your liver in due time and is aging to the skin. Using warm, organic, cold-pressed Sesame Oil gels well and is recommended for most skin types. Sesame oil lubricates your skin, cleanses the pores, and penetrates the lipid barrier, replacing tired, toxin-clogged lipid cells with fresh lipid cells.
Better yet, you can use oils that have especially been infused with balancing and nourishing ayurvedic herbs to get the most value from your morning massage routine.
Follow your morning abhyanga with a nice warm bath to let the impurities that have been dislodged to flow into the digestive tract, from where they can be easily removed. Massage also helps sleep, and if you are having trouble falling asleep, try massaging sleep stimulating ayurvedic oils on your legs, lower arms, hands, and feet before you head to bed.
In our super busy lives, we tend to survive on leftovers, processed, canned or frozen foods. Such foods are of little nutritional value, they lose most of their beneficial qualities while being processed or if left to freeze. And when your body receives less nutrition than it actually requires, it starts showing up on your skin. What's worse is that these foods become difficult to digest and end up building impurities in your body. If you eat a lot of leftovers, the digestive toxins, known as 'ama' build up, clogging the pores and your body's internal channels that carry nutrients and moisture to deeper layers of the skin.
The consequences of the building up of 'ama' in your body include - wrinkles, aging skin, dull and grey look. Eating foods cultivated with chemicals and made to last with synthetic preservatives and additives can create the more reactive toxin (known as amavisha), and can result in breakouts, rashes, and other such skin problems.
You should keep your skin well nourished by having plenty of healthy skin friendly foods. Skin- friendly foods do a lot more than just nourishing your skin - they prove to be the building blocks for skin regeneration.
To begin with, you should follow the dietary recommendations according to your body type, skin type and season. So, get information about foods that will help nourish your particular skin type and help in creating balance to your whole mind-body system. Secondly, there are certain foods that are beneficial in nourishing all skin types, and overall health as well.
Fruits for supple skin - these include plenty of sweet, juicy fruits; including a stewed pears or apples for breakfast are great to enhance suppleness of your skin. Grains that enhance intelligence - these include a variety of whole grains that are beneficial not only in nourishing your skin with plenty of minerals, they also provide you with the full range of nature's intelligence. Grains such as quinoa, couscous, barley, amaranth, millet, rye, and wheat are recommended by Ayurveda. Combine them in diverse ways for variety, or eat a different grain with each meal.
Important vegetables for vitamins and fibre include a variety of vegetables cooked in skin- friendly spices. Greens, especially leafy green veggies are exceptionally good for the skin. They really do make your cheeks rosy, because they provide essential nutrients such as iron and calcium, which assist in nourishing the blood and skin tissue.
Your body needs all the protein that it can get. So, eat plenty of proteins that aren't difficult to digest. These include pulses such as yellow split bean (or commonly known as mung dal) and dairy products such as paneer (fresh cheese made from whole milk), whole milk and lassi (yogurt blended with water and a dash of fresh mint and cumin).
These light proteins are apt for all skin types, although people with Kapha skin would want to eat more astringent dal than the sweet proteins such as panir. Nut butters such as almond butter are enjoyable ways to add some extra protein to your diet.
Ayurvedic experts recommend using spices when you cook. Spices are beneficial in aiding digestion, which by now you'd know, helps your overall health and is especially helpful in detoxifying and nourishing the skin. Turmeric is probably your skin's best friend. You must have noticed it being used in many skin care products. It's also used to heal internal as well as external wounds. Turmeric purifies the deepest layers of your skin and is a potent antioxidant as well. Apart from that, it also helps in the purification of blood and fat tissue - other spices with that carry the same benefit are fenugreek, cumin, black pepper.
Here's a simple skin nourishing recipe - 3 parts turmeric, 6 parts coriander, 6 parts fennel and, 1 part black pepper - Mix all these spices in two to three tablespoons of milk, make it thick enough so that the mix won't drip on your face. Put the mask on your face and let it rest for about fifteen minutes. Rinse it off with water.
I understand that keeping track of so many suggestions is going to be tough, so to simplify it you can create your own beauty calendar. You can jot down what you want to do, when and at what time. For instance, on the calendar you can write down your customized daily routine - you can write down your usual daily routine for cleansing, toning, nourishing and moisturizing your skin (if you need to remember some specifics the calendar will be useful).
You can also jot down special beauty routines, for example using bentonite clay once or twice a week (say Tuesdays and Fridays?) for deep exfoliation. You can also write down reminders to yourself to eat the right foods (a big bowl of fruit salad every other day, green juices three times a week maybe?), to go to bed early, to take the time to massage.
A beauty calendar will also come in handy to keep track of Ayurvedic seasonal changes (especially if you have combination skin).
In the dry and windy winter (Vata Season, November-February), for example, you'll want to nourish your skin with as much moisture as possible. During that time you'd need to be more regular with your daily massage. During the cool, wet spring (Kapha Season, March-June), your body is naturally detoxifying, so in these months you'd want to pay more attention towards cleansing. During summers (Pitta Season, July-October), your body has more heat. So in this season, you'd want to calm your skin and defend it from the sun. Both your health and your beauty will benefit greatly by adjusting your daily routine and diet if you take the seasons into account.
Hi! I’m Gunjan, a self-proclaimed tea fanatic and intrigued with alternative ways to lead a healthy life. I firmly believe that we should take care of our bodies because it’s the only place we live in.
