SUPPORTING PILLARS OF HEALTH
(1. Food, 2. Sleep, and 3. Control of senses)
Dr kavita vyas [ayurveda specialist]
According to Ayurveda the 1. Food (ahara), 2. Sleep (nidra) and 3. control on senses (Brahmacharya) are consider as three supporting pillars for health.
In first article we have seen some important information about food.
We are giving here some more information about Food and also we will see sleep and brahmacharya.
1. FOOD (AAHARA)
food is major source of energy. It is said that ‘food is medicine’– that means if we are careful about our diet then we can avoid so many diseases. Diet can be an effective treatment in itself.
Though dietary results are slower to manifest, over a period of time they are as certain as that of herbs. Dietary treatment is usually the safest therapy.
Wrong diet is the main physical causative factor of the disease. In its constitutional approach, Ayurveda emphasizes correct diet for the individual. This is the main factor in long term treatment of the physical body, called in Sanskrit, annamaya kosha, the food sheath.
what we eat affects our emotions and can create a predisposition for both psychological and physical disorders. Just a wrong emotion can upset our digestion, so wrong digestion can also upset our emotions.
Following food items are good to take daily as per charak Samhita – The rice which grows in 60 days, brown rice, green gram, black salt, Amla (emblica officinale), Barley flour, pure water, ghee (butter), milk and honey.
Water
Uddalaka Aruni also tells us “the water., that drunk is divided three fold. The gross part becomes urine, the middle part becomes the blood, the subtle part becomes the life force (Prana)” (chhandogya upanishada VI.4.2.)
Hence what we drink is also nourishes our life force and there by derange our emotions and thoughts.
-We all know that water is important but I’ve never seen it written down like this before. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
-One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.
-A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
-Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.
Acharya charaka has described 18 factors regarding Dietetic incompatibility.
2. SLEEP (NIDRA)
Sleep is such an important source of energy that if you don’t allow a person to sleep for couple of days, he or she would become mentally imbalance. In sleep or in meditation only one can go away from body level and can rest.
Some time when sleep is not that much sound then person see dreams. Some time dreams may give you an intuition about future’s incident. But generally dreams are our hidden desires which are coming out of our subconscious level.
So in this way dreams also empty your subconscious and make you feel lighter. So don’t pay attention on dreams. Sound sleep is necessary for healthy body and healthy mind.
For getting sound sleep you can take help of following things-
– Go to bed on a fixed time every day, better to sleep early if you want to wake up early. Before going to bed take a long walk, if your body allows doing so. Sleeping just after dinner is harmful for the health.
– Wash your face and feet, clean your teeth before going to bed, it will be helpful in sound sleep.
– It is good to give gentle massage to your feet; it improves eye sight and gives sound sleep.
– Relax your body before sleeping, pay attention on your different organs and relax them, while lying on the bed, this is called as yoga nidra.
– You can watch your breath for 2 minutes and you will get a sound sleep.
– For some people listening Indian classical music /bhajans (devotional songs)/positive talks etc also help to get sleep.
– In ayurveda medicines, ashwagandha or brahmi are helpful in giving a sound sleep.
– Taking one glass of hot milk is also helpful to get sound sleep for some people.
In ayurveda only in summer season day sleep is prescribed. In other season if person sleep in day time, it aggravates Kapha doshas in the body.
In the same way sleeping during sunrise and sunset is not good for body and mind, because according to Indian tradition these times are good for prayers and meditation.
Sleeping too much or sleeping too less both are harmful for the body. There should be balance. Generally for adults six hour to seven hour sleep is sufficient.
For the person who are doing meditation and yoga 4-5 hour sleep is enough, because their mind is already relaxed. For students 8 hour sleep is require because their body is still growing and in sleep body grows more.
Before sleep what we think becomes the first thought of next morning, and it remains whole night in our subconscious level, so better to think something good or read some spiritual books before sleep because next morning is your new birth. You are new totally.
If mobile and computer or TVs are in bedroom then electromagnetic waves of all these becomes a hurdle in sleep, so switch off the mobile, tv, computer before sleep, or keep out of bedroom. Using land line phone is better than mobile phones whenever possible.
3. CONTROL OF SENSES (BRAHMACHARYA)
We all have come on the earth as bundle of energy, to perform certain special work. When you see a child you can understand this easily.
A child is so much active, he will move his hands and feet, or he will laugh using his whole body, the child is reflecting God, the reason is till now he has not wasted his energy in unnecessary thinking,continuous watching television or films, listening loud music, tasting good hotel foods, or talking unnecessarily etc.
All our energy mainly goes out through these mediums, brahmacharya (control of senses) means to stop this outward flow of our energy and turn this flow to inside for achieving the ultimate goal of one’s life that is self realization.
I am not saying that one should not watch television at all, or should not listen to music at all or should not have good food. Instead One can enjoy all these things in a limit.
Proper use of these senses gives long and healthy life. There is no need of suppressing the urge of senses but one can use them in a balanced way by help of self control. Or using his/her discrimination power (viveka).
Actually desires a rise in mind, and this mind is the only one who involved with sense organ to enjoy a particular thing.
So for controlling the senses one has to learn how to control your mind. Mind again works according to your intellect so to control the desire your intellect should be pure which can differentiate between good and bad, this is called discrimination (viveka).
For pure intellect good company and sattvik food is necessary. There are number of factors through which you can control your mind like-
– Taking satvic food, Reading good literature, Having Company of good people or sages,
– Having sense of contentment, following social regimen
– Doing yogasanas, pranayam and dhyan.
For more on specific health solution watch this video link below
do you know youe body type?
#What is the importance of food for our health?,
What are the 10 importances of food?,
Why is sleep so important to your health?,
What are the five importances of sleep?,
What is the 10 importance of water?,
What is the importance of water to health?,
Why is it important to control our senses?,
What is the importance of our senses?,
Leave a Reply