Managing Stress with Ayurveda

We all experience stress at times, in one way or another ?adults, teens, kids, and even animals. We may even experience it in varying forms and degrees every day. In small doses, stress can be beneficial, because it can help keep you on your toes when you need it, as when you have to rise to a challenge. Then your nervous system returns to its normal state, and life goes on as usual. But stress isn’t always a response to things that are immediate or that are over quickly. It can be a problem if it becomes too great and starts affecting you on a physical or mental level. Yet there are things Ayurveda recommends to manage and minimize your stress.

What Is Stress Anyway?

Your body responds to events that provoke stress (known as “stressors”) by activating the nervous system and triggering the production of specific hormones. The hypothalamus signals the adrenal glands to produce more adrenaline and cortisol and release them into the bloodstream. These hormones will speed up your heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. This natural reaction is known as the “stress response.”

Under normal circumstances and when your whole system is working properly, your body’s stress response enhances your ability to perform well under pressure. But the stress response can cause problems when it continues without turning off and resetting itself to “normal,” as when you have to deal with long-term or ongoing stressful events. These types of situations can produce a lasting, low-level stress that may eventually take a toll on your body. In these cases, the nervous system continues to feel pressured and remains slightly activated, still pumping out extra stress hormones over an extended period, which can wear out your energy reserves, leaving you feeling depleted or overwhelmed, weakening your immune system, and causing other problems.

How Does Ayurveda Manage Stress?

We all experience stress a little differently, according to our constitution and mental tendencies. The Ayurvedic approach always takes into account these and provides guidelines in an individualized and holistic manner. For instance, pitta constitutions, who tend to become angry and act out their stress, or take it out on others, will benefit from certain pitta pacifying herbs and foods, such as pomegranate juice, coconut water and aloe vera, to help decrease excess pitta and prevent it from moving into the nervous tissue. Daily massage with coconut oil and applying oils such as sandalwood, khus, mitti or rose attars to the third eye, temples and crown of the head can dramatically cool and quiet the mind. Pitta herbs include Shatavari, Licorice, Brahmi and Rose petals.

Kapha people tend to internalize stress and develop eating disorders or substance abuse problems. Lack of exercise causes the formation of toxins and slows down the metabolism. This can lead to heaviness on the mental and emotional plane giving rise to depression. When kapha types become stressed they can also get irritable because excess pitta becomes trapped in their increased body fat, and they tend to eat too much to relieve tension and try to attain a feeling of satisfaction. In this case, pungent, bitter and astringent foods can help, as well as a kapha reducing diet, increased activity, vigorous exercise, mentally rejuvenating herbs like Vacha, and pungent digestive stimulants like black pepper and pippali are great to lighten the body and refresh the senses.

Vata types are more prone to becoming overly anxious, jumpy, and even panicky. And most people with a chronic illness may find that the symptoms of their illness flare up under an overload of stress. When prana vata gets aggravated in the brain it causes an inability to think clearly or retain information, which is a common symptom in a stressful or traumatic situation. Other symptoms associated with vata may included mental hyperactivity, anxiety, and scattered thoughts. Here the best regime consists in following a vata pacifying diet of primarily warm, cooked foods that have sweet, sour and salty tastes, daily oil massage, meditation, relaxing yoga, and warm milk before sleep. Herbs such as Ashwagandha, Bala, Jatamansi, and Licorice are among the best vata tonic herbs to combat stress as well as to replenish depleted stores of energy and bolstering adrenal energy.

Stress from excessive physical or mental work can also exhaust your body and mind, and cause fatigue, which can over time make you lazy, sluggish and mentally dull. So rest, play, and fun are vital ingredients to prevent energy exhaustion. To help your body detox and rejuvenate, get regular Ayurvedic therapies such as shirodhara, abhyanga, herbal steam, netra basti, nabhi basti, marma massage, aromatherapy, and color therapy. Also, incorporating healthy daily routines (dinacharya) is a very good way to counteract daily stress and promote overall balance and vitality.

Furthermore, seasonal Panchakarma is one of the best ways to reduce stress because it is the most effective way to balance all doshas, cleanse your body of toxins (both physical and mental), and allow yourself to be nurtured and cared for, and take care of unresolved emotions in a healing environment.

Stress Reducing Herbs
Ashwagandha, Bala, Licorice, Vidari, Shatavari, Brahmi, Gotu Kola, Saraswati churna, Vacha, Tulsi, Shankapushpi, Siberian Ginseng.

Stress Reducing Foods
Coconut, walnuts, dates, almonds, cooked fruits, fresh raw milk, and fresh, organic pomegranate, persimmons, mangoes and pineapple. Bananas fried in ghee with cumin.

Stress Reducing Drinks
A daily cup of tomato juice. Ginger jatamansi tea. Tulsi tea. Ojas drink. Fresh almond drink. Garlic Milk. Ashwagandha Milk. (see right column)

Stress Reducing Yoga Asanas
Child pose (Balasana). Extended child pose. Corpse pose (Shavasana). Easy pose (Sukhasana). Half shoulder stand (Viparitakarni mudra). Yoga Nidra techniques.

Stress Reducing Ayurvedic Therapies
Shirodhara (Bliss therapy), Abhyanga (warm oil massage), Shiro Abhyanga & Nasya (head massage), Netra Basti (eye rejuvenation), Nabhi Basti (emotional release), Shila Abhyanga (hot stone massage)… and more.

More About Ayurvedic Therapies

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