Balancing a Busy Life with Ayurveda: 7 Tips for a Healthier Lifestyle

People sometimes comment that it is difficult to keep up a healthy lifestyle when living a busy life when one’s time often is managed by so many outside factors. Here are some tips on how to look after your health even under challenging circumstances that are easy to incorporate into your life.

1. Moderation or the middle path is the mantra to be followed in professional and personal life
2. Digestion is more important than nutrition. With any ‘ism’ we follow, we have to be aware of our digestive system. Am I able to process this food with ease? Do I have bowel movements daily? If the food you are eating is making you heavy, sluggish, bloated or is taking too long to move through the system then you are probably not eating ideally.
3. Devote at least 10 minutes to consume each of your 3 meals. Eat a light breakfast, a big lunch and a lighter dinner. Dedicating 10 minutes to eating food with full awareness is equal to meditation.
4. Ensure that at least one meal every day is freshly cooked—not frozen, precooked or canned—whether it is a soup, vegetable stir fry or something else.

5. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Make sure you drink it at least one hour before or after the main meal—too much water just before or after the meals can weaken your digestion.
6. Include some kind of physical activity in your life at least three times a week. Any physical activity we do, should not be done to the maximum capacity. For example, if we can walk 10 km at a stretch, from an exercise point of view we should only do half of that.
7. The best way to process our emotional baggage is by daily meditation. If it’s hard to find time, at least do nine rounds of alternate nostril breathing followed by chanting the mantra OM 21 times. This barely takes five minutes of your time and is very beneficial!

Aparna K. BAMS, MD, PhD

Aparna is one of the few specialists worldwide with a PhD in Ayurveda. Born into an Ayurvedic family which operates a traditional Ayurvedic Panchakarma hospital in Kerala, India, she grew up observing her father, the renowned Dr Padmanabhan.