Understanding your digestion through an Ayurvedic approach
Have you ever noticed that your digestion changes depending on what you eat, how you eat, how well you sleep or how busy your day has been?
In Ayurveda, digestion is considered an important part of overall health and wellbeing. Rather than looking at digestion as something separate from the rest of the body, Ayurveda takes a whole-person approach and consider how food, lifestyle, daily routines and your individual constitution/dosha may influence your digestive wellbeing.
Supporting digestion is not necessarily about following a particular diet or avoiding a long list of food for the rest of your life.
Ayurveda encourages us to understand our individual needs and consider the habits and routines that may be supporting or challenging our digestion.
What works well for one person may not necessarily work well for another!
Your Digestion is Individual
Each person is unique!
This individualised perspectives means two people experiencing similar digestive concerns may receive very different recommendations.
Your Ayurvedic constitution (Prakriti) is considered when understanding your individual tendencies along with your current state of balance (Vikruti) to provide an insight into changes or imbalances you may be experiences.
Looking at wider patterns such as how, when and what you eat, your daily routines, digestion and energy level through out the day, how deep is your sleep, environmental influences can provide a more complete picture of your digestive wellbeing.
Could your daily routines be affecting your digestion?
Our modern lifestyles can make regular routines difficult.
Busy schedules, eating on the go, breakfast meetings or lunch meeting, irregular meal times, lack of rest and ongoing stress can all influence the way we experience our daily wellbeing.
Ayurveda places value on dinacharya (daily routine), and encourage greater awareness of regular rhythems and habits.
This does not mean that you need to completely restructure your life.
Small and consistent changes to the way you approach meals, rest, and your daily routine is a more realistic place to begin.
Food is more than just what you eat
When we talk about nutrition, it is easy to focus entirely on What is on the plate.
Ayurveda nutrition is personalised. Rather than following a universal meal plan, recommendations are shaped around you and your needs.
In summary, There is no one size fits all approach. Just as your constitution is unique, your digestive wellbeing deserves the same individual consideration.
Rather than constantly searching for the next super food, supplement or quick fix, it can be helpful to step back and look at the bigger picture.