Hi.
I’m Alicia.
Establishing a
supportive daily routine is a crucial part of the Ayurvedic lifestyle, and it can be
a game-changer when kapha is provoked.
Today, I want to share with you why kapha benefits from having a daily routine, how
to get started in creating a routine that works for YOU, our top 5 tips for balancing
kapha with your everyday habits.
Let’s get started!
Kapha is naturally heavy and dense, so when this dosha elevated, we are likely to feel
heavy, congested, unmotivated, and lethargic.
Our minds may be unclear or foggy, and we might struggle with finding the discipline
to stick with our commitments.
A daily routine can be potent medicine for balancing these tendencies because it automates
some of our most essential self-care practices.
And as an added benefit, the most supportive kapha-balancing routine will leave plenty
of room for spontaneity as well.
If you are new to creating your own Ayurvedic daily routine, we have a couple of suggestions
right off the bat that will help you follow through on your intentions.
First, it’s important to note that following an Ayurvedic daily routine does not mean that
you should schedule every moment of every day.
Instead, it’s about creating consistency with a handful of habits that are repeated
each day at similar times.
This invites the body to relax into a sense of safety, normalcy, and ease.
And second, while the traditional Ayurvedic daily routine could easily require several
hours of your day, we can’t emphasize enough the importance of starting small.
Begin with just a few simple commitments that you feel confident about accomplishing every
day.
Even small actions done regularly can have incredible impacts on your health and well-being—things
like going to bed and getting up at the same times each day, eating your meals daily at
roughly the same times, and taking some time for self-love every day.
Narrow down your list of potential habits to focus on by being realistic and considering
your schedule, lifestyle, and preferences.
After all, this is YOUR routine, so it should reflect what works for you.
On a side note: Even though food and diet are an essential part of a daily routine,
we’re not going to discuss that in this video.
Click this link for our in-depth video on kapha foods and diet if that’s what you’re
looking for.
Alright.
Now that we know why kapha is balanced by a daily routine and how you can begin to create
your own, let’s move on to our top 5 tips that you’ll want to consider including in
your own daily routine.
#1 Make It Doable What we’re talking about is making some
potentially impactful changes to your daily life.
Kapha is one to prefer the familiar, so making the leap to incorporating new behaviors may
feel like a stretch.
To ease the growing pains, remind yourself that this is about making a meaningful commitment
to your own well-being, not about creating more work for yourself, setting high expectations,
or getting things checked off a list.
Keep in mind that it’s important for kapha-types to honor their own internal pace—which may
be slow and steady—as opposed to the vata or pitta tendencies to be frantic or obsessive.
Our culture tends to shame being slow, but for kapha-types, slow and steady usually works.
That said, kapha does love a sense of leisure, so an appropriate pace may also mean finding
a wellspring of motivation to push through any heaviness that starts to drag us down.
If we can balance honoring who we are with reaching for our personal best, we can begin
to re-pattern one of kapha’s core struggles and ultimately, we will be much better equipped
to keep kapha healthy and balanced.
#2 Make Room for Spontaneity
Because excess kapha can cause us to be unmotivated and lethargic, it can sometimes feel like
we’re living life in a very predictable rut.
Counter this tendency by intentionally choosing to break the monotony of a typical day as
often as possible.
Be willing to follow your inspiration, say yes to random opportunities for adventure,
and make time for lightness and fun.
You will likely discover this practice to be even more supportive if you make it a social
experience that you share with friends and loved ones.
# 3 Prepare for Tomorrow, Today
Where kapha is concerned, the evening habits are essential because they can make or break
your daily routine the following day.
Choosing to be intentional about the flow of your evening ensures that your day ends
with devoted self-care, that you set yourself up to get adequate rest, and that you’ll
be less likely to oversleep or awaken groggy the next morning.
In addition to your usual hygiene behaviors, consider adding one or two nourishing practices
like Bhramari Pranayama, a yogic breathing practice, or a foot massage with Kapha Massage
Oil.
If you’d like to learn more about Bhramari Pranayama, click this link.
Make sure you choose a bedtime and stick with it as best you can.
Receiving adequate rest at consistent times will help to prevent an over-indulgence in
sleep.
You may also want to think about what time you’ll be waking up.
When kapha is provoked, we recommend that you budget no more than eight hours for sleep,
possibly less, and you’ll likely benefit tremendously by waking up before 6 a.m., so
plan accordingly.
#4 Clean Up!
You know the usual daily hygiene practices like bathing, washing your face, and brushing
your teeth, but there are a few other habits that you could bring to your routine that
will encourage the cleansing of your system and leave you feeling light and fresh.
Here’s a few that we highly recommend:
In Ayurveda, scraping your tongue with a metal tongue cleaner is considered as important
as brushing your teeth.
A light scrape of the tongue gently stimulates the internal organs and awakens the digestive
system for the day.
It also removes accumulated toxins and bacteria from the tongue that can contribute to bad
breath.
Drinking warm or hot water or water with lemon after cleaning your tongue and brushing your
teeth helps to awaken the digestive tract and hydrate the tissues, and it also promotes
peristalsis—which can encourage a healthy morning bowel movement.
Pranayama, aka yogic breathing, can also be a cleansing practice, so consider adding a
few minutes anywhere in your day.
Great pranayama for kapha include Bhramari, Full Yogic Breath, Bhastrika, or Kapalabhati.
These are especially helpful in cases of mental dullness, fog, or just overall sluggishness,
as they help to clear and uplift the body and mind.
If you’d like to learn more about any of these yogic breathing practices, just click
this link!
#5 Prioritize Movement and Exercise
Because appropriate exercise is one of the most fundamentally kapha-pacifying activities
around, committing to regular, ideally daily, exercise is one of the greatest gifts we can
give ourselves when kapha is high.
Any exercise will be supportive, but to maximize the benefit, follow the principles of the
Kapha-Pacifying Approach to Fitness—if you’d like to read that, just click here.
The best forms of exercise for kapha are vigorous and challenging but also inspiring and fun!
The best time of day to exercise is when kapha predominates the atmosphere, between 6–10
a.m. and 6–10 p.m.
If this time-frame doesn’t work with your schedule, any time of day will do.
For your regular daily workout, it doesn’t have to be hours at the gym—even fifteen
to thirty minutes per day can be life-changing.
Almost any type of exercise will balance kapha, provided you perform at a level that is appropriately
challenging for you.
Even if you are planning on a regular daily workout later, one of the best things you
can do to balance kapha is to get the body moving first thing in the morning.
This does not have to be your full daily work-out.
A quick and invigorating series of Sun Salutations, a few minutes of jumping on a trampoline,
or a short brisk walk can do the trick.
The idea is to shake off any lingering sluggishness and activate the metabolic system early in
the day.
If you’re too sluggish to exercise immediately upon waking, consider ten to fifteen minutes
of pranayama, or yogic breathing exercises, first.
And those are our top 5 tips for balancing kapha with your daily routine.
We hope you find this video helpful as you begin to craft the perfect kapha-balancing
daily routine for you.
We’d love to hear what is a MUST in your kapha-balancing daily routine, so share with
us in the comments below.
Thanks for watching!