10 Ayurvedic Lifestyle Tips for Men's Health
Updated: 5 days ago
Hair loss? Low energy? Stress? Heartburn? High cholesterol? Climbing blood pressure? Feeling creaky? All of these are trying to get your attention. 10 Ayurvedic tips to help you get and stay in tip-top shape mentally and physically. Plus our 3 steps to transforming your daily life.
Explore more on the Saumya Blog, selected top Ayurveda blogs and websites to watch.
First, A Little Ayurveda Background to set the Stage for Ayurvedic Lifestyle Tips.
What is Ayurveda? Key Ayurvedic Concepts
Ayurveda seeks to achieve an optimal energetic balance in the body and mind, so we are healthy and free to pursue our fullest spiritual lives. But what does that really mean?
Everything and everyone in the world around us is composed of five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and space. Ayurveda groups these elements into three basic energetic properties, known as doshas. These foundational energies (called Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) are the building blocks of our entire universe.
Vata: That Which Moves
1. Vata dosha is characterized by space and air. The essential engine of the universe, Vata governs all functions of movement within the mind, body, and outer world. Like the elements it embodies, Vata’s physical properties are cold, dry, mobile, subtle, and light.
Vata’s powerful mobile nature is the source of creativity, expansion, openness, eagerness, and ingenuity. However, when Vata falls out of balance, we may feel scattered, ungrounded, tense,anxious, hair loss, memory loss and a lack of vitality.
See if you have sign and symptoms of Vata imbalance: Wild List of Vata Imbalances
2. Pitta: That Which Transforms
Fire and water combine to form Pitta dosha. A universal force of action/reaction, Pitta governs all transformations within the body and mind (think digesting thoughts, emotions, sunlight, and of course food). Pitta characteristics are hot, light, sharp, oily, liquid, and spreading.
In balance, Pitta energy is ambitious, discerning, charismatic, strong-willed, and insightful. Out of balance, it sparks heat in the body and mind (such as inflammation, indigestion, heartburn, and fiery emotional responses like jealousy, criticism, and anger). One phrase that most of us relate to today is, burnout, all the intensity we endure day to day, burns us up, and burns us out.
See if you have Pitta issues: Hot List of Common Pitta Imbalances
3. Kapha: That Which Protects
Kapha dosha is governed by water and earth. Nourishing and reliable , Kapha provides structure and stability in our inner and outer worlds. Like the elements it represents, Kapha physical properties are moist, heavy, slow (or dullish), cool, stable, oily, and smooth.
Balanced Kapha supports groundedness, endurance, strength, and dependability. It protects critical systems from our immune system and personal boundaries down to our stomach lining and the fluid in our joints. Out of balance, Kapha manifests as physical and mental “dullness.” We may put on a few extra pounds, or feel weighed down, lethargic, foggy, depressed, uninspired, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Wondering if you have a Kapha imbalance? Sturdy List of Kapha Imbalances
Explore More: What is Ayurveda? A Beginner's Guide and Beyond
What happens for most of us is that over time we become overwhelmed by busyness and stress, (Vata) and by intense jobs (Pitta) (ever feel like your treading water to stay afloat?), while striving for work-life balance.
"To put it in Ayurveda terms, Vata increases (manifests as stress, fatigue, overwhem, anxiety, poor sleep, waking unrefreshed) and that wind pushes the intensity (Pitta), and back and forth they go.
Picture a wildfire. It starts out as a spark (Pitta) that lands on dry earth (Vata), and the more wind (changes at work, juggling many balls) that blows on the fire, the bigger the fire grows until it spreads like wildfire, in us. Translated, we feel dried up and burned out. Ayurveda consultation restores balance to the doshas."
- Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
With an understanding of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, and how they are influencing your life, let's explore 10 Ayurvedic Tips for Men's Health and optimize your physical and mental wellbeing.
10 Ayurvedic Lifestyle Tips for Men
Ayurvedic lifestyle tips can help create a more balanced life day to day. Contrary to mainstream medicine which relies heavily on pharmaceuticals, the Saumya Ayurveda approach focuses on treating the root cause through our healing trifecta of food is medicine, plant medicine (herbs), and Ayurveda lifetsyle practices.
1. Acknowledge What Is - A key tool for de-stressing
As spiritual beings having a human experience, each of us is gifted with something known as an emotional guidance system. This internal compass is meant to guide us through life so we can effectively process our emotions.
To access this internal system, we start by acknowledging what is. This means rather than ignoring what’s happening around us, within us, and sometimes to us (layoffs, etc.) , or trying to pretend it isn’t real, instead, we fully acknowledge the current reality. This acknowledgment, in turn, allows us to fully process all our associated feelings.
Acknowledging what is will help you navigate life’s unexpected ebbs and flows with clarity and courage.
2. Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing-Ayurveda Breathwork Pranayama
Diaphragmatic breathing is also referred to as belly breathing. This type of breathing engages the diaphragmatic muscles. It’s known to help fill the lungs more efficiently and draw the practitioner into the present moment. As a result, we feel relaxed and grounded.
Benefits of diaphragm breathing include:
Anxiety reduction
Stress reduction
Lowered blood pressure and heart rate
Enables you to feel and be present
Promotes relaxation
Increaess focus
Improves vitality by circulating prana
Explore our personalized services and book your FREE discovery call today.
How to practice diaphragmatic breathing:
Lie comfortably on a flat surface
Support your head with a pillow
Place one hand over your chest, and the other over your abdomen
Breathe in slowly through your nose, notice how your abdomen rises as you inhale and lowers as you exhale
Simply observe the abdomen as it rises and falls rhythmically
Observe within your comfortable capacity
Practice for 2-10 minutes.
Option: Lay in makarasana, crocodile pose as it is supports diaphragmatic breathing as the chest is slightly lifted off the floor and the point of contact is the lower part of the rib cage where the diaphragmatic muscle is located.
Prractice diaphragmatic breathing throughout the day. Include diaphragmatic breathing as part of your morning and evening Ayurveda lifestyle routines. Relax your focus. No need to try to make anything happen or change anything. In time, with consistent practice, the breath will correct itself. Lay back, relax and let go.
3. Limit Screen Time
According to research, overexposure to the news, social media and technology, and general, can lead to anxiety, depression, and suicidal tendencies.
This is especially true as we live through the ongoing pandemic, and are overly exposed to news stories about death, rising cases, and global restrictions.
Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to overexposure — unplugging. As a rule of thumb, aim to disconnect from technology (your phone, tablet, TV, computer, etc.) after 6 pm. Sleep with your phone out of arms reach so if you wake up in the middle of the night, you aren’t tempted to scroll through social media or read the latest news. Choose one day a week for a screen fast. During this time, take a walk outside, read a book, relax, and reconnect with yourself.
"We're on screens more than we realize and it has an impact on our minds, nervous system, and our anatomy. Think of the eyes as a sense gate to the mind. When using a screen, we tend to stare, and this disrupts our normal blinking pattern. What's the impact? Our eyes and minds, become strained, dried, irritated, and inflammed." - Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
4. Ayurvedic Eye Palming for Dry, Burning Eyes
Eye palming is an ancient Ayurvedic technique for promoting deep relaxation and soothing dry, burning eyes, and calming the nervous system, and mind. Learn eye palming and rejuvenate your eyes and your nervous system.
Quick Dry Eye Disease Facts:
1. A 2012 Gallup Poll suggested that 29 million Americans will suffer from the disease by 2022
2. Google trends for the topic “dry eye syndrome” have doubled between December 2010 and July 2020 3. 4.88 million Americans over the age of 50 have dry eyes.
4. Over 86% of people with dry eyes show signs of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, according to the National Institute of Health.
"Digital screens are not going away, and that has a direct influence on our eye and nervous system health. Saumya Ayurveda offers a healing trifecta of herbs, food as medicine and Ayurveda lifestyle tools to treat, and to take care preventively." --Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
While many factors are involved in dry eyes, such as environmental factors (dust, wind, sun, pollution, dander, digital screens, contacts, medications including antihistamines, antidepressants, anxiolytics...), systemic issues are key. Vata and Pitta doshas, according to Ayurveda, are the major players that are imbalanced.
Explore More: Ayurvedic Eye Palming for Dry, Burning Eyes and Feeling Calm Ayurveda for Dry, Burning Eyes | Vata and Pitta and Your Peepers
5. Improve Energy with an Ayurvedic Morning and Evening Routine (Dinachayra)
Vata's best friend is rhythm, or routine. Dinacharya is a daily routine you follow that creates balance. Having a routine important because it soothes and grounds Vata.
"When we flow with the natural energies of the day, we leverage what's abundant in the universe and an ease comes to us. Knowing when to rise, learning about what energy dominates different times of day, helps us to be in the flow." - Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day 10 Ayurvedic Evening Rituals for a Calming Night Simple Ayurveda Morning Routine
"Pick a few practices that you enjoy and provide you with the highest return on your time and energy investmnet. Doing more is not the idea, doing what balances is the key to balancing your doshas." - Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
Here’s an example of an Ayurvedic morning routine:
Drink a warm glass of water with lemon upon waking to stimulate waste elimination
Have a bowel movment A must read: Poo Analysis with Ayurveda: What Your Poop Says About Your Health
Clean your tongue and brush your teeth to remove toxins. Ayurvedic Tongue Scraping | Why and How?
Practice Ayurvedic abhyanga self-massage
Shower
Enjoy our guided 2-minute meditation to create and carry a relaxed awareness with you throughout your day
Eat breakfast
Pairing a healthy fat and protein can be focusing, grounding, and provides sustained energy
Your daily Ayurveda routine sets the tone for your entire day, and how we conclude our day in the evening, sets the tone for the next day. In other words, today started yesterday.
When you take care of yourself and prioritize your well-being, you'll feel less stressed and more balanced and fortified.
6. Practice Restorative Yog-asana (postures)
Restorative yoga is a slower-paced, meditative yoga practice that allows you to ground your body, calm your mind, and focus on your breath while releasing tension.
As opposed to quickly moving from posture to posture (as is commonly practiced in yoga), restorative yoga is about slowing down and coming in touch with your inner being through breath awareness, or prana. It is particularly soothing for Vata because these slow, long movements encourage the regulation of internal movement (for which Vata is responsible).
Start with These Three Restorative Yog-asana
1.) Bālāsana — also commonly referred to as Child’s Pose is a resting pose that closes the front body, and evokes feelings of being nurtured and protected. This pose stimulates mental and physical relaxation.
To move into Child’s Pose, kneel on your yoga mat with your thighs apart
Sink your buttocks to the heels of your feet
Curl your spine and fold your body forward
Draw your forehead down towards the ground
Breathe deeply into the back of your body
Extend your arms in front of your body
Relax and observe the breath.
2.) Savāsana — also known as Corpse Pose, Savāsana is used to promote relaxation and stillness at the end of your restorative yoga practice. While in Savāsana, listen to our guided progressive relaxation.
3.) Viparita Karani - also known as Legs Up the Wall Pose, Viparita Karani calms the nervous system and reduces stress and anxiety.
To practice Legs Up the Wall Pose lay on your back with the spine, neck, and head aligned.
Move your legs up against the wall
Place your hips about 6 inches from the wall or the distance that is comfortable for you
Arms about 8-12 inches from your sides
Stay in this position for as long as you are comfortable and relaxed.
To release the pose, gently push away from the wall and bring your knees to your chest, roll to your left side, pause, keep connected to your relaxed state, and slowly come to a seated position.
This is a perfect pose to transition from the day to your dinner and evening.
7. Try Our Calming and Focusing Nasya Oil:
Nasya Oil Benefits - What is Nasya Oil Good For?
Nasya oil supports our inner wellbeing and overall health. When you begin regular Nasya treatment, you’ll see the benefits right away. Nasya oil can be used to increase mental function, as a preventative medicine, for better breathing, and for stress relief.
Nasya Oil for Stress Relief
When your Prana is cleared through your breath, you’ll experience stress and tension melt away in your neck, jaw, head, and shoulders. Any energy that has been blocked will be released, and energy won’t be able to stagnate in these areas. Mental and emotional stress and anxious thoughts contribute to fading health and many unnecessary afflictions. Nasya oil can help balance these energies, so you feel energized and revitalized all day long.
Nasya Oil Benefits: Nasya oil can remedy common symptoms of Vata and Pitta imbalances - such as anxiety, anxious depression, sleep troubles, brain fog, migraines, and general feeling of intensity.
8. Use Our Free Guided Practices Daily:
Create and carry a relaxed awareness with you throughout your day. Learn to shift your nervous system from flight-fight mode, into rest, restore and relaxation. This is profoundly restorative to Vata doshas, the nervous system and the mind. Saumya clients report feeling calmer, less anxious, improved sleep, increased energy, more focus and overall increased vitality.
“I feel greatly improved. Stress fell off like an old hairy coat. I’m just not anxious. Depression is way decreased. I was haunted by anxiety my whole life, and it’s just gone. The mudra, mantra...WOW. This is so cool! I have regained hope. Something wonderful is taking place. You and your knowledge come to me after a lifetime of searching and prayer. I am forever grateful.” --Mark Hughes, Minnesota
9. Hydate Well Ayurveda Style:
Sip hot water throughout the daylight hours for a gentle cleanse, that also boosts metabolism. Avoid cold beverages as it compromises the digestive fire.
Explore our personalized services and book your FREE discovery call today.
10. Take an Ayurvedic Approach to Improve Your Sleep Qaulity:
At night the body and mind are cleansing and rejuvenating and even repairing. Learn how to get a good night's sleep wiith our article: Ayurvedic Tips for Good Sleep. Following these tips and creating a simple yet effective Ayurveda Evening Routine, supports high quality sleep.
According to the Mayo Clinic, insomnia requires treatment. Good sleep, that means falling asleep easily and staying asleep, is necessary for cleansing the mind and body, and rejuvenating so we wake up refreshed.
It's the little things we do each day that add up and create a positive impact. Our 10 Ayurvedic Lifestyle Tips for Men's Health are designed to help you feel more focused, increase energy, and create a state of calm.
There is a saying, "The mind is more in the body, than the body is in the mind." The Saumya 3 Step Meditation Process shifts us from fight-flight-freeze mode, to rest-restore-relax mode. Give it a try for forty days and observe the changes. The more grounded and relaxed we are, the smoother life flows.
"The breath is the connection between the mind and body, so by training the breath, we become calm, focused, and grounded, we slow down the aging process by decreasing stress. These practices are so simple and easy to have as part of our daily life. We actually feel and look younger."
- Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
1. Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing and Change Your Life. When we re-learn to breath diaphragmatically, we move from the flight-fight-freeze mode, to rest, restore, relaxation mode from where we want and need to live.
2. Daily Guided Practices: 11 minutes in the morning and in the evening, as anchors of your daily Ayurveda routine.
3. Ayurveda Daily Routines: --Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day
"Choose a couple of practices from the routines that provide you with the greatest support. Perform them while applying our two minute meditation technique and your mundane tasks, just transformed into a mellifluous meditation. This is meditation applied to daily life." - Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
Read and watch our client's stories.
“The guidance and coaching that one receives at Saumya Ayurveda is crucial. It gives one the knowledge and tools to create balance independently at home with one's individual lifestyle. After the first week, thanks to my personal Ayurvedic plan, I discovered what it is to wake up in the morning feeling energetic and vibrant. During the day, I'm no longer drowsy but alert, yet calm.” --Don Freeman, Managing Editor, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, Center City, Minnesota
“A year ago, after some lab tests, I was told I had an "abnormal" liver. I thought of my mother, who had died young from liver disease. Veena's Ayurveda recommendations, which included herbs and healthy foods, turned things around in less than six months. My liver was retested, and each lab result was in the "normal" range. This testifies to my longstanding mantra: In Veena I Trust.” -- Anonymous, Minnesota
“When my father first saw blood in his urine, he was dead from bladder cancer in less than 3 years. So, when my doctor told me I had blood in my urine, I was scared to death—almost. Veena recommended specific Ayurveda herbs, cranberry juice, and certain yoga asanas. The blood in the urine, which had persisted despite surgery, was gone in less than a couple of months, thanks to Ayurveda and Veena’s treatment. Both have my utmost respect always!”
--Anonymous, USA
“Saumya Ayurveda has helped me beyond my expectations! Veena is a wonderfully astute and thorough practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine's healing principles and therapies.She is exceptionally intuitive and empathic and can "see" my body and accurately assess my ailments and condition through virtual visits. She can quickly determine courses of treatment for my health concerns that have produced excellent results for my body and mind.
I have received treatments for chronic fatigue and pain, dry skin, brain fog and more. I am 59 years old, and my body and mind are gradually wearing out. The Ayurvedic formulations, along with Veena’s specific instructions are slowing my aging process and bringing my body and mind back into good alignment.
I have vastly improved with Veena’s care.I will continue to trust Veena and her clinic with my health concerns even before consulting "traditional" health care providers.
She has been of immense value helping me alleviate chronic health issues that my regular doctor could not. I would highly recommend Saumya Ayurveda to everyone!"
-– Paul Kellett, St. Paul, Minnesota
"Working with Veena is incredible. She's sees the possibilities that lay dormant in us, and is so patient and kind in sharing her wisdom and tools to help birth those possibilities. As Ayurveda is a living science, it takes conviction and discipline to change habits, to live a different reality.
Veena makes navigating the changes smooth and meaningful, inspiring at every meeting, letting me know that, YES, changes are happening! Thank you, Veena. Many blessings!"
-Kyle Sangster, Minneapolis, Minnesota
10 Ayurvedic Lifestyle Tips for Men's Health
We all want to be heard, understood, and cared for as whole beings, not a set of isolated symptoms. True health is more than the absence of disease, which is why Western medicine so often leaves us feeling hopeless and unseen.
Deep down, you already know what you’re searching for: a new framework for living – one that brings your entire being back into balance. With Saumya Ayurveda, you’ll receive individualized guidance to create the physically, mentally, and spiritually vibrant life you crave.
Saumya Ayurveda provides concierge, top-notch, award-winning Ayurveda care. We strive to keep it simple, so you can focus on you! Opt for virtual consultations and we'll come to you.
Our practice model is client focused, we’re not in the retail herb business. We’ll guide you where to order herbs directly online. Our top-shelf Ayurveda oils and herbalized ghees are the best in the land and we’ll ship your care package right to your doorstep.
Our effective multi-appointment consultation packages provide you with experienced Ayurveda care, enthusiastic guidance, and inspiring support.
Explore our personalized services and book your FREE discovery call today. Psst! Our clients say it best – so read and watch our client's stories.
Veena is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and meditation teacher, and monk.
She is President Emeritus and teaching faculty of the Meditation Center.
Veena fell in love with the traditional medicine used in her family’s home, learning herbal remedies at her grandmother's knee.
These childhood experiences were the seeds of a lifelong passion. For over 30 years, Veena has dedicated her life to the world’s oldest healing system: Ayurveda.
She draws on this ancient wisdom to help others find their compass to a healthy life – and support those left wanting by Western medicine.
An experienced Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Veena’s deep, intuitive knowledge of Ayurveda empowers her clients to reclaim their fullest, most vibrant lives –mentally, physically, and spiritually. Veena individualizes treatment plans to each person, rather than offering a one-size-fits-all approach, so it fits your life and becomes woven in your lifestyle, naturally.
