Longevity is something most humans wish for. Its pursuit involves a constant battle. From the time of birth to the time of death, the body is engaged in a struggle with the aging process. Each day the body breaks down tissues and organs at a cellular level, causing damage and degeneration. Thus our efforts to achieve longevity and rejuvenation must focus on what’s happening in our body at the cellular level.
Each of the three doshas plays an essential role in our health and longevity. Together, they regulate all the functions of the billions of cells that constitute our body. For example, the vata dosha is closely related to pranic life energy and governs the nervous system and all of our body’s movements. Pitta governs digestion, nutrition, and transformation at a cellular level, and kapha maintains the longevity and the structure of the cells.
To combat aging on a deeper level, it is also necessary to balance the subtle essence of each dosha. The subtle essence of vata is prana, the life force. This energy governs respiration and the physiological functions of the heart, including circulation of the blood and the oxygenation all the dhatus (bodily tissues) and vital organs. As the purest form of the dosha that drives the nervous system and stimulates the intellect, prana also controls all the motor and sensory functions, the natural intelligence of the body, and all the functions of mind, including memory, thoughts, and emotions. In addition, prana regulates the biological functions of the two other subtle essences, ojas and tejas.
The subtle essence of kapha and the seven dhatus, ojas constitutes the vital energy that works with prana to sustain the life-giving functions of the body. It contains all five basic elements (i.e., earth, water, fire, air, and space) and all the vital substances of our bodily tissues. Balanced ojas is necessary for biological strength and immunity. Because ojas and kapha are inextricably linked, an imbalance in one leads to an imbalance in the other, fueling a vicious cycle of waxing kapha and waning ojas that undermines our health and vitality. Ojas is also responsible for our psychological strength. While balanced ojas promotes compassion, love, peace, and creativity, depleted ojas can give rise to negative states such as fear, nervous exhaustion, impaired sensory perception, loss of consciousness, and even death.
As the purest essence of the pitta dosha and agni (digestive fire), tejas regulates cellular metabolism and drives the transformation of food, thoughts, sensations, and experiences into energy and nourishment for the body and mind. Balanced tejas is necessary for sustaining ojas. When tejas is aggravated, it burns away ojas, reducing immunity and overstimulating pranic activity.
To address the debilitating effects of imbalances in the three doshas and their subtle essences, Ayurvedic sages developed the rejuvenation method known as panchakarma. As a holistic approach to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual renewal, panchakarma aims to provide a total solution to the systemic degeneration and dysfunction caused by the aging process.
Ayurveda also offers simple techniques that you can that you can easily integrate into your lifestyle and use daily to support balanced prana, ojas, and tejas. The first step toward optimizing these energies is to avoid smoking, overexertion, cold drinks, most dairy products, and hydrophilic foods (e.g., salty snacks, tuna fish, cucumbers), excess sexual activity, fried foods, red meats, excess alcohol, and too much or too little or sleep. It’s best to eat a nutrient-rich plant-based diet, primarily cooked foods with the balance of sweet, sour, pungent, salty, astringent, and bitter tastes in each meal. Eating three to four small meals a day with lunch being your biggest meal and maintaining a light daily exercise regime are also recommended.
One of the simplest ways to sustain ojas is to consume ghee, a product made from unsalted cultured butter that stimulates the appetite and the secretion of digestive juices, enkindles agni, and enhances the flavors of foods. It also strengthens intelligence and memory. Unlike many oils, ghee doesn’t increase cholesterol. In addition, it balances all three doshas and rejuvenates all the tissues.
To incorporate ghee into your diet, make it your go-to cooking oil. For a more concentrated daily dose of ghee, take a teaspoon of ghee each morning followed by a cup of warm water on empty stomach or eat a date that has been soaked in ghee. Please make sure you are using organic grass-fed cultured ghee. A lot of the ghee you find in Indian markets is not the medicinal-grade form and will not be effective.
Prana is best managed by eating a nutrient-dense organic diet of freshly cooked plant-based meals and practicing pranayama, a yogic breathing exercise that promotes healing and balance. Like yoga, pranayama comprises different styles. According to Ayurveda, the style you should adopt depends on your constitution. If you have a pitta constitution, you should perform left nostril breathing. For this exercise, inhale through the left nostril and exhale through the right, using the thumb and middle finger to close and open alternate nostrils. A person of kapha constitution should do right nostril breathing, inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the left. Vata types should perform alternate nostril breathing by exhaling out of one nostril and then inhaling with the same nostril, then switching and exhaling and inhaling with the alternate nostril. Practice the appropriate technique for 10 to 20 minutes a day.
Careful management of tejas is equally important to cultivating vitality and long life. Improper diet and lifestyle and overuse of drugs will cause an imbalance in this subtle energy, which, in turn, can cause problems with either prana or ojas. Substances that are hot, sharp, and penetrating directly enhance tejas. A great way to achieve this effect is to start every morning with a glass of warm tea made with a paste of turmeric and honey.
Use 1/3 cup or 80 mL premium raw honey and 2 1/2 teaspoons dried turmeric. Work the turmeric into the honey until it forms a paste. You can store this in a jar. For each cup of tea, place a heaping teaspoon of the turmeric paste in the bottom of a mug. Pour hot (not boiling) water into the mug, and stir well to dissolve the turmeric paste. Add a big squeeze of juice from a fresh lemon and a generous amount of black pepper. (Pepper is invigorating and supports the digestion of the turmeric.)
Disclaimer
The sole purpose of these articles is to provide information about the tradition of Ayurveda. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of any disease.