Stress - How Ayurveda Can Help You Relieve It Naturally?

Who is not stressed? And who doesn’t want to be stress-free? Stress is good when you are suddenly faced with danger and the body primes itself by releasing stress hormones like Cortisol for the fight and flight response. But when you get stressed a million times for nothing in a mere 24 hours, you are harming yourself in more ways than one. The consequences of excess stress are deleterious on numerous systems in the body like:

1. Digestive system and metabolic function which controls body weight
2. Cardiovascular system
3. Musculoskeletal system
4. Nervous system
5. Reproductive system
6. Immune system

Excess stress can also impact our mental and emotional states and consequently our relationships. What’s more alarming is that even though stress is a contributing factor in a variety of ailments, its influence is easily overlooked. This means that you must seek help to even eliminate occasional nagging stress before it wears you down completely.

Ayurveda offers an abundance of building, nourishing qualities through our diets, our lifestyle, and our daily practices for reducing the ravages of stress on your body. These are some of the things Ayurveda prescribes for dulling stress-

1. Slowing down: Since stress hormones wear your body and vital systems down, slowing down to rest, recoup and rejuvenate is the best antidote to stress. Make sure to eliminate as many stressors from your life to cut down on impact of the cortisol bolt. Choosing to prioritize things like adequate rest and taking long slow walks, also help in slaying stress.
2. Taking a bath: A bath, especially a warm one, relaxes the nervous system, releases tension, and helps to quiet the mind. You can add Epsom salts, essential oils like Lavender to calm, cleanse and relax your body-mind. 1/3 cup ginger powder and ? cup baking soda added to the water increases healing. The ginger- baking soda combination encourages circulation, sweating, and detoxification, and is also quite soothing.
3. Practising oil pulling: Gargling with warm sesame or coconut oil helps to remove tension from the jaw and removes natural toxins from the teeth, and gums. Just sip a tablespoon or two of coconut oil and swish it inside your mouth for up to twenty minutes. Spit out and rinse with warm water.
4. Doing Abhyanga- Ayurvedic oil massage: This ancient practice of self-massage with nourishing oils like sesame oil, calms the nervous system, lubricates and rejuvenates the muscles, and promotes healthy circulation. In addition, the oil also forms a protective sheath around the body that can help buffer your nervous system against stress. All you have to do is to massage in ¼–½ cup warm oil into your skin before a shower.
5. Practicing Nasya: Nasya is the Ayurvedic practice of applying medicated oil to the nasal passages. This reduces stress, soothes and promotes unobstructed breathing. It also ups mental clarity.
6. Massaging your feet before sleeping: Before turning in apply some warm oils like Sesame, Brahmi or Bhringraj to ground your energy and soothe your nervous system. This also promotes sound sleep. If you sleep well, your stress levels will automatically come down.

Apart from all the above, meditation, physical exercise, good diet, reading spiritual books, spending time with good friends and kids, spiritual tour programs, etc. wil definitely help you relieve stress. Medicines are not advisable until unless the situation demands.