1) To detoxify your body
and,
2) To alleviate the effects of perpetual stress.
Why we need to detox
Toxins are all around us. They are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the activities we do, and even the thoughts we think. Toxins are received from the outside world. Toxins are created by our inner world, including bodily organs and the mind. We get hit by toxins from all directions.
Now here’s the good news: our bodies have a phenomenal in-built system to detoxify itself. In fact, your body detoxes every single day, throughout the day and night. The problem, however, is that the body’s systems of detoxification may not be running optimally, due to the presence of toxins. These toxins accumulate. They build and build. And they get densified and stored in various hard to reach places of the body, including our joints, intestinal walls and other open spaces that are not routinely accessed by the body’s in-built cleaning system.
As toxins accumulate, they interfere with other bodily functions and systems. That’s why we need Ayurveda. To clean the body on the inside and out. To keep our engine running smoothly. To lubricate places of friction. To cool places of heat and re-heat places that are unfavourably cool. To moisten areas prone to dryness and to dry areas prone to moistness. To rebalance. The body is very much like a car. It needs routine seasonal and annual maintenance.
Detoxify the body and it starts to run better. Excess weight can be shed, but more importantly nagging aches and pains can be reduced significantly, if not eliminated. Unintended positive health benefits are usually discovered. And unintended negative consequences rarely occur and are usually temporary if and when they do surface.
Everyone needs a good detox. Ayurveda is a time-tested and transformative system of detox. But if you are struggling to identify with the need to detox, I have no doubt that you can identify with stress and, also, appreciate anything that can take the edge off and help to calm you down. Whether you are a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant, a school teacher, an Uber driver, a tradesman, a trader, a blue collar worker or a white collar worker, we all have stress. And we all need to de-stress.
Why we need to de-stress
We need to de-stress because stress wreaks havoc on the body. It ages the body. It weakens the body’s natural defence mechanisms and cleansing processes. It affects the natural rhythm of life, including the processes of sleep and relaxation. It affects digestion, both physical digestion and the digestion of information received through the senses.
That stress is responsible for so many chronic health problems is a well-documented and increasingly researched fact. Numerous studies exist — you can Google them if you wish.
But here’s the scariest aspect of the problem — the greater part of our stress is unconscious. That is, we don’t know how stressed we really are. We are not conscious or aware of the overwhelming greater proportion of our stress. As much as 90% of our stress is unconscious, silently working in the background of our minds and in the deepest depths of our bodies. Stress is even accumulated and stored, like toxins, in various body parts and encoded in our cells. Even if we don’t remember the causes of our stress, the body remembers. The cells remember.
We need to de-stress not just at the physical and conscious levels, but even at the cellular level. Ayurveda is a starting point for cellular-level rejuvenation and cleansing, but not the final panacea of stress. Much of the lasting stress relief is done at the individual level through inner work as well as through subtle and incremental changes to our lifestyle, habits and nutrition.
Ayurveda is a journey, not a rigid path. It is defined as the “science of life” and sometimes as the “science of longevity”. It is also defined as “knowledge of life”. In all cases, Ayurveda is fundamentally concerned with how to live our life better than before.
