Today, most of us have a heightened awareness for the importance of a daily routine. We can give thanks to social media for all of the opinions around what a “perfect” daily routine looks like. This can create quite the confusion as to what we “should” and “should not” be doing on a daily basis. However, sometimes cliches start trending for a reason.

Āyurvedic medicine, holistic health practitioners, and hard science can all agree that having a daily routine is essential for our health and overall wellbeing. Here are some reasons why…

Why it is important to have A routine:

1. Support us in feeling grounded, clear, and confident.
2. Help us get stronger in prioritization and lessen procrastination.
3. To save money and time!
4. Achieves goals more efficiently.
5. Promote mental sharpness, emotional wellbeing, reduce stress, and strengthen energy regulation (1)
6. Establish a healthy circadian rhythm, the 24-hour clock in your brain effecting every cell and nerve in your body; this will regulate certain hormones, your body temperature, and a strong metabolism (2).

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A strong daily routine is at the foundation of the most time tested medical healthcare system, Āyurveda आयुर्वेद. Āyurveda is the core medical healthcare system used in many countries today and is becoming more widespread in the West as well.

The concept of dinacharya दिनचर्या, ‘dina’ meaning a 24-hour day, and ‘charya’ meaning regimen in sanskrit, helps us cycle with the rhythms of nature to achieve optimal health.

Below we will speak to the mental, physical, and relational aspects one can follow to support not only a living a long life, but living a life of vitality as well.

NOTE | If you have a chronic imbalance, are experiencing illness or a fever, some of these protocols will not apply to you. Please reach out to your holistic healthcare practitioner for a customized plan.

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Waking up

What is the most important thing you can do to feel energetic through the day? Go to sleep early enough and get up when you wake naturally. After a while you will not need an alarm clock! (I was skeptical too but after a few days of intentional sleep hygiene, no more alarm needed!) Ideally, natural light will enter the room to help you wake with ease (see ”get outside” for more tools).

If light sleep, but feel heavy later in the day, a nap or yoga nidra (3) can be beneficial. For those who tend to sleep deeply and waking up is challenging, recall the rule of balance here - get up right away and be active ASAP!

Mornings

^{Within the hour of sunrise}

1. Early assessment - As soon as you wake, tune in and have a conversation with yourself. How am I feeling physically, mentally, emotionally? What excites me about the day? What will I do to ground? What am I grateful for? How hungry or thirsty am I? Doing this assessment helps to relieve stress from choosing around mealtime. By connecting to your body early, you will be prepared to nourish optimally through the day. You could take your time and journal, or think out loud as you make your bed!

2. Restroom - If you want to avoid weakening your organs over time, please do not hold in bodily urges! Use the restroom and then cleanse. Brush teeth, scrape the tongue to remove bacteria build up and activate saliva production for healthy digestion, and wash the face.

3. First drink - Freshly boiled hot water is great year round to have first thing in the morning if you want to activate the body’s metabolism and cleanse the intestines. If you drink caffeine, it is best had 90 minutes to 2 hours after waking with some sustenance to eat. This wards off a late afternoon or early afternoon crash and allows for cortisol to follow its regular pattern (4).

4. AM focus on your passions - Create, learn, align with that which lights you up! Perhaps you read a page of that book you have been wanting to dive into, practice an instrument for 10 minutes, chew on wisdom, or anything else that excites you! Whatever it is, align with your highest self so you may feed your soul.

“There are three motives for which we live; we live for the body, we live for the mind, we live for the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other ... no one of the three can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression.” ― Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich

5. Shower - Here is where you have options...

• If you are in a healthy state, you may safely perform nasya, oil nasal drops, making sure to spit out any oil that drips to the back of the throat (5). This will promote clarity, optimize breathing, and create protection against pollutants.

• You may then perform abhyaṅga (a warm oil massage). This must be done while gastro intestinal tract is empty to strengthen digestion and clear channels of body and mind (6).

• This will relieve tiredness, lubricate joints, nourish tissues, prolong age, induce good sleep when sleep time comes, increase circulation, stimulate internal organs, assist in the elimination of impurities, and improve complexion. Plus - that warm self loving with body is extremely potent!
• Once the warm oil is on head to toe (or at least face to toe), warmed safely using the double boiler method, leave it on for about 20 - 40 minutes.

While absorbing the warm oil, I like to use the time to safely do body strength training, visualize, meditate, or listen to a podcast or audiobook - continuing with nourishment of the soul.

• Showers post oil massages must be warm. Allow the steam to open the pores for deep lubrication. Get all of the oil off with chemical free shampoo and soap and a mild salt scrub if you like. Avoid water that is too hot, you will know if it is too hot if you start to get goosebumps.
• Showers are also done on an empty stomach so you do not weaken digestive strength by directing energy out of the core and into the surface of the skin.
• Dry body and hair completely and wrap up immediately! You should feel a light sweat on the upper lip as this notes healthy circulation and vasoconstriction is not tensing the muscles.

6. Get outside - To support in feeling perky and awake, as well as set your internal clock (circadian rhythm) properly, you want to get direct sunlight to the eyes before 9 am. The sun has not fully risen so no sunglasses are needed.

Stay bundled to avoid extreme temperature changes, especially if you just showered. It’s important to signal to our bodies that it’s morning with sunlight because that’s when we naturally release cortisol, which activates our metabolism and balances immune system. If there is a lot of sun outside, you may only need a minute or so to get the affects. If it is overcast, stay outside for at least 10 minutes. This will support healthy waking and sleeping within a few days - in other words, waking with energy and sleeping with ease (7).

Perhaps you use this time to walk, exercise, journal, plan your day, or connect with gratitude!

7. Physical exercise - With the sunrise should come the rise of internal body temperature too. Move in a way that brings lightness and energy rather than exhaustion. This will improve work capacity, increase digestive power, burn fat (where metabolic waste tends to live). Avoid if you are sick, have excess vata and pitta, or have indigestion.

FUN FACT - if you exercised outside to get your morning sun in at the same time, perhaps avoid showering immediately after sun exposure. This way body has time to create vitamin D on the surface of the skin for absorption.

For this reason, I do strength training safely during oil massage, and stretch or walk during sun exposure so I don’t excessively sweat. If I want to run outside, I do so as early as I can, dry off the sweat, oil massage, then stretch, meditate or get into soul study with oil on for 45 minutes.

Mid Morning to Early Evening

^{1-2 hours after sunrise}

1. Self Assessment - By this time, you might be ravenously hungry! Or, your hunger may just be revving up. This is a great time to check in with body again. If you are ready to eat, go for it! And while you are at it, think about what you will have for your meal schedule today. “If I eat now, I will likely be hungry around this time.”‍

THIS IS KEY - note when you are hungry and respond to that biological hunger with nourishment as it arises. The more you do this, the more prepared you will be to honor the natural cycles of your hunger, which will strengthen your digestive capacity for food and for life!

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2. Focus Flow - By now it is likely around 9 am. This the optimal time for working on tasks that require the heaviest concentration. One to two 90 - minute time blocks are recommended without touching the phone. We need to create a state of mind that allows for focus without distractions. This strengthens our ability to keep the most important thing the most important thing (a favorite quote of mine by Jim Kwik, author of Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life.)

3. Meals & Meal Schedule - If you had breakfast around 7:30 - 8:30 am, you will likely be hungry around 11:00 - 12:30 pm. If you did not have breakfast, you will likely be hungry around 10 - 11:30 am. Times will vary on your constitution (vata, pitta, or kapha predominant). With a schedule like this, dinner may be around 4 - 6pm.

The key again is to discover your hunger schedule. This way you can be prepared to lovingly honor the hunger when it arises.

Sipping on warm water through the day can support healthy organ function as well.

Now, we can sit here and talk about what and what not to eat but instead, I will leave you with something much more potent. The best thing you can do for your body is to:

1. Eat when and only when you are hungry.

2. Stop eating when you are satisfied so that the stomach has space to secrete digestive juices and churn your food.

3. Eat mindfully, enjoying every single bite with presence - keeping you in the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest.)

4. Consume while your attitude is positive.

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Consider...‍

After meal routines - Wash hands, face, and rinse mouth. Take about 100 steps at a natural pace.

Snacks - Use snacking as a form of revving up the digestive system for meal time. This is usually about an hour before dinner. A great time for seasonal fruit or warm toasted nuts with salt.

NOTE | The levels of your hunger through the day and what is most optimal to consume will vary based on season and geographical location.

As a rule of thumb, if it is very hot mid day, your appetite for large meals will likely be stronger in the evenings. If it is cold outside, you will likely have more hunger to build a healthy insulated layer of fat for the organ’s safety.

Look to what is growing seasonally in your area and try to get outside a few times a day so that your body can innately tell you what it needs.

Evenings

^{Kapha peaks around 6pm - 10pm and we want to promote healthy doshic balancing. Thus, a balancing evening could look like:}

1. Getting some sunlight in the late afternoon or evening. Evening light has been shown to help anchor our circadian clocks and encourage the correct level of melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone (7).
2. Relaxing with family and friends.
3. Dropping in with your intimate relationships.
4. Healthy sex then a hot shower - this could be just what the doctor ordered!

You may have experienced burn out before which could look like exhaustion and a lack of love and luster for life. If you want to avoid this, create healthy boundaries with yourself. Build a routine that honors work and play - do this TODAY to strengthen self trust and self love.

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Ideas Around Sleep Hygiene

We could do a whole article on why sleep is critical to a long life and vitality. So, without going too deep (because I trust you know how essential it is)...

Without a good night’s sleep, we lose critical time for cell repair and production, release of stress and tension, immune system optimization, digestive system optimization, and more.

So, if you want to get sick less often, maintain healthy weight, reduce stress, strengthen cognitive capacity, and overall feel happy and healthy, protect your sleep at all costs (8).

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If you have insufficient sleep try This:

• When the sun goes down outside, dim the overhead lights as well. Floor lights, table lamps, and candles used safely are best. This prepares one’s entire being from a chemical level to wind down for a nourishing full night’s sleep.
• A gentle foot massage with sesame oil or coconut oil (promotes healthy kapha and tamas and reduces vata) (9).
• Spiced warm milk before bed, 2-3hrs after dinner could be great 1x a week. Turmeric is to be added while milk heats, cinnamon and or cardamom added after heating. Try almond milk if you are lactose intolerant or oat milk if you also have tree nut allergies.
• Avoid TV/ electronics as it creates internal environment not compatible for sleep (excess pitta, vata, and rajas, or that which ‘turns activity on’). Plus, blue light activity will suppress the release of melatonin and hinder the ability to fall and stay asleep.

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NOTE | If you are someone who sleeps very heavy, a light dinner is preferred or skipped if there is no hunger.

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Challenges and solutions of having a daily routine:

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“Routines are boring.”

‍If this sound like you, ask yourself, “what is it that you want most in life?” Once you feel into that, ask yourself if you are willing to do what it takes to embody it for the long hall? If you are, then it is time to do something that you have never done before. This may be sinking into consistency to create efficiency.

What is also great about routines is that you get to structure it in a way that works for you in this moment. Do you find the seasons boring? Stick to a routine that honors what is most important right now.

As time goes on and the seasons outside as well as within you (mentally, physically, and emotionally) start to shift, so will your routine.

“I tried but did not see results, so I stopped.”‍

If this is you, ask yourself, “do I see results after going to the gym once?” What about after one week? Now, what about after a few months?! Like going to the gym, seeing and feeling results will take time. But you get to celebrate the fact that YOU DID IT every time you follow through.

Ask yourself, “what do I need to develop consistency?” Perhaps it is support from others or a shift in your environment. Now, start here, take action, and tell yourself, “I am going to keep going until I experience a shift because I can. And, if something in the routine needs to change, I will change it because I listen to my body’s needs.”

“My life doesn’t allow for consistency, I have no time.”‍

There was a LOT that was said here. And like I mentioned at the beginning, you will likely hear 1000+ more opinions of what you “should” do. Start with ONE thing that speaks to you and that will align with where you are currently. We do not start working out with 50 lb weights my loves! My mentor and Svastha Āchārya, Katerina Nestorovska always says, “whoever told you you can do it all, lied.”

We are not meant to do it all and are certainly not built to do it all at the same time! In fact, the first thing that goes when we try to “do it all” is our health. Create consistency and trust within yourself to do ONE thing. Over time, when performed with full faith and purpose, you will be able to build and create the routine of your dreams.

In Conclusion...

While the concept of having a daily routine is at the heart of an Āyurvedic lifestyle, no one “prescription” is right for everyone. This template can and should be adapted to meet your needs, current constitution, environment, and current state of balance. You get to take responsibility for your life and wellbeing - how empowering!

Make changes and experience them in your body, with your unique perspective - something that no one else will every be able to do except you!

But you know what, please do not take it from me or the countless others who speak to how a daily routine can dramatically improve your life. Try it out yourself so you can feel the difference ;)

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_{Happy Balancing,}

_{Veronica Paige}

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References

1. The Importance of Creating Habits and Routine | Arlinghaus KR, Johnston CA. The Importance of Creating Habits and Routine. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2018 Dec 29;13(2):142-144. doi: 10.1177/1559827618818044. PMID: 30800018; PMCID: PMC6378489.‍
2. Circadian Rhythms and the Brain | Debra Bradley Ruder is a freelance medical writer based in Greater Boston write in Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute‍
3. Yoga Nidra: An innovative approach for management of chronic insomnia | Datta, K., Tripathi, M. & Mallick, H.N. Yoga Nidra: An innovative approach for management of chronic insomnia- A case report. Sleep Science Practice 1, 7 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41606-017-0009-4‍
4. Using Caffeine to Optimize Mental & Physical Performance | Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine on Huberman Labs
5. Nasya therapybenefits types indication ashtang hruday sutrasthan
6. Abhyanga - Ayurvedic Massage | https://www.easyayurveda.com/2010/06/12/does-massage-work/
7. Using Light (Sunlight, Blue Light & Red Light) to Optimize Health | Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine on Huberman Labs
8. Why Do We Need Sleep? | https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/why-do-we-need-sleep
9. Foot Massage and Importance | Easy Ayurveda https://www.easyayurveda.com/2015/11/27/foot-massage-uses-how-to-do-importance/