Dinacharya, your daily morning routine, will change your life
Does your morning routine enhance your whole day or is it so frenetic that you’re scattered before you even start? In Ayurveda, how you begin the day is so important that doing it well and consciously has a name—Dinacharya. When your morning routine is so positive it sends you off glowing, it goes beyond habit or routine and literally becomes a ritual in which you give appreciation and thanks for your own body, mind and spirit.
You do have time
I hear you saying, “My mornings are so crazy, I don’t have time for rituals”, but think about it. Are you hitting snooze twice because you dread the day and grabbing your phone and spending minutes scrolling through bad news and mindless junk? What if, instead, you scraped your tongue, used your neti pot and smoothed some warm oil on your body before you hit the shower? It could take the same amount of time – but how much more soothing and enlivening it could be.
Create your own morning routine
You know best how much time you can actually give yourself in the morning and that knowledge will help structure what you include in your Dinacharya. Here’s what I do –
When I open my eyes, I bring to mind something I’m grateful for and looking forward to that day and let it carry me out of bed. I go to the bathroom, give myself time to pee and poop, then scrape my tongue. (Sometimes I do these in reverse order). I have a pill I take in the morning, so I swallow it with some warm water that’s left in my bedroom carafe (see warm water in this blog), then wash my eyes, put some castor oil on my face, use my neti pot and my nasya oil and then pop some pulling oil into my mouth where I swish it around while I take my shower. I go to the kitchen and make hot lemon water, then do a few minutes of Yoga postures and settle down to do some meditation, after which I get on with my day. On days when I have extra time, I add some study/reading and extra postures, plus I do a full abhyanga (oil massage) where I let the oil soak in for fifteen or twenty minutes. Those mornings are yummy!
Bring intention to your morning
I don’t have children at home and I work in a home office, plus I tend to get up before 6AM, so I have time for my morning routine. You may have less. That’s okay. Work in the fun practices before bed or during a brief break in your afternoon. The power of Dinacharya is consciousness. Bringing intention and focus to your morning will lighten and power your whole day. Have fun creating yours and come tell us what practices you choose for your morning routine.