This Easter, we decided to visit our family in Istanbul for 6 days and just before we came back to our home in Switzerland, I was tested positive for Covid 19. Therefore I was locked down alone in a small apartment in Istanbul for thirteen days. All of us experienced Covid in our own ways, some very tough and some are asymptomatic. I listened to many stories from dear friends and family who called and gave me support and so I think mine can be considered mild. If we did not have “Covid Pandemic”, this would be a mild cold for me.
However because of its scary name and stories, since so many people lost their lives or stayed in hospitals suffering seriously, one can not stop wondering if you’ll end up somewhere there or if you will just have it like a cold.
It was my 8th day when I let many negative thoughts like guilt, shame, worries, anxiety take over my mind and heart, thinking this will end somewhere dark! If just losing the smell and taste and blocked nose, tired and achy body can take me there, I can not imagine how difficult it would be for the people to get through this in hospitals, or in a small room isolated from the rest of the family.
But We Humans Are Wonders!
We have the healing power and energy within us and have endless potential. We just have to remember that and keep on fighting with it while seeing the message and lessons this disease gives us. They say diseases come always with a message and if you can learn from it it goes away and if you can not take your lesson it will stay with you or come back. That is exactly why the mediation practice helped me to work on those messages. It would be waste anyways to stay in a room for 13 days and not learn or change a thing.
During these days, I have listened webinars of Ayurveda and Covid, Yoga and Covid and read some articles. I was also attending Ayurvedic Integrative Nutrition Coaching training with Laura Plumb, all of which gave me so much support and perspective into my health and wellbeing.
Ayurvedic Healing Practices & Nutrition Tips for Covid-19
Here is a summary for the key Ayurvedic healing practices and nutrition tips that helped me during this time.
Ayurvedic Morning Routine
A daily routine would bring radical change in body, mind, and consciousness. These routines help to establish balance in one’s natural constitution. Routines regularize a person’s biological clock, aids digestion, absorption and assimilation, and as well as generating discipline, peace, happiness,self-esteem, and longevity.
● A daily morning routine that starts with oil pulling, tongue scraping, gargling with salt and turmeric, dry brushing, body oiling and warm shower.
● Starting day with warm water and lemon or vinegar and then turmeric-ginger-cinnamon-lemon-honey tea with cloves/cardamom
● Pay attention to bowel movements and make sure you are regular
● A breathing routine to calm down the nerves and improve lung capacity and cleansing. Practices like alternate nostril breathing, square (4 parts) breathing where you hold breath between inhale and exhale are very useful. Breathing while moving your arms up and down also increases the effect of breathe.
● Roller massage to release tension in the muscles and keep the connective tissues lubricated
● Very Gentle yoga to mainly stretch and release tension. Focusing on poses like dynamic cobra, salabhasana, cat and cow to expand the chest area. And when one can have some more strength, slow and rhythmic sun salutation to start moving the stuck energy.
Ayurvedic Nutrition Suggestions for Covid 19
● Keeping food light and easy to digest.
● No eggs, dairy, gluten, caffeine, sugar
● Sipping hot water all day long
● Drinking fennel-coriander-cumin seeds tea after meals
● Favor warm cooked foods prepared fresh (not frozen or packed/ready)
● Sip ginger or mint tea with food and not cold icy water or carbonated drinks
Ease your digestion
● Eat according to the time of the day and position of sun- having lighter and cooked meals in morning and evening and the biggest meal at lunch when your digestive fire is at its highest..
● Warm cooked oatmeal porridge in the morning with soaked seeds, nuts, cooked apples with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves
● Kitchary, a mix of rice/quinoa-mung/dahl beans-vegetables, for lunch as it is easier to digest. Soaking mung beans overnight and cooking with spices like ginger, turmeric, black pepper to stimulate digestion.
● Seasonal leafy greens and grounding vegetables into your kitchary and soups and season’s herbs like parsley, mint, coriander, dill, basil for garnishing
● Organic honey into herbal teas like sage, tulsi which are all to lower mucus and heal lungs
● Light seasonal vegetable soups, cooked with oils like ghee
● Balance all six tastes, sweet-sour-salty.pungent-astringent and bitter
Rest Well
● Make sure you have enough sleep, minimum 8 hours.
● Keep your sleeping and waking up times regular
● If you have difficulty falling asleep, try yoga nidra or body scan meditations.
● Make sure to rest and pause during the day.
● Decrease the mental stimulation with digital detoxes and even not reading news or unnecessary information.
Take Care of 5 Senses
Healing through your 5 senses will make this process easier, lighter and faster.
● Nose: Aromatherapy with clove, basil, cinnamon and steam inhalation of eucalyptus,thyme, lavender oils. This also helps to regain the sense of smell if you had lost during the disease.
● Ears: Listen and chant mantras, my favorite was Deva Premal’s collections
● Skin: Try Abyhangha, Ayurvedic self massage with sesame or other oil all over the body, before showering
● Tongue: Herbal teas like ginger, mint, fennel-cumin-coriander with some honey and lemon
● Eyes: Forrest/green or moon gazing
● Remember to get fresh air and sunlight if possible everyday
Adjust to Your Dosha – Vata, Kapha or Pita
You can check your dosha from online tests or with a practitioner and then eat and live according to it by balancing with the opposite qualities.
In Ayurveda even seasons have doshas and Spring is Kapha where water and earth element prevails. So Covid or not, we might all feel heavy, tired and dull, mucus and allergies increase. Best is to balance this condition with all the suggestions above. The motto in this season is lighten up, fire up and move and support metabolism with spices, herbs and teas.
Finally remember to keep your thoughts, environment, relations, talks sattvic -meaning peaceful and in harmony. Living in balance will ensure better immunity, stronger protection against disease and even if you get the virus, it will help you to recover faster with minimum damage to your body and mind.
