judicious choices

… rituals end the day with contemplation, gratitude, awareness and preparation, giving us tasks to adjust ourselves if traveling, making us aware of the environment for the hours of night, when our visual sense is less strong. Ayurveda counsels on judicious choices when we are tired or unable to see: the use of alcohol, the engagement in sex, the evening meditation practice, conscious conclusion of the day with recall and review; and then the rasayana of sleep, or nidra yoga.

~ EveryDay Ayurveda, 2015, Chapter 40, Getting to Bed on Time

soap, sandalwood and sodium lauryl sulfate

Since a very young age, I watched my mother, aunts, and elders wash their morning face with clean cold water. No soap, no scrubs, brushes, washcloths, or other tools. Just a series of rinses. That is how I began.
During the adolescent years, I was introduced to unperfumed clean soap only for the oily spots, and never the neck or eyes; oily dirt was removed only with oil, ghee, or water. A few years later I rediscovered sandalwood soap for summer and olive oil soap for winter. These soap bars were kept away from handwashing during the day, and from bathing. Liquid soap had extra chemicals, including sodium lauryl sulfate for foaming, so I avoided it.
If something traumatic like a pimple happened, we immediately rushed to the kitchen, applied turmeric, or lemon, or yogurt for five minutes, then applied fresh sandalwood paste at night.  If the skin turned red from sun, heat, trauma, a scratch, or tired late nights, cucumber or the cold cream from fresh raw milk would be applied, then ghee at night for nourishment and inner cooling.

~ EveryDay Ayurveda, 2015, Chapter 5, Washing the Face and its Orifices

morning ablution

Yoga practices specify that one should evacuate natural urges in the morning gazing toward the north, sitting in a proper private place, not gazing toward auspicious objects, …

One should tighten the abdominal muscles and do a brief muladhara contraction before release.  To aid this, ancient urinals were designed to have men bend on one knee to urinate. The closer we are to squatting, the more easy we will release fluids and solids from our bladder and bowels. 

~ EveryDay Ayurveda, 2015, Chapter 3, Morning Ablutions

altering imbalances

Ayurveda does not specify a particular time of the day for the daily bath. It specifies a checklist and an order for things to be done. The optimal time of day varies on the individual and depends on weather, work, availability of warm water, activities planned after the bath, meals, travel, puja, visitors, and distance from the bathing water.  

While Ayurveda seems unwieldy with its many options, it follows several constants that allow universal application of its principles in every situation.  The consistency of Ayurveda is in its prescriptions aligning a person with the laws of Nature as summarized by the principles of vata, pitta, kapha, ama and agni. 

Every prescription is designed to alter imbalances by first analyzing their nature, then by reducing vata, pitta, and kapha based on the gunas of the substances, activities, or natures being added to the body.

 ~ EveryDay Ayurveda, 2015, Part III.  The Bath