AYURVEDIC HOME REMEDIES: OUR PAST AND OUR FUTURE
Ayurveda used for home remedies keep the whole family in good health and are an accessible alternative to conventional medicines.
We talk about the modernization and globalization of health and wellness trends year over year. However, if you look carefully, they are nothing but a derivative of Ayurvedic medicine and mind-body awareness practiced for centuries in the Indian sub-continent by our forefathers.
The more we move towards a plant-based culture the more relevant plant-based treatments become. Thousands of plants and trees in our eco-system were meant to heal different ailments in our bodies. It is time to go back to our roots and use herbal remedies to begin to undo all the damage this generation has done to both their bodies as well as the ecosystem.
I grew up with many of these Ayurvedic practices, don’t get me wrong, I’m not that old! Growing up, my mother would introduce me to “home remedies” or shall I say modern-day “hacks”. As a child, I never paid too much attention and always thought of them as yet another thing she was trying to impose on me.
Ayurvedic Healing Traditions at Home
I grew up with 2 other siblings and one of the perks of being a middle child was that I was always in the second position when trying some of these home remedies. If you are sick, you are the privileged recipient of all these amazing things while your siblings earn the right to laugh at you!
Childhood Memories of Golden Turmeric Milk
The very first one I can remember is Turmeric Milk. We often got hurt while playing on charcoal roads. Charcoal roads were our playgrounds as our community did not have sidewalks, parks or our houses did not have driveways. We would fall every now and then and bruise our knees or elbows.
Each time, I mean every single time one of us had an injury, my mother would warm up some milk, add some ghee (clarified butter) and Turmeric powder to it. We were forced to drink it. “If you don’t like the taste, plug your nose and drink it, you won’t taste anything”, my mother’s favorite line. By the way, I use that line on my kids now and it works! This was all until we were adults and then we started resisting and finding ways to run away from all the home remedies. After all these years, once again I heard of “Golden Milk” or “Turmeric Latte” in North America and I thought – WOW it's back!
Now the whole world is acknowledging the fact that Turmeric is a powerhouse packed with healing properties and it helps to heal from within. Turmeric contains curcumin which has anti-inflammatory properties that help with joint pain, liver health, Alzheimer’s, and circulation amongst many other health benefits.
Talk about adapting to a tradition and making it better – now we add Cinnamon Powder, Cardamom Powder, and a few other superfoods to it. It's a delicious ayurvedic concoction with positive side effects!
This is the same Ayurvedic “Golden Milk” I grew up with, only a much healthier and nutritious version of it!
Ayurvedic DIY Face Masks
Ayurveda for home remedies also involves face masks and scrubs for healthy glowing skin. For lighter clearer skin, every Sunday, my mother would make a face mask for me and my sister. This face mask consisted of chickpea flour, yogurt, turmeric, neem leaf powder with potato juice.
We would apply this face mask before our bath and then wash it off when dried. Aren’t DIY face masks a great trend currently also? Neem Leaves have great anti-bacterial properties which are amazingly effective in eliminating facial pimples and acne. Neem has been used in Ayurveda for its antibacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties to treat skin conditions like simple acne or eczema & psoriasis.
For thick, long hair, we got a scalp massage every week with Coconut Oil. Oh, how I remember running away from my mother when she would walk in the room with that bottle of Coconut Oil. It was sticky, it was smelly, and the worst part of our day.
At that time, there was not enough awareness around Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, or OVCO. What we used was a more processed version of it. Now, Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (aka the healthiest oil on earth) is trending as a topmost health trend. People are using it for hair, skin, cooking, swishing, and many other uses.
There are so many health benefits to Organic Virgin Coconut Oil which has now been uncovered however it has been used for centuries in Ayurveda for its healing properties and positive effects on body and mind.
Ayurveda is a system of medicine with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. Growing up in India, I had the privilege of experiencing a lot of these practices first-hand. It makes me so proud to see some of these practices being modernized and globalized in other parts of the world, and very much here in our home in Toronto, Canada.
In my upcoming blog, I will continue to talk about some of these age-old traditions that are returning with a modern-day spin!
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