Transform Your Morning with Ayurveda: Honor the Sun (VIDEO)

By Ananta Ripa Ajmera

Ayurveda — the ancient Indian science of life — recognizes the power and potential of simple morning observances, like this sun practice, to quiet stress and anxiety and improve your overall health.

Ayurveda reveres the sun as the ultimate bestower of amazing health. The sun is, literally, the source of all life. We are solar-powered creatures, and living in harmony with nature’s rhythms, as dictated by the course and direction of the sun, empowers us to live the healthiest and happiest lives possible. Anchoring my mind in the sun has meant, first and foremost, greeting the sun upon rising to offer my prayers, gratitude, and desire to embrace my innermost nature, which is as strong and powerful as the sun in the sky.

We can learn a great deal from the sun. The sun is completely independent: it shines whether or not it receives recognition or approval for doing so, simply because the nature of the sun is to shine. Like the sun, we are the source of our own light. A big source of mental stress arises from our expectations and desires not being fulfilled by others in our lives, whether our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, lovers, children, or coworkers. If we let go of these desires, we can fill ourselves up with love from the inside and actually become love itself. The Vedic spiritual tradition teaches that we are filled with abundant, universal love and light at the truest, deepest essence of our own being. Being love is about acknowledging our fullness, and acting from a space where we feel full, rather than empty or lacking.

A beautiful universal Vedic sun practice called Arghyam consists of respectfully offering water to the sun from a copper vessel. To do it, go outside on a balcony or in a garden. Pour the water around yourself in a clockwise circle, look at the sun, and touch your heart with your hands. In doing so, you affirm the inherent power and freedom of your own being.

The Ayurveda Way

by Ananta Ripa Ajmera

Celebrated Ayurveda teacher Ananta Ripa Ajmera offers an inspiring introduction to this ancient Indian medical tradition, which complements and extends the health and wellness benefits of yoga. Through 108 short essays you will learn to approach optimal digestion, better sleep, less stress, and a more balanced life. Diet is key, and many essays are accompanied by recipes that incorporate into daily meals spices such as turmeric, cumin, ginger, and mustard seeds. In addition, meditation, yoga and breathing exercises, and self-care practices such as oil pulling and massage, make this time-tested wisdom available to contemporary holistic health enthusiasts — even beginners.

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Ananta Ripa Ajmera

About the Author

Ananta Ripa Ajmera is an Ayurveda practitioner, award-winning and best-selling author, spiritual teacher, and yoga instructor with over 12 years of oral lineage-based training. She has served organizations like Stanford Medical School, UNICEF, Endeavor, NYU, SFSU, and California Department of Public Health. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Forbes. Visit her organization http://www.theancientway.co to learn more.

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