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We live in interesting times, every little routine in our life is challenged. The worlds pandemic provoke us to rethink our lifestyle and to adapt to the new ways of living.

Looking for a ways to boost our immunity and take care of our body was probably the first think that we had to learn and quickly to adapt to a new diet regime that can help us to stay healthy. Most of us never cocked at home so much in their whole life. We were used to go out or order takeaways and
perhaps never realising that food it’s not only fuel for our body but also it
is a medicine.

There are a lot of people that still never heard of about Ayurveda, the Vedic culture in India, the ancient medicine Ayurveda for more than 5000 years which has been helping people of all ages to overcome their illnesses controlling what to eat and so much more.

Begin to see your food as vessels for healing herbs and spices. Each of the ancient, lasting cuisines around the world incorporate delicious, healing herbs and spices into meals.

Understanding our immune system

LIn Ayurveda the immune system is called ojas. It is a fine vital energy, concentrated in the heart chakra. When the health of a man gets weaker, this is a sign that the ojas energy in the body has decreased. When the ojas level is low, people are vulnerable to various infections, illnesses such as ulcers, even cancer.

Ayurveda believes that the negative emotions also can be a reason for ojas decreasing. Such feelings are the hatred, anger, worry, guilt, envy, jealousy, excessive fatigue or hunger. We have to understand that our immune system is very influenced by everything we do, thing, our environment and the events in our lives. That’s why is really important to observe our mind and body and how its react to everything that is happening to us. I couple of minutes every day to scan with or mind the body and how we are feeling can help us to understand and indicate a problem and help us to take actions in to the right directions.

Weakening of the immunity can be caused by various negative emotions, psychological tension, and contamination of the environment, unhealthy way of living, lack of physical activities and excessive consumption of unhealthy foods.

Unhealthy food, reduce the ability of the cells to cope with the viral infections. The good health is a sign that our immune system works as it should be.

In Ayurveda, this is called “tejas„ – the intelligence of our body. Ttejas, help the cells of your body to communicate with each other through hormones and chemical “messages”. When this intelligence of the body is disturbed, tejas is blocked and it can’t distinguish the cells properly. In a result our immune system is lowering its straight and that makes your body vulnerable. 

The healing power of food

Cooking and eating should be a peaceful and happy ritual. This is the first steps for healing your body and boost your immune system. Many of us when feel hungry at work we rush to the store and grab something and eating it to the way to the office. This stresses our body and prevent it to digest properly the food. That’s way when we eat, we have to do it in peace, preferably sitting so our body can focus only on one activity. The knowledge of Ayurveda and trying to understand everting can be really overwhelming, that’s why for now you need to know some basics about the way you eat and what you eat so you can have healthy and strong body. First include in your diet besides vegetables and fruits, cereals, legumes, low-fat organic dairy products. The meals has to be with room temperature, and neither raw, nor overcooked.

The green leafy vegetables are also а real boost to your immune system – spinach, kale, curly-leaf cabbage. When stewed and spiced with immune stimulating spices, they become a powerful immune stimulant. They provide the body with calcium, iron and other valuable nutrients that have a cleansing effect on the bowels. The broccoli, cabbage and the cauliflower contain a lot of antioxidants, flavonoids that also stimulate the immunity.

Eat your main meal in the middle of the day, when the sun is highest and digestion strong. Eat lighter at breakfast and at night, when digestion is weaker. This also will enhance immunity.

Try this recipes to inspire your diet and cooking routine. You can find more with a simple Google search. Other advice is to try to really listen your body what kind of food it wants from you to give it. Perhaps you have notice that during spring you want to eat a lot of salads and green vegetables. 

Immune stimulating spices

Let’s talk about the magic and the power of spices. Adding them into the dishes they have the ability to facilitate the digestion and help to fully absorption of the nutrients from the food by the body. Besides giving a pleasant aroma to your food, the spices have healing properties on all cells and tissues of the body. Here some spices that you should consider adding when you prepare your food.

One of my favourite is Turmeric. It contains the flavonoid curcumin, which is known to have anti-inflammatory properties. This all-around wonder spice is said to help detoxify the liver, balance cholesterol levels, promote a healthy response to allergens, stimulate digestion, boost immunity and enhance the complexion. Next on mine spices list is Cumin, which is supposed to aid digestion and help flush toxins out of the body. Next one is Coriander which is not very favourable herb for some people, because of it intense smell and taste. But it’s good for digestion, whets the appetite, supports a healthy response to allergens and also helps purify the blood. In Ayurveda, Cinnamon is used to balance the digestion and to pacify stomach disorders. Combined with other warming herbs and spices like ginger and black pepper, it can be boiled into an herbal tea to soothe discomfort associated with colds. Its oil is used to pacify headaches and keep joints healthy.

The list of spices in Ayurveda is almost endless, if you get curios and want to know more about the benefits of the herbs and spice, you can find more inspiring information on internet or here.

For a healthy life Ayurveda gives us a lot of information about our daily self-care routines. To have strong immune system you should be physically active and to provide a proper recovery to our body, do yoga or just jogging can give your body strength to fight the viruses. End of course eat good food in peace. You will also like to learn about “How to balance the chakras with the food you eat?” or “Vegetarian, Vegan or Flexitarian. What are you?”