Self-Care for Parents with The Ayurvedic Practice of Dinacharya

This post is part of a series onEssential Skills for New Parents: How yoga practices can help you parent with peace and presence.

It is easy to let the intense needs of babies and young children overwhelm our own needs, leaving us depleted. Self-care is important for parents, but it often gets pushed off to the side – way off to the side. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time to take care of ourselves between caring for the needs of the children and completing household tasks. For many of us, we don’t really know what it looks like to care of ourselves. We were not taught really how to care for our bodies and minds. The Ayurvedic practice of Dinacharya can give us a base.

If you are not yet a parent, you can prepare yourself by ensuring that you are as strong and healthy as you can be before the baby arrives. Start a strong self-care routine now. The effort you put in is an investment that will pay dividends in the future.

What is Dinacharya?

The Ayurvedic Dinacharya is a daily routine of self-care that follows the natural cycles of the day and night. There are recommended sequences for morning and evening as well as general guidelines for the day based on the natural circadian rhythm. The morning sequence includes practices for cleansing and preparing for the day. The evening sequence includes practices for relaxing the body and preparing for sleep.

The point is not to imply that a new parent will be able to implement the full sequence of Dinacharaya. The purpose is to learn from the concept of Dinacharya how to incorporate self-care into your routine.

There are two really important things about Dinacharya that I would like to highlight:

Make self-care practices part of your habitual routine such that you do not have to think about it. The practice of Dinacharya involves making the sequence of practices routine, rote, automatic. Program yourself to complete some small self-care practices without even thinking about it.
Follow your natural rhythms. Dinacharya is designed to follow nature’s rhythms. Dinacharya teaches to wake up early and go to bed early-preferably before 10pm. You can get greater quality of sleep if you go to bed at the right time for your circadian rhythm. If you stay up too late, you will miss the window and be in a more energetic cycle in which it is harder to fall asleep.

Not to scare you, but here is the full list of Dinacharya. The list can vary. The one I have copied here contains the key elements. Use this list as a guide. Choose one or two elements. Or choose a couple of elements from your own self-care routine to commit to. This is not how Dinacharya is supposed to work. It is supposed to be a full routine. But I am being realistic. Trying to do all of this as a new parent would be very difficult. Unless you start before you become a parent and make some of these part of your routine. Then you have a base, you have already started taking care of yourself and you have built a foundation.

Here is an example Dinacharya containing the most common elements:

Morning sequence

1. Rise before 6am.

2. Scrape tongue.

The tongue is scraped with a copper or silver U-shaped instrument to remove a mucus called ama that accumulates on the tongue overnight. Ama is a by-product of the cleansing processes that the body engages in during sleep.

3. Gargle with cold water.

Gargling with cold water stimulates the vagus nerve. A strong vagal tone is beneficial for managing stress.

4. Clean teeth and gums.

Removes buildup of microorganisms and microflora that accumulate in the mouth overnight.

5. Drink hot water.

Drinking a cup of hot water on an empty stomach starts stimulating the bowel for elimination.

6. Use a dry brush to brush the skin.

This is to remove dry skin and stimulate the lymphatic system. Use a brush with natural bristles to brush the skin in circular motions from bottom -up in circular motion.

7. Self-massage with oil.

This is a nourishing practice. Done in a circular motion from bottom to top same as the dry skin brushing.

8. Elimination.

Sit on the toilet and give it some time. If you do so every morning and persevere whether you have a movement or not, it is said that this will train the body to eliminate at this time.

9. Wash Face

10. Bathe

11. Do a pranayama (breath) practice.

12. Meditate

13. Exercise.

A brisk walk or yoga asana (poses) is recommended.

An evening sequence is recommended to wind down and prepare the body for sleep. This is an example:

1. Turn off electronics one hour before sleep

2. Have a cup of warm tea

3. Read something inspiring but not invigorating

4. Massage the feet with warm oil

5. Journal

6. Meditate

7. Pray

8. Practice breath awareness

9. Go to sleep before 10:00 p.m.

My takeaways from Dinacharya are that I go to bed before 10pm. That is really important. I know I will get better sleep. The other small pieces I have chosen to implement are scraping my tongue and drinking warm water in the morning. I figure that if I choose a couple of elements from the list, it is good bang for my buck.

In the next post, I will share how to use the practice of Reflection to be the parent you want to be.

This post is part of a Series:

Essential Skills for New Parents: How yoga practices can help you parent with peace and presence.

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I am working on a book on the same topic to compile all the practices with further information and make it available as an easy reference for new and expecting parents. Please subscribe to my newsletter in the blue box below if you want to be sure to get the book.

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