HANDS ON AYURVEDA WITH TEENAGERS

We all wish the best, and hope the best for the awareness and wellbeing of our teenagers! With this intention, a course Ayurveda & Harmony in Health was conducted for teenagers for 20 sessions on building concepts of Ayurveda!

Here is a walk through the course!

1. Harmony in Body Systems & Tridoshas- all the systems in our body are functioning together and when they are in synchrony it gives rise to health. This underlying principle was discussed through various examples, how each system such as the circulatory system works hand in hand with the digestive system, nervous system with the endocrine system etc. Similarly the functions of Vata-Pitta-Kaph, the theory of Tridosha, were introduced at this juncture, bringing attention to ‘teamwork’. Just as this existence is an example of teamwork or harmony, the human body is a mini harmony too. And Vata, Pitta, Kaph are teammates working in cooperation! With a thorough discussion on this fundamental principle, the foundation of this course was layed.

2. Role of Gandh indriya or Sense of Smell- today we are all surrounded by an overwhelming variety of foods, health products, and cosmetics, how do we choose? The answer is, by right information and training our sense organs. Indriyas/ senses are the window to the outside world. Mind is the one that learns and gives pointers or has the perspective to what to observe from these windows. So, in this course, we discussed how every substance has a gandha/smell and all children were asked to do experiments at home such as-

a) Smell of fresh milk & boiled milk.

b) Smell of milk kept for 2 days.

c) Smell of freshly cooked roti & rice.

d) Smell of roti & rice that is kept for 2 days or refrigerated.

e) Fresh Mango juice & packaged mango juice

From these experiments, children themselves concluded that from smell it is possible to distinguish between fresh and stale & fresh-original from packaged.

Also it came out from the discussion that our sense of smell is a tool that can be trained to detect what is healthy for us, provided we already know what is the smell of ‘healthy, fresh, original’!

3. Properties of Herbs- Then I introduced several herbs to the children via their fragrances and began the journey of understanding properties of herbs. The list of herbs introduced- Haldi, Ajwain, dry ginger, camphor, Jatamansi, Ananta, Loban(Myrrh), and Raal (Frankincense).Properties of Essential oils of the following herbs such as Eucalyptus, Lavender, Teatree, Devdar, Rose, Peppermint and Chandan were discussed and how its processed. Through this discussion, it came out that fragrance is a function of several healing, curative properties inbuilt in the herbs. And so the fragrances used today in various products that we use, need to be verified whether it is manufactured artificially or from an ‘actual herb’.

4. Hands on making of products- After creating the appropriate knowledge and information base of health we moved on to our practical sessions of implementing the knowledge. The products we made were of ‘daily use’, which impact us everyday.

Beeswax based cream
Aloevera gel cream
Scrub cream
Facepack or powder body scrub/ Udvartanam
Medicated fumigation powder/ Dhoopan
Soap with Essential oils- melt & pour technique

Before we did the practical, a detailed discussion of the process was done, and then children proactively divided themselves in teams. While one team measured all the ingredients in a measuring cup, and weighing machine, the other team would prepare for the next step.Everybody together executed the process along with me.

Documentation was an essential part of this workshop. Once the product was ready, joyfully children would take it home. Along with these exciting activities, a comparative analysis of the products available in the market to the ones we were making was also done.This was to help them build the habit of learning to read and understand new information and make sense out of it, and learn to make informed choices.

The two major takeaways for the kids was-
a) Making products is fun and possible!
b) Fragrances are associated with properties!

5. Kitchen has medicine!

In this topic, I shared some easy to do remedies that children could use in day to day health problems. Most importantly all the information given is all verified and tested by me. Ghee & Oil are also medicines and are valuable for the health of the human body, built quite a lot of curiosity in kids. And gently touched upon what are the foods that are important for each child’s growth.

It was interesting to hear back from some parents that children had begun to ask for healthy foods at home, during and after this course. Also children were sharing their delight of making and using the handmade products too!

Also as the practicals were completed, one session was devoted to labelling & designing their containers of these products!

This session was enlightening for me, to see how easily children imbibe the concepts of Tridosha, fragrance, and herbs! As we take one step in implementing knowledge in our lives, children would be able to take several more steps in their lives too!