When I first set out to study the Ayurvedic paradigm of beauty, I half expected to encounter the sages’ scorn for outer appearance. I felt almost sure that they would dismiss physical beauty as being “but skin-deep.” I was pleasantly surprised.
Ancient Ayurvedic healers not only recognized the human need to look beautiful, they actually celebrated it. The evidence is sprinkled liberally in their writings, which pay homage to physical beauty, eulogizing long eyelashes, full lips, supple limbs, and soft skin. The revered sage Patanjali wrote, “Perfection of the body is beauty of form, grace, strength, compactness, and the hardness and brilliance of a diamond.”
However, most such gems of timeless thought are more or less lost to the world today. The trend, instead, is to use “herbal” cosmetics and assume that there is nothing more to Ayurvedic beauty care. I know, because I did this for many years myself. Like millions of others, I tried every herbal brand name on the supermarket shelves — and spent a mini-fortune on “Ayurvedic” facials and massages.
But, of course, this was before I read what Ayurvedic practitioners really had to say about beauty. Yes, they recommend herbal creams and lotions. But more than that, they urge us to cultivate beauty the way you would grow a breathtaking rose: give it a healthy root system.
In other words, pay attention to everything you put inside your body and mind, for what you absorb is what you reflect. Don’t expect the latest lotion on the market to rejuvenate your tired skin; start by eating a wholesome breakfast. Don’t smear layers of concealer over under-eye bags; set your sleep routine in order. And before you spend thousands of dollars on liposuction, try banishing cellulite through a daily oil massage and a brisk walk.
Then, when you shed your dependence on salons and spas and take your beauty into your own hands, you will, in Ayurvedic terms, be threefold beautiful.
In Ayurveda, physical charm is only the first layer of beauty. The Sanskrit word for this outer layer of beauty is roopam. Beyond your outer appearance lie two deeper layers:
• Inner beauty, or gunam, which indicates sincerity of heart, purity of thought, and honesty of action;
• Lasting beauty, or vayastyag (vaya means “age,” and tyag means “giving up” — in this sense, “moving beyond the limits of”), which means looking young and lovely well into your mature years.
Of these, roopam is, of course, the most obvious and popular form of beauty. And why not? Wearing makeup and clothes that flatter you boost your self-image, which is important in Ayurvedic healing. But roopam should be more than just a paint job.
You go to a party, and two women catch your eye. One of them is soft-spoken and graceful, smiles with her eyes, and has a glowing complexion. The other one turns heads for different reasons: her voice is loud, her attire is flashy, and her makeup is heavy. Which of these women would you call beautiful? If you had a choice, which of these women would you like to get to know better?
The simple-yet-graceful woman symbolizes roopam, for her beauty is free of the crutches of makeup and affectation; it is natural and honest. She has taken the time-tested route to beauty: being kind to her body, true to her heart, and in tune with the world around her.
It does not matter whether you are fair or dark; healthy skin simply looks happy. It glows.
How does your skin look right now? Dry or dewy? Scaly or smooth? Pale or pink? Don’t worry if the answer is less than flattering at this moment. While it is true that your skin’s health is your responsibility, it is also true that other factors — including the seasons and life’s unceasing stresses — affect skin texture and health. But perhaps the most important of these factors is nature itself. In other words, your skin type is part of your prakriti — your original dosha type:
• Vata people have fine, thin, delicate, dry skin. On the plus side, they are unlikely to suffer rashes and pimples. On the minus side, their dry skin is prone to early aging and wrinkling.
• Pitta skin is warm, moist, and fair, but it is also very sensitive and prone to breakouts.
• Kapha people are blessed with well-lubricated skin that keeps them looking youthful for many years. But excess kapha can clog pores and cause toxic buildup.
Knowing your dosha type, therefore, is the first step toward improving your skin’s health. For example, a vata person’s best skin-care treatment is hydration; vata skin needs lots of moisture in the form of water, oil, and rich lotions. If you’re a pitta, you would benefit most from ingredients that soothe the skin — for example, milk, rose water, or cucumber. Kapha skin stays healthy when regularly cleansed to remove toxins. This dosha-based skin care is a unique, practical way of solving skin-related problems that are specific to you.
Whatever your dosha type, one thing is for sure: your skin is a living, breathing, pulsating organ. It is sensitive to outer stimuli, such as pleasure, pain, and heat. New scientific evidence corroborates the Ayurvedic theory that your skin actually “drinks” what you apply on the surface — even water. Think, then, what happens when it drinks harsh chemicals that penetrate its delicate inner layers and mingle with the bloodstream.
The Ayurvedic advice is to feed your skin the way you would feed your body: never apply anything to your skin that you would not eat. In practical terms, this means making sure that you use only skin-care products that are perfectly pH-balanced, free of toxic chemicals, and therefore safe to apply.
While you can certainly find genuine herbal products in stores, I invite you to discover some stellar beauty ingredients right inside your kitchen. Turmeric, milk, yogurt, peaches, honey, almonds — let these be your cosmetics. Play with face packs. Try making your own; they’re safe, inexpensive, and fun to make. They will purify your skin and make it radiant as a dewy rose.
To help you figure out the best ingredients for your type of skin, I asked my vaidya, Ramakant Mishra of Maharishi Ayurveda, a company that manufactures and distributes premium Ayurvedic formulations, to provide some easy skin-cleansing face packs you can make at home. Here are the recipes he created:
2 teaspoons quick-cooking oats
¼ teaspoon almond powder
¼ teaspoon grated orange peel
¼ teaspoon lavender-flower powder (available in good natural health stores)
2 tablespoons yogurt
Stir all the ingredients together and apply the mixture gently to your face with your fingertips. Let the mask set on your skin. Then, using light pressure, flake the mask off into the sink. If the mask feels too sticky, use warm water to rinse. Dab your face with a soft towel and apply a good moisturizer.
Instant oatmeal is an excellent skin exfoliant; oats counteract daily sun damage and replenish the skin with vitamins B and E. Orange peel balances the pH level of the skin and softens it. Almond powder is a protein-packed exfoliant. Yogurt contains friendly lactobacilli that pacify an aggravated pitta. And the healing aroma of lavender powder makes this a soothing, pleasant mask.
1 tablespoon yogurt
1 teaspoon toasted wheat bran
¼ teaspoon almond powder
½ teaspoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Mix and apply the mask in the same manner as for the Dry Skin Mask.
Wheat bran is a very efficient cleanser, coaxing out grime with ease. Combined with cooling yogurt, it makes a gentle exfoliant. The vitamin C in lemon juice promotes cleansing activity.
Make the same mask as for dry skin, but substitute whole raw (uncooked) milk for yogurt, and use rose-petal powder instead of grated orange peel. In Ayurveda, the rose is held in high regard; it is soothing, healing, and extremely nourishing.
This safe, natural beauty care, should, of course, not be limited to skin cleansers and moisturizers. Whatever other body-care products you use — shampoos, hair conditioners, makeup — be sure they are gentle and nourishing, not enemies in disguise.
But wait — there is much more to roopam than just cosmetic care. If you imagine your body to be a house, then roopam is only the facade. Obviously, painting the house from the outside is no help if the interiors are in ruin. In other words, no amount of moisturizer or nail polish can make you look good if your digestion is upset and your mouth feels stale. Conversely, if your vital systems are in great working order, your face and your skin will reflect that inner glow.
The way to achieve true roopam, therefore, is to nurture your body through good diet. This does more than help metabolism. It suffuses you with ojas — that certain something that beautiful people radiate, without assistance from cosmetics.
Remember, you produce ojas in inverse proportion to ama. The lower your body’s ama, or toxin content, the higher your personality’s ojas, or radiance quotient, and vice versa. So keep toxin elimination as a priority in your list of beauty to-dos. Two easy, pleasurable ways to shed toxins and acquire ojas are daily self-massage and regular exercise.
Daily self-massage is called abhyanga. All it takes is fifteen minutes, and look at the benefits you get:
• When you massage your body, you lavish it not only with lubricant, but also with love. Touch is a basic human need, and through massage you give yourself a healing touch.
• Most of the day, your skin suffers in silence, feeling dry, dull, and neglected. A regular oil massage gives it much-needed sheen, moisture, and warmth.
• No matter what your dosha type, massage restores your balance and makes you feel relaxed.
• Massage is an almost instant healer; the oils penetrate deep into body tissues within seconds, nourishing you from within.
• Massage is an excellent way to detoxify. The rubbing and stroking actions dislodge accumulated toxins, which then move out of the body through the digestive system.
• In the long run, regular massage maintains the youthfulness of skin, keeping it lustrous and healthy throughout your life.
Begin by heating your massage oil to purify it (see the appendix for guidance in selecting the best oil for your dosha type). Called curing, this process makes the oil easier to absorb and enhances its antioxidant qualities. To cure your oil, pour a quart — which should last you about two weeks — into a pan and bring it to a boil on a low flame. Then drop a tiny bit of water into the oil. If you hear an instant “pop,” your oil is cured. (If there is no “pop,” keep heating until you hear one.) After the “pop” sound, take the oil off the stove. Cool the oil a bit, then pour it into an easy-squeeze, flip-top bottle. Take some simple precautions while curing the oil: do not leave it unattended, do not heat it on a high flame, only drop a tiny bit of water to test whether the oil has cured to avoid splattering, and do not pour it into a bottle while it’s hot.
Now to the massage itself. Warm oil penetrates tissues faster and feels good on your skin. Therefore, just before massaging yourself, reheat the oil by running the bottle under the hot water tap for a minute or two — or, if you have the time, heat a small amount of oil in a pan. When you are ready, remove all your clothing and jewelry and sit down on an old towel so you won’t make a mess.
Start at the top: massage your head first. Pour a small quantity of oil into your cupped palm and raise it to your scalp. Then, swiftly opening your palm, let the oil kiss the top of your head. This is your introduction to bliss. Now move your palm in circles, rubbing the oil gently but thoroughly all over your head. Part your hair from time to time so that the oil seeps right into your scalp. Ayurvedic healers recommend spending maximum time on head massage, and for good reason. According to Ayurveda, there are 107 vital points just beneath the skin. Called marmas, they are believed to be connecting points between the mind and the body. Thirty-seven of these marma points are located in the head and neck area. This is what makes head massage so relaxing.
After massaging your head, move down to your face, the outer part of your ears, your neck (both front and back), your shoulders, and your upper back. Be sure to rub gently on your face. Also, you will find that massaging your ears feels particularly nice.
Now dab some oil down the length of your arms, then rub the oil into your arms using long back-and-forth strokes. Rub around your elbows and knuckles in a circular motion, applying gentle pressure.
Rub some more oil up and down your chest, massaging your breasts in gentle circular strokes. When you reach your abdomen, make sure your strokes are in a clockwise motion, for that is the direction in which your large intestine moves.
Massage your legs in much the same manner as you did your arms: back and forth along the bones, with circular strokes around your knees and ankles. Lavish some time on your feet; they are often the most neglected part of our anatomy.
By now, you should be experiencing a unique feeling: that of being deliciously rested and wonderfully refreshed. You might want to allow the oil to soak into your pores for a while, and that is an excellent idea.
Now you can gently wipe excess oil from your body (to avoid clogging your drain) using your old towel. Then, using a mild, oil-based vegetable or herbal soap, wash the oil away in a warm shower. If you have the time, a warm bath is even more relaxing.
How much time should you spend on your daily massage? Ayurvedic physicians recommend ten to fifteen minutes of daily oil massage for maximum benefit. If you are rushed for time, give it five minutes, which is better than skipping it altogether.
There is a good reason why athletes and cyclists never suffer from cellulite: they keep moving, so ama never gets a chance to build up inside them. But most of us would not want to — and cannot hope to — do such strenuous exercise. The good news is that Ayurveda does not demand that you work out so hard. Ayurvedic wisdom favors walking as a form of exercise because it is nonstrenuous and calming. Moreover, unlike several other forms of exercise, walking gives your body a complete workout, improving circulation and eliminating ama without putting strain on any one group of muscles.
The three dosha types have different exercise requirements, and walking fulfills all these needs. For example:
• Vata people, being energetic but restless, will plunge readily into exercise but tire quickly. For such people, a brief brisk walk is the ideal solution.
• Pitta people, who are so dynamic and intense that they tend to overexert themselves, find walking a moderate alternative to aggressive competitive sports.
• Kapha people, by nature laid-back and lethargic, enjoy the easy pace of walking.
Good digestion, sparkling eyes, shining hair — yes, these are indicators of beauty. And yet they are meaningless if your favorite expression is a scowl, or your dominant mood blue.
Of course, it is stress that causes most of our scowls and blue moods. But I recently read somewhere that “Life is one percent what happens to you, and ninety-nine percent how you respond to it.” Ayurveda embraces this truth; change the way you respond to life’s demands, and you will find inner beauty, or gunam.
The best place to begin your quest for gunam is, again, to refer to your basic nature. This means turning to your dosha types once again — but this time to doshas with a difference. You might be surprised to learn that, just as you have three physical doshas (vata, pitta, and kapha), there are three doshas of the mind. Vaidyas call these doshas gunas, or qualities. These are: rajas, tamas, and sattva.
The qualities of these behavioral doshas do not correspond to those of their physical counterparts — vata, pitta, and kapha. That is, rajasic behavior doesn’t have vata qualities, tamas is not the mental aspect of pitta, and sattva doesn’t have kapha qualities. Rajas, tamas, and sattva have their own distinct qualities, which will be clear from the following simple example.
Three men are traveling together in a train when their compartment catches fire. Watch their reactions:
• The first person has a dynamic nature, which spurs him to take immediate action; he starts hunting for the nearest fire extinguisher or exit. Such people are said to have a rajasic mind, which naturally relies on action.
• The second person panics, then faints. Such people, whose minds are dull, weak, or tamasic in nature, find themselves unable to act or react in a manner suited to the needs of a situation.
• The third person is blessed with a sattvic mind. Being calm and steady, he takes a moment to analyze the situation and acts only after weighing the possibilities and determining the right response to the situation.
All of us possess all three gunas, but some of us have more rajas, others more tamas, and, perhaps fewer of us, more sattva in our nature. But this doesn’t mean that we cannot change the proportion of these gunas in us. From the example above, it is obvious that sattva is the highest guna, worthy of cultivation. You can increase your sattva quotient if you set yourself some day-to-day behavior guidelines:
• Indulge in activities that bring you pleasure. When the mind is happy in itself, it wants to spread that joy among others.
• Conversely, do not indulge in activities that build up toxic thoughts and feelings. Don’t watch violent movies or read crime fiction in excess. Don’t harbor a grudge.
• Take time to do a good deed: make a child smile, spend time with an aged person, plant hope in an unhappy heart.
• Take a balanced approach to your relationships; love, but don’t nag or cling. Give without expecting in return.
• Treat yourself gently. Don’t set yourself impossible deadlines and goals. Remember, when you look at life through the glasses of materialism, you don’t get the true picture.
• Let there be moderation in every aspect of your life, be it diet, sleep, sex, exercise, work, or ambition.
These are habits that cannot be cultivated overnight. But if you are mindful of their sattva-enhancing value, you can make positive changes in your day-to-day behavior. And that is a great way to begin.
According to Ayurveda, true beauty defies chronology. It beats back the forces of stress and refuses to age socially or psychologically. Such beauty is vayastyag, and it comes when there is perfect samanvaya, or balance, between both roopam and gunam. In this state of balance, a person achieves sat chit ananda, or purity of soul and total bliss, which the Vedas say is the definition of complete beauty.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons people fail to look beautiful is that they don’t feel beautiful. Blame it on the models and movie stars who represent beauty in these times, but the fact remains: a society’s ideals of beauty can be damaging to a person with a less-than-perfect figure or features.
Ayurveda considers this negative self-image a serious enemy of beauty. Like unreasonable food cravings, this negative self-perception is also seen as a mistake of the intellect, or pragya aparadh. Because your body hears everything you think, the damage from this condition eats into your very consciousness and shows up on your face.
If this is how you have been feeling, start healing yourself by making positive affirmations to yourself every day. For example:
I am one with nature, and nature is beautiful. My body and mind are like a temple; I won’t defile them with chemical-laden cosmetics, lifeless foods, or toxic thoughts. I’ll be true to myself and to those I love, for I am more than roopam (outer beauty), I am gunam — beautiful from the inside.
Say these words out loud to yourself once a day, and watch the difference they make. What’s more, these simple words put you in direct contact with yourself — something Ayurveda deeply encourages.
The most revered Ayurvedic text, Charaka Samhita, suggests a fun way to look and feel young as long as you live: simply seek the company of those who are young at heart. Their influence will bring laughter and optimism into your life, bestowing you with youth’s carefree spirit.
This, then, is the essence of Ayurvedic beauty: a healthy mix of good diet, sattva-enriching lifestyle, and positive thinking. Set aside that antiwrinkle cream and drink some water instead. Whistle on your way to work. Smile. You will look gorgeous and feel beautiful — lit from within.
• DO choose an oil that will balance your individual dosha type. Although sesame oil benefits all three doshas, the cooling quality of coconut oil is highly beneficial for pitta skin. Vata skin will love the rich, moist quality of almond oil. Kapha skin, being naturally moist, needs smaller amounts of oil; sesame oil is ideal for kapha.
• DO use cold-pressed, chemical-free, organic oils.
• DO massage with warm oil. It feels and penetrates better.
• DO leave the oil on your skin for up to forty-five minutes. This helps the oil heal and nourish tissue better.
• DO follow up your massage with a warm bath or shower.
• DO relax between applying the oil and taking a shower. Listen to music, read a book, or simply think happy thoughts.
• DON’T skip your post-massage shower; oil retained on the skin too long can clog channels.
• DON’T use harsh soap after your massage; the detergent will leach the oil from your pores. Use a mild oil-based herbal soap. If your skin is not very sensitive, you can also use barley or chick-pea flour to gently lift the oil — and with it, dead cells — from the surface of your skin.