DEEPTI SEHGAL
“I learned that you live Ayurveda daily in each moment, in how you eat, in how you perceive things and how to communicate and in how you form compassionate relationships.”
Deepti Sehgal is an Ayurveda Lifestyle practitioner & a master yoga Instructor (RYT 500) trained & certified in traditional forms of Yoga including Hatha yoga from the traditional lineage of Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, India. She holds a master’s degree in Yoga & Science of Living. She is a certified Macrobiotic Nutritionist, an ICF-certified Wellness coach, and an author & founder of an Indian skincare brand ‘Svarasya’. She deeply incorporates yoga & Ayurveda together in her personal practice co-joined with dietary principles such as Macrobiotics and raw food principles.
Her podcast ‘Youvana the Ageless’ is about sharing the secrets of ancient knowledge that highly contribute towards, health, beauty, vitality & well-being. She also has her own podcast where she interviews experts from various ancient Eastern medicine practice domains for a conversation on the ancient art of health, wellness, beauty, ageless living, vitality and longevity. Her podcast has emerged from her innate desire to impart knowledge and experience on ageless living at body, mind and consciousness level.
FOLLOW DEEPTI:
Website: Svarasya
Instagram: @deeptisehgalvarasya
Podcast: Youvana the Ageless by Deepti Sehgal
“Yoga opened up so many channels for me to understand health and life at a deeper level, one of which was that Ayurveda and yoga are sister sciences.”
What does Ayurveda mean to you?
I have been so fascinated by Ayurveda since my childhood that gradually & intuitively I have grown up to eat, feel, live & think using Ayurveda in all aspects of life. And this was way before I studied Ayurveda. The Ayurveda principles, the way of life, intuitively run in traditional Indian households and mostly each Indian family tends to follow specifically the dietary, dincharya and ritucharya understanding of Ayurveda. I would say the Ayurveda way of life for me is the highest concept that one can grasp to live their best potential.
When did you discover it? How long have you been practising it?
Although by virtue of my family values, I had been living by the principles of Ayurveda unknowingly until I found the depths of Ayurveda the indirect way about a decade back. I had been dealing with health concerns that had been constant such as fatigue, bloating & anxiety back then and the Macrobiotic dietary approach completely transformed me in a matter of one year. That was my very first exposure to a holistic approach to living but that also expanded my vision as to how to look at health from a diverse perspective and how it is all connected. Soon after I got interested in yoga, which took me deeper into the physical practice of self-transformation. Yoga opened up so many channels for me to understand health and life at a deeper level, one of which was that Ayurveda and yoga are sister sciences. The lifestyle part of yoga comes from the traditional Ayurveda understanding of the cosmos. That is when I started taking Ayurveda seriously and I have been practising the Ayurveda lifestyle now for nearly 8+ years.
What drew you to Ayurveda?
I believe understanding the depths of living a happy and contented life was an inherent part of my personality since childhood and nature drew me closer to the holistic modalities irrespective of my technical educational background.
However, what drew me much closer to Ayurveda was my yoga practice. I remember when I completed my first yoga TTC program, I was left even more confused because I could not understand the science behind the sequencing of asanas and the yoga philosophy left me puzzled as I could not find a practical approach to living with the yoga philosophy. My inquisitiveness led me to take up 3 other yoga TTCs to get answers to my pending questions about yoga as a lifestyle until I landed at Sivanada Yoga & Vedanta Ashrams in Madurai, India where I got into the yogic lifestyle which was so deeply rooted in Ayurveda way of life. I was waking up early, doing morning chants, and inner body systems stimulation with 2 hours of yoga practice before having breakfast which used to be a simple meal cooked on the Ayurveda lines. I lived that life in the ashram for my TTC training and that took me so much deeper into understanding how yoga & Ayurveda go hand in hand. To my amazement, for the first time, I started understanding the asana relevance and sequencing based on the concepts of primal energies and pranas that our body is so influenced with at the vibrational level. At that level of understanding yoga & Ayurveda appeared as one to me.
Has it helped you with anything major?
Since I have been living a very holistic lifestyle for more than a decade now, health-wise I have been much more stable even during the transitory years of life. However, where Ayurveda helped me personally and professionally was in the deeper understanding of how to slow down internal ageing and live my best potential, and it all made complete sense. Right from waking up early in the Brahma mahurat (5 am) to spending the morning balancing the mind with Ayurveda and yogic kriyas including dhayan (meditation) practice in the morning to set intentions to moving onto internal and external purification, I learned that you live Ayurveda daily in each moment, in how you eat, in how you perceive things and how to communicate & in how you form compassionate relationships. And coming from a yoga background, it all made complete sense to me. Even scientifically, keeping the body internally clean would mean activating the lymph in the morning to purge out toxins, activating breath and diaphragm to kickstart other bodily functions for the day, activating circulation for best performance through the day and activating the abdomen to create the real need to hunger at the physical level and energy to live the best day. Ayurveda gave me the tools to achieve all that is needed to self-care at a root level. Also, being the founder of an Ayurveda-inspired skincare brand ‘Svarasya’, in India, that majorly focuses on educating women about beauty inside-out, Ayurveda gave me the knowledge, tools and deep understanding of how to live ageless with simple daily practices which is what we educate the women about on our educational initiatives at Svarasya.
Is Ayurveda part of your everyday life or just for your medicine cabinet or fall-back routine?
Ayurveda is very much a way of life for me. Ironically, the medicine cabinet of Ayurveda I hardly use as the Ayurveda way of life keeps me in the best condition. I believe you hardly need any medication side of Ayurveda if you follow dincharya, rituals, cleansing practices, evening routines, ritucharya and the principles of living by your dosha type. However, I still abide by certain herbs and herb mixtures to support the inner alchemy that supports me at my age. I include Shatavari & maca powder for supporting hormonal balance in my peri-menopause years, ashwagandha & tuasi as adaptogens to deal with daily stress, trifala for bowel health, neem for skin health and a few others for keeping the inner systems supported.
Ayurveda I realized is a way of daily life is a very life-supporting science at the root level. It brings about such an inner balance and harmony in our system that directly impacts our hormones and nervous system, which is where our entire being is controlled from. That is also one of the reasons I incorporate this way of life diligently as I know this will automatically keep my inner health parameters in place.
What are your top 3 Ayurvedic tips that have worked for you?
Having a strong morning routine and spending time in the morning to optimise my system with meditation tools, cleansing practices and dietary additions such as ginger, turmeric & black pepper that support circulation, elimination and diaphragm activation when combined with yogic practices. For optimal health and inner radiance, this is what we need to do every single day. I am hooked on the dincharya concept of Ayurveda.
Since I have struggled with bloating all my life, I very strictly adhere to food-combining principles from Ayurveda. Besides helping me get rid of bloating, it has helped me in preserving my energy levels and vitality as it takes off excess digestive load from my system.
Having looked upon myself through the lens of the doshas, I realised I have a very high vata & pitta personality. Now that I know that and the repercussions of being high on vata & pitta, the Ayurveda barometer of the doshas has brought in a sense of slowdown & stability in me as I started incorporating the opposite qualities to pacify my doshas.
What surprised you most about Ayurveda?
I am blessed enough to have had a chance to study Ayurveda & what captured my interest as I studied deeper is the fact that how all aspects of Ayurveda play like a see-saw to keep creating a perfect balance & harmony within. That’s the reason Ayurveda looks at each person differently because even though we all have doshas, the range, frequency, and attributes of these doshas vary in each person defining their health, behaviours and perspectives. I am so amazed to realise how daily simple Ayurveda practices when combined with regular yoga practices are so intuitively designed to keep our hormonal system & nervous system in balance. When these two body systems are in balance, the body automatically is in complete balance. Another beautiful aspect that I found in Ayurveda and other modalities that I studied spoke the same language of inner harmony was Macrobiotics (a dietary philosophy based on yin-yang principles), traditional Chinese medicine & yoga philosophy.
Did you integrate it gradually or overnight for any particular reason?
Being from India, the dietary aspect of Ayurveda, morning rituals & seasonal eating was intuitively part of my upbringing so that part of Ayurveda became a way of life since childhood. However, the deeper concepts of Ayurveda specifically living a lifestyle as per my doshic type I integrated over time especially when I observed I started to get drier internally, which reflected outwards as dry skin, frizzy airy hair, and an unsettled wandering mind. Also, I am a deeply passionate person and that burnout of excess pitta also started to show up in my body as exhaustion, anxiety and acidic troubles. I realised the approach to dealing with these patterns as I studied the Ayurveda lifestyle in depth. Incorporating practices to deal with my high vata and pitta tendencies using the Ayurvedic framework have proven to be really rewarding & I must say it is not about adding or removing any food but learning to adapt the body and mind to a way of life that preserves inner juices. It is a lifestyle approach to be lived every single day.
Do your children/family eat an Ayurvedic diet? And if they do, do they know it’s Ayurveda or do they just think of it as home cooking?
Though my daughters are influenced by Western culture, they also see me practising these rituals, Ayurveda practices, and dietary considerations and specifically my elder daughter, 16, now intuitively tries to follow in my footsteps. She is very particular about morning cleansing even though at a basic level, she is particular about having natural & whole foods only & she is really fascinated by yoga for fitness. I try not to impose things and let them see & learn what runs in the family. I guess the approach is working well.
What is your favourite Ayurvedic recipe or go-to ingredient?
I just vouch for the spices incorporated right into my diet each day. Again, as I am a high pitta tendency person, there are days I end up burning my energies quickly which takes me into a mode of inertia. I know it's happening to me and I need to give myself a push to get back to my original self. During such times I understand I need to get my circulation going for a new breeze of energy which some days may not be possible due to excess fatigue. So, for those instances, I truly abide by:
Turmeric, as it boosts my circulation and nullifies the effects of inflammation that builds up due to overactivity. A shot of turmeric, ginger & black pepper shot I consume almost daily. Black pepper with turmeric enhances its absorption, thus a pinch of black pepper goes into these shots.
Ginger is my absolute go to and I keep consuming ginger throughout the day to keep my system flowing internally throughout the day. The idea is to keep the blood circulation up which I do with daily yoga practice and at a micro-level or a ginger-turmeric shot, or simply consuming ginger pickle with a meal. The logic is that if blood reaches every part of the cell due to good circulation, cellular health thrives, the cell receives its nutrition & oxygen well, and our entire health builds on top of what goes on in the cell!
CCF (cumin, coriander, fennel) tea, to gradually remove ‘Ama’ or undigested matter. I did not believe it until I started having 4-5 cups of CCF daily. It was phenomenal how it clears up bloating, improves appetite and digestion and supports elimination. It also helps clear out skin tone with regular consumption. I make a big lot of this in the morning and keep consuming it throughout the day.
How does Ayurveda fit into your day-to-day routines?
I wake up and do meditation & positive affirmations, and I am a strong advocate of utilising morning time to cleanse the lymph & activate the diaphragm & abdominal muscles. Also to activate circulation, I kickstart with a ginger-turmeric-black pepper shot. Those 2-3 hours every morning are my me-time where I do meditation, journalling, lymph & diaphragm activation, dry skin brushing, and preparing for detox juices & smoothies. Throughout the day I keep consuming ginger water & CCF tea. Evening rituals include stress-releasing yin yoga practice, dry skin brushing to release the lymph nodes again and oil massage to settle me down for a good night’s sleep. On the diet front, its two grain-based meals cooked as per food combining principles and include Agni enhancing pickles like ginger pickles with each meal. That’s the bare minimum that gets incorporated into my routine from the Ayurveda way of life.
What do you wish was easier in our society to make an Ayurvedic lifestyle more accessible?
I wish our education system would teach us why having a disciplined life is important, how having a morning & evening routine has a constant subtle impact on our body, mind, feelings, how we think and how we achieve our best potential every single day. How focussing on keeping ourselves internally clean is the only way that can help us not get stuck in the vicious cycle of diseases. I wish such life-science education coming from Ayurveda & yoga principles was a part of our schooling culture, so every individual begins to live a way of life that gives us enough energy to spend on doing and experiencing things that make us feel alive & follow our passions.
Do people around you/in your circle of friends know about Ayurveda?
India is the land of Ayurveda & I am an Indian, so having lived an intuitive Ayurveda lifestyle since childhood, it is so ironic that Indians still don’t understand Ayurveda. In India, Ayurveda is seen only as Ayurveda medicine or herbology. Only a handful of people, mostly from the yoga domain actually get to understand Ayurveda deeply and in its actual relevance. In that context, I see Westerners are way ahead in adopting Ayurveda as a lifestyle.
What’s the one thing you would encourage everyone to try or you think would benefit the majority of people’s health for the better?
Make your mornings stronger. Wake up early, and do not open your eyes with a cup of coffee or tea to unnaturally stimulate the nervous system, it makes the system weaker over the years that reflects in our thoughts, moods and feeling in the long run. Focus mornings on inner cleansing, lymph & diaphragmatic activation. I cannot emphasise enough how their free-of-cost practices just require you and your breath can deeply change the inner alchemy!
Anything else you’d like to add?
I would just like to add that Ayurveda is not a medical system, it is a complete approach to body-mind health that can be achieved in our day-to-day way of life. Once you understand yourself and align with the set of rules that Ayurveda puts across for your body type (dosha), you are on the path of keeping that inner harmony intact. That’s what brings about physical and subtle changes and creates optimal body-mind health.