Essential Ayurvedic and Yogic Tips for looking after Your Senses

Ayurvedayoga

1 Dec

Our senses connect us to the world around us. They let us experience the world, keep us safe, and help us find food.

No surprise that four of our five senses are located in our head and that our head is connected to our body via the neck, a super mobile structure that allows us to turn our head superfast in different directions.

The impressions that enter through our sense organs feed our mind.

Why Your Senses Matter More Than You Think

In Sanskrit, the sense organs, our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, are called Indriya, which translates as doors of perception. These pathways allow us to see, hear, smell, taste and feel.

Can you slowly see their importance to our existence?

Therefore, both sister sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda play a crucial role in understanding and caring for our senses, empowering us with knowledge and tools to maintain our health.

Let's first look at the Ayurveda side.

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The Ayurvedic Perspective: Understanding Indriya Agni

Imagine you look at a tree. You know that it is a tree that you see, right?

The process from your eyes seeing the tree to you knowing that it is a tree is governed by the digestive fire of the senses, Indriya Agni.

In simpler terms, this is the process of how your senses' digest' the information they receive, just like your body digests food.

It is the same principle as eating the apple of the tree you look at, and this apple gets broken down, absorbed, assimilated, and finally transformed into the tissues of the body (dhatus).

And just as food needs to go through those stages (digest, absorb, assimilate, transform), so do the impressions entering through subtler sense organs. The only difference is that this process happens miraculously beyond our awareness, and the digestion of food, being of a gross nature, is, partially at least, in our awareness.

So we circle back to the importance of our digestive fire, Agni, of which Indriya Agni is one part.

Ayurvedic Tips to Keep Your Senses Sharp and Healthy

Ayurveda has further suggestions for us regarding caring for the sense organs.

If something goes wrong, we become aware of our sense organs: our eyesight worsens, and the eyes develop cataracts or glaucoma. We start losing hearing, develop tinnitus or ear infections and so forth.

Or, you might notice dry eyes after a long day at your computer or a dull sense of taste when you're stressed.

Ayurveda offers practical and achievable suggestions for maintaining the health of our sense organs, empowering us to take control of our well-being.

01. Use of the sense organs

There are three types of causes of disease – excessive utilisation, non-utilisation and wrong utilisation of the sense…
Charaka Samhita XI, 37

So, not too much looking at a bright light (or screen) or not looking at anything at all. As with everything else, moderation is the key. The same applies to all the other senses, too.

02. Eyes

The eyes are considered the most important. Regular cleaning of the eyes with an eye wash is recommended. The eyes are associated with Pitta dosha, which is one of the three fundamental bodily bio-energy in Ayurveda and are susceptible to Kapha imbalance, another bio-energy. Understanding these doshas can help you know how to keep your senses healthy.

Special ayurvedic eye drops, which are castor oil-based and have Pitta-Kapha balancing properties, are excellent (find my recommendation in the resources).
Rosewater eye pads, applied in the evening at bedtime to cool the eyes, are fantastic after screen use. Rosewater is also astringent, so it helps balance Kapha dosha.

03. Nose

Regularly applying nose drops, such as 'Anu Oil,' helps keep the nose, eyes and ears healthy.

Charaka Samhita also states that 'the hair and beard never become white, helps with headaches, strengthens the head and neck area, and all sense organs become clear and strong.' My teacher, Shree Balaji, also recommended nose drops/nose ghee as they directly affected the brain and its function.

04. Oral and dental health

Regular cleaning of the teeth, tongue scrapping, and keeping a clove in the mouth for clarity of taste and good smell of the mouth.
Practising Kavala, swishing warm sesame oil around the teeth for illnesses of the head, neck, ears, eyes, throat and mouth, dryness of the mouth, excess saliva, nausea, and rhinitis.

05. Oiling of the head

Applying warm sesame oil on the head helps prevent headaches, baldness, greying or falling of hair, sound sleep, and all sense organs work properly.

06. Oiling of ears

It helps prevent ear issues due to Vata dosha imbalance.

Sesame oil or olive oil can be used. Let one or two drops of oil drop into the ear and massage the area around the ear a little before repeating on the other side.

07. Regular full body oil massage

Helps to strengthen the body, alleviates tiredness and exhaustion, makes skin smooth, and keeps Vata imbalances at bay. Massaging the feet helps to prevent roughness, immobility, dryness, fatigue, and numbness. It brings steadiness to the feet, and the eyesight becomes clear.

It seems like a lot, but applying a few drops of oil to the eyes, ears, and nose takes only a few seconds and can be easily integrated into your evening routine. Oil pulling is best done in the morning before brushing your teeth.

Usually, we do think about our skin, but not so much the sense organs.

Are you tempted to give it a go?

➡️ Take just 2 minutes each evening to apply nose oil and see the difference in your sleep quality.

I love these little rituals; they have become such an important part of my life.

Especially when I travel, they are essential because all travel imbalances Vata dosha, inviting dryness and aggravating nerves.

I always put a drop or two of oil into my ears, which are most affected by Vata dosha and a drop of Anu oil or warm, liquid ghee into my nostrils to avoid dryness, a must when flying.

How Yoga Helps Calm Your Mind Through Sensory Control

Yoga has a different take on the senses.

Ayurveda's aim is good health for a long and fulfilling life.

Yoga aims to bring stillness to the mind.

So, the role of the senses is seen differently. As mentioned above, they connect us to the outside world and, with that, feed the mind. They feed our desires as well.

Remember the last time you went shopping and saw shoes you really liked? What happened?

All thoughts revolve around those shoes, how you need to have them, how they are precisely what you need to feel good and feel accepted, ….. this thought carousel is on the loop until you get those shoes or feel reasonable and do not get them, but the carousel still goes on.

As the senses set us into a spin, the way to stillness and calmness is bringing them under our control.

After all, their prime purpose is keeping us safe and finding food. Therefore, they need to be constantly switched on. It is not the fault of the senses. They just do their job, which is feeding our minds. The mind's job is, amongst others, to make suggestions.

It is us who need to be in charge. We must be able to discriminate whether we need the shoes we saw. I know, easier said than done.

How does Yoga help Protect and Nourish Your Senses?

Withdrawal of the senses is called pratyahara; it can also be translated as gaining control over external influences. In the Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, pratyahara is the fifth of the eight limbs.

Prati = away from against, and ahara = food.

This food can be physical or subtle; impressions on the mind, Indriya pratyahara. This can be interpreted as avoiding wrong or overloading impressions like excess screen use.

This relates to Ayurveda's suggestion of overuse or wrong use of the senses and issues developing from it.

Patanjali is not the only scripture talking about withdrawal of the sense. It is also one of Bhagavad Gita's central messages.

When one can withdraw the senses from sense objects, like a tortoise draws within, one's wisdom is unwavering. Bhagavad Gita, II.58
By withdrawing attention from external things, mentally focusing back between the eyebrows and equalising the in and out breaths, thus you control the mind, the senses and the discerning intellect. Then, by aiming for nothing else but absolute and unconditional freedom, personal dire, fear, and anger naturally drop away, and you undoubtedly experience final liberation. Bhagavad Gita V.27+28

Practical Yoga Tips for the Senses

Your asana practice helps you focus on the body, how to get into and out of postures, and how to hold the body in the pose.
Feel the stretch of your skin in poses like Trikonasana or Parsva Konasana.
While holding the pose, you can engage your senses purposefully by feeling the connection to the floor underneath. Focus your eyes by gazing at the tip of the nose, the hands, or the ground. This is called drshti. Steady eyes, steady mind.
Focusing on the breath immediately focuses the mind.
Listening to chants.
Practise Shanmukhi mudra when you close your eyes, ears, nose and mouth with your fingers, stopping impressions from entering through the senses.
Practising the eye movements, look into the right corner of your eye, to the left corner, up towards the eyebrows, down towards your chest, then rolling clockwise and anticlockwise. All while keeping the head totally still.

These are a few ways to nourish and look after your senses by purposefully engaging with them.

When the senses are strong, our self-discipline and discriminatory faculties are strong. This leads to better decisions.

Final Thoughts

Your senses are more than tools for perceiving the world—they are vital to your health, well-being, and emotional balance. Through Ayurvedic care, like oiling rituals and yoga technique

Start with one small practice, like applying nose oil or trying rosewater eye pads, and build from there. These rituals may seem simple, but they can transform your well-being, helping you feel more grounded, balanced, and attuned to the world.