The holiday season is approaching which brings along travel possibilities for us to visit our families in different parts of the globe or simply plan a vacation for ourselves! While traveling is a thrilling experience, it disrupts your daily routine and often pulls you across time zones.

As you travel by airplane, train, or car, your body moves faster than nature intended it to. This change of time and environment aggravates the Vata dosha which governs movement and leaves your body vulnerable to dehydration, sleep challenges, dryness, bad digestion, restless thoughts, spaciness, and jet lag. Athreya Herbs offers a number of natural, Ayurvedic remedies to help you enjoy the journey and avoid any discomfort caused while traveling.

In the podcast, Vaidya Jay and Lilly discuss Ayurvedic travel tips given by Vaidya Jay to Lilly before she visited Thailand and how each of them helped her in overcoming travel stress and discomfort.

When we travel by airplane, our bodies experience time, seasonal, diet and environmental changes, which interrupt our daily lifestyle and cause inconvenience. The long-stretched flights and the time differences mess with our body’s rhythm and force the doshas to instability making us sick.

To overcome travel fatigue, Athreya recommends two pills of Ashwagandha to be taken after breakfast, lunch, and dinner respectively, starting from one day prior to the beginning of the journey.

Ashwagandha is an important herb that calms down the Vata, especially the one that afflicts the deeper tissues like the nervous system, joints, and muscles which get tensed while traveling. Ashwagandha has a natural ability to soothe aggravated Vata. When Vata becomes high, it makes the nervous system reach a higher vibration which makes us anxious and restless. Athreya Herbs offers Ashwagandha from a special region of India called Nagori. It has the highest concentrations of active principles that can go towards the deeper tissues like the nerve tissue, bones, muscles, and joints to help them relax.

Ayurveda recognizes the burden of Vata that is aggravated on the gut. The natural location of the Vata in the body is colon, so it relates to the colon more than any other organ. When the Vata is higher in the body, it dries up the colon making it dehydrated. As a result, everything backs up into the intestines. When we take long trips and we’re on the flight for long hours, we are being fed with microwaved airline food or junk food that is extremely counterproductive to what is happening within our bodies. Vata generates certain cravings that make us want more of the junk food when we are traveling.

To fight against cravings, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and seasonal fruits can prove to be healthy substitutes for junk food like chips. These seeds are warm, lubricating, oily and can be combined with nuts. This helps to lubricate the gut by simply being heavy enough to move everything down in the gut for easy elimination. Grapes are also excellent due to its fiber-rich nutrients. They also provide hydration in the gut and the lymphatic system, which are required when you’re traveling on the flight. As we know being in the high altitude can dehydrate your body easily.

Triphala is a boon to carry while traveling because it helps to balance the entire gut right from the stomach to the small and large intestines. It is capable of clearing the stagnation, reducing any clumping of the bowel that happens due to continuous sitting and increases blood supply to the entire gut. Triphala balances the gut biome and gut mobility and Ashwagandha calms the nerves relieving the travel anxiety.

Athreya advises taking Triphala in the morning and in the evening. When you get on the flight, along with Ashwagandha you must take two Triphalas in the morning and later again in the evening either on the flight or when you reach your destination. Taking Triphala with warm water is much more beneficial than taking it with cold or room temperature water. If possible, carry a cup of hot water on the flight which will help with the hydration and elimination of this dry Vata bio-energy.

Dehydration caused while traveling sucks out the moisture and life out of your facial skin. Using natural oils to moisturize works great for the skin because it helps to hydrate the skin and prevents it from cracking and becoming rough. Natural oils soothe and rehydrate the skin which is extremely beneficial. Applying Athreya’s Healthy Face Oil (Kumkumadi thailam oil) one night before the journey and leaving it on overnight helps to improve skin texture and overall skin health.

Inhaling stale air on the flight makes the nasal passages susceptible to all kinds of irritation and cold. Nasal oil which is called Anu Thailam oil is a traditional oil that lubricates the nasal passage and calms down the nervous system. One drop in each nostril every 3-6 hours penetrates deep into the nasal passages and helps with the nasal irritation and sensitivity that goes on when you’re on the flight.

The nasal oil may cause a tiny bit of discomfort initially when you put it in through your nostrils but after it goes inside, it tremendously helps to open up the nasal passages.

The congested seating arrangement in the flight can affect your back and hips making it uncomfortable while sitting continuously in the same position for long hours. Simple stretching in the aisle and performing spine exercises before and after traveling are the best ways to relieve your body of the muscle and back pain.

While traveling, it is important to put together a mini first-aid kit for emergencies. One of the major components of the kit is the Get Well capsule. Get Well contains a few herbs along with black pepper and turmeric which ward off any cold sensation that might affect you. It contains prolific immune boosters such as Andrographis and Guduchi which prevent the immune system from slumping or going down.

A detailed list of contents of the first-aid kit and other important travel tips shall be continued in the next podcast.

Please consult your Ayurvedic practitioner or primary health-care provider before you take any of these supplements and make sure that they are suitable for you. Podcasts by Athreya are not directed at diagnosing or preventing any health condition. We, at Athreya, wish for your good health and well-being.