9 Ayurvedic Travel Tips

Ayurveda offers a number of natural remedies to help you appreciate the pleasures of travel while avoiding many of the discomforts.

Whether you’re setting off to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, get to a vacation spot, or clinch a business deal, it’s hard to stay balanced on the road. Why? Because when you travel by plane, train, or car, your body moves faster than nature intended it to. High-speed travel introduces a light, mobile, spacey quality into your body and mind. Plus, it disrupts your daily routine and often pulls you across time zones. All this aggravates the vata dosha—the subtle energy that governs movement—and leaves you vulnerable to dehydration, insomnia, sluggish digestion, anxiety, spaceyness, jet lag…the list goes on. But here’s the good news: Ayurveda offers a number of antidotes so you can appreciate the pleasures of travel while avoiding many of the discomforts.

Try a Natural Sedative

An hour before you start your journey, swallow a ginger or cinnamon capsule, drink mint tea, or try some tagar (Indian valerian). These herbs strengthen agni (digestive fire), improve circulation, and relax the mind. Tagar has properties similar to melatonin and will help you sleep during a long plane, train, or car ride. (Do not take it if you are the driver). Put 1/4 teaspoon of powdered tagar on your tongue and wash it down with room-temperature water an hour before you depart and repeat every six hours while en route.

Stay Hydrated

Drink lots of water (more than usual) and avoid beverages like coffee, caffeinated tea, alcohol, and soda. Caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and carbonation are dehydrating and aggravate vata.

Reduce Jet Lag

Did you know that sunlight reduces jet lag? When you reach your destination, go outside and let the sun soak your skin for 20 minutes. Sunbathing resets your body clock to local diurnal time and stimulates sadhaka pitta in the brain, which keeps you alert.

Then adopt the local time immediately. Reset your clock and go to bed and get up at the same time you would at home. Resist the urge to nap; it prolongs jet lag.

You can also make “jet lag tea.” Put 1/3 teaspoon each of the ayurvedic herbs jatamansi, tagara, and ashwagandha in a cup of hot water and steep for 10 minutes. Take this herbal drink for 1 to 3 days, both morning and night, to reduce both vata and jet lag.

Eat Foods That Are Grounding

Avoid drying raw foods like salad, dried fruit, and potato chips, and choose warm moist foods with extra oil instead. Look for cooked apples, steamed veggies with garlic, lentils, quinoa, hot soups, and kitchari mixed with ghee and cilantro. If you’re not a strict vegetarian, fish and chicken are also grounding.

Massage Your Body at Bedtime

Massage your body, including the scalp and soles of the feet, with comfortably warm sesame oil. (For detailed instructions and other “good night’s sleep” tips, see Sleep Better Tonight Then take a hot bath and go to sleep.

Drink Almond Milk

This nourishing drink relieves anxiety and other vata-related imbalances. If you have access to a blender, soak five almonds first thing in the morning. In the evening, peel off the skins and blend the almonds with one cup of hot milk, a pinch of cardamom and saffron, and a teaspoon of date sugar or your sweetener of choice. Enjoy.

Try Triphala

Triphala is an ayurvedic herbal remedy that regulates the bowels, preventing constipation and calming jet lag. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the powder to a cup of boiling water and steep for about 10 minutes, until it is cool enough to drink. You can strain out the herbs before you drink it or leave them at the bottom of your cup. Triphala has several tastes, including bitter and astringent, so in the beginning, you might not like the flavor. Whichever taste is lacking in your blood serum, you will experience that missing taste in your mouth. But persist. Over time, you will balance the six tastes within your body and the flavor of triphala will become less unpleasant.