Do you often feel sluggish, fatigued, foggy-brained or blue? There’s a potential solution that is simple, takes as little as 10 minutes per day and costs absolutely nothing, we heard from Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, who practices Ayurveda, a system of natural medicine based on the premise that nature knows best. The secret: Take a walk outdoors in the fresh air, for at least 10 minutes, within an hour or two of dawn.
“The rising sun and morning air are invigorating because they are filled with what Ayurveda calls prana, or life force. This gives you energy and clears out any morning brain fog. It has a revitalizing effect on the emotions, too, creating a positive mood for the whole day. A dawn walk also enhances ojas, a subtle essence of the physical body that helps keep you fully immune and strengthened against disease,” said Dr. Lonsdorf. From the perspective of Western medicine, she added, an early morning walk gets your circulation and metabolism going after you have been asleep all night and also is good for digestion.
The practice may even have beauty benefits, too, Dr. Lonsdorf told me. “After taking one of my seminars, a kindergarten teacher went for a walk early the next morning. When she got to school, a student said, ‘You look so pretty today!’ She hadn’t done anything different with her makeup, hair or clothes—the only change was that sunrise walk,” Dr. Lonsdorf said.
For best effect: Get up by 6 am (called vata time in the Ayurvedic tradition). Then walk toward the rising sun, letting its light fall on your face. And don’t worry about the weather—no matter whether it’s hot or cold, sunny or rainy or snowing outside, your dawn walk will be richly rewarding.
