Five Self-Care Tips from a South Asian Woman to Welcome Spring

Photo credit: Canva.com

By Saffina Jinnah

What are you currently doing for self-care? Sure, going on walks are good. Getting a good night’s sleep? Delightful. Indulging a treat. Yes please. But is it time to mix it up?

Spring is a time of rejuvenation and restoration. It is also fiscal year end for many. Busy season. Exam season. Spring can be a stressful time for folks across industries. Which is why self-care, even just for fifteen minutes a day, is vital. Self-care not only reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, but improves concentration, increases energy, and minimizes frustration and anger.

So don’t just rely on a cold bitter cup of coffee to get you through this time, pause and try one of these South Asian practices below.

1. Dance to a Classic Bollywood Song

While it is common knowledge that dancing in general is a great way to improve your brain’s functioning and mood as it increases endorphins and decreases renomination, Bollywood dancing is particularly joyful. It is incredibly animated, and every detail and movement counts from what you convey with your eyes to your smile to your fingertips. It engages the whole body. It is a combination of east and west that is high energy yet graceful, loud yet calm. Along with increasing spatial awareness, flexibility, and enhancing blood flow, it is also a creative outlet to express yourself in a different way. All you need is a vibrant imagination and a curiosity to explore other cultures.

This past year, my workplace has begun a 15-minute virtual dance party once a week. It is magic. I look forward to this every week and I schedule my meetings and lunch around it. There are times when this has been my primary movement and source of joy for the day. I even turn my camera on! This is truly something that has livened up my work week and I always return to my work feeling happier and more energized. My next step will be to host the session and share my love of Bollywood.

2. Abhyanga

Abhyanga refers to an ayurvedic massage from head to toe with warm herb-infused oils and can be self-performed or provided by a practitioner. Self-massage is a unique way to attend to your overall health and well-being by devoting love and attention to each tissue layer with a warmed oil specific to your dosha (body energy). Self-massage will increase your overall awareness and oneness with your body. It also often decreases stress and improves sleep.

If you are back to working in the office, you can skip the oil and sooth yourself at midday for just a few minutes. While self-care and a work-life balance has gained a lot of attention in the last few years, the significance of ancient practices like abhyanga in the modern working world has become increasingly more important.

3. Grounding

Are you ever at the beach and feel the urge to walk barefoot through the sand? Or sitting on a lawn and have the need to feel the grass between your toes? As it turns out, there is a reason for that. Just like the sun provides us with important nutrients and vitamins, earth is significantly charged with electrons. The moment your skin touches the earth, negatively charged free electrons are transferred from earth to your body.

This practice awakens us and brings us into the present. It encourages gratitude. I personally find that it relieves anxiety. I don’t live amongst nature or near lots of green space and there are days I simply cannot fit in a walk between meetings but doing this in the morning before a long workday significantly lifts my spirits. Sometimes I do this on my lunch as it only takes fifteen minutes. Though the origins of this practice are not entirely known, it is highly correlated with Ayurveda practices in that it brings us closer to prana (life energy) and allows us to maintain balance with water, earth, fire, air, and space which in doing so, we restore the balance in our own body.

4. Turmeric

Golden milk lattes are not just trendy, they are healthy too! Due to its natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, modern uses of turmeric, aside from cooking, include said lattes, wellness mixtures ranging from juices to shots, to pricey face masks. However, turmeric has been used in South Asia for centuries and is a fundamental part of South Asian food, culture, and medicine. My mother has been forcing haldi doodh down my throat any time I am sick for as long as I can remember. Or you can simply mix a dash of turmeric with honey to soothe your throat and your soul.

The use of turmeric has been said to support alleviating a variety of ailments ranging from the common cold to anxiety and/or depression. But if like me you find that turmeric is just too potent or too bitter (definitely an acquired taste!), maybe a cozy night in with the stuff is in order. You can concoct an easy face or body mask with the spice by simply mixing it with a few common pantry ingredients such as honey and yogurt. Of course, there are many variations of a turmeric face mask. I generally use turmeric, rose water, and chickpea flour, as this is what is commonly used in wedding ceremonies.

There are many South Asian traditional wedding ceremonies that incorporate applying a turmeric paste to the bride’s skin for her skin to glow because of its natural properties. It is also often applied to both the bride and groom because it is considered sacred and believed to protect their home against the evil eye.

I know many people enjoy a bath at the end of a long day at the office and a turmeric mask might just be what you are missing. So, while adding a dash of turmeric here and there to your curry every other week or applying a face mask sporadically every month may not change your life, incorporating this into your regular diet or routine when you need a little self-love may be beneficial.

5. Oiling Your Hair

Sneha, the Sanskrit word for oil, also translates to love. To oil your hair then, you might say is an act of love. Hair oiling is often practiced through generations, creating patterns of familial bonding, female kinship, and tradition. When your grandmother or mother oils your hair, it is an opportunity to share stories and knowledge. When you oil your own hair, it is an opportunity to reflect and relax. It is an act of care and tenderness. It is a soothing ritual that keeps you present.

Hair oiling also focuses on the seventh chakra, the crown, and it is believed to influence the mind and its temperament. As previously mentioned, Abhyanga, an ancient Ayurvedic practice, consists of self-massage with heated oil. Some believe there is no greater expression of self-love as it increases circulation and calms the nervous system. To be saturated in oil is akin to being saturated with love as it promotes similar feelings of warmth, stability, and safety. Aside from this, there are some serious straight-up physical benefits to hair oiling as it has often been connected to healthier, stronger, hair.

As we continue to live in a world that is changing every day, with more things to check off our to-do list in less time, self-care seems irrelevant, particularly for such intimate personal rituals. Though this practice may be new to you, take comfort in the fact that the benefits, mental and physical, have been proven through centuries of tradition.

Try any of these for just fifteen minutes a day and notice the difference in your mood and productivity at work. There are so many ways to practice self-care. What are some of your favorites? Are there any self-care rituals from your culture that bring you joy and peace in a busy world?

Saffina Jinnah is a brown girl living in Vancouver, BC. A first generation Canadian, her parents are from Uganda. In her day-to-day life she works in non-profit funding, is an active volunteer, and loves to read in coffee shops sipping something over-sweetened and over-caffeinated. You can read more of her writing at Confessions of a Brown Girl.