Today’s blog is about tongue scraping, one of ayurveda’s best morning routines to do. In general I recommend 3 easy-to-do morning routines for a healthy and fresh start into your day!
- Tongue scraping
- Neti cleansing
- Oil pulling
First thing in the morning you rinse your mouth with warm water. Look at your tongue in the mirror. It actually says a lot about your digestion and your imbalances what you can find on your tongue and how it looks like. Scrape your tongue gently 7 times from back to front to get rid of debris, bacteria and dead cells. Make sure you use a stainless steel or copper tongue scraper. Avoid plastic as it is not as effective and you don’t really want to get in direct contact with harmful plastic material. Rinse your mouth with warm water afterwards and then brush your teeth.
Looking at your tongue what did you see? Any coating? What color was it? Any cracks? Were they horizontal or vertical? How about scallops? White patches or red dots? And what does it say about your well-being and digestion?
Let’s start with the color, moist and shape of the tongue: If your tongue is long and pointed and pink or greyish in color you have a Vata-tongue. If your tongue is medium in size and deep pink it’s a pitta tongue. A kapha tongue is large, thick and round and pale pink in color. It will give you an idea about what dosha is most dominant right now. The moisture of the tongue gives you a good idea of how the body is hydrated. A dry tongue belongs to Vata. A medium moist one to Pitta and a moist tongue to Kapha. If your tongue is very dry and flacky you need to drink more water or vegetables and fruits with a higher water content.
The tongue reveals a lot about your overall health and digestion. But what does it mean? Access Vata will result in a very pale tongue with brown or dark coating, whereas with access Pitta the coating will be more yellowish or greenish in the middle. Access Kapha will result in a greyish white coating near the front. A sticky white and thick coating all over your tongue is sign of Ama or metabolic waste that blocks your channels. You definetly want to avoid clogging your bodily channels that will result in stagnation of life force, prana. If the tip of your tongue in red it might be due to a lot of stress or anxiety and a redness and swelling all over your tongue is a sign for inflammation. Scallops can indicate malabsorption of nutrition from food or even difficulties digesting food AND life. We are not just our physical body, we have to deal with our feelings and emotions in one way or another. Horizontal cracks appear due to high Vata, red horizontal lines are because of high Pitta and a vertical crack in the center of your tongue is sign of highly stress or irritated nervous system that can be caused by Vata or Pitta. Red dots can indicata a Vata imbalance, shiny red spots are related to Pitta and whitish spots indicates a Kapha imbalance.
It is very important for the entire digestion process that you chew your food thoroughly. The food content should be chewed to a liquid mushy consistency and mix properly with your saliva. Notice how your digestion and health will change with this practise! If you are not used to chew a lot you might get tense jaw muscles but the reward is priceless. This simple step might heal your guts even. Simple and easy advise that is totally for free. Take your time to eat, at least 20 minutes and be present.
Scraping your tongue will not only provide you with a good oral health routine but also improve your sense of taste and support your digestion, your agni by stimulating internal organs, such as foot zone therapy does on your feet, the tongue is divided into different zones that can be stimulated by scraping your tongue, oil pulling and brushing your teeth and tongue every day.
Hopefully you got inspired to implement the easy routine of tongue scraping and can experience the beneficial effect of it for oral and teeth health, and overall digestion. If you feel greatly out of balance and are ready to implement healthy ayurvedic routines then you are welcome to book your free introduction consultation online or in person in my clinic in Helsingborg for more personalized advice.
