Travel Like an Ayurvedic Pro: 5 Tricks to Land Energised, Not Exhausted

Long flights, airport queues and strange hotel pillows all crank up vāta —the airy, mobile force that governs nerves, digestion and sleep. When vāta spikes, you arrive wired, dry-skinned and jet-lagged. Below are five Ayurvedic habits that keep vāta grounded so you can step off the plane ready for adventure (start your holiday or the boardroom).

1. Eat to Pacify Vāta

Plane meals are usually pre-cooked, frozen and heavily seasoned for shelf-life—perfect storm for bloating and constipation. Instead:

• Pack a small thermos of warm, oily food (kitchari, stewed apples with ghee, soft basmati rice) and sip CCF tea (cumin-coriander-fennel) throughout the flight. The spices stoke digestion while the warmth anchors vata
• Keep a snack bag of soaked raisins; their sweet, unctuous quality counters dryness and helps bowels move.

2. Lubricate Everything

Dry cabin air wicks moisture from skin, joints and sinuses. Combat it before, during and after travel:

• Give yourself a full-body abhyanga (warm sesame-oil massage) the morning or evening of your departure, and repeat at destination—even a five-minute DIY massage before a hot shower works wonders.
• Mid-flight, dab a few drops of nasya oil or ghee inside each nostril; add a smear of sesame oil to ears and lips. This shields delicate tissues and prevents that “sandpaper sinus” feeling.

3. Outsmart Jet Lag

• Set your watch to the new time zone as soon as you board and align meals and stretches to that clock.
• During descent, gaze at the horizon to cue your inner GPS, then spend 20 minutes in natural sunlight on arrival to reset circadian hormones.
• Brew a simple “jet-lag tea” of Vata tea you can get from the clinic or ginger powder in hot water with 1 tsp of honey, for the first three mornings and nights; the herbs calm the nervous system and steady sleep cycles.

4. Guard Your Immunity

Crowded cabins recycle germs, so travel with an Ayurvedic mini-pharmacy:

• Andrographis or D-Vyro tablets boost white-blood-cell activity and cut the odds of a post-flight head cold.
• Keep a bottle of Kaphano syrup handy; two teaspoons at the first throat tickle often stop bugs in their tracks.
• Layer up—but breathe: a soft scarf over ears and neck blocks cold drafts without trapping stale air.

5. Move & Sip Warm Water

• Every two hours, stand, roll ankles, do calf raises and gentle spinal twists in the galley. This pumps lymph, prevents swelling and keeps joints juicy.

Skip alcohol and ice-cold drinks; choose plain warm water or herbal infusions to stay hydrated without dousing digestive fire.  I always take a small thermos and ask the air hostess to fill it up, and I add ginger powder to support digestion and hydration.