Seema brings the balm of Ayurvedic self-care to the bustling modern metropolis. The organic aficionado uses a range of time-honoured salubrious products that can be worked into an everyday busy routine for the holistic benefit of one’s state of wellbeing: from hair oil and fruity face scrubs to personal health, including diet, sleep, breathing, work and even optimising daily structure. Seema can recommend the revitalising spiritual makeover that would be best for you. Food is interestingly central to the expert’s wholesome practice who prior ran a successful supper club and boutique tea business in Hong Kong where she chiefly utilised natural ingredients to make her rich yet wholesome South-Asian cuisine. “You are what you eat anyway: 75% of my skincare is so pure that you can consume it!” Her enterprise therefore was dubbed PRANAYUM! It is not unusual today, for example to spy Seema walking about the house with the “pulp of mango” on her face or have infused a culinary rainbow of other edible elements such as “coffee, berries, matcha, yoghurt, Turmeric, lemongrass, rice and cinnamon” into a wide collection of beatific colourful tinctures. She also offers helpful pieces of advice such as having “20 crimson cherries before bedtime” should you want a good night’s sleep, or attempting “one avocado a day” for the joy of healthy nourished skin that originates “from within”!
Going beyond the simple concept of beauty then Seema’s Ayurvedic approach highlights the entire healing lifestyle on which the allure of that world is based. Glowing skin, happy smiles, a toned body and shiny hair are not simply meant to be for the sake of appearance, but rather represent the robust health that underlies these attractive features. “I’ve never been caught up in the superficialities,” the contemporary guru told us: “It runs in my family that we’re concerned principally with people’s wellbeing.” The mainstream world of beauty does tend to stop and start at the surface, chasing merely profit over long-term inner sustainability. Conversely, nurturing inherited wisdom through the trials and tribulations of her own eventful life, Seema offers the opportunity to fundamentally remedy our normal everyday oversights to potently build the precious personal vigour: “Ayurveda is India’s science of life and is the philosophical sister to yoga,” the sage insta-influencer elaborated: “there is a strong focus on natural self-care. This extends to our very routine: one that should be followed upon rising. This includes tongue-scraping, mediation and bathing. You must further eat in alignment with your body type and nature throughout the course of the day. Of course, the teachings are more accessible when adapted to this age, which I do when I prescribe someone their better lifestyle, continuing to preserve the substance of tradition.” This thorough physicalising of loving self-appreciation allows one to truly experience life as happy and whole! As with the microcosmic athletic practice of yoga, there is relaxation of the consciousness as well as opening up of the spirit broadly. Here, Seema aptly commented: “following Ayurvedic beauty is to really be. It is not merely mindfulness – it goes deeper than that. There is an interconnectedness within the surrounding world.” Not only does Ayurvedic beauty positively align the body with the mind but moreover beautifully values the timeless gift of the subterranean soul. You can call it Vedic alchemy!
I: https://www.instagram.com/pranayum_by_seema/?hl=en-gb
W: https://coffeeandconversations.in/wellness/ayurvedic-winter-prescriptions/
