Book of the Week #7: 2nd July 2020 - PRAJÑĀ: Ayurvedic Rituals for Happiness by Mira Manek

Greetings, readers! My name is Sareeta Domingo, and I’m an author and fiction editor. It’s my great pleasure to be bringing you a Book of the Week, each week here on Morning Mari.

It’s been somewhat of a tough few days on a personal level, and a tough several months worldwide, but I often find turning to a book is very helpful for easing stress, burdens and pain. So this week, my selection is a book that I recently found very useful in focussing on positivity and taking time for oneself – Prajña: Ayurvedic Rituals for Happiness by Mira Manek. Manek is a London-born writer, chef and wellness expert with Indian heritage who’s lived all over the world, and her book is a clear and easy-to-follow exploration of the age-old rituals of Ayurveda, one of the world’s oldest healing systems.

The book takes you through easy to follow practices for wellness – breathing, yoga, meditation and recipes for nourishment – all of which are so vital for coping with the world around us, especially when life feels tough. The book is set out in sections for morning, afternoon and evening, and Manek thoughtfully intersperses tales of her own life experiences alongside exploring the ideas of prajña – which means ultimate wisdom in Sanskrit – in an accessible, enjoyable way. Though some of the ideas may be complex, she sets them out in a manner that shows how innate they are to our day-to-day humanity and wellbeing. The intuitive nature of the concept really shines through.

As Manek writes, ‘Understanding our need to recalibrate, to come home and unwind, will carry us through the next day with greater steadiness, and can certainly help diffuse the impact of a crisis when it arrives.’ And such wisdom is why Prajñā: Ayurvedic Rituls for Happiness by Mira Manek, is my book of the week this week.