New Delhi, April 7 -- At a retreat, dincharya feels almost natural. You wake up early because the light comes in gently and there's nowhere urgent to be. Meals arrive at predictable times and there is space in between activities for you to gather your thoughts. Then you return to the city, where mornings begin with alarms and emails, dinner often ends up being at 10.30pm, and "routine" feels like something that belongs to someone else's life.

Dincharya, Ayurveda's concept of daily rhythm, often gets mistaken for a rigid spiritual timetable: wake before sunrise, drink warm water, oil your body, meditate, and sleep early. In reality, it's far less performative. Dincharya is simply the idea that the body works best when it moves in rhythm w...