For any operating system, regular maintenance is key to optimal performance and longevity. For our human operating system maintenance includes regular self-care in order to experience a finely tuned physical body, healthy state of mind, a well-balanced emotional operating system, and a daily dose of self-love.

Ayurveda tells us how to monitor and maintain our own operating systems with the concept of dinacharya, daily rhythms of loving self-nurturing. There are self-care practices galore in Ayurveda, and a few have gained popularity with the rise of yoga culture such as oil massage, kitchardi fasting, dry-brushing, neti potting, and even oil-pulling.

Our entire day could be spent in self-care, but that just isn’t possible for most modern lives. I recommend choosing realistic morning and bedtime rituals. Perhaps one is more robust than the other, and that’s okay. Having some measure of both strongly anchors your internal daily rhythm.

Create a ritual that attends to your body, your mind/emotions, and feeds your soul. For example, not everyone feels nurtured using a neti pot and others struggle with meditation. Find practices that make you feel good about how you are taking care of yourself rather than being just another should on your to-do list.

Ayurvedic self-care practices often seem geared to the physical body, like dry brushing your skin or tongue scraping. The subtle body effects of these practices are not always taught and may go unnoticed. Yet when we pay attention, we can feel their potency. Here are four major psychospiritual components of regular dinacharya.

Regular Time and Space with Yourself

Clients often ask me if working out at the gym or attending a yoga class can count as their self-care time. This is the case if we fully engage with self-care during the activity. While the answer is different for each of us, a silent run in nature or a deep restorative class can be opportunities for a good emotional check-in. If we’re checking our email while on the bike, listening to our BFF dish about their latest relationship drama, or speeding our way through a weight-training circuit, then we may not be fully present. Being present lets you explore what you are feeling and why. This is the time when you can consider how you want to approach whatever is happening in your day and how congruent you are with your decisions.

Nurturing your Best Self

In Ayurveda, we honor that we are dynamic, changing beings. For example, I understand that I am more likely to be reactive, quick-tempered, or closed-minded when I’m short on sleep, not feeling well, and/or starving. When I feel well taken care of and well supported, I’m able to receive and respond to life in a way that is more aligned with my ideal version of me.

I can aspire to be calm, empathetic, helpful, nurturing, flowing, and growing when I am in a state of wellness, so it doesn’t make sense to expect that I can be any of those qualities from a place of deep depletion. If I force myself, then I’m either becoming further depleted and further away from my personal sustainability or I’m building resentment and bitterness toward the things that take my energy, time, and resources away from healing myself.

Greater sense of Integrity

An important facet of health from an Ayurvedic perspective is having clarity and flow in all of the physical and subtle body channels. From the digestive tube to the invisible channels of energy in your mind, your being is one massive waterpark of moving flowing energy, blood, lymph, hormones, et cetera.  When channels are obstructed, their contents accumulate and decay, with eventual loss of functionality in the related tissue systems.  

Our sense of integrity could be viewed as a clear channel of flow from intention to words to actions to manifestation. When our words and actions do not echo the sentiment of our intentions, we block our ability to manifest our desired experience of life. Self-doubt, fear, and lethargy ensue, and the emotional ama (toxic buildup) of unfulfilled intentions accumulates, often leading to depressive phases.

This comes up often in the topic of self-care. Many of us have the intention to feel well and be healthy, but don’t match our words and actions with that intention. Instead, we feel overwhelmed or intimidated and choose easier old patterns, then judge ourselves for doing so.

When I put off my dental cleanings, skip the gym, binge on chocolate, or keep forgetting to make that eye doctor appointment, my actions all say that my health is not important to me, even though I may profess otherwise. My integrity is obstructed and I will have trouble manifesting and sustaining my desired level of health. When I prioritize daily time to attend to myself, I know that I’m showing up for my intention consistently, and this allows me to respect myself more and cultivate a greater sense of integrity and trust in myself. Of course, this also leads to reduction in internal conflict, removing further obstruction from the state of flow.

Attracting what you are embodying

During my morning ritual, I feel cared for, even if it’s by me. I feel more nurtured. I feel more heard. It doesn’t matter that I’m nurturing and hearing myself because I am embodying those states more with my daily ritual. I’m able to allow my feelings to guide me in decisions, and I’m making more decisions that are in alignment. This means I’m embodying and attracting the guided, clear, decisive state of being with my feelings attended to. Through self-care, we attract more experiences, situations, and people that allow us to feel well cared for, valued, and supported.

When you’ve attended to our feelings, shown up with your best self more regularly, prioritized your mind-body practices, and embodied being well, you will love yourself and your life experience more. It’s just that simple (and amazing).

Daily self care offers a time for reflection and spiritual nourishment.

How to Set up Daily Self-Care

Do you! A morning ritual is varied and individual. For example, mine includes a hot cup of chai, watching the sunrise, taking customized herbs, intention-setting at my altar, chanting, meditation, and sometimes a morning stretch. That’s a lot for some and an easy routine for others. What matters is that it’s my best fit now.

As long as your self-care ritual cultivates pleasant feelings and includes an opportunity to examine your thoughts, decisions and feelings, you’re golden. This could look like journaling, sun salutes, staring at the clouds over a hot tea, or an austere ashtanga practice; it just has to feel nourishing to you, on that morning or evening.

SET ASIDE AT LEAST 30 MINUTES A DAY 

I’d recommend setting aside 30 minutes at minimum, for at least one of your morning or evening self-care times. An hour is best to not feel rushed. Morning is the most fertile time of day for all spiritual and subtle energetic body shifts. Your morning routine allows you to set the tone of the day, as opposed to the day’s events setting your tone.

HAVE A PLAN B

We all have variations in our day-to-day lives necessitate adjustments. However, when you get out of your routine, it’s easy to landslide into not showing up for it. I have a five-minute version of my morning routine (chai, altar) that allows me to be flexible but still feel like I showed up, allowing me to anchor my rhythms.

19 Ideas for Self-Care Practices

• Yoga Asana (including digestive series, sun salutes, restorative sequences or other practices)
• Stretching
• Self massage and oiling (whole body or just a focus area)
• Exercise/ Activity
• Communing with nature (such as sitting outside while drinking tea and listening to the birds)
• Journaling
• Taking daily herbs
• Using a Neti Pot
• Meditating
• Visioning
• Reading that builds awareness of self
• Pranayama
• Upashaya (drinking hot water with lemon and honey)
• Sipping on Herbal Tea
• Chanting
• Gratitude exercises
• Oracle cards
• Listening to guided meditation
• Sitting in silence and reflecting

This is not an all-inclusive list, but a good starting place. Simply choose one or two from the list for each morning and evening self care time. I recommend trying the same practice for a two week period to really feel the effects of that practice for you and to connect with it. Once you’ve connected to a few practices and know how each one feels for you, you can customize and choose your daily blend of practices based on what you feel is a best fit for that day.

Any of these ideas could be appropriate for the morning, or evening; however the quality of your practice would need to match what is balancing for you at that time of day. For example, I may choose a more invigorating pranayama or yoga practice in the morning, but would choose a more calming, grounding and relaxing practice in the evening. In general, evening is the time to prepare the body for good sleep and relaxing, while the morning is a great time to stimulate, activate, and do spiritual practices. In the morning, our practices help us to set a tone for our day, while evening practices are more about recovery, and coming back to homeostasis.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Self-Care As Self-Love appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Superpower 1: Gratitude is your Automatic Reframer

Reframing is a term used to describe the process of actively changing your viewpoint on a given situation. Used in modern psychology, it is also part of the philosophy and practice of yoga and Ayurveda. While Patanjali didn’t necessarily call it reframing, this is the practice of pradipakshabhavana described in Sutra 2.33, which says that when we have negative thoughts, the antidote is to reflect and encourage another point of view. In short, reframe.

Gratitude is one of the easiest reframing tools we have, and sometimes, we don’t even realize just how powerful it is. For example, when I was in a car accident (a hit and run), after a few seconds of cursing and some waves of shock and anger, I was able to say, “At least everyone is okay. Thank goodness the kids and I are just fine, and it’s just damage to the car.”

Gratitude is what allowed me to reframe the situation into one in which I no longer felt angry or frazzled. This is huge because my cells then benefit from not experiencing the biophysiological effects of anger and stress. Gratitude moves us away from emotions that have unhealthy effects. We’ve all done this in some way, because reframing with gratitude is naturally how we console our loved ones:

“It’s hard to lose your job, but at least you’re not stuck doing something you don’t love anymore.” (Gratitude for no longer feeling stuck or trapped.)

“I know you it’s hard to hear he’s with another woman, but at least you have clarity on the fact you need to move on.” (Gratitude for clear direction instead of the back-and-forth.)

“It’s always hard to lose a loved one, but at least he’s not suffering anymore.” (Gratitude for the release of pain.)

Superpower 2: Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for healing.

Each emotional state has an associated biophysiological profile. When I feel dissatisfied, for example, my neurons pump out a specific array of neurotransmitters, and that array produces its own domino effect on the body’s hormonal systems and thus the tissues. Contentment has its own specific effect on the body—and it is an effect that is healing. The impact of the emotions on the body is a burgeoning area of modern research. However, all ancient cultures have acknowledged this phenomenon in their healing sciences.

Ayurveda describes how emotions are connected with physiologic states in our tissues and organs. Emotions related to the fiery pitta dosha (including anger, irritability, dissatisfaction, judgment, impatience, and intolerance) have effects on the body that then increase pitta (inflammation, acidity, infection, ulceration). Imbalances in the mind and emotional body can manifest in the physical body; this process usually begins with the digestive system. This underscores the importance of not spending too much time in emotional states that reflect doshic imbalance; for example, according to Ayurveda, rigidity in the mind can affect the tendons and arteries over time, leading to greater physical rigidity. In this way, mental flexibility can be a practice that actually protects against rotator cuff tears and hypertension. Amazing, isn’t it?

By reframing our experiences with gratitude, we can experience an emotional state with healing effects. Indeed, gratitude practices have been shown to be effective in helping to heal everything from trauma to coronary artery disease.

Superpower 3: Gratitude can lift you out of the victim container.

Most of us know we have so much to be grateful for every day. If you are reading this, you likely live in a non-survival setting, practice yoga, and have great access to whatever you desire. Yet, many of us do not live in a state of unwavering gratitude. Why?

I notice that many of us have a strong activation in our victim archetype, an archetype I first learned of from Carolyn Myss. Simply stated, the victim archetype is one in which our perspectives on a situation are ones in which we play the victim. In the example of my car accident, I could have easily gotten stuck in the victim archetype:

“I can’t believe that someone would do that, and drive off. What a [insert expletive]!”

“We were in the car when it happened; it was just feet from my daughter’s door, and that could have been really bad.”

“Oh, now I have to pay the full deductible, there goes a few hundred dollars. Plus my insurance premium may increase.”

“Dealing with insurance companies and being carless is the last thing I needed right now.”

Any of these statements put me in the role of being injusticed or victimized. The Law of Attraction says that if I put that perspective out into the world, then I attract more of the same. Each time we espouse the victim perspectives in our minds, or express them to others, we attract more situations in which we feel victimized. Yikes! Don’t fret: Gratitude is here to save the day.

Because I have been practicing for a long time, when the accident happened, I immediately shifted to a state of gratitude. I took all of the above possible thought patterns and replaced them with ones based in gratitude. Gratitude that we were safe, that I have great insurance coverage, that we had a car with such a solid frame, that the extent of the damage was not too serious, and that I had someone to call to offer me love after the accident. In fact, I was deeply grateful I didn’t have to interact with the driver of the other car. Anyone that would do something like that was likely in a state, or with a persona, that I would not have enjoyed interacting with — or maybe not felt safe interacting with — at night with my children.

I refused to even speak of the accident with any tone other than deep gratitude, because my state of internal harmony is not worth disrupting for that incident. In other words, I refuse to go in the victim container. With the help of gratitude, we can stay in a state of empowerment, or divine grace:

“Can you believe how lucky I am that we were safe and that I’m covered and that I didn’t have to deal with that person? I’m so blessed.”

Superpower 4: Gratitude helps us attract feel-good experiences.

There were a number of surprising small benefits from the car accident, including: receiving brand-new booster seats for my kids because of the car seat law, the auto body shop fixing a dent on the other side of the car for no additional charge, and the car rental covered by the insurance happened to be the ideal money-saving transportation to and from the airport for three trips. In addition and perhaps most important, I had the opportunity to teach my kids by example how to handle potentially victimizing situations without going in the victim container. A few weeks later, when my young daughter scraped her knee, she compared her experience to when the car “got a booboo” and how it was later okay.

Superpower 5: Gratitude encourages spiritual growth.

The teachings of Ayurveda and Yoga remind us that in the big picture, nothing is forever and nothing is for certain. We forget this. We take people and things for granted: our loved ones, our life situations, possessions, our health, and even our stage of life. There’s something about gratitude that acknowledges the impermanence of all of it; gratitude and the recognition of this impermanence are inseparable. “Enjoy it while you can.”

The awareness of impermanence helps us to stay present in the ephemeral “now.” Meditation is the practice of being fully present. And this is why an “attitude of gratitude” is an inherent part of our journey to greater presence, conscious living, and spiritual growth.

Superpower 6: Gratitude helps calm the airy energy of the vata dosha.

From the perspective of Ayurveda, gratitude balances vata. Some of the signs of an imbalance of the energy of vata are a state of depletion of the mind, emotions, and energy; degeneration of the body and energetic state; and feelings of scarcity on all levels. When we are truly experiencing a state of gratitude, we feel naturally full, abundant, and blessed, which are all the exact opposites of the experience of vata imbalance.

It’s no coincidence that our ritual of Thanksgiving, along with celebrations from around the world, all occur during the fall season, a time characterized by an abundance of the energy of vata. These celebrations encourage calm, ease, and expansion during the season of depletion and scarcity, since to find balance we cultivate the opposite qualities in the Ayurvedic healing approach.

In any practice, consistency is key, and then we start to notice the results of our actions. Whether or not you feel inspired to wear a superhero cape to your Thanksgiving dinner, you may experience the full effect of the superpowers endowed by gratitude.

Gratitude in Practice

Take 10

You don’t have to fake this. Everyone has 10 things they can be genuinely thankful for on any given day. These 10 things may change from day to day, season to season, but we’ve all got at least 10. Write them down, share them with your loved ones. Post on Facebook, Tweet, photograph them, discuss at the dinner table, or add them to your prayers or meditations.

Make it a 40-Day Habit

With my clients, I often suggest a 40 day practice of gratitude. Bring in the time and space to recognize and honor that which we are grateful for on a regular basis, as part of our daily rhythm. After 40 days, you may make it a lifetime habit.

Journal

Take five minutes in the morning or event and journal that list of 10 for 40 days. Set aside a few minutes to list the 10 things you are most grateful for on that day, and do this for a consecutive 40 days. If you miss a day, keep at it, and just add a day on the back end. Just on or after the New Moon is a great time to begin any 40 day practice.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Gratitude: 6 Superpowers of Healthy Practice of Giving Thanks appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

At a certain point in our lives, those of us on a conscious path realize that escaping things or running away from them doesn’t really work. This doesn’t truly free us from the negative experience or feelings that situation engendered. We will find ourselves in similar situations, yet with different variables. In these moments we think to ourselves, “How did I end up here again?”

Simply ending the relationship, leaving the job, or moving aren’t necessarily real solutions.

Evaluate your Choices

The real solution is to change ourselves. This begins with becoming more aware of how we act day-to-day and then evaluating our choices. We examine how we respond to situations. How we choose to view them and talk about them. Where we choose to focus attention. What situations we allow ourselves to be in. And what we choose to embody and therefore attract.

Any cycle of change creates the need to examine even our thoughts surrounding change. The following attitude can leave us stuck in unhealthy situations. “Shouldn’t I be able to be happy no matter what?”

Ideally, yes, we can build our own strength and resiliency to be happy in any situation. Cultivating this may take some time. We are human, and by nature, we are easily triggered by emotions. (One of my mentors once told me that the purpose of 90% of human behavior is to avoid certain feeling states.)

So making choices that support a healthy external environment while we shift our internal environment is paramount to support change. Examples would be making sure to not stock the cabinet with cookies when you are trying to cut back on sweets, or not following your ex on Instagram when you are trying to get over him or her.

It is always necessary, and a practice that requires a great deal of attention, to find the balance between running away and staying in an imbalanced energetic environment expecting yourself to magically not be imbalanced. Finding this edge and balance for you is what I call a cycle of shedding.

Tap into Natural Cycle for a Spring Cleanse

We can tap into the natural cycles and rhythms of the universe to fortify both the shedding process and our own connection to nature.  Every month, the waning moon (from the Full Moon to the Dark/New Moon) is a time to release emotional baggage along with anything that is no longer serving you.

Every Spring, when we are supported by nature’s abundance and the predominance of the kapha dosha, is the most balancing time for us to shed anything. Personally, I prepare for this for months, first evoking the sensitivity of the fall vata season to learn what I want to release. Then I align myself with that choice in the beginning of the New Year, and allow the shedding to take place in the early Spring.

How do you shed something? There are as many methods as there are energetic releases. You just have to have a ritual that symbolizes the transition for you. That could be a fire ceremony, a cleanse, sweat lodge, or simply journaling.

With every death, there is a birth. As I kill off the depleting relationship (I’m really killing off the pattern in myself that chooses to be depleted in relationships), I birth the me that follows through on choosing nurturing relationships. As something is shed, something new is inevitably picked up. I shed that old pattern of choosing depletion and birth the pattern of choosing nurturance. Birth and death always happen simultaneously.

Incorporate Ritual to Support a Spring Cleanse

How are you going to symbolize that energetic shift in practice—what’s your ritual?

To me, a ritual is the comprised set of tools that support you to release/birth. What will support you in making this turn of the cycle? For example, if you want to exercise more (or shed inactivity), perhaps part of your ritual is to make a mix of inspiring music to get you up and at it in the morning. This ritual does not have to be esoteric. Allow the ritual to be about knowing yourself and your blocks, and attending to them.

Only you can know how to best support yourself through any shedding process. As transition, letting go, and death are all vata energetics (the dosha of air, space, movement, creativity, and change), this support is key to not let these processes imbalance you and to pay close attention to nurturing yourself throughout the process.

What did you notice over the last few months as no longer serving your greater good? What will you birth in its place? Now is the right time of year to do it.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Releasing through Spring Cleanse Ayurveda-Style appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Why your digestive system?
– Harnesses prana (nutrients from food) to keep you alive.
– Affects every other system in your body.
– Is the seat of your immunity. Your immune system, in turn, protects every other system in your body.

To celebrate the harvest, cultures worldwide center around food. Many of the ubiquitous fall foods are dense, carb-heavy comfort foods; these calm the airy, dry vata dosha that predominates these months of the year. Because of the tendency toward an increase in vata this season (and in our fast-paced modern urban society), we can easily feel depleted–increasing our cravings for comfort foods. An imbalance in the vata dosha can leave us feeling empty or restless; this, compared with a decrease in impulse control, leaves us vulnerable to emotional eating. Taking care of our digestion helps us alleviate imbalance and maintain balance.

Here are my top five recommendations to support (or show appreciation to) your digestive system during Thanksgiving:

1. Triphala. I usually don’t suggest herbs as the first recommendation, but this is a worthy exception. I believe everyone should take triphala (unless you are pregnant, on blood thinners, or have a bleeding disorder). You can learn more about the benefits of triphala on my website (svasthahealth.com), but the short version is that triphala helps to keep everything flowing in the digestive system, reduces the effects of stress on digestion, and is a powerful tool for balancing vata.

2. Choose warm instead of cold food and drinks. Most of us have felt esophageal spasms if we eat something cold quickly; cold slows our digestion. Hot water and herbal teas are good to support digestion, as are warm foods.

3. Portion control. Cup your two hands together and form a bowl with them. This “bowl” is your maximal individual portion at one sitting (level bowl, not heaping). You can eat more frequently and tolerate it well if you are maintaining good portion control.  As soon as you feel full physically, stop! Take a break, put the leftovers in a glass or stainless steel container, and save it for later (ideally, two hours later, at least). My pushy relatives are okay with me saying I’ll consume their food offering in two hours because I really want to savor and enjoy it, and likely yours will be, too.

4. Favor Hot and Bitter Tastes. The comfort foods of this season are inherently heavy and can be hard to digest. We can help to balance these qualities, and support our digestion, by spicing it up. Spices for the season are all heating (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger) and improve our digestive capacity (agni). Include spices in everything (e.g. cinnamon in your coffee, rosemary in your eggs, black pepper on your veggies, paprika on mashed potatoes). While pungent, or heating, spices help support digestion of seasonal foods, bitter taste helps to reduce accumulation and stagnation in the digestive system. The easiest way to get bitter taste in is with fresh leafy greens, and the best way to do so this season is to cook and spice those greens.

5. Support your emotional body. The digestive system is the portal through which the energetic patterns in your mind/emotions enter the body. It’s almost impossible to have optimal digestion if you have a lot of intense or rapidly changing emotions. During this season in which we try to squeeze in family and travel and holidays with our work load, it’s easy to find yourself in a stressful place. Check in now, and consider your greatest tools for self-care and emotional balance and plan ahead. Book massages now, schedule the day spa, plan yoga classes, identify your therapists’ holiday hours….you get the idea.

Of course, anything you do to balance vata and maintain agni (digestive capacity) will help support digestion. Start with these five tips to avoid being overwhelmed, which is another facet of vata imbalance.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Five Suggestions for Good Digestion appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Unfortunately, in the US, vata imbalance is nearly ubiquitous. All you have to do is turn on the news, and you’ll be subjected to a mental cyclone of vata energy in the form of ideas provoking fear, overwhelming angst, and uncertainty. We hear stories of people expressing their imbalances in extremes of all kinds. Any extreme action, or reaction, at its core is an expression of vata excess, or imbalance, in the mind. While there are many ways to describe a vata state of mind, the common term for it in our culture seems to be anxiety.

Although the word anxiety is part of our daily lexicon, people are often still unclear about what it entails, especially when it comes to being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. My conversations surrounding anxiety sound something like this:

Q: What is anxiety?

A: It’s a state of vata excess in the mind and body. An excess of the energy of vata can feel like worry, fear, dread, insecurity, overwhelm, hypersensitivity, poor impulse control, internal conflict, indecision, instability, and any of those other states of mental unease. A lot of people describe anxiety as feeling stressed.

Q: What do you mean by, “a state of vata excess, in the mind and body?”

A: It’s an energetic state where there is more vata present in your life than your being prefers. According to Ayurveda, we can sense imbalance at the level of spiritual intuition first. If the imbalance remains unrecognized, we will then see signs of that same imbalance at the level of the emotions and mentation patterns. If the imbalance remains unaddressed, we manifest signs and symptoms of that imbalance in the tissues of the body. In my experience, the first tissues affected in the body are those of the digestive system; which is why it’s common for most of us to be acutely aware of the effects of stress on our guts.

Q: How do I know if there is more vata present in my life than my being prefers?

A: Simple, if you have an excess of vata energy, you will be seeing signs and symptoms of vata imbalance (see table below).

Q: Okay, great. I have a vata imbalance. How did this happen?

A: First: Realize that the majority of us are suffering from some form of vata imbalance. It’s a result of living in a vata-rich environment of modern urban living. Modernization, globalization, and urbanization are forces high in vata because they represent fast movements and growth. This means that the environment is one clear input of vata energy into your being. Vata energy can be coming into your life in countless ways. The most common inputs of vata seen in people’s lives today are transitions (such as divorce, moving, or change of career), information overload (including news and the internet), travel, lack of routine, and eating habits (processed foods or eating while surfing the internet). Anxiety may appear to be on the rise because we are either being made more aware of it or because all of these modern-day challenges feed it into us directly.

Q:  How do I get rid of this extra vata if it’s coming in through all these different ways?

A. The good news is that as you balance vata, you will feel less overwhelmed, and have improved processing and memory. There are as many opportunities to balance vata, as there are inputs of vata. The key here is to choose the opposite qualities of vata in every aspect of your life. One step is to aim for more warmth, grounding, stability, stillness and nurturance in all facets of your life: relationships, career, routine, and diet, for example.

Q: How do I know if I should go see a doctor about this, and what can they do about it?

A:If you are experiencing these feelings more days than not for a period of more than six months, you may likely be classified as having an anxiety disorder; especially if these feelings are impairing your ability to handle normal life tasks. In the doctor’s office, the more physical symptoms you have associated with your anxiety, the more likely you are to get a prescription for medication to address an anxiety disorder. All pharmaceuticals have potential side effects, and it is serious to adjust brain chemistry, so it doesn’t hurt to earnestly try to reduce vata naturally (see suggestions below) as a first line approach to treatment. Of course, Ayurveda is always a powerful adjunct to pharmaceutical treatment. Even if you are on medication, reducing vata can help you to lower your dose, or to wean you off the pharmaceuticals. All tapering of medications should be done under the supervision of a doctor.

For anxiety-relief, ten powerful tools to reduce vata in the mind and nervous system (in no particular order) are:

1. Develop a baseline routine. Nobody experiences the same thing everyday, but we can have a baseline to our daily rhythm. Rising and going to bed at approximately the same time, and even having a simple ritual (drink triphala, go to restroom, read affirmations) in the morning and night can be an effective way to strengthen circadian rhythms.
2. Brahmari Pranayama. This is “bumblebee” breathwork. Look for video demos on YouTube or read about it in Iyengar’s Light on Yoga. Any exercise to deepen and slow the breath is going to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce anxiety, and as such there are a few types of breathing exercises that can be vata-reducing.

3. Forehead-to-the-ground asana. It’s incredible, but true. Literally placing your forehead to the ground and taking a few deep breaths while you visualize Mother Earth absorbing all of your excess stress also calms the stress response of which anxiety is a byproduct. You can be in child’s pose, in any variation of a forward fold, or even just lay flat on your belly. All of these poses reduce vata.

4. Marma Point Therapy. This is akin to using acupressure on a certain point along an energetic pathway (nadis or meridians). For anxiety reduction, there is a poignant point on the left hand. More specifically, the marma point is on the left palm just below the middle finger bottom knuckle. For most of us, the bottom of the bottom knuckle is going to be about a quarter to a third of the way down from the top of the palm. Allow the left palm to collapse and relax as you press into the point with your right thumb. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.

5. Get enough sleep. We have all been sleep-deprived at some point in our lives, and most of us can remember how that felt to be moving through the day floating, half-present, and feeling depleted. Sleep is when the body rejuvenates, so making sure we have enough time in slumber is a great way to allow the nervous system to restore itself, reducing anxiety by addressing and healing the root causes of imbalance through rest and assimilation.

6. Ingest vata-reducing nervines. This is a class of herbs that warms and rejuvenates the nervous system. Most of these herbs also have grounding effects on the subtle energetic body. My favorites are shankpushpi, jatamamsi (related to valerian), ashwagandha, brahmi, and tulsi. See your practitioner for appropriate combinations and dosing.

7. Spend quality time with yourself. By connecting to the experiences that bring you true joy, you can reduce vata and reclaim some of your usual energy expenditure to others. Most of us do not have enough time alone where we are engaging in fun, or quality-time with ourselves. We use our alone time to work or clean or get things done. When we enjoy our alone-time (and prioritize it), we end up grounding in our sense of self and purpose and reducing vata in a powerful way.

8.Consciously reduce multi-tasking. Focusing on one thing at a time, and completing the activity, is a great way to reduce vata in the mind. The more we try to do at once, the more scattered and anxious we feel, and the less likely we are to produce quality outcomes.

9. Shirodhara. This is a lovely Ayurvedic body therapy which involves dripping herbal oil over the third eye (6th chakra) and allowing the warm oil to coat the entire scalp. You can find this at any Ayurvedic healing center, and even many upper end spas. Warm oil scalp massage at home produces similar anxiety reduction, especially when done regularly.

10. Meditate. Most people I know begin meditation because they want to address their anxiety or stress. Everyone with a regular meditation practice will report diminished symptoms of vata in the mind, including anxiety.

The most challenging aspect of balancing vata is consistent practice. Two weeks of a regular practice of any of the suggestions above is the minimum amount of time needed to assess its effects. The more consistent you are, the greater the vata reduction. You will likely fall off track, and that’s okay. Just get back on. Every step counts.

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing: doctormohan.com.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Alleviating Anxiety with Ayurveda appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Summer is A Season When We Do Well by Paying Attention to Staying Cool

The energy of the pitta dosha, according to Ayurveda, embodies qualities similar to fire. For any of us with a dominant amount of pitta in our constitution, researching decisions and operating in a way that maximizes efficiency and logistics are natural; we love reading consumer reviews. We want to know why, and spend a lot of time examining the why because we believe that it helps us find solutions or fine-tune our approach in the future. We are the pattern-finders of the universe. We also need suggestions for staying cool.

The sharp quality of fire can also mean that we can be short, blunt, and a bit insensitive when our fires are flared. In particular, pitta excess often manifests as an intolerance–especially to ignorance, hypocrisy, injustice, and people not doing anything to solve their problems (and still complaining about them).

Other mental, physical, and/or spiritual signs of pitta imbalance that I often see this time of year include the following:

• irritability
• intensity
• over-analysis
• more criticism, especially of self
• impatience
• short temper
• focus on problems and areas of improvement instead of appreciating what is good
• overworking or burning the candle at both ends
• to-do list mania
• feeling hot
• flushed face, ears, chest
• increased appetite
• loose stools and more frequent bowel movements
• yellow/green coat on tongue
• mouth sores
• inflammatory muscles and joints
• headaches (usually behind the eyes or accompanied by light sensitivity)
• rash or skin irritation
• gout
• pervading dissatisfaction (nothing is good enough)

Finding Balance

How do you bring pitta back into balance? Well, it’s about decreasing intensity, activity, and heat in all areas of your life. This includes diet, work, relationships, exercise, or routine while increasing cooling, calming, stillness, sweetness, and appreciation/joy in every way possible.

Try these five suggestions in a consistent approach over two weeks to feel yourself cool off:

5 Tips for Staying Cool in Summer

1. Reduce spicy-hot food.

This includes garlic and ginger. Tapatio, Tabasco, jalapeños, cayenne, and even garam masala and mustard seeds are all examples of heating spices. Favor cooling spices such as dill, fennel, coriander, and mint.

2. Avoid spicy people.

As pitta rises, the increase in those experiencing pitta imbalances means that there can be an abundance of criticism and confrontation. Create safe boundaries from those in your life that bring in pitta energy in this way. We don’t want to run away from issues; rather we want to balance our own energy so we can approach others in a loving, compassionate, and less aggressive manner. Surrounding ourselves with compassionate and supportive people is great this time of year, as are keeping interactions light.

3. Check your alcohol consumption.

While alcohol is a common component of summer celebrations, it is fiery (there’s a reason why it’s called firewater). Sweet wines or malted beers are the least aggravating to the pitta dosha. (For more information on alcohol and doshic energetics, visit: svasthahealth.com/living-ayurveda/doshas-in-alcohol.)

4. Get in water.

I mean immerse yourself in water as well as get water in yourself. Being in the ocean and pools is a perfect way to find balance in the heat of the summer. Staying hydrated (especially with some cooling cucumber, lemon, rosewater, or spearmint in your water) is an effective approach for cooling pitta. In addition, plentiful water intake helps to flush out toxins and inflammatory messengers in the blood. This can lead to a reduction in symptoms such as acne, skin irritation, and joint inflammation. Urine is a good indication of proper fluid intake: if your body is hydrated enough, your urine should be clear.

5. Decrease the intensity.

Create bubbles in your life devoted more to being than doing. This is why vacations are seasonally appropriate: they help to balance pitta’s intensity. Sleeping in, curling up with some engaging fiction, or spending a day at the beach without Internet are all simple ways to “chill out.”

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Staying Cool (sheeta) This Summer appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo by David Young-Wolff

New Mom Tea Recipe

This new mom tea provides a nourishing drink to support a new mom’s health and well-being.

Ingredients:

2 parts cumin

2 parts fennel

2 parts fenugreek

2 parts wild yam (or licorice)

1 part coriander

½ part ajwain

(asafoetida) if available

1 pinch fresh lavender

Directions:

Mix the above herbs in five cups of hot water.

Let steep for five minutes if using ground herbs, or ten minutes if using whole herbs.

Strain and sip throughout the day.

Many of the herbs listed above have other healing properties.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post New Mom Tea Recipe appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

A mother-centered approach to balancing health and well-being

In Ayurveda, the journey of becoming a mother is acknowledged as a great transition. As in any transition, vata dosha, the energy of air and ether, is elevated after childbirth. Transition involves something leaving as it transforms or gives way to something else. For example, after childbirth, the void created means there is more space in the body, and thus, vata is increased. Vata is also naturally increased during labor, as vata is the force which moves the baby down the birth canal. Ayurveda offers a number of suggestions for new mothers to calm vata and support resilience.

New moms without vata-pacifying practices are likely to experience signs and symptoms of vata imbalance in the mind and body. Of course, depending on your constitution, the season and your environs, you may also experience pitta and/or kapha imbalance. However, irrespective of your vikruti (current state of doshas in the mind and body), vata balancing is the mainstay of the Ayurvedic approach for new mothers.

There is a vast and detailed science to approaching the health of both mother and baby in Ayurveda. Classical Ayurvedic obstetrics has a sub-science dedicated to the prasuta (postpartum woman), acknowledging the unique needs and care of mothers during the several weeks following birth.  Many organs shift in their function and size as the body rebuilds. For first-time mothers, there is more as her entire identity changes. The mind naturally begins making decisions that reflect the needs of another person; for many women, intuition deepens.

Ayurvedic Suggestions for New Mothers

The suggestions below are ones I feel most relevant in our modern lives, and the ones that helped me most as a new mother:

1. Vata-reducing Diet for New Mothers 

During the first two weeks after birth, there are very specific guidelines for the new mother’s dietary regimen that involve balancing the energy of the vata dosha. In any aspect of your life, this involves cultivating the qualities that are opposite to vata; these include foods that are warm, oily, moist, spicy, and cooked.

When vata builds up in the digestive system, there can be gas, cramping, constipation, and challenges with nutrient absorption. Reducing vata in the colon can reduce the incidence of these symptoms and ensures moist and soft stool, which protects against hemorrhoids (and straining that can put undue pressure on the perineum), and supports post-labor healing.

Ghee and warm grain cereals are important constituents of a balancing postpartum food medicine regimen.  Across ancient cultures, warm foods high in healthy natural fats such as oil, ghee, coconut, nuts, and meat broths are encouraged for postpartum consumption. These calorie-dense foods also help to build healthy breast milk for baby and replenish the mother after the marathon of labor. However, foods high in fats and carbohydrates are not the easiest to digest, especially if a person’s digestive fire is low, so digestive teas and spices are important.

2. Daily Rituals for New Mothers 

A significant part of a woman’s postpartum healing process is the resetting of internal rhythms. Setting up rituals to open and close the day helps maintain a circadian rhythm despite the strange sleeping patterns of being a new mom. It only takes a few minutes to anchor an internal clock with ritual, and the more you incorporate the five senses, the more the input is received by the body. An example of a simple morning ritual may include lighting incense, giving thanks, stretching, and sipping tea. The most important aspect of using this tool is consistency; it takes about two weeks to set a new internal rhythm.

3. The 90:10 Rule 

As a new mother, I thought it was important to ensure that everything that touched my baby be organic. I quickly learned that this was turning me into a somewhat insensitive control freak. People are going to gift you plastic toys, and a family member may even give baby a French fry to suck on. It happens, and it’s okay. If you are providing what you want for baby 90% of the time, that’s clearly the bulk of baby’s influence. Give yourself, and your loved ones, the freedom to allow for contrast 10% of the time.

4. Self-care Regimen for New Mothers 

One of the greatest lessons of motherhood is that you cannot meet the needs of anyone if you are not meeting your own. The six weeks following birth is the mother’s time to restore the many aspects of herself (physical, emotional, and spiritual).  How you care for your healing body influences not only your ability to nurture your child, but also your health for the next few decades.

5. Time Alone

Many women view labor as the grand finale of the pregnancy experience and are eager to re-engage in their lives and daily activities. But wait a minute! It is important not to emerge too soon as this is still a time for being in the “cocoon” of mother-child bonding and healing (especially the first six weeks). New mothers — and baby, too — are still energetically open and vulnerable. Be discriminating about where you’re taking energy in from. It’s also important for new mothers to have time alone without baby. This could be during a predictable nap time, but if that’s not a regular thing, make it happen with a loved one on a regular basis. You need the time and space to assimilate all the change that’s happening.

6. Find Your New Mommy Community

The traditional circle of women available to care for the postpartum woman is often missing in today’s society; therefore, most women today must plan for appropriate postpartum support. Postpartum doulas are a great blessing for many of us when the women in our lives are busy tending to their own lives. All the new mothers I know found it helpful to commune with other new moms. Most cities have Meetups, or even Mommy and Baby classes. These are a great opportunity to relate to other women going through the same process.

7. Practice Being Happy

I expected that the love and nurturing for my children would come naturally, and it did. However, giving in this perpetual manner also means there will be more times of depletion. You’ll have to make decisions in a different way, in one that prioritizes your happiness. You are the greatest energy input for your babies; if you are happy and grounded, they will be, too.

There is so much more to be said and done to advocate for the needs of the new mother. In my upcoming book, Ayurvedic Motherhood, with Dr. Seeta Narsai, we discuss the need for Mother-Centered approaches in health care. Of course, this shift will begin in complimentary, alternative, and integrative health care venues, and will be driven by the mothers.

Why A Mother-Centered Approach?

Pregnancy is treated as an illness in our current medical institutions.

We don’t even acknowledge and address the “birth of the mother” in our modern society. Because becoming a mother is more than just pregnancy and childbirth. It’s sacrificing  your identity to birth yourself as a mother.

Becoming a mother can actually shift your constitution (prakruti).

The mother deserves as much love and nurturing as the new child.

The journey of motherhood is an ongoing right of passage: a sacrifice and an empowerment and everything in between

Mothers are at the center of healing in all ancient cultures.

We regard our planet as mother.

Motherhood can happen in so many shapes and forms in this universe, and all of them are sacred.

The mother is an embodiment of primal creative power.

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Ayurvedic Suggestions for New Mothers appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Balance the heavy, earthy, wet kapha energy of the spring season 

When people ask me what Ayurveda is, I like to describe it as an awareness. Simply stated, the practice of Ayurveda is the practice of being so in tune with the energetic patterns in your mind and body that you are able to make choices that are energetically favorable for you in every aspect of life, in every moment. I’ll use a simple example:

It’s 7am, and I’ve been hitting my snooze for just under 2 hours; my eyelids are in denial of their call to attention. My head feels so heavy– what did I do last night? This isn’t a hangover, more like sinus pressure. …hmmm, what day is it? What time to I absolutely have to get out of this bed? I can’t calculate that right now; I’m sure five more minutes would be okay.

If you’ve ever had the above morning dialogue with yourself, you’ve experienced the feeling of excess kapha energy . That morning, I woke up able to acknowledge my kapha imbalance. For the remainder of the day, I chose foods, teas, asana, music and aromas that helped to balance kapha, thereby decreasing the kapha in the major energetic inputs of my day. Thanks to this practice of Ayurveda, the next morning, I woke up much brighter.

Make Balancing Choices

Balancing with the energetic awareness of the choices you make will be uniquely beneficial for you, as these choices attend to your unique health patterns. However, it is common to see patterns of imbalances as we all experience the energetics of a given season and climate. Springtime brings a great influx of kapha energy for all of us, and as such, it is common to see signs of kapha imbalance this time of year.

Kapha season feels both full of potential as well as omnipotential. We are inspired to birth ourselves anew with the New Year.  The Spring Kapha season is when we turn over the fields of our lives and plant the seeds of that which we hope to blossom in our life experience.  For those of us whom are pitta (fire element) predominant in nature, the damp coolness of kapha can be a welcome seasonal experience in which we enjoy the cool weather and feel more grounded. However, for those of us with excess kapha in our lives and bodies, kapha season can bring some unwelcome experiences (as listed in the sidebar, such as a sense of heaviness and sluggishness).

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE KAPHA EXCESS?

How to Balance Kapha

In Ayurveda, we diminish an imbalance by decreasing the qualities of that dosha in as many aspects of our lives as possible. Kapha dosha is cold, stagnant, accumulating, slimy (mucous), and moist in quality. Thus, the goals of kapha balancing would be to emphasize all the opposite qualities in our diets, routines, yogic practices and general approach to life.

The Ayurvedic suggestions below will help to balance kapha in the mind and emotional body, as well as in the physical body. More specifically, the following practices prevent and alleviate kapha imbalance in the digestive, respiratory, circulatory, lymphatic and fat tissue systems.

Wake up early.

Once kapha increases in the atmosphere, we feel it and fall deeper into sleep. It’s tough to wake up when you are in a kapha cloud. The earlier you can get out of bed in the morning, ideally rising with the sun, the less likely you are to have kapha-head-stay-in-bed syndrome. I’ve found that 7am is the farthest most of us can push it before entering hit-the-snooze-button-land. Going to bed early is what makes waking up early a sustainable practice.

Sun Salutations

Surya Namaskar is great to keep our internal fire nice and stoked. Heat helps balance the cold quality of kapha. Surya namaskar also helps to get our circulation going, which counters the stagnant quality of kapha.

Breath of Fire

Kapalabhati pranayam helps to balance kapha energy. The translation of the kapalabhati is “shiny forehead” because you get a little sweat going from the heat you build. It also helps to release kapha from the heart and lungs.

Exercise

Being active in the morning helps to balance the passive and sedentary nature of the kapha time of day. A short 10-15min walk in the late afternoon or after dinner is also good to balance kapha.

Avoid cold temperatures.

Staying warm helps to counteract the cold quality of kapha dosha. Dry heat and saunas balance cold and damp inherent to kapha; saunas with eucalyptus essential oil are especially nice. While heating up your home, make sure you avoid the stagnant quality of kapha by also airing out the rooms.

Avoid cold foods.

Cold dairy foods are high in kapha energy. In general, cold foods and drinks decrease our digestive capacity, resulting in slow digestion and increased ama (partially digested and fermented food build-up).  Foods warm in temperature help support our digestive system’s ability to handle kapha and stay in balance.

Decrease foods which are heavy in quality.

Foods that are heavier in nature, such as dairy, heavy grains, or even mashed potatoes are naturally high in kapha. Favoring lighter foods and smaller portions helps to balance kapha.

Use spices.

Most of the warming spices are natural decongestants–revealing their medicinal benefits on the digestive and respiratory systems. All culinary spices are digestive aids and help to balance kapha production and storage in the body.

Some favorite kapha-reducing spices are garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, turmeric, cumin, ajwain (Indian celery seed), and black pepper. Herbs can be used effectively in cooking and teas, but also as essential oils in aromatherapy and in baths.

Kitchardi Cleansing.

Kitchardi is a stew of mung bean, basmati rice, ghee, and digestive spices. The completeness score (how complete a food is in all of the elements needed by the human body–vitamins, minerals, starches, fats and proteins) of the mung lentil alone is about 80/100. The missing 20/100 (vitamins A, D, and E) are supplied by the other ingredients. As such, kitchardi gives you everything your body needs; this is why it is sometimes referred to as a superfood.

In Ayurveda, mung is recognized for its detoxifying properties while also being rejuvenative. This is unique as most herbs and foods that detoxify strip down the body tissues instead of replenishing them. For this reason, kitchardi cleansing is appropriate even while maintaining your usual activities and working.

Brush your skin.

Using a loofah or skin brush, brush the skin all over, moving from the periphery towards the heart. It promotes healthy circulation and helps to stimulate the body to access remote fat stores, which aids in toning skin and discouraging cellulite. Similarly, massage is a good way to counteract the stagnant nature of kapha.

Increase the passion.

Being loving and sensual are beautiful expressions of kapha during this season. Physical intimacy also increases our internal heat and stimulates our circulation.

Clear clutter.

“Spring Cleaning” is a great way to reduce kapha in your surroundings. Get to the stacks of clothes, paperwork, or stuff accumulating in closets and garages.

Try new activities.

Stepping a bit out of our comfort zone balances the immobile, sluggish, or stubborn sort of feel to kapha imbalance. This is a good time to finally try things you have been meaning to do.

Cultivate new friendships.

Getting to know the people around you is a great way to step out of your own life and balance the natural tendency to draw inward this time of year.

Try on new perspectives.

Try to consciously step out of old emotional responses, especially in situations and relationships where you feel repeat patterns in your experience.

Eliminate Excess

Some of the greatest benefits of balancing kapha include having more enthusiasm, energy and motivation, losing weight, and feeling mentally clear. When immersed in the sluggishness of a kapha imbalance, it can be challenging to implement change. However, incorporating a few of these practices regularly, even if just after two weeks, can be greatly beneficial in alleviating the symptoms of kapha excess.

Photo by Fluid Frame Photography:  Fluidframephotography.com

Dr. Siva Mohan

Dr. Siva Mohan integrates Ayurveda with modern medicine in her Ayurvedic wellness practice and educational programs to define and achieve whole-being wellness. Dr. Mohan specializes in addressing the psychospiritual basis of healing. svasthahealth.com.

www.svasthahealth.com

The post Ayurvedic Practices to Warm Up and Let Go appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.