Reenita's Wisdom

Once you’ve identified your primary Ayurvedic dosha or mind-body constitution, you can work towards achieving perfect health by eating to for your dosha-type. This could mean that you need to experiment with making a few changes to your diet that will help keep your body in balance. Of course, you won’t be able to stick to these guidelines all the time, but being conscious of your body’s natural tendencies is a great way to help control your moods, keep your energy up, and maximize your ojas, or vitality.

How to Eat for the Kapha Dosha

1.    Eat warm, cooked, light foods with bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.
2.    Avoid heavy oils and butters. Opt for lighter oils such as olive or canola oil.
3.    Avoid caffeine in excess and sugars—try cutting down on the mochas and opting for tea instead.
4.    Avoid heavy, congestive foods that are difficult to digest such as pastas, breads and cakes.
5.    Eat plenty of dark leafy green and brightly colored vegetables like celery, carrots, spinach, and tomatoes.
6.    Eat plenty of citrus fruits and berries. Drink citrus, fruit and vegetable juices.
7.    Avoid more than three meals or snacks in a day and maintain a gap of at least four hours between meals.
8.    Avoid high protein diets for extended periods—the lack of other nutrients will begin to set off imbalances in your doshas.
9.    Sip a specially blended Kapha tea (available from health food stores) to balance digestion in the stomach and prevent discomfort during and after mealtimes.
10.    Flush your system with water through the day—aim for at least 48 ounces.
11.    Make sure that dinner is the lightest meal of the day and try to eat no later than sunset.

For more tips about eating right for your dosha type, check out Inner Beauty.

Image credit: http://www.sailusfood.com

Cold and flu got you down?  Turn to your Ayurvedic medicine cabinet to help you kick those flu blues.’

According to Ayurvedic medicine, the common cold results largely from an imbalance of the  Kapha and Vata doshas. Vata (air-space element combination) imbalances lower immunity.  This invariably leads to a build up of the Kapha dosha (water-space element combination) to compensate. However, Kapha mechanisms typically overcompensate to make up for the ‘dryness’ associated with imbalanced Vata and lowered immunity. The result is excessive ‘coldness’ that creates mucus. This in turn reduces your ‘Agni’  or gastric fire, leading you to have the ‘chills.’

Ayurvedic remedies involve using warming herbs and spices to help you break down and expel mucus while re-building your gastric fire. So, while the idea of a runny nose might not appeal to you, chances are that if you can transition from  being ‘stuffed up’ to ‘blowing it all out,’ then you are well on your way to recovery.

My favorite herbs to remedy the common cold are tulsi (‘Holy Basil’), the universal immune booster and ginger which helps to ‘loosen and liquefy’ stuck mucus. Both are great for helping balance Vata and Kapha.

Try these simple Ayurvedic home remedies to unclog your ENT system and help you breathe easy.

1. Ginger and Tulsi Tea

Make a brew of tulsi and ginger herb tea and sip it every couple of hours.

As always, I recommend fresh ginger root and tulsi leaves. The former are easy enough to find at most natural food stores, the latter you can find with a bit of looking, or just order seeds and grow your own. Use 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs per 1 cup of water.

Alternatively, check out Organic India’s Tulsi and Ginger tea or Ayoma’s Kapha Tea. Both are made with dried tulsi and ginger.

Consider using honey not just to sweeten your tea but also to help soothe  a sore and abrasive throat.

2. Herbal Inhalation Therapy

Inhalation therapy is an age-old trick for breathing in the potent powers of herbs and releasing mucus.  It works every single time!

Boil 3-4 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger root and chopped tulsi leaves into a pan filled with a quart of water.  Alternatively, add a 3-4 drops of tulsi and ginger essential oils into a quart of boiling water. When the decoction begins to release steam, remove the pan from the stove-top and bend over it to inhale the herbal steam for about 10-15 minutes.  For best results, ‘tent’ your head and the pan with a large bath towel to prevent the herbal steam from escaping.

Resist the temptation to ‘sniff or swallow’ back mucus as it begins to decongest in your nose and throat.  If you find that you are expectorating quit a bit, then take a momentary break from your inhalation therapy to blow it all out.

Image Credit: Creative Commons – Superhua

As much as people might recognize that Ayurveda is an ancient medicine from India and that it enhances positive health, most do not realize how intricately it is connected to sustainability.

Translated from Sanskrit as The Science of Life, Ayurveda is probably one of the oldest known systems of sustainable living. Given that it enhances longevity goes to show how important sustainability is…not just as a marketing or lifestyle trend but as a method of achieving long term health.

Ayurveda is the natural medicine of India, about 5,000 years old.  It provides a system for maintaining the health of the mind-body via daily and seasonal self-care practices.  Since disease begins with improper digestion, digestive health and healing lies at the core of Ayurvedic self care.  Food preparation techniques, appropriate food selection and combination, proper eating habits all contribute to preventing ill health.

Living In Harmony With Your Environment

Because Ayurveda is the Science of Life, it provides a set of tools that help you live in harmony with your natural environment. When this happens you can truly maintain a state of balance. This means eating local foods and preparing your meals to balance the effects of seasonal elements on your mind-body. Choosing not to harmonize your living patterns with seasons and geography can throw your health off course ultimately leading to poor health and disease.

You do not have to completely re-invent your life every few months but you should plan to make small changes over the course of the year, to live in harmony with the seasons. While the supermarket can provide all foods all year round, there is a wisdom in eating warming foods in winter or cooling fruits in the summertime. Try eating fresh and organically grown produce, fruits, and vegetables that are available through farms and suppliers close to where you live to be sure that you are in tune with the season and surrounding geography. A perfect reason to sign up for community supported agriculture (CSA) or start regularly visiting your local farmer’s market!

You might also enjoy reading

• Ayurveda: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living : Feelgood Style

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Image Credit: WordRidden @ Creative Commons

Many people ask me about Ayurveda - how it is applicable to modern life…is it applicable at all? While it might be hard to fathom how a system of medicine 5,000 years old can apply to us today, as an Ayurvedic traditionalist, I find comfort in knowing that although we have evolved as a race, our basic health needs and wants have not changed drastically over the course of civilization. And therein lies the healing power of Ayurveda. I refer to it as a wisdom practice because its tried and tested methods have been passed down the ages as healing wisdom.

Because Ayurveda is the Science of Life, it provides a set of tools that help you live in harmony with your natural environment. When this happens you can truly maintain a state of balance. Although mothering children is a historical tradition, our patterns of living are much more complex than those of our forefathers. Which is why when we make the transition to motherhood, many of us are often jolted out of balance. Wisdom practices such as Ayurveda can come in handy to help you re-align yourself to maintain a more positive state of emotional and physical health.

Contributed by Reenita, Ayurveda Clincian & Hybrid Mom (www.reenita.com)

Ayurveda is an ancient holistic health science from India.  Sanskrit for “the Science of Life,” it is a set of self-care guidelines that will help you stay healthy by connecting the power of your mind with the physical health of your body.  The term ‘medicine’ is considered limiting in the context of this life science, as it suggests healing only as a result of predetermined illness.  Ayurveda, however, is a complete system that addresses the prevention of illness in addition to providing a systematic approach for diagnosing and treating negative health issues.

Ayurveda recognizes that we are all different—that we all look and behave differently from one another, and react differently to everyday situations.  We are unique in everything from the foods we eat to the emotions we experience.  Our individual dispositions require that we customize diet, herbs, massage and bodywork, yoga, self care and lifestyle routines to help us maximize life force.  To stay healthy and balanced, Ayurveda recommends tailored lifestyle therapies, including digestive herbs, heavy oil therapies and detoxification programs.  These  are intended to be gentle, sustainable habits that can last a lifetime, not extreme regimes or quick fixes.  An entirely natural system, Ayurvedic lifestyle therapies utilize organic ingredients that are drawn from animal, vegetable and mineral sources. 

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