Letting go is gaining popularity and I LOVE to see it getting air time on reality TV shows lately. However, just because it’s on TV, doesn’t mean it’s being shown how to do correctly. Letting go has to be done in the right way, otherwise it does nothing or causes more harm than good.

Letting Go is a PROCESS

I wrote about letting go and how to clear your energy in my first book and the chapter is exactly 40 pages. It can be simple and it can be complicated. This all depends on you and if you’re really letting go or just going through the motions.

In a reality show my kids were just watching, the women on the show unwillingly and eventually told their past relationship trauma, took a breath, wrote down some intense words on a piece of paper with a marker, balled it up, put it into a fire and took another breath.

That was IT!

That isn’t going to get to the root of the energy, patterns, beliefs or fears. It probably didn’t even scratch the surface for any of the woman there. That’s not going to clear their energy. If anything, it brought it to the surface and now they don’t know what to do with it except keep thinking about it.

3 Steps to Let Go and Free Your Energy

1. Create a SAFE space.

You have to feel safe to actually let go and NOT bring in more negative energy. You can do this by bringing in White Light from top of your head, through your body, into your feet and into the Earth.

2. Let Go.

I mean “Let it Go” so you free your energy, clear your energy, and stop letting it have control over you. You do this by pulling the energy you are holding in specific areas of your body OUT of you like smoke or weeds and let it disappear into God, Universe, Source, the sky, whatever you want to call it.

You may see a block in your energy when you bring the White Light in or you may feel tension in your body in a specific area like your chest, stomach, back of your neck, hips, or shoulder blades. Let go of the stress or tension you’re feeling in your body, past hurts, anything that makes you angry or that triggers you or makes you upset.

• Let the energy go and be free.
• Don’t hold onto any of it or it’ll end up coming back.
• Imagine it disappearing. You can imagine it breaking up into pieces and disappearing into the light in the sky.
• Whatever works for you is fine as long as you are letting it go and you feel the energy physically or energetically leaving you.

3. Refill your energy with POSITIVE energy.

Otherwise, your energetic pattern is to keep finding and putting the same energy you just let go of into that space.

Do NOT skip this step in clearing your energy.

Imagine a soft pastel color filling the space and an “I AM” statement that supports you. For example, imagine a soft pink light coming from behind your chest filling every cell all the way forward. Repeat the some of the following affirmations and/or write your own: I am love. I am safe. I am supported.

Yes, I know you want to know what the pastel colors mean. You can know, but let your intuition guide you on what color is best for you right now, not what color your mind says you need to use.

Pastel color meanings to help you reprogram your energy.

• Pink: Love, pamper, and support for that area.
• Blue: Peace, calm, neutralizes your energy in that area.
• Green: Nurturing, abundance.
• Orange: Support after an intense emotional release.
• Yellow: Rejuvenates you, raises your energy level when you are tired or low energy
• Purple: Supports your energy at a spiritual level.

Keep your “I am” statements to 3 words.

I am ____.

Possible words to use that support you: free, supported, whole, worthy, enough, love, light, peace, calm, free. (Notice I intentionally put “free” in here twice. This is a good one to use!)

Places to Let Go

• Anywhere you feel safe and supported.
• You can go outside. (This is best during the day so you are in the light. In the light we see more light and in the darkness we see more darkness and often pick up more darkness energetically.)
• You can go for a walk or exercise.
• Visit water (lakes, streams, rivers, reservoirs, or the ocean).
• Nature is very helpful in letting go.
• You often want to be alone so you’re not picking up on anyone and their energy.

Notice I didn’t mention journaling or art. If you create something, you have to destroy it as part of the final letting go otherwise it will hold the energy wherever you put it. You’ll also have to do more letting go until you dispose of it to the final place you can take it – like your outside trash can at the street.

Letting Go is a Process

Like I said, letting go and clearing your energy are ongoing processes. I spend a lot of my time and energy in session with my clients helping them clear their energy.

You are here to heal and become whole, so don’t be surprised when you think you’ve let it all go and something else appears. If you’re here, you’re healing. Often the hardest part is knowing what it is time for you to let go of and to release.

Start with the things that are the easiest for you to clear.

Things that you know you’re still holding onto or that are still bothering you. As you become more skilled, you may start to heal things from past life experiences. As my husband says, letting go is like an onion and some layers make you cry more than others. Crying is good too if it helps you let go.

Happy clearing and be free!

Lisa Gornall

Lisa Gornall is a Spiritual Medium, Author, Healer and Coach. She was born with her abilities to become one with your energy which allows her to intuitively clear and balance your energy. Lisa gets to the ROOT of your patterns, beliefs and fears that are no longer working. Since 2002, she has combined her intuitive abilities with healing and coaching. Lisa has coached thousands of individuals to heal their relationships, love their life again and get back to the lifestyle they originally envisioned for themselves – a freedom lifestyle. You can find Lisa at www.lisagornall.com

www.lisagornall.com

The post 3 Easy Steps to Actually LET GO and Clear Your Energy appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Reset Your Habits with a New Year, New You Cleanse

Cleansing is a practice that we can integrate into our lives to reassess and reevaluate our relationships with our habits….including our food. According to Avona L’Carttier, who manages the OG cleansing products line Arise & Shine, “A cleanse is a great way to start fresh and to integrate resolutions to live a healthier lifestyle. Some find changing several habits at once works for them. Also, after one has completed a cleanse and is feeling light, bright and energetic there is inner drive to maintain feeling great by eating better.” This may seem challenging, but it is possible to detox with ease.

Any time of the year, anything we can do to feel bright and ignite our inner drive to feel great are meaningful practices.

1. First, Set Your Intention

Connect with yourself to discover your why. Evaluate and investigate your habits and practices. And then set the intention to create and maintain a healthy schedule for yourself during the duration of the cleanse. “Setting the intention to maintain the schedule of a cleanse is a commitment in and of itself,” says Avona.

2. Prepare Effectively to Detox with Ease

Do your research. See if you are ready. Talk to your healthcare practitioner. Choose a cleanse. Arise & Shine offers a guide to the process of cleansing. Gather your supplies. Plan your schedule. Set yourself up for juicing with ease. Be kind to yourself throughout the process.

3. Plan Time for Practice

“Yoga while on a cleanse is a wonderful experience,” according to Avona. During a cleanse, be gentle with yourself. Try a restorative practice and give yourself ample time to rest. Try practices that encourage rejuvenation, such as Yoga Nidra. Meditate and reflect. “In general, cleansing is a good time to rest and tune into your body and spirit in other ways,” says Avona.

4. Go Organic

Avona suggests that people consider incorporating more organic foods into their lives during any cleansing experience. Food activist Zen Honeycutt says, “It’s one of the things I most wish that people who are trying to eat healthy should know. It cannot just be vegan, it cannot just be vegetarian, it cannot just be gluten-free and be healthy, it must also be organic.”

5. Hydrate for Health

We hear about the importance of hydration. This includes minerals and electrolytes. Avona says, “It is essential to ensure that the body has sufficient electrolytes.” Some key electrolytes include (but are not limited to): sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, and phosphorus. Electrolytes are essential for everything from muscle contraction to nerve conduction, allowing us to think clearly, move gracefully, and breathe easily. One way to take in electrolytes, especially during a cleanse, is by making an Alkalizing Vegetable Mineral Broth.

6. Consider Food Swaps for Post-Cleanse Success

Whether we’re talking New Year’s Resolutions or cleansing support, Avona gives the following advice, “Eat as close to the garden as possible and choose minimally processed foods.” After all, “There are heavily processed foods labeled organic that while they may contain all organically grown ingredients they are not necessarily healthy or digestible.” In the quick tips for success on Arise & Shine, whether during the cleanse or while integrating life-long healthy habits, Avona suggests making your own salad dressings and dips.

7. Cleaning as a Practice for Life.

Really doing a cleanse is something that is more than simply a day of juicing. Consider what you would like to receive from the cleanse, how you want to use the practice to jump-start our maintenance routine of a lifestyle of healthy living. You can also try to detox with ease by detoxing your life and taking the space to become more mindful of your thoughts, words, and actions.

However you decide to cleanse, for the New Year and beyond, be intentional and compassionate with yourself throughout the process.

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post 7 Steps to Detox with Ease appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

How to Detoxify and Set up a Cleanse

There are many moments in life when we can evaluate and reevaluate our lives, and to seek out fresh starts. We can clear out the clutter in our homes, examine the content of our thoughts in our meditative practices, and turn our attention to the workings of our inner bodies, to the biochemistry of what we eat and what we digest. We look to these times to integrate habits that promote health and well-being on a daily basis. When we want to detoxify, it’s important to be intentional to experience a successful cleanse.

According to Avona L’Carttier, who manages the popular and effective Arise & Shine cleansing products and protocols, “Cleansing is a great way to start fresh and to integrate resolutions to live a healthier lifestyle.” Avona says, “Many find that cleansing can help mental clarity and mindfulness. Meditation becomes a deeper experience; visualization becomes easier. The energy and flexibility that comes with regular cleansing and eating better encourages exercise. Yoga while on a cleanse is also a wonderful practice.”

If part of your intention-setting for the new month, year, and decade include letting go at any level, setting the intention for a cleanse is in and of itself a powerful practice of commitment.

When you decide to complete a cleanse, make sure to follow these suggestions.

5 Practices for a Successful Cleanse

1. Take Your Pre-Cleanse Seriously.

After a bender, you may have made a resolution to yourself to change your habits—immediately—but cleansing isn’t the kind of activity that benefits from a dive into the proverbial deep end. Implementing a thoughtful pre-cleanse routine prepares all aspects of the self for the experience. Avona says, “Pre-cleansing is very important as it signals the body for a change. Those who follow the pre-cleanse process have much better success throughout. It is essential to ensure the body has sufficient electrolytes.”

2. Stay Hydrated.

Hydration is essential for good health. Drinking enough pure water as well fresh, organic vegetable juice and alkalinizing vegetable mineral broth maintains cellular hydration and supports cleansing.

3. Follow Instructions.

When you choose a cleanse, consult with your healthcare providers, follow the protocols, and be intentional with your shopping lists and your meal plans. A cleanse isn’t the time to go rouge. There are many tried and true products on the marketplace, such as Arise & Shine.

4. Transition Gently After a Cleanse.

Following a post-cleanse protocol allows the body to happily transition back to a regular diet and assists in re-establishing healthy bacteria and gut flora. Check this out more about this super greens supplement.

5. Keep Your Habits Healthy.

Avona emphasizes that we enjoy the long-lasting effects of a cleanse if we follow healthy habits on a long term basis. She says to consider a diet of organic foods to maintain the benefits for your body. Eat as close to the garden as possible with minimally-processed foods.

Learn more about Arise & Shine at: ariseandshine.com.

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post 5 Tips for a Successful Cleanse appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Delicious Detox Recipes

The owners of Your Super offer their suggestions for a food-based delicious detox.

Michael: Growing up as an athlete, and playing tennis at the professional level, I felt invincible! That changed when I was diagnosed with cancer at age 24. While recovering and trying to rebuild my immune system, I learned how important it is to fuel your body with a whole food diet.

My Your Super co-founder Kristel, would share her homemade mixes of superfood powders. While taking them, I felt more energized, happier, and increasingly more aware. The more I researched, the more shocked I became to learn of my athletic diet’s effect on the body, and how these nutrient-rich superfoods had been used by indigenous cultures for thousands of years. Why didn’t more people know about this? I made it my personal mission to educate and inspire people to fuel their body with the best natural whole foods. Good nutrition and information should be available for everybody!

Kristel: I knew how to mix up superfoods for Michael, because I had done it with my mom and aunt who are orthomolecular nutritionists. My Mom had been through cancer years prior. I thought, “Well if my mom had it, and Michael had it, I better do everything I can not to get it.” I became a vegan, using these superfoods as the most nutrient-dense part of my diet. This change in lifestyle helped to relieve my eczema (a lifelong struggle) and decrease inflammation in my body. I was inspired to become a certified health coach, studying with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Both: Since starting this program for our family, friends, clients and customers three years ago we have heard SO many success stories and hope to hear the same from you!

Fresh Start Breakfast

While making mixes for Michael’s detox, I knew it was important to use power-plants like organic wheatgrass, barley grass, moringa, and baobob fruit, spirulina, and chlorella which contain important micronutrients such as vitamins A, C, B1-7, B9, B12, E, K, calcium, potassium and iron. All of these greens additionally contain chlorophyll, which cleans the blood and draws materials out of your body, like heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and environmental toxins. These foods increase oxygen content in your body and promote digestive health.

When becoming vegan, both Michael and I wanted to take in the cleanest available ingredients. We came to love a mix of organic pea protein, hemp protein, moringa, spirulina, and alfalfa. This plant protein mix contains 62% protein, 20 essential amino acids, chlorophyll, vitamins A, B9, B12, C, and iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. The superfood blends have the perfect combination of macro- and micronutrients, which aid in detoxification and digestion, support repair of the body tissue and the nervous system, and protect cells from oxidative stress.

These blends are now available as Your Super’s Super Green + Skinny Protein

For a delicious morning smoothie (part of the detox program) you may want to try one of these recipes.

Detox Morning Smoothie

1 tsp Super Green
1 TBSP Skinny Protein
Big handful of spinach
1/4 cucumber
2 mangoes
1 orange
1 cup water

*Mix in blender and enjoy!

Detox Morning Smoothie

1 tsp Super Green
1 TBSP Skinny Protein
1 big handful kale
1 mango
1/2 avocado
1 orange
1/2 lemon
1 cup water

*Mix in blender and enjoy!

Detox Morning Smoothie

1 tsp Super Green
1 TBSP Skinny Protein
1 big handful spinach
1/4 cucumber
2 celery stalks
1 (frozen) banana
1 apple
1/2 lime

*Mix in blender and enjoy!

Fresh Start Detox Lunch

We recommend a solid plant-based lunch loaded with nutrient-dense vegetables, healthy fats, and plant protein.
Here are some of our favorite fresh start detox recipes.

Lunch 1

Your favorite salad / lettuce mix
1 avocado
1/4 cucumber
1 cup cooked green peas
1 TBSP pumpkin seeds
1 tsp Super Green

Lunch 2

Your favorite salad/lettuce mix
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 avocado
1/4 cucumber
Handful of walnuts
1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 tsp Super Green

Lunch 3

Your favorite salad/lettuce mix
1/2 cup brown rice
1 avocado
1 shredded carrot
1 cup steamed broccoli
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Super Green

Fresh Start Detox Dinner

For the last meal of the day, we recommend a smoothie utilizing our Forever Beautiful Mix. This antioxidant- and phytonutrient-boosting mix contains organic acai berries, maqui berries, acerola cherries, maca root, blueberries and chia seeds.

Additional ingredients such as vitamins A, B3, B6, C, and E, and minerals including iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc will support removing toxins from the body during your detox. Your skin, hair, and nails will love the extra natural vitamins and minerals! Here are some delicious smoothie varieties:

Dinner Smoothie 1

1 tbsp ForeverBeautiful
1 beet
1 cup mixed berries
1 banana
1 cup coconut water

Dinner Smoothie 2

1 tbsp ForeverBeautiful
1 cup blueberries
2 (frozen) bananas
A handful of cashews
1 cup water
A pinch of vanilla

Mix together in blender and enjoy!

Dinner Smoothie 3

1 tbsp Forever Beautiful
1 cup cherries
2 (frozen) bananas
1 orange
1/4 cucumber
1 cup water

Mix together in blender and enjoy!
We recommend you continue this detox for 5 days.

For our #FreshStart Guide and Detox programand learn more at Your Super Fresh Start Guide and Detox program.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post Fresh Start Detox by Your Super Foods appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

In Fall, 2017, I was planning a pilgrimage to India when I received an email from a colleague. His company had invested in a superfood start-up that was coming to the US. Would I meet with them? “How many new superfoods can there be?” I thought, but ok, I’ll meet with them. Upon intro to Your Super co-founders, Michael Kuech and Kristel DeGroot, I knew I needed to reroute. These two bright lights have the palpable energy of many entrepreneurs, successful creatives, and inspired philanthropists. They are filled with the contagious spark that comes from a genuine desire to change people’s lives for the better with superfood blends.

The millennial couple started their mission shortly after Michael’s cancer treatment at age 24. During a chemo session, the two watched Forks Over Knives and became vegans the next day.

Experimenting with Superfood Blends

Kuech, who had engaged in a typical athletic diet of heavy meat consumption and carbo-loading, began to supplement with superfood mixes and vegan proteins. Problem was, the two couldn’t find any that were up to Kristel’s clean standards, so she began blending her own. Friends and family noticed the radiant difference in these two, and wanted to get in on the shape-shifting. The pair’s dual business, finance, and management degrees illuminated a basic business truth. They had demand but no good supply.

Finding the Best Suppliers of Superfood

Michael and Kristel toured wholesale facilities and were horrified. Kristel recalls, “When we started to learn more about the supply chain, it was like, ‘Ok how does it work? Where does it come from? Do you test every batch?’ And then we suddenly found out, ‘No, not every batch is tested.’ Then you ask where something is from, they say, ‘In Brazil’. Ok cool but, WHERE in Brazil? What else is made in the facility? Are the workers compensated and treated fairly…?”

It became obvious to Michael and Kristel that they needed to meet with farmers directly. In doing so, they created a transparent supply chain, and quite a few friendships.

“Meeting with people who have done the right thing, for 20+ years, and have been laughed at when they chose not to use pesticides, or other chemicals, was an amazing and humbling experience. With our relationship we hope to support them, help them grow their own business and expand to doing even more good. It’s so great to be able to use superfoods they have been growing and protecting, and paying it forward, feeding a new generation.”

The digital natives began a direct-to-consumer distribution model headquartered in Berlin. Germans take their sausage and brats seriously, so many of the original adopters needed education on healthy eating practices, vegan recipes, and shopping lists. DeGroot is an Institute of Integrative Nutrition graduate who earned a certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell University. She is a plant-based health coach and yoga teacher who lit up the content strategy and digital marketing. Kuech raised finances, hired operations managers, and the like.

Kuech reflects, “I’ve come to understand, if we’re living in this world, in this way, we need to build a company that is socially responsible. It doesn’t feel entirely right to us without giving something back at the origin, to the people who are growing these foods, and to in people nearby regions who have less than we do.” They created a partnership with Action Against Hunger, and with every purchase, a life-saving meal bar feeds a malnourished child.

Building Community Worldwide and Moving to the US

While the team was building a strong global community, they noticed that an unusual amount of orders were coming from the US and specifically, California. Michael Kuech reminisces humorously, “We would call them up and ask why do they want to pay $40 extra shipping and wait eight weeks when they already have all this there!” As it turns out, even in the oversaturated health and wellness market of Los Angeles, clients loved that the products were so simple, without fillers. There was no guar gum, no stevia, no xantham, and nothing artificial. “What’s on the front is what’s on the back!” DeGroot remarks, of their five-ingredient max practice and truth in labeling.

Even with the insistence of the American audience, the duo debated on whether a West Coast outpost would be wise. But before they knew it, an American investment made their idea a reality. With a small office on the ostentatious Abbot Kinney Boulevard, the two fell firmly into hipster-central. In this Venice enclave, it’s not unusual for millennials in updated ‘90s style to be shooting selfies for their snapchat with one hand, while the other grips a piece of rose quartz. With red lips and high waisted jeans they spend $20+ a meal on vegan, gluten-free fare. The epicenter of this is Erewhon Natural Foods on the corner of Venice Boulevard and Abbott Kinney.

Erewhon, a natural food store since 1952, has persevered through decades of health fads and remains a tastemaker and trendsetter. Your Super was thrilled to be chosen to be sold on the stores shelves, in mid-2018. “I remember going there a few years ago and thinking, someday we could possibly be here. It is a dream come true to see that happen in our first year in the States,” Kuech says.

Serving Superfood Blends

In addition, Your Super has shared their blends at pop-ups including at YogaWorks, Unplug Meditation, Outdoor Voices clothing store, Pepperdine University, and more. They are the official vegan protein of Wanderlust Hollywood, and have partnered with Manduka on multiple occasions. In New York City, Your Super retails at the famous ABC Carpet & Home, Gourmet Garage, and Inscape Meditation. Online destination Free People carries their travel-sized products for festival-goers, and campers alike. They have a full complement of superfoods available online for delivery.

While not entirely surprising that coastal cities would take to these founders and these products, the real shock came when the team’s fulfillment center made a customer map. There were an uncanny amount of orders from food deserts: areas of the country without many brick and mortar healthy food choices. “We thought we were coming to the US in response to the customers in California who wanted us to there. But we’re learning that it’s really the people in other parts of the country who need these products and this information.”

The Power of Plant-Based Diets

With films like Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc., Fed Up, Super Size Me, and others, people are contemplating the cumulative effects of their food choices, on their own health, as well as on the health of the environment.

While in the Your Super office, I’ve heard the praise of customers on the line whose lives have been impacted by the simplicity of these superfood blends, as well as the open communication of the founders.

Some of the stories that stand out include the following: The single mom in Missouri who makes $200 a week, and wants to be around for her son’s high school graduation, the cancer survivor in Boca Raton who is rebuilding his immune system after treatment, the Silicon Valley exec who gets the kick she needs in the morning using Energy Bomb, the millennial podcaster who is vegan because its trendy, and the famous Hollywood actress who has made it her mission to slow down climate change through plant-based eating.

Now about to hit the one year mark in the US, the customer service team has tripled in size to keep up with the phone calls. Customers regularly recognize the duo on the sidewalk and supermarket check out lines. The company has expanded into a new storefront and event series space. Like all successful entrepreneurs, Michael and Kristel have their sites set on the next set of impossible goals, which, no doubt they will hit with precision and ease.

We throw around words like “awesome” “great” “amazing” and the like, but these two really epitomize what it means to be SUPER. And more importantly, they want YOU to feel super too.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post Your Super Offers Life-changing Superfood Blends appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

A cleanse is a ritual intended to purify the system of anything that is causing harm or hindering development. When we embark on a cleanse, we are sending out a message of self-care and committing to letting go of habits, behaviors, and attachments that are not serving us. Clean out your body and get your food story straight, and the other pieces of your life will fall into place.

Disrupting our nutritional habits creates a heightened sense of awareness in all areas of our lives. It is nearly impossible to undergo a cleanse and not notice the health of our thoughts, emotions, and relationships. Likewise, the choices we have made and continue to make.  It is a process of decoding the system and provides a clear understanding of true nurturance. As a result, we become aligned with our heart’s deepest desires and willingly let go of anything that is standing in the way. Herein lies our true opportunity for growth and expansion, as we are now pure vessels engaging in conscious creation and living with purpose.

JUICE CLEANSE

Offered by multiple companies or juice bars or can be prepared at home with a juicer and a list of recipes. Duration varies, usually lasting three, five, or seven days.

Benefits:

• Deliver a large amount of nutrients and live enzymes to the body.
• Give the body a rest from digestion (especially the digestion of processed foods, alcohol, fast food, fried food, chemicals, additives, preservatives, and other substances).
• Interrupt a cycle or pattern of destructive food choices or binging on substances, including alcohol.

Considerations:

• The fresher the better. Enzymes and nutrients are time sensitive and decrease the longer the juice sits.
• Choose unpasteurized. The heating from pasteurization reduces the amount of vital enzymes, denaturing the benefits of the juice.
• If possible, go cold. Cold-pressed juices reduces oxidation and many sources suggest that they tend to be nutrient dense.
• Read labels to ensure all ingredients are organic, nothing is from concentrate, and there are no added sugars.
• Choose or make juices with a wide variety of vegetables. Minimize fruits and high-starch vegetables (carrot and beetroot) to reduce sugar.

Juicing is a method of dramatically increasing live enzymes and nutrients while simultaneously giving the body a break from digesting processed foods, alcohol, sugar, meat, and harmful chemicals.  This is a great tool for resetting the body and our relationship with food, and can  facilitate longer-term dietary changes as food becomes reintegrated with conscious intention.

SPECIFIC FOOD CLEANSE

Often a raw, vegan, gluten-free, mono-diet (Ayurvedic kichari), or whole foods nutrition regimen. Length of time varies, but usually 14-30 days.

Benefits:

• Kickstart a health regimen and create new eating habits and behaviors.
• Eliminate toxic and inflammatory foods.
• Overcome cravings and disrupt destructive cycles of poor nutritional choices.
• Encourage a new cooking repertoire and reshape the palate.

Considerations:

• Beware of marketing and buzzwords when grocery shopping or eating out. Labels like   vegan, raw, all-natural, and gluten-free do not necessarily mean healthy. These foods can contain processed ingredients, GMO ingredients, chemicals, and preservatives.
• Read labels, focusing on ingredients as opposed to nutritional value. A good strategy: If you can’t pronounce it or don’t know what it is, then it’s probably not good for you.
• Ask questions about food preparation when eating out. Many dishes are prepared with unhealthy oils and loaded with fat and sugar.
• Nuts, seeds, and coconut oil are healthy if eaten in moderation.
• Ideally, this type of cleanse emphasizes clean eating. Depending on the program, it may or may not be “healthy,” low-fat, or low-calorie. Education and awareness around ingredients is important, whether you are eating at home or out.
• Long-term, many of these diets are best served by taking food- and superfood-based supplements to ensure proper nutrition.

CLEANSING WITH HERBS

Usually marketed as a full-body cleanse, liver cleanse, colon cleanse, or parasite cleanse. Average duration is anywhere from 5-30 days.

Benefits:

• Aid in the detoxification process by enhancing the body’s natural ability to repair damage.
• Address multiple body imbalances simultaneously.
• Can eliminate harmful bacteria and other organisms.
• Kickstart a health regimen by resetting and restoring the system.
• Eliminate cravings and break out of destructive eating cycles and alcohol binging.

Considerations:

• Use a high-quality product that contains only organic, herbal ingredients free of additives, binders, fillers, or other unnecessary and sometimes toxic material.
• Most herbal cleanses also allow complementary whole foods, but proper nutrition is critical to receive the greatest benefit from a detox. Make sure you are educated in terms of wise food choices and the timing of meals with herbs.
• Many herbal laxatives are packaged as cleansing aids, but can cause more harm than good. An increased number of trips to the bathroom does not indicate a more successful detox.

If a good herbal formula is used and a proper nutritional program followed, an herbal cleanse can serve as a powerful method for healing, eliminating stress and toxicity in the body, and restoring balance. The corresponding nutritional program should increase alkalinity, decrease inflammation, break destructive eating habits, eliminate cravings, and support implementation of a healthy lifestyle. An herbal cleanse can also identify the existence of deeper imbalances that need to be addressed.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is best to work with someone who is skilled in the science of cleansing to ensure you are conducting any program safely and effectively. It is also important to consult your doctor or healthcare provider before starting any regimen. Safe and proper cleansing takes time, attention, and dedication.

30 Day Clean Eating Cleanse

EAT ONLY THESE (Everything organic)

Fruits

Vegetables

Herbs

Beans

Whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, millet)

Fresh-Pressed Organic Oils (olive, coconut, hemp) and/or ghee (clarified butter)

Nuts and seeds

Herbal teas, coconut water, fresh juice

SKIP THESE COMPLETELY

Meat

Dairy

Sugar

Salt

Caffeine

Bread, pasta

Wheat, corn, and soy

Fried food, packaged food, canned food

Alcohol

*Anything containing an ingredient you cannot pronounce

Spring cleaning our external environment and internal landscape also clears space for new growth and expansion.

Here are two additional rituals to consider this Spring:

30 Day Digital Detox

1. Set aside one day per week completely free of all technology. Unplug from your phone. Avoid the internet, email, texts, and social media.
2. Try turning your phone off for one hour per day.
3. Limit your social media time to a specific one-hour block twice daily.

Purge the Clutter and Chaos

1. Remove anything you have not worn from your closet and drawers within the past year. Donate!
2. Rise 20 minutes earlier every day to practice a sitting meditation.
3. Take inventory of the top 5 – 10 people you spend the most time with in your lives. Notice which relationships are positive and fulfilling. Spend more time nurturing relationships with those who nurture you back

Nykki Hardin is a Natural Health and Lifestyle Educator and founder of Reset Self Cleanse.  She combines her knowledge and expertise in nutrition, herbs, and the mind, body, spirit connection with her experience working at cleansing and fasting resorts, in a metabolic testing lab, and in health education. She believes in the body’s inherent intelligence and ability to heal, and is dedicated to sharing and teaching the tools and information necessary to thrive in today’s busy, overactive world.  resetself.com, nykki@resetself.com

Nykki Hardin

The post Demystifying Your Spring Cleanse appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Ayurveda, a life science originating in India, 5,000 years ago, says we all come from the same source and are made of the same material. All living organisms are composed of the five elements of space, air, fire, water and earth. Space is present in the hollow parts of our body, the distance between matter, air is everything that moves in the body, in the form of circulation, digestion, the movement of the heart, lungs, thought, etc. Fire in the body is enclosed in liquid in the form of acids, enzymes etc., water in the form of fluids like blood and plasma, while earth, is the solid structure of the body.

We are born with a unique constitution; it does not change throughout our lives, but factors like our age, weather, season, diet, and lifestyle affects it and causes imbalances.

There are three basic types of constitutions or doshas: Vata dosha or the air constitution that comprises of space and air. Air types are thin, light, airy, mobile, creative and anxious, distracted and tend towards dryness. Pitta dosha or fire types are made up of fire and water. The fire that transforms is within us, cooking our food, thought and experience, pitta or fire types typically are organized, medium framed people who love to lead, speak with conviction and have penetrating, sharp features. Kapha dosha or the earth types are made up of water and earth and as the elements would denote, they are slow, heavy, have difficulty losing weight, are sweet looking, sweet loving, round featured with a motherly disposition. Most people display characteristics of two types called dual doshas, as in air-fire, fire-earth, air-earth and the tridoshic with all three, air-fire-earth.

Eating with little awareness, even within your dosha, can contribute to poor digestion. These factors weaken our internal digestive fire or agni which governs digestion and assimilation. A weak agni cannot digest and absorb nutrients causing them to accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract and turn into a toxic sticky substance called ama. Ama clogs the intestines, overflows through the bodily channels and infiltrates bodily tissues, causing disease. Ama is the root cause of disease. Signs of ama include weight gain, smelly stools, turbid urine, coated furry tongue, bad breath, lethargy, loss of clarity of the mind, indigestion etc. As my teacher often said, it’s not what you eat, it’s what you digest that counts.

Cleaning up the House

Ancient ayurvedists formulated a scientific system of cleansing out accumulated toxins that hang on our insides. When the toxins go unaddressed, the body refuses to forgive our insults to wisdom, war breaks out in the form of disease, starting as mild disturbances into something that needs full fledged medical attention. Just as health is a process, disease is also a process.  Since this accumulation is due to a host of physical, emotional and spiritual crimes against wisdom, a physical, emotional and spiritual detox is in order.

Physical Detox

The body has natural means of elimination, stools, urine, and sweat. Ayurveda uses these to naturally remove toxins from the body via a 5 step process called panchkarma. Or the five acts of emesis, purgation, enema, nasal medication and blood letting.

Although this process may sound alarming, Ayurveda says, in our daily lives, there is nothing more beneficial to a body than to stop the intake of foods and emotions for a period of time, and indulge in a regulated fast which with the help of supplements pushes the toxins into the gut and gets eliminated with purgation.

In other words, do nothing, just fast to the extent your body and mind will let you. For a simple home detox, there are simple procedures of internal and external oleation, sweating, purgation and rejuvenation that will leave a person with a sense of lightness, clarity and increased energy flow. Herbal supplements support the detox process to a great degree with keeping the dosha balance in check as well as rejuvenating and restoring the depleted tissues after the detox.

Emotional and Spiritual Detox 

In the words of an wise old man, “Man is Mad! All his life he searches for something he already has.” The old man speaks of finding that elusive “self”. The one person everyone knows, but we never know for ourselves.

We are a product of conditioning since we took our first breath. Family, friends, co-workers, advertising, society, religion, the news, anxiety about the future, worries from the past haunt us and prevent us from keeping our consciousness awake and aware. We lose focus, sleep, and the appetite for life’s experiences and instead live a life of reacting instead of charting our journey and following it with trust and wisdom.

Without real purpose, we learn to live as a direct response to how others make us feel. We know them, our spouses, family members, co-workers, they are the mirror to our well-being or disease. They make us feel brave or fearful; it’s our reaction to their response to our outer life. And it is a rich outer life. Full of drama, tensions, stress, expectations and a search for something…you ask yourself, does this being even have a purpose for living, a purpose for anything, except relating to others?

According to Vedanta, the Universe is always in a state of balance. As beings of limited insight most times, we see one side or the other. We live lives of stress. We most often do not see how disease has brought us to a point where it has made us stubbornly aware of taking better care of ourselves, infusing more discipline in our eating habits and lifestyle and using that pass to the gym, not passing it by. On the opposite side of this, a life of well-being can serve as an invitation to complacency, disregard for changes in our lives, relationships and seasons. Everything matters!

The support and challenges we face in the form of health and disease is essential for growth. An emotional detox clears past emotional baggage, gives clarity and purpose to move forward instead of rewinding old drama or stagnating in victimhood and resentment.

A simple component of an emotional detox could include unwinding past memories and seeing both sides of the drama. We often get caught up in what is labeled “bad” until we really go back with an open heart and find the blessing in the challenge, no matter how earth shattering it seemed then. Getting rid of toxic emotions of guilt and fear, victimhood, abandonment, is key to not only moving on, but essential to finding our own true purpose.

Knowing your dosha or ayurvedic constitution is like being re-introduced to your own name, but with small print attached to it. There is a lot more to that as we know it. Our values are based on our conditioning and what we perceive is missing in our life. The seven areas of our life, physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, vocational, familial and social provide a source of inspiration or desperation depending on how important something is to us. The highest values are most organized; the lowest often languish in chaos.

Living in a world with tons of conditioning growing up, we realize we need to discover ourselves. Meditation is key in discovering the inner world. It is by far the easiest, and yet so elusive to most. Dancing, singing, walking, running, chanting, any action can be a source of meditation as long as the doer loses himself or herself. And we have often caught ourselves doing that. Only now it’s time to question who you are until you don’t just lose the mind but the person asking is nowhere to be found.

If Ayurveda was a religion, Nature would be its Goddess and overindulgence would be the sole sin She would punish ~ Dr. Robert Svoboda.

Staff Writer Lakshmi

The post Cleaning up the House: Physical, Emotional, & Spiritual Detox appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Because this process doesn’t happen quite as smoothly as we’d prefer. When the unpredictable beginning of Spring comes around, our bodies don’t quite know who to trust, Old Man Winter or the promise of balmy Spring. Do our immune systems still have to ward off colds, or do our adrenal glands have to rev up and get us out to play softball?

Your goal in Spring will be to stabilize your metabolism after being sedentary during the cold season and to get going on your annual Spring cleansing program. Your Ayurvedic health strategy will be to stay warm, get moving, dry out, and lighten up your life- in other words, to reduce accumulated kapha and detoxify any stuck ama (toxins or undigested material) that is still in your tissues from the Winter.

Spring is a time for invigorating exercise, gradually getting back into shape. Add to that some invigorating massage to get the blood circulating, and nice warm baths, saunas and warm herb rubs to revitalize and stimulate the tissues.

Spring Cleaning with an Ayurvedic Twist

During spring, concentrate on cleansing foods and teas. After all, you’ve been hibernating all winter, you old bear. Now, like it or not, it’s time to get up, get cleaned out and get active. Mucus, which also answers to the name kapha dosha, tends to accumulate in the winter (remember all those miserable days at home with a cold?) and that same mucus likes to flow in the spring, like the sap rising in the trees.

Milk tends to increase mucus, so during the Spring season, limit milk products, especially in the kapha morning time. (The kapha morning is approximately sunrise until 10:00 A.M.) Instead, reach for a cup of warm water with a teaspoon of honey.

Pungent, bitter and astringent tastes reduce kapha and assist in cleaning out the tissues. Leafy green vegetables, including lettuce, parsley, and spinach, plus leeks and okra, are bitter cleansing foods. Consider root vegetables, such as beets, carrots and turnips – raw, cooked or juiced – to help keep the liver clean.

Enjoy split peas and navy beans for protein in this season, because they stick to the ribs but are easy enough to digest that the body continues its detoxification cycle. Mung beans and rice soup, with ghee, cilantro, and grated coconut could be a good lunch for a warm spring day. Follow that with detoxifying astringent foods, including berries and grapes, especially green ones. For a punchier detoxifying action, add turmeric, which also reduces inflammation.

When it comes to kitchen herbs, green tea, basil, ginger, cloves and coriander keep the chill away. Pungent onions, garlic, ginger and chilies help speed up circulation and bring cleansing blood to all the organs.

People often develop joint and muscle pain over the long winter. Detoxifying vegetarian diets have been studied in chronic muscle pain, and have shown nice results in the research. A Norwegian study tested the effects of a three week vegetarian diet for people with chronic muscle pain. Serum peroxide, plasma fibrinogen, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol all reduced.

Clean Out all the Pipes

Unfortunately, Spring is allergy season, and it can bring some serious misery! Wet and heavy kapha contributes to this of springtime bane for susceptible folks.

Bring out the daily neti pot, and make it a routine. The warm saltwater and herbal nasal rinse takes just a few seconds, but it can save days of misery from sick sinuses. Think herbal decoctions for use in the neti. Triphala will shrink swollen membranes, eucalyptus will thin mucus, and goldenseal will kill bacteria. Gotu kola, skullcap and calamus are traditional nasal application herbs for sinus conditions. For inflamed sinuses, add a teaspoon of ghee to the neti.

Detoxify the Shrotas (the body’s channels)

To treat the symptoms of excess ama, herbalists use a broad selection of foods to assist the body in removing the waste products from the tissues. When it comes to detoxifying the liver, few foods are more effective than burdock root, which is specific for eruptions of the head, face and neck, and artichoke, a thistle plant in the daisy family. Used mainly as an exotic vegetable, green globe is an excellent detoxifier of the liver and gallbladder that also reduces blood fats, including cholesterol, and effectively treats gallstones and obesity. One study showed a significant lowering of elevated cholesterol (12.2%), triglyceride (5.7%) levels and body weight with artichoke extract.1 The raw globe can also be juiced.

Radish, a member of the cabbage family, is known the world over for liver and gallbladder detoxification. The black radish is regarded as a stronger remedy, but the common red radish also brings results. Other radishes, including daikon (called “mooli” in India), are used in their respective cultures. Radish is a choleretic that relaxes the smooth musculature of the bile ducts, improving bile flow. Radish is also a good vegetable to include in cases of chronic constipation. Use as a food, raw or cooked, or as juice, depending on your preference. Mooli pranthas are popular in Ayurvedic cuisine.

In the herbal arena, dandelion root also acts to increase bile flow. Take dandelion root as tea, tincture, or capsules. Three thousand milligrams per day is a good dose. You might enjoy roasted dandelion root, brewed as a delicious coffee substitute.

Besides being a general balancer, the famous triphala herbal formula is a light laxative, skin, eye, and liver remedy, and an overall detoxifier. Besides taking it as powder, use triphala as a cleansing throat gargle.

Bhumyamalaki is a standby for liver detoxification. It increases bile flow in a very mild way, so is well tolerated by people for whom a stronger liver detoxifier is contraindicated. Use up to 10 grams per day in capsules.

The spring season is Nature’s time to turn over a new leaf, and just maybe we can take her advice. Just like you clean your house, make a commitment to some serious Spring cleaning for your body, and set the tone for all the action you’ll be enjoying long into the Summer.

Endnotes:

1. Wiener Medizinische Wocheschrift, 1975; 1223:705-9

Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa

The post Spring Cleansing Ayurveda Style appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, Spring is the time of new beginnings, growth and expansion. This is the time of year when the kapha dosha (the energies of water and earth) are increasing. Whenever kapha increases in the body over and above the appropriate amounts, it can exacerbate the factors that cause disease. Spring, then, is an important time to cleanse. And many of the foods used for cleansing are those in season this time of year are those with the bitter, pungent and astringent tastes.

Mung Bean Pancake: Makes 10 – 12 Pancakes

Two cups of whole mung beans (green gram)
One medium onion, finely chopped
One-and-one-half inch piece of ginger, grated
One-half bundle of cilantro, chopped
Grated beet root (optional).
Himalayan salt
Ghee or coconut oil for cooking pancake

Soak in mung beans overnight in six cups of water. Pour the water out the next morning (use it to water your garden), add fresh water and rinse once.

The mung beans will be swollen and soft from soaking overnight. Put in them in a blender or food processor and add water, little by little (as needed to achieve desired batter consistency) while blending for two or three rounds. Don’t over blend; the batter should be a little coarse.

Remove from blender and add chopped onion, grated ginger and chopped cilantro to batter and mix well. Add Himalayan salt to taste.

Add ghee or oil to pan or skillet and heat, when the pan is hot, pour enough batter to make a pancake. Sprinkle some grated beet root on top of the pancake. Cover with a lid and let simmer on medium heat for about five minutes. Then remove the lid, flip the pancake and cook uncovered for about five minutes.

Serve pancakes hot. Traditionally, coconut chutney is an accompaniment, but may be too cooling for the spring or too heavy for a cleansing diet. Ginger marmalade or something slightly pungent can be supportive.

This can be enjoyed before the meal, eaten as a pickle or added to the plate as a condiment. Ginger appetizer stimulates the digestive fire.

Sliced fresh ginger root
Fresh juice of lemon or lime
Himalayan salt

Soak ginger in juice with a pinch of Himalayan salt and eat a couple slices before or with meals. Ginger appetizer stimulates digestion, increases the appetite and decreases gas and bloating.

Spring Vegetable Kitcheree

Bitter and astringent vegetables support spring cleansing

1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup mung beans
One teaspoon cardamom powder or seeds
1/2 tablespoon
cumin seeds
One teaspoon ajwain seeds (Ajwain is also known as wild celery. If ajwain seeds cannot be found, celery seeds can be substituted, although celery is sweeter and not as pungent as ajwain.)
One teaspoon ground black pepper
One bundle of scallions chopped in rounds
Finely chopped cilantro
or parsley
Freshly squeezed juice of
a lemon or lime
Ghee or coconut oil for roasting spices
1/2 inch of ginger root, finely chopped
Two tablespoons of cashew nuts (if desired)
One cup of assorted chopped fresh spring vegetables:
Daikon or radishes, both are kapha reducing in nature.
Carrot
Kohlrabi
Green beans

Combine one cup of vegetables with rice, mung beans, salt, pepper, cardamom and ajwain seeds with four cups of water. Bring to a gentle boil and then simmer.

In a separate pan heat the ghee or coconut oil then add cumin seeds, scallions and cashew nuts, gently roast over medium heat until aromatic compounds are released.

When rice and mung bean mixture is soft and soupy, stir in seasoning, add additional water if needed for desired soup or stew consistency.

Squeeze lemon or lime juice over kitcheree. Sprinkle finely chopped cilantro or parsley just before serving. Both cilantro and parsley are high in trace minerals and promote cleansing. Cilantro is more cooling and pitta-pacifying and can be helpful for people who are prone to allergies. Parsley is more heating and kapha-reducing.

Dill Kitcheree

This cleansing recipe contains all of the six tastes. Dill is pungent and astringent, perfect qualities for counteracting spring’s heaviness and encouraging cleansing. Cilantro is astringent and bitter, and ginger is pungent (with a sweet vipak, or post-digestive effect, making it less pitta-provoking than many other pungent spices.) The mung beans are astringent and sweet and the rice is sweet.

1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup whole mung beans
Bundle of fresh dill, chopped
Cup of broccoli, small pieces
Two medium sized cloves of chopped garlic
One tablespoon fennel seeds
One tablespoon of ghee or coconut oil
Freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice (lime to balance pitta)
Himalayan salt to taste.

Rinse mung beans and rice, then add 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, cover with 3 1/2 cups of water, and simmer until soupy.

In a separate large pan or skillet, heat the ghee or coconut oil, add the chopped garlic and sauté.

Next add the fennel seeds, chopped broccoli and chopped dill and stir until the broccoli and spices are gently roasted. Squeeze the lemon or lime juice over the vegetables.

Combine the vegetables with cooked kitcheree and stir well.

Enjoy with ginger appetizer or pickle.

Himalayan Salt

The Charaka Samhita (ancient Ayurveda text) does not recommend using salt (specifically sodium chloride) on an everyday basis, as it increases pitta and kapha and can exacerbate diseases of the blood. Himalayan salt, on the other hand, may be consumed daily. It contains a higher quantity of potassium and a wide variety of more than eighty trace minerals, in the same proportions found in the human body. As opposed to sodium chloride, Himalayan salt even has a natural slight diuretic quality, drawing excess from the body, rather than increasing bloating and water retention. LA-based organic chef Michael G. Mandel uses Himalayan salt exclusively for recipes because of its healing and electrolyte-balancing qualities.

For Royal Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt, visit: royalhimalayan.com
Essential Living Foods uses primordial ocean salt from remote primordial oceans: essentiallivingfoods.com

Note About Roasting Spices in Oil: In Ayurveda, roasting or lightly frying spices in oil releases the oil-soluble essential oils and other active components for better absorption. Some vegetables, such as onion and garlic, become sweeter when lightly cooked in oil, making them easier to digest.

Vaidya Parla Jayagopal

Vaidya. Jayagopal Parla BAMS, Masters in Ayurveda, C-IAYT, CMT, FAIHM

Vaidya Jay is a passionate teacher and practitioner of Ayurveda. He is classically trained in Ayurvedic medicine from India. He has a bachelors degree in Ayurvedic medicine from Bangalore University and a Masters degree in Ayurvedic Herbology from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. He is a certified yoga therapist and has a certificate wholistic massage therapy. Vaidya Jay completed fellowship in integrative medicine from AIHM.   He has over 25 years and is the founder/director of Athreya Ayurvedic Integrative Health Center Long Beach. He is  the vice president of Athreya herbs. He is faculty and clinician at Southern California University of Health Sciences, Whittier and visiting professor at Japan Ayurveda School, Tokyo.

www.athreyaayurveda.com

The post Cleansing With Kitcheree appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Mustard is a member of the Brassicaceae family, a grouping of medicinally active and valuable food plants which includes cabbage, broccoli, horseradish, watercress, cauliflower and turnips. Many of these contain alkaloids which have been shown to be helpful cancer preventatives. Mustard seed is a pungent that is warming and stimulates agni (the digestive fire), which is why it is a frequent condiment used in a variety of recipes.

When mustard is used in the bath, it increases circulation and stimulates sweating. The watery nature of a soak helps to dampen what could be overstimulating effects of this heating herb. The watery nature of this medium provides warmth without subsequent drying out or stripping the body after its cleansing action. Bathing in mustard through the transition from the dry fall through the wet heavy kaphagenic winter supports circulation in an effort to prevent the mucus-forming colds and flus that can plague the darker seasons that are characterized by fewer hours of sunlight. In these months, we have less of an opportunity to receive our warmth from the sun. Yellow mustard powder allows us to imbibe the sunlight collected from the leaves of the mustard plant and concentrated in the seeds. As the days get darker, we can bathe in sunlight.

Mustard Bath Sources
Kalahari Mineral Salts and Mustard Bath contains Kalahari desert mineral salts (sodium, potassium, copper, zinc, manganese and magnesium), ground mustard seed, eucalyptus, camphor and wintergreen. Serengeti World Imports: serengetiworldimports.com.

Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath contains certified organic mustard seed powder, essential oils of eucalyptus, rosemary, wintergreen and thyme and gum benzoin in a base of sodium carbonate. Dr. Singha’s Natural Formulations: drsingha.com.

Seasonal Cleansing for Fall
Other ways to support your fall cleanse and seasonal transition include the Ultimate Energy Cleanse, an herbal program with formulations that support the clearing of excess heat from the body, liver tonification, digestive system balance and cleansing, immune system strengthening and overall alkalinization and rebalancing of all the body’s organs and systems. Recipes and other suggestions are included in the program: uecleanse.com

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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My Other Car Is A Yoga Mat

One day I walked into class and noticed that since I had seen my teacher last, like two days ago, he’d changed. Good-bye robust athletic yogi, hello rock star. Not the junkie kind either. The thin, trim, spry, stage-roaming, glowing kind.

After class, when I asked him what his secret was, he revealed he was on day four of the Master Cleanse. To open his hips. Really? Yes, supposedly the strict regimen of lemon, cayenne and water is, along with its other healing properties, supposed to help open up stubborn hips.

I’m going to do it too, I said. I wasn’t thinking of the hip opening, my hips were already more open than even my big mouth. They were so open that colds, flus and hormones settled eagerly into them, like fans before a show. I definitely didn’t need to open my hips. But I did need to look like a rock star!

I’d always been put off by the Master Cleanse. Just the name is so mastery. I’m very anti-authoritarian – unless I’m the authority. But ever since a William Morris agent had told me I had a nice body…for a person, I’d been trying to take off five pounds here and another five there.

I planned to get through the weekend’s gigs and start on Monday. No point trying to do a cleanse when you are entertaining in a filthy nightclub. I kept imagining I’d be one of those yogis, sipping from their Master Cleanse concoction-filled water bottles, humbly saying: The first few days were hard but now I have soooo much energy!

Day one: Weak, woozy, light-headed. Day two: weaker, woozier, light-headeder. Day three: too weak to speak, too woozy for schmoozy, and now also snoozy. Lightheaded to the point of being almost thoughtfree. And not soooo much energy. In fact noooo much energy.

But who cared? I looked so hot in my pleather rock star pants I didn’t want to peel them off. I did though. And I even gathered enough strength to pull on my Hard Tails. Then I collapsed onto the bed from where it became clear, that the vast expanse of physical reality that lay between me and Yoga class was un-navigatable.

I knew I did need to move my body though, so I geared up for a little walk. I tucked a pen and scrap of paper into my pocket, just in case the one thought I had been waiting to hear finally arrived. The fact that I knew I was listening for this thought was a kind of miraculous revelation. Apparently, I’d pulled a bait and switch on myself with the Master Cleanse, tempting my ego with weight loss because my higher self was desperate to gain clarity.

For me, something clicked when I learned that biophotons, little bundles of light energy, actually leap from one to another of us. Like fleas, but brighter, lighter and more magical.

After shuffling halfway around my block I wrote: must get a house. Two weeks later we were evicted. Ha ha, good one universe. I’d only lasted five days on the Master Cleanse, but it was enough to change my life.

I always feel compelled to explain that we weren’t evicted through any fault of our own. And it’s true that we weren’t running a meth lab, a brothel or anything else as illegal or as lucrative. There wasn’t even any unpaid rent. But maybe, without it being our fault, we did cause it. A new landlord was relocating his extended family into our fourplex but he’d assured us we weren’t going to be evicted. Then the Master Cleanse, and my note to self, and voila! So maybe he’d been lying. Or maybe he’d changed his mind. But maybe the Master Cleanse had caused the shift or maybe I’d done the Master Cleanse because I’d sensed the shift. One thing I knew for sure, the Master Cleanse and the eviction were connected.

Of course everything is connected. That singular truth has been being beaten into our thick skulls for years: STDs, The Inconvenient Truth, this economic debacle. And lately we’ve been seduced into understanding everything is connected with more enticing examples: Dr. Emoto’s water crystals, Lynne McTaggart’s Intention Experiment, scientists proving that happiness, and fat, are both contagious. For me something clicked when I learned that bio-photons, little bundles of light energy, actually leap from one to another of us. Like fleas, but brighter, lighter and more magical. So, in a sense, when you’re standing in line at the supermarket, you’re standing behind everyone the person in front of you has ever stood behind. Now we find out that the residue of our prescription drugs fill our water supply, which means that your Prozac is my Prozac; your CoQ10 is my CoQ10, and also that your Master Cleanse is my Master Cleanse.

Which is why when I overheard one lithe yogi saying to another that she was on day three and she was soooo woozy! I couldn’t keep my big mouth shut. You can go off it, you know. The Master Cleanse is not the boss of you!

I hope I said it nicely. Because I’ve started to understand, on a visceral level how connected we are and that it’s just as bad to feed negativity to The Field as it is to feed white flour to your digestive tract.

So I’ve gotten slightly obsessive about what I’m putting out. And taking in. Yes, you are what you eat, but you are also what you read and watch and listen to. And the universe is what it eats too. Which is me, you, us. So I eat more greens; I disconnected my TV; I play my tuning forks. And I’ve started to think of this way of living as a complimentary system to the Master Cleanse: The Mistress Cleanse. Not a cleanse to do now and then for a few life-changing days, but one to do every day, in every way.

Yes, you are what you eat, but you are also what you read and watch and listen to. And the universe is what it eats too.

As it turns out, the word cleanse comes from a Proto Indo European (PIE) base gel – meaning to gleam. It’s related to a Greek word glene, meaning eyeball. And an Old Irish word gel meaning bright. And it’s true that when things are dirty or dull, they are harder to see.

A cleanse can bring us closer to seeing the gleaming truth, to help us see, have the moment of clarity, which comes in a flash, in the light bulb moment. We call the visionaries among us bright, not because they can be seen but because they see. I read once that we’re attracted to gleaming, shiny baubles because when we were foraging for food in the wild, berries were shiny, and easy to see. Of course berries have more antioxidants than almost any other food, making it a bright idea to eat lots of them.

But sometimes berries aren’t gleaming enough to brighten me up during this doozy of a woozy world. In these days of accelerating change, rapid connecting and massive transformation, sometimes I need more gleam, even a little glam. And then I get shining, eye lining with glitter, sparkle that helps me flitter and roam the Earth, the third rock from the sun. A star rock. And I’ve let go of the rock star pants, and wrapped myself up in dresses instead, as befits a devoted Lady of The Mistress Cleanse.

Beth Lapides is the Mistress of her own domain: bethlapides.com. Find out more about her shows, workshops and books and inspirational speaking. Email her atbeth@bethlapides.com.

By Beth Lapides

Beth Lapides

Beth Lapides is the creatrix and host of UnCabaret. You may know her from her LA Yoga My Other Car is A Yoga Mat column, as the author of “Did I Wake You, Haiku For Modern Living”, from her appearances on Sex & The City, NPR and Comedy Central or from her writing in O Magazine, Elle Decor and Los Angeles Magazine. She teaches her workshop The Comedian’s Way privately in LA and annually at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. UnCabaret is her long running comedy show in which she asks the very best comedians working what is going on with you now. The show is known for being uniquely about the present and every Sunday a completely unique experience unfolds. In the past two years Beth has collaborated with Mitch Kaplan, both on the music for her New Agey comedy show “100% Happy 88% of the Time” and at UnCabaret where Mitch is Musical Director. Adding music to the comedy is like adding an out breath to the in, a vowel to the consonant. UnCabaret is intimate, conversation, idiosyncratic and fun intentional.

bethlapides.com

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Slowing Down and Revving Up Before and After a Cleansing Program

When considering any type of cleanse, it is important to properly prepare the mind, body and spirit for the experience. Think about driving on the freeway and what it would be like to go from eighty miles per hour to standing still. This is why the preparation before (pre-cleanse) and reemergence (post-cleanse) after the cleanse is just as important as the experience itself to cultivate ongoing health and well-being that continues long after the cleanse or detoxification.

Mirey Yuhay utilized the principles and practices of detoxification to develop a healthy relationship with her body, losing 100 pounds in the process and ridding herself of allergies and back pain. She is now on staff guiding people through detoxification programs at The LifeCoBodrum Detox Merkezi on the beautiful Bodrum Peninsula in Turkey where Yoga, massage and Turkish baths are integrated into the detox process. She provides the following recommendations for people to follow before they arrive.

Pre-Cleanse Practices

1. Avoid all caffeinated drinks. No coffee, no black tea, no Coke or other soda pops, no energy drinks (this is very important).
2. Please drink at least three liters of water everyday: half before lunch, and the other half before bed.
3. Please avoid consuming water with meals; drink your water half an hour before or one hour later than eating other food.
4. Please avoid all dairy products, no milk, no, cheese and no yogurt.
5. Please avoid eggs.
6. Please avoid all animal meat other than grilled fish.
7. Please avoid heavy carbohydrates like white rice, pasta and white bread.
8. Please avoid white sugar.
9. Drink two fresh squeezed fruit or vegetable juices daily.
10. All herbal teas can be consumed.
11. Eat plenty of raw vegetables and fruits.

Post-Cleanse Practices

As the process of cleansing is coming to a close, it is vital to think about how to transition back to the routine of everyday life. Going through a detoxification program wipes the slate clean, giving us the opportunity to decide what it is we want to draw on the chalkboard and allowing us to establish healthy habits to support us throughout our lives. From an Ayurvedic perspective, a cleanse is a precursor to rasayana, the process of rejuvenation. In many ways, a cleansing program is a new beginning, a chance for us to make new resolutions for health. When we embark on a cleanse in the spring, the natural time of the year for renewal and restoration, this process is heightened.

Ameya Dupreys is a certified panchakarma therapist who makes the following recommendations for people to transition from the vulnerable and sensitive time during the cleanse to the post-cleanse promotion of lasting health.

Transition from a Cleanse

• Pay attention to your digestion and the signals your body sends you. Gas, bloating, discomfort, burping or belching, constipation or loose motions, feeling sleepy or sluggish after meals and feeling like you have a rock or stone in your abdominal area are all signs that you’re not properly digesting whatever you’re eating. Only eat what you can digest.
• Feel for signs of hunger and only eat when hungry. We sometimes eat out of habit, watching the clock or boredom more than eating for actual hunger. While waiting until we’re uncomfortable or cranky is not a desired practice, feeling some hunger is a sign that your agni (digestive fire) has kicked in.
• The first week after ending a cleanse, choose easy to digest vegetables as the first new foods you introduce such as squash, asparagus, cilantro, root vegetables (including yams and sweet potatotes).
• Favor mild spices during the first two weeks after a cleanse. These include: cumin, coriander and fennel (together, these make a delicious tea), turmeric and ginger (depending on how your body tolerates its pungency.)
• Wait at least two weeks before including the following foods in your diet:
• Common allergens (wheat, soy, corn, dairy, peanuts and walnuts).
• Nightshades (tomatoes, white potatoes, eggplants and peppers).
• Brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts).
• Dairy products including yogurt. Excessively pungent spices, such as onions, garlic, chilis, black pepper, cloves and black mustard seeds.
• Processed foods, caffeine and sugar.

Post-Cleanse Advice

Duprey’s three most important pieces of advice post-cleanse:

1. Meet with your practitioner to develop an individualized rejuvenation program.
2. Cultivate a long-term awareness of what a healthy dietary program means for you.
3. Engage in activities that support ojas (vitality) and prana (life force), including spiritual practice, time in nature, moonlight
   walks, standing in freshly dewed grass and moon bathing.

After a proper cleanse and rejuvenation program, you may find that you no longer crave some of the processed foods, meat, caffeine, refined sugar, alcohol or other substances that may have been something you relied on in your daily routine.

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Pre-Cleanse and Post-Cleanse appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

The Body Will Heal Itself

Our bodies heal themselves. They knit themselves back together when cut, they process, digest, detoxify and remove built-up material daily. But we do have to give our bodies the proper environment in which to heal and stay balanced. Sometimes that requires some extra assistance, love and care.

When our metabolism is cranked to just the right level, we’re eating combinations of food we digest, our digestive system is working properly, we are eliminating as we should, we sleep well and are drinking fluids that support these processes, we can more easily maintain our balance. But even in the best of circumstances, when following the regimen of an Ayurvedic lifestyle, regular cleansing is vital.

  The traditional teachings of Ayurveda, all emphasize the need for regular cleansing programs to reboot, restore and help cultivate the proper environment for self-healing. While an individually tailored program can be planned any time of the year, seasonal changes, when nature is already shifting, are particularly supportive for cleansing as this transitional energy fosters the body’s ability to let go.

Cleansing programs can be as varied as the individuals engaging in them, panchakarma is the name of the uniquely Ayurvedic take on the practice. The Sanskrit term panchkarma translates to mean five actions, but its apparent simplicity belies the fact that different five actions are identified in different texts, and the categories include a wide array of variations on a theme, just as any Yoga pose contains an infinite number of adjustments. Additionally, panchakarma includes the preparation, known as purvakarma in Sanskrit. Preparation includes individually suggested dietary adjustments along with other practices such as regular warm oil massage and increasing internal oil intake to prepare the body to dislodge toxins and other materials. (See the following story on preparing for a cleanse.)

Many purvakarma practices, particularly the use of internal and external oil, also serve to calm the airy, windy, changeable vatadosha. The vata dosha is disturbed or vitiated from overstimulation and the effects of unending demands, overwork, sleep deprivation and excess stress. The emotions of disturbed vata include fear, anxiety, uncertainty, emptiness and ungroundedness. Even the maelstrom of our everyday lives can be a source of stress. There are moments of positive stress that motivate us and get us moving, but there are also times when stress is unrelenting. The depleting effect of constant stress can hinder the body’s ability to turn its attention inward and support repair, rebalance and healing. The use of oil provides insulation and dampens outside noise. This is helpful for rebalancing the body, becoming centered and dealing with the continuous barrage of fear-based messages that we are being subject to at this moment in time. These messages continually disturb the vata dosha and the antidote is finding our own center. The soothing effect of oil helps return home to center.

After preparing properly to often and lubricate comes the cleansing practices themselves. Panchakarma involves still more oil (both for calming vata and facilitating the removal of toxins) as well as uniquely chosen combinations of purgation, nasya (herbal nasal drops) and herbalized steam to liquefy toxins, calm excess doshas (energetic forces) stimulate sweating, and otherwise assist in detoxification. Working with a guide is helpful to both administer treatments and hold the space for the body to release and renew. For this reason, choose a panchakarma therapist who will help you to feel safe and who is a good fit for you individually.

During a cleanse, it can be beneficial to take some type of break from everyday life. The time we take, and the money we may spend on services, is an investment in health. As we all evaluate our investments and habits, making the conscious choice to slow down, draw inward and spend time cultivating our health and well-being, has the potential to provide innumerable returns.

Unplugging ourselves from the cell phone, Facebook, Twitter and email in exchange for silence and a meditation practice support the rejuvenation of our nervous systems. Stepping with our bare feet on the Earth, walking in the morning dew, inhaling the nighttime air and spending extra time in contemplation can be a valuable support for the cleansing, rejuvenation and healing processes.

Sanctuary

To support time away from the demands of daily life and provide an environment in which the body, mind and spirit can drop deeper within, many Ayurvedic practitioners and panchkarma therapists have created centers within, adjacent to and outside of cities to meet the needs of people in a variety of situations and circumstances for an hour, a day, a weekend, a week, or longer of snapshots of bliss or traditional cleansing programs.

Blue Sage Ayurveda operates Blue Sage Sanctuary, a secluded gem amidst twenty acres of pine-blanketed Sierra Nevada foothills. Founder, director and primary practitioner, Ragaia Belovarac, created a sacred space on the land that combines his love of organic, sustainable design with his immersion into the practices and principles of Ayurveda. It is aesthetic in every detail. The interactions with the environment set up the conditions for internal healing. At Blue Sage they include: springs of rosemary, use of Trihealth thailams (massage oils) and Floracopeia essential oils in the treatment, palm oil candles made at the sanctuary, the carefully stocked kitchen spice cabinet and strategically placed Adirondack chairs gazing out over a sunset or bubbling spring.

  

Sanctuary

When I drove onto the property, my personal gate code ensured seclusion and time free from chance encounters. When I left my car behind, to be on foot for the rest of my time, I was free from the constant motion that is another hallmark of our vata-driven lives. Belovarac knows there is a healing power to the pause.

Sanctuary guests stay in a private spa suite, without television, yet with a phone to reach the staff at any hour (and cell phone service, although I left mine on silent and tried to abstain). The view from the bedroom window gazes out over the hills, the only visitor a wandering midnight deer seeking sustenance from the pond.

Mornings begin with chanting and silent meditation watched over by Quan Yin, a sentinel of compassion, and a reminder that on any road to health, we must walk with kindness. In the sun-kissed consultation room, Belovarac sets the program for the day, based on reading the tongue, the pulse and the myriad of other signs, signals and symptoms spoken by the body, interpreted by the practitioner. I’m used to examining my tongue daily; its coating or lack thereof provides information for my decision about what kind of tea I’ll make in the morning or what I’ll eat or not eat for breakfast.

The magic continues in the spa treatment room. Abhyanga is the Ayurvedic oil massage using warm, soothing, vegetable oil, the type chosen is based on what brings an individual into balance. For example, sunflower and almond are lubricating and neutral, coconut is heavy and cooling and sesame is warming and nurturing. Both the use of aromatic essential oils or herbal compounds cooked into the blend heighten or alter the effects of the base oil and intensify its medicinal properties. Abhyanga can be done on oneself, by a practitioner, or in a practice that takes the experience to new levels – in tandem – which is one of the signature treatments of Ayurvedic bodywork. With four hands, the mind cannot as easily follow any one movement, dropping the attention even further inward on healing.

Herbs, oils, mysterious potions and decoctions were dripped into my nose, left to simmer around my heart, rose up in aromatic steam, all with their own effect. After the briefest of stays, I had to leave to attend to deadlines, but left dreaming of days and days of transformational panchakarma. Health, after all, takes attention, and in Ayurveda, it is not enough to drop in once. We need to make it a priority to take time again and again to reduce the cumulative buildup of the detritus of everyday life that is just not released without some additional coaxing. This is why these practices that support the body’s ability to heal itself are an integral part of the Ayurvedic tradition.

The team at Blue Sage Ayurveda believes in the healing potential of this ancient science and offers panchakarma cleansing programs as well as day spa and bliss therapies on their twenty-acre sanctuary in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains: bluesage-sanctuary.com.

Mirey Yuhay can be found at the The LifeCo Center, Ba Arasý Mahallesi Göltürkbükü, Bodrum, Turkey, where individualized detoxification programs are offered with massage, Yoga, Turkish baths and live food education. Mirey’s blog features her own story: Thelifeco.com.

The Ultimate Energy Cleanse features carefully formulated herbal formulas using herbs from around the world to support the colon, liver, immune system and the entire body. The cleansing system comes with full complement of recipes for alkalinizing, vegan foods: uecleanse.com.

IzoCleanze provides a variety of delicious organic whole food juice fasts designed to fully support your body that delivered fresh to your door each morning in the Los Angeles area, as well as vegan superfood programs that can be shipped anywhere in the world. Timothy Martin is the master of transformation delivered daily: izocleanze.com

Ameya Duprey NCTMB is a certified panchakarma therapist on faculty at Alandi School of Ayurveda who practices at Samadhi Healing Arts and Pancha Karma Center in Grass Valley, California and offers residential retreats at the Crystal Hermitage Guest House at Ananda Village, California. (530) 388 – 8296; Samadhi_healing_arts@yahoo.com

By Felicia M. Tomasko, RN

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Panchakarma appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Both shodhana (cleansing) and shamana (rejuvenating and balancing) enemas are used in Ayurveda. One cleansing concoction is dashamoola basti. Dashamoola is a collection of ten root herbs; dash means ten in Sanskrit and moola is a root (think mooladhara chakra or moola bandha). By their very nature grounding root herbs address airy vata. Made into an herbal decoction, strained and mixed with sesame oil, this basti has strong cleansing properties without aggravating the fiery pitta dosha.

Dashamoola is also a wonderful preparation for svedana (herbal steam), encouraging the elimination of ama (toxins) through the sweat glands. It strengthens the general weakness found in situations of excess vata, can soothe abdominal and lower back pain and spasms, support liver decongestion and kindle agni (digestive fire).

Nourishing bastis entirely based in oil preparations follow cleansing treatments. My favorite anuvasana (nourishing) basti herb is bala (Sida cordafolia), which balances all three doshas, with its strongest effect on vata. Bala is a reproductive tissue rasayana (rejuvenative), builds strength and stamina and rejuvenates the nervous, circulatory and urinary systems. It is bitter, balancing pitta; diuretic, balancing kapha. In thousands of years of Ayurvedic use, bala is referred to as “divine medicine.”

Caution: The USFDA (Food and Drug Administration) states that bala (Sida cordifolia) is on a list of plants including ephedra, that are to be ingested by mouth. Bala contains alkaloid ephedrine, which taken internally treats asthma, aching joints, colds and coughs, which also explains its use as a cardiac stimulant. In my humble opinion, bala is safer than most pharmaceuticals, however in this country; I don’t recommend its use. It has a long history of internal use in Ayurvedic medicine and is still used in herbal oil preparations that take advantage of its balancing and rejuvenating policies.

To read more about Ayurvedic bastis, learn more about the ten root herbs found in dashamoola and enter your name in a chance to win a bottle of ashwagandha bala oil from Banyan Botanicals, read this article in this month’s issue at: layogamagazine.com.

Andrea Emmerich is a licensed massage therapist, Yoga teacher and graduate of the California College of Ayurveda who practices Ayurveda in Hollywood, California: andreaemmerich.com.

By Andrea Emmerich, LMT, CAS, CYT

Staff Writer Lakshmi

The post Getting To The Root: Cleansing, Grounding and Centering With Dashamoola and Bala appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

I’ve wanted to do a cleanse for years, and considered joining some friends for the mutual camaraderie of a group master cleanse (lemon juice, cayenne and maple syrup). I practice the Ayurvedic art of weekly fasting, forgoing a regular diet from dinner one day to dinner the next but obstacles for a longer reboot included timing (the demands of daily life) or the daunting necessity of preparing a day’s worth of juice. So when the opportunity came up to try a ready-made juice feast, I was primed. Spring seemed perfect, particularly since I’d been feeling sluggish, after engaging such dietary prajnaparada (crimes against Ayurvedic wisdom) as drinking cold milk, mixing strawberries with other foods or overindulging in kapha-genic (mucus-forming) ice cream.

The first daily iZO Cleanze (izocleanze.com) program arrived with 10 jars in a cooler (the reusable containers satisfied my green-tinged packaging preferences). I exhaled a sigh of relief: this cleanse didn’t involve hours of dicing and juicing. And since the juice-making takes place at the Krishna temple in Venice, the jars are even filled with prasad (blessed offerings). While a day of juice-only may seem limiting to some, I felt a sense of freedom at the thought that I knew exactly what I was going to eat…well, drink…for the entire day, and beyond.

The jars’ colors gave a clue to their flavors and their living, alkaline effects on my body. With the first few sips of the green juice, I could already feel the pitta dosha (fire element) that’s usually at a fast burn in my physiology decrease to the steady flame it is meant to be. And the red juice was definitely the most delicious concoction of its kind; it’s no wonder that this recipe was Timothy Martin’s inspiration for launching iZO. The iZO Pro’s rice protein, ground black sesame seeds and hemp milk provided a satisfying midday boost. Even by day’s end, I never felt hungry, and my usual daily chocolate craving was dormant. Perhaps the alkaline, nourishing, vitamin and mineral-rich array of juices and herbal teas satisfied something at a core level in my body.

Throughout the cleanse, I did feel more sensitive, and more apt to want to be alone, or be quiet so I made extra efforts to nourish myself with dry-brushing, walking by the ocean, massage, regular meditation and wrapping myself in the recovery silver thread bag I use to reconnect to the grounding influence of the Earth in my sleep (getearthed.com).

Even now, I notice the residual effects. My skin cleared up, and I still feel its radiance. My energy level is more consistent. And, I’m more thoughtful about my choices. My first few days post-juice were filled with light vegetable broth, then vibrant salads (see Martin’s reentry tips). I’ve fallen in love again with my daily cup of cleansing hot water with lemon or lime and I make sure green is the predominant color in my diet. After purging excess pitta in this cleanse, I’m looking forward to a cooler summer.

Seasonal Cleanse: Jump-Start Body, Mind and Spirit

Post-Cleanse Re-Entry

By Timothy Martin

As with all things in this realm of duality, your new purity is a two-edged sword. For every day of juice feasting, it’s said that you roll your body’s clock back 120 days. But be careful. This means you’ve lost the tolerance for crap that you’ve built up over a lifetime so you’ll feel the negative effects of toxins more intensely than ever.

The strategy for the war on toxins is no different than any other war: Do not enter without an exit strategy. If you do, you may very well end up worse than when you when you started. Speaking from personal experience, I have derailed off cleanses into junk food, intentionally as a guinea pig while I developed a cleanse regimen and unintentionally, and l have experienced the yo-yo effect of intense highs and lows that confuse the body, at best resulting in the positive gains from the cleanse being wiped away with a sense of failure, and at worst resulting in the seeds of an eating disorder I have dubbed macro-bulimia (binging and purging on a large scale).

A successful exit strategy involves thoughtfully planning your post-cleanse meals. Transition first with light soups such as: vegetable broth, cucumber watercress or mild gazpacho. Then move onto leafy green salads with a light dressing. Avoid processed, sugary or fried foods. Beyond that, I usually recommend people try maintaining veganic (organic vegan) lifestyle, and if your body is into it, even go raw. The iZO Cleanze offers a re-entry program in partnership with Rawvolution.

Timothy Martin developed the iZO Cleanze program after extended study and experimentation. Check out his video blog, cleanse details and the solid re-entry program athttp://www.izocleanze.com.

By Felicia Marie Tomasko, RN

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Seasonal Cleanse: Jump-Start Body, Mind and Spirit appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.