Get To Know Your Fats

Get to know and befriend fat this fall and winter!

Here's a great place to start:

http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/know-your-fats-introduction

Natural Remedies for the Cold and Flu Season

During my recent visit to Austin, I had the privilege of taking several classes with Craig Williams. Craig is among many other things an Oriental Medicine Doctor and Ayurvedic Practitioner who offers a wide range of classes and workshops related to physical, mental, and spiritual health. Here are a few takeaways from his recent class Natural Solutions For the Cold and Flu Seasons:

Prevention: Protect Yourself From The Common Cold

· Decrease or eliminate sugar and alcohol for the winter

· Frequently wash your hands with warm soapy water

· Consume Probiotics to maintain GI health (70-80% of your immune system lives here)

· Use essential oils in diffuser, ceramic lamp rings, shower tablets, or rooms sprays (examples include tea tree, eucalyptus, and/or lavender) to clean the air you breath

· Take Epsom salt baths with essential oils

· Sleep a lot

Herbal Remedies For Cold Prevention Or Immune Boosting: (Check with your healthcare practitioner if any are contraindicated for you.)

· Echinacea + Elderberry (at onset of cold – read labels for dosage) *best in syrup form

· Osho Root + Reishi (great if you often have regular upper respiratory issues)

· American Ginseng (if you have deficient Qi)

· Andrographis (gargle to clear a sore throat)

· Chyavanprash (Ayurvedic formula to boost the immune system and body)

· Triphala (Ayurvedic formula to promote elimination and digestive track health)

A Few Food Recommendations:

· Steamed broccoli

· Dandelion greens

· Kale

· Other dark green leafy vegetables

· Onions sautéed with ghee (tonic food – contains butyric acid that promotes large intestine health)

· Gogi berries

· Garlic

· Spices: cumin, coriander, turmeric, and fennel

Autumn Inspiration

Autumn is a special time in Ayurveda. It’s considered a joint season; just like in this vulnerable part of the body, during the autumn season it is easy to injure oneself. If you are not careful, you could become vulnerable or risk injuring your body by moving too quickly, doing too much, catching a common cold (through exposing your skin to the cold, dry, windy air) and depleting your immune system by not sleeping enough or through skipping meals. To ensure good health in fall, consider “oil + heat” as two of your new best friends. Give yourself regular sesame oil massages before you shower to protect your skin from wind and cold air. Heat yourself with warm showers, hot tea, baths, and soups.

At the turn of each season, ask yourself these simple questions, which will help you see the relationship that exists between your health and the natural world. Keep track of your answers in a journal so you can look back and reflect upon the difference or similarity in perspectives and challenges for each season.

• What changes are going on outside in Nature?

· How does this season make me feel?

· What are the challenges I face?

· What brings me joy during this season?

· What diet or lifestyle routines do I want to change?

· Am I getting the right amount of sleep?

· What yoga or exercise routine feels the best to me?

Put a comma—envisioning a momentary pause—after each season no matter where you live. Your body can benefit from experiencing and adapting to new environments, exercise routines, and foods; it will grow stronger, be more resilient, and keep you in touch with the cycles of nature. The yogis believe that you are one with Nature, and that in order for you to bloom, you need diversity.

From: Art of Sequencing Volume Two - Seasonal Vinyasa

Interview

Here's a fun interview I had with Rise Up Radio Show today:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/riseupradioshow/2011/08/23/vinyasa-yoga-tips-and-tools

Vinyasa Yoga Tips and Tools 08/23 by Rise Up Radio | Blog Talk Radio

Vinyasa Yoga Tips and Tools 08/23 by Rise Up Radio | Blog Talk Radio

YAM Camp - Promo Video

Pitta Balancing by Melina Meza

Summer is a pitta season, and as such, fire and water elements will be more predominant, and most people will feel the heat, sweat more, and seek refuge in cool water to help regulate their internal furnace. Relaxing is one of the best ways to decrease pitta’s hot, ambitious nature and prevent your elements from going out of balance in the first place. It’s best to take it easy, do less, and take frequent deep breaths in a hammock under the shade of your favorite tree.

In the Western culture, there is a tendency to try to be consistently productive all year round, without exception. On an intuitive level, most people know that taking downtime in the summer feels right because everybody needs and deserves a break. In the West, the work environment and ethics are aligned with the pitta elements and create a world for enthusiastic people to strive for perfection and power, reflecting the “like increases like” Ayurvedic sutra.

But when the Pitta elements are out of balance in your lifestyle or in your body, what you notice is often a feeling of being burned out, dried up, tired, and angry. You carry along companions like regret, especially if others around you are having fun. When it’s hot, bright, and perhaps dry or humid outside, it’s best not to take on too much responsibility or overplan your free time; rather, leave some time to be spontaneous and let yourself go with the flow.

Ideally, all these practices should be followed, but if the list seems overwhelming, choose just a few that resonate with you and commit to them for the whole season.

· Wake up before the sunrise at 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. (do your best!) and greet the day with gratitude for another opportunity to celebrate life.

· Wash your face, brush your teeth, scrape your tongue, do a neti pot, and lubricate your nostrils with oil or ghee.

· Drink hot lemon water with a little salt in the morning to stimulate elimination.

· Meditate for 5 to 30 minutes (on water, loving kindness, or blue sky).

· Do your aerobic exercises while it’s cool outside, balancing your exercise with restorative asanas.

· Perform abhyanga, a full-body self-massage, which calms the nervous system and hydrates the skin. In the summer, apply coconut oil (leave the oil on for 10 to 30 minutes) and then take a warm shower, which will open your pores and allow the oil to be absorbed into your skin.

· If possible, eat all your meals outside in the fresh air.

· Summer is the time to stay cool. Avoid overheating by eating salads and foods that are cooling (like cucumber and watermelon), sweet (like fresh fruit), and sattvic (like mung beans and basmati rice); drink lassis, a blend of yogurt and water mixed with fruit and/or Indian spices or salt. A small amount of chili or spice can promote sweating, which helps you cool down. Too much heat will create pitta irritation such as heartburn, diarrhea, or a skin rash.

· Do your cooking and meal planning in the morning when the kitchen is cool.

· Never skip a meal, especially if you relate to the Pitta dosha and are in the summer season. To avoid low blood sugar moments that fuel Pitta’s impatient, irritable nature, keep a stash of healthy snacks like energy bars, nuts, fresh fruit, seaweed strips, or coconut water around at all times.

From: Art of Sequencing - Volume Two - Seasonal Vinyasa by Melina Meza