Eating with the Season & Your Doshas Discovering what Ayurveda late winter spring fare is just right for you can take some self examination. Not everyone responds to late winter or early spring in the same way. A lot depends on the balance of your doshas. The Doshas Change with the Seasons Ayurveda tracks the rise and fall of the biological energies of the doshas through the seasons. Depending on what doshas are most prominent in you right now, you can eat just right for you – yet you might need something different than a close friend or loved one. How to discover what you need, and be abl ..read more

Knowing that we’re in these last few weeks (perhaps) of winter here in the North, I’ve been especially enjoying warming buckwheat, before I begin to shift over to more cooling grains. As the Northern Hemisphere leaves winter behind, I’ve got a favorite warming breakfast I want to pass on to inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere, as you all head into autumn. This is my Ayurveda ode to buckwheat. BREAKFAST BUCKWHEAT Serves one, can be easily multiplied Calms Vata and Kapha, mildly increasing to Pitta Organic ingredients preferred whenever possible 1/3 cup Pocono brand Cream of Buckwheat 2 teasp ..read more

How can Patanjali, Ayurveda and Polyvagal Theory interact to make an effective shift in patterns? Here’s 4 Quick Ways to Ground in Awareness, which make healthy shifts a lot easier. Both Ayurveda and Polyvagal Theory use simple techniques to bring our awareness into the present moment, thereby reducing stress and suffering. Here’s how you can apply them in your own life to change or sidestep painful patterns with Patanjali’s wisdom. Give your nervous system a break. Step away, get out of the triggering scene if you can. The Wisdom of Patanjali (see graphic below) can manifest as a creative spi ..read more

How do Patanjali Ayurveda and Polyvagal Theory mesh to create more effective healing through nourishment and touch? Many years ago I was fortunate to hear a lecture by Ayurvedic yoga therapist Mukunda Stiles on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. I came away from his talk struck by how Patanjali’s description of the  human mind directly apply to nourishment challenges today. It’s supported me in getting my mind to work FOR me, instead of against me, and I’ve been using this approach directly with my clients and students ever since. Here’s how it functions. Using the Wisdom of Patanjali to cut t ..read more

Why a Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series? I’ve worked with Ayurvedic Nutrition for 40 years. In that time, there’s been tremendous growth in the field. If someone gets interested in Ayurveda now, and wants to learn their constitution, their current condition, what to eat, and how to eat, there is a plethora of resources available. (Scroll to the end of this blog to discover just a few of them.) You can visit an Ayurvedic practitioner, an Ayurvedic doctor, or an Ayurvedic Health counselor. There are two professional Ayurveda organizations here in the US.  NAMA and AAPNA. You can visit ..read more

How is autonomy intrinsic to Mood & Food? Autonomy is self government, the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. We need to be able to make our own choices to effectively take charge of our own lives, as much as possible. This might seem obvious, yet in childhood, it is common to not be able to make choices about what one eats. This lack of power can become hard-wired into our approaches to food, making us more fearful, frustrated, or less creative than we could be. We may play out these disempowered patterns of early life in a variety of ways. Simply remembering that we have p ..read more

In Long Covid Ayurveda support can make a potential difference in the intensity, severity, and duration of the disease. How much so is still in the early stages of research. Last month it was estimated that 2 – 4 million people are unable to work due to Long Covid, and that currently more than 16 million working age adults have long Covid in the US. There are a huge number of us who are quietly suffering with continued fatigue, inflammation, difficulty breathing, chest pain, digestive symptoms, joint pain, brain fog, or loss of taste and/or smell. Hispanic adults, women, and young adults have ..read more

PUMFU STEW Time: 15 – 20 minutes Serves 2 Nice in spring, autumn, winter 8 oz organic pumfu, original, from Foodies Vegan 2 Tablespoons chopped onion, sweet or red 2 – 3 cups colorful local veggies of your liking 1 – 2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence herb blend 1 – 1 ½ cups water ½ teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, organic coconut oil, or Miyoko cultured vegan butter   To make pumfu stew, you prep the pumfu and the veggies: rinse the pumfu and cube or cut into rectangles about 1” long. Wash your veggies and chop them into bite-sized pieces. For color, cubed carrots or y ..read more

What are my top 2 New Year’s health tips this year? As an Ayurvedic educator, Polarity therapist, and human, here are my votes for this coming year’s most effective re-balancing actions in this moment. First of the top 2 New Year’s health tips Stop sugar. I mean white sugar, for at least 30 days. Less time than this, it can be harder to see a difference and easier to rebound. This choice supports your immune system, your heart, your blood sugar metabolism, kidneys, liver, and overall mood. You can quit cold turkey. (Here’s help for how to work with sugar addiction from an Ayurvedic perspective ..read more

It’s worth contemplating the dynamics of healing chai as the season changes on us. This sweet, pungent, and astringent-tasting brew warms us up just when we are needing it. As the season changes, it’s time for our food and beverage choices to change some too. With autumn, we need more warmth and less coolness, more spice and less blandness. I invite you to look at the classic blend of spices within this highly popular East Indian drink. How to understand the dynamics of healing chai To understand the dynamics of healing chai, we consider its individual ingredients, their qualities, and how the ..read more