Tag: ayurveda

Categories
Yoga therapy

How and Why Meditation?

There are so many ways we can connect with our inner selves or meditate. Some people prefer sitting still for 30 minutes a day and witnessing their thoughts and mental chatter -or joining a retreat and sit for 10 days – or focusing on the body sensations – or letting the thoughts go with the intention of a blank slate, with a job well done IF successful or perhaps walking meditation – gardening, listening to a guided recording – or just “being” truly present with oneself. I am sure you can think of many more.

I have tried so many of the ways meditation is taught over the past 30 years and the style of meditation that best suits me is Yoga Meditation – awareness of combining the breath with the postures. Also I enjoy connecting with nature – decreasing outside distractions like mindless chatter with ear plugs in and listening to my breathing. Chanting or prayerfermations sung to my favourite tunes is another sensory way of mine.

I experience these forms as fine tuning my inner vibration and connecting with myself in a world that encourages disconnecting. A huge distraction for me is technology and busyness – I can always find something to do – but today I ask myself to aspire for 10 mins morning and night (often this can morph into longer time permitting)

Yoga is an act of self love to listen and really hear my inner selves – give them a voice – some team work within me and most importantly I do not set my bar too high for further self criticism or lack of self love.

My understanding of meditation is to listen to my intuition – some may call that God – Wisdom – or even the gut – I aim to feel the sensations in my body – I use my breath as the bridge between my mind and body – creating connection and I use daily triggers to have some conscious long exhalations.

Yoga Meditation is free yet difficult to make the space / time to do.

The Yoga sutras – yamas & niyamas are what leads us to yoga (mostly unconsciously until we hear them) sustaining, nourishing and enhancing our lives.

The 8 steps Patanjali passed down and the Buddha the no 1 teacher of meditation focused on the 1,2,4,5,6,7,8 – not 3, the asana or exercise.

The Buddha gave detailed descriptions of many forms of meditation and mind control techniques. The mind & senses constantly seek distraction & naturally want to find a way out of the stillness – the mind & ego wants to move & change – so a new layer or meditation technique needs to be added to keep the mind still.

Recognition of our thoughts our physical sensations our reactions towards self and others is a noble path – to take responsibility for our actions and to understand our re-actions ( which often comes from our childhood templates ) can make the planet a better place.

Categories
Yoga therapy

There’s no money in healthy people 

There is no money in healthy people nor dead people it’s those in between is where the money is! Says a documentary Forks over Knives.

Let food be thy medicine – Hippocrates

Plants have protein as well as meat.

Categories
ayurvedic

Vata calming tea

Create a zone of inner calm

That ‘too-much-to-do, too-little-time’ feeling can cause you to be on edge, restless, anxious. A few sips of Organic Vata Tea will help your whirling mind settle down and your body relax. Whether at work, at home, or on the road, sweet soothing Organic Vata Tea can help you stay calm and alert. Now certified organic.

More….

Spice Wise

Spices are ingredients in many synergistic ayurvedic herbal formulations, and an ayurvedic expert, when giving you advice, is as likely to recommend specific spices to include in your diet as to suggest herbal supplements for you to take.

Organic Calming Vata Tea ingredients include Organic Licorice (root), Organic Ginger (rhizome), Organic Cardamom (fruit) & Organic Cinnamon (bark).

more….

Organic Calm Vata® Tea

Categories
Uncategorized

Acne Ayurveda treatments

Other than knowing your dosha ( Ayurvedic body type) through an Ayurvedic consultation to treat skin disorders, below are 3,useful herbs

Three Herbs for that Perfect, Glowing Skin

Want to have that perfectly glowing skin but not sure what to do about it? Well, the answer lies in your own surroundings! We often fail to realize the importance of the things that are easily available to us – the biggest example being ‘nature’ itself. Just look around and you will find that there are numerous valuable herbs and plants that have endless therapeutic and rejuvenating properties that could be a boon to your skin in the scorching heat.

Here are three useful, easily available herbs that will pacify your doshas and keep your skin healthy and glowing in summers:

Turmeric (Haldi)

Turmeric purifies blood, nourishes the skin and gives it a healthy natural glow and radiance. It has anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and anti-bacterial properties that help reduce inflammation of skin, acne, pimples, blemishes, pigmentation, and prevent many skin ailments. It also helps heal and prevent dry skin, and slows down the skin aging process.

Ayurvedic Properties:
Quality (Guna): Rough, Light
Taste (Rasa): Pungent, Bitter
Post-digestive Effect (Vipaka): Bitter
Potency (Virya): Warm
Effect on Doshas: Pacifies Vata,
Pitta and Kapha

How to Use:

To brighten your skin up for a hot day, mix turmeric powder and rice powder with raw milk and tomato juice, enough to form a paste, and apply to face and neck for 30 minutes. Rinse with lukewarm water.
For a night cream, prepare a paste made from turmeric and milk or yogurt and apply it to your face. Allow the mask to dry and leave it on overnight. Wash off the mask in the morning using a gentle cleanser.
Applying turmeric powder along with lime juice on exposed areas of the skin helps remove tanning.

Sandalwood (Chandan)
The key ingredient in many Ayurvedic skin-care treatments, Sandalwood is effective in treating scrapes, rashes, blemishes, acne, and other common skin problems. When used externally, the oil and paste of Sandalwood has a calming, cooling effect on the body. It is bitter, sweet, astringent and cooling in nature, and helps balance the body after overexposure to the sun. Sandalwood powder can be made into a paste, lotion or soap for cleansing and hydrating the skin.

Ayurvedic Properties:
Quality: Rough, Light
Taste: Bitter
Post-digestive Effect: Bitter, Sweet
Potency: Cold
Effect on Doshas: Pacifies Pitta and Kapha

How to Use:

To treat pimples, make a paste of one teaspoon of sandalwood powder mixed with one teaspoon of turmeric. Add one teaspoon of water to make the paste, and apply to pimples before bed.
For itchy skin, apply the mixture of one teaspoon of sandalwood with one teaspoon of turmeric and one teaspoon of lime juice. Leave on for 20 to 30 minutes and rinse with cool water.
Sandalwood oil can be used as a moisturizer on the face and body and is also great for massaging.

Mix five tablespoons of coconut oil with two teaspoons of almond oil. Add four teaspoons of sandalwood powder, and apply the mixture to the overexposed areas of your skin. You will notice a considerable improvement in your tan.

Aloe Vera (Ghritkumari)
Aloe Vera has been well known for centuries for its anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, healing and cooling properties. It facilities healing of any kind – be it a skin wound, acne, burn, scald, blisters, insect bites, rashes, urticaria, vaginal infections, allergic reactions or dry skin. The gel of this plant helps to protect the outer layers of the skin, keeps the skin cool and reduces inflammation.

Ayurvedic Properties:
Quality: Heavy, Oily
Taste: Bitter
Post-digestive Effect: Pungent
Potency: Cold
Effect on Doshas: Pacifies Pitta and Kapha

How to use:

Applying Aloe Vera gel on the skin prior to application of make-up can prevent the skin from drying.
lend the pulp of some fresh fruits with Aloe Vera gel in a blender and use it as a pack to keep the skin cool.
Mix Aloe Vera with wheat germ oil or almond oil to use it as a moisturizing pack.
To treat pigmentation, get a fresh leaf of Aloe Vera and split it to remove the gel. Apply this on clean skin and leave for about 20 minutes.
In case of sunburn, the application of Aloe Vera-based cream acts as a protective layer on the skin and helps replenish its moisture.

http://www.jiva.com/ayurveda

IMG_4479

IMG_4481

IMG_4480

Categories
Uncategorized

You are what you eat

The food we eat is that unique aspect of our life which we have almost total control over. Because we are what we eat, according to Ayurveda, it can be a very powerful tool for balancing and for promoting and maintaining health. One ancient authority says that food is our medicine–a good regimen of diet is worth a hundred drugs but no amount of drugs can overcome a poor regimen of diet.

junk food

Categories
ayurvedic diet

How Ayurveda Diet works

What we eat effects our health

Ayurveda, the ancient healing art of India, teaches that food plays an essential part in our health and sense of well-being. Recipes are formulated using herbs and spices that help balance the constitution of each person.

The Ayurveda diet works because it looks at the effect of the foods on the individual constitution. This is included with every recipe together with the medicinal properties of many of the foods.

Ayurveda is a way of healing and a way of life that always takes into consideration the whole person. According to the teachings of Ayurveda every aspect of life contributes to overall health. 

Ayurveda lunch

Poor health seldom has a simple or single cause and diet is the best place to start.

Dosha’s our unique make up

Our sense of well-being reflects the inner state of health. Good health is the maintenance of our unique combination of the Dosha’s. For the Ayurveda diet to work for you, It is equally important to have the following:-

  • A balanced condition of the Agni (digestive fire) and
  • the seven body tissues and
  • three water systems (urine, sweat & faeces)
  • as well as a balance in the mind, senses and consciousness.
  • to have love, happiness and clarity in daily living.

Doshic imbalance governs internal biochemical changes that eventually lead to either high or low metabolism.

The Pitta dosha and how the Ayurveda diet works

If the Pitta dosha is out of balance there will be an increase in digestive fire which will burn the skin and digestion will be too fast to absorb any nutrients. Anger and controlling impulses will become more dominant.

Pitta dosha governs all physical and bio chemical changes that take place within the body. Through this process foodstuffs are transformed into energy, heat and vitality. It is the Pitta that performs these functions throughout one’s life, but is especially prominent during the adult years. All these activities of Pitta depend upon the “digestive fire or Agni.” Poor Agni means poor health.

Wrong diet such as hot spicy foods, wrong lifestyle such as living in a hot climate and repressed emotions alter the normal function of Pitta.

Doshas Ayurveda

The Kapha dosha

Kapha dosha is from the heart upwards and when in excess weight increases as well as fluid and mucus. When out of balance the kapha can lose motivation and sleep a lot.

Anabolism is the process of building up the body. It is the repair, growth and creation of new cells. This process is managed by Kapha and is most active in the baby child and teen years. Kapha dosha is disturbed by excessive intake of sweet, dairy and cold oily foods.

Vata dosha

The Vata dosha symptoms are from the navel down. Vata being made of air and either is effected by either an upward or downward flow. When disturbed the vata can cause constipation, insomnia, anxiety and fear.

Catabolism is the destructive, but necessary stage of metabolism. Larger molecules are broken into smaller ones. This molecular death is governed by Vata dosha and is most active in old age. Repeated intake of Vata provoking food, such as salads and popcorn, and over-exercising escalate Vata and disturb health.

Improper eating habits

  1. Overeating
  2. Eating soon after a full meal
  3. Too much water or no water during a meal
  4. Drinking very chilled water during a meal, or indeed anytime
  5. Eating when constipated
  6. Wrong time of day-either too early or too late to eat
  7. Overuse of heavy foods or too little light food
  8. Drinking fruit juice or eating fruit with a meal
  9. Eating without real hunger
  10. Emotional eating
  11. Incompatible food combinations
  12. Snacking in between meals

Eating time of day and season

The bodies’ biological clock is regulated by the Dosha’s. The time of maximum activity of Kapha is during early morning and early evening, 6am to 10 am and 6am to 10 pm.

Pitta period is during midday and midnight, 10 am to 2am and 10pm to 2am, while Vata hours are dawn and dust, 2 to 6 am and 2 to 6 am.

Thus a Pitta-type disease, like ulcers, cause the most discomfort late at night in the Pitta time and of the bio-clock. Likewise the reverse is also true, in the sense that experiencing a sharp pain in the stomach region late at night may signify ulcers or another Pitta type aggravation.

Every act you perform around food should be in a loving honouring and sacred manner.

Food is medicine

When growing the food, selecting it in the supermarket or preparing it for cooking always demonstrate respect. The amount of loving awareness and respect you give transfers exactly to the food and to the hungry stomachs. Food that is prepared in a loving manner brings truly healing results to everyone.

Yoga Works for Over 40s Ayurveda Therapy Programs

Currently our Yoga Ayurveda Therapy personalised programs are conducted online. There are so many benefits from combining Yoga and Ayurveda, together.  

Indeed together they make a complete therapy for body and mind. Yoga and Ayurveda are taught together the traditional way. As a final point you will be given a personal practice that suits your individual needs.

To start with, we work with each person who may be:-

  • working in a job that is sapping energy
  • experiencing menopausal symtoms
  • recovering from surgery
  • in chronic pain and injury
  • anxious or stressed
  • any chronic condition
  • ageing and adjusting to life’s challenges
  • in the corporate world

We are currently running all our classes (online). They are Good Morning Yoga Therapy, Lunchtime Chair Yoga Therapy and Sleepy Time Yoga therapy.

Read about the 7 benefits of Yoga for Seniors here and more information send us a note, we would love to hear from you or call +61 407 956 071 or email Zoe at contact@yogaworksforover40s.com