Skillful Living
Sustainable plastic free Easy Healing Drinks
As we approach the shortest day and the longest night, I’m looking at my values. Plastic diminished holidays are a priority for me. Less plastic means more hands-on interactions and nature-based experiences. If you’re looking for inspiration on how you can do this, here’s a great holiday guide from Beyond Plastics. As the Global Plastic…
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Rest the Solstice and Kapha Time
What do rest the Solstice and Kapha time have to do with one another? As I head toward the bottom of the year, I can feel the drag of the shortest day approaching, the urge to hibernate, to rest. Simultaneously holiday requirements load extra jobs on already overburdened days. The doshas, biological energies of Ayurveda,…
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Adapt Recipes for Autumn Food Shopping in the Midst of Change
In the midst of many heart-wrenching events, this is a blog about grocery shopping. How to be resourced in the midst of intense times? One mundane support is grocery shopping. Bessel van der Kolk makes a great point in The Body Keeps the Score: “People can learn to control and change their behavior, but only…
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Ayurveda and Polyvagal Theory
Humans have within our biology the capacity to heal, based on millions of years of evolution. In the years since the pandemic I got interested in how Ayurveda and Polyvagal Theory relate. The similarities between the Mahagunas, qualities of mind, and these specific autonomic nervous system parts is striking. Sattva, openness, Ventral vagus. Rajas, mobilization,…
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Ayurveda Late Winter Spring Fare:
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…
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Ayurveda Ode to Buckwheat: a shout out to the Southern Hemisphere
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,…
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Adapt Recipes Use Ayurveda with Ease
Adapt Recipes Use Ayurveda with ease is a creative process. You can play with the food you eat in fresh ways, to make it just right for you. Ayurveda has tremendous tools to specifically hone recipes to suit you and/or your household, using the 21 gunas, the 6 tastes, breath, and marma. When our daughter…
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4 Quick Ways to Ground in Awareness
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…
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Patanjali Ayurveda and Polyvagal Theory: Fresh Approaches in Ayurvedic Nutrition and Marma Therapy
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…
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Why a Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition Series? Shift and Support Patterns for Nourishment
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.…
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