Skillful Living
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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Autonomy Intrinsic to Mood & Food: Finding our own way
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…
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Lemon Balm Sleep Support
Lemon balm sleep support is not as well known as it ought to be! While there’s lots of heavy hitters out there on the supplements shelves for insomnia, lemon balm is a beguilingly sweet smelling, delightful tasting herb that calms mood during the day, and helps sleep at night. I find it most effective when…
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