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. (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 me in my office one on one.
The information is out there. Now it’s time to discover how to apply it skillfully and accessibly with respect to these wildly changing times. To address how to shift and support patterns for nourishment for yourself and the people you’re working with, in grounded easeful ways.
The Rationale behind the Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series
Years ago I said I was glad I had a degree in counseling, because it’s one thing to know what people need to eat, and another to support them in actually accomplishing their intentions. This Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series addresses this second half of the equation, the subtle dynamics of successful nourishment. I share the tools that I work with daily in my practice, and what fascinates me now on the pioneering edge of healing.
Tools in this Journey
Once you know what you need to do, how do you do it? Here are tools. The mahagunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas link naturally with the healing methods of Polyvagal Theory. Joann Lutz has been a pioneer in this process with yoga, pranayama, and healing trauma. Working skillfully with the mahagunas gives the digestive tract a greater chance to heal, if it’s lost its balance. It gives the body a better shot of a good night’s sleep. We are able to recover our calm more readily. How do we engage with the mahagunas in this way? With touch (Marma Therapy) as guided self-care. With breath. With communication, reflective listening, so all of you knows she or he or they are being heard.
Shifting and Supporting Patterns for Nourishment
The Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series is about how you actually work with people and the realities of their lives, to be able to shift and support patterns for nourishment. This is the interface with which I work, a lot. It’s like a tidal zone, with changing conditions, experiences awash in feelings, unexpected shifts in schedules, surprising revelations. People are more than tidy packages of Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.
In my years of working with Ayurvedic nutrition, I’ve found that how I support a client in implementing nourishment changes is as crucial as correctly identifying what changes need to be made. To work in this way, one needs to respect all the levels of who someone is, and engage all the senses and awareness to be safe and grounded. In this series, I present the tools I’ve used in the frontlines of this work in my decades of practice, especially what resonates for me in this last decade as conditions have changed so quickly.
Join the Dance Wherever You Can
In creating this series, I’ve been inspired by the work of Ted Wiard, my teacher in the Grief, Trauma, and Renewal certification series offered by Southwestern College’s New Earth Institute. As participants in this training, we could take any of six intensive weekend modules offered over a year and a half. To be certified as CGCs, certified grief counselors, we needed to take all six, yet in any order we wanted.
This same flexibility is built into the Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series. You can take any course in the series, in any order. This fall there are two courses being offered: Marma, Mind, Mahagunas in October and Mood & Food in November. Most courses happen live online. A third course, Adapt Recipes for Individual and Cultural Needs is being prepared as a pre-recorded five-hour module, for people seeking on-demand learning.
Looking to the Future
We’re growing this as we can. Topics that draw my attention for the series in the future include Mood & Food in Relationships (how we eat on our own and how we eat around others can be so different!) This one also takes into account intergenerational and lineage streams. Sustainability is another biggie. Healing into the body, embodiment is another. I’m jived about this learning.
Joining Us Now
If you’d like to join us, you’re most welcome. The series is geared to health professionals and offers PACE credits for Ayurvedic practitioners. Yet if you are a thoughtful, aware, open-minded lay person interested in exploring these topics more deeply, there’s a place in this learning for you, as well.
For more information about the Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series, click here.
Resources with Which to Play
If you are looking for information, there are generous numbers of cookbooks with which to meet your needs. Trust what speaks to you. The Ayurvedic Cookbook by myself and Urmila Desai offers many delicious Gujarati dishes. Ayurvedic Cooking for Self Healing by Usha Lad and Dr. Vasant Lad leads the field in excellence, and here you can find out more about the specific qualities of foods in easy to access tables. Divya Alter has two beautiful and nourishing cookbooks, and a host of Ayurvedic staples to support a healing life style. In Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners I apply Ayurvedic principles to fresh, familiar foods. (Thanks to my family for urging this one.) Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda by myself and Renee Lynn is all about what to drink on a seasonal basis, with insights into the changing rhythms of digestive fire and the doshas. You can google Sahara Rose Ketabi, Kate O’Donnell, Bri Maya Tiwari, Amrita Sondhi, Talya Lutzker, Cate Stillman, Dr. John Douillard, Johnny Brannigan, Susan Weiss-Bohlen, Lois Leonhardi, to get started.
I notice as I peruse my YouTube channel, there’s a lot of “how-to” there, a lot of info. That’s okay, check it out if you like, to get some sense of its flavor. Using marma to relax. Making an Easy Healing Drink. Breathing in Loving Kindness. There’s more free offerings on my website, like Harmonizing Digestion & Elimination with Marma Therapy, an audio.
For more information about the Dynamics of Ayurvedic Nutrition series, and to register for Marma, Mind, Mahagunas, Shifting and Supporting Patterns for Nourishment, click here.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Seva van Why for asking just the right question.
Consulting image thanks to The Women.