Hydration with Essential Rasa Tea

It’s hot. You’re dry. You’re thirsty. There’s dozens of sugary and/or caffeinated drinks out there, waiting to quench your thirst. Plain water is clearly a wiser choice. Are there other wise choices? What if you were to approach replenishing your tissues with long term kindness? Hydration with Essential Rasa Tea supports you in multiple ways. 

Hydration, Plasma, and the Dhatus

In Ayurveda, health depends of the vitality of our essential tissues, the dhatus. One perspective in Ayurveda is that the seven dhatus are nourished sequentially: our plasma (rasa dhatu), the liquid part of our blood, has to be well-hydrated to pass nourishment on to the blood cells (rakta dhatu). Blood cells feed muscle (mamsa dhatu). Muscle feeds fat (meda dhatu), fat nourishes bone (asthi dhatu), bone nourishes nerves and marrow (majja dhatu), and majja feeds reproductive tissue. If all seven dhatus receive what they need, healthy excess can go into building ojas, our vital immunity and cushion. (More info can be found in my book The Ayurvedic Guide to Polarity Therapy.)

We’ve Got Watery Tissues 

From the Western perspective, up to 78% of our bodies are comprised of water. Some organs are remarkably high in water content, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Our lungs are 83% water – coughing depletes us of water fast. Water comprises 73% of the weight of our heart and brain, 79% of our muscles and kidneys, 64% of our skin. Even bones are made up of 31% water.

Signs of Dehydration

When we’re dehydrated, all of our tissues and our immunity can suffer. Thirst is a reliable indicator of mild dehydration. Other signs of dehydration are dry mouth, tongue, lips, or skin. Headache, fatigue, dizziness, and muscle cramps are all signs. Reduced urine output, dark urine, constipation, and reduced ability to regulate body temperature are others. High heart rate with low blood pressure is a striking indicator.

Hydration with Essential Rasa Tea

In Ayurveda, we build the rasa/plasma steadily, to nourish all the other tissues of the body. This tea is excellent for preventing dehydration. It’s based on a recipe from Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda. 

ESSENTIAL RASA TEA FOR THESE TIMES 

Balances all doshas, Tridoshic 

Makes 3 cups plus, useful in all seasons

SUN TEA METHOD:

Place in a glass Mason jar:

1 Tablespoon fenugreek seeds

1 Tablespoon fennel seeds

1 Tablespoon peppermint 

1 Tablespoon marshmallow root

1 Tablespoon lemon balm (anti-viral, mood support)

1 Tablespoon lemongrass (anti-viral, cooling)

1/2 teaspoon licorice root, chopped or powdered (optional, skip if you have hypertension)

1 thin slice fresh ginger root (optional)

1 Tablespoon flax seeds per cup of tea (optional)

Pour one quart of water over the herbs. Screw the top on the jar, and find a sunny place for it to sit for 2 – 3 hours, a windowsill, outside, near a tree. Strain the tea before serving, chill as desired. Room temperature is preferred.

STOVE TOP METHOD

Bring water to a boil in a medium stainless steel pot. Put all the herbs in a quart Mason jar, pour the hot water over them and steep for 30 minutes or more.  Before serving, strain the tea. Thanks to Easy Healing Drinks for this recipe.

Drink 1 – 2 cups per day, the larger amount if you are in dry conditions.

You can see how to make the original Rasa Tea with me on this video.

Hydration with Essential Rasa Tea here in the Southwest

This tea supports plasma, nerves, female & male reproductive systems, lactation, ojas. Because rasa/plasma is the raw ingredient for every other dhatu. I recommend this tea almost daily in my practice, for nourishment and hydration.

Here in northern New Mexico, we are lucky if we receive twelve inches of rainfall annually. We share this pattern with much of the non-coastal Western US. June is often a very dry month here in the West. In the last week, we’ve gotten more unexpected rains. The water catchment troughs are full, a small bird frolics in a puddle left in a warped piece of plywood, the greens growing in our one raised bed are plump and succulent, the needles on the ponderosas are glossy. In this moment, our forest has generous ojas, resilience; its tissues have been fed by this extra moisture. How long it will last, we can’t know. It all depends on the rains. In the midst of a long-term picture of drought, I am so grateful. 

Hydration with Essential Rasa Tea is practical here, and tasty.

Water Worldwide

Many parts of the world are drawing down water faster than it can be replenished, including here in all of the US and in India.

One out of every ten people on the planet now lacks access to healthy water due to climate change, drought, and conflict.

Hydration, Migration, and Sentient Beings

Having lived in this relatively arid high mountain place for fifty years, I respect water in a wide range of ways. Yet sometimes it can be hard for me to imagine another being’s conditions in other parts of this planet, what that must feel like. Water scarcity triggers refugee crisis.

Novels make more immediate for me the reality of other people’s lives. Movies may awaken you this way. A book and recent film, The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri, brings alive life in Syria for a small community of people. The fields are magic filled with bees before the war, the honey shop with its exotic soaps and potions, the children playing by the river. As the scene devolves, Nuri the beekeeper and Afra his artist partner are forced into migration. Struggling to reunite with loved ones in the UK, they experience things they’d never imagined, an ugly underbelly of humanity. Refugees are at high risk for dehydration.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels are two other very different explores of leaving one’s homeland. They have been drinks of water for my parched soul. 

Powerful people grab for resources, pit one group of us against another, perpetuate wars and catalyze the dispossession of millions of us humans across the globe. Water and fluids are needed. Kindness and courage are too. 

With a shout out to Juan and Stephen: may all your tissues heal!

Essential Rasa Tea image thanks to Renee Lynn (originally shot as Roots 2)

Amadea Morningstar is a writer and health educator living in the US. Her latest book is Easy Healing Drinks from the Wisdom of Ayurveda. Past work includes The Ayurvedic Cookbook with Urmila Desai, Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners, and The Ayurvedic Guide to Polarity Therapy.

This article also appears on amadeamorningstar.substack.com/p/hydration-with-essential-rasa-tea.