Just as the air turns cold and harsh, our souls grow warm and gentle.

Sure we hear about the occasional Black Friday pepper-spraying, but for the most part, we all seem to get along a little better during these winter months.

We all have fond memories of family traditions and rituals that brought us together as the calendar changes and the ground freezes.  Some of us hail from places more frozen than others however, despite our geographical (and even cultural) differences, these months are marked by something special.

As someone constantly plagued by the question, “why?”, I always seek to discover the utility of the seemingly ubiquitous phenomenon of families gathering together in ritual and feast during this auspicious time of year.  Nearly everything we do as humans serves an evolutionary or spiritual purpose.  We have an innate survival instinct to evaluate the economic ramifications of everything we do.  So why then, do we go out of our way to travel long distances, fight the crowds at the mall and deplete our bank accounts during this time of scarcity? Aren’t our friends in the animal kingdom winding down, fattening up and preparing to take on the elements? (at least we’ve got the fattening up part down)

One of the overarching tenets of Ayurveda is illustrated by the saying, “as above, so below”.  This means that what happens in the cell happens in the tissue, the organ, the system, the body……and so on all the way up to the universe.  This chain reaction can also go in the reverse order of what I just listed.

This is what is at work in all of us during this Vata season.  As the northern hemisphere of the Earth tilts further away from the sun, the temperature drops.  This is apparent to us all, man and beast alike.  What may, or may not be as apparent to our animal friends (perhaps due to lack of a soul) is the need for internal warmth.  The type of warmth only felt in the deepest parts of your heart.  Warmth brought to us by being around our loved ones, giving that perfect gift or sharing in recipes that are generations old.

This need for family and ritual is my explanation for our seemingly counter-productive and irresponsible battling of the elements, crowds and airports during the flu-season.

So much meaning and ritual is being replaced by our self-imposed stresses associated with this time of year.  We all need a little reminder to come back to our nature and relish the reason for the season.  This doesn’t have to be attached to any particular theology, rather, it can be rooted in our universal need to be connected to one and other as well as the world around us.  We as humans have developed a myriad of customs and rituals throughout our history that we use across the globe to counteract the drastic shifts in our atmosphere around us.

We need our family, friends, gratitude, joy and cheer as much as we need our scarves, mittens and homes during this most wonderful time of year.

Please share some of your most cherished family rituals in the comments below.

Image via Wikipedia

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.”

-Cicero

Thank you for all your support as a reader of this blog. Together, we can share in the wisdom of the ages and move towards a happier and healthier life.

FREE Best Thanksgiving Ever guide from Cate at Yogahealer.com, Pass it along! ow.ly/7w8Td

How would you finish this sentence?  Gratitude is something so unique to humans that it can be argued that it is one of the few things that makes us human.  Our own nature and circumstance can be one of the biggest obstacles to happiness.  It is only through being humble and giving thanks that we may be freed from our feelings of self pity and unhappiness.

Our faith in others can be shaken but gratitude for the blessings we have gives us the power to overcome any set of circumstances that may come our way.

Getting back to the original question; how would you finish the sentence, “I am most thankful for…..”?  Chances are, you would say something about your family.

That is why I am excited to bring such great news for you and your family.

Cate Stillman, the Yoga Healer, has crafted an excellent way for you and your family to come together in an extraordinary way this holiday season.  You can download your FREE Best Thanksgiving Ever Guide by clicking the image below.  The best part about it is that this guide will not only be a gift for you, but also for those family members with whom you share your holiday celebrations with this season.

We’ve created the Thanksgiving Guide for you to uplevel your Thanksgiving in line with your inner wisdom. Your free guide includes:

• an E Book for you to print
• Inspiring interviews and Conversations
• Autumn Yoga Classes with Cate

The idea is to spark your own ideas about:

• how you want to nourish yourself and your loved ones
• connecting through meaningful conversation
• tapping into the inner joy of deep fall

Goals of the Guide

1. Support each other at the growing edge of conscious celebration.
2. Upgrade your personal and potentially family food traditions during the Holidays.
3. Inspire your rituals with Earth-based rhythms.
4. Transform gift giving & receiving to cultivate connection.
5. Have a BLAST with your families and Friends!

In the Thanksgiving Guide Ebook

• Recipes for Vibrant Bodies
• Earth-Centric Rituals
• What not to Buy
• Earth Rhythm Homes
• Conversations for Change
• Tips from the holiday coach
• Blessings Worksheet

On the Webpage

• Inspiring Dialogues
• Sergei Boutenko – wild edibles
• the Stillman family – planning our holiday
• Dynamic Yoga Classes 
• Ancestor Connection Yoga Practice (75 min. audio)
• 5 element Thanksgiving Yoga Practice (75 min. audio)

Tell me what you are thankful for in the comments below.

Image via Wikipedia

“Doctor, it hurts when I do this…”

I’ve never been to medical school but I’d imagine one of the first things you learn is how to determine the Chief Complaint (Primary Complaint in the UK).  This is often abbreviated as CC in medical charts but in layman’s terms it is the reason for the visit.

It makes perfect sense to ask the patient what drove them to see you if your purpose is to ease their pain or discomfort.  If your goal is to fix the root cause and bring balance back to the being, your first line of questioning should go a little different.

The Psychological Effect

Of course it is very necessary to establish a sense of trust and compassion for your patient from the outset.  Rev. John C. Maxwell once said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.  I find this to be true from both a patient perspective and as a healer.  Any advice you offer must be served warmly and in a tolerable dose.

Ayurveda is uniquely equipped to offer both compassion and maximal efficacy during the intake process.  The Dosha questionnaire is designed to determine the patients Prakriti or true nature.  There is no Western analog however if you could encapsulate your ego, zodiac sign, genetic makeup, biochemical individuality, time-zone at birth, personality, favorite color and flavor of jello your mother ate in the hospital all in to one category, that would be your Prakriti.

Simply put, your Prakriti is your dosha profile while you are in balance.  I say dosha profile because contrary to what the main post may have led you to believe, you don’t possess just one dosha.  There are three doshas at work in everybody.  Your Prakriti is the recipe or proportion of each that leads to optimal health and wellness in a person.

In asking the questions that help determine ones Prakriti, the healer fosters the same relationship the doctor would as they listen to the patient describe their symptoms.

A Practical Approach

But what about the practicality of identifying the reason for the visit?  True, this is the most direct route to relieve-the-symptomsville however Ayurveda seeks to treat the root cause.  Now I know that diagnostics serves a very important role in the emergent or acute care setting.  I would never give a dosha analysis right away to somebody complaining of chest pain or missing an arm.  If, however, you are treating a chronic condition or sub-clinical sickness, it is very beneficial to immediately identify what true balance looks like for that person.  Any mechanic will tell you, you’ve got to know how the car is supposed to run before you can get under the hood and try to fix it.

“Seek not to treat the disease that has the person, but to heal the person that has the disease.”

-Paul Chek

Knowing what someone is doing wrong for their health is often more important that knowing what symptoms they have.  This doesn’t go over too well in our fast paced, take-this-for-that paradigm.  We as patients are constantly looking for the quickest way to alleviate our symptoms and we pressure our doctors to run their practice accordingly.  Let us give our healers the chance to practice the art of medicine rather than just defensive or reactive medicine.

Related articles

• Sattva Veda (shilpigupt.wordpress.com)
• What is this Sankhya Philosophy? : First Attempt to Understand. (ancientindians.wordpress.com)
• Ayurveda: Mind-Body Sln to Wt-Loss & Healing Yourself. (makenziewiegand.com)
• Lissa Coffey: Parenting the Vedic Way (huffingtonpost.com)
• Connecting the mind, body and soul dots (mockingmocha.wordpress.com)

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Who Is Richo Cech?

When it comes to the cultivation of medicinal plants, there are few that match the caliber of Richo Cech. Richo is a rare treasure. He possesses an encyclopedic wealth of knowledge in both the growing and use of medicinal plants and food. He is charismatic, full of life and a joy to listen to every time he takes the teaching stage. Read More…

About the Event

Richo will give a fertile overview of planting methods for medicinal herb seeds.  

The vast majority of medicinal herbs were originally derived from the wild, and are thus predisposed to require natural conditions (cold conditioning, scarification, leaching, temperature oscillation) before germination is possible. Small seeds, seeds with impermeable seed coats, short-lived seeds, and seeds that take on dormancy once dried can all be challenging to germinate and grow, unless of course the gardener knows how to take advantage of the seasons.

There are also some good tricks that can be employed to speed the germination process. Richo will elucidate all of this, and will be open to your questions about specific methodologies and specific species. Who knows where all this will go?

All we can hope is that we all end up in the garden!

When: Wednesday March 2nd, 2011, 6pm PST

If you enjoy events like this, get two free months of Medicinecrow.  Click here and use promo code “mfw”

This blog is heavy on the anatomical aspect of Yoga (which I love).  It really explains exactly what is happening to your body during each pose from a musculoskeletal perspective.  The illustrations are very well done and extremely easy to understand.  Click the link below for a free e-book and let them know what you think on their facebook page.

http://shaktitest.bandhayoga.com/TipsAndTechniques1/TipsTech1.swf

For now, I’ll attempt to clarify the question at hand, “What is a dosha?”

The closest English word for dosha is probably energy.  Not so much as in life-force energy, but cosmic energy.  A universally shared set of three complementary bosses running this crazy world (and beyond).  When the doshas are in balance, there is harmony.  They each serve special functions to turn the wheels of life.  All of life runs in cycles.  Seasons change, tides roll in and out and ATP gets converted to DPT and back again.  The doshas are the all encompassing means of explaining the numerous congruities between all these cycles of life of any magnitude.

Every medicine man who ever lived subscribed to some set of constants from which certain descriptions of symptoms, diseases and cures could be made.  Hippocrates had his 4 humors, the Chinese have Yin and Yang and modern physicians have anabolic, catabolic and metabolic.  These are all but mere descriptions of the supreme truth at work.  Scroll down to read on and you will find plenty of thought provoking posts that will help you make sense of this ancient wisdom and allow you to see the need for more integration with Conventional Medicine.

Keep in touch

If you would like to get updates from the blog, please subscribe at the top of the page.  Also send me any comments you have at any time.  This blog is for you and like you, needs constant attention in order to maintain balance of the doshas.

Image via Wikipedia

Ever wonder why gold is so valuable.  Imagine you are the first human to ever see this shiny metal at the bottom of a stream as you bend to drink.  We all know from watching our fair share of wild animal shows that the local river or stream is no place to ever let your guard down.  What is it about that shiny hunk of metal that intoxicates the mind and leads you to momentarily forget about your safety and fish it out with your spear?

The most common answer is that the natural supply of gold is so scarce that demand for it is marked by its price.  This simple economic concept is something we can all be comfortable with here in the most free of markets.  There is however yet another level of rarity and value to this precious metal. The mere color of gold is extremely potent and has therefore been considered valuable by many ancient cultures.

Golden Rays of Life

The association of gold with the divine is really very superficial.  No matter where you lived as an ancient culture, you knew how important the Sun was.  It was often worshiped and deified throughout history.  It is no surprise then, that one of the only known materials on Earth that resembles the hue of the Sun would be valued above all other materials like it.  This color gave life to dormant seeds placed in the ground.  If you rubbed two sticks together long enough, this color would cook your food or keep you warm at night.  It is no wonder that our lust for golden luster is one of the oldest and most unifying trait amongst all civilizations.

Gold and Ayurveda

Those who realize the potent healing power of gold do their best to take it in through all available channels.  Sun gazing is not something we consider healthy for the eyes however, the ancient yogis in India developed certain methods of meditation that involved gazing at the morning Sun while doing no damage to the eyes.  Yet another Ayurvedic means of

Ghee lamp

consuming gold through the eyes is to stare at a flame from a rolled bit of cotton dipped in Ghee.  This form of meditation is known as Tratak.  The uniquely golden fuel gives off a very therapeutic golden flame that awakens the third-eye and gives your calm and an intuitive awareness of the past, present and future.

Many of us “consume” gold by wearing jewelry.  Wearing gold gives our body a sweet taste, meaning, we are emotionally content and satisfied by its unique vibration against our skin.  When we wear it in our aura field, it purifies all energy that we let in to both our subtle and gross bodies.

Yet another way to take in the “solidified rays of sun” that are all things gold, is to include Turmeric in to your diet.  This ground rhizome has been used for thousands of years and is being studied more and more in the modern medical arena.  On the U.S. National Library of Medicine website, you can find 3,823 studies on curcumin, the active compound in Turmeric.  The amazing aspect to this

Turmeric

exploration is that unlike synthetic medicines, curcumin is effective at helping with a vast number of ailments.  This broad spectrum of uses is due mainly to its action as both an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant.  What is now being looked at to help with cancer, heart disease, arthritis and upset stomach, has been used in folk medicine not for the clinical trials, but for the keen awareness that there is something special about this herb and it’s auspiciously unique hue.

symbol for the 2nd chakra

The last, and most subtle relationship with gold we humans have is related to our 2nd chakra.  Gold is the color representative of this area of our body.  It is part of your subtle anatomy however it is physically located in the pelvic region.  Like the Sun, this area of the body is the giver of life.  As the sun is the center of gravity in our universe, this area of the 2nd chakra is the center of gravity of the body.  I have a special interest with this chakra and this part of the anatomy when it comes to exercise.  Read about a recurring experience I have with deep squats here.  Yoga poses such as warrior and triangle are also good for opening this channel and allowing the sweet taste of gold in to your being.

P.S. Note the color scheme of this blog

Wednesday February 2nd, 6pm PST

Dr. Marc Halpern: Ayurveda and the Management of Anxiety and Depression.

Anxiety and depression are two of the most common and challenging conditions. Our tendency toward these conditions are often “wired” into our genetic and constitutional make up.  Dr. Marc Halpern will explore how these conditions are understood and treated from an Ayurvedic perspective.

Treatment explorations will include an Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle, color, aroma, sound and yoga therapies.

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