SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
Spring Cleanse
Posted on May 13th, 2015
I just made my first batch of Kitchari for my Spring cleanse. It is delicious and I feel ready to detox! Now that the weather is warm, it’s the perfect time to dive in and do your Spring cleanse! In fact every cell in your body is begging you to cleanse the congestion out of your liver and gall bladder organs. Once cleansed, your will feel calm, stress and tension free, decisive, insightful, emotional ease, and in contact with our personal power and capacity for leadership that are the attributes of a balanced liver network. Invite a state of balance and vibrancy into you being!
It is often difficult to slow down our busy lives and take the time to properly do a juice cleanse. Particularly if you are vata dosha, it is more effective do a traditional Indian Kitchari cleanse for 3-5 days. Kitchari is a simple cleansing highly nutritious combination of mung beans and rice. It both cleanses your system and strengthens your memory.
Whether you choose to do a juice cleanse, or a mono diet like kitchari, it is essential to offer ways for the toxins to leave your body. I find it most effective while doing a cleanse to be sure to continue to take plenty of balancing, nourishing and purifying baths. The skin is the largest organ in your body and a large part of our detoxification process. See our Spring Practices post on purifying seaweed baths!
KITCHARI
by Annie Kunjappy
chef for Yoga Sukhavati Seasonal self-care workshops
1 cup mung beans (soaked overnight)
1 cup brown basmati rice
1 onion diced
8 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup finely sliced leeks
1” piece ginger chopped
4 Tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 cup chopped scallions
½ cup chopped cilantro/parsley
Sea salt and lime/lemon juice to taste
Cook mung bean in pot with 4 cups of water and a half teaspoon of sea salt until soft.
Cook basmati rice in 2 cups of hot water until done.
In a separate pan, heat coconut oil, sauté onions until soft. Add leek and continue until soft. Add garlic, ginger, coriander and turmeric and sauté for 1 minute.
Mixed together the cooked beans and liquid with the cooked rice, and the sauted ingredients.
Add chopped scallions and cilantro.
Season with lime juice and sea salt to taste.
Spring Yin Pose
Posted on April 27th, 2015
Spring Yin Pose: Baddha Konasana (Leigh Evans)
As the gorgeous green sprouts push their way up out of the ground, the Spring young yang energy catapults us out of our hibernation. Hold on because though exciting and beautiful, Spring can be a bumpy ride. Do you feel irritable, angry, stressed out or restless? Are your shoulders and neck tight? Do you have headaches, eczema or other skin issues? Are your eyes strained more than usual? You may be experiencing signs that your Spring organ network, liver and gall bladder organs, are overloaded with toxins and need some purification and loving attention. It is a great time to do a cleanse, but we can also use our seasonal yoga practice to help smooth out the bumpy ride.
Seasonal asanas helps us harmonize our inner rhythms with the energetic movements of each season, enhancing our interconnectedness with the environment. With skillful practice of asanas that target our Spring organ network, we can help our body and mind stay balanced during the jolting ascending energy of the wood element this Spring. Practiced with deep awareness, Spring asanas can help release congestion and awaken prana in the liver and gall bladder meridians.
If you’re feeling over stimulated and agitated this Spring, try the beautiful yin pose, Baddha Konasana folding forward to stimulate both the inner leg lines of the liver meridian and outer hips of the gallbladder meridian. This deeply calming pose will help smooth out the emotional roller coaster that comes with an aggravated liver network. Be sure to rest your forehead on a pillow or bolster to help release the agitation in the mind. Pay particular attention to softening and relaxing the eyes which are are associated with these organs. Allow your exhalations to lengthen and deepen as you rest in the pose.
Go Green!
Posted on April 2nd, 2015
Green is the color of Spring, the season of rebirth. As the world bursts to life with young green shoots sprouting from the earth, we too feel an natural internal desire to expand and awaken. Help your body wake up from Winter’s hibernation by increasing your intake of green in all it’s forms. Try adding a daily green juice during the Spring to help clear out congestion and stagnation from Winter’s slumber. Wear Green. As part of your Spring meditation practice, visualize trees resplendent with green leaves, fields of long flowing green grass, sea grass or just the color green. As the weather gets warmer, meditate outside and let your eyes rest on the lush green life all around you.
Eat plenty of green veggies. All the leafy greens especially young tender Spring greens with their young yang energy are delicious and very cleansing for your liver and gallbladder, our spring organs.
Nishanga Bliss, my dear friend and author of Real Food All Year, writes on the benefit of greens and many other tasty recommendations in her fabulous blog Gastronicity.
“Greens were likely one of the most reliable foods of humans during our evolution, as they appear in most climates at least part of the year, therefore our systems run well when we munch on a steady supply. They are a very appropriate food to eat as spring approaches, as they are supportive to liver function. Greens’ natural bitterness stimulates the gallbladder to release bile, aiding in fat and protein digestion, and their high vitamin, mineral and fiber content comes with very few calories.”
Leigh’s green favorite juice!
3 pieces of kale, or few handfuls of young spring mixed greens
parsley
cilantro
1 cucumber
1 celery stalk
1/2 grapefruit
1/2 green apple
1/2 lemon
1/2 daikon radish
ginger