SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
SPRING GREEN SOUP
Posted on February 28th, 2018
Are you starting to feel a little gunky inside as the weather outside keeps shifting between Winter and Spring? Are you experiencing tight shoulders, headaches, eye issues, tight tendons, stiff necks, eczema and other skin problems. Are you getting agitated and irritable lately? These are signs that your Spring organ network, liver and gall bladder organs, are starting to get overwhelmed with the rising energy of Spring and need some loving attention.
SPRING GREEN SOUP
In these first sightings of Spring, warm sunny days sandwiched between snowy or rainy cold mucky days, my insides start waking up and dancing a little “I want to cleanse jig”. But I know that it is still too early to do a juice cleanse or a full on detox. According to the wisdom of Ayurveda, you should wait until true weather to do a juice cleanse because it is too cooling and depleting for your system in the cold weather. But as we start shifting into Spring, I start gently sweeping the main pathways with a Spring Green Soup. It is warm, nourishing and starts the cleansing process in a very gentle way. I just made my first Spring Green Soup of the season! The recipe is from my dear friend, Nishanga Bliss, author of “Real food All Year”. Back in the 90’s she introduced me to the Chinese Medicine Seasonal food practices and we started our Seasonal Yoga workshops which blossomed all the way into my Yoga Sukhavati Seasonal Yoga Teacher Training!
The Spring Green Soup is delicious and easy to make! I chose to use Dandelion greens as part of my cluster of greens to include because of their bitterness and potency in cleansing the liver and gallbladder to help them stimulate bile production which helps break down foods and filters and detoxifes the blood. According to Chinese Medicine, Spring is the time to cleanse the liver and gall bladder, the wood element. So in went the dandelions to my Spring soup! I also added the digestive powerhouse and diuretic, Fennel to help relieve some bloating and indigestion I was experiencing. I’m feeling so much better after 2 days eating this soup & taking my purifying baths! When cleansing it is essential to offer ways for the toxins to leave your body, so I’ve been taking balancing, nourishing and purifying baths this week. Before I bathe, I do a simple skin brushing to get my lymphatic system in tip top shape. The skin is the largest organ in your body and a large part of our detoxification process Check out our Spring Practices post on purifying seaweed baths!
SPRING GREEN SOUP
Nishanga Bliss, from “Real Food All Year”
2 tablespoons ghee, lard, coconut oil, or olive oil
1 bunch spring or greenoinion, white adn green parts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup fennel ore celery, coarsely chopped
1 quart Bone Broth, Poultry stock, or vegetable stock
2 small potatoes or turnips, diced into 1/2 cubes
1 bunch leafy greens, such as spinach, or arugula, or dandelion (include some others in addition to dandelion), coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
1 tsp fresh or dried dill
2 tablespoons chickpea miso or white miso
juice of 1 lemon
Join me for my Spring Cleanse Flow workshop on Sunday March 25, 2018 at Sacred Sounds in Manhattan, NY or April 15 at BodyWorks in New Hampshire. Or you can download my Spring Cleanse video, and sweep out the cobwebs from home!!
joyous heart!
Leigh
Spring Yang Pose
Posted on June 2nd, 2015
Spring Yang Pose: Eka pada Galvanasana (flying pigeon)
Leigh Evans
As a yogi, I am a deep explorer of ways to open the inner landscape of the body and mind. I love creating practices to target the areas where prana or chi is congested in the body. I know that these tight, stagnant places are actually a gold mine for awakening. They are energy pathways or meridians that are blocked. Like a river that is thwarted by a fallen tree branch, once the meridians are opened, the energy that is stuck will freely move and create a free flowing river of energy.
Transition from Spring into Summer by intensifying your yoga practice with Spring yang asanas to cleanse the liver and gall bladder organs and meridians. Release congestion and awaken chi/prana. According to Chinese Medicine, Spring is the season of the wood element, the desire for expansion and growth reflected in the small tender seeds growing into towering trees. Movement from all living things surges to the surface to greet the face of spring. The energy of the liver echoes the ascending, flowing, spreading nature of Spring and the wood element. The rising energy of Spring increases the liver’s ascending energy and increases the flushing of accumulated toxins. Therefore in Spring, we bump into any congestion, stagnation or deficiency in the liver and gall bladder organ and meridians.
Eka pada galvanasana is one of my favorite hip opening asanas. As a person with liver congestion, I have benefited greatly from practicing it. Eka pada galvanasana is a beautiful and challenging asana which deeply opens the gall bladder meridian, running through shoulders, side body and outer hips. It simultaneously awakens energy in the liver meridian in the inner legs.
Prepare the hips for Eka pada galvanasana with supine ankle to knee and pigeon pose.
Have fun!
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.