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.
Balance Vata Dosha in the palm of your hands
Posted on December 3rd, 2014
Are you feeling a bit scattered, overwhelmed, fragmented this Fall. Is it difficult to focus and complete projects? If you are harvesting your living space, did you run into some difficulties? Suddenly you wanted to clear everything out all at the same time and there were piles everywhere and you flitted from one pile to the next and nothing got organized and it all became too much?You might be feeling the effect of Vata dosha out of balance. According to Ayurveda, Vata dosha, the air element, tends to gets out of balance in the Fall. The qualities of vata are dry, light, cold, rough, subtle, mobile, clear, and erratic.Is your skin suddenly super dry? Just last week my skin started getting really chapped and I started reaching for the lotion constantly. We’re feeling dry at the same time as these leaves are turning their beautiful colors, drying up, and falling off. We feel these same effects as nature because we are made up of the same elements.Other vata qualities we experience in the Fall is the erratic weather. One minute it’s warm and the next cold and rainy. With the windy Fall days, we feel the mobile quality. You may experience this increased erratic and constant movement reflected in your thoughts. Are your thoughts spinning all over the place making you feel fragmented and overwhelmed? Have you been experiencing insomnia from racing thoughts?
Mudra to Balance Vata Dosha
Mudras, are sacred hand gestures that redirect prana and enhance vitality. They assist us in connecting with cosmic consciousness and shifting negative energy to positive energy.
Sit in a comfortable position.
Place your middle finger on your thumb and put all the rest of your fingers at the base of your thumb. It looks like a hook.
Rest your hands on your lap.
Relax and breathe deeply.
Stay here for 5-8 minutes.