I have been cleansing and detoxing my body and mind for many years. I've tried juice cleanses, fasting, and mono diets. And what I find works best for me, meaning it feels the most nourishing, is cleansing from an Ayurvedic perspective. According to the theories of Ayurveda, cleanses should be done seasonally to rest and restore the digestive system and to strengthen the digestive fire, called jathara agni.
If you have any doubts about cleansing and if it is right for you consider the drains in your kitchen sink. If you could look down your drain, you would see, a gooey, black sludge that sticks to the insides of the pipes. That is similar to what happens within our own intestinal track! If we don't clean our pipes, years of accumulated toxins and wastes, called ama, begin to narrow the passageway of our pipes. Cleansing flushes out our pipes, taking the ama out of the body as we aid and support the elimination process.
Ama, these toxins and wastes, can be undigested food as well as undigested thoughts, feelings and experiences. We need to learn to properly ingest, digest and assimilate all aspects of our life so we can keep the vessel of the body and mind clean and pure like a well oiled machine. The sister sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda teach us these tools. Yoga keeps the body and mind limber and supple and Ayurveda keeps the body and mind healthy and vibrant!
The Ayurvedic cleanse consists of a mono diet, one food throughout the whole time one is on the cleanse. This meal is called kitchari, which literally means, mess! It's a one pot dish of mung beans and rice traditionally. Add some spices and ghee (clarified butter) and you have a protein complete meal. A bowl of kitchari is eaten at each meal with lots of herbal teas and water to be consumed throughout the day. Ghee is also consumed daily, increasing the daily intake every 2 days. (The length of the cleanse is optional and should be discussed with your Ayurvedic Health Counselor.) Ghee works like an ama magnet and helps lube the body from the inside out, removing the toxins!
It's best to limit our daily schedule and make more time for Yoga, meditation, contemplation and journaling. I like to treat these cleansing periods like a home retreat. It's a good time to slow down, reflect, observe our food habits and the emotional patterns they create. It's a good time to read, chant, listen to gentle, soft, soothing music, go for walks and exercise lightly. It's a time to reduce our responsibilities to others and focus on ourselves, reduce the multi-tasking, and the list of to-do's.
As we allow ourselves to surrender to a slower pace of life, and take the decision making out of meal preparation, we begin to ease into a nurturing self care routine, called dinacharya. These daily rituals are simple things, like; before even opening our eyes upon waking, feeling the body's energy and connect with the Universal rhythms of life, or scrapping our tongue with a tongue scrapper after we brush our teeth, or adding a short meditation practice to our morning routine. These and many others, are many things we can do to care for ourselves, that don't take very much time. It's a way to bring more mindfulness into the day, to take you into a feeling space, in the present moment.
Our eating habits will be easily seen as we let go of them. It is an invitation to deal with our emotions that arise with self restraint. As we purge our emotional body and feel the emotions that arise, we may experience detoxification in other ways as well. Maybe our face breaks out. Or maybe we experience some constipation, a sign of an inability to let go, or we may experience loose stools, which is a result of too much pitta, or fire, in the body. There are many reasons we feel the way we do, these are just some examples.
As we notice what arises, the practice of Ayurveda, teaches us how to navigate the ebbing and flowing of our health. There is a simple theory: like increases like. So if you are experiencing too much of one thing, do the opposite! Ayurveda is still a very foreign concept to many people. Be patient. Ask questions. Read. Take workshops....
I lead individuals and small groups through the cleansing process. Please see the tab called "YOGA + TRAVEL SCHEDULE" for the upcoming dates to the next cleanse workshop. If you don't see one coming up soon, contact me and we can work together on your timeline.
In the Introduction to Ayurvedic Cleansing Workshops you will:
~Learn some basic Ayurvedic concepts
~Take the dosha quiz
~Learn your Prakruti (true nature)
~Learn your Vikruti (current state)
~Receive a Cleanse Overview including pre / post cleansing tips
~Receive sample essential oils to support your detox
~Decide if you will start the cleanse and determine when and how long
If you feel the cleanse is right for you, we will pre-cleanse the day after the Intro for a week, cleanse for a week (unless otherwise discussed) and post cleanse for one week after the cleanse. The cleanse is a one time additional cost, separate from the cost of the Introduction to Ayurvedic Cleansing workshop. (once you cleanse 1 time, you have the info to repeat it whenever you want).
The Ayurvedic Cleanse Package Includes:
~The Ayurvedic Cleanse Manual
~Benefits of all the Ingredients
~Recipes
~Dinacharya List
~DIY Self Care Techniques
~Abhyanga Oil
~Triphala
~Lepas
~Personal Guidance from Karuna
If you have any doubts about cleansing and if it is right for you consider the drains in your kitchen sink. If you could look down your drain, you would see, a gooey, black sludge that sticks to the insides of the pipes. That is similar to what happens within our own intestinal track! If we don't clean our pipes, years of accumulated toxins and wastes, called ama, begin to narrow the passageway of our pipes. Cleansing flushes out our pipes, taking the ama out of the body as we aid and support the elimination process.
Ama, these toxins and wastes, can be undigested food as well as undigested thoughts, feelings and experiences. We need to learn to properly ingest, digest and assimilate all aspects of our life so we can keep the vessel of the body and mind clean and pure like a well oiled machine. The sister sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda teach us these tools. Yoga keeps the body and mind limber and supple and Ayurveda keeps the body and mind healthy and vibrant!
The Ayurvedic cleanse consists of a mono diet, one food throughout the whole time one is on the cleanse. This meal is called kitchari, which literally means, mess! It's a one pot dish of mung beans and rice traditionally. Add some spices and ghee (clarified butter) and you have a protein complete meal. A bowl of kitchari is eaten at each meal with lots of herbal teas and water to be consumed throughout the day. Ghee is also consumed daily, increasing the daily intake every 2 days. (The length of the cleanse is optional and should be discussed with your Ayurvedic Health Counselor.) Ghee works like an ama magnet and helps lube the body from the inside out, removing the toxins!
It's best to limit our daily schedule and make more time for Yoga, meditation, contemplation and journaling. I like to treat these cleansing periods like a home retreat. It's a good time to slow down, reflect, observe our food habits and the emotional patterns they create. It's a good time to read, chant, listen to gentle, soft, soothing music, go for walks and exercise lightly. It's a time to reduce our responsibilities to others and focus on ourselves, reduce the multi-tasking, and the list of to-do's.
As we allow ourselves to surrender to a slower pace of life, and take the decision making out of meal preparation, we begin to ease into a nurturing self care routine, called dinacharya. These daily rituals are simple things, like; before even opening our eyes upon waking, feeling the body's energy and connect with the Universal rhythms of life, or scrapping our tongue with a tongue scrapper after we brush our teeth, or adding a short meditation practice to our morning routine. These and many others, are many things we can do to care for ourselves, that don't take very much time. It's a way to bring more mindfulness into the day, to take you into a feeling space, in the present moment.
Our eating habits will be easily seen as we let go of them. It is an invitation to deal with our emotions that arise with self restraint. As we purge our emotional body and feel the emotions that arise, we may experience detoxification in other ways as well. Maybe our face breaks out. Or maybe we experience some constipation, a sign of an inability to let go, or we may experience loose stools, which is a result of too much pitta, or fire, in the body. There are many reasons we feel the way we do, these are just some examples.
As we notice what arises, the practice of Ayurveda, teaches us how to navigate the ebbing and flowing of our health. There is a simple theory: like increases like. So if you are experiencing too much of one thing, do the opposite! Ayurveda is still a very foreign concept to many people. Be patient. Ask questions. Read. Take workshops....
I lead individuals and small groups through the cleansing process. Please see the tab called "YOGA + TRAVEL SCHEDULE" for the upcoming dates to the next cleanse workshop. If you don't see one coming up soon, contact me and we can work together on your timeline.
In the Introduction to Ayurvedic Cleansing Workshops you will:
~Learn some basic Ayurvedic concepts
~Take the dosha quiz
~Learn your Prakruti (true nature)
~Learn your Vikruti (current state)
~Receive a Cleanse Overview including pre / post cleansing tips
~Receive sample essential oils to support your detox
~Decide if you will start the cleanse and determine when and how long
If you feel the cleanse is right for you, we will pre-cleanse the day after the Intro for a week, cleanse for a week (unless otherwise discussed) and post cleanse for one week after the cleanse. The cleanse is a one time additional cost, separate from the cost of the Introduction to Ayurvedic Cleansing workshop. (once you cleanse 1 time, you have the info to repeat it whenever you want).
The Ayurvedic Cleanse Package Includes:
~The Ayurvedic Cleanse Manual
~Benefits of all the Ingredients
~Recipes
~Dinacharya List
~DIY Self Care Techniques
~Abhyanga Oil
~Triphala
~Lepas
~Personal Guidance from Karuna
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