Soothing Summer

We're in the midst of this season of summer, or in Ayurvedic Medicine, pitta. This fiery season can make us more agitated, bring on fatigue and a feeling overcome with heat.

How to seek coolness?

Ice cream! Okay perhaps not the only way to promote coolness to the body, but certainly a delightful treat.

I've incorporated a morning meditation into the start of my day to have a moment of grounding to breathe. Starting your day with breath to lengthen the inhales and exhales can be a wonderful way to awaken into a new day. After a shower, I incorporate abhyanga (a self massage with oil) using coconut oil (which has cool principles to it). Before I step outside, I treat myself to a dash of peppermint/orange oil into a carrier oil and rub on the bottoms of my feet. An invigorating sensation that is immediately felt! On my walk to work, I sip chilled peppermint tea to invoke more cooling principles to my self. I try to listen to my body to see what physical activity(ies) will best serve me and modify as-needed. Sometimes the rigorous bootcamp, circuit, and hot yoga offerings are too much in the pitta season. Knowing we can modify and listen to what we need, is what will bring us balance.

Ending the day with a cool diy herbal iced tea (I made mine infused with lavender and tulsi) and legs up-the-wall (in an inverted L-shape), can be a nice way to promote coolness to the physical body.

I hope this inspires to soothe these summer months!

#balance #ayurveda #balancingpitta

Quest for a shark’s tooth

Oh, the epic quest in searching for a shark’s tooth.

This past weekend I embraced the sunshine and tasty food down in Charleston, SC. On a beach day I found myself strolling the water’s edge on an endeavor to find a tooth. A man next to me delightful yelled out “wow, I got one!” and showed it off to a few bystanders – he had spotted one within a few moments. Nearly 20 minutes of strolling, I realized my quest may be a longer one and waded deeper into the water to cool off to take a break from my dharana (focused concentration).

This experience reminded me of how a yoga practice can be so different for each of us. When it comes to a specific asana – say Vrikasana (tree pose) – some yogis will be able to come into it within seconds (and hold steadily) of it being offered from the teacher. Other yogis may have a longer journey to embrace the challenges of a balancing pose and may need to take moments of rest.

It doesn’t make us better yogis to succeed in a pose or a worse yoga practitioner if we fail and fall flat on our face. Knowing where we are today is exactly where we’re meant to be…is an important theme to remember throughout practice. Some days we will shine in our tree pose and others we will wobble like a tree on a breezy day.

I took a photo of the shark’s tooth I found. Am I certain if it is a shark’s tooth? Could this be a triangular shell? (Possibly yes.) Did I enjoy the journey to seek a tooth and bump into other passionate shark tooth searchers, seashell aficionados, and aquatic life experts? I most certainly did.

Still seeking shark’s teeth…and am certain the journey of spotting seashells and other treasures along the water’s edge will lead me to the path I’m meant to be on.

#sharksteeth #seashorefinds #yogajourney

Chakra Cake

I celebrated my birthday with an explosion of color!

Ever seen a chakra cake? My friends surprised me with a GF, vegan birthday cake with marbleized colored cake on the interior and layered chakra colors from root (red) to purple (crown) - ensuring balance after finishing a slice. (I'm certain of it.)

Taking a quick step back, what are chakras? Chakra literally translates to "wheel". There are 7 main locations in the body comprised of two opposing energy forces that intersect from the base of your spine up to the crown of your head.

I came across this visual and find it pretty helpful to visualize (not too far from the cake creation). Photo credit from www.chakras.info/what-is-chakra/ This visual aids with a basic foundation of the 7 Chakras: Root (red, trust), Sacral (orange, creativity), Solar Plexus (yellow, wisdom), Heart (green, love), Throat (light blue, communication/true voice), Third Eye (blue, intuition), and Crown (purple, bliss/spiritual balance).

What makes this cake so beautiful is not the literal balancing all main energy points of the body (as you may have realized it is comprised a bit of food coloring with fondant detail and edible glitter) but rather the love and thoughtfulness that friends put into creating this cake.

I'm fortunate to have friends that bring me spanda, and I hope this cake helps you to reflect on the joyful moments of good friendship.

#birthday #chakra #friendsthatbringjoy #chakracake