No images? Click here THE HOLY DAYS
Hello dear,On this path of love, we are walking, as both the means and the end, we’re taught that the individual is whole and indivisible, the human family is also one, and division is man-made while unity is divine. We’re ultimately compelled as souls to seek the unified field of all consciousness, following creation’s momentum. How can we live without fear, anxiety, hatred, destruction, and hopelessness, and instead develop inclusivity, compassion, forgiveness and well-wishing? Each day provides a new opportunity for meditation on our capacity for creativity change, thanks to the divine design of creation. As body, mind and consciousness have functional integration according to Ayurveda, and experience life as one, we return to the critical arena of digestion. Let's consider some basics to help digest life, both physically and psycho-emotionally.
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DIGESTION TIPSDuring the Holy Days season, food is always a big point of discussion and the main building block in health and well-being. Can we eat less, donate more, and be satisfied with simple, freshly prepared, local, whole foods? Can we stop eating as soon as a burp comes? For colder weather, an increase of pungency during your meal preparation can help enkindle ‘agni’ or our metabolic digestive capacity, to help absorb the nutrient portion and eschew excess or waste materials of the food we eat, thoughts we think and emotions we feel. Foods ingested may account for 20% of our post-digestive effects, while thoughts, feelings and emotions may account for 80% of our digestive results, in the body and consciousness. By eating less and practicing fasting after 5 or 6 pm, emotions can more easily remain balanced. Consider the inclusion of fresh ginger root, black peppercorn, black mustard seed and leeks in your cooking at this time of year, to help increase heat and support the conversion of food into energy, especially within the jejunum or mid-small intestine, where assimilation and immunity are in focus. Avoidance of cold helps support the burning of toxins, or ‘ama pachana’, a critical digestive process to help ensure healthy tissues, immune resistance, and enthusiasm for life. Enkindling of ‘agni’ or metabolic capacity, can be cultivated by taking a little pungency before and after the meal to help ensure complete combustion of foodstuffs, leaving no residue such as gasses, undigested food particles, bloating, indigestion, etc. Ensuring your food is hot, freshly prepared, and includes the six tastes in the right proportion for you and your family, will go a long way for your balanced mood, decisions, viewpoint, and enjoyment of life. The proportion of the six tastes for each individual will vary according to your constitution and current health needs. Six tastes exist in every tissue and cell, though in which proportion for your unique individual balance? There is no line of demarcation between tastes in digestion, rather one or another’s dominance, proportion, relationship, and ratio. Compatibilities feed happiness, according to ancient Ayurveda health science. To take any single aspect of human experience by itself without context is common, though incomplete in Ayurveda philosophy. Considering this, shall we examine digestion through the lens of the ‘Shad Rasa’ or Six Taste Science? Each flavour has its own physiological and psychological influence. Anabolic flavours: Sweet taste is cold, heavy, nourishing and supports increase. It dominates in the first digestive zones in the mouth and upper fundus of the stomach, as salivary and gastric mucosal secretions. Sweetness goes with kindness, compassion, generosity and forgiveness, though excess sweet taste may result in Type II Diabetes (a global epidemic nowadays), overweight, fatty liver, greed, cravings, and mood swings. Sour taste is hot, sharp, and penetrating, and supports increase. It dominates in the lower fundus of the stomach and early duodenum, as hydrochloric acid, and bile salts. It’s an appetizer, and stimulant and helps move stagnations. Sourness brings discernment, clarity, and orderliness, while excess can bring cynicism, criticism, judgment, and conclusion. Eventually, erosions, ulcerations (sores), and eruptions may occur in any part of the inner and outer skin (integumentary) system. Salty taste is hot, hydrophilic, mineral-rich, grounding and helps retain fluids. Too much saltiness can bring edema, congestive conditions, swelling and puffiness. Vegetables are generally salt-rich and are suggested to be about 50% of the lunch (main) meal. Salty taste improves appetite. Salty taste is associated with vigour, enthusiasm, and follow-through in a positive sense. Negatively (too much or too little), it can bring weakness, wasting, hoarding, fixed opinions or dogma, separations, attachments, and aversions. Catabolic flavours: Bitter taste is cooling, and cleansing and helps destroy excess. Bitterness is mostly in the duodenum, such as bile secretion, which is salty and very bitter. Insulin is also bitter. Bitterness helps the digestion towards efficiency, appropriate selections, and satisfaction. Insufficient bitterness is linked to many if not most, Pitta and Kapha conditions. Sufficient bitterness can bring a feeling of acceptance of things as they are, inclusivity, consideration of self and others, and contentment. Excess bitterness can lead to emaciation, and wasting, while insufficiency leads to fatty accumulations and blood sugar fluctuations. Emotionally, an imbalance of bitter taste can bring resentment or regret. Astringent taste is also cooling, enhances assimilation and creates a lightness in the body. Lentils are mostly astringent and, therefore suit digestive recovery, providing nutrient-dense amino acids, slow carbohydrates, and bio-available minerals. Lentils help in recovery from wasting, anorexia and overweight. Many are also anti-inflammatory, such as moong, green, yellow, and brown-coloured. Can lentils become an important part of your holy days’ menus? Emotionally, astringency is needed for the balance of the tri-dosha, especially Pitta and Kapha imbalances, to help clarify the nutrient portion of our life experience and release the unneeded or surplus portion. Too much astringency may go with miserliness. Metabolic flavour: Pungent taste is heating, transformative, and responsible for breaking down the foodstuff into micro-chyles for ease of assimilation. Insufficient pungency may result in undigested food particles in the bowel movement, and delays in transit time. Low immunity and susceptibility to transiting infections also can result in cold conditions such as constipation, gasses, and aches/ pains. Pungency is required for sufficient enzyme production from the liver, pancreas, and small intestine, resulting in contentment, patience, discrimination, wisdom, constancy, clarity and acceptance, as post-digestive effects. This is the mind/body interface. The tongue is the arbiter of our food choices and our word choices, so let’s keep it clean and balanced by implementing tips from the age-old science of Ayurveda. Each of the six main compartments of digestion, assimilation and elimination is maintained by a personal balance of the Shad (Six) Rasa (Tastes). Plan to prepare and bring celebratory recipes to your hosts, featuring the complete Shad Rasa, to help maximize digestibility for all guests. If you are the host, choose a noontime invitation. Leave space in your stomach after eating and sipping to help churn a meal well. Taken together, these tips can help you make the most of the Holy Days, keep your emotions balanced by maintaining your digestive balance, and help avoid any requirement for herbal medicines. To summarize, plan to include all six tastes in at least your main meal, when the sun is highest in the sky, to match your nutritional and emotional needs of the day and season. If you are unsure, an Ayurveda conversation or even a consultation may help to remain on a good track. ![]() ![]() SPRING MENTORSHIP PROGRAMBreakthrough to Self-Empowerment Online Ayurveda Mentorship Are you a senior Ayurveda student or recent graduate from a NAMA-approved school or equivalent, in the early years of your professional consultation practice? Are you seeking a support system for confidence building with a Case Management focus through the lens of the ‘Ashta Vidha Pariksha’ or Eight-Fold Assessment science? 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UPDATE: Our nonprofit volunteerism is continuing, with a current focus on the Ayurveda classification of local Indigenous medicinal plants. Bi-weekly Zoom meetings are helping us define our parameters. So far, we plan to focus on the local area closest to us and keep to a maximum of 108 plants, plenty to respond to most ailments. My beloved mentor, Dr. V. Lad, has said that knowing 30 plants very well is sufficient. Our team is highly qualified and we plan to develop partnerships with like-minded individuals and organizations to provide a reference resource, based in the Ayurveda Dravya Gunya. Ayurveda science refers to Rasa (taste on the tongue), Virya (thermal effect and potency), Vipak (post-digestive taste at cellular assimilation) and Prabhau (unique characteristics and exceptions). Sounds technical? It sure is! ![]() I’m wishing you dear, the most healthy, happy, and prosperous new year for 2024 with Ayurveda, Yoga and Meditation, the time-tested ways and means for self-realization and God realization. Please email me, you know I always love to hear about your journey. Thanks for your ongoing love and support, and for being an important part of this community. May all beings be happy! Sincerely yours in service, Jaisri M. Lambert,
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