Ayurveda Newsletter October 2025

The image below is a striking image of the last full moon. 

 Welcome to Spring. Having been away in Europe for 6 weeks we did
not experience a drop of rain. Quite the contrast coming home
weather wise. It is good to be home, and be reunited with family and of course my 4-legged friend Max. 🙏

Spring is the king of all the seasons. In Spring Mother Earth wakes up, with everything sprouting, blooming and flowering, full of new
growth and greenery. People feel more energetic, and this really is a
season of celebration. The qualities of Spring are warm, moist, gentle, and unctuous Just as the snow melts, similarly accumulated Kapha in the body begins to liquify. Therefore, so many people get spring colds, hay fever, sinus congestion and allergies at this time of year.

The following can help

🍃 Avoid heavy oily food. Also it is better not to eat sour, sweet, and
salty foods as they provoke Kapha (think of this as phlegm and
heaviness). Stay away from dairy products especially in the
morning. Avoid ice cream and cold drinks as they are also
kaphagenic.

🍃 Favour bitter, pungent, and astringent foods. All legumes such as
yellow split peas, red lentils, pinto beans, are recommended.
Radishes, spinach, asparagus, and garlic can be used along with
the spices such as ginger, black pepper and cayenne pepper.

🍃 Good spices for Spring to include in your cooking are ginger,
black pepper, pippali and a tea made of equal amounts of cumin,
coriander and fennel seeds in equal proportion.

🍃Herbal remedies include Trilkatu and Tulsi

🍃 This is a good season to undertake a 3 day juice fast or kitcheree
fast (beneficial for the Vata constitution)

🍃 Wake up earlier and go for an early morning walk to set the
metabolism.

🍃 Sun salutations and Kapha reducing Yoga poses, such as back
bends, should stand, Head stand, camel pose and cobra poses all
help.

🍃 Bastrika and right nostril breathing are also helpful.
 

Spring detox – one major sigh that a detox should be considered is the coating of your tongue and bad breathe.

When the tongue is overly coated, esp at the back portion of the tongue, this is a sign of ama. This can be due to systemic toxicity either in the colon intestine or mouth. When digestion as weak or sluggish, the food you eat undergoes fermentation rather than proper digestion, resulting in a foul smell. The primary Ayurveda aim in treating bad breathe is to kindle agni (digestion), which in turn burns the ama, and alleviates the root cause of the condition.

Some Suggestions

🌿 Monitor your diet. It’s important not to eat heavy meals and to stay
away from cold drinks and dairy products which are heavy and
hard to digest

🌿 Take 1 teaspoon of roasted Fennel and Cumin seeds after each
meal. This will improve digestion, which indirectly helps to detoxify
the colon

🌿 Drink half a cup of Aloe vera juice twice a day until freshness is
restored to the breathe

🌿 Slowly chew one or two cardamom seeds also helps to minimise
bad breath. Cardamom is digestion and helps to reduce Ama

🌿 Another cause of bad breath as poor oral hygiene. Use an
ayurveda/herbal toothpaste, floss every day and scrap your tongue
with a tongue scrapper will all help.

🌿 Applying some tea tree oil, mixed half and half, with a neem oil to
the gums and gently massaging will also help preventing receding
gums (spit out the residue and don’t swallow).

🌿 There are specifically strain specific probiotics for oral health
supporting a healthy oral microbiome. Please email me if you wish
to know more perry@ayurvedahealth.co.nz

🌿 Yoga postures such as the Lion pose, and breathing exercises
known as Shitali pranayama will keep the mouth healthy.

How to do Shitali pranayama

Curl your tongue into a tube and slowly breathe through the curled
tongue, swallow and then exhale normally through the nose
keeping the mouth closed. You will feel the incoming air cool your
saliva, your tongue and the oral mucus membranes. This form of
breathing is helpful for pacifying high Pitta being cooling in nature.

Recipe – Ginger Dahl

In the spring, while your body is working hard to move fluids and melt
stagnation this spicy blood moving soup helps you sweat out toxins and quickly melt winter stagnation. The hot, sharp qualities of many of the ingredients -ginger, chili, mustard seeds and turmeric get your heart pumping and thin your blood, improving circulation and flushing out your lymphatic system.

Ingredients
- 1 cup of yellow lentils
- 2 tblsp ghee
- 2-3 inch of fresh ginger
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1⁄2 tsp turmeric
- 1⁄2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tomato - skin removed
- 1⁄2 green chilli
- Handful of spinach
- Mineral Salt to taste
- A bunch of coriander
- Squeeze of lemon or lime
Soak dahl overnight and then rinse well.

Cover well with water , add the turmeric powder, and cook until mushy – 30 to 60 mins

Heat oil in a frying pan and sauté in the ghee the mustard seeds (until
they pop), fennel and cumin seeds. In that order Then add the green chilli, chopped coriander and ginger, tomato and sauté until soft.

Add the spices to the dahl together with the spinach and salt to taste
Serve with a squeeze of lemon or lime with rice, roti or vegetables.

Let’s love our skin.

I don’t mind a few wrinkles, as I can see through the years I have earnt
these, now that I am in what could be called my “third act” of life.
Regardless, like all women I want to look my best with little effort and
can say that using only natural oils and utilising this Ayurveda skin
moisturiser for over 15 years now, my skin is OK (despite years of sea
and sun)

I make very small batches and have a few to offer up this month. The
product is rich and luscious requiring only a very small amount to do its magic. The value is in the ingredients (not expensive packaging) -
Packed with goodness the ingredients are as follows....

Avocado oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, aloe vera gel, Vit E, beeswax, cocoa butter, turmeric tincture, saffron threads, Ayurveda herbs-
ashwagandha, yasti, passion flower, shatavari: essential oils – rose and lavender. You can purchase here - ayurveda-skin-face-moisturiser

Yoga News

Yoga: Wednesdays – 11 am at Flourish Studio , Takapuna.

This is a small select group of woman, who enjoy a more
personalised touch. The classes are themed, hence there is a healthy
learning aspect to the sessions. There is an opening for the next 6
week course, starting early October.

Please contact me for more info
if you are interested Perry@ayurvedahealth.co.nz
 

Namaste - Perry 🙏