Week One - Lesson 5
Wellness Tools
Live what you have learned.
With the following lessons you can begin to take action.
Start using these tools today.
Navigating the Course
Balancing Your Bowl
Heal your digestion and experience balance, clarity, and vitality
You can prevent illness and promote vibrant health by nourishing yourself with the right balance of augmenting and extractive foods.
Your body needs more augmenting foods than extractive foods to maintain the tissues and balance the Doshas.
Augmenting - Extracting
Generally speaking, have 60% augmenting and 40% extractive food on your plate at a meal. Consuming meals in this 60:40 proportion will help maintain a calm, balanced state of body and mind and support Agni. When food is thoughtfully prepared with nourishing oils and moderate amounts of spices it will include a proper proportion of the rasa (6 tastes) so that the body is maintained with strength and vitality.
Download the handy reference table
Sample Bowl Recipe
The Balancing your Bowl concept
The 60:40 ratio is the foundation of
Balancing your Bowls.
There are four base components to the bowl: grains, legumes, an augmenting vegetable, and an extractive vegetable.
By rotating through a broad list of Sattvic foods, herbs and spices, and including additions such as avocado, buttermilk, chutneys, baking or chapati, there is plenty of variety to keep your senses engaged.
To get you started, click here for recipes for a simple Balancing your Bowls meal!
Intuitive Energy Practice
Many students of Ayurveda understand the need to address health on the subtle level, as well as they physical level. There is a system of energetic healing known as the Intuitive Energy Practice that I use and promote to my clients. Working with the flow of prana as it relates to the chakra system and the aura, the result is a release of energetic pictures that keep people stuck in ways of being that no longer serve them.
Intuitive Energy Practice consists of a set of simple tools that anyone can use. The focus is on opening blocked channels and releasing energies that are not aligned with the individual’s truth; energies that may be directing their lives. When used in combination with
pranayama, meditation, and changes in diet and lifestyle, the practice offers the power to bring incredible results, with folks achieving beautiful transformations
In the same way the physical body holds Ama (toxins), that prevent a person from achieving true health, the subtle bodies hold energies that create the same obstacles. Ayurveda gives us the ability to approach healing on all levels of being, and we need to address both the tangible and intangible bodies with equal regard.
What is Ama?
Ama, the toxic waste-product of inefficient digestion, can accumulate at any time of the year.
As an example, during the holidays, we are particularly susceptible to it. The bounty of festive meals and lots of sweets tempts us to overeat and eat at irregular times, and these are all triggers for the build-up of Ama. If left unchecked, our body can become clogged, and our immune system weakened by the accumulation of ama. If you experience lack of appetite, stiffness in the joints, occasional constipation, respiratory issues, allergen reactions, or weight gain, Ama is the most likely culprit.
So, what is the Ayurvedic tool for conquering Ama?
Agni - our digestive fire!
If we keep our Agni strong, our bodies will be able to digest the food we eat without creating toxic by-products, and we can “avert the danger yet to come.” What a relief!
Here is a simple audio recording to get you started - we will be doing more with this along the way!