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Spring Changes Alot

March 4, 2019 By Lisa Souba Leave a Comment

While it’s hard to imagine Spring only being 20 days away here in Montana, we ARE headed that direction.  I’m already enjoying the early sun rise and later sun sets.  Soon, we’ll start to see the snowmelt and rivers will become swollen.  All the moisture that was bound by freezing temperatures will soon be moving to clear winter stagnation.  That same is true in our bodies.  Spring is the optimal time for lightening and clearing the accumulated heavy and dense qualities from winter.  These qualities must be broken down and burned up, which means increasing metabolism.  In the winter, the body needs rich foods, but as we move towards spring, the body starts to desire more light, dry, simple foods that digest easily.  It’s a time when we stoke the digestive fires and encourage the body’s natural cleansing with pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes found in seasonal greens, bright berries, fresh ginger, turmeric, and spicy soups.  When we avoid living according the rhythms of nature, we invite allergies, stagnation, brain fog, and lethargy into our bodies. 

  • The elements of spring are earth and water.  In the spring we look to qualities that are warming, light, dry, mobile (get moving), sharp and penetrating.  We then need to avoid qualities that are the opposite such as cold, heavy, oily, static (sitting around), dull, and slow. 
  • Signs and Symptoms of imbalance in the spring look like:
    • Loss of appetite
    • Sinus or chest congestion
    • Seasonal spring allergies (YES, these can be avoided)
    • Lackluster or lethargic feelings

Some of the food we want to favor in the spring time are:

  • Pungent spices, such as ginger, black pepper, lemon, and turmeric
  • Dry grains, such as barley, rye, corn, millet, and buckwheat
  • Astringent fruits, such as apples, pears, berries, dried cherries, raisins, and prunes
  • Lean proteins, such as beans, lentils, and egg whites; white meat for nonvegetarians
  • Bitter vegetables, such as arugula, brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, dandelion greens, and asparagus
  • Raw honey, in moderation

In order to avoid an imbalance this time of the year, you’ll need to avoid:

  • Anything cold
  • Dairy products
  • Sweet, heavy fruits, such as dates, figs, and bananas
  • Wheat
  • Sweeteners
  • Fatty meats
  • Roasted nuts
  • Salt

In my yoga classes we will be moving from a more restorative practice to a more invigorating practice.  This is also a good time to receive a Manual Lymphatic Drainage massage to avoid stagnation.  Other Spring lifestyles would include:

  • Dry brushing a few times per week or daily, in the morning before your shower.  You can also use a light massage oil such as almond or grapeseed.  Add energizing essential oils such as lemon, grapefruit, or bergamot to your massage oil.
  • Practice neti (nasal irrigation) with a neti pot at during your morning shower.  This is beneficial when the allergy season starts or before congestion begins.
  • Exercise daily, preferably first thing in the morning and outdoors.  Get sweaty.
  • Reduce napping during the day and wake up with the sun.
  • Avoid eating when you’re not hungry.  Make sure your breakfast is on the lighter side.

Lastly, Spring time is a great time of the year to begin a cleanse.  Cleanses provide an opportunity for our digestive system to rest in between seasons. It’s an opportunity to rid ourselves from the sluggishness of the rich, heavy foods from winter.  During the Spring, our liver and gallbladder begin to detox.  If we ate heavy, rich foods in the winter, which we all do in order to stay warm, we’re going to want to give the body a break and ease its natural process of detoxing.  When we detox or cleanse, we reset our digestive system which can help alleviate with seasonal allergies, symptoms from auto-immune diseases, and food allergies.  An Ayurvedic cleanse is based on whole foods with a mono diet approach.  It’s not a starvation diet, nor does it require purchasing expensive herbs.  “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates 

In Health

Lisa

Filed Under: Ayurveda, Cleanse, Detox, health and wellness, Yoga

Digestive Health Benefits of Sun Salutations

June 20, 2018 By Lisa Souba Leave a Comment

Did you know that a Sun Salutation, a series of yoga poses linked together, has digestive health benefits? The diaphragm, which is where the rib cage meets the abdomen, is a muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdomen and regulates breathing depth and patterns. Ideally, your stomach should hang underneath the diaphragm, however, stress, shallow mouth breathing, lack of exercise, and indigestion can begin to tighten the stomach and pull it upwards. In Ayurveda, this is also known as a Vata imbalance. The elements of Vata are air and ether with the qualities of dry, light, cold, mobile, rough, and clear. Therefore, whenever an individual has upward movement of energy or upward moving pressure, it would be considered part of a Vata imbalance. Symptoms of upward moving energy would be constant belching, heartburn, acid reflux.

There is also a sphincter called the lower esophageal sphincter. The esophagus travels through the diaphragm, however, it is at this juncture where the lower esophageal sphincter opens and closes to allow food through and keeps digestive acids from refluxing up into the esophagus. If the stomach begins to adhere to the underside of the diaphragm, it can begin to compromise the total function of the stomach. This creates the upward movement of acid and causes the diaphragm to tighten. When this happens, the stomach is unable to contract and produce acid it needs to digest hard to digest foods such as wheat, dairy, and fried foods.

So how does the yoga sequence called Sun Salutation help with digestion? A sun salutation provides flexion and extension during a series of postures that are coordinated with each nasal inhalation and exhalation. The extension, or back bending, postures move the rib cage up and back while the diaphragm pulls the lower chest and abdomen down and in giving a deep stretch to the diaphragm, heart and lungs. The abdomen, stomach and liver are pulled down creating more space under the diaphragm for optimal digestion and freedom for deep breathing. The flexion, or forward bending postures all for brings the rib cage and abdomen together. At this point the diaphragm is relaxing and the rib cage squeezes the lungs in an effort to exhale, it’s like an accordion bringing the rib cage and abdomen together. The tissues and organ around the diaphragm soften allowing for increased blood flow.

Click here to view a short video on two variations of Sun Salutations.

Hope you enjoy adding a few Sun Salutations into your daily routine.

Filed Under: health and wellness, Uncategorized, Yoga

Heart Palpitations – An Ayurvedic Approach

February 5, 2018 By Lisa Souba Leave a Comment

February has been set aside as National Heart Awareness Month which helps raise attention to heart disease. According to The American Heart Association®, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States.

Ayurveda associates diseases of the heart to one’s blood chemistry, including hormones and toxicity. Fermentation of food in the digestive tract causes aggravation in the blood which leads to heart palpitations. Fermentation happens when we’re unable to digest the foods we eat. It might start out with gas, bloating, indigestion and/or constipation which then create toxicity in the blood leading to heart palpitations. The definition of Heart Palpitations is when there is a noticeable increase in the rhythm of your heartbeat. If you’ve ever experienced your heart beating in your chest while sitting or casually walking down the street, you might be experiencing heart palpitations. Your heart, while resting, may feel fast, slow, pounding, like it’s skipping beats, or simply beating at a normal rate. When you experience heart palpitations, you may also notice shortened, quick breaths, chills, or a light sweat. While it’s extremely important to seek medical care from your health care provider, it’s also important to look at what’s causing the fermentation of foods in your digestive tract and lifestyle habits that might also be contributing to the issue. Everyone’s body is unique, and the root causes of a disorder are particular to an individual. Addressing the unique imbalances in your blood and circulation is usually more accurate than following a diet for the general case.

Some of the causes association with heart palpitations might be from stress or anxiety. A recent trauma or ongoing emotional challenge can make your heart race. Some medical conditions and medications may cause palpitations or murmurs as well. If your palpitations accompany dizziness, fainting, shortness of breath, or chest pain, please contact your doctor.

  • Stress
  • Anxiety
  • Caffeine
  • Pregnancy
  • Underlying Heart Disease
  • Low Blood Sugar
  • Anemia
  • Hypothyroid
  • Constipation
  • Gas, Bloating, Indigestion
  • Dehydration

An Ayurvedic approach to treatment would be to determine where the imbalances are coming from. Everything you eat has an effect on your body, which Ayurveda categorizes in simple and easy way, using gunas or qualities. Gunas are qualities (like cold and hot) that describe the effect a food or herb has on your body. Cooling foods like cucumber, decrease metabolism. Heating foods like chili pepper, stimulate your body and increase metabolism. Typically, Heart Palpitations, are an imbalance of one or more of the following qualities: oily, heating, sweet, sour, salty that may be aggravating your system. A person with heart palpitations should avoid these qualities. Because we are all uniquely made, treatment recommendations will vary, and are based on your body type and the root cause of your imbalance. Some of these recommendations might include eating warm meals at regular times, getting enough rest, gentle breathing exercises, calming treatments like massage and/or lymphatic drainage. For best results, schedule a one on one Digestive Health Coaching session. These sessions can also be booked in the evening via phone or on Tuesday’s.

In Health

Lisa

 

Filed Under: Ayurveda, health and wellness, heart health, heart palpitations, Massage, Uncategorized, Yoga Tagged With: ayurveda, health and wellness, heart health, heart palpitations

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