Faye Blake is this month’s Yoga Health Coaching Coach of the Month. Faye’s YHC journey started at a Yogahealer live event in Berlin. She was a Body Thrive and Living Ayurveda course member, but meeting some of the ladies in Berlin finally gave her the confidence to go ahead and join the YHC program.

Struggling with perfectionism and with a tendency to compare herself to others, Faye started to shed her limiting beliefs and has now successfully completed her course pilot.

Listen to the episode to learn more about how to stop doubting your abilities, the benefits of coaching a group, and aligning with your purpose.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How to overcome limiting beliefs
• How to coach through resistance
• How to grow by showing up

Links Mentioned in Episode:

• More about the Find the Money Course
• Watch the Masterclass
• Get to know Faye

Show Highlights:

• Keeping people away because you don’t feel ready
• Remembering your why and being a lifelong learner
• Aligning with dharma instead of self-sabotage

Timestamps:

• 1:15 Communicating directly with your ideal client
• 5:16 Sales and developing relationships with clients
• 10:40 Understanding different communication styles
• 16:18 Utilizing your unique skillset

Guest Bio:

Faye’s journey with Yogahealer has been one of deep self-healing. 4 years ago she had an unwavering passion to help contribute to the awakening of planetary consciousness, and a true knowing that she has a purpose in this life, but really wasn’t clear on what that looked like until Body Thrive helped her to strip back mental and bodily Ama and connect with her inner voice.

She now works with her students that are all inspiring individuals working towards living out their own dharma. She helps them to align with nature’s rhythms, to deeply trust their own intuition, and pass down this wonderful wisdom map of Ayurveda.

For me, the things that can throw me off balance are fresh-baked cookies, a glass of wine, or late night dinner to celebrate with a friend. Most of these small indulgences are no big deal when they are occasional, let’s say – once per month. It is when we begin to use the wine or cookie as an escape, having it weekly or even daily, that it can develop into a new bad habit which can be hard to shake.

How Indulgences Becomes Sticky Goo

When our habits don’t support our true nature and go against the rhythms that support our being, we accumulate Ama. Ama is the sticky, gooey sludge that is leftover from anything undigested – be it too much food or too much sun. You might equate Ama to the concept of metabolic waste in modern science. Ama takes hold in our fatty tissue and our joint spaces, which is why you may find yourself with an extra 10 lbs after a sluggish winter, or with painful joints after an overactive summer.

What do you do when you notice your over-indulgences emerging too often? What do you do when you realize those ama-building bad habits are beginning to produce the symptoms of disease?

Try Seasonal Cleanses

Try seasonal cleanses! Seasonal cleansing is an old tried-and-true practice in Ayurveda. From an ancient tradition to a popular modern day practice, Ayurveda recommends cleansing protocols on a biannual basis to clear the body’s channels, strengthen digestion, clear Ama and break negative habits and their effect on the body. When we cleanse, we tap into our true and natural rhythms.

Align with Ayurvedic Rhythms

When we think of the word “rhythm” in the Ayurvedic and yogic sense, we are thinking of the natural cycles that are present in nature and how our daily habits either support those natural rhythms or go against them. Think of seasonal rhythms, such as winter snow that blankets the environment and lends its inherent qualities (cold, insular, quiet) to the hibernation of plants and animals. During this seasonal rhythm we, too, are meant to retreat, sleep longer, and nourish our body with warm food. Daily rhythms in nature can be observed by watching the sun rise and set. When the noonday sun rises highest in the sky, it aligns with our body’s bile production, which also reaches its peak at noon. When we protest these rhythms by keeping too busy in winter, or by eating our largest meal when the moon is up instead of the sun, we create dis-ease.

In reality, our body desires to keep us aligned with nature, in sync with both daily and seasonal rhythm, and in pure health. Seasonal cleanses gives you the opportunity to slow down enough to sense your own pace, your own rhythm. It gives your body and your digestion the space to rest, where it is able to resolve the residual effects of those negative habits by processing the Ama collected from your fat, your joints, and your mind.

Cleansing is the ultimate renewal. Just as you feel the urge to “spring clean” your home or to rake the decaying leaves of fall, you may feel an urge to clean your internal space. While any cleanse protocol requires some discipline, the qualities of spring and fall naturally support what is required of the body during a cleanse.

The Vata Season

Think of nature in autumn. The leaves begin to change color, dry out and fall away. The breeze becomes friendly. There is an ethereal state to autumn mornings and evenings, as crisp, cool air takes the place of summer humidity. The food we find in season during this time, squash, apples, and root vegetables, have a naturally sweet taste. Fall is Vata season in Ayurveda, a naturally light and dry time of year. Tapping into the impulse to lighten the body, one may follow any number of dietary cleanses, paying special attention to fresh juices, the abundance of weeds available in fall for salads, and the various root vegetables for balancing the constipating effects of Vata on the body. Following the same impulse, one may want to release and cancel all activities that aren’t absolutely necessary. When there’s less to do, the fall seasonal cleanses time will be sweet, sweet with rhythm, relaxation and release. In this way we support the needs of the body to slow down, not only for this season but for the duration of our fall cleansing cycle.

The Kapha Season

In the Spring, we find nature supports us in choosing different cleansing foods and activities. The spring is Kapha season in Ayurveda, a time known for its damp and cohesive nature. The wonderful effect of this time is that young, new plants provide themselves for our nourishment. Greens and sprouts are abundant, which dry any accumulation of mucus in our body. Weeds, too, are sprouting with young, succulent leaves. Those new to using weeds in their diet may find the natural sweetness of weeds at this stage to be an enjoyable addition to their dietary repertoire. Cleansing in the Spring eliminates many seasonal allergies, especially if we eat locally and seasonally.

The earthen, physical nature of Kapha time allows us to tolerate more vigorous exercise, burning through the accumulation of cold from the winter. We may choose cleansing protocols that are high in warming spices, greens and pungent foods. We may choose exercise that allows us to sweat, or take dry sauna baths to further balance the moist, phlegm producing nature of excessive Kapha in our system.

Listen to Your Body

What exactly are we supposed to do to cleanse? Allow me to dispel the myth that seasonal cleanses has to be hard on the body, or needs to include fasting of any type, or that it must involve complete austerity. I like to think of my seasonal detoxification (or cleansing) cycles as lovely opportunities to re-connect. We are so frequently swept up in life we forget to truly listen to our body. We begin to use the brain to make executive decision about everything. “What will I do today? What pace will I force my body to keep because of work, family, or other external commitments? What food will I put in to solve my feelings of boredom, sadness, anxiety, or joy? What music, tv, and electronic stimulation do I choose even when I’m tired?” You see, it is SO simple to develop bad habits when we are using the brain to override the needs of the body. Detoxing allows us to listen to what our body needs.

As seasons change and we feel the natural urges to lighten up, clean up and try new things, it is completely natural to also lighten up, clean up and try new things in the the body. When we do so, we fine tune the body’s listening skills. We have the chance to renew the natural intelligence and rhythm of the body and give it a chance to speak, to override the loud voice of the mind, to break bad habits and, most importantly, to heal.

Designed for You and Only You. You can design your cleanse to go as deep or as subtle as you like. The main goal of a cleanse should be to attune the body’s rhythm to that of nature, to create space for healing and to fine tune your ability to listen to your internal voice.

My top five tips for an Ayurvedic seasonal cleanses

1. Take a break from electronics. Turn down external noise by setting a defined time to go screen free. During this time you should use devices sparingly. You may find it helpful to set 15 minute periods when you can check and respond to only the most imperative communication, but otherwise let it go. Give friends and family a heads up that you will be social media free during this cycle and limit computer use to only what is necessary in your business day. Free your mind from these Vata-stimulating distractions and use the time to tap into nature, connect with family, or sit in silence.
2. Let go of excess social engagements. It is important to get quiet during cleanse, and it’s hard to do that when you are focused on meeting the needs of others or when you are stuck in loud or over-stimulating social settings. You may look ahead at your calendar and block a period of time in which you will say “no” to outside engagements. While the slower rhythm can, at first, seem unnerving, your body will soon learn to relish these seasonal periods of freedom and the quiet break to go internal.
3. Make nourishing practices like self-massage and mineral baths a priority. You may feel anxious about what to do with the new found space and time. Let your mind know that the body is in charge with practices that send the clear signal “Don’t worry, ‘mind,’ I’ve got this!” Dry brushing, silk glove, or oil self massage puts your hands in touch with your tissues. As you cleanse you will get the sense of how your tissue is changing, and perhaps more importantly, what your tissue needs. For example, if you notice your skin drying you may want to add oil to your massage or diet. And if you notice your fatty tissue dissipating, it may give you incentive to continue forward in your cleanse cycle and stay engaged with your body. Mineral baths can follow self massage as a way to let go at the end of the day and quiet the mind for deep, restful sleep, further attuning you to natural daily rhythms of wake and rest. Both practices can be part of a lovely, self-nourishing and relaxing bedtime routine.
4. Create a plan and ask for specific support. Meal plan! Include the what, how and when of the meals you will eat on your cleanse. The planning will ease your stress around the process of cleansing and stave off cravings. It is also very helpful to tell your friends and family what you will be doing and how that will affect your availability to their needs. Set expectations and give specific ways in which friends and family can help you to be successful with your cleansing process. You may wish to follow a book, a doctor’s advice, or join a detox support group. All of these things will help ensure the success of your cleanse.
5. Be easy on yourself. Even the best laid plans sometimes must change. Being an experienced seasonal detoxer, there have been times when I have planned a deep cleanse only to encounter illness or an emergency that required me to take a lighter approach. Or the opposite – when I plan to take only an electronic device detox, but end up following my body’s desire into a deep juice cleanse. All is good and all is well. Just use the opportunity to explore, be curious, slow down, and be at ease with what arises. That is what seasonal cleanses is all about.

Do a Morning Tongue Check for Ama

Do you have ama? First thing in the morning, take a look at your tongue. You are looking for the white or yellow stuff. Check how much of the tongue it coats, how thick the coating appears, and the color of the coating all tell us something about the ama that is in your body. Since the tongue is at the top of the digestive tract you can think of it as a map to all that is happening within. Anything other than a nice pink tongue and you can rest assured, you have an accumulation of ama in your system.

In Ayurveda, all health comes from the strength of the digestive system. In a strong but balanced digestive system, there are only two functions: first, food is broken down into very small particles, and the particles are absorbed into your bloodstream via the small intestine. Second, anything that is not necessary to meet your body’s nutritional needs is excreted via the bladder and large intestine. Strong digestion does not produce ama, which is a bi-product of weak digestion. When you have strong digestive function you will feel light and energized after you eat. Nothing “hangs around” longer than need be. You use your food efficiently, building prana (life force) with ease, and eliminating waste product with ease. This is ideal, and will create wonderful health.

Weak Digestion Creates Ama

When digestion is weak or unbalanced, there is a third function of the digestive system. Perhaps food doesn’t break into small enough pieces, or perhaps it sits, stagnating and fermenting, in a digestive tract that is not moving efficiently. In either case, not all food is absorbed or eliminated. This is ama. Ama is the portion of undigested waste that stays in the body. Unused and unable to be eliminated, it becomes the Swamp-Thing of the digestive tract, growing stickier, thicker, and more unctuous with time, and is stored in the storage tissues, particularly fat cells and joint spaces. The good news hidden here- sometimes being overweight is not a function of fat, but a function of stored ama. Eliminate ama=eliminate excess from the fatty tissues.

All Kinds of Ama

While we are talking about how ama is created, we need to think critically about the false concept that food is the only thing which we take in that needs digesting. In fact, food is only a small part of all that you take in each day. There is the breath, and the quality of the air around you. There is information, via screens, media, books and music. There are your interactions with friends, family, co-workers and strangers. There is anything and everything that causes an emotional response. Information, breath and emotions, as they rise, must be digested, or even they will be stored as ama in the body or the mind. Unprocessed emotions or unprocessed information lead to “emotional ama.” While there is technically no difference between foodborne ama and emotional ama, they both lead to physical symptoms. The physical symptoms (Somatics) that arise after any type of trauma are due to emotional ama.

Ama actually translates to mean “uncooked”. When we can’t metabolize something, be it food, breath, information, or emotion, there is a lack of the necessary transformative energy that is needed for that thing to be digested. Unmetabolized, or uncooked, those things that should feed our senses instead create toxicity. Toxicity equals ama.

Symptoms of Ama in Your Body

Many symptoms that precursor disease are a sign that excess ama has built up in your body. You may have one system that is prone to collecting ama and shows symptoms earlier than others. For example, one person may have chronic stomach upset, another headaches, and yet a third may have chronic rashes. Yet all of these people likely have one thing in common: ama. The more attuned you become to this, the more sensitively you may notice signs and symptoms before they lead to disease. Attune to ama buildup and you may notice the first hint of a stomach-ache (and take action to clear the ama) before it leads to full blown IBS. Here is a list of symptoms, both subtle and not, that may indicate ama in your body:

• Depression/Irritability
• Joint pain or stiffness upon rising
• General Pain including headaches
• Feeling tired, lazy, drowsy or weak.
• Heaviness or fatigue after eating
• Gas or Bloating
• Chronic inflammation
• Constipation or mucous in the stool
• Belching or burping frequently
• Susceptibility to illness
• Overweight
• Oily or sticky skin with sweat
• Body odor or bad breath
• Difficulty thinking or remembering things
• “Brain fog”
• “Leaky gut”

Now that you understand what ama is and how it manifests as symptoms in the body, you need to understand what “harmless” habits you may be keeping that are contributing to ama in the first place.

Four Ways You May be Unknowingly Creating Ama in Your Body

1. The most significant way you may be creating ama in your body is eating too heavy too late. When you eat too late (after 6pm) your body literally lacks the metabolic force (called agni in Ayurveda) to break down your food. Similarly, when you eat too much at one sitting, you smother the proverbial digestive fire. Most people become lazy after a late, heavy dinner and lie on the couch, where even gravity cannot help the digestive cause. There is a reason that eating an earlier, lighter dinner is the first habit we teach as Yoga Health Coaches. To avoid ama accumulating on a nightly basis, eat early, eat light and stay active.

2. A second big contributor to ama is our habit of taking in food, substances or information to avoid or control how we are feeling. In reality the emotional experience is the emotional experience regardless of how much food, alcohol, or media you take in to avoid feeling it. You know the expression! Wherever you go, there you are. You cannot escape your inner self by switching focus to your taste buds!  If your mental and emotional bodies are busy contending with a heavy load, putting in food or other distractive substances leads immediately to ama. You just can’t digest both things. This is why you lose your appetite when something major happens. It’s your body’s wise way of saying “tune in and attend to me.” So do it.

3.The third heavy hitter on ama production is eating foods that aren’t fresh or those that are processed. This one is a bit of a no-brainer. Eat food that is seasonal and local and comes from a source close to the earth and your body will know just what to do with it. Eat food that is canned, boxed, old or processed and it is like ama in a to go box. Use common sense and eat fresh, organic and green whenever possible to avoid digestive bi-product.

4. My fourth example of how you may be creating ama in your body is a little less intuitive, and something that may contradict what you have heard from popular health and medical authorities. Eating too frequently as in, “five small meals a day” is a major offender in producing ama. Why? That metabolic force we were talking about – agni – is a fire that needs tending. To burn food efficiently it needs time to process, to turn food into ash, to smolder, and to rebuild. Add little bits of kindling over and over to the fire and it never recovers its intensity to handle all the rest of the stuff that is coming in. To put it another way, when you put food in too frequently you are taxing the efficiency of your body’s largest and most central channel. With a little load in the stomach, another in the small intestine, and several more in the large intestine all of your processing energy is stuck on food.This leaves no room for processing information, emotions, and all of the other things we take in on a daily basis. Give the fire a rest between meals (specifically 3-4 hours between and minimum 13 hour fast between dinner and breakfast) and the fire will burn brightly, without subsequent ama.

Hit the Reset Button and Release that Ama

Now you are wondering, what do I do with the ama once it’s accumulated in my system? In Ayurveda we recommend seasonal cleansing, which is the best way to rid the body of the toxins we accumulate in daily life. Seasonal detoxing rids your body of the toxic load before it turns to illness. You can read more on that here. But let’s say you have just returned from vacation where you’ve exceeded your ama quotient by eating excessive pasta, cheese and drinking too frequently (yes, it happens!). My personal reset is a three day mung-bean soup fast. It’s a quick way to purge toxins and support the digestive tract in recovering its strength. And it’s easy! Make a fresh pot of soup each day and eat only that for breakfast, lunch and dinner (it’s only three days). Mung beans are notorious for their cleansing properties and very easy to digest, plus this simple food contains all the nutrients you need to support your body and sustain normal activity. My favorite recipe is here, Simply eat mung soup for three meals per day and drink plenty of fresh, warm water and you will feel as if you’ve hit the proverbial reset button.

Ama Free for Life-NOT!

Even the best yogi can’t be ama free. Toxins are everywhere, even in our clean food and drinking water. However, a daily practice of good habits around eating, allowing yourself space and rest around emotions, and respecting the needs of your senses will allow you to live ama-light between cleanses and give you the sense of vibrant health.

Life Happens

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t now, it will soon. Why? Because life happens. This is not meant to be a grim warning, it’s just reality. Sometimes in life we lose – a loved one, a relationship, a job or special project. Sometimes the loss hits hard. Other times the wave of the loss simply washes over us, and we’re able to move forward with ease. Other times we are broadsided.

The question is how will you choose to handle your next unexpected trauma? Being informed and having a plan may help you navigate the process with more grace and ease.

My Story

Six months ago, I was just back from Yogahealer Mexico Retreat. A profound experience with more than twenty like-minded women. I was on fire. Following the retreat, I was clear on my next course of action for my relationships and my business. I was wide-open and firing on all cylinders. I felt phenomenal. In the week I returned home, I discovered I was pregnant! This was the icing on the cake! I was full of magic potential and I could not wait to see what was next.

Five short days later I woke in the night to the horrible realization that I was miscarrying. I went to the doctor, cried with my husband, talked to a few friends, brushed myself off and then jumped right back into my old life like nothing happened. My mantra was, “Keep on Trucking.”  I knew I was sad, but I didn’t want to face my feelings, so I did what the old Gin would do. I yogied by day (wearing the visage of a happy, healthy coach) and drank wine by night. I ate heavy and late. I stayed up watching TV and I let go of my meditation practice. Soon symptoms of my previously dormant autoimmune disease began to reemerge along with uncomfortable digestion and leaky gut. Hello, old tattered sweater.

The thing about healthy habits is, once you have developed them, you know how bad it feels when they are gone. My internal dialogue began to shift as I realized the serious consequences of returning to my old worn out habits. “I no longer want to be like you, old self.” “Ugly old sweater, you do not spark joy.” I needed these declarations as I began to recognize the difference between the me I had been evolving towards and the me that relied on attachment to address trauma.

I will survive!

I have survived trauma before. I know how it feels to sit with it, to wear it like an old tattered sweater, even to define myself by it. When I began to identify with my trauma: “I am a wife and mother who will never have another baby” I began limiting my evolution. Limitations can be seductive. We hold on to them for the same reason we hold on to old things, like the sweater that no longer fits, even when it no longer sparks joy… because there is comfort in identifying with the familiar “old self.” Change is scary. In my case, the person who wore that ugly sweater could sit comfortably with pain and even more comfortably with the use of old habits – like overdrinking and overeating – to numb that pain and tap out. The new and evolved version of me was someone who identifies with higher truths: “I am a wife and mother who is healthy and joyfully births many creative endeavors.” Instead of the slubby sweater, I wanted to emerge as polished, vibrant and authentic, in a cocktail dress! In order to realign with my new truth I knew that something had to change – NOW! I knew it was time to digest my trauma.

Trauma, Ama, and Ayurveda:

Trauma typically appears without warning. And while trauma and grief are separate, the processes are often linked. Often we need to grieve when there is trauma, and sometimes the grief process can be traumatic in itself.

In psychology, when you notice trauma creating symptoms in the body it is called somaticizing. This is the process in which the mental state produces physical symptoms. Think headaches, weight gain, difficult digestion, etc. Through the lens of Ayurveda we go one step deeper. Why does mental/emotional trauma cause these symptoms? The answer is – Ama. Ama is the sludgy toxic waste left behind by anything that is undigested – be it food, thoughts, or emotions. Ama is sticky, and difficult to move. Ama can result from a physical toxin that you ingest or ama can result from an experience, such as trauma. Ama arises when anything you take in through your senses is goes undigested. Once ama takes hold in weak tissues of the body-symptoms emerge. In my case, my trauma showed up in my thyroid and my gut due to my Autoimmune disease. When trauma creates ama the body feels slow, almost inert as ama suffocates cellular regeneration. Physically, mentally and emotionally, you get “stuck.” And where ama takes hold due to trauma, grief takes hold too. Now, instead of moving through a process, progressing through the stages of grief in a healthy way, you are stuck in it.

If, however, you prefer to be unstuck and if you like the feeling of being in integrity with right action, you can choose to process grief and trauma in the moment and weeks thereafter, rather than getting stuck in the ama. Your body has the capacity to move through the ama, but it needs support. Rather than amplify the pain and the process, you can choose to be in it to move through it. Uncomfortable, yes, but necessary. Here are some suggestions to help:

1. Practice Self-Love with Oil – In Ayurveda, the word for oil has the same meaning as the word love. Take time to perform deep self massages or Abhyanga with a warming oil like sesame. This helps mobilize ama and allows you to talk to your tissues before somatization sets in. Applying essential oils to the feet before bed – like clary sage and lavender, help fight depression and prepare for deep rest.  Eat warm, soupy, even slightly oily foods. Keep your digestion supple with oil. It will help you to process ama and move it out of your body.
2. Early, Lighter Dinner – take the first habit of Body Thrive to heart. In order to rest well and (see below) ease the load on digestion, eat several hours before going to bed. This simple habit will leave you lots of extra energy to digest trauma. When you are actively experiencing a fight or flight response in your nervous system or have any symptoms of adrenal fatigue, it is not wise to skip meals. Instead, plan to eat warm meals with warming spices (like cumin, cinnamon, clove or ginger.) Warm, easy to digest foods leave you feeling grounded and nourished. Don’t overload your digestion with processed or sugary foods that create more ama while digesting your trauma.
3. Early to Bed – One of the best places to process grief is in the deep restoration of sleep. Prepare for restful sleep with a set bedtime routine. Mineral baths (like epsom salt) are grounding and allow you to wind down for bed. Get to bed well before 10PM. This will allow your body to use its natural nighttime bile production to process emotional ama. Create the opportunity for your body to go into several cycles of restorative REM sleep by allowing 8-10 hours for sleep during trauma recovery.
4. Rest Deep – Take time off. Really. Now. Taking time to deeply rest and tend to yourself in the moment. If you feel like you don’t have time, be aware that taking time earlier in the process will minimize the amount of time you need to take off later should the ama take a stronger hold. In my case, with miscarriage, total bed rest was recommended by my Ayurvedic Practitioner immediately after it happened. By ignoring my body’s need to rest I began the path toward dis-ease – later needing a full month off to finally process my grief. Stop, drop, and be present to your experience. If you find meditation difficult during this time try restorative yoga or yoga nidra. Your body, mind and spirit will thank you.
5. Journal – Journal your feelings, your sadness, your anger and your gratitude. Write a letter to that which you lost. Give all your emotions to the page. Give voice to your grief. Hold nothing back. Allow your true Self to feel heard.

Like I said, life happens. Have a plan for the next time you experience trauma and times when unprocessed grief arises. Learn from your experiences and allow the process to grow you and shape you into the next best version of your highest SELF.

Join Cate and Grace as they talk about taking out the trash…

When Cate asks to see your tongue you know the game is up. “The tongue doesn’t lie.” We may think and appear to be doing all right on the outside but the tongue tells the real story.

We make assumptions to what our constitution is based on how we feel but really it’s the ama that’s talking. “The first step to finding balance is to take out the trash.”

Ama is the trash that builds up within us. It’s the undigested stuff. It could be emotional or physical – pay attention as you listen to where these different forms of ama manifest in the body.

Our doshic constitution is our innate nature. It describes how we are made up so we can better understand our natural tendencies to be able to use our gifts to their highest potential.

The Video Highlights…

Your tongue doesn’t lie

• Listen to what your tongue has to say on your constitution.
• Clean yourself and live with your dosha.
• Be open to life-notice your inner reality.

Get the ama out and restore balance

• See your dosha behind your ama.
• Clear the ama out of your body, your mind and physiology.
• Follow a six month cleaning process and then see what’s left.
• Feel your vibration and embrace your constitution.

“Your constitution is your gift”

• Know who you really are in this lifetime.
• Enhance your knowledge on the doshas and the constitutions.
• Remove your ama, evolve and embrace your strength.
• Balance your emotions, thoughts and food.

Then come the kids…

Add on another layer of trying to figure out your kids and their imbalances. A big aha moment for parents. “Rarely does a child have ama that the parents don’t have” Ouch that one hurts!  Work on your junk before tackling anyone else!

Help your children thrive

• Realize the power of good eating and sleeping habits.
• Work on your own constitution as a parent and remove your ama.
• Make the difference and impact your relationships.
• Work on your child’s ancestral ama.

Evolving and entering flow is a process but it starts with clearing away the ama.

Comment below on what aha’s you reached during this conversation. What trash do you need to work on?

“Agni is the main source of life and if you worship agni, you will be blessed with perfect health.” – Dr. Vasant Lad

I have struggled to digest and release emotions and conflicts my whole life. Variable mental and emotional agni caused a buildup of ama and anxiety.  I ate to numb my feelings instead of working things out. Emotional eating weakened my digestive agni. A healthy relationship and friendship with mental and digestive agni is my growing edge.

Before Ayurveda I did not understand how to seasonally adjust to support my agni. Stuffed full was it for me. Hunger was something I only thought of when “Save the Children” commercials came on TV. I used to overfill my life with experience, food toxins, medicines and stuff to numb emotions.

Smothered Agni Slows Digestion and Builds Ama

Overwhelmed, I lost the capacity to be present and experience. Too much of everything is just numbing and blocks awareness.  It dampens our digestive fire and increases ama. Ama blocks prana and burns through resiliency.  I ignored the opportunity to get in touch with and listen to my agni and ignored the resulting symptoms. Things got worse. I had to befriend agni and rebuild my digestive wellness.

Fan the Fire

What does befriend agni mean?  With Ayurveda I understand it means to choose and meter inputs, mental challenges and food based on prakruti and ability to digest healthily.  Pay attention to seasonal effects. In spring eat less, decrease dairy and grains, and eat more greens.  Add foods that are growing and living like sprouts and microgreens. Live life at the level that optimizes and grows your true nature.  Stay out of overwhelm and carve out ease.

I want more experiences, great memories, growth and less ama. Ayurveda has taught me the relationship between agni and ama. Click this link to check in with your agni and ama.

Stoke Digestive Fire

Sama Agni is not my forte. (Strong Even Digestion) I struggle to build and maintain digestive fire. Listening to my body and understanding my feelings are developing  skills for me. Spring is a great trigger for me to refocus on breathwork and to change over to lighter eating.

• Redefine satisfied.  No food coma or discomfort at all. On a scale of 1 being starving and 10 stuffed I aim for 5 to 7.

• Find a way to feel deeper hunger once in awhile and befriend it. Historically it was normal to feel hunger and be hungry. Every so often my body needs to burn accumulated fat, not just carbohydrates. For me this means fast or juice fast one day a month or so.

• Lighten up on the starches and add growing green stuff to your plate.

• Eat living foods. 70 to 80% of your immune system lives in your gut. These guys take a beating and need active support. Probiotic organisms in your gut biome are the front line agni decision makers. They decide what is transformed and what is streamed to waste. Add back the probiotics in fermented foods to replenish these fire keepers on an ongoing basis. A healthy biome also helps balance my hormones and my mental outlook.

• Release anxiety and any regret for  actions and feelings throughout the day. I journal to help me with this. I ask myself did I respond in wisdom or in ego?  Was what I said true, accurate, said at the right time, and with the right intention?  Add some alternate nostril breathing post journalling to flush any residual mental ama.

• Get out in nature and tap into the power of plants to help me detox and heal.

Eat Seasonally to Support Agni

For the spring Kapha season this means lighten up your food and get moving. The quantity and quality of food and all your inputs, need to be in right relationship with your digestive fire to fully engage with your life and live at your highest vibration.

Check out foods to help flow with Kapha season here

Unload Ama

Ayurveda describes several types of specific agni at work in my brain, senses, muscles and digestive tract. Are you listening to your agni and giving it what it needs throughout your body?

• Meditate to clear out the mental and emotional trash. If you are not processing daily conflict and stress it builds mental ama.

• Cleanse each Spring by simplifying diet and life, for a week or two. If you need help to do this find a really good group cleanse or detox program and join.

• Sleep on a regular schedule. Sleep is an important time when ama is processed for elimination.

• Eat whole organic natural foods; eliminate pesticides and food additives that are chemically based. Check EWG’s 2023 “Clean 15” list here to help with your choices.

• Reduce or Eliminate Toxins. Cut down or out recreational drugs, like tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol. All these things put stress on your liver and are amagenic, or ama building in the body.

• Keep your vibration high by eliminating violent and dark TV, reading or music.

• Clean up.  Throw out old junk and clear out clutter in your life.

• Reach out to friends to work through conflicts and stress as it comes up. Stay connected and don’t let anger or frustration build up.

Support Detox Pathways

Your body sequesters toxins with help from your small intestines and  liver, so they won’t hurt you then moves them out through your exhalation, your sweat, urine and feces. You can help your body do this more efficiently.

• Sweat. Sweating through the skin is often a completely underutilized detox pathway. Get moving every day as your muscle movement pumps moves toxins out of your lymphatic system.

• Breathe with awareness.  They don’t say take a deep cleansing breath for nothing you know. Every exhale releases ama we don’t want or need.

• Drink clean water. Sip it regularly over the course of your day. Water is the medium for communication and transportation in the body.  Water saturates and flushes tissues and releases toxins for disposal out through the kidneys.

• Add Antioxidants. The key antioxidants; Vitamin C,  E, Co Q 10 and Glutathione give your body a detox boost. A plant rich diet full of color gives all the nutrients you need to stoke your fire.

Agni Can Be A Lifelong Friend

With a little support your agni can be sturdy and resilient. Balance the qualities of spring; cold, wet, and heavy to burn strong and bright. Healthy Agni, means you can eat and assimilate a wider variety of information and foods. You’ll be able to thrive in a wider set of circumstances. Strong Agni is my partner in a rich vibrant experience of life full of growth and learning.

This spring befriend your digestive fire.

Let’s share self care practices to burn steady and bright! Add what you do to build and balance your digestive fire in the comments below.