SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
dog days of summer cooling tips
Posted on August 17th, 2018
Given the speed and intensity with which climate change is moving, I’ve been getting increasingly involved in climate action and ways to create a more sustainable lifestyle. Those of you who are on Facebook, may have seen my recent posts about my plastic free journey which has intensified in the past month. Challenging and eye opening, this plastic free journey has awakened my mind to innovation, visioning, and community in ways that I had not anticipated. I feel very inspired and hopeful that we can shift this! The ocean & the Earth needs our help now!
One of the environmental organizations that I have been working with is 350 Brrooklyn. At our last monthly meeting, we were asked to share with each other ways that we were keeping cool this Summer without relying air conditioning which uses an excess of energy. As I turned to the people sitting next to me, I first I felt like I didn’t have anything to offer, but then I realized that I have a plethora of cooling techniques from my Ayurveda and yoga knowledge. I proceeded to show them Sitali pranayama, a simple breathing practice that cools your body and mind. It is incredible for the Summer when our Pitta Dosha, the fire element, goes out of balance. In our increasingly heated world, Sitali Pranayama is a great practice to know, as you can do it anywhere, at anytime, and it works immediately. My new friends at the 350 Brooklyn meeting loved it! We were then asked to share our tips with the whole group. So I taught the whole group Sitali Pranayama and they loved it to! By the looks on their faces, I’m sure it was the first time they had ever tried something like this at their meetings, and there was alot of laughter as everyone tried curling their tongues and sipping in the air. But they were amazed at how cool their tongues felt after just a few breaths and how that cool feeling spread through their bodies. Try Sitali Pranayama in these dog days of Summer when the heat and humidity feel overwhelming.
How To Practice Sitali
- Sit in a comfortable position with the head, neck, and spine in alignment.
- Close your eyes, breathe into the low belly (diaphramatic breathing) to relax
- Curl your tongue and put it out of your mouth.
- Inhale through the tongue and into the mouth. It feels a bit like you are sipping through a straw – a stainless steel straw, of course!
- Draw the tongue back into your mouth, close your mouth and exhale through the nostrils.
- Repeat 10 times
Keep it cool!
Leigh
DETOX MUDRA
Posted on May 7th, 2018
Thankfully Spring is finally here in full blossom! It makes me so happy when I take my morning walks to my sweet local McGorlick park. It has been quite a long “birthing” process this year in New York and I’ve been going through many layers of cleansing both inside and out. My Spring Green Soup and Pineapple Delight Green Drink and other ways of increasing delicious and detoxifying greens into my daily regime has been very cleansing for my system and Spring organs and meridians. My closets have a little more breathing room now that that coat that I didn’t wear all winter and that skirt that I keep putting back every season & other things are finally out of my closet & off to the Thrift store!
I’ve been working a lot with the Detoxification Mudra both personally in my own home practice as well in my yoga classes and Restorative Sound Healing: Spring Renewal workshops. The Detoxification Mudra is a very powerful support to cleanse out the inner energy channels as well as clear the mind of mental habits and old worn-out ideas of who you are. I’ve been working with a powerful visualization with this mudra that really is helping me transform my new inner visions to manifest in my life. It’s so simple. Just sit down in a quiet place. Lengthen your spine and breathe deeply into your belly to your body and mind. Place your thumb at the base of your fourth finger and breath deeply. Visualize all the thoughts and situations that you would like to release from you life, the thoughts and emotions that you are keeping you stuck. Maybe there is some resentment, anger, fear, grudges, negative thoughts and feelings that you are holding onto. Perhaps it is a person, or a job or a situation that is keeping you in a contracted state. What is limiting, or stopping you from expanding into the fullest most vibrant expression of your self? Visualize it and then let it go. After you’ve completed this process. Visualize all that you would like to manifest in your life. The thoughts, feelings, situations, people that you invite in to grow in the garden of your life. See this in as deep detail as possible and then listen to the feelings that you experience seeing this new film of your life. Let the feelings seep deeply into every cell of your body and permeate your entire being, nurturing new neurological patterns in your brain. Do this for at least 5 minutes a day, more if you have the time!
For a Spring yin practice, join me this weekend for my Mother’s day RESTORATIVE SOUND HEALING: MAMA LOVE workshop May 12, 6:15-8:15pm at Sacred Sounds Yoga in Manhattan for a deeply nourishing sound healing experience for Spring and for nurturing the Shakti Prana, divine Feminine energy within.
Spring Sound Bliss awaits you! Sign up for one of my Spring Sound Healing Specials and float is a a sea of healing sound!
MOTHER’S DAY SOUND HEALING GIFT
SPRING RENEWAL SOUND HEALING– limited offer through May 20!
For a Spring yang practice, check out my SPRING CLEANSE FLOW video.
I know you’ll enjoy this a powerful detoxifying, core strengthening, twisting asana sequence that releases congestion in the liver and gall bladder meridians to powerfully cleanse the Spring organs and bring clarity and vitality to your being! Even if you can’t fully do the apex poses yet, do as much of the sequence as you can and you will deeply open your hips and cleanse your body & mind!
joyous heart!
Leigh
SPRING IS IN THE AIR
Posted on April 23rd, 2018
It’s time to take out your blender out & bring on the green drinks! Spring is is the air-let the cleansing begin! I just did a major cleaning out of my refrigerator – yup all those containers with the “chemistry experiments” are now out of my fridge & it’s ready for a major infusion of green veggies for juicing!
I finally feel confident that Spring is here and it’s warm enough outside to do some juicing. I rarely do a full on juice fast because I’m vata dosha, the air element, and it is too cooling for my system. But I do include daily juices in my regime once it is warm enough outside. In Spring I love to do green juices, because the greens are especially cleansing for our liver and gall bladders, our Spring organs.
Associated with the Wood element in Chinese Medicine, Spring heralds an opportunity for change and expansion. Sometimes, however, the rising energy of Spring feels more like a craggy lurch. Change can be difficult, as we tend to bump into our habitual resistances on the path upwards. In Springtime, we often physically experience this as toxins running awry from our congested livers which get overloaded from rich, heavy Winter foods, stimulants, and our busy stressful lives. The rising energy of Spring can be a shock to our system and we often feel restless, angry, frustrated, edgy, stubborn, resistant, aggressive, and moody. Spring also often comes with headaches, eye issues, tight tendons, stiff necks, eczema and other skin problems. These are signs that our Spring organ network, liver and gall bladder organs, are overloaded with toxins and need some purification and loving attention.
It’s time to bring on the green and cleanse out the toxins, so we can enjoy the rebirth inside & out! I love this delicious green drink. I like including pineapple in my juices because it is a great natural source of melatonin, our “sleep hormone”. It helps me deepen my sleep so that I receive the healing and cleansing that occurs in the deep slow wave sleep in which the brain produces theta and delta waves. During slow wave sleep our body profoundly rests and our immune system is boosted. In this slow wave state of inactivity, the body can shift it’s energy to focus on regenerating bodily tissues, and restoring it’s energy sources.
In Spring I use alot of bitter greens in my juices to help cleanse the liver and gallbladder to help them stimulate bile production which helps break down foods and filters and detoxifes the blood. Some of my favorite bitter greens are dandelion and arugula.
PINEAPPLE DELIGHT
3 pieces of kale
5 dandelion greens
1/2 cucumber
1 celery stalk
8-10 chunks of pineapple
1/2 lemon
small bit daikon radish
handful of parsley
handful of cilantro
ginger
For a Spring yin practice, join me this Sat night for my SPRING REST & RENEWAL: RESTORATIVE SOUND HEALING workshop April 28, 6:15-8:15pm at Sacred Sounds Yoga in Manhattan for a deeply nourishing sound healing experience for the Spring meridians!
Sign up for a PRIVATE THAI MASSAGE SOUND HEALING SESSION for some special Spring liver love healing!
For a Spring yang practice, check out my SPRING CLEANSE FLOW video.
I know you’ll enjoy this a powerful detoxifying, core strengthening, twisting asana sequence that releases congestion in the liver and gall bladder meridians to powerfully cleanse the Spring organs and bring clarity and vitality to your being! Even if you can’t fully do the apex poses yet, do as much of the sequence as you can and you will deeply open your hips and cleanse your body & mind!
Happy Spring finally!!!
joyous heart!
Leigh