SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
3 reasons to nourish our water element
Posted on November 16th, 2015
Water is the element of the second chakra, “Svadhisthana”. Governing our reproductive and urinary organs, the second chakra guides our sexuality, emotions, intimacy, pleasure, desire, and personal relationships. Deeply nourishing, water invites fluidity, cleansing, flow, lubrication, ease and support both in our bodies and lives.
The healing powers of water draws us all to oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, swimming holes, hot springs, hot tubs, bath tubs, and steam rooms to be restored and rejuvenated. I teach all of my yoga retreats on the water immersed in nature to help restore our stressed out body/minds and nourish our spirits. These pictures were taken at my Thailand Retreat at Jungle Yoga, our gorgeous retreat center, floating on the water in the midst of Koh Sok National Park. It is incredibly healing to be immersed in the elements so completely!
As fabulous as it is to submerse yourself in water in nature, here are 3 reasons why it is also important to nourish the water element within our own bodies.
- In Ayurveda, Ojas, our primal vitality, is the subtle energy of water which nourishes and sustains us. Similar to primordial yin, Ojas offers us endurance and resilience through cellular immunity.
- According to Chinese Medicine, the kidneys, often referred to as the mother organ, are the connected to the element of water, governing all that flows within us. They rule the reproductive, developmental and urinary systems, the health of the lower back, our bones, and hearing. Since our bodies are said to be approximately 70% water, we are bathed in an internal ocean of fluids and the health of our kidneys is essential.
- Unfortunately our stressful lifestyles, overwork, lack of sleep, overindulgence in caffeine, sweets, sex, prescription and recreational drugs, and environmental toxins, among other things overheats our system, weakens our kidney chi and we feel “burnt out”. In this state, the cooling capacity of the kidneys is tapped out and unable to cool our overheated state.
How to nourish your kidneys
To restore fluidity, easeful flow in our beings, we can do specific yoga and self-care practices to help nourish the health of our kidneys, the water element within us, and our “Sacral chakra.” Winter is the Season to tend to the kidneys and water element.
Upavista Konasana, is deeply nourishing for the Kidneys. Opening the inner leg lines which correspond to the Kidney meridian, this pose nurtures the cooling, healing, yin energy in our body/mind. Try practicing Upavista Konasana lying with your belly supported by a bolster-it’s delicious! Make sure your head is resting on support to invite deeper cooling and calming for your mind and nervous system.
Join us this Winter for our Thailand Yoga Retreat, Feb 20-27, 2016 and immerse yourself in nourishing yoga practices and the healing waters!
joyous heart!
Leigh
Improve your concentration with Headstands
Posted on October 26th, 2015
Are you feeling fragmented and overwhelmed this Fall? Spend a little more time upside down with Leigh and deepen your powers of concentration!
I’m truly enjoying my headstand practice this Fall. I have always loved being upside down. I can remember as a kid hanging out alot in shoulderstand on the cushioned ledge in our dining room. I also could be found dangling upside down for hours on the swing in our tree in the backyard. The first person I knew in my life that did headstands was my grandfather, Albert Evans. He had a 33 minute daily exercise practice which included a 3 minute headstand. I was inspired by his daily dedication and he was in amazing shape! It made a real impression on me.
I always feel so nourished by my inversion practice. I am much more able to concentrate. The day goes smoother and I really get a lot more done. Distractions fall away and I can stay focused and on task. I increase the time I spend in inversions in the Fall to stay balanced and centered in our “windy season”. In Fall, Vata Dosha (the air element) increases and we often feel fragmented, overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, nervous, scattered, and distracted. When our vata dosha gets out of balance, we experience our thoughts running a mile a minute resulting often in insomnia. Inversions help us quiet the mind and deepen our concentration in addition to the enormous cleansing and healing benefits for our immune, digestive, reproductive, circulatory, endocrine, and nervous systems.
Try spending a little more time upside down this Fall!
Oh, and if you’re having trouble falling asleep, or wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, just listen to my “Sleep & the Art of Rest” audio sessions–Guided relaxation and breathing practices to help you unwind, ease your mind, and summon sleep! Enjoy!
Joyous heart!
Leigh
Q & A with Annie Kunjappy
Posted on October 14th, 2015
Annie Kunjappy was born and raised in Malaysia by immigrant parents from Kerala, India. She has been in New York since 2004, spreading her knowledge and love for food and conscious eating. Annie will be leading the food portion of our Seasonal Self-Care workshops on November 1 (Winter Wellness) and April 3 (Spring Detox).
How do you know Leigh?
Leigh was my first yoga teacher! She started teaching her first yoga class at the warehouse loft space where I lived in San Francisco in 1990. I feel that her amazing teaching laid a strong foundation for my yoga practice in the years to come. We were both artists in the theater/dance/ performance world and have collaborated on several projects over the years.
Have you always been interested in food? When did you realize you would have a career as a chef?
My mother was a fabulous cook, so I had the good fortune of growing up eating very good food! I have always loved delicious, creative food, but my specific interest in food and healing came about from my own investigations into healing myself from eczema and other sensitivities that had plagued me since childhood. Western doctors at that time offered very little beyond steroids and cortisol creams as salves for the symptoms. My “return” to Eastern medicine and particularly to discovering the power of the daily practice of conscious eating was what finally healed me. This lead me to getting trained as a chef specializing in food and healing.
You studied and taught at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. How did you decide on that specific program? What was it like going from student to instructor?
The Natural Gourmet Institute offered a program that included the study of Ayurveda, Chinese 5-phase Theory, Macrobiotics, etc. Their approach to gourmet cooking had, at its heart, a devotion to health and healing.
Your approach to to nutrition and self-care is based on Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and western nutritional science. Can you explain how you integrate all of these “systems” into one?
Each tradition has fine-tuned it’s approach based on the truths of their environment, culture, history and value system. They have their differences and underlying similarities. I do not integrate all these systems into one by any means. Each person, under their specific set of conditions will ideally learn to address their own physical and spiritual needs informed and aided by the richness offered by these various approaches.
What can people expect from your upcoming seasonal attunement workshops? Is it accessible to people who have not been exposed to ayurevda, chinese medicine and seasonal practices?
It is designed to be accessible to the newcomer with plenty of inspiration for further study and investigation. There will be very do-able recipes and easy to follow charts, etc. to take home and start your own practice.
New Yorkers tend to be perfectionists. Is there a way to eat “perfectly” for the seasons? How would you suggest people approach a seasonal diet?
With a keen sense of listening to your own body, curiosity, and flexibility.
When you eat in alignment with the seasons, how do you feel?
Vital, energetic, strong, healthy. Not suffering from overheating in the summer, nor freezing in the winter. There is a sense of flow and ease.
You are also a performer. Do your two passions ever intermingle?
There have been a few shows that included the eating of cupcakes, the cooking and consuming of food on stage, and recipes… And I try to bring my performance background into my workshops, with the hope of making them fun and inspiring…
What do you like to do in your free time?
Hmmm….. “free time”? Time is time for me… I write and paint and read and do fun things with my family and friends….
If you could go anyplace in the world, right now, where would it be and why?
Right now, not always, it might be Tibet, as it used to be… I am curious to experience what a country whose governmental mission was the research into spiritual life would have been like….. Also the thin air, the high plateau the vista…